Dearest family,

Just want to let you know that we are still doing well, and that things are going well for us, and that we are thinking of you.

I just read this article about someone who attended the pageant from the United Kingdom, and thought about what a difference these pageants make to the people of the world. The link is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/24/christians-mormons-pageant, I it comes up ok for you, but it is a very positive reaction from someone who is not LDS.

We had our very first baptism this week! Wazoo! Beth Ng, who we have been working with almost since we got here finally got baptized! Her husband is an EX-less-active member and they have two kids by his previous marriage. Matt is 12, Samantha is 11. Samantha also planned to be baptized when Beth did, but changed her mind when her mom gave her so much static. She still wants to be baptized, but decided to wait till the heat dies off a bit. I think Matt will join too, but he is kind of waiting to see if his dad is serious about staying active in the church. The dad's name is Tim, and he has come SO FAR! They have attended church with us regularly for the past four months, even though he works Graveyard and doesn't get home till 8:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings. He has given up his coffee and is working to advance to the Melchizedek Priesthood and be ordained an Elder. They have committed to be worthy to be sealed in the temple while we are still in Alaska, and we told them wherever we were serving, we'd be there for that!

We also have another wife of a part-member less active ready to join, her name is Rachel, and we have taught her all of the discussions, and she was going to be baptized this Saturday, the 30th, but decided to wait two weeks because she is involved in planning a wedding for her girlfriend, helping her in-laws with their daughters wedding, and is hosting tons of family this week. She wants to wait till things slow down so the experience isn't "just another thing on a busy schedule." We told her that would be a wise idea! We are disappointed that we won't be here for it, but we want what is best for her. She and Mike have a year-old daughter, and Mike is a returned missionary that went inactive. He had some problems he had to work out, but he has committed to bring his family to church and be totally active, and has prepared himself to be worthy to baptize her! We told him we want to know when they get sealed, too! Rachel wasn't comfortable meeting with the young elders, but she has been a golden investigator for us. We have only been teaching her for three weeks, and she is in the middle of Alma in her Book of Mormon, and has read every pamphlet we have left with her discussions. I guess that's one of the true rewards from being senior missionaries!

Sadly our time in Whitehorse is drawing to an end. Our visas are only good in Canada for six months, and ours expire next Saturday, so we have to move to Alaska now. Hard to believe we've been here for six months! We have to be out of Canada for six months before we can come back, so we hope they will send us back toward the end of our mission so we can finish up here. If the next year and a half go as fast as this one, it will be no time at all!

I have been having opportunities to give lots of service this week. I helped Tim put two new entry doors into his house. The old ones were warped and leaking cold around them, so he bought new ones. We rebuilt the jams and installed new weather-stripping, painted them, then hung the new doors. We also put a garage door opener on his shop door. Wednesday morning a less-active we've been working with called, and he had borrowed a scissor-lift to put the siding on his new house, and the starter went out of it. Turned out the mounting plate had broken and the starter shifted and broke off the end of the starter and took all the teeth off the flywheel. Had to pull the transmission to get the stuff off to fix it, welded up the mounting plate, the new starter and ring gear came in last night, so will go put it all back together this morning. Also rebuilt the hydraulic rams on Tom's loader, welded up the loader bucket, and put a new set of brake shoes on his John Deere tractor. Surprising how things like this lead to awesome gospel discussions and interest in the church. Some of the members here in the past have done some pretty shady dealings, and in a small town the word spreads. Hopefully some will learn that some of us can do things for them without taking advantage of them.

Tomorrow afternoon our new mission president is coming over to Whitehorse to tour the area. We are really excited, as it has been several years since one has visited here. Our branch theme for the month of July has been missionary work, and we have all had the opportunity in sacrament meeting to speak on missionary work. We weren't expecting to cap it off with a visit and talks from the president! We are pretty excited. We expect when he comes he will tell us where and when our new assignment will be. It will be hard to leave here, because we have made such close friends with so many members of the branch, and it has become such a part of our lives. We have really enjoyed the life and culture of the Yukon! They have a rich and varied history, and people here are so friendly and accepting. It is amazing to see the diversity of cultures! We have people from India, the Philippines, many European nations, the Polynesian Islands, Africa, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, South America, and from all areas of Canada and the US. There are also many "1st Nation" tribes here, probably about 35% of the population. It's amazing how well everyone gets along.

It was so fun to hear every body's experiences with Teresa's family this summer, we really missed it! It sounds like you did some really fun stuff, and it made us miss family even more. We loved getting the pictures and looking at the blogs. Thank you so much for sharing them!

Well, I guess I'd better go get busy for the day, or I won't get the stuff done that needs to be done. I hope you are all doing well, and that you always remember that the things that count in life are the things that you can't count. The Gospel is true! What a blessing it is to be God's children having such a marvelous mortal experience! May God bless you all!

Love, Dondavid and ReNee.