The Parables

Institute was a surprise last night.  We only had seven in attendance.  Several have flown to SLC to attend conference.  Several more have returned home following their summer employment.  The final cruise ship of this tourist season left the Juneau harbor on Wednesday with her wake and tax dollars following closely behind.  We had several who chose to prepare for mid-terms.  It really was good to have the seven we did have.

Diane prepared a wonderful macaroni salad and cut up some vegetables.  She made a wonderful cake on a cake sheet and put some treats inside it and some frosting on top.  She prepared for 20 like we have been experiencing.  We had a lot left and were sending it home with whoever we could convince to take it home with them.

I felt very good about the first chapter, chapter 9, but when it came to the Parables, I don't think I was prepared enough.  This was the first time I returned to our apartment feeling I hadn't taken things deep enough.  Thank goodness our branch president was there.  Twice he took the parables we were talking about to a level I had chosen not to go to.  Pres. Olsen and his wife contribute so much and are truly vested in the YSA branch.

Tuesday evening we started a Missionary Preperation class in the church.  I think we will do that in our apartment in the future.  The 3rd ward had Mutual and there were a lot of children under that age running through halls and being noisy.  It made it tough. 

We had three attend that Missionary Prep class.  Nia Ma'ake brought her cousin who is trying to earn money here for the mission.  He is from Seattle and flies back and forth often.  His father works for the airlines and he can comfortably do that.  He was a very sharp kid just out of high school.  He came to Institute as well. 

A wonderful treat for us, especially me, was the lunch we had with a past high school student I taught my final year of teaching at Brighton high school.  Allison Holtkamp also went to Europe with the Utah Ambassadors of Music in 1999.  She is so happy and excited about her life here in Alaska.  She lives for her theater experiences and works jobs to help support that acting career just like so many do.  We chatted about the past we had together.  We kind of have a mutual admiration society between us.  I loved her when she was a high school student.  And she tells me I was her favorite teacher.  (That's what I would tell me).  Our hour went by way to fast for me.  I gave her a gift her mother sent up with me.  It was a wonderful hand stitched framed piece of cloth representing some sort of bird.  Allison understood it. 

We did watch the presidential debates between Romney and Obama prior to leaving for Institute.  It is quite important to us this year because of the direction our country has been going recently.

Here are the pictures we took returning from Whitehorse, Canada to Skagway, Alaska.

Diane in front of Emerald Lake.  These emerald colors in the midst of the blue water color are caused by a layer of mineral coating on the bottom of the lake.

This too is Emerald Lake.  The color of the water here is heavily affected by the reflection of the cloudy sky above it.

 It was so beautiful I guess we felt it needed to be shot without the human props.

 This is a shot outside of Carcross Canada.  The amount of sand really surprised us.  We were higher in elevation by several thousand feet.  I think we were at about 3000 to 4000 feet.  But it was referred to as a desert compared to Skagway.  They get more rain than our home of Utah, but not near what Skagway gets.

The mountains were magnificent.  The colors in the sunshine were like eye candy.

 These cliffs on the other side of this lake are made of limestone.  I believe this lake is called something like Lagish.  It was huge.

 This Island in the middle of this British Columbia lake is called Boone Island.  The lake was originally called Boone Lake but later changed to the original Native name.  Boone was an Italian officer in an exploring calvary.

The same lake.