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| Coming into Sitka via Ferry. We had to fly to Juneau to pick up our car and then ferry in to our new mission. |
Here we are in Sitka, the most beautiful island in Alaska. We call our apartment “The Treehouse” because we’re surrounded by lush forest greenery on three sides – almost a feeling of being imbedded in the woods. The island is a northern rain forest and we’ve had rain-showers almost every day. The Pacific Ocean surrounds us to the west, but it’s been very quiet – hardly a ripple against the coastline. It feels a world apart from stormy, treeless, dark-watered Dutch Harbor, which we also loved. We miss our friends there and give thankful prayers that they’re a part of our lives.
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| Sitka Chapel |
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| Our little car: Chevy Malibou |
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| "There is beauty all around..." |
Sitka is a ward. The chapel is a large cedar-building which sits at the top of a hill. The interior is fully cedar-lined with large exposed beams throughout the interior. Bishop Hart is a big-hearted man and very supportive of our efforts, providing us with all the ammo we need to do missionary work. It’s always a challenge to start up a new area when they haven’t had missionaries for awhile and feels like the slow chug of a locomotive as it begins to roll. The getting-started effort requires huge energy, follow-through and lots of service, but we’re so enthused about the work here that we have the extra energy required. We have two investigators—three if you count the one that’s moving to Washington in two weeks. We volunteer at the Salvation Army on Wednesdays. They will only let us stock shelves in the back since they discovered we’re zealots for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve been helping our investigator, Stephanie Green, move (organizing her garage sale, making her signs and hanging them, and taking her dinner). Bishop Hart gave his consent to our idea of doing a YSA activity on Monday evening, for which we will be making and serving dinner.
During this slower start-up period we’re fortunate to have kept the Bush Branch, which is done by telephone. We will have a baptism in that branch as soon as we can logistically get three priesthood holders (one baptizer, two witnesses) into Galena to perform it. It was originally set for this weekend but it will slip until the middle of August. Adriana Hevezi (42), our baptism candidate in Galena, contacted the church last April and asked how she could join. Her self-referral trickled down to us. We’ve been teaching her via telephone at least once a week since April. She keeps her commitments, love the scriptures, and will be a faithful member—the only member of the church in her village—and will attend weekly meetings by telephone. We hope her good example will allow us to teach others in her village, like brother William Topsekok of Teller, Alaska. Today his cousin consented to missionary lessons. Our little Bush Branch has a sweet, quiet, strong, continuous spirit.
Tommy Jones, our star investigator, will be baptized in Ketchikan July 23. The new mission president (Jon Beesley) is flying us there to participate in his baptism and to meet his family. Tommy has a powerful spirit and is determined to share the gospel with his six sons. He’s such a great find that we told our mission president that we would have served three missions just to find him. Then it dawned on us – we’ve actually served three missions.
Speaking of our new mission president, look up Jon Beesley on the internet. Test pilot extraordinaire. He’s very quiet and personable for such a famous man. We love him.
Love,
Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Nanny and Papa
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