Again, I find a few minutes to write to all of you. First off let me say, we are doing well. We both got our flu shots (yahoo). We are healthy and happy. Dad’s shoulder is hurting. He helped a member move. I don’t think he did much but it was enough to make it really hurt again. We are just waiting to get home to repair it. Our friend Dr. thinks it is a rotor cuff. But that requires surgery and he is laid up awhile. We could only do it if we went to Seattle so we are waiting. Makes it hard for him. (And me) Otherwise we are healthy.
We have traveled so much and seen so much since I wrote. We loved Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. It is a clean nice little town. They are about like Idaho. They have sand dunes that because there are so few people you can go miles and miles into the mountains. Wonderful fun! It is beautiful but dry and not at all like Juneau. The mountains are not really much pine, mostly deciduous trees. The Yukon River runs right through town and it freezes over in the winter. Guess what that means. More toys. They have a huge reservoir for skiing and fishing abounds. Hunting too. A real man’s land. I found a quilt store. They say that they “have three months of summer and nine months of quilting”. Nice store but some of the yardage was $27 a yard! All of it was $19. Wow! So there is a lot of fun there. Of course you won’t be able to eat there as everything is outlandishly priced. Orange Juice $9 for a half a gallon. Whew! I asked them about it and they said that the government pours so much money into the Yukon to keep it going. They hire all the people and pay terrific wages. They need too. Medium price house is $450,000. But a wonderful place all the same. The members are wonderful. We attended Conference there as well as visiting Seminary. They provide a lunch between sessions. One man makes a huge pot of soup and it lasts two days and others bring in other stuff. We thought this was quite amazing. It was a real Conference days. We were a little sad to find out we could have gone out to see the Northern lights without much effort but it was just as we were leaving we found this out.
We had a young man leave our branch this week. I am enclosing a picture of our farewell to him as he goes to a foster home in Anchorage. He has schizophrenia so he needs care. He has only been a member for about 3 months. We grew to love him so. He is truly without guile. He attended everything. Studied the scriptures and each time he had to hug everyone good-by. You can’t imagine that in the middle of institute lesson (he had to be in by 9:00) he got up to leave and went up and down the rows to say good-bye and these young adults were taken aback. Men hugging men? Well, he did it each time he came. Some of the Men never got too comfortable with it but all did it and loved him for what he brought to the branch. He played a mean volleyball. So sadly, we sent him to Anchorage and hope the YSA will love him too. He was tortured by voices. When he joined the church those voices lessened and became only one. It was a direct blessing from his baptism and confirmation of the Holy Ghost. He was so much better he could be placed. We are happy for him.
So we also traveled to Anchorage to attend some training meetings. While we were there we attended the temple. Because we were there over Sunday, we had the Seminary teacher invite us to dinner out in the country. So we traveled about 45 min by car into the farmland of AK. It’s small but there is some. On the state seal there is a picture of farmers and wheat sheaves. I wanted to see it myself. I did. It is nothing like Imperial Valley but they do grow food. Usually when we are traveling and we have to stay over on Sunday because we can’t get back we find a way to feed ourselves. We eat great food. Depending on if we have a microwave or not. Sometimes just fruit and muffins, chips all the good stuff. Not at all healthy. On this Sunday we had the privilege of going to the Scott Beams home with 4 girls and 1boy. A really wonderful home. The children were well taught, a real joy for me to be around. I really enjoyed my day. I am including a picture of us with the mountain called “Pioneer” mountain. He says it is the most shot mountain other than Mt Whitney in the US. I don’t know if that is true but it was beautiful. We enjoyed church and good people that day. The trip was a good one.
We have been so busy with training; that consists of our watching them teach one day. Encouraging them, telling them what they do that is good and offering some suggestions. Usually they are things like the set-up of the room, how get all the material in and loving the youth. Then the next day I either teach or do Scripture mastery with them. It depends on what the teacher wants. I try to model good teaching skills. That is a real challenge for me. I am dropped in a place that has limited facility, unknown students, and no ability to print and make copies. I have learned so much. I have my partner make copies for me. He provides the donuts and milk or juice. He is always the good guy. He tries to keep me on the straight and narrow. He watches my time and just makes it all work. We are a real team. I think we have helped the teachers be better. All of them are willing to learn this year and seminary is going better. We are keeping track of the number of times a youth picks up the scriptures and reads in a week. (It is a church wide program) Last year we were at about 2 %. No one had encouraged them to read. This year, in September, the Sr/Jr are at45%. All of them are doing better. Sr/Jr are the best. Next month the freshmen will beat them. I was so grateful for the talks at conference to the youth this time. Boy there were some great ones. We had a Morningside and showed Elder Scott. We had them take in their journals, separate all over the chapel and not sit by anyone, and then they were to take notes on what they heard. Then I had them set some goals and how they would achieve them. I do not know if reading was one of the goals. He talked of many that they could do better in, but the spirit was very strong and I think we will move ahead a little bit, making them stronger within themselves.
Baldur works so hard it trying to get us from place to place. It is a real challenge. The Ferry’s are now not consistent and we have two places to go to still. The challenges are huge as we try to get there.
We have snow in the mountains and it rains every day. The eagles are not back yet. I guess there is still fish. We are wearing winter coats already. We got our winter tires on, we have our boots and gloves and we will be ready this year. I even bought a beany. Boy, times have changed!
President Monson said this----
“Also evolving at a rapid rate has been the moral compass of society. Behaviors which once were considered inappropriate and immoral are now not only tolerated but also viewed by ever so many as acceptable.”
Wonder if we were to consider our Sabbath, trying to stop our own decline in our observance. I think we go through periods of more obedience and then not.
Elder Perry’s last conference talk was “The Sabbath and the Sacrament” I would suggest you might read it again. I really feel this is an important talk in keeping ourselves from evolving downward. Interesting that he is repeating this message so often. We must need it.
“Let’s be an example of the believer’s” as Elder Perry said. I really believe if we could just keep this more exacting we would be so blessed. Let’s assess and do better!
Love to you all,
Mom, Omi, Dad and Grandpa
