Every Friday night we sponsor a "Waffle Night" at the Institute Building. We love visiting with the kids as we bake waffles in the kitchen. The Young Single Adults come to eat, play games, visit, and just hang out.  Here are some who came last night enjoying a game of "reverse Pictionary." Next Friday we'll have a dance along with the waffles.


               

Today a young returned missionary in our YSA ward baptized his best friend from high school.  He chose to have the ordinance performed in a small lake in a city park across the street from the stake center. (You can see from the trees in the background that fall is well underway here.)  We are so impressed with both young men who want so much to serve the Lord and make the most of their lives.  Our YSA ward has a strong missionary spirit; it includes kids just barely graduated from high school, University of Alaska Anchorage students, young working professionals who have completed college degrees, military personnel, and young people who are just trying to decide what they want in life.

 On Tuesday we were blessed to participate in the mission's North Anchorage Zone Conference held in Willow, 75 miles north of Anchorage.  Some of the training was conducted in the Willow chapel, a beautiful wooden building, one of several LDS chapels in Alaska with this unusual design.  The interior is all cedar-lined, so even its aroma is special! The chapel sits on a small, perfectly kept grassy plot in the midst of a dense forest. 

Its effect is that of a cherished spiritual oasis in a dark, confusing world.    Here are the zone's 24 wonderful elders, along with President and Sister Beesley and some office support. After their training, they changed into work clothes and performed service for the local Methodist church and cemetery. Then the elders loved taking a little "trek" in the rain with President and Sister Beesley on the adjoining Church camp property.

Elder Hawkins and I were in charge of the lunch and dinner, so we stayed back in the kitchen.  For dinner we served beef stew, cornbread, and peach cobbler with ice cream.  Our day concluded with a sweet testimony meeting in front of the lodge fireplace. We were so impressed with these remarkable young men who have chosen to put themselves out into an often hostile world to declare the Restored Gospel.  They know what they have to offer is of inestimable worth, and they are learning patience as they study and work so hard to spread the blessings of Christ's Atonement.