Training for Sitka Seminary

The past two days have given us a vision of what we will be doing much of while serving on our mission.  The Sitka Ward called a new Seminary Instructor two weeks ago.  Our 2nd councilor in the Stake Presidency, Pres. Huntsman, down to Sitka Sunday afternoon and set her apart.  Alice Smith is 76 years old and will be teaching two of her grandchildren and two others.  The classes will begin at 7:30 a.m.  Their school begins a bit later in the day allowing them to sleep longer than others.

Sister Jenny Schlecter had asked us a couple of times to join her in orienting Sister Smith.  I was hesitant to accept because of the situation with funds available for us.  A couple of nights prior to the scheduled trip, I had the impression that we should go. 

We joined Sister Schlecter on the dock at Juneau and boarded the Fairweather ferry.  It is the ferry that is captained by her husband Mike.  The trip took 6 hours as two of the hours was spent going into Angoon and dropping of some members of the church that are building a cabin there.  They had contracted some of their friends from Vernal, Utah to build the cabin.  Accompany that group were four big trailers of building materials.  So we had about 15 other LDS members on the ferry with us at least until we reached Angoon.  It was fun to watch them take a trailer off of the ferry and then drive back into the belly of the ferry to get another trailer.

We arrived in Sitka about 2:00 p.m. and went directly to Sister Smith's home.  We spent three hours with her at her very, very slow computer showing her how to get around the Seminary and Institute site.  We would show her different menu items and she would practice getting into them and seeing what was available for her.  Diane and Sister Schlecter showing how to enter her attendance. 

We then went into her living area of the home while Sister Smith put on a baked salmon dinner for us.  I've been here 10 days and have eaten salmon 4 times now.  Not bad for a guy who doesn't enjoy fish.  However I am getting used to the salmon and hers was probably the best we've had.  However, Mike Schlecter's wasn't bad either. 

 

 

She asked if we would like to stay and watch the acceptance speech of Mitt Romney with her but we declined.  Her husband, Richard Smith, had been out fishing with another member of the ward.  They fished hard for six hours and caught one 28 inch king salmon. 

President Huntsman had called Bishop Hart of the Sitka Ward and told him we were coming and asked the bishop to make arrangements for a place for us to sleep.  For some reason it really didn't work out and so Diane and I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast place across the street from the Smith's.  The lady came to the door and it was obvious immediately that she was recovering from having had chemotherapy.  She was so accomodating and eager for us to stay with her.  There was only one other guest that evening, a young married woman and her son from Poland.  They were waiting for her husband to return from a commercial fishing vessel.  The next day they were going to start their journey home to Poland.

Diane and I stayed in the basement for several hours watching the RNC and then went to our room on the top floor.  I can't even begin to explain the place but I'll try.  It was like a museum with flying memorabilia, thimble collections, crystal collections, windchimes, Alaska maps and displays.  The home was immaculately clean and beautiful.  You wouldn't have guessed from the outside appearance.  She fed us waffles for breakfast.  Between that, the bran muffins, and a hotdog bun I found myself in trouble by Friday night.  I was having a gluten reaction. 

 

After breakfast Diane and I returned to Sister Smith's and continued to help her with practice getting around the S & I site.  I finally figured out that I needed to disable her Skype and then her computer ran a bit faster.  I then asked her if we could spend some time at her kitchen table with her scriptures.  I then showed her how to work out a lesson for seminary using a scripture block.  We talked about breadth and depth and how to decide while part of a block to spend the most time on.  She seemed to feel a lot better about the calling when were through. 

 

We said good-bye and joined Jenny in driving around and through Sitka on our way back to the ferry.  Mike's ship, the Fairweather, was waiting for us at 12:30 p.m.  Our return trip was only 4 hours as we didn't go through Angoon.  We had four wonderful hours to visit with Sister Jenny Schlecter.  She is such a great support and help.  We enjoy her very much.   Her husband, Michael, came down from the control room and invited us to return with him.  He showed us the workings of this jet powered ferry.  It was so interesting to see the radar screens and the crew at work. 


Both of us were pretty tuckered when we got home about 5:30 p.m.  Diane fixed a wonderful dinner of pre-cooked tenderloin strips we had found at one of the stores we were in. 

I can't even begin to describe the beauty of Alaska and the waters around it.  I look at the pictures we take and they are beautiful, but they really don't show the grandeur as it really is.