Pop&Nan: August 2011

Our landlord’s dog, Angel, got snapped by a grizzly bear this week. She’s missing some hair but otherwise fine. The monster came out of the woods as Brother Wilcox was jogging down the road with Angel.

And here’s this week’s fish story…The Petersons in our ward ran smack into a whale with their boat. It was sleeping under the surface. Whales are thick around the island and will continue here through October.

We have FOUR FIRST-LESSONS today. By nightfall we’ll be spiritually drained. We’re feeling blessed with finding people to teach, but we mourn the one we lost: Mike. His father died suddenly this month and it devastated him, so he avoids us. He is tremendous, in size and in heart, and his decision is heart-breaking to us. If you have room in your prayers, please pray for him as well as our investigator, Sharon. She’s mourning the loss of her husband, who died about four months ago. We began teaching her the end of July and are making slow progress.

We love teaching the less active members—even after they become active we cannot give them up. Our District Leader said we could teach them up to a year after they activated. Rod and Patty just got their temple recommends, which was a cause for great celebration, but we know the “LA” next to their names isn’t accurate.

Our biggest challenges are those we teach by telephone: Christiana, Adriana, March and William.

Christiana lives in Hidden Falls, accessible only by float plane, but her mailing address is Sitka and a member of the Sitka Ward referred her to us. She’s a serious investigator and has read about a third of the Book of Mormon. She calls into the Gustavus Branch for Sunday meetings. Her husband, Ben, is a great man – is active in the Big Brother program and takes youth on fishing trips. Christiana flew into Sitka with her son for several days and we taught her daily. Since she left we’ve found that the communication to Hidden Falls is very bad and we often cannot understand if she answers “yes” or “no”.

March Runner is a new referral who lives in Galena. She’s an Elder in the Blackfoot Nation, which is a title much like our Elders. This week she’s in Washington DC, where she spends about half her time. She’s been calling into the Bush Branch Sunday meetings and is now ready to learn.

We invested in a de-humidifier. We live in a rain forest and our apartment is 500 square feet at the most, but had seemed to get pretty soggy. Our de-humidifier has been running for two days straight and, although we’ve dumped the gallon holding tank three times, we have yet to get the air to 50%.

We love our family and friends!!!

Love,

Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nanny