Saturday, May 19, 2012

May 19, 2012

Last week out apartment was wall-to-wall Nicholas. We had tons of fun while he visited with us, and he was our “member-present” at lessons.

The weather changed from beautiful to rainy just as Nic arrived, so he wasn’t able to see much of the beauty of surrounding mountains, but the rain didn’t stop us from having some fun.

Nic and Richard went fishing on Monday morning and limited out on king salmon and halibut before noon. They also caught yellow-eye and rockfish. Nic went home determined to cook his mother halibut for mother’s day.

Two months ago we were at the airport and met a neat couple—Debera and Lance. They are caretakers of an island resort for a wealthy man who visits about once a year. He calls it his “fish camp.” He’s generous in allowing Lance and Debera to share his facilities with family and friends, as well as his great boat (all enclosed for inclement weather). The three of us spent Wednesday afternoon and evening with them, pulling crab pots and then having a crab feast on the island. Nic caught and pulled in the buoys and helped hoist up the pots, which were about 200+ feet down.

Now that Nic has left we realize we’re in the final days of our mission. It causes our palms to sweat because our work is not finished. We know what to do and we pray we have the focus and stamina to get it done. We’re sprucing up the Area Book and compiling notes for the new missionaries. They are sooo lucky! Sitka is a neat place to serve.








We met with Jessica tonight. She’s a beautiful mother and her husband is active and a returned missionary. Jessica has been taught by two other sets of missionaries. We asked her tonight if she had prayed about being baptized and she hadn’t. We asked her if she would this week. We only have time to teach her ONCE MORE! We’re praying for a win by a nose, but the decision is entirely hers. We’re praying soooo hard.

Tonight we also met with the Fritz family. We reminded Dee that it’s the two-month anniversary of her baptism and asked her how she felt. To the best of our recollection she said:

“I am so happy since I was baptized. The family has received more blessings than we ever thought we would receive—blessings of peace and even physical and temporal blessings. We know we are serving God. Since we have joined the church and Ian has become active our family is different. Everything is better. We want to devote our lives to the church. We just want to do everything for God. I knew I wanted to be baptized even before I knew that the Book of Mormon was true. The first time I went to church I felt it was where I belonged.”

Dee’s husband, Ian, who has activated over the past few months said: “My grandpa and my uncle and my mother and my aunt have all started going back to church in Tennessee so they can go to the temple with us. You guys are doing work in Tennessee and you didn’t even know it.”

Kyle (12), who was baptized right after his mother, said that his life is happier, like sunshine. “I help my mother more and I have more happy days.”

Meanwhile our little Alicia and Hilda are suffering persecution and we’re trying to strengthen them. Their stories are tender and their faith is rock-solid, but their eyes are tearful.

We love our mission and are grateful for it on a thousand levels.

Love,
Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nan

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