The Real SE Alaska Returns

That beautiful, warm sunshine seems to have departed for a time.  In it's place we have the weather that we have become accustomed to; lower temperatures and cloudy skies with lots of rain. 

This is a look down one of the main streets in Skagway.  There is still a lot of the early 1900's feel with the wooden walkways and power poles. It is really small in population at around 800 people.  After the tourist season many leave for the winter dropping the population down to just over 300 who tough out the cold weather.

The week has been full of study as I prepare for lessons.  Diane has been busy doing many different odd jobs in preparation for the first day of seminary which is next Monday.  We had an orientation for the seminary students and their parents on Sunday, after the final block in the building had finished.  Our Junior and Senior class will be bigger than we have experienced here.  There will be 24, at least.  The Stake Presidency called Sister Carol Stauffer to help teach the class.  She has a daughter, Grace, who will be a senior this year.  Carol has been a substitute and we know she will be tremendous.  We meet with her today for some training.

The garden we entered in Skagway had many bronze sculptures.  We've seen this in the wild, but the bears haven't been quite that buff.

 

The class of sophomores will have about 13 in it.  It is being team taught by Michael and Heidi Malin.  Heidi is a returned missionary and served in Siberia.  They are no longer newly weds and we are glad to have them as long as they will teach. 

We enjoy the Native American art. 

Lynn Hirschi is going to try to teach the incoming 12 freshmen alone this year.  Her team teacher was released.  Her helper of last year, Erin Willis, experienced have her husband called to be the bishop.

We and Sister Jenny Schlechter had a meeting with Pres. Gilbert of the stake presidency and Harold Mikesell, our high council advisor.  We discussed the needs in the stake and anything we could place on the table concerning seminary.

The Wednesday evening lesson was on the importance of the family unit, and life after the one we are living now.  I enjoyed these lessons very much.  My family is important to me, every member that I know and have yet to meet.  (I put that in there because our son Erik and his wife, Andrea, announced we are expecting our 30th grandchild in February.)  And I have a vested interest in the life after this one.  It is immediate with me, knowing that I have a wife and a father and all four of my grandparents that have experienced the journey where we close our eyes on mortality and open them again, immediately, on eternity.

The greatness and majesty of this earth just never ceases to amaze me. 

When things get slow, Diane and I do family history and indexing.  Occasionally I will take a couple of hours off and drive to some coastal area and fish.  The pinks (humpy) really seem to like what I am throwing out.  I am hoping to soon get an incoming silver (coho).  It really doesn't matter if I catch anything.  I find myself just looking around at the beautiful scenery around me and enjoying every second of being here.

We had to fly above the clouds at times to avoid running into these jutting mountain peaks.

Come Fly With Us

It would appear that the reason the Sabbath day is so hard to live for so many people is that it is still written on tablets of stone rather than being written in their hearts. … (Spencer W. Kimball)

 Lillian Outcult and Diane in Skagway.  We spent a couple of hours with her orienting her to the Seminary Teaching and Learning Handbook and the S & I site on the web. 

Doctrine and Covenants 59, and pay particular attention to verses 15–19. Explore the great promise that “the fulness of the earth is yours.” How is the fulness of the earth ours? Does this promise refer to spiritual or temporal possession, or to both?

 15 And inasmuch as ye do these things with ^athanksgiving, with ^bcheerful ^chearts‍ and countenances, not with ^dmuch ^elaughter, for this is sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance—

 16 Verily I say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the ^afulness‍ of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;

 17 Yea, and the herb, and the ^agood‍ things which come of the earth, whether for food or for ^braiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;

 18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the ^abenefit‍ and the ^buse‍ of man, both to please the eye and to ^cgladden‍ the heart;

 19 Yea, for ^afood‍ and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to ^bstrengthen‍ the body and to enliven the soul.

And for further insight on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy you can refer to Isaiah 58:13-15; 13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 

You guessed it, our lesson in Institute consisted partly of the importance of keeping the Sabbath day.  I challenged those in attendance to put the Lord to the test by keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.  The promise is there.  If we do this, the blessings of the earth will be given to us.  We shall not want for food, for raiment, for shelter nor for healthy crops and gardens.  We will be blessed both spiritually and physically.  I think that is a great promise.  And as with all commandments, the Lord blesses us in greater abundance than we have the capacity to comply.

We also discussed the concept of eternal marriage.  Our most recent convert, Jaymi Lawrence, had all sorts of questions.  I had not planned on getting personal with the lesson but in the middle of it all, I felt this impression . . . "You have personal experience that can answer these questions.  Tell her your story."  So I told her.  I have been asked no less than a dozen times by different YSA members about the fact that Diane and I are not sealed for eternity.  How do we feel about that in the coming eternities?  I explained that Diane is sealed to Larry.  I am sealed to Judy.  When we were getting serious enough to talk about marriage Diane asked me, "What do you expect from a wife?" 

I responded, "I want a wife that will willingly help me get back together with Judy for eternity." 

When I asked her what she expected of a husband, she replied similarly.   "But," I said, "that doesn't mean we won't have an eternal relationship of some type in the next life.  We believe that Larry and Judy are pulling for us.  They are cheering our day by day progress and helping in any way possible for us to achieve available Celestial blessings.  We have made eternal relationships with each other's children.  These relationships are dear to us and we fully expect them to continue." 

Also explained was that all would be worked out in the end.  The Lord loves all of His children and none worthy willy be left wanting.

We had a wonderful turn out for our Thursday adult Institute.  Our numbers popped up to 10 from 4.  And our discussion of the first 5 chapters of Romans was exciting.  "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."  Also we got to discuss the unrighteousness in perverted behaviors.  It was fun to lead that discussion.

I can't take Diane's contributions lightly.  They all look forward to the food she puts together for them.  I think President Sekona is placing an item on the table each week too.  We love the strength he has brought to the branch.  The Tongans are feeling more a part of the branch I think. 

We took the slow ferry up to Skagway on Friday.  Lillian Outcult has accepted the call to be the seminary teacher for two incoming freshmen.  What a wonderful choice she is.  I asked her how a Moapa, Nevada gal came to be in Skagway.  She had been married for 32 years to a man who had even been a bishop.  He decided to return to his American Native Indian ways.  After 5 years Sister Outcult made the decision to end the marriage.  She then met Rocky Outcult on LDS singles and has been married since May.  They really are both wonderful.  She has a wonderful testimony and the two girls will love her enthusiasm and ability.  She was a school teacher in Moapa.

While waiting for our get together with Lillian on Friday, we strolled into a garden.  We paid the $7.50 per person to enter and met the most wonderful personality.  This man was from St. Petersburg, Florida and spends his summers in Skagway running his monument garden and art gallery.  There was lots of beautiful art in the shop.  He had a picture of Mt. Denali that was so life like and beautiful.  It was painted depicting the magical hour of dusk.  It just captured me.  I feel bad I was $100 short of what he wanted that day.  ($7500) 

He had pictures of Skagway from the early 1900's.  There were lots of descriptions of the legendary gangster of Skagway, "Soapy Smith."  And then the stories of a Mr. Reid and their gun battle in which they both died. 

We had all morning Saturday to wait for the ferry to leave for Juneau.  So we got on a "Beaver" prop plane that held six of us and flew over to Glacier Bay and back.  The flight was about 2.5 hours and we saw probably 50 different glaciers.  It was amazing to see from the air the recession that has been occurring as the earth is now in a warming period.  The amount of dirt that ice can pick up and displace is awesome.  This is the least amount of snow the mountains of Alaska have had on them in over 200 years.  The glaciers have receded as much as 50 miles in some cases.  We flew by Mount Fair Weather which was an impressive 15,000 feet high and quite close to the pacific ocean. 

La Parouse glacier is a glacier that flows directly into the Pacific Ocean.  Most calf far back into the fjords and canyons, or up the mountain crags and valleys.  But La Parouse calfs directly into the Pacific.

Lituya glacier was fascinating.  It flows towards the ocean and then a mountain juts up in front of it.  It splits at 90 degree angles sending some of the ice flow to the right and the rest to the left. 

It was an amazing experience.  It was pricey for us but we had decided that we would do something like this once before our mission was completed. 

A wonderful thing has happened in our branch.  Amanda Mosher is a young woman who recently graduated from ASE here in Juneau.  (Alaska Southeast)  She joined the church 15 months ago.  for about 7 months she was very active and eager to learn.  Her parents were making it quite difficult for her to be active and she had fallen in love with a non-member.  We seldom saw her through the next six months.  However, she has broken up with her boy friend and purchased a home of her own.  She has been attending church more regularly and institute has again become part of her weekly routine.  Yesterday she was sustained as the gospel principles teacher in Sunday School.  She is quite timid about it and yet excited to have returned to what she felt when she was baptized.  It is such a wonderful thing to witness someone grab onto the gospel and run with it. 

 

 

 

We Finally Get to See Palmer, Alaska

It was sad for us to have to miss another zone conference with the missionaries.  Zone Conference is held every other month here in Juneau.  However our call is with CES.  We had a conflicting conference in Anchorage on Saturday which required us to fly there Friday. 

We were met at the airport by Elder Ferrin.  He and Sister Ferrin are from Mesa, AZ.  We drove him back to the mission office and we were allowed to use the mission car for our time in Anchorage.  After driving back to the airport we picked up Greg Bishop, the area CES coordinator from Seattle.  Together we drove to Palmer, Alaska where Scott Beames and his family live.  Scott has always told me how beautiful and different it was from Juneau.  It is a beautiful place.  It reminded me of Mancos, Colorado.  I have to remind myself that it is very cold there in the winter.  Forty below is not uncommon.

Scott had been dip-netting for sockeye salmon.  He came home with just under a hundred.  He had several fillets out on the kitchen counter that he was going to cook on the grill.  His wife Kris had made a wonderful seasoning that Scott rubbed on the fillets before cooking them.  I've never been a salmon fan, but this was truly wonderful.  Scott cooked them long enough that the meat was drier and I really liked it.

We were also able to finally meet Chris Owens, Scotts secretary who we only have known through e-mail and the phone. She and her husband are wonderful people and have lots of beautiful daughters and a son.  He builds log cabins.  Their oldest is about to fill out her mission papers.  Chris brought a wonderful salmon and cream cheese spread she had made.  We put that on Ritz crackers and were in heaven. 

Scott's kids have four Yorkshire hogs they are raising so they can sell them at the State Fair in September.  They plan on using the money to get back to Hawaii during the winter.  It was amazing to see those hogs fight each other for the watermelon rinds. 

There is a red barn next to the house and in the loft of the barn is an apartment.  Scott rents that to the mission office and there are three missionaries in it for a few more days.  One will be returning home this week.

We did see a couple of moose.  There was a bull right in the city limits of Anchorage.  And we saw a cow near the road not far from Scott's home.  By the way, Palmer is about 55 miles NE of Anchorage. 

Diane and I left a bit earlier than the others as we had to drive back to Anchorage and check into our hotel.  The next morning after a typical hotel breakfast we drove to the Institute building for our training. 

The day was a spiritual feast.  We will be studying the Book of Mormon this year.  The full time seminary teachers and Institute teachers took us through the process of building a lesson plan and making it meaningful for the students in the classes.  I'm excited to teach this wonderful book again.  I love the things we can learn from the Book of Mormon. 

Chris Owens is our right hand when it comes to taking care of the finances and materials we use.

I came upon this quote that I will be using in my New Testament lesson on Thursday: 

Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness. It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to Gods laws, the greater will be the endowment of faith." - Bruce R. McConkie

I find the content of this quote to be pertinent to me as I live my life and practice my beliefs.  By the way, to those of you who may not be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, have you checked out mormon.org yet?

Zone Conference

President and Sister Beesley were in Juneau to participate with the proselyting missionaries in their zone conference activities.  Sister Waldron and I are not able to take in today's trek hike to Herbert glacier.  We are off to Anchorage.  I did step into the zone meetings for 10 minutes when I had time just before Thursday Institute.  And last evening we went to Sandy Beach on Douglas Island to have a hoagie sandwich with them all.  We were able to have a nice visit with President and Sister Beesley during the evening. 

Our missionary prep class has been pretty quiet during the summer.  We have had many of them get mission calls though.  Marshall Sargent is going to Gilbert, Arizona.  Randon Calderwood has his call but isn't opening it until his Mom returns from California this week.  The Tupou brothers, Josh and Villi, leave for Guatemala and I think Honduras. 

Sister Beesley is such a go getter.  She is a tremendous example of working hard and gives lots of great instruction to the missionaries.

The Institute lesson was fun to teach.  The lesson was on the Priesthood and the Oath and Covenant that accompanies the blessings of the Priesthood.  We had a recent move in from Homer, AK.  Jamie Lawrence was baptized two weeks ago and decided to get out of Homer and make a new start.  She picked up a job here and is so enthused and eager to learn all she can about the gospel.  I substituted for the Gospel Principles class in Sunday School and she was so excited about it.  That enthusiasm was still there on Wednesday evening at Institute.

Julie Franklin had been given the assignment of feeding the missionaries Thursday evening.  We helped her get the tables ready and cut up some watermelon. 

Our stake had youth conference last week.  All of the youth were in our building attending the Juneau block classes.  Chet Hugo, my cousin Nancy's son, came into that class.  It was fun being with him.  I finally was able to meet his daughter.  His son Nate was friendly and eager to share 'bones.' (knuckle to knuckle)

This was the scene not too far away from Sandy Beach last evening.  There were four of these cruise ships in the harbor.  That is typical.  Sometimes we get as many as 5 and sometimes as few as two, but two is rare.

In the Thursday gospel discussion group (adult Institute class) we discussed Galatians.  The center of the discussion was the Law of the Harvest.  We approached it from all the angles I could think of.  There were 5 sisters in attendance and they each were able to participate all they wanted.  Life does present some interesting choices.  If we don't know where we're going, it doesn't matter which road we take to get there.  If we do know where we are going, then there are specific seeds that need to be planted and nurtured.  I couldn't help but remember the many times I placed at the end of a letter to one of my missionary children, "Obedience is Freedom." 

I read a wonderful book this week; 'Heroic Mormon Women' by Ivan J. Barrett.  These are true stories of 16 wonderful women and their faith in the early church.  Some way I want to use a couple of these stories for our Break the Fast fireside coming up on Sunday. 

This small pond is located in the Glacier Gardens a couple of miles from our apartment.

I had a fun afternoon fishing on Tuesday.  There was a set of grandparents who had taken their grandchildren to Echo Cove to fish for pinks.  The kids were not catching anything.  It was one of those days for me where it seemed I could catch a pink on every other cast.  I would catch a few on my spinning rod and then I would switch over to my fly pole to see if it was still working.  I finally approached the oldest boy who appeared to be about 15.  He let me see what he was using.  I asked if he would like to use my spinning rod with the lure I was using.  (His was too short to get the spoon out very far.)  He took it and on his first cast he had a fish.  He was having a great time and the family was having a lot of fun.  He would hook them and his sister and brother would bring them in.  I usually throw my fish back but the grand parents asked if they could also keep mine.  The grandmother was an Inuit (native)

 

and the Grandfather was a German.  It turned into a great missionary moment.  We introduced ourselves to each other and I told them I was a Momon missionary.  They said they saw elders all the time.  As our conversation continued in between catching fish, I got a commitment from them to listen to the elders.  They said they would.  I gave them all of the lures I had that were in my tackle box and left the cove.  It had been a good day.