Anchorage In-Service/Temple Trip

Today it is raining, which makes me appreciate even more the 4 days in a row that we were able to enjoy sunshine.  And to fly without clouds to obscuring the view below us was incredible.  The view to the left as we traveled to Anchorage was mostly out to the Pacific.  The view to the right was miles of mountains and each crevice was filled with centuries of accumulated snow.  These glaciers seemed to pass us by one after another the entire flight.  The miles and miles of snow covered, uninhabitable space was fodder for my mind to ponder over.  Alaska is a majestic and beautiful land.

We tried to catch the Northern Lights last week.  We were a day late and so we still have not seen them.  However one of our YSA did and captured this picture.

Upon arriving at the Anchorage airport we were met by Elder and Sister Palmer.  They delivered to us one of the mission cars to use while we were there.  We went to our hotel and got settled in.  We then met the Palmers, and the Hawkins and two other missionary couples at a steak house where we ate too much and enjoyed each others friendship and stories. 

 After our social visit with these missionaries we went to the temple to have printed some cards for deceased people Diane had found on her lines that still needed temple work done.  After receiving the cards we drove to the mission home where our YSA were staying while in Anchorage.  We handed the cards over to them so the baptisms could be done on Friday while we were in our in-service meetings.  While we were at the mission home Pres. and Sister Beesley arrived from shopping for the week.  They had two SUVs filled with groceries.  We had a short, but nice visit.  We stood in the cold of the driveway until I started to shiver and then Pres. Beesley let us go.  Sister Beesley gave Diane a wonderful hug as she always does when we see each other.  They are wonderful leaders and we enjoy them whenever we have the opportunity to be with them.

 Our purpose in going to Anchorage was twofold: 1) CES had scheduled an in-service for we seminary and institute coordinators, and 2) our branch had scheduled a temple trip to the Anchorage, Alaska temple.  The branch does this twice a year.  Because Anchorage is in our mission boundaries we wanted to participate with them. 

The CES training was informative and as always gave us a spiritual boost in the arm.  We had as a guest from CES SLC Brother Richard Hawkes.  He had visited with us as a group briefly at the MTC while we were there in August.  He used a talk by Elder Oaks to teach us how to teach.  The talk was given in February of 2013 and is titled "As A Man Thinketh In His Heart."  The idea was to get us to know how to teach teachers to teach.  Reading the talk was a spiritual boost in and of itself.  But dissecting it as we did was a testimony builder of the importance of the family unit in our Heavenly Father's plan of Happiness.

 At lunch we joined with the YSA from Anchorage Institute as they listened to Bro. Hawkes tell of YSA groups from around the world.  He showed slides of young people and told how they joined the church and/or went on missions, and how they struggled to get enough money to make a trip to the temple to be married in the temple.  We were given a wonderful demonstration of the World Wide scope of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. 

In the afternoon we received counsel on how to work with the Priesthood leadership in our areas as we strive to increase our numbers in seminary for the coming year.

This is Paula Munoz getting acquainted with one of the Anchorage YSA members.

Friday evening we met again at the Institute with our YSA who had been invited by the Anchorage YSA members to participate in a waffle night and then play games.  The Institute has a place to put together puzzles, a Ping-Pong table and a pool table.  They used a projector, a computer and a large screen TV to play Family Feud.  They downloaded the trial version which they could use for an hour before having to buy it.  When the hour was up, the game was finished.  They were having so much fun at it that I downloaded it onto my laptop so we can do it again with our Juneau YSA.  It only cost $3.00. 

 A.J. Collins was having a good time visiting with the Anchorage Sister Missionaries. 

We left our Branch President (Olsen) and his wife Jerilyn in Anchorage with the YSA to have some continued fun and flew home on Saturday afternoon.  We were on the milk run and made stops in Cordova and Yakutat before finally arriving in Juneau.  We had a huge wait in Cordova.  Somebody miscounted the many boxes of seafood being shipped mainland.  So they unloaded it all and counted it again.  That was a bit uncomfortable.

Landon spent the evening working on a jig-saw puzzle of hundreds of pieces of bacon.  He did manage to find three pieces to fit.

The big week has arrived.  Our Institute lesson is from Revelations.  I have been studying doubly hard on these lessons to make sure I am not teaching any false doctrine.  Surprisingly, I think I get it better than at any other point in my life.  The Seminary and Institute resources are a tremendous help.  I think I have learned the Revelations given to John by the Savior were a demonstration of His love and concern for His covenant people.  We are to watch and be ready and given to us is some of the knowledge of things we can expect during the Millenium.  Now if my mind can just be receptive to teaching by the spirit I think I can do this.  We will spend this week on the first three chapters, which are written to the seven churches near the Isle of Patmos.  Next week we will study the book with seven seals and the accompanying symbols and signs.

  
Eric Bacon is over the Institute in Anchorage.  He is a great teacher and we enjoy his insights into the scriptures. 

We were able to teach our missionary preparation class yesterday after the block meetings.  Another young man, Scott  has decided to join us.  We had them teaching the Creation and the Fall.  Scott is an interesting young man.  He has a church background but he shows evidence of having slept through seminary as a boy.  He just showed up and said he thinks he should go on a mission.

Bro. Hull is a member of the Stake Presidency in Fairbanks.  He and Sister Hull answered the call for stay at home missionaries to coordinate the Institute and seminaries in Fairbanks.  He provided great insight as we discussed correlating with the priesthood leaders.

The highlight of the week was last evening before our dinner.  We were able to Skype with Mark and Travis and their families who live in Mesa, Az.  I find myself thinking of them often, and to actually be as close as Skype can get us, helped to ease my home sickness for them.