LDS Life

Hi!

   This was in the Rexburg Newspaper this week.  I thought it was interesting that they put it in.  We got an e-mail asking for some of our experiences, and I wrote this and told them they could edit it down to whatever they wanted.  They pretty much put in the whole thing!  Random!

Love,  Dondavid.

Hibbard senior missionaries serving in Alaska and Yukon Territory

By DONDAVID & RENEE POWELL

Guest writers

We submitted mission papers a year ago in October and indicated we would be glad to serve wherever we were needed and for as long as the Lord would like us. In November we received our call to the Alaska Anchorage Mission for 23 months. We entered the mission home on Jan. 24 for orientation, and then drove our car to Bellingham, Wash., to catch a ferry to our first assignment.

Because our mission includes such a huge landmass, we were assigned to report directly to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, in Canada, instead of going first to the mission home in Anchorage. Whitehorse is a city about the size of Rexburg, the largest city and capital of the Yukon.

Our mission includes all of Alaska, the area of which is one-third the landmass of the United States, plus all of the Yukon Territory. Population wise, it is the smallest state, with fewer than 750,000 people in the whole mission. Anchorage is by far the largest city with just over 300,000 people, while Juneau, the state capital, is about the size of Rexburg with only about 30,000

It is the only state capital in the United States that you can’t drive to! You either have to fly in or take a boat. It is a beautiful city located right on the Inside Passage, with a major glacier (the Mendenhall Glacier) right in town, and you can see whales in the ocean from “The Road.” There is one major road called Egan Drive that is 50 miles long and follows the coast. All other Juneau roads connect to it.

Juneau is also the home of our stake center, and we have three wards there. There are no wards in the outlying areas yet, but we have several branches from Skagway down to Metlakatla, many of them on islands along the Passage. There is also a branch in Whitehorse that is nearly large enough to become a ward, and that is their goal. There are more stakes “up north.”

We served in Whitehorse for the first six months of our mission, and shared many wonderful teaching experiences there. We also learned much about the history of the area, as Whitehorse was a major launching place during the Klondike Gold Rush. It is also where the ore was transferred from Yukon riverboats to the train to be transported to Skagway to be shipped south for refining.

One of our early challenges when we reached Whitehorse was to get used to the cold. When we got to Whitehorse, the temperature got up to minus 25 degrees. At night it usually hovered between minus 30 to 40, not counting wind chill. Although we knew it was going to be cold, the clothing we brought with us was not adequate. We had gotten the warmest we could find in Rexburg, as we thought that Rexburg has cold winters.

Whitehorse reminds us of some of the cold winters we had in Rexburg in the late ’70s and early ’80s when it was below zero much of the winter. The cold just gets into the walls of your house, the windows frost completely over and there are cold spots in your house even with the heat turned way up. We soon got used to it, bought Arctic clothing and were fine. The attitude here is, “There is no cold weather. Just cold clothes.” We plugged our car in at night so it would start, and life went on like normal.

The end of February we attended the winter Sourdough Rendezvous at the city park, where the temperature was minus 35 with a wind chill of minus 53. It was well attended, and everyone had a great time. There were dog sled races, flour packing, snowshoe races, etc. They had ice sculptures that were beautiful, with people coming from many nations to carve them. Of course, the sculptures lasted the rest of the winter.

Summers here are beautiful! The days are long with sunrise at about 2:30 a.m. and sunset at about 1 a.m. in July. We drove for four months without turning on our headlights. Of course, we make up for it in the winters! Average summer temperature is 68 degrees, with warm days reaching the mid-70s, and lows only dip to the high 50s.

In Whitehorse we served with one set of “young” elders, and much of our work as “seniors” was to visit and teach families that are less active or part member. We also spent a lot of time doing service wherever we could. We made a lot of wonderful friends there, and were blessed with the opportunity to teach a wonderful part-member family and see the wife join the church before we left. We were also able to teach others in Whitehorse, many of whom the younger missionaries are still teaching.

Because our visas only allowed us to serve in Canada for six months, in August we were assigned to serve back in the city of Haines, Alaska. Haines is a smaller town with a population of only about 1,500 people. There is a fish cannery here, and fishing is the main industry, along with a limited amount of tourism in the summer. It is on a peninsula between the Chilcoot and the Chilkat inlets, only about 14 miles from Skagway, but the only way to drive there from here is to go back through Whitehorse, which makes it a 7-hour drive. The fastest way is to take a ferry.

We are about 40 miles from Juneau, but we again have to fly or take the ferry, so it is expensive to do so. It takes 4 1/2 hours by ferry each way, and costs about $250, so we don’t go often. We do have to go every two or three months for zone conference, but most of our meetings we hold over the telephone. It only takes about 40 minutes to fly, but it costs about twice as much.

Most things cost more in Alaska. Gasoline is $4.57 per gallon, but about a dollar less than in Whitehorse. We are glad! Milk here runs $5.69 per gallon for 1 percent.

The area is beautiful, much like the Island Park/ Jackson area – heavy forests and rugged mountains. Haines is where the bald eagles winter, and by the middle of November, several thousand of them migrate here. Yesterday we drove up the Haines Highway to do some service work, and saw 30 of them on a small sandbar next to the river. It is the National Bald Eagle Preserve. We also see many bears, wolves, moose and other wildlife – much more often than we did in Yellowstone Park.

Our branch in Haines was quite large until the economy crashed. Then most of the branch members moved elsewhere as the fishing industry died out and one of the canneries closed. Now there are only about 50 members on record, and we average about 16 people at church Most of them are older. Our branch president is 77, we only have one Primary child who is 10, and no young men or young women. It does make for quiet sacrament meetings!

Sister Powell and I are mostly involved with service

and membership support here. I am serving in the branch presidency, and we have two other priesthood brethren who attend. Sister Powell is serving in the Relief Society presidency, and we have quite a few widows and part-member family sisters who attend. We have been visiting and working with less active people to invite them back into full fellowship in the branch.

We have a functioning Family History Library here in our chapel, and we serve there two of the three days a week it is open, helping members and community patrons research their ancestors and write their family histories. It is a fascinating and rewarding experience.

One of the things we have come to fully appreciate about members of the church in our mission is their tenacity and dedication to their testimonies of the gospel. Because of the remoteness of most places in Alaska, and the harsh climate, people who are active have a deep, abiding love for the Savior and the people here. They are proud of their Alaskan heritage 

, and are ready and willing to share what they have to help others. Haines is a very close-knit community, and we have been privileged to participate in many community service projects.

Missionary service for senior couples is much less intense than it is for young missionaries. We have a lot more flexibility in our assignments and schedules We are able to use more initiative in who we work with and how we meet their needs. At first we were frustrated with the apparent lack of direction, but as we learned people’s needs, we are grateful for our agency. We love the focus on gospel study, and love studying the scriptures each day.

We truly appreciate our family and friends who keep us informed on events and loved ones from home. We have missed births and birthdays, graduations and games, but the blessings we have received far outweigh any sacrifices we perceive. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve and recommend it to all those who are empty-nesters and want to have an incredible experience together.