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?