A Week To Sleep In

This is spring break.  The seminary has also been on break.  That means we did not have to be up at 5:00 and at the church at 6:15 a.m. to open the building and assist.  I hope we haven't developed some bad habits in a week.  Everything else has been as usual. 

We have taught Matt Adamson two missionary prep lessons, and we taught our Priests and Laurels in the 2nd and 3rd Wards a missionary prep lesson.  We also had our two Institute lessons. 

I have really enjoyed teaching from the book of Hebrews the past two weeks.  I spent a lot of time on section 84 of the Doctrine & Covenants.  Paul mentions the lesser priesthood does not come with an oath, and that the Melchizedek Priesthood does come with an oath and a covenant.  Section 84 explains that oath and covenant in detail.  And as with other covenants that we make with our Heavenly Father, when a little is required of us, an out of proportion amount of blessings await us, if we are faithful to that covenant.  The fact that by being faithful to the covenant will entitle us to all that the Father hath is a great blessing. 

Our Thursday Institute went well as we discussed Matthew 21-24.  We discussed hypocrisy in quite a bit of depth.  One of the most interesting points we made is that hypocrisy is a most serious form of bearing false witness. 

I have been involved in three lessons this week with our Tlingit investigator, Carl Bogren.  He wants to be baptized in the worst way.  He reads a great deal from the Book of Mormon and is always full of questions when we arrive for a lesson.  Right now our Branch President and Branch Missionary Leader are holding that back from happening.  I asked the missionaries to take our Branch Missionary leader with them to the next lesson rather than me.  He needs to see the progress this young man has made.  Carl does not have a job right now but has two promising possibilities we should know about shortly. 

His prayers have been quite different.  They reminded me of something you might witness at the bottom of a Rameumpton tower.  And they would go on for a long time using lots of long and flowery language.  I advised the Elders to teach him to pray from the Lord's Prayer.  They did and his prayers are coming more into line as the Savior taught. 

Elder Norris has been transferred.  The new Zone Leader is an Elder Katoa from Tonga.  What a wonderful, soft spirit he has.  He is a convert from Methodism.  He is learning English while on his mission and is doing quite well. 

Dexter Wilkey, a convert of a year now, attended a Temple Prep class last week.  Diane spent enough time with him to get in two lessons.  His fiancé, Kiera, from Idaho, attended a Temple Prep class with him Thursday evening.  Diane gave them two more lessons from the Temple Prep manual.  As it worked out, that completed the manual with both of them.  They will be getting married in the SLC Temple next month. 

I lost the magnet on my missionary badge.  Matt Adamson offered to get me a replacement.  He ordered some very small, strong batteries from Amazon. com and glued them onto a plastic strip.  They are pretty strong magnets.  I can see tearing a fingernail trying to get them apart.  (He was very proud of his contribution.  He had quite the grin on his face when he saw me trying to separate the magnets.)

The eagles have been breeding around our apartment.  It is pretty amazing to see them appear to be falling from the sky clutching each other and then break apart before hitting into objects on the ground.  I'm glad I'm not an eagle.  Theirs appears to be such a love hate relationship.   

It has also been a cold week with about 5 inches of snow.  The temperatures have dipped down to 11 degrees.

Jenny Schlechter had Diane and I to her home yesterday to plan for Seminary Graduation.  She then took us out to lunch to a little café we hadn't seen before.  The food there was great and we will go there again.

This is Villi Tupou, Frankie Gonzales, Emilanne Lowry and Josh Tupou.  They have faithfully attended each of the missionary prep classes we hold.  I find that admirable as they have just completed a three hour block.  Josh and Villi play on the Thunder Mt. H. S. basketball team.  They have been in anchorage this week for the state basketball tournament.  Unfortunately they lost two games.