A Very Busy Week

Sunday was our weekly ward council meeting.  It has been decided that there will be a YSA temple trip to Anchorage in April.  Some will be doing Endowment Sessions.  Others will be doing baptisms for the dead.  It appears there will be a good number going.  We have been in touch with Elder & Sister Hawkins who are the CES missionaries in Anchorage.  They are going to plan a combined activity with their YSA.  We have decided to go with them.  The YSA will be staying in the mission home.  I think we'll get a hotel rather than chance being assigned to the bed we slept in last time we were in Anchorage.  It took us a couple of weeks to recover from that E ticket ride.

We attended our usual block meetings and then returned home for a few hours.  After the final block session in the church we returned to the chapel to teach a missionary prep class for the 17 and 18 year olds in the 2nd and 3rd ward.  In the past, prospective missionaries had the chance to take an Institute Missionary Preparation class.  With the recently announced change in age requirements many will leave prior to having that opportunity in college.  Now the responsibility lies with the wards.  We had three young men show up and had a wonderful 1st lesson. 

I find myself feeling inadequate when it comes to preparing lessons from Acts and on.  I am having to study deeper than I've ever studied in order to understand just what is going on.  After teaching a lesson I have a hard time falling asleep as I go over in my mind what I should have said, or emphasized.  That was especially the case after our Wednesday evening Institute class.  The numbers were great and the students participated well.  We discussed the 2nd coming of Christ as Paul wrote to the Thessolonians. I enjoy discussing the travels of Paul.  I usually get to tell the fun stories as most do not bother to read the lesson.  It seems that the letters from Paul are not usually studied like the 4 gospels and the Book of Mormon.   I enjoy it when they participate in the teaching of one another.  Diane prepared a sausage tortellini with pine nuts and shredded parmesan cheese.  Her chocolate bunt cake was a piece of art and the kids really snarfed it up quickly. 

Our adult Institute class is going well.  We had 10 there.  I am only teaching one Institute chapter during the 1.5 hrs. rather than two as suggested by the CES.  In as much as no one is taking it for credit, we are able to get into a single chapter fully and those  attending are expressing themselves and adding a great deal to the discussions.  I enjoy the pot luck lunch afterwards and talking around the table together.  Our lesson was that which defileth a man does not always enter a man by the mouth.  But, that which defiles a man is that which proceeds forth from the mouth.  We got into some wonderful discussion.

Last evening was our first Temple Preparation class for four YSA members planning on going on missions, getting married and going with us to the Anchorage temple in April.  Diane taught the class and did a very good job.  And this morning she substituted for the Malins who wanted to observe another teacher teach.  The high school age kids were very well behaved and opened up for her.  Several of the students told some personal experiences that helped everyone with the feeling of being one together in gospel.  It always helps to know we are not alone in the crosses we bear. 

I took a few pictures trying out some different settings with my camera.  I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm working on it.  The location is Auke Lake north and west of Downtown Juneau.  It is pronounced like 'hawk,' but without the h.