April 21 2024

CAROLEE: We have probably had the busiest weeks of our mission thus far!  We do like to be busy and the time whizzes by. We do get tired though!  We had a great Sr missionary dinner on the 12th. I made rolls for that and we have the set up etc. because we host at the institute!  We had a good meal and a good visit!  The next day we were going to play but we had a tax deadline and taxes took most of our day!  As I don’t do that I cleaned and did wash etc. We did end our P-day at the Templeview ward's pig fest. The invitation was to "Come Eat Pig", a tradition of over 25 yrs.  A good meal and our missionary buddies joined us .  We also inspected apartments Friday morning!  Got six done in one morning which was our miracle. We had to do them before transfers so got to see them all before a few left.

We had one apartment inspection and a visit with Justin at Klatt then taught at district council and left treats and told some goodbye! Sister Thornton going home!  Then went to Klatt to teach 6th period. I taught Gary did council!  It was a full day and then hit both FHEs that night!  Beginning of Maplewood and a long walk at Westchester Lagoon to pick up trash!  We did get to visit with three of our singles for kind of long visits and appreciate them all more!  Nathan Hakala, Harrison Hayes, and Michael Metcalfe. All great young men needing wives to move on with their lives! They are trying! We pray for all these young people !

Tuesday a regular Tues with the Institute building open for the day!  I got cinnamon rolls made for class and started a quilt! Gary was trying to prepare Wednesday seminary lessons but got a lot of interruptions from missionaries mostly!  We had a great class and the cinnamon rolls were a smash as always! I’d made them the week before for class, a bishops council and for apartment inspections.  Never above a bribe!

Wed I was not scheduled at the temple so I went with Gary to teach Seminary at the Strawberry building!  Gary did very good and the kids were great! We went from there to set up for Senior Night at the Institute!  Picked up pizza and root beer from Moose’s Tooth and got ice cream sandwiches!  The evening went well with a pretty good turn out! We had invited specific kids to come welcome the graduates and they turned up great! There was games and food and mostly visiting which was what we hoped for!!

Thursday was mostly a catch up and Institute! We were doing waffle breakfast for the new missionaries on Friday so I prepped for that!  Patti’s classes keep getting better and bigger!  We had 24 there and she plans lots of interaction so everyone is enjoying the class. It’s great!  Friday we were at the office which is the Strawberry building at 7 am and cooked waffles until 8ish.

We met the new missionaries and ate then cleaned up. Took our car to have an oil change and picked up a truck to deliver to Fairbanks missionaries next week!  Then came back and helped get lunch on and served and cleaned up!  Got home in time to visit with Jar and her kids!  Ended up at dinner with Kuerths and Badgers cause they were bored! We have FOMO! Not boredom!

We went to the Zoo Saturday for our outdoor adventure and truthfully slept most of the rest of the day!

Grizzly Bear & Musk Ox 

See the sleeping bear in the snow. :) 

The snow is melting (this is the breakup). It is pretty dirty. We have been in the 50s for a couple of days! We are walking outside for our walks but on sidewalks cause they are clear! The paths are too slushy right now!  We see some tree buds and a blade or two of green so we are on our way!!  We still see a moose every week so won’t forget we are in Alaska!

 Grateful for this opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father!  We love him so much!

Gary: During my career and my church service, I’ve given hundreds of talks, speeches, lessons, presentations, group discussions, etc.  I’ve realized that I prepare like Dad did—way over the top and more than really needed. (but I resolved to never take more than 5 books to the pulpit 😊)   I think that it has benefitted me in a lot of ways, but it also gives me a lot of stress, thinking I have to prepare so hard  So, I just think of the general authorities where sometimes they give prepared remarks and sometimes more relaxed ones.  PowerPoint is a disrupter for me, as is most technology, because it seems there is always issues that distract me, which then detracts from the class.  So, this last round of seminary teaching I’ve been prepared but less structured and less dependent on technology.

 It is then that I need to pray for “utterance”.  I love that word.  It just says exactly what I want it to mean.  When I finish a lesson and feel grateful for “utterance” I am usually satisfied that I said what the spirit wanted me to.  But, getting to that point has been stressful my whole life.  I can’t rely on the arm of flesh and sometimes that’s what I do. ☹  So, this next week I’ve got another day or two of Seminary to teach  and I need “utterance”.

 
These are some of our seminary kids that we teach. 

We have been exhausted a lot lately, and that is such a good feeling.  It feels so good to come home at night and feel like you’ve done every thing and more that the Lord wants you to.  I don’t think we’ve ever felt that we didn’t do what we should—like slacking or anything, but some days are fuller than other.  This coming week will be full and busy so we need to be ready for it.  More prep time for me and logistics to be where we need to be. 

Looks like I've got their attention! 

We are really trying to get and keep momentum in our Institute classes and in Family Home Evening and in Sacrament meeting attendance.  BYUI & BYU have just finished winter semester, so a lot of kids are making their way back home till September.  We also have a few who are coming in who work for the Cruise Lines.  Some on the ships and some on land support like tour bus mechanics or logistics and stuff like that.  So, our attendance at the YSA Ward has started growing—today was about 85.  The Maplewood YSA group in the North Stake is not doing too well and its getting discouraging for all involved.  It is so complicated because of the Polynesian influence and the language wards.  We have 2 Samoan speaking wards, 1 Tongan speaking ward, a Spanish branch, a YSA group, a Hmong group, & a Filipino group, all in the North Stake. The YSA group speaks this weird slang of Gen Z that is as foreign as Hmong! 😊 There is a combined Air Force/ Army base here that is huge!  There is no ward or branch on base, so most of the families in the Air Force go to the Airport Heights Ward and the Army folks go to another Stake Eagle River which is North of Anchorage.  But the YSA in both bases comes to the YSA Ward—if the Military Relations Senior missionaries can find them.   The dynamics of all this lands on the Stake President of the North Anchorage Stake—President Azimi, who by the way is Persian! (Iranian) He has a counselor who is Samoan and a red-headed Caucasian as the other.  President Azimi asked us to come to the Bishops Council a week ago to help get these Bishops on board to help save the YSA group, and get their YSAs out.  Carolee talked to them first about integrating the High School Seniors into Institute.  She sweetened them up by bringing them her famous, fresh, out-of-the oven cinnamon rolls.  Their reaction was just “crickets” …That’s Gen Z for silence. 😊  Then I gave them my presentation and I thought I was talking to Stonehenge!  No reaction, no shifting in seats, no facial expression change, no response to questions, nothing.  There were 5 huge Samoan and Tongan bishops who were totally poker faces.  The two Caucasian bishops were both young and clearly intimidated by the Polys said nothing either.  So, after my impassioned plea, we left the meeting, not totally sure what had just happened. 

We had previously submitted a plan to the Stake Presidency which they initially gently rejected, but have since agreed to implement parts of it and change some things to hopefully help.  But I am so glad I am not that Stake President and have the issues he has to deal with. 

But we are making progress in the Institute classes and FHE participation, so that is encouraging. 

We need some positive spiritual, emotional and physical presence momentum.  Its hard.  President Azimi has been asking us for months to extend our mission and even did again after the meeting.  He says we’re making progress.  I’m glad he’s seeing it. 

I really do enjoy the prep time for the teaching opportunities.  I learn so much.  But studying to teach and personal study for me is different.  The me study is my favorite, but the teaching study is good too.  I am loving our Institute Courses--one of the classes, “President Nelson’s talks” is awesome.  The talk where he gave an update on the SL Temple and the foundation (April 2021) is so fantastic on so many levels!  The one quote that sends chills up my spine is this: “We are sparing no effort to give this venerable temple, which had become increasingly vulnerable, a foundation that will withstand the forces of nature into the Millennium.”  (my emphasis added)  Wow is all I can say.  The prompting that the leadership received was a 5.8 earthquake that shook the building enough to break the trumpet of Moroni off.  We talked about our spiritual foundations that we hope won’t need a tragic or major wake-up call before we shore it up.  But just the thought that the SL temple will survive into the Millennium…could be closer than we thought.  Well, we hope that anyway.  😊 

We love serving here. The connections we are making here are so fun and hope that we are making an impact in some small way.  We saw a picture from our friends who are serving CES in West Virginia and they sent us pics of their group on an outing to Palmyra.  I swear that they looked exactly like our group.  All experiencing the same challenges, having the same desires and trying to work through this                                                                                                                                 life without a spouse yet. 

Oh, how we pray for the YSAs in Anchorage, in our family and in the Church world-wide. We ache for them; we want them to achieve their righteous desires and get to move on with their lives.  Most of them are not just sitting at home pining away, but we know that loneliness is an issue they have.  This is an issue that is church-wide we know.  There is not an easy solution except to trust in the Lord—He has the ability to do His work.  We are praying that He is using us in some way to help Him do it.  We are so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope and direction that it give us in our lives.  Trusting the plan is a whole lot easier than trusting the timing of that plan.  But we do for that is about all we can really control—our faith. 

We love all of you and pray for you as well.