This Is Alaska

Two of our sons, Gregg and Erik, spent a week with us.  They noticed some differences between the way things are done here and in the lower 48.  We were able to experience some of those differences this week.

This is Doc Warner's main building in Excursion Outlet.  We would eat our breakfast and dinners here and prepare our own lunches.  Diane spent some time here putting together puzzles while we would fish.  A full day of fishing was a bit much for her.

Our Stake conference was held Saturday and Sunday.  Our stake pilots got our stake President and his wife here from Ketchikan.  (Yes we have stake pilots, two of them.  They get the stake leaders where they need to be in this vast Juneau Stake which extends from Whitehorse in the Yukon, to Ketchikan in the far southeast of Alaska and many points in between.)   Many of the members of the outlying branches and wards came into Juneau at some expense to meet together.  Some flew and some came by ferry.  There was a wonderful pot luck feast between the leadership meetings and the Saturday adult session.  Each of the buildings from throughout the stake called in to participate by polycom so they could hear the instruction.  I believe a video feed was sent out from the stake house to the branches as well. 

In this steel Quonset Mark Warner stores his boats for the winter.  When he gets the first row serviced and placed for winter he makes a second row in front of it.  In this building is their freezer for the fish and the vacuum packer and the workshop area.

We closed our eyes and imagined sister Tew in Craig as she addressed us.  A highlight for us was hearing Emilyanne Lohrey.  She had been asked to bare her testimony.  She has been in our missionary prep class for several months.  She is a humble and strong young woman.  Her mother is as well.  Her father is not a member but attends many of the meetings.  They have adopted two special needs children from Russia.  They are both girls under the age of six and can be quite a handful for all in the family.  Emilyanne bore a wonderful and strong testimony.  She was later interviewed by President Youngburg and at the conclusion of that interview he sent her missionary papers in to Salt Lake City. 

Mark Warner runs the lodge.  He is posing with a friend of his from Albuquerque, Jane.  She trades a month of labor at the lodge each summer for the chance to be in Alaska and do some fishing in between shifts.  She caught a 184 lb. halibut on Thursday and brought it in by herself; at least up to the boat where Doc and her husband pulled it into the boat.  We watched them fillet it on the dock.  It was impressive.

Sunday's session of conference was a video feed from Salt Lake City.  We were able to listen Elder Nash of the Seventy, Sister McKonkie of the Young Women's Presidency and Elders Hale and Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve.  I enjoyed listening to their testimonies and encouragement to remain true to the gospel. 

Every trip has to have a funny story.  This was ours.  Gregg hooked into a "Big One."  He was sure it was a very big halibut.  He felt the pole was going to break.  He grunted for ten minutes and worked has at getting the line in.  It just didn't progress much.  I finally noticed that we were getting closer to a boat next to us with each of his efforts.  He had hooked the anchor of another boat.  It was embarrassing to ask the other fishermen to pull anchor so he could get the hook out of the chain, but they were good sports about it. 

In the afternoon I set up the technology for and showed the CES fireside.  Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Twelve spoke from the campus of BYU Hawaii.  We showed it again at 6:00 p.m. as several of the branch had not heard the announcement that it would be shown at 4:00 p.m.  We usually show it at 6:00 p.m. but our stake president announced it to be at 4:00 p.m. because that is when it was in Utah.  To be prepared we just did it twice. 

Mark Warner Jr. helps at the lodge.  He graduated from seminary a year early and is now in Salt Lake City attending the BYU classes offered that way.  He enrolls in the Provo campus next semester.




We are enjoying getting up at 5:00 a.m. to be able to open the church for early morning seminary.  The classes have grown in number, especially the Junior and Senior class. 

This is Doc Warner and his wife Linda.  They are leaving soon on their 3rd mission.  This one will be a second mission to the South Pacific.  Linda will be nursing in Tahiti and Doc will be doing what he can once he gets there.

I began teaching the Institute Book of Mormon class.   I am very excited to teach the lessons we learn from the Book of Mormon.  We went over the title page and introduction and the testimonies of the three witnesses and the testimonies of the 8 witnesses and included the testimony of Mary Whitmer.  The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.  It validates again the Savior as the Son of God and our Redeemer.  It was given to us by the gift of revelation by the Holy Ghost through Joseph Smith.  He was the called Prophet to do this and had been foreordained to do so in the first estate.  I know these things to be true.  Our Father In Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ still speak to us through their servants, the prophets.  And Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today, receiving instruction to guide us through these perilous days.  Sometimes I think of 'these perilous days' as the days of my lifetime from birth to whenever death will come.

This was our final halibut of the day.  We could keep two apiece each day.  The big ones must be rare.  All of ours were under 30 lbs. 

We met with our newly called Family History consultant for the branch to help her get started.  She has been a member of the church for just over a month.  She is so excited about genealogy.  Jaymie has a huge hurdle to begin with.  She doesn't know who her father is and her mother is not sure.