April 21 2024

CAROLEE: We have probably had the busiest weeks of our mission thus far!  We do like to be busy and the time whizzes by. We do get tired though!  We had a great Sr missionary dinner on the 12th. I made rolls for that and we have the set up etc. because we host at the institute!  We had a good meal and a good visit!  The next day we were going to play but we had a tax deadline and taxes took most of our day!  As I don’t do that I cleaned and did wash etc. We did end our P-day at the Templeview ward's pig fest. The invitation was to "Come Eat Pig", a tradition of over 25 yrs.  A good meal and our missionary buddies joined us .  We also inspected apartments Friday morning!  Got six done in one morning which was our miracle. We had to do them before transfers so got to see them all before a few left.

We had one apartment inspection and a visit with Justin at Klatt then taught at district council and left treats and told some goodbye! Sister Thornton going home!  Then went to Klatt to teach 6th period. I taught Gary did council!  It was a full day and then hit both FHEs that night!  Beginning of Maplewood and a long walk at Westchester Lagoon to pick up trash!  We did get to visit with three of our singles for kind of long visits and appreciate them all more!  Nathan Hakala, Harrison Hayes, and Michael Metcalfe. All great young men needing wives to move on with their lives! They are trying! We pray for all these young people !

Tuesday a regular Tues with the Institute building open for the day!  I got cinnamon rolls made for class and started a quilt! Gary was trying to prepare Wednesday seminary lessons but got a lot of interruptions from missionaries mostly!  We had a great class and the cinnamon rolls were a smash as always! I’d made them the week before for class, a bishops council and for apartment inspections.  Never above a bribe!

Wed I was not scheduled at the temple so I went with Gary to teach Seminary at the Strawberry building!  Gary did very good and the kids were great! We went from there to set up for Senior Night at the Institute!  Picked up pizza and root beer from Moose’s Tooth and got ice cream sandwiches!  The evening went well with a pretty good turn out! We had invited specific kids to come welcome the graduates and they turned up great! There was games and food and mostly visiting which was what we hoped for!!

Thursday was mostly a catch up and Institute! We were doing waffle breakfast for the new missionaries on Friday so I prepped for that!  Patti’s classes keep getting better and bigger!  We had 24 there and she plans lots of interaction so everyone is enjoying the class. It’s great!  Friday we were at the office which is the Strawberry building at 7 am and cooked waffles until 8ish.

We met the new missionaries and ate then cleaned up. Took our car to have an oil change and picked up a truck to deliver to Fairbanks missionaries next week!  Then came back and helped get lunch on and served and cleaned up!  Got home in time to visit with Jar and her kids!  Ended up at dinner with Kuerths and Badgers cause they were bored! We have FOMO! Not boredom!

We went to the Zoo Saturday for our outdoor adventure and truthfully slept most of the rest of the day!

Grizzly Bear & Musk Ox 

See the sleeping bear in the snow. :) 

The snow is melting (this is the breakup). It is pretty dirty. We have been in the 50s for a couple of days! We are walking outside for our walks but on sidewalks cause they are clear! The paths are too slushy right now!  We see some tree buds and a blade or two of green so we are on our way!!  We still see a moose every week so won’t forget we are in Alaska!

 Grateful for this opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father!  We love him so much!

Gary: During my career and my church service, I’ve given hundreds of talks, speeches, lessons, presentations, group discussions, etc.  I’ve realized that I prepare like Dad did—way over the top and more than really needed. (but I resolved to never take more than 5 books to the pulpit 😊)   I think that it has benefitted me in a lot of ways, but it also gives me a lot of stress, thinking I have to prepare so hard  So, I just think of the general authorities where sometimes they give prepared remarks and sometimes more relaxed ones.  PowerPoint is a disrupter for me, as is most technology, because it seems there is always issues that distract me, which then detracts from the class.  So, this last round of seminary teaching I’ve been prepared but less structured and less dependent on technology.

 It is then that I need to pray for “utterance”.  I love that word.  It just says exactly what I want it to mean.  When I finish a lesson and feel grateful for “utterance” I am usually satisfied that I said what the spirit wanted me to.  But, getting to that point has been stressful my whole life.  I can’t rely on the arm of flesh and sometimes that’s what I do. ☹  So, this next week I’ve got another day or two of Seminary to teach  and I need “utterance”.

 
These are some of our seminary kids that we teach. 

We have been exhausted a lot lately, and that is such a good feeling.  It feels so good to come home at night and feel like you’ve done every thing and more that the Lord wants you to.  I don’t think we’ve ever felt that we didn’t do what we should—like slacking or anything, but some days are fuller than other.  This coming week will be full and busy so we need to be ready for it.  More prep time for me and logistics to be where we need to be. 

Looks like I've got their attention! 

We are really trying to get and keep momentum in our Institute classes and in Family Home Evening and in Sacrament meeting attendance.  BYUI & BYU have just finished winter semester, so a lot of kids are making their way back home till September.  We also have a few who are coming in who work for the Cruise Lines.  Some on the ships and some on land support like tour bus mechanics or logistics and stuff like that.  So, our attendance at the YSA Ward has started growing—today was about 85.  The Maplewood YSA group in the North Stake is not doing too well and its getting discouraging for all involved.  It is so complicated because of the Polynesian influence and the language wards.  We have 2 Samoan speaking wards, 1 Tongan speaking ward, a Spanish branch, a YSA group, a Hmong group, & a Filipino group, all in the North Stake. The YSA group speaks this weird slang of Gen Z that is as foreign as Hmong! 😊 There is a combined Air Force/ Army base here that is huge!  There is no ward or branch on base, so most of the families in the Air Force go to the Airport Heights Ward and the Army folks go to another Stake Eagle River which is North of Anchorage.  But the YSA in both bases comes to the YSA Ward—if the Military Relations Senior missionaries can find them.   The dynamics of all this lands on the Stake President of the North Anchorage Stake—President Azimi, who by the way is Persian! (Iranian) He has a counselor who is Samoan and a red-headed Caucasian as the other.  President Azimi asked us to come to the Bishops Council a week ago to help get these Bishops on board to help save the YSA group, and get their YSAs out.  Carolee talked to them first about integrating the High School Seniors into Institute.  She sweetened them up by bringing them her famous, fresh, out-of-the oven cinnamon rolls.  Their reaction was just “crickets” …That’s Gen Z for silence. 😊  Then I gave them my presentation and I thought I was talking to Stonehenge!  No reaction, no shifting in seats, no facial expression change, no response to questions, nothing.  There were 5 huge Samoan and Tongan bishops who were totally poker faces.  The two Caucasian bishops were both young and clearly intimidated by the Polys said nothing either.  So, after my impassioned plea, we left the meeting, not totally sure what had just happened. 

We had previously submitted a plan to the Stake Presidency which they initially gently rejected, but have since agreed to implement parts of it and change some things to hopefully help.  But I am so glad I am not that Stake President and have the issues he has to deal with. 

But we are making progress in the Institute classes and FHE participation, so that is encouraging. 

We need some positive spiritual, emotional and physical presence momentum.  Its hard.  President Azimi has been asking us for months to extend our mission and even did again after the meeting.  He says we’re making progress.  I’m glad he’s seeing it. 

I really do enjoy the prep time for the teaching opportunities.  I learn so much.  But studying to teach and personal study for me is different.  The me study is my favorite, but the teaching study is good too.  I am loving our Institute Courses--one of the classes, “President Nelson’s talks” is awesome.  The talk where he gave an update on the SL Temple and the foundation (April 2021) is so fantastic on so many levels!  The one quote that sends chills up my spine is this: “We are sparing no effort to give this venerable temple, which had become increasingly vulnerable, a foundation that will withstand the forces of nature into the Millennium.”  (my emphasis added)  Wow is all I can say.  The prompting that the leadership received was a 5.8 earthquake that shook the building enough to break the trumpet of Moroni off.  We talked about our spiritual foundations that we hope won’t need a tragic or major wake-up call before we shore it up.  But just the thought that the SL temple will survive into the Millennium…could be closer than we thought.  Well, we hope that anyway.  😊 

We love serving here. The connections we are making here are so fun and hope that we are making an impact in some small way.  We saw a picture from our friends who are serving CES in West Virginia and they sent us pics of their group on an outing to Palmyra.  I swear that they looked exactly like our group.  All experiencing the same challenges, having the same desires and trying to work through this                                                                                                                                 life without a spouse yet. 

Oh, how we pray for the YSAs in Anchorage, in our family and in the Church world-wide. We ache for them; we want them to achieve their righteous desires and get to move on with their lives.  Most of them are not just sitting at home pining away, but we know that loneliness is an issue they have.  This is an issue that is church-wide we know.  There is not an easy solution except to trust in the Lord—He has the ability to do His work.  We are praying that He is using us in some way to help Him do it.  We are so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope and direction that it give us in our lives.  Trusting the plan is a whole lot easier than trusting the timing of that plan.  But we do for that is about all we can really control—our faith. 

We love all of you and pray for you as well.

Fairbanks & North Pole

 So my blog for this week got deleted!  This I will just add that I had a great time on our trip!  As usual Gary and the sisters seem to be most alike and I relate to the husbands! That is how all our friends have ever been I think!  So glad we have this association!  We laugh alot with all of them and sometimes that is the best medicine!!  We have a lot in common and that is interesting when three are converts and come from all over!  Our link is the gospel and our desire to serve!   Conference was certainly a highlight of our trip!  Watching it in a cozy cabin with good friends was delightful!  Now listening to it over and over can help me remember!

We did also go to the museum of the North at the university! Got our only glimps of a grizzly and a polar bear.  

We continue to love being here!  Love this call! We are meeting with bishops tonight and we might be bribing them with Cinnamon rolls!  Maybe not bribing but thanking!  We do have a wonderful army of saints here .77$

Every day when we wake up, I am amazed at something new. Alaska continues to deliver unique and wondrous things. And it’s not always the beautiful world around us but just something different that is going on that we are involved with. For example, this morning I took Carolee to her to her temple shift and we drove on snowpack roads from a small overnight storm.  At the temple, they have installed a trailer to serve as a small visitor center. Behind it where the stakes center was, is a flat piece of ground where they will start digging the foundation hole this week. There was a hoe that was tearing down some large quake or birch trees that were apparently in the way of the construction vehicles. This thing was moving these huge trees like they were toothpicks! i’m not sure if in the next five months, we will see walls go up at the Temple site, but it’s been fun too. See how things progress. This will be an interesting situation because it will most likely be the only time ever there will be two dedicated temples, on the same lot! I think, watching him tear down a temple will be much harder to watch, and tearing down a stake center.

We had zone conference this week and our president combines the three zones here in Anchorage. So there are about 75 missionaries, plus the service missionaries involved in the zone conference.

During the last session, President Larsen called me out of the congregation to speak & to give a report on how the singles ward and the Institute were doing.  It’s like I’ve had to tell myself over and over if after 70 years, I’m not ready to speak or give a lesson without warning, on any topic, then I never will be.  Carolee was in helping prepare the meal for the missionaries so she wasn’t there. I have a feeling had she been there, she may have been the one called on to speak. So I think she dodged a bullet.🙂‍↕️(this is a new emoji nodding its head in agreement. ) (🙂‍↔️ not agreeing-with a smile…learning to disagree without being contentious 🙂‍↕️)

On Friday morning, we headed out on a weekend getaway with our good friends, Elder and Sister Kuerth and Elder and Sister Badger. We took two cars so the Badgers bounced back-and-forth between cars on the journey. I’m sure Carolee will fill us in on the details of what we did, so I will hit some highlights.

We left Anchorage on a blizzard and it was a little hairy until we got to a little town outside called Willow, which is the official starting place of the Iditarod doc race. The snow stopped and the sky is cleared off somewhat, and it was just partly cloudy . It was perfect because we were just coming up to where we could see Mount Denali. 

Denali is the highest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet but what makes it so remarkable and so huge is that it rises from 2000 feet to 20,000 feet. That means you see 18,000 feet of mountain. That is the largest rise elevation of any mountain in the world. So for example in Kaysville, we were about 4500 feet downtown. Francis Peak was about 9,500 feet above sea level. That means from our vantage point in the valid, we could see about 5,000 feet of mountain, which is pretty impressive. Timpanogos is 7,000 ft above American Fork.

So Denali is over 3 1/2 times taller than Francis Peak!!

Denali Peak is visible on a very clear day from Anchorage. We haven’t seen it on two or three different occasions. Denali is 145 miles as the crow flies from Anchorage. So to put that in perspective if you stood on the back deck of our house in Kaysville and looked south, the peak would be in Fillmore! Or if you looked north, the mountain would be in Blackfoot Idaho!! And you could still see it above the horizon.  This Mountain is massive.!!  Pictures just don’t do it justice, but they do remind me of its majesty. If it’s not on your bucket list, I would recommend putting it there.

Next month, we are hoping to get even closer by taking an excursion into the park on the bus. On our way up to Fairbanks the sky cleared fairly well, but there was clouds at the summit, but on the way back, the summit was clear and it was spectacular. And the mountains that surround , Denali are so amazing by themselves that it’s hard to comprehend. It’s like overloading of the senses. There’s a series of mountains that looks a lot like the Tetons that are impressive too. The other thing that was so awesome was that a winter storm had blanketed the state as I mentioned the night before, and so the mountains were just totally blanketed with new frosting!

We drove through a mountain pass that peaked out at 2500 feet and dropped into Fairbanks, which is about 750 feet elevation above sea level. Fairbanks city how about 35,000+ the student at University of Alaska/Fairbanks. We stayed in a cabin high above Fairbanks, where we could see the lights of the city on one side and hoped to be able to see the northern lights with the darkness of our location. It’s kind of wild sensation of having it stay light longer, which I think is taking a bigger adjustment than, the darkness was. When we went out on the balcony at 10:30 PM, it was still fairly light. We were able to see some faint lights Friday night but it was midnight before I was able to get any pictures. Saturday it was cloudy all evening but Sunday night I stayed up late and then got back up at 2 AM and took pictures for over an hour. There are any of our group who are as motivated as I am to experience everything I possibly can. But they are very willing for me to share their pictures. We laugh about them saying that they will give me credit for taking the pictures on their blogs or letters to family, but I know better ha ha.

Going to North Pole an actual city, we had a lot of fun as they play on Santa Claus all over. Even the street lights were striped like candy canes

We were able to listen to conference live on Saturday morning and Sunday sessions, and caught the other ones later. What an awesome conference it was. In one way it felt sad, because it’s a real possibility that the top 4 Leaders of the church may not , be with us next conference. If there is ever any question that President Nelson holds the keys of the gathering of Israel, in my humble opinion, I have no doubt as we watch the Earth being filled with temples.  What a time to be alive! One of the best things about this trip to Fairbanks was being in the company of friends where we were having very constructive, deep and meaningful conversations about conference and what was taught.

We also went out and saw the Alaska pipeline that goes from the north slope to Valdez. A pretty impressive engineering feat.

We also got to have breakfast on Monday with some sister missionaries who served here in the YSA, who are just sweet, sweet energetic committed missionaries. 

And that continues to be an ongoing miracle to me, is to watch these young people as missionaries. And they talked to the MTC Elder Bednar mentioned that they had done a survey of recent converts to try to determine the effectiveness of the teaching all the young missionaries . He said that the vast majority of them had no idea what they were talking about until the third or fourth lesson. It was all so foreign to them, talking about angels and prophets and priesthood and visions, etc.. they were then ask why they continued inviting them back and listening. Their response was, because of the spirit at these young people had with them and the enthusiasm they had for what they were trying to do. And eventually, they understood more & felt the spirit testifying that it was true. So,  Elder Bednar said, just keep trying your hardest, do your best,  be obedient and things will work out.  And that this is what happens and it’s a miracle.

On the way home, we were able to connect with another senior couple and go to dinner with them at red Robin in Wasilla. By the time we got home at 9:30pm, we were pretty tired.

Then on Tuesday morning, we started right back up to our routine and dealing with the issues of our missionary work and living life.

Things like our hot water heater/ boiler was leaking out of the pressure relief valve.

It was dripping down a copper pipe onto a wall and onto the garage floor. A thing is it was a steady stream and it was 160° water. When we first discovered it was one day we went into our garage and it was a cloud of steam in there.  We had to leave the garage door open a bit until we got a plumber here. He came today and fixed it. Now we just need to fix the mold in the sheet rock.

And I got a request to substitute seminary next week for the teacher who is going in for a heart procedure. At least it’s release time and during the day, so no early morning I hate mornings! I’m glad there is no 6:30 AM rule for senior missionaries to be out of bed .

Although it is slow, we are making headway in our Institute attendance and in finding YSA’s who have been lost. It’s a great feeling too see a young person connect and feel that belonging again. The light that comes back into them is amazing.

I think conference in the Mission Field is a wonderful time, because of where our time and energy is focused. And what is somewhat sad is the fact that we won’t be in Alaska for next conference in October. 

Being in the Lords service full-time has been a tremendous blessing for us and our family. Conference strengthens my testimony of living prophets and apostles, and the gospel of Jesus Christ gives me peace going forward in this troublesome world.

We love you all and pray for you.

April 2 2024

 CAROLEE:  It is a beautiful Easter season!  We woke up to a winter wonderland again!  It actually is beautiful because the white snow is back and way more attractive than the black stuff!!  We do see some signs of spring before when we saw pavement and sidewalks.  As we taught of the resurrection and atonement last week it helped us focus on this world changing event and made us especially grateful for our Savior and his life and sacrifice!! We did not talk to family at all for the weekend but we did have a memorable holiday!  Our fellow missionaries shared our day with. Chocolate Eclairs and all!

We do manage to keep really busy even when the temple is closed and our regular routine is interrupted .  We are still exploring trails all over Anchorage for our exercise use. So many beautiful places to discover!

We learned today that our replacements have their call and will be here the week after we leave in September!  Wow that seems weird but we are thrilled they will step right in when we leave!  We still have lots of year end stuff like senior night at the institute and summer activities! We will continue to try to find these kids!  

We now have light until 9 pm. We figure almost two hours more light than Utah right now.  This is as weird as the dark was!  Love we get to experience all of this. 

We are very grateful to be missionaries! Love all we serve and serve with!  We do love all of you at home! we continue to pray for the Kidney Stoners. 

GARY:

March 30, 2024

It’s kind of a rainy, wet cold Saturday today and the snow is melting quickly. It doesn’t look like a trail walk would be a very good idea. So we asked the Kuerths our  good friends, who are serving as military relations missionaries to do something with us today. So we started out at Denny’s, the only Denny’s in Alaska and as we left, we saw the sign that said it is the northernmost Denney in the world. So we took a picture of us in front of the sign.

We were going to go down to a factory where they make Uulu knives, but they had decided to provide an Easter dinner for the young single military people tomorrow instead of joining us at Badger home for a senior missionaries Easter dinner. So they left and went shopping and do their thing so we went home and took a nap. It felt really good to not do a lot. But tonight we went to an Easter Cantata put on by the south stake choir, and it was beautiful, but only lasted a half an hour, so that was a good outing. There were seven or eight of our seminary students who were in the choir and performed so we were glad we were there to support them and talk to them after.

April 2, 2024  The past several weeks have been challenging, rewarding, difficult, educational and so many emotions that it’s hard to put on on paper what is going on in my mind. But that is impossible to do!

Most of the activity last couple of weeks has been dealing with seminary and Institute. Big surprise there since that is our calling, but we taught seminary three days for brother REEDER and Institute last Tuesday. It’s interesting, how studying to teach, is different than studying for yourself. I’m not sure which is the most beneficial because when you’re teaching you’re thinking of your students, and when you’re studying alone, you’re thinking of yourself. So needless to say, we’ve learned a lot because we’ve taught one day out of the book of Mormon, one on the teachings of President Nelson, and another on Easter week and on the resurrection, so it’s been great variety, and great principles to learn to relearn.

But as I look back, there were two lessons that have made a significant impact on me, and both of them were taught by brother REEDER, not by me.

Let me share one principal that I think is very important.

Seminary Class Activity

Sister DeVries & Sister Soakai

In todays world, wise parents are are using tools to help their children navigate the Internet and the things that they are confronted in through life. One of these tools is to acknowledge out loud, what they are seeing. For example, if they see an inappropriate image as they close the image, they should say out loud, that is pornography or that is immodest; or that is excessive violence; or that is abusive behavior, etc.  By doing so it helps them understand that it is real what they are viewing and how it makes them feel.  So typically that tool is used to identify negative things.

The same tool can be used for certain specific positive things as well. For example, when we have a positive experience or spiritual experience or a learning experience, we should write it down, tell someone about it, so that we know that what we have felt or experienced or learned is real, that it really happened. So that later on when recalling that event, you don’t wonder if you mis-remember or if you imagined it or if you weren’t sure what had happened.

There are times, that are very personal to me that I have done that very thing. The last couple of weeks have been sometimes discouraging, but also a time of some deep, spiritual feelings. I’ve written them in another section of my journal, I’ve shared them with my wife, and I’ve shared a high-level on my experience with the Institute students. And one of the reasons I told Bro Reeder I was sharing it, was because I wanted to make sure that they knew, and that I knew that those experiences I had were real, not something in my imagination.

Another lesson that Brother REEDER gave was the Friday before Easter that was just incredible. I’ve got the PowerPoint so I can remember some of the things we talked about so that I can record them & to be able to remember them. It was about three Hebrew words, Kaphar-atonement--a verb that means    "to cover" or "to forgive".  Closely related is an Aramaic word Kafat meaning "a close embrace"  and Hesed which President Nelson described as "a special Love".  

To Atone, To Cover, To Embrace  Great Easter message of the Grace & Mercy of the Lord.  

To me, this is one of the blessings of being a missionary, and that is have my mind completely focused on the savior, and on finding his lost sheep. It’s hard to duplicate this mindset when there are so many competing distractions in the world. This has given us a chance to be out of that world, not totally, but our minds can turn back if we get too distracted. So it seems that every lesson, every talk every sacrament meeting, stake conference, zone, conference, etc. etc. I feel I am learning so much. I guess that’s what we’ve always been told-- you get out of the meeting what you put into it.

This has been a boring entry, but we got three or 4 inches of snow to cover up the dirty snow on the sides of the road, it frosted the pine trees again, made the sheets of ice again, and made it winter again, when we had been getting a teaser of spring in the air . But this will go away fast, well, kind of, probably not till May. And we have a little more coming this week. We’ve been told to expect a large snowstorm sometime in April. I am looking forward to that. No seriously I am looking forward to that. With us coming into spring our daylight time is getting longer and it is as weird as it was when the days got shorter. It is so fun to experience these wild extremes.

We are going up this weekend for four days to Fairbanks, which is about a 7 Hour drive from here. We’re hoping to see more of the northern lights, go to the north pole, sit on Santa’s lap, see his reindeer, you know that kind of stuff you do at the north pole . You may think I’m kidding but wait till next week when you see the pictures.

I’ve been making a list of all the things that we haven’t done yet and we have a lot of work, or play to do before we leave. Well, I guess a lot of work and play. So we are in the tweener season of spring so we’ll just take whatever weather we get, 

The gospel is true, we are so happy doing what we are doing and praying for all of you.