Happy Valentines Day!

Feb. 14, 2011 - Happy Valentines Day!

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, it’s finally update time. We had a great trip to Washington to catch our ferry. We stopped in Boise and visited with Shaun and Kelli, got to hold our newest grandbaby, a beautiful little girl named Summer Dawn. She truly is a beauty! Then we went to Caldwell, had a great Mexican dinner that Tyler and Amber had fixed, visited with them and Shaun and Kelli. Truly a wonderful time with our families. We stayed at Ambers that night, then drove on up to Seattle on Thursday. We visited Ruben and Jamie Ortega, our great friends and neighbors who are Shaun’s age and close friends. We went to dinner with them, spent the night, then got up early to go to the temple in Bellview. We got lost, so didn’t end up finding the temple, (I don’t know why they don’t list them in any phone book!) finally ran low on time, so drove on up to Bellingham to catch the ferry. Our trip up on the ferry was good. It is a huge ferry, on the ground-level they have a big parking deck that they haul busses, semi’s, motor-homes, and cars and trucks. They can haul about 125 cars/pickups/etc, even had outfits hauling trailers with cars on the trailers. The next deck up is a cabin deck where we had our sleeping berth. Small, with a set of bunks, a sink and a toilet/shower. We didn’t spend a lot of time there except to sleep. They had two nice lounges you could sit to read, plus you could walk around the decks. They did have a little theater where they showed the same movies several times. Mostly kids movies. Despicable Me, How to Train your Dragon, etc. They did show one the second night that was kind of interesting, called “Social Network”, about the kid that invented “Facebook” and became the youngest billionaire so far. It was pretty good, and I’d never heard about it before. They have a cafeteria on board, but food was relatively expensive, so we shared some meals. We read three books apiece, but they turned all the lights off at 9:00 so couldn’t read after that. A lot of the younger people just slept in the chairs or on the deck. They also have a place for people to pitch tents on the top deck, but only one did because it was so cold and stormy. It rained and snowed most of the way up, except the last morning it was beautifully clear and sunny, though still cold. We stopped at several of the larger islands to pick up and drop off passengers and cars along the way, but weren’t there long enough to get off and look around. We also had to detour to Kake, AK, because one of the other ferries had a generator problem, so we had to take on their passengers and cars. Made us about three or four hours late getting into Juneau, then Skagway. It also made it so we drove over the pass into Whitehorse at night instead of during the day, but the weather was clear and the roads were plowed, so it wasn’t bad. It is a beautiful mountain drive, much like driving over Jackson Pass from Rexburg. We got to Whitehorse about 8:30 p.m., then we had our apartment experience. When we got here, we found that the apartment we were supposed to move into isn’t finished yet. They finished the electrical wiring Thursday, still need to rough in the plumbing, then we can start dry-walling. I offered to help, as most of the labor is voluntary, and we can get in sooner that way. We’ll probably start on that this week after they do the plumbing. Then we will have to paint, lay carpet, put in baseboard heaters, etc. Fortunately one of the less-active members in the branch has an apartment that his mother had been living in until she recently broke her leg, and is now in an assisted living center. Unfortunately, all of her stuff is still in the apartment, plus quite a bit of their stuff, so we are living in a doubly-furnished apartment living out of our suitcases, because there isn’t anywhere to put anything. But it sure beats paying for a motel because we don’t have a place to live! We really hope to be here only another week or two until our place is finished. There really isn’t any available housing here, and they certainly don’t have any building crunch. Houses are still extremely expensive, and it’s a sellers market.

Whitehorse is a beautiful town, situated right on the Yukon River, although it is pretty cold. Today’s high will be -11F, tonight supposed to be about-25 or so. It is supposed to be at least this cold all week, then may warm up to near zero next week as another snowstorm moves in. We have about 18” of snow on the level, but they keep the streets plowed really good. We wear our winter clothes everywhere, plug our car in at night, and just try not to be out in the cold too much. It’s still dang cold, though. I’m sure we’ll get used to it. People here say it should start warming up some next month, and the snow should all be gone by May. The town is about 25,000 people, the largest town in the Yukon Territory. Juneau is about 35,000, Anchorage by far the largest at 350,000. The entire population of Alaska is 750,000, and it definitely has a frontier feel. The people are pretty laid back, and are very friendly. I think we’ll really like it here.

We were here Tuesday, were able to begin unpacking some of our stuff, then Wednesday morning we drove back to Skagway (135 miles on mountain roads) to catch a plane to Juneau for our first zone conference, and to meet the mission president. On the way out we were in a little 6-seater Cessna. The weather was terrible, we were pushing snow with the front bumper of our car over White pass between Whitehorse and Skagway, the wind was blowing, we could barely see the road, and our prayers were answered when the snowplow came up from the other way. We drove on the wrong side of the road( the plowed side) the rest of the way to Skagway, and didn’t pass another car. At least the pass wasn’t closed! It was snowing and raining in Skagway. We were delayed at the airport (about the size of Rexburg’s airport) for nearly 6 hours waiting for the visibility to clear enough to fly, then we were buffeted by strong winds and low ceiling the whole way. It was like flying on a roller-coaster suspended from a bungee. We were flying almost at water level about 750 to 1000 feet. I made it OK until we got delayed at the Juneau airport, then lost it. We made it back from our conference in Juneau Saturday afternoon at about 1:30 p.m. The trip back from Juneau was much better than the trip out. On the way back, we got to fly on a 12 seater, and even though it was windy and raining with a low ceiling, and we flew at 700 feet, the flight was much smoother.

The conference in Juneau was great, we got to spend two days with all of the missionaries from the Juneau zone, which covers pretty much the Southwest part of the mission. There were 20 missionaries, including one set of sisters and one senior couple. (us) Our mission president, President Dance conducted it, and his wife, Sis. Dance, also taught us. The zone leaders and assistants to the president also helped. It is amazing to see the strength of these young elders! They are definitely our leaders of the future! We also got to meet our Stake President from Juneau, President Hammond, and Pres. Toupo, the second counselor in the mission presidency. It is really difficult logistics to get us all together, as some have to fly, some have to ride the ferry for two days, almost nobody can drive because Juneau is not accessible by car. Most of the conference was dedicated to studying our Preach My Gospel books, and practicing teaching. We really need it. We still are having a hard time trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing, but everybody seems really glad to have us here. That in itself means a lot. We returned to Whitehorse about 2:00 pm on Saturday.

Saturday night we had the opportunity to attend a baptismal service for a family the missionaries have been teaching for awhile. It is a couple with six children, the youngest 4, the oldest 18. The parents were baptized, but none of the kids were. The 18 year old daughter attended the baptism, plus three of the younger kids. The 4-year old ran around the church and had a great time, but those attending the baptism were understanding and didn’t make a big deal out of it. It was a nice service, and one of the member families served kind of a pot-luck dinner afterward. It was nice to get to know people a little bit.

We had a good day at church yesterday. The chapel is a large, log building. It is very nice. The Andrea’s were confirmed, then we were asked to introduce ourselves and bear our testimonies. A member of the Stake Presidency from Juneau then spoke to us. There were about 50 people at church, quite a few of them children. There were also about five investigators there, but most of them left after sacrament meeting and the members were so friendly they wanted to talk, so we didn’t get to do much with the investigators except shake their hands. We have quite a few members here, but most of them are less-active, so I’d imagine a good part of our work will be with them.

We met with a member of the high council yesterday and went over the branch list, will meet with the Branch President and Relief Society president soon to see what we can do to help them. I think they want us to start a temple preparation class. We were invited to a family’s house for dinner after church. They are a great member family from Venezuela, and they served food from there. It was really good! Chicken soup and rice, plus hash browns and fried bananas. We didn’t stay too long, then went over to our appointment with the high counselor. Last night we came home and just crashed. We were pretty tired from our hectic week of travel and meetings! The elders here are awesome, very dedicated and motivated. They have very good support from the members. Elder Thompson has been here for almost six months, so he is being transferred next week because his visa expires. We will be sad to see him go. Elder Blackhurst is good, though, and will be good to break in whoever comes in. He has been here about six weeks, so knows the people and knows his way around. They drive a Chevy extended cab 4x4 pickup about like Uncle Bob’s new one. I’m sure glad we have our all-wheel drive van, though the pickup would have been good, too. I like the mileage of the van better, though, as gas is over $5.00/gallon here. When we went to Skagway we gassed up before coming back, and it was only $3.88/gallon, and we thought it was a real bargain! Who’da thunk? Groceries are about 50% higher than in Rexburg, too. I can see why this is considered a higher-cost assignment. I’m afraid to find out what our apartment rent will be when we get moved in. The elders are in a smaller basement apartment, and their rent is $900/month.

Today is our P-day, so we’re trying to get some of our stuff unpacked and buy some groceries and figure out what we’re going to be doing. We are going to meet with another family tonight for dinner, then will try to see if they have some friends we could teach. We are also washing clothes, vacuuming, cleaning, unpacking, etc. We need to run to town and get some oil and filter for the car. I can’t believe how fast the miles accumulate. I changed it just before we left Rexburg! I met a member at church yesterday that has a shop with a grease pit. He said I could come use it to change my oil out of the weather. Needless to say, we became friends REALLY FAST! His wife is Relief Society president, and we are going to their house for dinner on Thursday. We are really looking forward to getting to know them better.

We are happy to be here. It will definitely be a different experience than China, but we feel it is where we are supposed to be at this time in our life. We love your letters and e-mails. We don’t officially have internet yet, but the Ng’s (pronounced “ing”) that we are staying with have wireless and have graciously given us their password so we can log on to contact our loved ones. Bless them! They don’t have unlimited internet here, so it’s quite expensive, especially if you send large files. I’m trying to keep it smaller, and really compress the pictures. I hope you can get them OK.

Well, I guess I’d better go. ReNee is ready to go shopping! Not quite like China, though! I don’t think ANYTHING is cheap here! They do have a Wal-Mart here about the size of the one in Rexburg, and they have a Canadian Tire store that’s kind of like a Checker Auto Parts. They have a McDonalds and an A&W, but hamburger meals are $9.50 for the cheap ones, so I don’t think we’ll be having breakfast there very often. They don’t do refills here, so I guess we’re going to get weaned off Diet Pepsi whether we like it or not! Just pause a moment in compassion for ReNee when you go fill your mug! J

Love, Dondavid and ReNee