Before we returned to Bedford, after our dinner with the other missionary couples we drove through the Virginia Tech campus and stopped to take this picture of the big football stadium where the high ranking V-Tech Hokies play.
It is a very nice campus with many lovely buildings constructed of stone. It has a painful past with the mass shootings and other incidents of violence that have occurred here. The shooter in the recent tragedy at Ft. Hood, Texas was a graduate of Virginia Tech.
This past Saturday, Nov 7, we enjoyed a Senior Missionary social, held at the LDS Institute of Religion on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, just 70 miles west of us, down the I-81.
We had turkey and dressing and all the trimmings for an early Thanksgiving feast. (We provided mashed potatos and a Razzleberry pie)
Most of you will recognize dear Bishop Rob Cochran and his wife Linda, seated at the front left. They are on a CES mission assigned to the Institute on the campus of Southern Virginia University up in Buena Vista, Virginia. Two other couples, the Lewis's to their left and the Bennion's at the far table (center) also teach at the SVU Institute. Elder Uhreh in the blue jumpsuit at the rear table (right) with the big smile, hosted our dinner. He did a lot of the work himself as his wife was home sick a bed. He is assigned to the VA Tech Institute which has one student ward and about 160 enrolled. SVU in Buena Vista has many more LDS students attending and needs more teachers and staff. They have 5 Student Wards on campus up there.
The other two couples seated at the back table, the Avis's and the ? (shame on me) serve in proselyting assignments in branch's up in West Virginia. They drove the furthest to be with us. Two other couples in West Virgnia did not come down.
Not shown in this picture besides ourselves, was President and Sister Thornock who were saying goodbye to the young missionaries at the door when I took this picture. We had a very fine meal and a wonderful visit together.
