Zone Conference Weekend

We have seen a lot of rain since arriving.  We've actually seen 4 days of sunshine.  But yesterday was a real downpour and it lasted all day long.  We've had 3 inches in 7 days and most of it was yesterday.

Sister Beesley called a bit back an asked us if we would like to participate in the missionaries Zone Conference.  In as much as we are CES oriented, she wanted to make sure.   She also asked that I teach our zone leaders, Elder Satini and Elder Martinez, about the Trek experience I attended that had been sponsored by BYU back in about 1986.  I invited them to the apartment and went over the activities that taught team work and the ability to do hard things.  The zone leaders then prepared a zone conference centered around Zion's Camp. 

We met Elder and Sister Powell from Rexburg.  They are in Haines and are service missionaries.  He actually has substituted in the schools there without accepting any pay.  The school was amazed that he would do this out of friendship for someone they met in Haines.  He works on cars a lot for people as well.  They do some proselyting.

Sister Beesley does a lot of the teaching when it comes to Zone Conference.  President Beesley spent a lot of time interviewing and giving counsel to the missionaries during the times when we weren't in meetings.  It is expensive to bring all of these missionaries in from the outlying branches and wards of the Inland passage, which is the Juneau Stake.  But it is also beneficial for them to know they are still part of the team and are not alone. 

Elder Martinez and Elder Satini planned a bit of a trek down on the beach above Auke harbor.  We first cleaned up the church trailer where they live.  After 28 missionaries hit a trailer lot it looks pretty nice again.  This trailer is located across the road from a piece of ground the church owns.  The members have their hopes high this will one day have a temple on it.

We went to the beach and in the heavy rain made our way to a covered gazebo that was walled in on one side with a huge fire place.  We all carried wood from the Zone leader's trailer to burn during the evening.  The Powells and Sister Waldron and I waited there to help the caterers bring down the food while the Elders and Sisters went on this trek.  I didn't get to see the activities they did in the hour and a half they were gone.  But they did have to carry a plastic bin with a back pack and their scriptures wrapped in a garbage bag to keep it dry.  The district leaders carried a 10 lb. weight in theirs as well.  They have more responsibilities.

We saw them cross an open area a half mile away as they made their way into a protruding point on the beach that was covered with trees.  When they returned we ate some chili and the fixins and had a wonderful testimony meeting.  The missionaries were soaked and many of them were cold.  As they stood in front of this roaring fire in the fireplace, the steam poured from their wet clothes.  It would heat the water up in their clothes until they would move away or shorten their testimonies. 

Here is a picture of a bear proof garbage can.

This morning President and Sister Beesley invited us to breakfast at "Grandma's Feather Bed."  Pres. Perkins, the temple president in Anchorage, owns some hotels and restaurants.  We discussed our assignment with them, received some encouragement and counsel and had a nice visit.  We are growing in this assignment.  It is raining again today.  But we are happy.  It is because we have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are happy with the knowledge the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in its fullness to us, and for us, and for our loved ones that have gone on, and that are yet to make an appearance. 

Oh by the way, my recently baptized and fried phone has spent two days in a bag of rice.  We now are calling it Lazarus.

Zone Conference

The Elders from the areas of the Inland Passage gathered in Juneau last night and this morning.  Some came by ferry, some flew in and some drove and ferried.  We met another missionary couple who are in Haines....the Powells from Rexburg, Idaho.  It was wonderful to visit with them and get ideas and meet them and become acquainted.  We were expecting a meeting in the church here at 1:30 p.m. but no one showed up.  Oh well.  We gave up after an hour and returned to our apartment and the Powells went to Costcos.  They get here every three months and they make the most of it while they are in an area where they can get supplies.

We met at the church again at 6:00 p.m. for dinner.  The 3rd ward prepared a wonderful cast iron dinner of peach cobbler and lasagna.  There was lots of wonderful watermelon and a great salad.  After an activity where the missionaries could enjoy laughing at and with one another they broke up into district meetings.  We're really not assigned to a district as we are CES.  We visited a bit with Sister Beesley and then came home. 

These aren't good pictures.  Hopefully my camera will come in soon. 

Institute Day 2

Last evening's Institute class went well.  We had 15 come before the evening was through.  It was a fun lesson to lead.  Now I wish our manuals would arrive.  Several of the zone missionaries from outside of Juneau attended as well.  They have come into Juneau for our mission Zone Conference.  I'm looking forward to is as we will finally get to meet our mission president and his wife.

Diane fixed some nutty fudge bars the kids seemed to really like.  There was also a veggie tray and some crackers and cheese.  The money situation from the church has caused us to cut back on the size of the meals. 

Another boy, Anderson, leaves today for school in Idaho.  Erik Schlecter will leave tomorrow.

"The Promised Messiah" was the title of last evenings lesson.  I enjoy teaching about the Savior.  We discussed his role in our first estate prior to being born in Bethlehem.  His role was great in regards to our world, and others.  He is the God of the Old Testament.  And he fulfilled his Father's assignment to atone for our sins.  He will mediate with the Father in our behalf that we might be blessed with Eternal blessings.  He lives.  Still!

You may enjoy this link.  The students seemed to be fascinated with it as I presented the different slides  

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/universe.html

Copy it and paste it into your browser. 

How to Fry A Mobile Phone

We have a Stake media and hardware technician, Bro. Willis.  He took more than his entire lunch hour from work to help me understand how to use the Stake Satellite, and recording devices, and the video projector from these devices.  I felt like I was suddenly turned loose in the TV hardware room.  Fortunately he has written some wonderful directions in a three ring binder that made it possible for this technology amoeba to find some success.  Brother Willis is just another example of wonderful people who love to help you be successful.

Diane did the wash while I continued to prepare for the next Institute lesson.  There was a little shopping to get ready for dinner.  We had invited 4 missionaries to dinner.  There was our two zone leaders, Elder Satini and Elder Martinez.  There was also Elder Franks and Elder Springer who work in our branch. 

Diane cooked up some Enchilada Soup along with a nice salad and some pie.  There were some grapes too.  These Elders were so grateful and would have made their mothers proud.  I asked them to give us a spiritual message before they left.  Elder Springer jumped right to it and did a great job. 

Word on the street was that Elder Springer could play some guitar.  He played for us, "If I Could Hie To Kolob."  It was very well done.  He doodled on the guitar while we chatted for a bit.  When I could see by the clock that we had been together for an hour, I offered a prayer.  It was touching to me, to be on our knees so far away from the comfort of our home, with 4 young Elders we have known for two weeks now, giving thanks to a Heavenly Father and asking for his blessings. 

After they had left I noticed some cheese had somehow made it's way onto our bathroom floor.  I bent down to pick the morsel of cheese from the floor, and in stooping down watched in horror as my cell phone fell from my front pocket into the open toilet bowl.  Wait!  I've only had this phone a week and I've killed it.  What is it with me? 

I quickly shut it down and removed the battery and the memory card.  I dried them as best as I could and hoped for the best.  This morning the alarm on it went off at 5:00 a.m. like it was asked to do.  The display looked fine.  However, I do not receive any info and cannot send any info.  It was so hard to call  the mission office and report an assassinated, church owned phone.  I have removed it from life support.  (I still have my Utah phone number until mid-night tonight. That is when my cancel request takes effect.)  I feel like I have run over my pet puppy.

First Day of Early Morning Seminary

There is a lot of time spent preparing lessons.  Diane spends a lot of time doing records and organizing the administrative items. 

For the Labor Day Holiday we did go for a walk and stopped into the Breezie for a pastry to celebrate.  I'm probably a bit paranoid about the bears.  We don't see them often, but there was a black sow and her two cubs in the church parking lot on Sunday evening. 

Last evening we had our YSA family home evening.  Sister Olsen had the lesson and she introduced a way to memorize a scripture and remember it that was a lot of fun.  We divided into small groups of 4.  We would each say a word until the scripture was completed and then do it again.  It worked for me as we learned that way.

One of the kids I was looking forward to getting to know is Tuavao Ma'ake.  He is a returned missionary.  He served in Guatamala.  He is leaving today for BYU Idaho.  We are losing several to Rexburg this week.  He is a stalwart.

It was barely light when our alarms went off at 5:00 a.m. this morning.  I showered and did my "pretty up" first.  Diane then had her turn.  How spoiled we have been with three bathrooms at home.  Diane grabbed a bite to eat but I checked the Facebook.  We then drove to the church in the drizzling rain to open the building.  Brother Mikesell had beaten us to it.  The teachers came in by 15 minutes after 6:00 a.m.  We had a short prayer meeting where we had a prayer and I had them review Matthew 5: 14-16.  We repeated it together in unison.  We do this because of the Scripture Mastery Program in the CES.  There are 25 essential scriptures for each of the Standard Works. 

The doors soon began to open as the students excitedly came to their first day of seminary.  Some looked sleepy.  All looked anxious, either in a happy way or in a worried way.  There were a few late comers.  We tried to greet as many as possible as they entered. 

This is a challenging thing for the parents as well.  Many waited in their vehicles for the 50 minute class to conclude.  Some napped and some were reading.  They would then take their early morning religion scholars to school.  One father was surfing the internet in the church hallway as he waited for his son and two others that were car-pooling together.

We returned to the apartment about 8:00 a.m. and I fixed my bowl of Rice Chex with fruit.  I am enjoying this experience.  Diane and I are spending a lot of time together, more than we have ever done in our married life.  I find I am bearing my testimony often.  I am lifting and encouraging a lot as well.  It is a good mission so far.

Our 2nd Sunday

Our Branch President, Pres. Olsen, took his wife Jeri Lynn to Sitka for a much deserved break.  His councilors filled in very nicely.  At home we usually don't have a ward council meeting on Fast Sunday.  Ooops.  We missed a meeting.  It did allow us to skype with our daughter Amy.  We love doing that.

There are lots of young people coming to the block meetings.  We are finding that when it comes to attending the YSA activities, it is a small block of young people that always attend.  I can see that it is going to take some work to get the Tongan members to trust us.

After the Fast and Testimony meeting, we met in the Relief Society room for a choir practice.  We eventually had around 13 show up.  The group is singing in a couple of weeks.  Oh, we are speaking in Sacrament meeting on Sunday.  No topic, just talk and let them get to know us we were told.

We returned to the church at 5:00 p.m. for our 'Break the Fast' dinner.  Diane brought a nice green salad.  Sister Welling brought a pot of jambalaya.  Brad brought a lasagna.  Others contributed as well.  Several came having not contributed.  These seemed to eat and run.  I am just glad they would come.  After the meal we went into the Relief Society room and I played Pres. Uchtdorf's talk.  It was his talk at conference where he asked if we had ill feelings, grudges or wanted to do harm to another.  His counsel was to, "Stop it." 

At 8:30 p.m. we returned to the church for another Sacrament and Testimony meeting.  This one is held on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month for those whose work schedules during the tourist season prevents them from attending the regular 9:20 a.m. block.  Pres. Olsen's daughter and her new husband were the only ones beside leadership to come.  Pres. Francis decided to announce this would be the last one until the tourist season begins next year.

Our Sundays are packed.  Oh and this tid-bit of excitement:  As we entered the parking lot at 8:30 p.m. there was a black bear and her two cubs passing through.

Training for Sitka Seminary

The past two days have given us a vision of what we will be doing much of while serving on our mission.  The Sitka Ward called a new Seminary Instructor two weeks ago.  Our 2nd councilor in the Stake Presidency, Pres. Huntsman, down to Sitka Sunday afternoon and set her apart.  Alice Smith is 76 years old and will be teaching two of her grandchildren and two others.  The classes will begin at 7:30 a.m.  Their school begins a bit later in the day allowing them to sleep longer than others.

Sister Jenny Schlecter had asked us a couple of times to join her in orienting Sister Smith.  I was hesitant to accept because of the situation with funds available for us.  A couple of nights prior to the scheduled trip, I had the impression that we should go. 

We joined Sister Schlecter on the dock at Juneau and boarded the Fairweather ferry.  It is the ferry that is captained by her husband Mike.  The trip took 6 hours as two of the hours was spent going into Angoon and dropping of some members of the church that are building a cabin there.  They had contracted some of their friends from Vernal, Utah to build the cabin.  Accompany that group were four big trailers of building materials.  So we had about 15 other LDS members on the ferry with us at least until we reached Angoon.  It was fun to watch them take a trailer off of the ferry and then drive back into the belly of the ferry to get another trailer.

We arrived in Sitka about 2:00 p.m. and went directly to Sister Smith's home.  We spent three hours with her at her very, very slow computer showing her how to get around the Seminary and Institute site.  We would show her different menu items and she would practice getting into them and seeing what was available for her.  Diane and Sister Schlecter showing how to enter her attendance. 

We then went into her living area of the home while Sister Smith put on a baked salmon dinner for us.  I've been here 10 days and have eaten salmon 4 times now.  Not bad for a guy who doesn't enjoy fish.  However I am getting used to the salmon and hers was probably the best we've had.  However, Mike Schlecter's wasn't bad either. 

 

 

She asked if we would like to stay and watch the acceptance speech of Mitt Romney with her but we declined.  Her husband, Richard Smith, had been out fishing with another member of the ward.  They fished hard for six hours and caught one 28 inch king salmon. 

President Huntsman had called Bishop Hart of the Sitka Ward and told him we were coming and asked the bishop to make arrangements for a place for us to sleep.  For some reason it really didn't work out and so Diane and I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast place across the street from the Smith's.  The lady came to the door and it was obvious immediately that she was recovering from having had chemotherapy.  She was so accomodating and eager for us to stay with her.  There was only one other guest that evening, a young married woman and her son from Poland.  They were waiting for her husband to return from a commercial fishing vessel.  The next day they were going to start their journey home to Poland.

Diane and I stayed in the basement for several hours watching the RNC and then went to our room on the top floor.  I can't even begin to explain the place but I'll try.  It was like a museum with flying memorabilia, thimble collections, crystal collections, windchimes, Alaska maps and displays.  The home was immaculately clean and beautiful.  You wouldn't have guessed from the outside appearance.  She fed us waffles for breakfast.  Between that, the bran muffins, and a hotdog bun I found myself in trouble by Friday night.  I was having a gluten reaction. 

 

After breakfast Diane and I returned to Sister Smith's and continued to help her with practice getting around the S & I site.  I finally figured out that I needed to disable her Skype and then her computer ran a bit faster.  I then asked her if we could spend some time at her kitchen table with her scriptures.  I then showed her how to work out a lesson for seminary using a scripture block.  We talked about breadth and depth and how to decide while part of a block to spend the most time on.  She seemed to feel a lot better about the calling when were through. 

 

We said good-bye and joined Jenny in driving around and through Sitka on our way back to the ferry.  Mike's ship, the Fairweather, was waiting for us at 12:30 p.m.  Our return trip was only 4 hours as we didn't go through Angoon.  We had four wonderful hours to visit with Sister Jenny Schlecter.  She is such a great support and help.  We enjoy her very much.   Her husband, Michael, came down from the control room and invited us to return with him.  He showed us the workings of this jet powered ferry.  It was so interesting to see the radar screens and the crew at work. 


Both of us were pretty tuckered when we got home about 5:30 p.m.  Diane fixed a wonderful dinner of pre-cooked tenderloin strips we had found at one of the stores we were in. 

I can't even begin to describe the beauty of Alaska and the waters around it.  I look at the pictures we take and they are beautiful, but they really don't show the grandeur as it really is.