Anchorage In-Service/Temple Trip

Today it is raining, which makes me appreciate even more the 4 days in a row that we were able to enjoy sunshine.  And to fly without clouds to obscuring the view below us was incredible.  The view to the left as we traveled to Anchorage was mostly out to the Pacific.  The view to the right was miles of mountains and each crevice was filled with centuries of accumulated snow.  These glaciers seemed to pass us by one after another the entire flight.  The miles and miles of snow covered, uninhabitable space was fodder for my mind to ponder over.  Alaska is a majestic and beautiful land.

We tried to catch the Northern Lights last week.  We were a day late and so we still have not seen them.  However one of our YSA did and captured this picture.

Upon arriving at the Anchorage airport we were met by Elder and Sister Palmer.  They delivered to us one of the mission cars to use while we were there.  We went to our hotel and got settled in.  We then met the Palmers, and the Hawkins and two other missionary couples at a steak house where we ate too much and enjoyed each others friendship and stories. 

 After our social visit with these missionaries we went to the temple to have printed some cards for deceased people Diane had found on her lines that still needed temple work done.  After receiving the cards we drove to the mission home where our YSA were staying while in Anchorage.  We handed the cards over to them so the baptisms could be done on Friday while we were in our in-service meetings.  While we were at the mission home Pres. and Sister Beesley arrived from shopping for the week.  They had two SUVs filled with groceries.  We had a short, but nice visit.  We stood in the cold of the driveway until I started to shiver and then Pres. Beesley let us go.  Sister Beesley gave Diane a wonderful hug as she always does when we see each other.  They are wonderful leaders and we enjoy them whenever we have the opportunity to be with them.

 Our purpose in going to Anchorage was twofold: 1) CES had scheduled an in-service for we seminary and institute coordinators, and 2) our branch had scheduled a temple trip to the Anchorage, Alaska temple.  The branch does this twice a year.  Because Anchorage is in our mission boundaries we wanted to participate with them. 

The CES training was informative and as always gave us a spiritual boost in the arm.  We had as a guest from CES SLC Brother Richard Hawkes.  He had visited with us as a group briefly at the MTC while we were there in August.  He used a talk by Elder Oaks to teach us how to teach.  The talk was given in February of 2013 and is titled "As A Man Thinketh In His Heart."  The idea was to get us to know how to teach teachers to teach.  Reading the talk was a spiritual boost in and of itself.  But dissecting it as we did was a testimony builder of the importance of the family unit in our Heavenly Father's plan of Happiness.

 At lunch we joined with the YSA from Anchorage Institute as they listened to Bro. Hawkes tell of YSA groups from around the world.  He showed slides of young people and told how they joined the church and/or went on missions, and how they struggled to get enough money to make a trip to the temple to be married in the temple.  We were given a wonderful demonstration of the World Wide scope of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. 

In the afternoon we received counsel on how to work with the Priesthood leadership in our areas as we strive to increase our numbers in seminary for the coming year.

This is Paula Munoz getting acquainted with one of the Anchorage YSA members.

Friday evening we met again at the Institute with our YSA who had been invited by the Anchorage YSA members to participate in a waffle night and then play games.  The Institute has a place to put together puzzles, a Ping-Pong table and a pool table.  They used a projector, a computer and a large screen TV to play Family Feud.  They downloaded the trial version which they could use for an hour before having to buy it.  When the hour was up, the game was finished.  They were having so much fun at it that I downloaded it onto my laptop so we can do it again with our Juneau YSA.  It only cost $3.00. 

 A.J. Collins was having a good time visiting with the Anchorage Sister Missionaries. 

We left our Branch President (Olsen) and his wife Jerilyn in Anchorage with the YSA to have some continued fun and flew home on Saturday afternoon.  We were on the milk run and made stops in Cordova and Yakutat before finally arriving in Juneau.  We had a huge wait in Cordova.  Somebody miscounted the many boxes of seafood being shipped mainland.  So they unloaded it all and counted it again.  That was a bit uncomfortable.

Landon spent the evening working on a jig-saw puzzle of hundreds of pieces of bacon.  He did manage to find three pieces to fit.

The big week has arrived.  Our Institute lesson is from Revelations.  I have been studying doubly hard on these lessons to make sure I am not teaching any false doctrine.  Surprisingly, I think I get it better than at any other point in my life.  The Seminary and Institute resources are a tremendous help.  I think I have learned the Revelations given to John by the Savior were a demonstration of His love and concern for His covenant people.  We are to watch and be ready and given to us is some of the knowledge of things we can expect during the Millenium.  Now if my mind can just be receptive to teaching by the spirit I think I can do this.  We will spend this week on the first three chapters, which are written to the seven churches near the Isle of Patmos.  Next week we will study the book with seven seals and the accompanying symbols and signs.

  
Eric Bacon is over the Institute in Anchorage.  He is a great teacher and we enjoy his insights into the scriptures. 

We were able to teach our missionary preparation class yesterday after the block meetings.  Another young man, Scott  has decided to join us.  We had them teaching the Creation and the Fall.  Scott is an interesting young man.  He has a church background but he shows evidence of having slept through seminary as a boy.  He just showed up and said he thinks he should go on a mission.

Bro. Hull is a member of the Stake Presidency in Fairbanks.  He and Sister Hull answered the call for stay at home missionaries to coordinate the Institute and seminaries in Fairbanks.  He provided great insight as we discussed correlating with the priesthood leaders.

The highlight of the week was last evening before our dinner.  We were able to Skype with Mark and Travis and their families who live in Mesa, Az.  I find myself thinking of them often, and to actually be as close as Skype can get us, helped to ease my home sickness for them. 

 

It Certainly Looks Like Spring

With the temperature registering 37 degrees you wouldn’t, as a seasoned Utahan, say that it feels like spring.  But looking at the beautiful blue skies and the welcome sunshine, which has been prevalent the past four days, you have to think there is a chance of change in the snowy and cloudy conditions that have been prevalent here in Juneau for months now.

The Northern Lights were playing in the skies on Saturday night.  Of course we were sleeping and did not see them, but we heard all about it in church yesterday.  We stayed up later than usual last night in hopes of seeing them for a possible encore.  With books in hand, for reading material while we were waiting for the aurora borealis to appear, we drove to the northern tip of Douglas Island where we could get a clear visual of the northern hemisphere.  Alas!  We had no luck.  Those famous lights precipitated by the events on the sun still hadn’t shown themselves by 10:30 p.m., and it was pitch black.  We had a 5:00 a.m. wakeup call approaching and so we returned to our apartment still having not witnessed this beautiful phenomena.  I had hoped to have some pictures of the lights to post with this missive.

Our investigator, Carl, had to make a trip to Washington to face some charges in court.  He finally opened up to our branch president about the plight he was in.  A beautiful strength of the church is how it looks after the down trodden, even when the down trodden are struggling because of their own mistakes.  Carl was facing extradition unless he showed voluntarily.  Without a job, his ability to get to Washington was small.  Pres. Olsen provided the means for that to happen . . . one way.  Carl is expected to earn the return fare if wants to came back to Juneau, whenever that becomes possible.  Don’t think his violations are felonious as I don’t know that fact.  We only have hopes that this is part of the process to help him on his way to enter the waters of baptism.

The Institute lesson on Wednesday was on 2^nd Peter and 1^st John.  We zeroed in on the steps to obtain a 'Divine Nature' that will allow us to be visited by the Savior and, to have our Savior show to us the Father.  It is a beautiful lesson on precept by precept and line upon line.  The discussion was heavy.  The missionaries were able to be there for about 20 minutes.  Elder Kafoa, a convert from Tonga, grabbed me on Thursday and wanted to know more about this doctrine.  We were able to get together last evening at our 'break the fast' and I showed it to him from 2^nd Peter.  He was so excited to learn about it. 

The poor elder has had back problems his entire mission.  He goes home in two weeks.  Brother Richard Welling, of our branch presidency, gave him a prescription for an MRI.  It turns out he has a serious bulging disc.  We aren’t sure what happens now.

Amanda was at a Friday YSA activity at Auke Bay Park on Friday evening.  We haven’t seen her since the Temple trip to San Diego back in November.  Her parents are so against her having joined the church last June.  She came to the block meetings yesterday.  It was so good to have her with us again.  Her ski instructor job is ending.  She has changed jobs.  She did work at Wells Fargo.  I don’t know what her new job is. 

Nia Ma’ake has been in the MTC for a week now.  You can’t imagine the hole she leaves in the leadership and example of our branch.  We are losing the three Verhagens, Josh, Elijah, and Mary.  They are returning to Fairbanks and they are taking with them our Elders Quorum President, Colt.  He is going to work with them for a while in construction.  I have been feeling a loss knowing these active members of the branch are leaving.  But yesterday we had three active elders show up at the block meetings who have been away to BYU Idaho for the winter.  That will be a boost for us.  We had our first seasonal employee show up at Institute on Wednesday.  He is training to be a bus driver and will soon leave for Skagway.  We expect many others to begin arriving for the summer tourist season.  One of our senior seminary students, Michaela Schlechter, has been hired by a whale watching Tour Company.  She is excited. 

Dexter Wilke, a convert from last February, leaves this week to be married in the Idaho Falls temple to a BYU Idaho student.  She has lived here in Juneau some.  What fun it is to see success stories.

The study this week has been intense.  We are approaching the writings of John the Revelator.  I want to be sure I know what I am talking about when we get into this. 

We held a missionary preparation class on Sunday.  Nick Tracey and his fiancé joined us.  They are both returned missionaries and I was able to make good use of them. 

I continue to get raves from people who enjoy Diane’s cooking talents.  I am often told how lucky I am to have her as a wife.  Don’t I know it? 

We had our break the fast at 5:00 last evening.  The turnout was so so.  After the pot luck meal we met in the Relief Society room where I had Karlyn Welling read an article written by Valerie Hudson Cassler, I am a Mormon Because I am a Feminist.  This is the most beautiful explanation of the importance of womanhood in the LDS church.

http://mormonscholarstestify.org/1718/valerie-hudson-cassler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Stuff

I made some bread last week.  I knew we were having Matt Adamson and his mother over on Sunday to watch the final session of conference and to eat some lunch.  Matt loves homemade bread.  There was enough to take a loaf to the Sister Missionaries and another to the Elders.  It is just a pleasant thing to do when I need to fill up some time.

We enjoyed our visit with Matt and his mother.  Conference was as uplifting as I hoped it would be.  President Holland was inspiring.  I saw a quote on Facebook: "Whenever Satan goes to bed at night, he checks under his bed to see if Elder Holland is there."  And Elder Perry warned the world as a prophet of the error of its ways.  His power and strength were inspiring.

I have continued to meet, along with the Elders, Carl Bogren.  He has not been as receptive the past two weeks.  We now know why.  He received a final notice from a court in Seattle notifying him that if he doesn't show up to answer charges of some sort of assault charge, he will be arrested and flown to Seattle to face even more serious charges.  His claim to his room mates is that the charge is for littering.  We have always known that Carl is not being completely honest with us.  We just have not known how. 

His date to have a job and begin to pay rent has come and gone.  His landlord collected his key and wished him well.  He still does not have a job.  I believe we now know why.  Background checks put a stop to his being hired.  He did follow through on my request to meet with the produce manager at Fred Meyer.  The day he went in, it was the manager's day off.  An associate manager helped him fill out the application and said he would give it to the manage.  We will know later what comes of this. 

We convinced Carl to meet with our Branch President, President Olsen.  After a lot of encouragement, Carl did that.  We implored him to be honest and transparent as he visited with President Olsen.  I received a call from the branch president yesterday saying he had spent the morning putting Carl on an airplane to Seattle.  Without disclosing confidences to me, he let me know that Carl would not be back any time quickly.  He expects Carl will have to pay restitution for something and possibly even some jail time.  At YSA home evening I suggested to those in attendance that we include Carl in our fasting and prayers this week.  I can't help but wonder if this buffeting is not helping Carl to be prepared to be baptized and start his progression.  He tells us he knows the Book of Mormon is true.  He reads it daily.  Anyone who can relate the story of Gidgidonni, Pahoran and Gidgidonnah and remember the names is reading.

It rained hard the past two days.  The car washes here are so inadequate in their washing capabilities.  I put on my rain gear and took a towel to the car in the rain.  As I rubbed and scrubbed, the falling raindrops rinsed the dirt to the ground.  The car is now clean.

I have been studying the 2nd book of Peter in preparation for Institute tonight.  Peter lays out the steps we need to go through in order to receive a 'Divine Nature.'  It makes so much sense.  It doesn't make it sound easy, but it does make it sound possible.  We simply must be in control of our lusts and passions, and be able to progress in our faith and love.  The way is outlined for us in chapter 1.  I am excited to bring this to our YSA members.  As we discuss these well explained steps, we will come to understand that by doing these things we can make our calling and election sure.  And then we will discuss that by having our calling and election made sure, we will receive the other comforter that the Savior said he would give us.  That 'other comforter' is Jesus himself.  And when we have that relationship with the Savior, he will show to us the Father.  It is a wonderful and a beautiful principle of the gospel.   

First Week In April

Our Tlinget investigator, Carl Bogren, has been fading away on us.  He likes to spend his nights with his buddies, and he sleeps all day rather than looking for a job.  He seems to want me to do all the leg work for him and I'm pretty insistent that he needs to sleep at night and look for a job in the day time.  I don't believe he is being honest with us in many ways.  He informed us he needs to be in Washington next week for a court showing.  He says it is for littering.  One of his roommates tells us, after looking it up on the public records, that it is much more serious than that. 

The Institute lesson went well, but I didn't feel like I did a very good job with my presentation.  Thank heaven those attending are, many of them, very versed in the gospel.  The lesson was from the Book of James in the New Testament, and the First Book of Peter.  I really enjoy studying them.  It is wonderful to read the thoughts of the Savior's half brother and the teachings of Peter, the holder of the keys of that dispensation. 

Our Thursday class went much better and we had 10 attending this week.  Our discussion centered around the Last Supper, the washing of the apostles feet, the Betrayal, and we even fit in some discussion on making our family histories.

Diane made a beautiful cake for desert on Wednesday evening for the Institute.  It was a hit.

We both had appointments with a dentist for our bi-annual cleaning and checkup.  The dentist, Dr. Gilbert is a member of the stake high council.  When we went to the window to pay, his receptionist said that Dr. Gilbert would be taking care of this one and there would be no charge.  I thanked him at General Priesthood last evening.  He said "I like to take care of our missionaries."  What a blessing that was for us as we no longer carry any dental insurance.  I know that he will be blessed for that act of tender mercy toward us.

I made 4 loaves of bread on Friday.  I knew Diane would want some for dinner on Sunday.  Matt Adamson's mother has been in town for the week-end.  She has been staying with the Wellings.  Matt was being ordained an Elder last night after General Priesthood and he wanted his mother with him.  She lives in Valdez.  That is an 80 mile drive or so from Anchorage.  Matt asked me to be in the circle to help ordain him.  Anyway, Matt has been called to Tennessee on a mission and has been actively involved in our YSA branch since last September.  We are having him and his mother over for lunch today and afterwards we will watch the concluding session of conference together.