Transfer

Well, it's official. We are going to Haines. We will probably pack up all of our junk on Thursday and drive over on Friday. It's about a five hour drive from here, and that should get us in early enough that we can unpack the car and set up a bed for the night. There is a little cabin next to the church that we can use, about 500 sq. ft. which is smaller than where we are now, but it's on the church property, and there is a storage shed that we can store some of our stuff in that we're not using. The couple that have been there helping with the branch said the bedroom is big enough for a queen bed, but no room to walk around it. There is a kitchen-living area that pretty much takes up the rest of the place. Should be interesting! We'll send you pictures of it when we get over there. I don't know what the mailing address is yet, will also send that to you next weekend.

I guess the branch is pretty small, about 50 members with about 25 active in the branch. The branch president is 78 years old and not in the best of health, and the other priesthood member is a guy in his late 50s or early 60s that weighs 350 lbs and has bad knees. There is one boy in the branch that is 10, and he is the only youth, so we don't have a primary or mutual program. Most of the others are older sisters. We will be doing a lot of visiting and service, I'm sure. They have really been struggling with such limited priesthood leadership, we'll go do whatever we can to help out.

We had a good but sad last Sunday here today, although it was greatly boosted by having our mission president and his wife here along with the two assistants to the president. (AP's) He is going to be great to work with, a lot less numbers-emphasis, a lot more focus on retention and love. We're all for that! It will be a little different to work in an area where there aren't any other missionaries and few members of the church. We have enjoyed having the elders here to visit and play with. They will be bring another set of elders to Whitehorse after we leave. We were hoping for another senior couple, but they don't have any that haven't been recently assigned to other areas. There are plenty of opportunities for missionary work here in Whitehorse, it's the third largest city in the mission, but with the fewest missionaries. Part of the problem is that it's so far from Anchorage it's hard to keep in touch, and some of the missionaries here have taken advantage of that in the past. We hope it doesn't happen again.

We're glad that Beth was able to be baptized this week, and that Rachel also wants to be baptized in a couple of weeks. We won't be here for that, but she is definitely ready and will follow through. It will be hard to leave them, but will keep in touch. We already told them that when they are ready to get married in the temple we would come up for it. They said they would hold us to that!

Well, we're pretty hammered, so I guess we'll go to bed for now. I hope you are doing well.