Duluth: first impressions

We arrived Monday afternoon and the sun was shining (somewhat unusual).  We stopped at a viewpoint and Ron took this picture.  Duluth is beautiful!  That bridge raises up to allow big tanker ships to come into the bay.  The St. Louis river empties into Lake Superior here but first it meanders through a bunch of wooded islands.

Duluth is a big shipping port. The city is huddled by the lake and then spreads up the hills.  Lots of steep streets that I wonder about when I consider winter here.  We are up on a hill and we would have a wonderful view of the harbor if we were just on the other side of the building!  We have an apartment on the 2nd floor (the lower balcony is us) and we are next door to the Church. And the Elders live right beneath us. They helped unload our truck and we have already fed them lunch.

 

We went 2 days to Minneapolis to the Institute near the University of Minnesota campus and had MUCH training.  We know much better what we will be doing for the next 18 months.

We train new teachers.  We provide Inservice meetings for the 10 seminary teachers and 3 Institute teachers.  We plan and organize Stake Seminary activities.   We visit classes and help solve problems with students, facilities, etc.  This is no small task because the Duluth Stake is as big as the state of Washington!!! We recruit and register students for both seminary (high school age) and institute classes (college age).  We order teaching materials and distribute them to the teachers.  We provide service in the community where we live. We seek out young adults and verify addresses and invite them to activities and help them get rides to Church.  We communicate monthly with the teachers and answer questions and debrief with them after classes. We inspect missionary apartments while traveling the stake.  We attend meetings in Duluth and also Minneapolis (2 1/2 hours south of us).  And we make a lot of treats!  

 

We can receive mail here:

Elder and Sister Stratton

621 Upham Road #206

Duluth, MN 55811

 

We also accept phone calls.