We just returned from helping a branch family hold their second family home evening. It’s been a great day, with people jumping into our path that we needed to see. Big blessings!
Bless the people in Japan who suffer from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. We hope and pray you and your loved ones are all right. We especially pray for The Ralph and Yoko Page family who live near the reactor.
Earthquakes are common here in the Aleutian, but before Friday’s quake we didn’t have an emergency kit. Saturday we put everything into a suitcase that we’d need if we had to head for high ground. If we ever need to actually depend on it for 72 full hours we’ll likely discover essentials missing but it gives us peace to know we won’t have to try to gather things together in an emergency – just grab the suitcase and water jug, jump into the truck, and head uphill.
We’ve spent more time telling you about the Dutch Harbor Branch than our Bush Branch, in which we also serve as full-time missionaries. Here are a couple of glimpses into our Bush Branch …
At 8 a.m. Sunday we called into the telecom center, punched in our access code and joined the PEC meeting. “Who just joined us,” asks the President Swenson. “Ok, we can go ahead and have our PEC. We need to send each of you notices of the stake training on the 24th.” Several minutes are spent gathering essential contact information, i.e., “Should we use the FrozenRachel or TeacherMum email?”
Then home teaching is discussed in terms of how many snow machine miles were involved with getting to members. Apparently one was 100 miles round trip from the nearest road, and when they arrived at the lodge of the part-member household (husband and a couple of the kids are not members), they found a picture of Christ above the bar and the Articles of Faith posted in the small restaurant. The home teachers sat in the restaurant and the wife/mother brought them snacks. Other visitors arrived via snow machine and also sat nearby and asked the wife/mother about the Articles of Faith, to which she responded. The conversation continued, with the visitors mentioning different people they knew that were LDS. As the reports were given we marveled at how quietly some people live the gospel.
We have four media referrals in the Bush Branch in places like Toksook and Sleetmute. Our biggest challenge is communication. We only have the telephone, which is often unclear.
Dutch Harbor branch had its first YW activity. The Primary had a Faith in God activity and I helped a couple of the girls make prayer pillows. I combined the lesson with their “heavenly royal heritage” and had a princess “tea” party and told them that, with their prayer pillows, their princess knees need never touch the floor. They made pom-poms and decorated the pillow’s corners. The following week they took their prayer pillows on a sleep-over to a non-member’s party, talked about their princess knees, and consequently we’ve been answering some questions.
We have also had opportunities to discuss our mission with city officials, which was heart-warming. Unalaska has no prejudices as far as we can determine and we enjoy the open-minded attitudes.
We thought we’d place some religious books and DVD’s in the library, which was well-received by the city and library, but they needed our media information registered for their system. We asked our mission president how we could get our materials registered for the library’s system, he passed our question along, and we soon discovered that the church has an entire department dedicated to placing materials in libraries. Beautiful!
Richard was "Props Manager" for the city's Cat in the Hat play on Dr. Seuss's birthday. Keep in mind that this is an island with limited resources, but with plenty of creativity he pulled off miracles. See photos below...
We love you. Stay safe.
Richard and Linda. Mom and Dad. Pop and Nanny.
Bless the people in Japan who suffer from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. We hope and pray you and your loved ones are all right. We especially pray for The Ralph and Yoko Page family who live near the reactor.
Earthquakes are common here in the Aleutian, but before Friday’s quake we didn’t have an emergency kit. Saturday we put everything into a suitcase that we’d need if we had to head for high ground. If we ever need to actually depend on it for 72 full hours we’ll likely discover essentials missing but it gives us peace to know we won’t have to try to gather things together in an emergency – just grab the suitcase and water jug, jump into the truck, and head uphill.
We’ve spent more time telling you about the Dutch Harbor Branch than our Bush Branch, in which we also serve as full-time missionaries. Here are a couple of glimpses into our Bush Branch …
At 8 a.m. Sunday we called into the telecom center, punched in our access code and joined the PEC meeting. “Who just joined us,” asks the President Swenson. “Ok, we can go ahead and have our PEC. We need to send each of you notices of the stake training on the 24th.” Several minutes are spent gathering essential contact information, i.e., “Should we use the FrozenRachel or TeacherMum email?”
Then home teaching is discussed in terms of how many snow machine miles were involved with getting to members. Apparently one was 100 miles round trip from the nearest road, and when they arrived at the lodge of the part-member household (husband and a couple of the kids are not members), they found a picture of Christ above the bar and the Articles of Faith posted in the small restaurant. The home teachers sat in the restaurant and the wife/mother brought them snacks. Other visitors arrived via snow machine and also sat nearby and asked the wife/mother about the Articles of Faith, to which she responded. The conversation continued, with the visitors mentioning different people they knew that were LDS. As the reports were given we marveled at how quietly some people live the gospel.
We have four media referrals in the Bush Branch in places like Toksook and Sleetmute. Our biggest challenge is communication. We only have the telephone, which is often unclear.
Dutch Harbor branch had its first YW activity. The Primary had a Faith in God activity and I helped a couple of the girls make prayer pillows. I combined the lesson with their “heavenly royal heritage” and had a princess “tea” party and told them that, with their prayer pillows, their princess knees need never touch the floor. They made pom-poms and decorated the pillow’s corners. The following week they took their prayer pillows on a sleep-over to a non-member’s party, talked about their princess knees, and consequently we’ve been answering some questions.
We thought we’d place some religious books and DVD’s in the library, which was well-received by the city and library, but they needed our media information registered for their system. We asked our mission president how we could get our materials registered for the library’s system, he passed our question along, and we soon discovered that the church has an entire department dedicated to placing materials in libraries. Beautiful!
Richard was "Props Manager" for the city's Cat in the Hat play on Dr. Seuss's birthday. Keep in mind that this is an island with limited resources, but with plenty of creativity he pulled off miracles. See photos below...
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| Hours of confetti-making |
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| Green eggs and ham for everyone... |
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| And tons of fun! |
Richard and Linda. Mom and Dad. Pop and Nanny.
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