New Branch Leadership

 

These wildflowers are a brighter pink than the photo shows.  They are tall and beautiful and line the roadways.                                                            

Out of the blue our branch president, Loren Olsen, told us he had been offered a job in Yuba, California.  He had accepted the job and informed us he and Jerrlyn would be leaving within the week.  For three weeks we have been functioning with our councilors.  Yesterday our stake presidency visited our branch and notified us that our present councilors had been asked to stay on by the new branch president.  Our branch president is Josh Sekona.  I am very excited to be associating with this wonderful spiritual giant of a man.  He has three offspring in our branch, Margaret, Kaylene and a son Jaime, who actually attends the 3rd ward.  I have such high hopes that his leadership will encourage our Tongan members to be more involved in the YSA.  I think Pres. Sikona was surprised when we told him about the block meetings, the 5:00 p.m. break the fast pot luck, the 6:00 p.m. fireside that follows the break the fast, the once a month sacrament service for our workers who can't make a block, the Monday FHE, the Wednesday institute class, the Friday cleaning and activity, in addition to his Branch and Stake meetings.  It is a heavy church calling.  We are so happy to know we will be continuing our association with Bro. Richard Welling and Bro. Bob Francis and their families.

Diane wanted you to see how tall these fire weeds were.

The institute lesson was attended by about 13 members.  We discussed the principles of obedience and conversion.  One young lady came up afterward an said how much she enjoys the class, especially when you let us express ourselves on the subjects.  And they do a good job of teaching each other while I keep the discussion moving down the approved path.

I found a good quote from a Dan Brown novel: "The decisions of our yesterdays become the architects of our today."  I made that a central them of the fireside chat after our break the fast last night. 

I became acquainted with this fishing Rabbi from Northern California.  He let me know the humpys were hitting pink stuff.  I loaned him my knife so he could clean his limit of six.  For 90 minutes we fished  within 70 yards of each other.  We watched each other closely to see who was catching the most.  I think he beat me by catching 8 while I caught 7.  He expressed some real appreciation for LDS values and brotherly kindness.  When they have Jewish events too large for their synagogue, the LDS stake lets them use the stake center without charge. 

We did not hold a Thursday class as it was the fourth of July, a very wet fourth of July.  We are now experiencing quite typical SE Alaska weather.  The temperature is around 68 degrees and the skies are cloudy with periods of rain and longer periods of drizzle.  We are about out of our wild flowers I understand.  Karlynn was telling Diane that when the Fireweed goes, that is about it. 

This is my first humpy, or pink. 

Emilyann continues to be faithful attending the missionary preparation class.  She has one more track trip to Oregon and then she puts in her papers.  She turned 19 on Saturday.

Diane fills much of her time with family research and some indexing.  When I'm not studying for upcoming lessons I am doing indexing and reconciling my genealogy with the Family Search site.  Since the church is no longer going to support PAF, I downloaded Legacy and am trying to get use to that software.  I actually found I liked it immediately.  It has an ability to go right to family search to check ordinances and to help with merging duplicates. 

This is my missionary Alaska fishing starter kit.  To the side of it is my second humpy which I kept and took home to hone my skill of making a salmon filet.  (I need a sharper long bladed knife.)

When I am not doing those things I try to take advantage of the fishing for a couple of hours each week.  (The younger missionaries are allowed a P Day and I believe I am entitled as well.)  The humpy salmon have come into Echo Cove.  They are sometimes called pinks.  They aren't a big salmon but are known for growing excessive humps on their backs prior to spawning.  I went out Tuesday as I had heard a few had been spotted.  In about 90 minutes I caught 7.  The smallest was 19 inches and the longest was about 23 inches.  I'm guessing they were in the 3 lb. range.  The humpys have not manifest their humps yet.  Friday I talked Diane into taking a book and a chair with me out to Echo Cove again.  I promised I would only stay one hour.  After 30 minutes my back was acting up and so we left.  I had caught two and there were many more people around the cove.  All were catching fish.
 

 We carried a Samsonite folding chair to the beach for Diane to sit in while she read.  I noticed she spent most of her time admiring the beauty of the area.  Echo Cove is almost as far out the road north of Juneau as you can drive.  And still it is only 30 or so miles from our apartment.

We sense that the coming seminary year is fast approaching.  Our seminary coordinators from Palmer and Seattle are sending us calendar requests for time to be spent in training.  We are doing the same for our seminary teachers.