Juneau to Anchorage

We performed our usual duties with the seminary Monday through Wednesday.  It got as cold as we have seen since being here, 9 degrees.  We experienced some freezing rain one day. 

There was a bigger turnout for our Institute class. Sixteen attended.  Our new relief society presidency and our new elders quorum president are taking it upon themselves to get others to attend.  Elder Norris is making a difference as well.  He and Elder Hartilius taught a discussion in the church to Carl.  After that discussion they invited him to attend Institute with them.  He even participated and had pertinent questions. 

The lesson was the book of I Corinthians.  We discussed the importance of being of one in purpose and spent the rest of the time on Idol Worship, and Chastity.  I had a wonderful video on staying pure.  It used beautiful music, no dialogue, and a room.  As different friends entered the young woman's apartment they sullied it with muddy boots, dirty fingers, and a video that caused her DVD player to ooze an oily, black, filthy slim.  With each new deposit of dirt, the light in the room dimmed slightly more.  Finally the young woman who lived in the room invited her friends who had brought the filth into her home to leave.  Others came to the door who entered without the dirt and the light remained in her apartment.  It had such an effect on all of us who watched it.  The church makes such wonderful videos.

Diane served some baked potatoes with topping, sticky buns and fruit salad.  It was all consumed when they were finished. 

Thursday we boarded a flight for Anchorage to attend a CES Regional In-Service.  They are so informative and enjoyable.  We were taught so well by Michael Davidson above.  He showed us all of his mountain climbing gear. (He climbs Mt. McKinley and Rainer for fun.)  He explained why he had all of the gear and ropes.  He then compared all of those tools to the simple tools he would take if he took others with him on lesser peaks.  And then he used a wonderful analogy with the mountain gear to the gear we take with us into the classroom.

Eric Bacon and Scott Beames used a talk by Neal A. Maxwell, "Teaching By The Spirit - The Language Of Inspiration" that was given in 1991.  They dissected as much of the talk with us as possible in their time allotments.  We were chasing through the scriptures and identifying principles of the presentation through the use of the scriptures. 

We broke for lunch prepared by Sister and Elder Hawkins of the Anchorage CES.  YSA and guests came in for lunch and heard the past mission president of the India mission speak and show his slides.  Yes, there is a mission in India.  He was fascinating.  He believes the gospel could blossom there as it does in S. America and the Philippines.  The key is getting the present generation of members through a leadership process so the church can grow properly.  There are other hindrances with their society he explained.  He had wonderful pictures that reminded me of Gregg's (our son) experience he showed to us when he returned from India.

We finished our conference and Diane and I went to dinner at the Outback and then drove to the Anchorage Temple to do a session.  The only temple smaller I have been in is the one in Sao Paulo.  It is beautiful.  We tried to attend Thursday evening but got lost and returned unsuccessfully to the hotel.

We are killing a few hours before heading to the Anchorage airport to board our plane for Juneau. 

I had a wonderful experience on the flight up to Anchorage.  My boarding pass placed me in the seat right next to the son of my cousin, Nancy Hugo.  His name is Chet.  We had a wonderful hour of visiting.  He showed me a lot of pictures from his Ipad and showed me some applications that are very impressive.  Poor Chet is 6' 8" and he sat in the aisle seat with his feet dripping into aisle.  I could tell he was very uncomfortable.  Chet is a mapping engineer.  He maps utilities and streets for municipal corporations.  At least that is what it sounded like to me. 

It seems when we travel, we are showing our age a bit more each time.  I forgot to pack any white shirts.  I also put on one brown shoe and one black one which I have been wearing the entire trip.  Diane forgot to pack any extra under garments.  I forgot to pack the adapter for my GPS phone so I could get around.  I did alright regardless.  Trips like this we look forward to.  It gets us into fresh routines and we meet wonderful people.  Elders Palmer and Herrin met us at the airport to give us a mission car to use while we here.  That helps the pocket book immensely.