March Journal

March 9, 2011

Dear family and friends,

How time flies when you’re having fun! It seems as if we’re really busy here, but we don’t have a lot to show for it! It is still cold here, but we’re getting used to it, and it is moderating a bit. I guess that’s because we’re moving into spring! It only got down to -15F this morning, was -8 when we went to Wal-mart after our Seminary class, and now it’s all the way up to -1 on our car thermometer. That sounds pretty cold until you realize that we have been having overnight lows between -25 and -35F and daily highs of -10 to -5. I caught bronchitis last week, so spent a few days trying to recover, and am feeling better. I think it was a combination of the cold, plus the dust from the insulation on our apartment, dust from the sheet-rock, and the fact that almost everybody we have visited this past two weeks has been either getting sick, or getting over it. I got pretty chilled at the rendezvous last weekend, and that didn’t help either. It was -15 with a wind-chill of -30F, and my stupid new coat I bought in Rexburg that was supposed to be so warm had a defective zipper, so whenever I zipped it up, it promptly un-zipped from the other end. Anyway, the next day we went to a local store and I bought a new warm coat. It is really nice and MUCH warmer, especially since the zipper works. I would send my other coat back for warranty, but it costs a lot to mail stuff from here to there. Much more than China to the US. I sent two books back, one to Rexburg and one to Burley. It cost $65, and the books cost less than that originally. We decided that we won’t send anything anywhere unless we go to Alaska and mail it from there. Even a mailed letter to the US is $1.25. Thank the Lord for e-mail!

      Our apartment work is progressing. We have worked several days on it last week and this week, and we are hoping that we can move sometime next week. We finished the sheet-rock, finished the taping and sanding. Got the ceilings textured, and got the whole thing painted inside. Monday we went over and installed the flooring, the owner had a guy come over and lay the carpet in the bedroom, for which I was really grateful. About all we have left now is to get the electrician to come back and finish the wiring. To meet code, it has to be done by a licensed electrician, which is fine with me. We also have to wait for another guy to come install the kitchen cabinets so we can finish the plumbing. The cabinets are take-outs from somewhere else, so they don’t fit, but the guy is a friend of the owners and is a cabinet maker. He is also a less-active member, so we went over and helped him for awhile the other night, and had a good visit. We are hoping we can visit him more, and see if we can get them back to church. He is really a fun, sharp guy, and would really be a help to the branch if we could bring them back. He is also trying to blend two different kinds of countertop, and doesn’t like that very much. Things are terribly expensive up here! They want over $1000 just for a cheap laminate countertop like you can buy there for $69 at Home Depot. Problem is, they don’t have any Home Depots here. The closest one is in Vancouver, B.C., which is three days drive South of here. It will be nice when it’s done though. We’ve gotten along great here in the apartment we are in, and have had some great visits with the people we are staying with. He is a less-active member, his wife is not a member. They are really good people, and we had them out to church last week. This week they were at a hockey tournament that the son was playing in down in Watson Lake, about 6 hours away, and it was over the weekend, so they couldn’t come to church. When they got back, we had a great visit, and Bro. Ng (pronounced “ing”) said he really enjoyed going to church, and missed it the week they were gone. He wants to come again this Sunday. He works night shift as a security officer at Yukon College, but gets off at 8:00 a.m., so can make church at 10. He’s kind of tired, but said he could do it, then go home and sleep afterward to be ready for work again. His wife, Beth, enjoyed attending, and we are going to start teaching her this weekend. We are pretty excited. For that reason, we will feel bad about moving to the other side of town, but we’ll be sure to come back and visit often!

The reason we are building the apartment and not just renting somewhere else is because there aren’t any apartments to rent. The housing crunch hasn’t hit here, so prices are still high, and there is still a major shortage of available housing. One of the members of our branch presidency just bought another duplex to use just as a rental. It has a three-bedroom apartment, and a two-bedroom apartment. The two-bedroom rents for $1200/mo and the three-bedroom one goes for $1500 to $1600/mo. Both are plus utilities. Heating here costs a lot because they either have to use heating oil (diesel) at $6.00/gallon, or propane at $5/gallon. A few people use wood because there is plenty here, but it is so expensive to get it out that most just use propane. They don’t have natural gas here, so that isn’t an option. If you heat with electricity, it usually runs $1200-$1500/mo during the winter. The houses are built really well here, with double-wall, double insulation construction, and either triple-glazed or double-double glazed windows, but when it says -20 to -50 below for months at a time, it still takes a lot to heat a home. I really like the mild climate of Rexburg!

While Ng’s were in Watson Lake, we got to “babysit” their dog. It is a little short-haired lap-dog of some kind that has really security issues. We haven’t been here long enough for it to really accept us, so while they were gone Sushi whined and moaned and yapped the whole time. It didn’t bother us as much during the day (most of it, we were gone), but she also kept us up all night! Next day was the same. That night ReNee slept on the sofa in the living room with a pillow beside the couch, and every time Sushi started to cry, she’d reach over and pat her and tell her it was all right. Well, the dog and I got a little more sleep, but ReNee didn’t! I think we were as happy as the dog was when the Ng’s got home about 10:30 Sunday night! At least Sushi will come down and visit us when we’re home now, and doesn’t whine nearly as much while Beth is in school and Tim is at work. Beth is finishing her degree at the college in elder-care, and will graduate in April. She’s pretty excited. She goes to school a week, then works at the Senior center a week on her practicum.

There are several of the families here in the branch that do day-care. They have two levels. One is called “home care” where they can have up to three children without major training or a license. Of course they can’t charge as much either. Then they have “day care” where they can have up to 15 kids in their home, but they have to have schooling and licenses to do that. They can make pretty good money doing that. They get $500/mo per kid, so if you take 10 kids, it turns into pretty good money. And the money is provided by the government, so you don’t have to worry about whether you are going to get paid or not. A lot of the wives are making as much or more than the husbands are. Of course, things cost more up here, too.

Some of our kids have written and complained at how fast gas is rising there. It costs $4.00/gallon now! That’s outrageous! When we got here, gas was $1.20/liter, which translates to $4.80/gallon. Of course, prices have been jumping here, too. When it jumps 5c, it’s per liter, which is really .20/gallon. It’s going up here every day or two, too. We’re up to $1.30/liter now. I try not to let my car get too low, especially in this cold weather, so when we gas up it usually only costs $73-75 to fill it. That’s not quite as hard to take as the $90 to $100 if it gets really low. But it sure beats walking in this weather! We live in a suburb called Granger that is about 5 miles from downtown, and 8 mi from the church, so we are putting quite a lot of miles on our car. We drive all over visiting, so we are gassing up about once or twice every week. I can see why they say this is a more expensive mission. Between that and the $1100/mo rent, it doesn’t leave lots. Groceries cost more here, milk is about $5/gallon, eggs $2.50, bananas .88/lb, bread $2.50 for the cheap stuff unless you buy day-old good stuff, which is about the same price. Tomatoes and oranges are about $2.50/lb, lettuce 3.49/head. Hamburgers at A & W or McDonalds are $8.99 for a big mac meal, soft drinks are 2.49 for a regular size, 3.49 for a large. You have to remember that Canadian and US dollars are equal now, and if you use US dollars they charge you 10% exchange fee. We have converted mostly to Canadian. A large Quizno’s sandwich runs 11.99, with an extra $2.99 if you want chips and a small drink. We don’t eat out nearly as much as we did in Rexburg! I liked the .6:1 ratio we enjoyed in China where our money went much farther!

The lady that teaches Seminary here has been gone for a week, so she asked me if I’d teach for her. It has been really fun. We meet at the church at 7:00 a.m., and they are studying the Doctrine and Covenants. We just taught sections 106-107 this week on the priesthood, and will teaching 108-109 tomorrow, which is the dedication of the Kirtland temple. We have had four students, but the girl left today to go to visit in Utah, so we’ll be down to three. One of the boys grandmother died yesterday, so he’ll be gone the rest of the week, so now two. And they usually get there about 7:20-7:30, have to be done by 8:00 for school, so it doesn’t leave a lot of time for gospel study! Of course we have to be there on time just in case someone comes on time, so we are getting a lot of good gospel study time in while we are waiting. It has given us a good chance to get to know the high school age kids, though. They are really fun, and since they are the only LDS kids in the high school, they are strong and know the gospel well. The two that came today are both too young to drive, so they have to wait till Bro. or Sis. Ramirez can bring them. They live fairly close together, and Chris’s mom isn’t very active.

Last weekend was the Sourdough Rendezvous, kind of a Mt. Man affair. It was bitter cold, but didn’t seem to make a lot of difference in attendance. It lasted three days, and we went to part of it on Friday like I mentioned above. It warmed up to -15 with a 25 mph wind, which took the wind-chill down to between -30 to -50. They had dog pulls, log-throwing competition, ice sculptures, junior and senior king and queen competitions, lots of stuff. One of the members who just joined the church from our branch participated in the “flour-packing” competition where they pile bags of flour on your back and see how far you can carry how much. He had 607 pounds on his back and carried it about 20’ when the wind caught him and blew him down. He took third place. The winners carried 730 lbs, one for 35’, the other for 20’ to take first and second. The people carrying aren’t all that big, but they’re sure tough! Russell, our member, is only about 5’8”, and probably weights about 200 lbs. He is full-blooded First Nation (Indian), and doesn’t look that strong, but he really is. He grew up in this area, and is a total outdoor survivalist. It’s not uncommon for him to spend most of a winter in the bush with nothing but his rifle and a knife. He builds and lives in brush and snow shelters, and lives off the caribou and moose that he shoots. Not much problem with spoilage at -50, and he loves the solitude. His wife also likes the outdoor, but with 5 kids she doesn’t like the outdoor camping quite as much. They are really a fun family, he and his wife got baptized the week we came to Whitehorse, the next week he was ordained a Priest, and the next weekend he baptized his 11-year old daughter. He has two more kids that are taking the lessons, we are hoping they get baptized pretty soon.

We are teaching a family named Brackenberry, a man and his common-law wife. We are only on the second discussion, will cover the gospel this Saturday when we meet with them. Will challenge them to get married, give up tobacco, coffee, and alcohol and see what comes of it. They have been to church with us three times, and seem quite receptive when we teach them. We have mentioned the word of wisdom when teaching them, and he says it will be a challenge, but he thinks they can do it. It’s been interesting. We are also teaching a young family, the Walls, that the husband is Mennonite and the wife is Catholic. Other missionaries have worked with them quite a bit, but they aren’t progressing very quickly. They like to take things very methodically, we’re hoping to strike a chord of interest somewhere. We had quite a long discussion last week on why Nephi is teaching in past tense about the baptism of the Savior in chapter 31 when the birth of the Savior is still 500 years in the future. It was an interesting discussion explaining why Nephi was quoting Isaiah, who was speaking of the latter days, and that Nephi was speaking to US, not to the people of his time, and he knew that by our standards, the birth of the Savior was 2000 years in the past. Next week we’re going to talk them about eternal marriage.

March 14, 2011

Oh, My! I got interrupted and here it is a week later! How time flies when you’re having fun! We have been working on the apartment, should be able to move into it this week. The electricians came and put in the rest of the outlets, switches, electric heaters, etc. on Thursday, the cabinet brother came and put in the rest of the bottom cabinets on Saturday. He even came to church yesterday! We were pretty excited. We still need the upper cabinets installed, but that won’t take very long. I need to also go over and finish putting in the mop boards now that the cabinets and heaters are in. It’s going to be really hard to leave the place we’ve been staying, as we’ve gotten to be really good friends with the Ngs. They come down quite often, and we’ve had great discussions about the church. Last evening they came down and brought a friend of theirs from the Philippines (that’s where Sis. Ng is from), and we talked to him about the church. He is Seventh-Day Adventist, but we told him we’d get him a Book of Mormon in Tagalog, and he said he’d read it.

Today is our prep day, but I’m helping Bro. Ng remodel his kitchen, so probably won’t get much prep done. He wanted to “open up some space,” so we cut the middle of the wall out between his kitchen and living room. He wants to put cabinets along where it was, and make an island/breakfast nook there. We had to move some wires, a heat duct, a vent pipe, and sheet rock part of the walls, but we’ve only been on it a couple of days, should finish it up in the next day or two. Takes a little while for the mud to dry, and we have to put three coats on. Then he is going to paint it. He doesn’t have the cabinets for it yet, will probably wait a little while before he buys them, they’re really expensive here.

We had some good lessons this week, taught the Brackenberrys again, challenged them to get married and quit smoking and drinking, we’ll see how receptive they are when we visit them this week. He’s fine with getting married, but his wife says she isn’t ready. They’ve only been together since 1982. He said he wants to get married for eternity, and I told him they had to get married for time before they can get baptized, then have to be active in the church for at least a year before they can go to the temple. Was a good discussion, but she wasn’t too receptive to it. We’ll see how that goes. We had another discussion with the Walls, they believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but think that God doesn’t care which church you go to, and that you don’t need the priesthood to act in His name if you are sincere. I think we will let them simmer for awhile. They said they’d finish reading the Book of Mormon, and we left them our number. The elders baptized two young boys on Saturday that came from India. We went with them to teach them on Wednesday night, and they are really sharp. One is 9, the other 11. Their mom wants to join too, but has some things to work out with her past marriage before she can. She attended the baptism and came to church yesterday.

We finally got a cell phone! We never could get one through the mission like we were supposed to, so we borrowed a phone from the people we’re going to be renting from, and will just pay them the bill when it comes each month. Only problem is if we call outside of Canada it is an “international call” so it costs a dollar a minute to talk. At least now we can call the members and other missionaries here in town. We’re going to try to get a land phone when we move, that should make it a lot easier to call family and friends in the US.

We love your letters and appreciate so much the news from home. We got pretty homesick when we heard about Summer’s blessing and the fun everybody had getting together for it. Thanks SO much for the awesome pictures Shaun! It’s fun to hear that Mike got his other shop, maybe it will help you pick up a little extra cash in all of your spare time! How is helicopter school going? Do you still have four students to teach? Are things picking up now spring is on its way? I’d imagine it’s a little hard to fly when it’s pouring rain. We’re pretty excited today! This is the first day since we’ve been here where it hasn’t gotten below zero at night! It’s +1 this morning! (Of course the wind chill is still -9, but who cares!) It’s supposed to get up to 7 today and snow, but hey! Spring is on it’s way! It is even supposed to get up to +25 by the middle of this week! They say the snow could all be gone by the end of April or the first of May. It will really be strange not to have to wear long-johns every day!

Ed, I’m so glad you’re having so much fun working on cars! I know you just can’t stand not to. I’d suggest getting your alignment done at Call’s Sinclair. The guy that does them went through our program. His name is Darren (I think he’s still the one that does them), and he does them the way they are supposed to be done. You might also check to see if Troy has his alignment class going. They could put the struts in and align it in just a day or two. It’s toward the end of the semester, so they should be pretty quick by now. Would take care of both the spring and alignment problem.
It’s awesome that your TSA students took first place in two categories! Those experiences are the ones that don’t show up on budgets or kudos, but the students will remember for the rest of their lives. You are awesome!

Better go. This is already way beyond reasonable. Hope you are all doing well. We are really enjoying our experience!

Love, Mom & Dad (Elder & Sis. Powell)