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.