Whoa! We've Been Sleeping In

With Seminary taking an hiatus for three months we have been able to sleep in.  I can handle this getting up at 6:30 a.m. thing.  Our mid-day naps are much shorter now.

We meet new summer YSA people with each event during the week.  Our Institute lesson on Wednesday evening included a discussion on the Holy Ghost and concluded with what we know about our pre-mortal life.  We were having a very good discussion on pre-mortal existence when we had 4 late comers enter.  A couple of them were pretty obnoxious with their entrance and I was pretty sure we were going to lose the spirit of learning that had been in the room up until that point.  Immediately these young people pulled out their cell phones and began texting and giggling.  I was afraid we were going to lose this beautiful lesson. They had chosen to sit on the empty seats on the front row immediately in front of me.   My mind was scrambling for a way to get that newly situated front row involved.  I asked them to read for us.  I asked for a few comments and it seemed like they dropped into the row of learning like water down a furrow of freshly furrowed dirt.  A wonderfully built Tongan who came in for the first time, went from clowning around to being very attentive to what was going on.  It turned into a great discussion and a good lesson. 

We used some scriptures to illustrate that we weren't all equal in our pre-mortal existence.  Some were noble and great.  Some of us were made leaders.  Some were even rebellious which disqualified them for the opportunity to even receive a body.  And many chose to follow the Father's suggested plan.  Our discussion centered on receiving blessings and circumstance in this life based on many of our decisions and accomplishments from our pre-mortal life.  Apparently this discussion hadn't gone on long enough for some of our attendees.  After the closing prayer there were a lot of the Polynesian YSA swarming around me for even more answers about life's circumstances.  It was a wonderful evening.  I answered as many of their questions as I could and told them I just don't know on some of the others. 

We didn't hold our Thursday Adult Institute Discussion as it ended up being the funeral for Sister Monson who had passed away earlier in the week.  Many wanted to watch that funeral and many others were involved in their end of the school year activities with their younger children. 

Seminary graduation went off without too much trouble.  There was some early setting up required and then lots of greetings at the door.  I was able to represent the CES and present the graduates to their ecclesiastical leaders as having completed all that was necessary for certificates of completion and diplomas of graduation from seminary. 

Friday I purchased my Mormon Missionary Alaskan Fishing Starter Kit.  I don't know when I'll get to use it but I'm definitely ready.  They say the king salmon are beginning their show.  And there are some Dolly Varden that need some catching.

Sunday was a wonderful day with our YSA branch.  Tanisha Jensen has been called to teach the Sunday School Gospel Doctrine class.  She is a returned missionary and does a wonderful job.  I like her spunk.  Our new Relief Society President is young.  Nicole Huntsman just returned from her second year at BYU and is attending our mission prep classes.  Her father, Don Huntsman, was just released from the Stake Presidency. 

I have been following the weather forecast this week closely.  I have wanted to go out to the Sawyer Glacier about 40 miles south of Juneau.  It is so expensive that I wanted to make sure we went on a sunny day so we could see it from the best possible vantage point.  Friday, the forecast seemed certain that Memorial Day, Monday, would indeed be Sunny.  So I went to the dock and bought Diane and I each a ticket to board the Outward Bound Excursion company's Captain Cook tour boat to the Tracy Arm to see the glacier. 

The day was incredible.  The sun never had a cloud pass between it and us the entire journey.  I love to be out on the water and feel the rushing breeze flow past from the speed of the boat.  We were only going 20 knots (23 mph I was told).  The trip ended up going through an ever changing channel entry into the Tracy fjord.  We passed several big cruise liners, two that ventured up the fjord and spend 20 minutes in front of the glacier so their tourists can get some pictures before turning around and then speeding into Juneau so they can buy jewelry and fur and take the tours available there.  Our captain gave us 90 minutes in front of the Glacier.  We saw 4 very big displays of calving while there and lots of smaller bits of ice breaking off the slow moving river of ice into the channel.  We were soon surrounded with lots of huge ice cubes.

The harbor seals love to bask in the sun and even give birth to their pups on these bobbing blocks of ice.  There were literally hundreds of them lying out in the sun.  Our captain drove us up to some beautiful water falls so we could stretch our hands out and get them wet from the splashes of cascading water.  He slowly took us around a larger iceberg 360 degrees so we could take pictures of all of the varying colors.  My pictures don't do the beauty of the place near the justice they deserve.  My greens don't look quite right and there is lots of blue.  But then, There was blue everywhere; it was in the water, the sky and the ice.   And the sun was so bright.  My camera shutter speed was 2000 which seemed to work the best and many times there was still too much light.  I wish my smarter brother had been to my side to help with my camera. 

We returned in time for Diane to make a very good salad, the one she makes most often, which we took to our YSA family home evening barbeque at the Twin Lakes park which is very near us.  We had lots of YSA members attend and they seemed to all be having a good time.  We listened to many of them tell of their adventures during this Memorial Day. 

My thoughts have been with my warrior Father a bit this past week.  I searched for the records of his 161st regiment of the 25th Infantry division and read the history of that part of WWII which included my father, from 1945 until 1946 when he was discharged because he was needed back at the farm.  His father had been in an accident and he was needed to run it. 

When things get going slow here we do a little indexing for the church and we do a little genealogy for ourselves.  But as always, I spend a lot of time in the scriptures getting ready for what lies ahead.