Gregg and Erik Visit

We did our usual amount of teaching of Institute and Missionary Preparation classes.  We have also had an orientation for the coming seminary year.  We met with the parents and students to register them for their classes.  We met with the teachers one evening in the church as they were doing their bulletin boards and organizing their file cabinets and supplies. 

We seem to be blessed now and then with a visit from someone we have known in the past, or a past student.  This week we were blessed to spend a week with our sons, Gregg and Erik.  It was so good to see them on the curb at the airport as we drove in to get them.

 We had lunch with them and then spent the day showing them the sights of Juneau.  They were amazed at the beauty and fascinated with the fish hatchery.  There really weren't that many fish going up the ladder and yet they were fascinated by it.  The silvers had not really made an appearance yet.  They are now in.  The numbers are getting impressive.

I stayed with them until dinner time.  Diane fixed a nice dinner for them.  But I was recovering from some sort of stomach bug and had to stay in bed and try to get over that.  Diane drove them up to Mendenhall where they immediately saw two or three bear in the river.  These bear seemed to have no concern for the number of humans around them on the boardwalk.  They were interested in feeding on the sockeye salmon that were in the stream.  It could not have been better choreographed.  The boys wanted to see bear and the glacier area provided.

 We spent Saturday seeing as much of the Juneau area as we could.  In the evening we wanted to attend a wedding reception for Carolyn Chenowyth and Josh Smith.  Carolyn is a BYU student and Josh has been taking the missionary lessons since January.  We arrived at 5:00 and thought we would be just right.  We didn't realize we had to walk almost two miles into the Boy Scout camp.  By the time we got there the reception was over.  We did get to watch them take some pictures.  On the way back out we crossed paths with two black bear.  Erik was fascinated with the number of bald eagles we saw.  I can understand that myself.

We learned that after a lesson on the principle of eternal marriage in the temple, Josh texted the missionaries on Friday evening and asked if he could get baptized on Saturday.  I feel bad we didn't know about it until after it was over. 

We all attended our church block on Sunday and then we boarded an Allen Marine ferry in the afternoon for our two hour shuttle over to Excursion Inlet.  We spent Monday through Friday fishing together. 

I tried to make it an opportunity to express my testimony to them on the scriptures and Joseph Smith.  I enjoyed hearing them express their testimonies to me of their belief of the same things.

 
Today we were back at it in church.  I picked up three travelers from a cruise ship and took them to the church house so they could attend the afternoon block.  Camille Porter is the mother of one of my private voice students.  She made the arrangements.  Coincidentally, another of the three was Jaree.  She is the daughter of Bobbie and Fred Zitting, our wonderful friends from our home ward, the Field Crescent ward.