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We had a fun trip this week.  We asked Betty 73, and Lemmie 74, to go on a fall drive and have lunch at 32 mile. The sisters are a little hesitant to go off the main road alone, so this was a real treat.   We had lunch and then decided to drive up Kelsaw and look at the leaves.  They were beautiful.  We stopped at a bridge, where they had filmed White Fang and got out to walk around.  Dondaivd when down to the river and saw the Coho’s spawning and came back to tell us. This river is not the big major one, but a smaller, Idaho- like river.   We had our poles in the car, so we asked the ladies if they wanted to go fishing.   They were like a couple of kids.  Lemmie pulled off her shoes and socks and wadded into the river up to her knees with a net trying to get some fish.  I was worried she would fall down; because, she isn’t extremely stable on flat ground.  She didn’t catch any, but had fun.  She took a huge staff-type stick and kept hitting the water to agitate the fish.  When fish spawn, they don’t necessarily feed, but will strike at something that they feel is threatening.  Betty went down river and wadded in only a little ways and did catch a female Coho who had just finished laying her eggs.  Betty is the one who was raised in Haines, and as a child she had caught fish with her hands.  She did use a net this time.I caught two Coho’s.  One about 15 lbs.  It was really fun. Dondavid wasn’t so lucky this time, but a week ago he caught two fish and I didn’t, so we are even. I let Lemmie borrow my pole because I had my limit.  I had to teach her how to cast and then I begin to wonder if she was ever going to return the pole. When we finished fishing, the ladies gathered mushrooms, and berries, and we finally headed home about 4:30.  Everyone was so tired they just fell in bed and slept like logs.  Betty has told everyone about the trip.  Seeing how happy these ladies were  is what makes missions worthwhile.  It is so often the little things that bring joy into other’s lives. 

Dondavid has been working on Lemmie’s pick-up the rest of the week, and so I have had a little time to catch up on house things.  We seem to keep busy.  People are beginning to ask when we will be leaving.  I don’t know if they are tired of us and ready to have us go, or if they will miss us.  I actually do not feel as trunky now as I did in the July.  It helps to be busy.  I have been teaching a lot in Relief Society lately, and we are giving temple preparation lessons to our new family.  It will be nice to only teach the temple prep class this week.    I am looking forward to conference.  It seems like we just had conference.  We have a ‘linger-longer” lunch after the first session of conference and just visit which is fun.

Fall isn’t as pretty here this year.  The leaves don’t have the brilliant color, and they kind of turn brown and fall off really fast.  I guess we aren’t going to have a long Indian Summer.  Snow is predicted for the 7^th of October.  I hope they are wrong.  It is still in the fifties but is supposed to drop to mid forties next week.

Well that is about all in Haines.  I don’t know what you are doing for Christmas Holidays, but we sure would like to see anyone who comes up our way.  I could always do Christmas dinner.  I think I will have time to pull that off when we get home.  Besides I have presents (if I can find them). I know Ed, Russ, Warren, and Amber,(you will be in Rexburg, right? Or are you doing Christmas at home yet?) should be around so we can all get together to eat and play.   We will probably travel the end of Jan to help/visit those who live in warmer places—Troy, Brent, Teresa, Shaun—and then be home when the weather turns nicer in the spring.

 We will leave here Dec 10 by Ferry to Bellingham.  It takes 4 nights and 3 days to do that, then we will drive to Boise (Dec 14 may 15), stop and see Amber (unless you are already in Rexburg) and my sister, stop in Blanding to see Diana and Merlin and be home around Dec 18.  So that is our life schedule at that point.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone.  Hope you have a Happy Day!

Love all of you,

Mom

Hi

  Thanks for sending the number.  They had a question about a prescription we were trying to renew.

   Sounds like you've been super busy!  Glad you finally got to go celebrate Ryan's birthday!  It's always fun, even if it's late!   Glad you're not trying to sing, too!  It takes time, even if it's enjoyable.  My voice has sure gotten crappy, I guess because of allergies or just getting old. 

   I'm still working on Lemmie's truck, still waiting for the rest of the J-channel.  It takes 2 1/2 weeks to get anything.  You order it, they send it to Seattle who takes three days to process it, they put it on a barge and it takes another week to get it here.  If she'd let me do it in brown, they carry it.  But green, not.  I thought maybe Home Depot in Juneau might carry green like they do in IF, but nope, just brown.  I've got most of the other stuff done, insulation in, inside done, doors and knobs on.  Extended the mirrors, fixed the passenger door so it will open from the outside.  Re-hung and rewired the taillights so they both work now.  Cut the big welded brackets off the back so I can make steps for it.  Still need to figure out what I'm going to do there.  I put steps on the cab so she can get in now.  Should be able to finish it up in a couple of days when the channel gets here.  I'm going to change the oil on it this afternoon and pump up the tires.  She still is trying to find some stock rims for it, it has fancy aluminum ones on it that are too big and it binds when you turn very sharp.  Wish I had the set from out in the back yard here, but sure aren't going to ship them up for her!  I'll be dang glad when it's done, but she keeps finding more stuff she wants me to do for it.  She wanted a back-up camera on it, but the one she got doesn't work.  It's for a car and has a transmitter that's supposed to mount in the trunk.  When I hooked it up it just gave a crummy picture on the monitor that you could hardly see.  Guess it doesn't work good trying to transmit the length of the truck through the steel box.  Oh, well.  Now she wants me to mount some of her used kitchen cabinets in it so she can pack stuff in it to go camping!  It was origionally supposed to be just a box so bears couldn't get into the garbage.  She's got about $1000 into it, but says it's still cheaper than buying a camper for it.  Hey, she's 75!  How much is she going to use it?

    We took her and Betty for a fall drive up Kelsaw road where we went gold panning with Alex while you were here. We stopped on that bridge to look at the water, and the Coho were running, so we got our fishing poles out to try our luck.  I caught a couple of smaller ones, only about 7-10 lbs, and mom caught a lunker that weighed 25.  She was pretty excited!  We threw back a couple of little dolly vardens, kept a brookie that weighted about a pound for Lemmie.  We also caught a dog salmon and ate it for dinner, but the meat is kind of mushy, so won't keep any more of those.  We haven't eaten the big one yet, cut it into steaks to freeze.  I think we'll try for some more of those, they're dang fun to catch!  Also caught a sockeye, but haven't tried it yet either.  Wish you could come up now!  If we'd tried to net them we could have caught 50.  They don't take the lures very good, it took us about two hours to catch the ones we got.  Betty caught one coho, but it was kind of mottled  as it had already spawned.  She said she would can it and it would be fine.  Lemmy and Betty loved being out, they don't go out much by themselves.  They're kind of wary about driving into the bush by themselves, afraid if they have car trouble they won't be able to get out.  They were like a couple of school girls, went wading in the water, and laughed and giggled a lot.  It was fun.  Guess that's why we're here.  The leaves are all changing, a lot are falling off.  The Devil's Club is all yellow with red berries, the Alders are golden, the fireweed is red, it's really nice.  I don't think it's as bright as it was last year, but it's still really nice.

    Well, I guess I'd better go get busy.  Sure love to hear from you and hear how you're doing.  Hope you have a great weekend!  Go do something fun!

   Love, Dad

Pioneer Day

July 24, 2012, Pioneer Day.

Alaska Anchorage Mission

So I am sorry this is so long and without pictures but I hope it gives a flavor of our mission experiences.

I would like to write about the great blessings we enjoy and the gratitude I feel for them.  First, I have to write a bit about our mission.  Haines is rich in spiritual nourishment. The very quality of the mountains, the power of nature, the beauties one sees every day is breath-taking.  I think the Lord sent us here just for me.   One experiences the healing that comes with living close to nature, having solitude, and time.  The pace of life is slower here; people are less hurried; less concerned with acquiring the niceties of life such as clothing, cars, furniture, homes, jewelry, make-up, sport and recreation equipment etc.  Oh, they like these things and on some level, desire them, but they have not become necessities.  There is not the feeling of competitiveness, of keeping up appearances, or trying to be a little better than someone else.  One is ok just the way they are--dress warm, be kind to one another, and share.

The push to put children into sports, dance, gymnastics, singing groups at young ages is negligible.  Some of these activities are available, mostly sports, others are not—interesting how not having something available removes its desirability.

             The library appears to be the center of the community.  There is the standard summer reading program that most communities have.  In the winter, the library provides after school activities in native culture, crafts, sculpting, wood carving, basketry, as well as tutoring, reading, movies, and lectures for adults, and book reviews. There is a table at all times with discount books for sale, old magazines are in a basket in the foyer that are free.  These recirculate around the community and often return to the library.   The magazines are old but well cared for and well read.  I am impressed with the book exchange in the community.  You can go almost anywhere, the Laundromat, restaurants, gas stations  and find books that you can just take home and read and put into circulation somewhere when you finish.  Because of the long winters, everyone seems to read.  At Christmas time, the library hosts the town 16 foot Christmas tree and there is an evening for “The Lighting of the Library.”  It is decorated with winter scenes, and Christmas lights.  It is too snowy and icy to decorate town, so the library becomes the center.  Well I digress. 

            Many in the community have low paying jobs and struggle to make ends meet.  The result is a lot of sharing of one another’s burdens temporally and, I assume, emotionally.  If there is a fire or some other hardship, these people share whatever they have.  Often what is given might be things the individuals could use themselves, but because a greater need is perceived, they give freely of what they have.  I have come to understand the Lord’s command to give to the poor and needy, to give freely from the heart.  Perhaps one needs to experience destitution in order to recognize needs of others and have compassion. I stand ashamed as I realize how selfish I am at times.  This reaching out and caring for one another has touched my heart and makes me want to be more caring and aware. 

             Let me talk about living conditions here.  For an example, there is a young couple with two children.  They have a nice apartment, but the husband works for minimum wage.  It is a struggle to make it from one pay day to the next.  They manage the rent, and utilities. If anything extra comes up, they really struggle.  I mean they literally do not have grocery money, the frig is empty—they feed the children and do without when necessary.  This is a constant battle.  There have been times in my life when I felt we struggled, but I always had some sort of food in my cupboard and frig. 

             Gas is $4.87 a gallon and while there is really no where to drive here, it is still nice to be able to get out a bit.  The store is still four or more blocks away, and when it is cold that is difficult.  They have one truck for the husband to get to work.  Gas is a luxury.  There is no going out to lunch with the girls every week.  In the winter, the wife is house-bound.  Full time jobs are scarce and once you get to Alaska, it is hard to get enough money to move back to the lower forty-eight.  This particular man has job training in diesel mechanics, but the one mechanic in town won’t hire anyone without experience.  Rather a dead-end prospect for him. The few that are well-off own most of the business in town and so continue to do well.  Haines used to be very prosperous, but the lumber mills closed down, the fish cannery closed down, the saw mill is gone, and the town hasn’t encouraged any great amount of tourism; because, they like it the way it is and don’t want to change.  Consequently, young people grow up and leave because there are no jobs.  In many ways, Haines is a dying community. The majority of the population is old.  The whole school K-12 is about 150.  Contributing to the problem is Haines location on a peninsula.  The closest town of any size is Whitehorse, Canada, five hours away, and it can’t be reached half the time in the winter because of the snow.  Juneau is four hours away by Ferry.  Anchorage is fourteen hours away.  So the isolation contributes to the economic problems. 

             Here is what is called a dead-end economy—stuff comes in but never goes out. This happens because people shop online or outside the community and then there is nowhere for goods to go, so they are recycled in garage sales. Garage sales are marvelous places for children’s clothes, tools, and household items. This, of course, also helps those struggling financially.  Another example of dead-endedness is car disposal.  A huge barge came this spring and hauled off 1,000 plus cars.  There hadn’t been a barge for this purpose for ten years—cars were just driven into the woods and left to be grown over.  This really helped clean up the area. 

             The other side of this living condition is it develops great inner resources, resilience, and strong fortitude.  People don’t complain much here.  There are no whiners.  They just pick themselves up and carry on.  That is the way life is.  “Just deal with it,” is the attitude.  They have what I call a gnarly personality, surviving the elements as well as whatever life hands out to them. It reminds me of the poem that says something to the effect of, “Lord forgive me when I whine, I have two eyes the world is mine, etc”— you know the one I mean.

             Our branch here consists of 18-20 members.  Average attendance is 12-14.  There are four couples including us. 6 widows in their 70’s and 80’s, 3 part-member families and four less active sisters, and one child in Primary. In case you didn’t notice, we have a total of 4 priesthood holders.   Some of our widows have lived in Haines all their lives.  All have had very hard lives.  One lived on the far side of the inlet and had to come to school and town when the tide was low, so they could wade across the water.  They needed to return home before the tide came back in.  She talks of catching fish in the small streams with her hands.  They had no running water, and of course an outhouse.  When she talks of her youth, it sounds fun.  She had rich experiences though she left home at 15 because of family conflicts and abuse.  She finished 8^th grade and doesn’t consider herself very smart; however, she has a lot of life smarts.  She knows all about “fiddle heads” for salads, (these are early ferns that look like seashells before they unfurl), she makes seaweed pickles.  She now enjoys a small home in town, but  in the winter turns her heat down to save on the heating bill and lays under quilts to keep warm most of the day and then stays up at night to tend the fire so her pipes don’t freeze.  She crochets baby outfits for every baby born in town and gives them to the clinic to send home with the mom’s.  Mother’s here have to go to Juneau two weeks before their baby is due and stay in a motel or with friends because they don’t deliver babies in Haines.  How hard to not have your husband with you.  When you go into labor I guess you call and hope your spouse makes it in time. Anyway, this sister crochets dresses for Barbie dolls, does bead work of Eagles and other revered animals.  She has three organs that were discarded as people moved and taught herself to play.  She is very generous and gives me things continually.  She is one of the ladies who comes to play games with us.  She is a hard worker, thrifty and can laugh at life.

             Another very refined, educated lady was in a German concentration camp as a young woman.  They did experimental surgery on her and she was the hostage to get her father to cooperate with the Nazi’s.  She was not Jewish.  Because of this she was unable to have children of her own.  She became a surgical nurse and is now 85 and hopes to get a kidney transplant, or she plans to do her own kidney-dialysis in her home.  She never talks about how she feels or her struggles as a youth. Sometimes she says, “I’m not doing too well today, so I don’t think I can stay to all of church.”  You never see her without a smile on her face and yet I know she struggles with fiber-myalga (don’t know how to spell that), and arthritis along with her kidney problems. She is a convert to the church of seven years and came to Haines because she like the area.

             Then there is the sweet sister we took to the temple, who is our super prepared lady.  At any time, I think she has camping equipment for four people in the back of her camouflage van.  She has diabetes, arthritis, a house that is sitting on an artesian well of some sort that periodically floods her kitchen.  She is so independent that it is hard to do anything for her, but she would give you the shirt off her back.  She is lonely and marches to a different drummer than most of the rest of us, but is a tender spirit.  Because of divorce, she has lost track of her children and does not know where her children are, and has no relatives here.  She has also lost two husbands to death and recently lost her companion-dog, Victor which was very hard for her.

             Most of these sisters are converts to the church.  They come to church every week to support one another.  They understand the principle of stewardship, and being their brother’s keeper. They are grateful for their chapel that they have had for only about 20 years, and take turns cleaning every week. It is touching to see them all come out with pruning shears to clean the church yard together.  When you try to do some of the heavier work to help them, they act like they are more able than I am.  I think since I wear a skirt most of the time they think I can’t do anything even if I am in pants. Anyway, I think they enjoy the work, and tell me they are fine.  Then they can hardly move the next day, but never complain.  I am afraid I complain at times, but am working on that.   What a positive attitude they have, what commitment and dedication.

              Have I learned anything since being here?  Yes.  I’ve learned that my problems in life seem small by comparison to others.   I am blessed beyond measure both temporally and spiritually.  The testimonies of the saints here burn brightly and their individual strength is felt.   I am humbled to be in their presence.  I am thankful for all the Lord has blessed me with. Thankful that I have always had food, a  safe home,  my education, a family whom I love and cherish and that loves me in return and who is there when I need them; for a husband who understands me and is a good man.        And above all, I am thankful for the gospel which has been a guide to me all my life.  I love the gospel with all my heart. I would be nothing without the gospel.  I know our Heavenly Father loves us individually and knows our names.  I know he answers our prayers and wants us to ask him for what we need and want. I know when I draw near unto my Heavenly Father, He draws near unto me and gives me answers and direction in my life.  Sometimes I don’t ask, because I know he will answer and I am not ready to hear the answer, but I should.  I think we slow our own progress by depending on ourselves too much.  Today we desperately need His guidance and direction.  I know when I read the Book of Mormon, it strengthens me and helps me be closer to my Father in Heaven. I love the counsel in the Book of Mormon and the scripture that says, “..lean not unto thy own understanding;  in all thy ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct thy paths.”   I am thankful for the priesthood in my home.  Having not had that when I grew up, I value it every day and am glad the Lord has entrusted that power to us.  I could not have raised my family without priesthood blessings to sustain me.  Because of the troubled times we live in, I am especially thankful for a living prophet, President Monson,  and know he gives us warnings and directions on how to live our lives. The gospel gives me a sense of peace and safety—it teaches me how to live with joy and happiness.  I bear testimony that God lives and because he live we to will live eternally.  God bless you all and remember how much we love and think about you. 

Love, Mom.

New Nature Worry

Hi Everyone again,
I forgot to tell you about a new land development here that has some of the sisters alarmed.  We developed a big split across the road about 8" wide now that goes up the side of the mountain.  They filled it up, but it opened again.  They were calling it a ground slump.  It is wherte a mass of land slips and shifts from the top, then upswells at the bottom.  This has gone on for a couple of weeks now.  There are also sink holes appearing in the area.  One house was evacuated.  It is affecting about a 4 mile area.  The latest is that they found an old man-hold and it is full of water and evidentally filling from somewhere and washing down the mountain.  Guess we'll see what happens there.  On the other side of town from us.
Thats all.
Mom

Thoughts on Life

Dear Family,

I haven’t written for a long time and I apologize. Life is so “the same.” There is little to write. Dad shovels snow, fixes tires, chops wood (I carry wood). I watch him work or visit with the sisters. I am getting really good at visiting. I think that fills a need. When people live alone, they get lonely, they don’t get to reminisce, or talk, or just have a good sounding board. So I think they enjoy the visits, and I certainly do. Sometimes one just needs to talk. Men don’t seem to have this need so much. Weird. I do genealogy, prepare lessons for Relief Society, bake cookies for people and try not to eat them before I get them given away. Pretty much I keep house, wash, and cook (which I still dislike by the way). Everyone loves dad. They will really miss him when he leaves. A couple of the sisters call and love to visit with him when he answers the phone. The little branch here definitely needs our “youth?” It is a blessing to be able to work hard, and the sisters have really needed some help this winter which is worse than normal.

We had a fun relief society enrichment meeting last week. We did Yoga for seniors, soaked our feet in minty Epson salts, exfoliated them, creamed them, and it felt lovely; then we had a lecture on personal hygiene, and lunch. We only had six of us there but we had a good time. It reminded me of having a pretty spell at home. One lady wants me to do yoga for the senior citizen center. I hope the lady calls me; it would be fun.

Last week we were literally snowed in for a couple of days. When it snows here, once it begins, it just keeps on steadily all day. We got around 4 feet of new snow. It can lay down 1-2 inches of snow an hour. This week we shoveled everyone out just before we got wind and rain. Wind has blown all day at about 60 mph. One hundred foot trees are swaying 5 feet to either side of their trunks giving a 10 foot swipe. I keep checking to see if any have broken off. This has to be the only place where you check for fallen trees or bear scat when you go outside. It rains like it snows—buckets of it all day. The nice thing is it is warmer, and it has melted 2-3 feet of snow, so now I can see out my window a little better. When the temperature drops, all this water will freeze, and it will be icy and slick. We will have to wear our snow tires (things that attach to your shoes with studs in them to keep you from falling down). We probably have another couple of months of winter. People say when the snow melts, it is a real mess for awhile. I will probably have to break down and get some water boots. Many people here wear those green boots we call pipe-moving boots. They have some that are slightly better looking at Wal-Mart that are black rubber with colored polka-dots or flowers for the ladies. (of course, you have to get to a Wal-mart in Juneau or Whitehorse ) At first, I thought these boots must be for kids, but guess not. I am afraid my long skirts will be rather water soaked, but I don’t want to shorten them for one wet spring. My Merrill boots are ok but are heavy, and I probably don’t want them to be so warm.

We finally saw some moose. Here again animals are larger than the same species at home. (can’t find my moose pictures—I think I didn’t have my camera) These were along the road, but I understand sometimes they come right into town. The snow has been so deep that it is causing them to move down.

Now I am feeling inclined to talk about the birds here. The Tlingit Native Americans in this area have totems of the Eagle, Raven, fish, and Bears primarily. In Whitehorse, they had the Raven, and the Wolf. Anyway, the ravens are almost as fun to watch as the eagles. They are huge and love to play in the wind gusts. They also come in flocks to peck around the parking lot by the store. I caught some of them at the service station. They hardly move when you drive through them.

Eagles are always wonderful. It makes me feel so awesome to catch them on camera. There is something special about actually taking the picture yourself. I love this eagle who is warming his wings in the sun. It is almost like the eagles pose for their pictures. They also roost in the tops on the trees and never in the pine trees. They like to be in the open areas. Maybe it is because they need the space for their wings to land. The eagles always seem to roost in the same spots and the same trees. Many times there will be 4 or more eagles in the same tree. I have a few pictures of eagles in flight, but they are hard to catch.

We recently found four swans that seem to have forgotten to migrate. They are simply beautiful. There are also huge seagulls, a different variety than the ones we have. Buzzards are cool. Here again the nature here is just so beautiful I can hardly get enough of it.

Here in Haines, there is only one main road, so people say, “ Just go out the road.” I thought that was so dumb until I realized that there is literally only one main road. If you go “out “the road, it isn’t hard to find most places. They will say, “He lives at 35 mile.” And you know it is just out the road. When it snows though it is a bit difficult to find the mile markers, let alone the little lane openings that have been plowed. Oh they have a new term here “the burm.” The burm is where piles of snow are in front of your drive way or along the side of the road that the snow plow has plowed up. We hate the burm because we always have to shovel it away for everyone to get out of their drives.

Well I think that is about all I have to say for now. We sure love to hear from you and know how your life is going. Hope you have a good day tomorrow.

Love you tons, Mom

Journal Entry

Dec. 10, 2011

Dear Family and friends,

We too are really missing our kids. We've been out almost a year and still have a year to go. What were we thinking! If the next year goes as fast as this one has, we'll still be home in no time at all. I can't believe how fast the weeks and months fly by! We have also talked about how sad it would be if our kids got so used to being without us they won't care when we get home, and they will be so involved with their friends and family they won't have time for us. We want to visit them in the spring after we get home on our way to Florida for our "Old Family" reunion! I think it will be really fun! Of course, we're not thinking about that right now, but will be next year at this time!

We do have time to reflect and read quite a lot, though we have been pretty busy this past week with a funeral on Friday, (the guy who was flown south, died of an aneurysm) getting the church ready for meetings on Saturday, conducting and holding meetings on Sunday (The branch president is still gone for a couple of more weeks), then spending Monday and Tuesday sawing up and splitting a second tree that blew down in the parking lot of the church. We hauled it over to a widow's house that heats with wood and now between this one and the one last month she has enough wood for the winter. She really appreciates it. I hope they are about done blowing over, though. When I was young it didn't take three days afterwards to recover! We had to split them all with a maul and wedges and it still feels like work! Then we stacked it on her porch so it will be out of the snow.

Wednesday we did the family history center in the morning, visited in the afternoon, and in the evening I helped teach the community woodworking class at the high school that I've been doing. Next week is the last night, but they asked if I could help again starting in January. It has given us a great opportunity to get to know fanatics. We have the blessing of our mission president to do so. Of course I'm doing it as community service and not getting paid for it. The guy I teach with (the official teacher) attends the Baha’i church with his wife, and the other shop teacher doesn't go to church, but we found out his wife who lives in Montana is a member. She came to visit him for Thanksgiving, and we picked her up for church. She is a recent convert, and will be moving up next fall. We asked Darwin if he'd like to learn about what is wife believes and he said he's not ready yet, but will let us know when he is. Anyway, Thursday was our “P” day for washing, shopping and cleaning the house with Family History in the evening again, yesterday we helped a lady work out some problems with her home loan and insurance company, today we went to 33 mile with a young couple for hamburgers (the only place in the area for good ones), then came home and helped decorate the Christmas tree over at the church, then went and watched the “Snow Dragon” in the Community Christmas Parade. Also visited some less actives and made arrangements to pick them up for church tomorrow. So goes our weeks!

The weather here changes from month to month. Today's paper said we got 11 feet (135.8") topping the previous November record of 68". On December first it turned warmer and windy, thus the trees blowing down, as well as power lines. Weather has been into the 40s, we've also gotten about 10" of rain, so the snow level has dropped to about 18", and most of the roads are nearly clear. I'm really glad, I've been getting really tired of blowing the walks clear of snow every day, often with 2' of new snow. Today was cooler, about 32F, but crystal clear and sunny. The sun rises about 8:45, goes down by 3:15, but hey, any little bit helps! At noon it was barely above the mountains on the Southern horizon, goes down fast. When it does cool off in the evenings the roads get really slick, but at least we don't have to shovel it! We are warm and cozy in our little cottage, we have baseboard heaters heated by water from the church. Like heated floors, baseboards take a long time to respond, so we pretty much set it and leave it the same all the time. Sometimes it feels a little cool when it's windy, when it's nice it's a little warm, but we're definitely not complaining! The church system is heated with oil which is really expensive, but electricity is even more so, and they don't have natural gas available here. Many people spend $600-1200/month just for heating oil. We're really glad it's included with our cabin!

We are planning our branch Christmas party tomorrow; we'll have a dinner at the church, play a couple of games, and exchange "white elephant" gifts. The people seem to really like doing things, even though they are older. We changed it from next Saturday to Friday so one of the part member-less-active families could come, but the dad got a new job so he can't come anyway. His wife and two youngsters will be there. We are really hoping to teach him as we get to know him better. He works as a mechanic in a garage, but works half days Saturday and all day Sundays. Maybe pretty soon he can trade some weeks with others who work there.

Some of our dear friends from Whitehorse called and want us to come have Christmas dinner with them. We'd really love to, but can't unless President Lehman gets back from Washington and is feeling well enough to do without us. We won't know for another week or so. If all goes well, they should be back on the 20th or 21st. I hate to be gone the first week he gets back. We're still trying to find out what the Sunday schedule is for New Years this year. Is New Years Day going to also be Fast Sunday? What are they planning over there?

Well, I guess I'd better be going. I still need to do the paper program for church tomorrow; it's our primary program for our one kid in primary. He just turned 11 two weeks ago, so unless we get some more kids coming next year we'll have to cancel primary and start up a young men's program!

Hope things are going well for you. Did you have a good Thanksgiving? What are you doing for Christmas? We have loved getting family letters from some of you, especially with the pictures!

Love, Elder & Sister Powell

More Snow :)

We got another 2 feet of snow last night.  It brings our November total to 133".  Right now it's raining, we hope it stays warm enough so it doesn't snow more tonight!  I spent four hours shoveling and plowing this morning, then this afternoon the snow slid off the roof.  I'm attaching a couple of pictures of our "partly cloudy."

Hope it's better tomorrow as we leave for Juneau!   Love ya.  Dad.

Troy & Emma’s Having a New Baby

    How exciting!  You'll love this little girl just as much!  Have you told the others yet?  You really ought to tell Warren and Rachel.  It is so much more fun to share your experiences, especially Rachel with her first one.  Remember how exciting everything was with Emma when she was expecting Taya?  (I know, that was a LONG time ago!)  Anyway, tell them and be excited with them!  Have you thought of a name for her yet?

    It sounds like you're doing a  lot of things with your new house.  It was fun to get Olivia's message about getting to have snow and her own bed, plus Levi's blog about getting to burn brush and trees and have a wiener roast!  That's the kinds of things the kids will love and remember more than anything.  I remember the bonfires we had out in the back field when we burned the limbs and brush and junk we had collected, then had a wiener roast when it had burned down.

     How are you coming on the remodeling?  What are you doing about the plumbing in your new bathroom?  Keep us informed with pictures, I wish we were there to be  helping with it.  It would be a lot more fun (and a lot warmer) than shoveling snow every day!  We shoveled most of the day today, and we're supposed to get eight more inches tonight.  At least maybe the snow you are getting will help lessen the drought you guys are having.  Or is it farther west than you guys?  We don't get much news here.  We ordered a TV a couple of months ago and it still hasn't gotten here yet.  Mail is slow in Alaska.

     Tell everybody hello for us.  My computer crashed and we have it patched back together a little at a time.  Hope to get my Skype back up and running soon.  Maybe we can Skype you guys for Christmas?

     We sure love you.  Dad.

Journal Entry

18 Nov 2011

Hi all,

Things are going a little slower in Haines now, the snow has hit and so has the cold weather. We have about three feet on the ground now, temp today high of 8 degrees; wind chill is -21 with 30 mph winds. I guess it's a little earlier this year than it was last year, but normal for most years past. I guess they got a lot of rain last year but not much snow because it was warmer. This year it cooled off sooner so we got snow instead of rain.

We didn't have anything planned for Thanksgiving, several of the branch families are leaving to spend it with their families in Juneau and South, so we invited a couple of the widows to come have dinner with us. Well, it kind of snowballed, and it looks like we'll probably have 15 or so, we'll cook some of it here, some of it at the church, a couple of others will cook some and bring it. I think they just wanted a chance to visit and socialize. We're going to take some games over and play games after dinner. They have a fun card game here you play with five decks that is called "Hand and Foot" that we've learned how to play. We also play Farkle and "No Way, Jose," that's a lot of fun. We'll have to teach you some of them when we get back.

There isn't a lot to do here in the winter if you're not young enough to go skiing, snowmobiling, or hunting. We could go to Juneau shopping, but by the time you buy ferry tickets and hotels for two nights, it's $400 even if you don't buy anything! We are supposed to have a zone conference there the first week in December so we'll probably do some shopping while we are there. They pay our transportation, but we still have to pay our food and lodging, but at least that's about half the cost, so we're looking forward to it. I hope the weather is good, if it's stormy, the ferries don't run, so we might not be able to go, or might get stuck in Juneau till it clears. Oh, the joys of living in Alaska!

We had a wind come through the other night that snapped off a pine tree about 12" in diameter about 8' above the ground. Fortunately it fell diagonally across the parking lot, so it missed the shed, our car and our cabin. We need to go out and cut it up this afternoon, it's supposed to warm up to 9, but still with a wind chill of -15, but if we don't cut it up and it snows again we won't be able to cut it up and they won't be able to plow the driveway. We'll block it up and give the wood to one of the ladies in our branch that has a wood stove. She'll be really glad to get it.

Rachel is expecting, the baby is due in February. She was really sick the first four or five months, but is feeling better now in this last trimester. They are really excited. They are waiting until it gets here to find out if it's a boy or girl.

Warren is commuting to Pocatello or Idaho Falls to school every day. He is getting his masters from ISU, also interning at INL in Idaho Falls. We're REALLY glad to have them living in our house to take care of it while we are gone. They are paying all the utilities, insurance and taxes, plus any maintenance that is needed, so it works out really well for both of us. The commute was eating them alive, so they just bought a used Toyota Prius a few weeks ago. He is getting 58 miles per gallon with it consistently, so he says he isn't having ANY buyer’s remorse! They are selling their Subaru and his Dakota pickup to pay for it. He got it from a dealer in Salt Lake for $10,000, which is really a good price. It's a 2007 model with all the bells and whistles--backup camera, blue-tooth phone, Bose stereo system, the works. I told him to try to find us one in that price range to drive when we get back. Gas here is still $4.57/gal, and even with getting 20 mpg in our van, it would be nice to not have to pay $80 to fill up. The nice thing here is that we don't drive nearly as much as we did in Whitehorse where gas was a dollar more than here even.

It's good to hear that Kathy and Reed got a new Dodge van. Is it brand new? I think they are really nice, though I have talked to some people that said they don't think they are as good as the earlier ones. Of course they always say that when a new model comes out. Eric (Bev's boy) has a 2010 Chrysler and they love it. What color did they get? We are really enjoying our Toyota, haven't had any trouble with it other than I backed into our cabin in the snow the other night and broke out a tail light. I ordered another one online, but it takes six weeks or so to get it, so I bought a trailer taillight at the parts house and rigged it up so it will be legal till the new one gets here. Just a little "Mickey-mouse." I'm just glad it didn't do any damage to the fender or break out the back window! I'll bet Lainey is loving having the other van to haul her Cello around. Did they trade in their Malibu? I know they were a little disillusioned with it. They got pretty good mileage, but had it in the shop quite a bit.

The work is going a little slow, people don't get out as much when it gets dark by 3:45 and doesn't get light until 8:45 a.m. We are still visiting the branch members quite a bit, have spent a lot of time doing service for the older ladies. I fixed a couple of stoves, installed a window and a door, fixed several cars, and have spent a lot of time shoveling out cars so they can go to the store. We shoveled out Betty yesterday, the snow had blown level with the top of her car, and we shoveled out about 50' behind it to the road. The drifting reminds me a lot of Rexburg. At least it isn't storming, and the sunshine does a lot to lift the spirit. Also shoveled out Lucy where the plows had buried her car and pickup when they cleared the road behind her. Then jumped the pickup so she could get it down to the shop for a new battery. She is so amazing. She is 87 and still shoveling snow and captaining her own fishing boat. We went over and played Aggravation with her last week and she won both games! She is as sharp as a tack!

We are looking forward to church Sunday, our Stake President and one of the High Council are coming over to speak for High Council Sunday. I hope we have a good turnout. President Lehman and his wife are gone to the lower 48 for six weeks, two members are in the hospital, so it depletes our little branch quite a bit. When you have an average attendance of about 16, just a few is very noticeable!

Well, I guess I'd better go get ready to cut up this stupid tree. Hope you are doing well. Have a fun Thanksgiving! You will enjoy the family. That's the hardest part about ours--we will really miss being with family! We sure love you.

Dondavid and ReNee

Here is my thoughts on the snow. Mom

Monday Nov 14, 2011

Haines

This week we had our first snow storm. At first I didn’t think it was so bad. It snowed maybe six inches and then it rained it all off on Friday. Sunday we got our first big storm. We got up and had probably a foot of snow. It continued to snow all day. By evening we had another eight inches,. We went to the Konahele’s for dinner and when we came out to leave two hours later, we had two-three feet of snow on the ground. We were grateful that we had gotten snow tires. Still we got stuck backing out of the drive and had to shovel a bit to get out. The roads in town weren’t plowed, and it was slow going home. Most of Haines is on a hillside, so there are a lot of up hills, and a lot of people slide off the side of the road. It costs $400 to get a tow truck to pull you out. It does remind you to be careful when driving. When we got home, we backed into our carport of trees and took our back light out on the side of the house. Still we were home safe. This morning we took one look at another additional foot of snow and realized we wouldn’t be going anywhere until we got plowed out. The snow plow came about 9:00am but told us we had better not go to town for awhile because the town roads weren’t plowed yet and there were two or three cars off the road on our hill. After he plowed and I took a look at the high banks of snow, I begin to wonder where he will put the rest of the snow this winter. The banks of snow are taller than our car right now. While it is rather fun in some ways, it appears this will be a long winter. Dad is out snow- blowing the sidewalks at the church, and our “carport,” and a trail to it—carport picture on the right. At least this gives him good exercise. It is still snowing, and they call these “now flurries.” The flurries consist of 8-12 inches according to the weather forecast. The flurry appears to last all day with just a steady light snow—but it lays done a lot. This is not a flurry in my book, but it is all in the perspective, right. In Alaska, flurries are the same as a major storm in Idaho. With some trepidation, I look forward to seeing a major storm. I guess it can drop 3-5 feet of wet snow in one storm if it blows in off the ocean. Hopefully, this doesn’t happen often. Well it is 4:00pm here and is dusk; it will be dark in half an hour. It is semi-light at 7:00am now —lighter by 8:00am. So that gives us about 8 hrs of light which isn’t a lot different from Rexburg. The sun isn’t up until around 10:00am though and never gets very high in the sky. It just kind of skims the edge of one set of mountains.

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.

Wonderful Talk Mom

Jeffery R. Holland—Nov 5,2011

--Missionary Fireside in Anchorage

The Plight of the Apostles after Christ died.

· How much could they really know? They had been in the church three years or less. They probably felt so inadequate, so humble, and did not fully comprehend what was required of them. And then He was gone. He has repeatedly tried to tell them, I am going to leave. Possibly they didn’t quite believe it. Now he was gone.

· One thing the twelve did—they went to the temple

Why do we go to the temple? To get fortified, so Peter and John went. On the way, there was a man sitting on the steps of the temple about 40 years of age who had been crippled since birth. He was a beggar. The temple is a good place to find people who care where he could get alms. He was carried there every day to beg. (Acts 3:1-13) (Elder Holland uses literary license here) He probably asks for alms and many move past him into the temple. When he saw Peter and John were about to go into the temple he asks for alms. They stopped. Peter said, “Look on us.” The beggar looked expecting to receive something. Probably a dinare-n “widow’s mite or if he was lucky he might get two. And then wow, what did he get. “… Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee; In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” (Acts 3:6) And he took his hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. “And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping and praising God.” (Acts 3:8) Elder Holland said notice those verbs—the man deserved those verbs, he had never walked and now was leaping and praising God. A crowd gathers; they have known this man for years, and they marvel in amazement at what they see. This is probably an understatement. Peter is offended and asks why they are amazed. Why weren’t you amazed before? Then Peter rails on the crowd. Why do you look on us as if we had done this thing.

“the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus; who ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

“But denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

“And killed the Prince of life, who God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, who ye see and know; yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. (Acts 3: 13-16).

Peter goes on to say they are offended because they think the apostles have done this. We are fishermen except when we are given the authority that Christ gave us. He tells them to repent and be baptized and prophesied the coming of a great prophet whom we know to be Joseph Smith. Christ will return, repent until He comes again, until the time of restoration of all things.

Five thousand people were baptized. These apostles were untrained, unlearned Galileans—unprepared, illiterate, common, religious ordinary leaders. Much like today

Now the Pharisees and scribes have a problem. The problem didn’t go away when they crucified Christ. It is still here. They are doing miracles, and now the worst scenario is here. They are being done by fishermen, ignorant and illiterate.

Symbolic Problem: A man is healed, praising God all over the area, and the Pharisees can say nothing. They can’t do anything about this active visual aid who is leaping around. Their problem didn’t go away when they killed Jesus.

Another example also exists. In John 9, we read of Jesus healing a man who has been blind since birth. He spit and made clay and anointed his eyes. The man’s sight was restored and Christ tells him to tell no man. The man was so excited to have his sight he tells everyone. The Pharisees go to his parents and tell them to constrain their son. The parents fear the Jews and tell the Pharisees their son is of age, and they should talk to him. So the Pharisees do, and the man says,” Whereas, I was blind, now I see.” They can’t deny it.

There are three applications we can find here:

1. You can’t argue with the evidence. You can walk away; maybe you don’t care; you can say it’s not for me; but the evidence continues to speak throughout eternity-- this is true.

· You don’t have to do anything about it; you can be through with it.

· This is God’s truth, and you have heard it! We are all a little blind, a little deaf, a little lame, a little damaged, but light changes your life. It can be yours if you want it to be

· By their fruits ye shall know them. The church grows despite persecution. The church is the first into any disaster area; faster than any other organization. It doesn’t ask if you are members or not. We’re there. Can’t argue with the evidence.

2. When you come to the truth, you get a lot more than you bargained for.

· Think of what the man felt in the temple. He thought he would get a coin—What did he get? In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth he walked. No coin but strong ankles.

· How about Joseph Smith.? He wanted an answer to a simple question. What did he get? The responsibility to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

· You have not yet imagined what the Lord promised to those who love him. No idea what this gospel will mean to you. You haven’t seen anything yet. Both here and in eternity.

3. You can’t kill this.

· James the brother of John was the first apostle martyred for the church.

· Paul was beheaded. He was drawn and quartered and parts of his bodies were put on the four corners of Rome, and his head placed on a stake in the center of Rome as a warning to other Christians.

· Peter was crucified upside down so as not to appear to be the equal of the Savior.

· The Lord said to Alma in a pivotal point in the Book of Mormon. “I can do my own work. This is for you.”

· This is the last time. These are the Latter Days. It is a culminating time.

· Joseph Smith was killed, but it didn’t end. It is history. Some believe if you are violent enough, you can destroy righteousness. Violence can’t destroy righteousness.

· Now I (Elder Holland) am a witness. I don’t just witness. I am a witness. You can walk away or walk in. But you have been told. He bore his testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was a profoundly moving talk. You felt the apostolic mantle on Elder Holland. He spoke with power and authority. He did not mince words. There was urgency in his speaking. There were new converts, and investigators in the audience. I pray they were as moved as I was. To have been told and not “walk in” would be a tragedy.

Stuff

Just thought I'd write you an update.  We finally got the white shirts, still no sign of the monitor.  I guess we'll just write it off and consider it lost.  Bummer.  From now on we'll definitely insure and put tracking on anything we send up here. 

I put my origional drive back in the computer.  I figured since it was working in the external case it would probably work in the computer.  It is working fine so far.  All of my programs still work, I'm back to Windows 7, sure glad to have it working again.  Hope it keeps up.  We canceled our trip to Juneau to buy another computer, will probably still pick one up when we have to go in December.  It costs us about $400 each time we go just for the ferry and motel, so try not to go anymore often than we have to.  We also postponed our temple trip to Anchorage so we won't buy our snow tires yet, so didn't really have a good reason to go.  We have to go in December for a zone conference, so will stay an extra day and do that stuff then.

Is there any way to make a backup of this program drive and save my programs so I can transfer them onto a different computer when I get one?  I know the backup program only backs up data files.  But I would like to transfer my stuff onto my new computer if it's possible to do.  I know Troy used to have a program called "Ghost" that did it, but I don't have a copy of it anymore.  I think I left it in Idaho.  Don't know if it would work on W-7 anyway, it was for XP when I got my computer that's still in Idaho.  I did make a new backup of all my data, decided I didn't want to lose it if this goes down again.  I also kept the hard drive I took out with the basic Vista on it that I used to make this work then, just in case.  I also transferred all my data off this drive, but so far it seems to be doing OK. (for the last 3 days, anyway!)

Has been quite a week so far.  Bro. Cox that I'm fixing the tractor for went to Seattle for surgery, was having trouble breathing.  Problem with his tracheotomy.  Found he was two quarts low, so they gave him a blood transfusion.  Checked his wife while there, found she has skin cancer so she's going in for surgery tomorrow.  Then Angela Wilde, one of our young less-actives, got blood clots in her legs yesterday and was life-flighted to Juneau yesterday morning.  When she got there they told her that her father from here in Haines had died of a heart attack.  Of course she can't come home because of her condition.  The father used to be a member, but didn't like the church, joined another one and had his name removed from the records.  We're going over today to see if there is anything we can do for the family.  The mom also had her name removed, so don't know how she'll react.  Should be interesting.  Then Sis. Gilman that was to church but didn't look good was life-flighted to Anchorage yesterday afternoon with kidney failure.  She may have to go into extended care there so she can get dialysis three times a week.  An intersting day.

On top of all that, the branch president, President Lehman is leaving next monday to go to Seattle.  His wife hasn't been feeling well, they think she has a brain tumor.  They will probably be gone 6-8 weeks, so I get to run the branch while he is gone.  So glad we're here!  Definitely feel needed!  We did have a fun Halloween party at the church Friday night, carved pumpkins, frosted and decorated cookies.  We had twenty-two come, three familes who are less-active, a non-member.  I think they had fun, but none came to church yesterday.  Probably a good thing.  I spoke about missionary work.

Well, guess I'd better go get ready for the day. Hope you are having a good week!  At least WE don't have any snow yet!

Love ya. Dad.

Deep thoughts

Journal Oct 30, 2011

I have recently decided I need to write about some things that have touched me or that are just interesting in our mission here in Haines.

First I would like to write about the area here. I believe this is one of the most healing, beautiful areas I have ever been in. I have seen a lot of beautiful places in both the states and in China. Perhaps because I am living here, I am finding Haines healing to my soul. I believe the Lord send me here for me, as well as, for whoever else we are supposed to touch. We came in late summer and the mountains so impressed me. They are high, rocky and pointed. The tops contain white glaciers even in the summer. Waterfalls cascade down the sides of the mountains thousands of feet. Shrubbery and trees grow on the sides of the mountains and appear to be coming out of the rock itself. The power of the slow, tenacious growth of roots, combined with the trickling of rain in the crevices of the rocks cause huge boulders to break lose resulting in landslides. The majesty and the magnitude of the mountains make one constantly aware of the smallness of man. The mountains come steeply down to the edge of the water. There is very little beach and what there is, is rocky. The mountains are magnificent, powerful, and remind me that the power of nature is beyond human control.

The water that runs off the glaciers carries with it glacier silt. This is fine grey-blue silt that fills the rivers and changes their courses. Where the streams enter the ocean, a change of color can be seen seeping into currents. The silt is soft and acts like quick sand in many areas. Rivers here have powerful currents, 3-10 miles an hour. At times, fishermen sink in the sands or get washed down the river from these strong currents. Glaciers do not look like what I expected. They appear as snow trapped between canyon walls with waterfalls rushing from underneath them. The glaciers are huge. There is a blue reflection on the glaciers in some lights. These glaciers recede up the mountain as they melt. In sunlight, they are beautiful.

This is an area referred to as a Boreal forest. The trees grow densely together perhaps fifty to seventy feet tall. The soil is spongy from decayed foliage and pine needles. In areas where there has been a lot of moisture it becomes dangerous; because, it acts like quicksand. In these areas, it is called muskeg and must be crossed carefully. Trees often fall as the ground seems to be continually shifting, either from the wet soil or the steepness of the mountains on which they grow.

Animals are larger here. Moose make Idaho moose seem small. Foxes are twice the size of our fox. Eagles are larger. House cats are even larger by a third again. Maybe the harsh climate makes them more durable and creates a need to be hardier. Texas may brag because of the bigness of the land, but it has nothing compared to Alaska.

In the fall, there are no words to describe the beauty of the leaves. They are almost fluorescent in their brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds. I might mention that the colors in the flowers here are also exceptionally bright. I don’t know if it is the clean air, or the harshness of the climate that makes them so large and intensely colored. It is like they must have this great burst of color and size to validate their short existence. I can hardly grasp enough of the fall beauties. I want to sit outside and absorb them into my very being, reach out my hands and hold the sacred silence. I want to seal them in my heart to nourish me during the long winter to come. I could spend hours soaking in this beauty.

As the leaves fall, there is a grey, murky beauty that comes. One can now see out into the forest, fallen trees, and marshy areas. There is harshness to the environment, but also a promise of tenacious strength that transfers to the animals and people in this area. People here accept the harsh climates, the difficulty of transportation, the limited medical facilities, and survive. They are not whiners. They go on doing what has to be done. Accepting whatever comes. The winters are long and dark, but they know spring comes with sunshine, warmth, and beauty. The harsh winters give people greater appreciation for the short time when the elements cease their relentless buffetings.

I have yet to experience the winds. I guess the winds that blow from the north are cold and merciless. The winds from the channel bring wet snows of up to three feet at a time. Some winters there is up to twenty feet of snow. While the temperatures are more mild here compared to Whitehorse, it still drops to the low teens and down to minus 20. Some years it gets down to -40. Because the wind blows all winter, the wind chill and the moisture make a wet-cold that seeps into your bones and stays. The rain causes black ice to form on top of the frozen ground which makes driving hazardous. I am sure the area takes on a different kind of beauty in the winter which I will write about later.

Update to Uncle Bob

Hi family,

Just thought I'd send you a copy of a letter I sent to Uncle Bob--a few new things that I didn't put I last week's letter to everyone.  We love you!   Dad.

Dear Uncle Bob and Aunt Liz,

It is really good to hear from you again. I'm afraid I didn't do very well answering your last letter, but it was good to hear about your 4-wheeler rides, though it is a shame you didn't get a chance to go more often. Scary about flipping it in the washout. I'm so glad you weren't hurt, and that your machine was OK so you could ride it out. I know what you mean when you said it was hard to get it back up. I think things have just gotten a lot heavier than they used to be when I was younger. And having fun sure takes a lot more work!

It's fun to hear about the kids. How are Kaylene and Mark liking Corpus Christi? They must like it if they're buying a house down there. It's probably more humid than Pahrump was, but I'll bet it isn't any hotter! It sounds like it was really fun to see so many of the kids all at once. Isn't it funny how they fall back into their "pecking order" roles when they get together? We really chuckle about that when our kids get together, even though they are grown with families of their own! I guess they never stop being kids any more than we stop being parents. I catch myself telling Ed what to do, even though he has kids getting ready to graduate from high school! He just grins and is really patient. How did we get this old???

It sounds like a wonderful weekend up at the cabin. It would be so much more justifiable to share it with the whole family with set times and weeks to use it. So many of them sit empty so much of the time, then everybody wants to use it at the same time. Shawna's trip to Australia sounds fun. Is she going to visit any of the areas you were in? I'd be surprised, as it's a BIG country!

We are hoping to go fishing again this week. The Silvers are running, and they must be doing OK, as there are hundreds of eagles along the river, and the bears are coming out again. So are the Canadians! The people here get upset when hundreds of people from the Yukon come here and fish. Our Branch President muttered, "So many danged Canadians you can hardly find a place along the bank to throw out your line without getting tangled up with some Canuk!" I had to chuckle. Two months ago we were one! The Silver Salmon (also called Coho) are REALLY good eating, so we'd like to get two or three for our freezer. It costs us $20/day each for a license (out of state, of course), but if we can catch a few it would be worth it. Silvers in the store cost us $15/lb even here! If we caught three or four 15 pounders it would be cheap fish!

The weather here is fall, the leaves are beautiful, and we're getting a lot of rain. I guess when it does get cold it will dump three or four feet of snow in a storm. That I'm not looking forward to! At least we don't have to shovel the rain!~

We have been working Wednesday mornings in the Family History Center here, I've been cleaning up the hard-drives on the computers so they aren't as slow, also got rid of a bunch of stuff that didn't work anymore. I'm trying to get some more computers, as we only have four, and we've been having five or six people coming. We've taken our laptops over to help fill in the gaps. I set up a wireless network so they can connect easily, and that helps. We are going to open the center on Thursday evenings to see if we can accommodate more people. Tonight is our first night open so we'll see how it goes. We also have it open on Sundays from 2-4, and we get a few from the branch, though a lot of them go home and take naps. I don't blame them.

I went to the high school on Monday to meet the shop teachers. They have one guy that teaches welding, woods, sheet-metal and small engines. Reminds me a lot of the little shop I taught at that first year up in Westwood. They have another guy that only teaches afternoons in the woodshop. He was starting a community night class for woodworking this week and asked if I'd like to come as a volunteer assistant. I told him, "Sure!" We had our first class last night, and only five of the people came. There will be eight next week. Of course I can't wear my missionary badge at the school, but I thought it was pretty neat when Mr. Hayes introduced me to the class. He said, "This is Mr. Powell. He is here in Haines for the next year or so as a missionary for the Mormon Church. He is going to be helping us here for the class, but I'm sure he'd like to talk to you about your church." I hadn't said a thing to him except when we met we told him we were missionaries here and would like to get to know the people. It was really fun teaching woodworking again. I helped a lady make a drawer for her camper, and start on some doors for her entertainment center. Mr. Hayes watched us for a few minutes, then helped other people start their projects. I guess he was satisfied that I wasn't going to cut off any fingers soon. We think it's going to give us an opportunity to get to know people on a more casual basis than just walking around in a suit trying to get them to come visit them.

Troy and Emma just bought a different house; it's out in the country, an older house that they are doing a ton of work to. It's on a couple of acres, and they are excited to have room for the kids to play. They have been in "communities" the last two houses, and the homeowners associations have micro-managed everything they do. They will be glad to be away from that. They are doing major remodeling on the house, adding a family room and bedroom where the garage is, putting in a third bathroom, moving the kitchen and utility room, stuff like that. I kind of wish I was there to go help them, but in some ways I'm kind of glad I'm not. It's going to be really nice when it's finished. He called and asked how I would suggest running the new plumbing under the cement slab floor. Told him he'd better rent a slab saw and have a lot of patience. One of the lines needs to go about 20' through a 4" slab. Good luck! Makes me tired to think about it. The fun thing is that they are going to move in and work on it while they are in it. They want to get their other house up for sale before the market dies for the winter. Right now they are making two house payments and it's pretty hard with the expenses of trying to remodel at the same time. They have saved some money up, so I think they'll be OK for a little while, but I think they put most of their savings as a down payment when they bought it.

Well, ReNee thinks it's time to go do our laundry, so I guess I'd better close for now. We love hearing from you, and hope your health is good. We've come to really appreciate the importance of good health here in this branch where we're the next to the youngest! I'm also amazed at how well some of the people do that are way older than us!

We love you! Tell the kids hello for us.

Dondavid and ReNee

New Letter

October 9, 2011

Dear All,

Here it is October already, and I haven’t written for so long! Sometimes it seems like there isn’t a lot going on, and sometimes it seems we’re so busy we don’t have time. I guess it just boils down to getting up the energy to sit down and organize everything to get it written down. Thank you all so much for your letters, and please remember that even though we don’t write often, we still think of you and hope you are doing well.

Fall is here, the leaves are all changing color and falling off the trees. Our high today is supposed to be 48. It isn't a question of "whether" it will rain, just "how long." It does make for beautiful fall colors, and we have really enjoyed the drives up “the highway” when we visit people who live up toward the border. It is beautiful, and the colors are almost fluorescent. The rain wets the leaves, then the sun comes out and they just sparkle. There is such a variety of color, photography can hardly catch the essence of it. At least we don't measure our rainfall in feet like they do in Ketchikan. Ketchikan is in our zone and stake, so we get to talk to the missionaries from there at conferences.

We had stake conference in Juneau a couple of weeks ago. It is good to get to see the other missionaries. . We took the ferry over last weekend to attend Stake Conference, was there three days. The ferry is nice, but takes about 4 1/2 hours for the trip each way. We took our car so we could shop, they have a Costco and a Wal-mart there, so we stocked up on some things we can't get here. Stuff is still expensive there, but at least we can get it. We also ate at McDonalds and Subway, so it was quite a treat! We don't have any fast-food places here, and hamburgers in the restaurant are $10/ea. Gas is cheaper here than in Whitehorse, only $4.59/gal, about $1 cheaper. We are enjoying that.

On Sept. 20^th we went to Juneau again for a zone conference. We flew over to that one, it only takes 20 min. to fly because it isn’t really that far away, but it takes a long time by boat because it only goes about 8 knots. Anyway, Elder Robert Walker of the Presidency of the 70 was there, and it was really good to visit with him and his wife. It turns out his wife, Vicki VanWagnen Walker, was one of Mom’s friends when she was in high school in Provo. Vicki is Bev’s age, but she recognized mom and they had a great time chatting about Provo and friends they had in common. Elder Walker is over the church temple committee, and it was fun to get to hear about how the attitude towards the church changes as more temples are built around the world. He talked about the new temple in Rome, and how the church met with the Catholic Church before announcing it, and how the Catholic Church has been supportive of the temple from the very beginning. It seems that the Cardinal of the Catholic Inter-faith relations board is originally from France, and the member of the Area Presidency that was assigned to meet with him was also from France, so they thought he could communicate with him better. Turned out that when they met and began to visit, they were from both from the same village in France, and had gone to the same schools together. They had a great visit, and the Cardinal made the recommendation to the Pope that the church be given every kind of assistance that they needed to obtain the permits to build. Sure reaffirms our knowledge that the Lord really is in charge! Pres. Walker also explained that the temple is NOT “within sight” of the Vatican, but is on one of the outlying “ring roads.”

We still aren't teaching anybody here yet, but we are getting to know more people and at least can let them know we're members of the church. Mostly we are just helping out in the branch. We had 21 to church today, which is a pretty good Sunday, but having Pres. Lehman’s son and his family definitely helped. There are only 4 priesthood holders, including me, so we take turns blessing and passing the Sacrament. We do have a nice closeness with the members of the branch, though, and they seem to be really happy we are here. I hooked up a wireless internet system in the chapel last week, spent a couple of hours last night getting the Branch President's ancient laptop to be able to hook up to it. We finally did, but I spent a lot of time on the phone with Ed figuring out what to do. What a valuable help he has been! At the zone conference we were given to believe that we'll be here in Haines for at least another year, maybe till the rest of our mission. That will be fine with us. We really like the small-town feel and love the members here.

We spent a Saturday doing a community service project picking up litter along the beaches. It was fun getting to know some more people in the community, and they appreciated the help. It was our branch project to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the welfare program. We had nine members of the branch that participated, which is a really good turnout for things. They appreciated our help, because only about 30 people turned out in all. We picked up a lot of trash that comes in on the tides, plus a lot of cans people leave when they have parties on the beach. There aren't any nice sandy beaches here, but people build fires and drink beer there anyway. The next issue of the local paper had a picture of two members of our branch rolling a tire up to the pick-up point.

The Monday before conference we had a branch project here at the chapel (Family Home Evening) doing brush trimming and grounds cleanup. We cut a lot of the scrub alder that grows up like weeds here. It is much like willows, and grows to make the church grounds look scruffy and overgrown. At first we tried using a brush shredder, but it was taking so long and was so heavy we finally just built a big bonfire and burned it. It gave us a great excuse for a wiener roast, so we got hot-dogs and the trimmings and finished up eating and singing around the fire. It was fun because the people are older so they know a lot of the songs I do, and we had fun singing. The grounds look a lot better, and we had a great turnout. We had quite a few of the less-active members that don’t usually come on Sundays.

We loved watching general conference last weekend. The satellite dish hadn’t worked for some time, so I spent a couple of days working on it, and between working in the rain and spending a lot of time with tech support in Salt Lake, we were able to get it working. The nearest Stake specialist is up in Anchorage, and they said there was no way we could get someone here to fix it before conference. We were so glad to be able to watch it. We had tried to watch the Relief Society broadcast on the internet the week before, but the connection here is so slow that it wouldn’t stream, and it kept stopping and dropping the signal. We only got to listen to a little bit of Elder Packer’s talk. With the satellite broadcast, we were able to watch all five sessions together, and they came in great! We were able to have dinner together after both Saturday’s and Sunday’s sessions. Because of the difference in time zones, we watched all sessions two hours before they were broadcast! We got to watch them at 8 & 12, with the Priesthood Session at 4 on Saturday! Who says living in Alaska doesn’t have its perks! J I felt especially good when we went to Whitehorse on Thursday and found out that they didn’t get to watch any of it because their dish was not working, and they had to listen to it on the radio! And they have a lots bigger branch than we have! Their ward technical person is pretty protective and won’t let others work with it, but he doesn’t take the time to fix it himself.

We went over to Whitehorse so ReNee could go to the chiropractor. She has been having some problems with the muscles in her neck and back again, and the lady over there really helps her out. It is about a 4 ½ hour drive from here, but the weather was nice (though rainy), and the drive was beautiful. We saw a couple of coyotes and chased a moose down the highway a ways, but didn’t see any bears this time around. I think they are all down at the rivers eating salmon! We are in the middle of the Silvers and Kings run, and the eagles are really starting to move in. We see dozens of them along the rivers eating dead spawners. There are a lot of young fledglings, Bald Eagles don’t get their distinctive white heads and tails until they are four years old or older.

It was really fun to go to Whitehorse again, it felt just like going home. We spent two nights at the home of Tim and Beth Ng and caught up on a lot of great visiting. They are doing awesome in the church, and Sam and Matt, the kids, are still meeting with the missionaries. We are hoping that their mom lets them join soon. They are attending church and mutual, and are enjoying the friendships they have made. We also had two wonderful visits with Tom and Patty Hirsch that we got to know really well while we were there. We also stopped by and visited Mike and Rachel Hrebian. Mike was less-active and Rachel isn’t a member. They began attending again and we taught Rachel the discussions. She hasn’t joined yet, but is attending with Mike regularly, and Mike was just put into the Elder’s Quorum presidency. We are pretty excited! We told Rachel that when she decides to get baptized, we’ll come over again!

We returned to Haines Saturday morning, and helped fill the baptismal font so President Lehman’s grandson from Anchorage could get baptized. Jesse recently turned eight, and wanted to be baptized here so his grandparents could participate. He was baptized by his father, and grandpa confirmed him in Sacrament Meeting this morning. It took a long time to fill the font, as the water heater isn’t very big, so we’d put in two or three inches of water, wait an hour for the water heater to recover, put in a couple more, etc. We finally ran out of time, so we heated big pots of water on the stove and poured them in with cold water until we finally got enough to cover him. It’s a good thing he wasn’t very big! I don’t think the font has been used for a few years, as there was a thick layer of dirt, dust, rust and dead spiders in the bottom. It took awhile to clean it, and Pres. Lehman brought the deck-scrubber from his boat to clean it. It looks really good now, and we will try to make sure it gets used again before we leave! Jesse and his family returned to Anchorage this afternoon because Mark has to work tomorrow. It’s about a 14 hour drive from here. In fact driving across Alaska reminds me a lot of driving across Texas—it’s a long way between towns! We passed one car and met four on-coming cars yesterday in the 300 miles to Whitehorse. And it is a holiday weekend! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in Canada!
It was really good to visit with Brent on the phone last week. We called him to see how he is doing after his accident with the chainsaw and the tree, and he sounds like he is doing amazingly well. He has been working, part-time at first, then full time with a back brace, but meeting his patients and operating his business. Kiley has done a great job keeping us posted on their blog, which is at: http://palsrwe.blogspot.com/. When we see the pictures, we realize just how blessed we are!

We have pretty much gotten used to the bears around here. We now say, “There’s another bear,” whereas not too long ago ReNee would scream, “THERE’S A BEAR! STOP!” and would dive for her camera while I’d frantically search for a safe place to pull off and stop and hope the bear didn’t run off before we got a picture of them. I’m sure many of the bears were walking away chuckling, thinking, “Boy, these ‘tourists’ are sure dumb!” We still can’t leave anything out that might attract the bears because it is a misdemeanor to do so, and we don’t want them that close anyway. There are reports of them wandering around town all the time in the newspaper, and the police have to “shoo” them back out into the woods. (usually back across the street!) I guess in a few months when it gets really cold most of them will be full of salmon and find a good place to curl up in hibernation for the winter. Sounds better all the time! Around here a lot of people hunt bears for food, but they don’t like to eat them in the fall because they all taste like fish! I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, “Eat Alaskan Pork—Shoot a bear!” Most of the bears we have around here are blacks and Alaskan Brown Bear. The only difference between an Alaskan Brown Bear and a Grizzly is that the Browns live on the coast and are bigger because there is so much food to eat. (Spawning Salmon). One of our less-actives got one a year or so ago that would have had a hard time getting its head into a 55-gallon oil drum. It is mounted and at one of the sporting goods shops here in town, and it is huge!

We took this picture out of our kitchen window when this one came to visit while we were having lunch a few weeks ago. It became quite a nuisance because it started breaking into people’s houses, and had returned several times even after they had moved it away. It got so it wouldn’t eat natural food, but preferred foraging people’s garages, houses and chicken pens. The last straw was when a woman woke up in the middle of the night to the noise of it breaking into her house while just she and her daughter were home. They left through the bedroom window as the bear destroyed their kitchen, so the police shot it and gave it to the Native Americans. Just another page of normal life in Alaska! And Warren was complaining about bats in the garage at home?

We went down to the Chilcoot inlet a couple of weeks ago and fished for the Pink Salmon when they were running. They are also called “humpbacks” because of the large hump the males grow when they spawn. It was really fun, and I caught about 25 or 30 in the two hours we fished. We only kept three because we have limited space in our freezer, but they are about gone now, so we’re going to try for some silvers this week. We can only keep two each, but they are bigger, and the meat is better. We want to wait till they are running good, as a non-resident license costs $20/ea for a one-day permit. So we want to be pretty sure to get our money’s worth. Silvers usually run 15-25 lbs each, and salmon is selling in the stores here for about $15/lb, so if we catch one it will more than pay for itself; besides it will be FUN! There are definitely some perks to being a Senior Missionary!

We have enjoyed working with some of the members here. Last week we went out to work on Bro. Cox’s tractor, I put a new fuel shut-off valve in it. The valve had broken off so he couldn’t shut off the fuel when he changed filters, so I changed the valve out with a full fuel tank. Only lost about ½ gallon of diesel, but it was kind of messy. He thought we’d have to drain the whole tank, but that would have lost a lot more fuel than we did, so he was pretty excited. He also has a little John Deere dozer with a broken track adjuster, we need to take it off and order another one, but I need to see if he wants to spend the money on it. The parts are over $500, but it isn’t worth much the way it is. I just don’t know if he’ll use it enough to want to put that much into it. He has a hard time getting around, but it really is good to move snow with, and they have a fairly long driveway to plow when we get a heavy snow. Brother Cox has a tracheotomy so he has to put his thumb over the hole in his throat to talk, and he only has 40% of his lungs left, but he is awesome and has such a sweet, humble spirit. They are so good to us, and so appreciate any help we can do for them. He is the one I was talking about when I told about his looking out of his kitchen window above the sink that is about 7’ above the ground, and looking eye-to-eye with a bear that was looking in the window. Said it startled him a little. He was in the navy and fought in the Korean, Viet-Nam and first Gulf war. He really has some interesting stories to tell!

ReNee and the Relief Society Presidency is setting up a Relief Society culture night for next week on the 17^th, we’ve asked a couple of ladies from the Philippines to come teach the sisters about Philippine culture and food. They seem quite excited about it. One of them is married to a less-active brother, and we had a great visit with him. We decided that since the ladies were going to be having a party and food without us, we should all go have a party without them, so we’re going to go up to 33 Mile and have hamburgers together. We’re going to invite the non-member husband of the other lady and some of the other less-actives and have a “guy” party. Everybody got quite excited about it, so we’re going to see if we can set it up and get as many as we can out for it.

Well, I guess I’d better get going for now. We really appreciate hearing from you, and hope everything is going well in your lives. May the Lord bless you all, and may your families and loved ones be well. We love you all!

Love, Dondavid and ReNee