Seminary Scripture Mastery Resources!

Sally visits Seminary classes
in the United States

(Note: You may click on pictures to enlarge them.)

West Point, New York

Seminary Sally began her journey in September 2002 with Sister Sherilee Alford and the seven members of her Seminary class at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The U.S. Military Academy, located in the beautiful Hudson River Valley just 50 miles north of New York City, was authorized by President Thomas Jefferson in March 1802.

The West Point Branch consists of Military Academy cadets, faculty, and staff and a few families from the neighboring village of Highland Falls. This is one of the largest Seminary classes that the West Point Branch has ever had. The picture above was taken at "Trophy Point" that overlooks a bend in the Hudson River (which creates the "West Point" in the river).

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Yorktown, Virginia

Seminary Sally's is shown visiting Sister Linda Evan's large Early Morning Seminary class in Yorktown, Virginia. Yorktown, site of General Washington's Revolutionary War victory (with the help of the French), is also near to Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia. (Sally is wearing a fashionable "Busch Gardens" T-shirt showing that she survived a ride on one of their famous monster roller coasters.)

Sister Evan's class meets near the shore of the beautiful Chesapeake Bay. Seminary Sally is shown taking a trip to the nearby beach and waterfront with Stephen Henderson, one of Sister Evans' Seminary students.

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Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Students of Sister Mary Brown's Socastee High School Seminary class pose with Seminary Sally. This class of 12 students meets in Sister Brown's dining room each school morning at 6:30 a.m. Their nearest temple is located in Columbia, South Carolina (which is about 2 1/2 hours from Myrtle Beach).

Myrtle Beach is known for its beautiful beaches, friendly residents, great golf courses, and outstanding Seminary students!

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Lacey, Washington

Here Sally is shown visiting Sis. Marcia Coppin's senior early morning seminary class held at the Lacey Washington Stake Center. There are three other classes that meet in our building with students from two different high schools and 4 different wards. There are other classes in our stake which are held in other buildings. Sally is wearing her new raincoat as she prepares to make her way to her next stop, Alaska.

Our part of the northwest was originally home to the Nisqually Indians who were visited by the first Euro-American explorers in 1792. The British Hudson Bay Company developed the first settlement in 1832. Lacey is a twin to Olympia, which is the capital city of Washington state. (The state capitol building is pictured above.)

It's a beautiful place to live year round. We are just an hour drive from Seattle, one hour from the ocean, one hour from the Seattle Temple in Bellevue and two hours from the Portland Temple on the South and Canada up north. We have lots of recreational lakes, and Lacey and Olympia are located on the south end of the Puget Sound.

Actually people here don't use umbrellas much. It's usually the tourists and newcomers to our state that use umbrellas until they learn that a little rain won't melt them. Ben Alexander, our class president, is modeling our optimism that the rain will come... and we'll be ready to share umbrellas with anyone that would like to come visit us. We'd love to hear from any seminary classes around the world by e-mail at marcia-c@juno.com.

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Anchorage, Alaska

Sally made her 5th stop to Sister Linda's Hamm's early morning Seminary class in Anchorage Alaska. There are 15 sophomore students in her class, and they meet at 6 a.m. in our church along with three other classes. The students mostly attend Dimond High where they are loved and respected. In the summer it is light all the time so we can fish and play at all hours of the day and night.

Anchorage is a great place to live and most of our class have lived here all their lives. Most of us fish for salmon in the summer, and many of us hunt moose which is wonderful to eat. We also like to cross country ski and down hill ski, and some of the students snowboard, as well.

One of our students, Sarah Hamm, holds a red salmon caught on Hewitt Creek.

A blond grizzly bear north of Anchorage, Alaska.

We are thrilled with our new temple which is also in our stake. It is the smallest temple at this time in the world but located in Alaska, the largest state.

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Cobleskill, New York

Seminary Sally traveled back to New York to visit Sister Cutler's early morning Seminary class. This photo is a view of Cobleskill, New York from Sister Cutler's back yard. ("Kill" is a common suffix on place names in the Hudson River Valley; it means "stream" in Dutch and represents the influence of some of the earliest European settlers to this region.)

Many people think that Upstate New York looks like New York City. This photo shows what most of Upstate actually looks like. The "Seminary room" is Sister Cutler's dining room which has huge windows on the south and east sides. During Seminary class the students have been treated to some absolutely gorgeous sunrises.

One Seminary student, David, drove his pickup truck to class and wanted to have a class picture taken with it. On top of the truck, left to right, are Jaime, Josh, and David. Standing on the ground are, left to right, Sister Cutler, Kristin, Alison, Laura holding Seminary Sally, Theresa, Heather, and Becky. Nine of these students in this class attend high school in Cobleskill and the other student attends high school in Schoharie.

Seminary is held in Sister Cutler's living room. This is a pretty happy group for 6:15 in the morning! Missing from the photo is Bernadette. Our class was pleased to host Seminary Sally. We wrote letters to the previous host class in Alaska and to the next host class in Kansas, and we look forward to hearing from those classes.

We love studying the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History. We enjoy living near where so much of the early church history took place. Most of us have visited Joseph Smith's birthplace in Sharon, Vermont, and the Sacred Grove, in Palmyra, New York; as well as other church history sites in New York and Pennsylvania. We also love going to the Hill Cumorah Pageant in the summer.

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McCune, Kansas

After leaving New York, Seminary Sally headed into the heartland of the nation and stopped at McCune, Kansas. She is pictured above with James Needham. James is the best (and only) student in his early morning Seminary class.

She is pictured above with Sister Bird, the Joplin Missouri Stake Seminary Coordinator; Sister Needham, his Seminary teacher and step-mother; and Sister Hughlett, another Joplin Missouri Stake Seminary Coordinator. James was outnumbered 3-to-1 that day in Seminary.

James and Sister Needham hold Seminary in their home (pictured above). They attend church in Pittsburg, Kansas and are part of the Joplin Missouri Stake. There is also a home study Seminary class in their ward.

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Redding, California

Seminary Sally traveled to the west coast to spend time with Sister Lisa Olsen's Early Morning Seminary class in Redding, California. Her class consists of 18 students from all grades and two high schools. They meet at their stake center where another ward's Seminary class meets as well.

Redding is located about two hours north of Sacramento, California. They are about ten minutes away from two of California's largest lakes -- Lake Shasta and Whiskeytown Lake. Beautiful Mount Shasta (shown above) -- where Seminary students can ski in the winter and hike in the summer -- is about an hour away.

Two of Sister Olsen's students are shown below.

Seminary students in Sister Olsen's class are focusing this year on the theme of "Doing Something Difficult" -- as the early pioneer Saints did. Each student is working on a personal challenge. Some are trying hard to incorporate permanent scripture study time into their life, others are trying to overcome personal habits or improve their prayers. No one knows what the other students are working on.

When they come across a scripture block that has particular meaning or helps students have an "A-ha" moment, they make scripture glue-in's to remind them. The glue-in's are as large as a scripture page. Students enjoy this activity, and it helps to emphasize the principle or message from the scriptures.