Gary 70 finally!

 So life is crazy a lot of the time!! We can just plan we won’t follow the plan!!  Today we had a zone temple trip on the calendar but with broken pipes had to bump that! I went to the institute to open it up for the day and promptly locked my purse in the office with keys and phone!  Thank heavens(litteraly) that the church has a family history center and it was open! One of the brothers lent me his phone!  I called Gary and Brother Morgan was  at the institute right then. Gary called him and he was in the maplewood building. So he rescued me! I was able to hem and deliver Elder Kuerths temple pants and finish a service project called days for girls I was working on!  Then came home after buying fruit and made fruit tray and banana bread for institute!

We are in a new district and zone so breaking ground with the young missionaries. Also new missionaries YSA. Great new ones I think!

I did have my miracle this week! I was not feeling great Friday. Felt worse as the day went on. At bed time I felt gross! We were going on our adventure early Saturday.  Gary was ready to cancel!  He gave me a blessing at 12 midnight! I slept through the night and woke up feeling fine!!  Gary had a great birthday and we didn’t have to punt!! Spent the day with Whites,Newmans and Kuerths!!

Sunday Gary spoke in church with 12 hour notice!! He did great! He does do well with little notice!  His life experience comes to his rescue ! He makes me proud!  Sunday was great cause we talked to most of the kids. Sat night and Monday morning too! We had great visits! Still have to catch Cam!  We had friends over Sunday night for birthday cake and ice-cream too! We watched Larsen’s Lessons together too!  We really enjoy being with the other Senior Missionaries!  We are really loving Alaska and all this mission entails!  Grateful to be here!

Deep freeze

 Wow, talk about a week of crazy things! From a weather perspective, I think there will not be another winter to match this in my lifetime. Last year in Malad was record-breaking, and totally awesome as I was able to spend a lot of time, plowing snow, which is Particularly therapeutic to me. I know that’s weird but it is.

I told Carolee before we left, that, regardless of what happened in Alaska, that I was going to tell everyone, it was the worst winter on record, whether it was or not, and just take the chance that no one would fact check me.😫 Little did I know that we would experience the worst winter on record in Anchorage. Since September 1 we have received 104 inches of snow. The average snowfall for that period of time is 47 inches. The last seven or eight days, the temperatures have been-10°or below. On Saturday morning we woke up and it was -21° and this week is projected to be -23°! 

On Sunday We had a storm come in that they projected 4 to 6 inches. By Monday afternoon we had 21 inches of new snow at our house. And it snowed three or four more inches overnight.  So regardless of what my intentions were we got a record winter.   So, with the Alaskan darkness, the frigid temperatures, and the record snowfall, I am totally in love with Alaska. Of course, I do have to temper my enthusiastic attitude because I’m only going to spend one year here and not the rest of my life.  It’s probably somewhat easier to embrace the dark, the cold, and the snow when it is a short time deal. But I don’t believe there can be another winter even in Malad that can match this, so we are trying to enjoy every minute and do as much as we can to experience it.

Last night as we were leaving to Institute at about 6:30 PM, we encountered water on the bottom floor of the townhouse, and Discovered that a pipe in the radiant Baseboard heater had broken, split open, and was spewing a very strong stream of water into the bedroom on the floor. I went to the garage, where the boiler/hot water heater was and there were literally 10 shut off valves on the menagerie of pipes. I was afraid that if I shut one off that would blow it up. So I got on the phone with the apartment guru from the office and he told me to look up a plumber in Google. He started to tell me how to do that. So as you can imagine that phone call didn’t end up very successfully. So I  followed his instructions and went to Google and called a plumber and they came out within about 30 minutes. All that time the water was spewing into the bedroom and we were sweeping it out down the short hall into the garage which has a drain. The plumber was able to turn off the water, fix the leak and start the boiler working again. But the garage heat portion was not working still. So today What is the day of working with plumbers, pipe thawers,  and Restoration services.  Is now 5:32 PM and the last of them just left. We have fans and dehumidifiers in the bedroom and the crawlspace and were able to de-ice the garage heater.

So we’ll have fans and stuff for a couple three or four days and then should be back to normal. It could’ve been a lot worse and we are grateful for timing and the that we were able to have the services on such short notice. I told them all that we were missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I don’t know if that made a difference, but I had good conversations with all of these people about the church and about what we do here and it was pretty amazing. The plumber that was here last night. Heard me answer the phone “this is Elder Cox and when I signed his work order and invoice, I said well, that’s my doctor signature, which is why you can’t read it except for that I’m not a doctor . Then he said you may not be a doctor, but you are an Elder.  They were  all so friendly And typically I am so distrustful, but I felt as if I could trust all of these people. It was a comforting feeling, and I was grateful for it.

Our area, president, Elder, Bragg, visited the mission last week, and had conferences with the leadership of the elders and sisters, and left them with a promise that the missionaries in this mission would invite everyone that they met to church, that they would double the baptisms in a year. Senior missionaries do not have the responsibility to teach, that is left to the young elders and sisters, but we have taken it upon ourselves to take the challenges as well.

So the first day after that meeting, I had to get an Alaska drivers license. After I took my test and was filling out the application, I was engaged in a conversation with the employee helping me and Had told her that I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then she looked at the address, she said oh I live over by Strawberry Road , don’t you have a church right there on strawberry? I said we certainly do and she said she drives by it almost every day on her way to work. I took the plunge and said you know what you should come to church with us. We love visitors, and I think there’s so many people that you would feel right at home. she said well my mother goes to that Baptist Church on the corner there and she invites me to church every single week and I don’t go with her. So I said well that’s great and if one time you decide to go, we’d love to have you come visit us , she politely moved on with the application and who knows one day when she sees the visitors welcome sign in front of the building and remembers our conversation she might just go.

Then, on Saturday, which was one of the more memorable days of my life, In a secular way, we went up to Willow Alaska, which is about two hours north of here.

There we rented two side-by-sides—Polaris 1000 Rangers, enclosed, heated, with snow tracks!  It was a spectacular day with blue skies, and when we got into our machines, it was -21°. Although the ride itself was fairly tame for my standards, and we had a guide leading us, it was still spectacular and an unbelievable awesome adventure. And during one of the stops while we’re looking at the scenery and the views and drinking hot chocolate that the guide had brought along, I was having a nice conversation with him. He was a young 30ish Alaskan guy, And I asked him where he lived, which he told me was Wasilla. We have a stake in Wasilla and I Invited him to church and said we had a lot of churches there.   He said he will probably take me up on that. Last summer I spend a lot of time with young man from your church who is now in Idaho.

It’s amazing but when you decide something to do and you just open your mouth, I believe the Lord will fill it. Natural and I admit it is a little easier when you have a badge on your chest indicates you are a representative Jesus Christ. Now as we go visiting, seeking the lost young single adults here and leaving printed invitations, There are times when the person we are looking for is not there, but someone else answers the door. Now instead of just leaving the invitation, we leave the invitation and invite that person to church. It’s a very fulfilling experience.

Earlier last week, I was struggling to get awake in the morning because I’d had a bad night with my feet. And the phone rang and it was the seminary teacher whose house had burned down the week before Christmas and had called us to take her classes Well, she dealt with that. This time she was stuck behind a 37 car pile up that had taken place on a bridge over river between Palmer and Anchorage at -20°. At that temperature, a fog Maughan had rolled in and just had frozen the bridge the road and visibility.  It was ugly but at least no one got killed, but the freeway was closed for hours and she was stuck behind it. So with 45 minutes notice and a 20 minute drive and I needed to shower and get dressed, we rolled in and I taught seminary to 26 fairly gregarious teenagers who had a substitute...

Carolee says I teach better with no preparation and a lot of time to stew and over-prepare.

So eventful in many ways. And i thought we’d have a fairly rigid routine as missionaries.  Apparently not, Gary

Heading to Hatchers pass for the ride, this view of Mt. Denali from Willow greeted us...it's over 100 miles away, so you can see it from a long ways away.

                    We were driving so not so great of a pic with the street light                 

right in the middle of the  peak, but it is a huge mountain.  

On the way home, we turned off the main road to look at some of the beautiful scenery like this.  As we went around the corner we saw this little guy.  A yearling looking for Mama and as he ran away it was obvious he hadn't grown into his legs. 

 Even after all of my years in the church, I am still amazed at how there is still so much to be learned. As we are trying to do our work here with the young single adults, and the Institute, we are trying desperately to increase attendance and to find, those young young adults who are lost and need to be found. This week we had the opening Social to our Institute program after a month long break for Christmas and New Year’s so we planned an opening Social and Carolee and I planned and executed it because our Institute council is still small and not functioning yet  That’s one thing that is a challenge, it just takes so long to get momentum going. We are still pushing as hard as we can, and still don’t yet have that ball rolling. But we’re working on it and we’re making some progress on getting  Institute council upgoing.

And we are still committed to visiting and inviting those who have been lost, but it’s just a lot more complicated process because there are so many moving parts to integrate and not to duplicate effort.

So we really went after advertising this opening social.   We posted on our Facebook pages and then we used the church email system with the YSA ward and sent all of them an email. Then we used the Institute system and sent a text and email to everyone who had ever registered for Institute, or attended Institute in the past. We put posters up in every church building in Anchorage and it was announced on Sunday in every Sacrament meeting in  both stakes.  We had never put much effort on getting the word out, so we were not really sure what its affect would be and how  many we needed to plan for. So we decided to do a Cafe Rio sweet burrito and had JUSTIN  smoke a 16 pound pork butt and shred it and sweeten it. Then we did all the fixings for the burrito, rice and beans, lettuce and cheese and pico and all the stuff . We decided that we were probably going to top out at 50 people and so that’s what we planned for.  Well, it didn’t turn out that well and it was actually kind of disappointing for me because I had high expectations as usual. We had about 20 or 21 YSA’s  and 10 missionaries and leaders. So that’s about 30 short of what we were hoping for. I was a little disappointed, but not shocked.

That night during the middle of the night, I woke up from a dream which I couldn't remember, but I was saying loud, “ what more could we have done, what more could we have done, what more could we have done ?"   I pondered that all day and tried to think of what more we could have done, but did not have much insight during the morning and my study. So at 1 o’clock, we went to our zone council meeting where our zone leaders and other missionaries teach each other from preach my gospel  and teach best practices and ways that they can be successful here in Alaska. The very last presentation was  talking about how to work with members better. He said that in his last area every Saturday night, he sent a text message to the ward council with an update to them of everyone they were teaching , and ask for feedback, help, suggestions for each individual.

It hit me hard right then that may be our answer. We can’t do it all ourselves and we have been trying to make or get a program or process that is sustainable. And the only way to do that is to have local people be the ones who are finding, searching, supporting the Institute. We will provide direction and support, but we go home. So texting members of the ward council  the results we are having  as we are searching for YSA in their ward. We can ask for their feedback and input. For example, they could tell us if people we are trying to find, if they’ve moved if they’re married, if they don’t know who they are, or if they are active in their family ward.

Then we met with the YSA adult reps from the North Stake and correlated a plan that we can take to the Ward Councils, Elders Quorums and Relief Societies of both stakes. It's been an amazing process just since Wednesday.

It just proves the principal of knock, seek, and you shall find. I believe I was in a state of mind to listen, and to hear him, so that we can move forward. I believe things will continue to happen as we work to have a sustainable plan, and hopefully find these YSAs.

The Lord knows where they are, and we & the members here, need to be his hands and feet and voice to bring them back.  Little experiences like this, continually gives me confidence that the Lord is in the details of our lives, he has a plan for each of us and he will help us when we are seeking to find answers. Now, I’m sure that there may be other adjustments as we move along, but we need to move along we need to press forward with Faith, and as we do so, he will guide us so that we will be in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, and saying what he wants us to say. He won’t give us the answers if we are just sitting back, waiting for our revelation to hit us . And that’s what we’ve been doing, moving, visiting, inviting, praying , and trying new & different things.

We’ve had four or five new girls move into the Cook Inlet YSA ward, which is a good thing, since our boys just seemed out the girls here. It’s a little bit opposite from the lower 48, it’s usually the girls that out Number the boys.

One of the young men, Logan, who’s about 28 years old was talking to us after church a couple weeks ago. He was telling us that he was serious about dating and getting to know the girls in the ward. He’s been in the word for three years so I don’t know for sure why it’s taking him this long, but by his own admission, he is a little bit on the autism spectrum. He has some quirks, but such a nice guy. We kind of chuckled together when he was talking because it made so much sense and he was so open about his status. Carolee mentioned to him that it was strange here where the boys outnumber the girls. He agreed , and then gave us a quote that will go in my quotes of immortality. He said that up here in Alaska, for the girls “the odds are really good, but the goods are odd “.    That is absolutely hilarious and so true.

I turn 70 this week, which is a sobering thought. So I just don't think about it. 🙂 For my birthday, we have rented a side-by-side, fully enclosed with a heater that is equipped with snow tracks. 3 1/2 hours. It will be totally awesome! 3 hours north of Anchorage, so way up in the mountains. I am stoked about this. there are 4 of the Senior couples going so 4 per UTV. And only 2 of us are experienced drivers, the others are along for the ride!!! Yay. Gary.

Kinda like this.

January 21 2024

 We have had a great week and in spite of the fact that Gary says we didn’t do anything. We were busy all week! Institute started back up Tuesday so we started with an opening social which was really just cafe rio style pulled pork burritos! And even though Justin smoked our pork and shredded it I spent most of Monday and Tuesday getting food ready! I made treats and pico and did the shopping!  Only had 1 from our Institute Student council come help but it all was good!  We served maybe 30 Tues and 20 on Thursday!  I don’t mind the prep or cleanup because it is what I am doing, so all good there!  Gary helps in every way too!!  Sometimes his help is working the crowd!

Wednesday I worked at the temple and had zone council, zoom call with five of the kids and Temple baptisms with YSAs.  The zone council also included dessert with zone celebrating birthdays including Gary’s 70th this week! And root beer floats at bishops after baptisms!  I was hashed ! Left at 8:30am and got home after 9pm. That was after the late night Tues. I maybe getting too old for this fun!!

Thursday and Friday besides Institute we inspected 7 apartments. We do like having that interaction with our young missionaries!  Help where we can like put up curtains.  Take them treats too!

Friday after our jobs were done we went for a walk in bicentennial park!  Really gorgeous still but about froze my face off.  Kind of a practice for Saturday night.  We took Newmans and Kuerths our Senior friends, to the botanical garden light night.  It was 5 degrees.  It was beautiful, like a walk through a forest but with Christmas lights on the trees, light displays, ice sculpting, just spectacular but after an hour we were all past frozen so we went to the institute and baked cookies and had hot Chocolate(they did).  

Gary and I had gone to the free neighborhood concert the Anchorage Symphony put on at West high! It was great!  All familiar music!! Kincaid invited us! Loved it!!   It was a good pday!!

Sunday is always good! We were with the Polynesian group today! Some new faces so that was good!! We had a great meeting with the Bishop and the Couriers (ysa advisors). We can help each other!  Really love this Bishopbric and Stake Presidency!  Really great men!

The temple president Metcalf had a heart attack while in Utah last weekend!  I guess he died but a grandson-in-law brought him back!! Looks like he will be fine and has a pacemaker. Many miracles involved.  

Loved that I got a short visit with my friends this week! Love that Teri is still with us and I get a peek at the others lives!!  Love those women!

I do need to acknowledge if only to myself that today is the 53rd anniversary of Gary's & my first date!  Robyn, Staci, Ethan, and Kae's birthdays!  What a great date this is in my life!   Carolee.

January 14 2024

 This week managed to be a biggie even though at the start we anticipated a slow one!! We started with a planning day on Monday and went out contacting and did find one family but I had a headache I couldn’t beat so we didn’t even attempt going to a family home evening! 

Tuesday we ended up meeting Justin out at the new seminary building by Potters Marsh.

Fortuitous because we ended up teaching for him the rest of the week because he has Shingles!  It is a remodeled airplane hanger and is in a beautiful setting in the snow and trees! We also went to meet with our zone at the institute for a while on their p-day. Had initiatory appointments at the temple early changed to late to help prep me for my shift at the temple wed morning!  We did get there and it did help! 

We started Wed with the call that we needed to teach so Gary did it and  he dropped me off at the temple on the way!  My shift went well as it feels like I know it now! I also got to meet new sisters , one of Lynn Kuerths friends.  After waiting for Gary to pick me up I talked to a sister that has been out with Shingles for 8 months!! Horrible!  He then took me to zone conference where I was volunteering with lunch!!  He went back to teach 6th period than came and got me after all was cleaned up! I did get to meet president Esplin the south stake president. His wife does the luncheons. Sister Pruit and Courier and I help! Enjoy working with them!

Thursday and Friday he taught all three classes and I figure out who kids are and help where I can!  I was talking to a couple of girls and they told me ones grandpa was from Utah. Recognizing the Reid name I asked if by chance he was from Bountiful!  She found out he was and his name is DAVE REID.  We looked up family history and sure enough Ila and Richard were his parents!  That was a fun connection!  Helps me get to know the kids when we connect!!  

After class we went out for a walk and while we were down town in a trail that feels like your off in the forest we saw a fox on the trail so turned and went the other way and about a half mile back we had two Moose on the trail! We did not get close, but got pictures.

After we went to Kuerths to play games and visit! We really enjoy being with them and were there like 6:30-10:15. It was fun.

Sat even though it was Pday we had to spend the morning getting announcements moving for opening social and institute! Hopefully we will see more return than waffle night!   We did get to have a call with the Stokers. We are excited that they have made an offer on land in their area!! We pray it all works for them!!! 

After we went up to the botanicals gardens and walked through where they have ice sculptures and fun flower type displays! Before we left the evening lights turned on and we got to see their winter lights show!  It was just dusk so we want to go back!! We will invite friends next weekend!  It was pretty cold but beautiful!!

We have kind of crashed after a week of leaving here by 7 in the morning. We can do it when we have to but it tells on us!  Today was a nice ward conference Sunday and 4 new girls at church!! Looking forward to institute starting up again!!

Life is different now when our evenings are not taken with Institute, FHE & temple because of the Holidays and the school break.  We don’t start back up till January 16^th, so it’s been a long break.  So, it has been a “different” couple of weeks.  There are realities of missions that sometimes we overlook when writing, but that happen.  Everything we write is like a snapshot in time.   It’s kind of like in movies and TV where people are having a “hard” conversation or an argument, then it just stops and moves to the next scene that could be minutes, hours, weeks or months later.  They don’t have to do the hard stuff after the encounter.  So, most of what we do here is really great, but I’m a person that is really hard on myself, and if I’m not “actively engaged” I tend to stress out, or feel guilty, or get really grumpy and be miserable to live with.   I’ve been like this pretty much my whole adult life.  I’m on medication, I’ve been to counseling, I’ve prayed, I’ve done pretty much every trick or emotional fix and I can’t seem to overcome it.  I can’t just chill.  So, these last couple of weeks, I’ve tried real hard to chill, calm down, and take it easy when there doesn’t seem to be a lot going on.

But it doesn’t work for me to just chill and take it easy.  And it spilled over last night.  I just had to go to bed.  For me it just gets really complex.  Anyway I’m better today and my great companion saw my needs and we went out tracting/inviting/finding this afternoon.  That made me feel better—like we are really doing something, and not just planning and stuff.

Working where I feel it is important, has given me a spiritual boost.  The first house we went to, I talked to the mother of two YSAs that we haven’t seen.  One was on a mission.  The other was at UAA, and is having a bit of a faith crisis.  He also is quite averse to change and he is still dealing with getting out of high school.  His mom said she would give the invitation to him and would bring him to Institute next week to the opening social and the first class to see if he can connect with someone there.  That is exactly what we are hoping for.   When you are a missionary, you see things like this as the Lord being in the details of our lives—they are tender mercies, like individualized miracles or blessings.  In this case, hopefully for him—that the timing is right and for us, that we interacted and came at the right time where there can be an intervention for the better. 

 

Also, it seems like all of my medical conditions—neuropathy, poor sleep, weight, facial skin conditions, and other miscellaneous sundry issues one has when they age, have all seem to gotten worse since we’ve come on our mission.  I guess it’s the opposition in all things situation going on. But what I’m seeing, is that I am dealing with them much better. If I only get 4 hours of interrupted sleep, I can still put in a full day and if it happens several days in a row, an afternoon nap works wonders.  (Yes, Senior missionaries can take naps!  And I don’t feel guilty 😊)   I guess its like the people of Alma whose burdens were not removed nor made lighter, but they were able to bear them much better.  That is a tender mercy or blessing that I am seeing. 

 

So, we have some great experiences, but in between times, there is a lot of things happening, some hard things, some fun things, & some just enlightening.  The study time we get is one of the things that I really want to take advantage of.  It’s nice to have so much time allocated for study.  We can watch videos, listen to podcasts, dive into the scriptures, study conference talks, study President Nelsons messages and whatever else.  I’m the same way with scripture study time, I can’t get enough time.  ☹  Even though it is scheduled time in the morning, so many things come up and blow the schedule and I have such a hard time getting back to it.  Same thing happens with exercise.  When it doesn’t happen, it just doesn’t happen.  (I don’t feel near as bad as when I can’t study.  I am just jealous of that time. And I don’t want it gone.

 

I wish our schedule was rigid, and in some ways it is, but we get interruptions and changes, but it’s just this good, better, best thing all the time.  For example, tomorrow we had scheduled an initiatory session at 11am.  Then we could meet with our Institute Director right after for our weekly meeting.  But we were notified of a zone activity on the young missionary’s PDay at 11am at the Institute building.  One of the things we do, is to interact with the missionaries as much as we can.  It is an opportunity to help lift them from where they stand.  We love being with them and they are just so great! There are a lot of sisters and they have had such a positive impact on the mission field and the work.  We love them all and are very impressed with them.    So, we changed our initiatory appt at the temple to 7pm, our Director meeting to 9:45am and so we will hit all three!  😊  Then we will have to exercise and study in the afternoon. (But we don’t because life happens)  So we don’t like get up at 6:30 am like the young ones do.  We are more like 8am or later if I’ve had a bad night.  I’m not a real morning guy, so the stuff that gets us going before noon is a little tough for me.  I have to just accept it, because I can’t change it.  (I’m a psychiatrist’s dream patient…he/she can just keep throwing out trite little phrases to make me calm and then charge me for it ☹)   

 

Here's another little miracle from Saturday.  Sister Cox went to a luncheon with the Mission President’s wife, Sister Larsen and the other senior sisters, because President Larsen was out of Alaska for training.  While she was gone, I cleaned the fridge (terrible smell coming from it—Cauliflower…not sure I can ever eat it again, haha) and downstairs bathroom and entry area.  We live in a townhouse condo and all of the living space is upstairs.  Downstairs is a spare bedroom and a ¾ bathroom.  That is my bathroom—the one upstairs is not big enough for the two of us, so I make the trek to the bottom floor.  And it’s freezing down there cause we don’t really heat it. So, I cleaned all of that, including the toilet and the shower—not just the sink-- and then opened the front door to see what the porch looked like.  I swept it off so I could put down some ice melt on a spot of ice still left.  There was some buildup of dirt in the corner and as I swept the very corner, I uncovered what looked like a ring.  I picked it up and it had flowers and things and looked like more than a cracker jack ring or some cheapo.  So, I brought it in and set it on our dresser.  Yesterday, Sunday, Carolee saw it and asked about it.  She looked and saw it was real and even had a diamond that I hadn’t noticed.  We thought it might be our neighbor’s since they are a young couple.  Carolee took it over but they weren’t home.  But tonight, they pulled into the garage the same time we did.  Carolee took it over, and it was her wedding band!  She had dropped it off their little balcony in front in September and were unable to find it.  She was very grateful.  Just another tender little miracle. 

Saturday after Carolee came back from her luncheon, we went and saw a local attraction:  Snowzilla!  It’s a real snowman that is like 30 feet tall and it’s all snow, not built around a frame.  Kinda wild, but cool in a way.  1^st time built in 10 years—enough snow this year. 

 

 

Speaking of which…we just keep adding on.  Not in huge storms, but 2-3-5-6” at a time and it just never melts. 88 inches so far, I absolutely love it.    It’s the most snow they’ve gotten since 1919 when they started keeping records.  Like last winter in Malad.  & I know I’m weird, but   I want it to just keep snowing.  I’m jealous of Malad this weekend is projecting 13-18 inches!  I wanna be in both places. 

 

And we had a visitor outside our window this week too, a moosen, eating branches from trees.  That is their total diet in the winter and they survive on it---amazing. 

We do enjoy getting with the other senior missionaries here.  We don’t all feel like besties, but there are a lot of them that we do.  We’ve planned a special adventure for my birthday that I am really excited about.  But that’ll be for next week.   Gary

January 8 2024

 The new year is awesome!!  We had our waffle night at the institute!  We sure love the Kincaid and Kuerths for helping us!! We only served around 25 and that included the missionaries. The ones that came had a good time!!  Would have liked a bigger group but we did everything we knew how to get the word out!!  Never can guess certain things!!

I also started at the temple that morning as a worker! It felt really good!  The words came back when I knew them. Some has changed since I worked in Bountiful!  That was really good and I was glad to be back!

Thursday I had a recovery day but I did go join a volunteer group that meets once a month for days for girls!  They will be a good contact!

Friday we made posters for institute and put them in all of the church houses. They announce an opening social and class starts next week!!  It takes us all over the city for 8 buildings!  It took most of the day!!  It was beautiful  with hoar frost on everything and it is magical when everything is white!

Saturday we had a senior sisters luncheon and had a good visit! Missed Kitty and Shauna Currier due to them being sick!! Hoping that doesn’t pass through us because we were together on the 1st !  Sister Lewis leaves tomorrow so kind of sad!! Lots of great women!! Glad to get to know them all!

Sunday we try to go to both groups meetings but 12, and 1 don’t work to smooth.  We did get to part of Cook Inlet and all of Maplewood group!  The testimony meeting was really great! These Polynesians really have and feel the spirit!  It felt really good to be with them!! I think all of them bore their testimonies!  Loved that!

We are slowly but surely calling an institute counsel.  Have 6 now! Want  more like 15 so a bit to go!! We want them to help get activities and classes decided and help to pull off!  President Morgan did find me some quilting frames and got us access to the buildings so that is great!