ESPECIALLY FOR THE GRANDKIDS - WELCOME TO NORTH POLE,  ALASKA

                                                                SANTA'S HOUSE                                 

                                                            ONE OF HIS REINDEER

                                        THESE ELVES ARE MAKING A BEAUTIFUL ICE
                                      SCULPTURE OF SANTA'S SLEIGH AND REINDEER

                                                   IT'S FROSTY AND COLD UP HERE

We have had a wonderful week here in Alaska.  We had our first experience using the "polycom" to have an inservice meeting with our seminary teachers across the state.  It's a device that can be used to have a large phone-in meeting.  Technology is wonderful.  We have also been substituting in a seminary class and in an institute class this week.  It is giving us a taste of what is to come.  We were able to travel to Nenana about 60 miles away to visit a home school seminary class.  The people here are wonderful and love the Lord.  Even though there might be only 1 or 2 students, early morning seminary classes are held faithfully.  We had a beautiful drive through over 60 miles of frosted forest tundra.  It takes many days for the frost to melt because the sun is low and the temperature only gets up to about 17 degrees.  We are told that this high temperature is unusually high for this time of the year.  On Friday we joined the Mission Zone Conference in North Pole.  Since it was light, we decided to take pictures for the grandkids.  At the conference, I met another Park Lane student--Elder Bryce Greenwell.  What fun to see how these boys have grown.  For lunch, the Relief Society served a "Thanksgiving/Christmas" feast for the missionaries.  We won't see the Mission President again until February.  (Note:  Look at the long shadows in the pictures at 11:30 am.)

Our mission president challenged us to count our blessings and give more thanks this season.  We are truly thankful for our wonderful family and friends who love and support us in this endeavor.  We are thankful for good health that makes it possible.  It is a blessing to us to meet new people who are quickly becoming our friends as well.  Each day we are thankful that we had a remote start installed in our car to warm it up before we have to travel to our destinations!  We are ever thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that his gospel has been restored to the earth after being lost and changed.  We know that He lives and that we can look forward to living together as a family and with Him and our Heavenly Father in the eternities to come.

Love to all,
Elder and Sister Spens (Grandpa and Grandma)

                                          Behind us is the Institute building here in Fairbanks.
                                          We are getting to know the facilities and the young single
                                          adults that attend classes,social activities and church services
                                           here.

                                          Here are some Inupiat Indian dancers at the University of Alaska
                                          performing traditional dances. There are many native American
                                          groups that live in Alaska. They all have their separate and
                                          distinct cultures.

We attended a CES fireside on Sunday, November 7 .  Elder Ballard was the speaker at that fireside and brought up some very interesting points.  He talked about the growth of the church, and how long it took for the church to have 1000 stakes and that was around 1920.  He then went on to talk about how it took fewer and fewer years for the stake number to increase by 1000 to the point that now and in the future the growth of the church will continue to require more and more stake presidents, bishops and every other leadership position in the church from 70s to scoutmasters.  He then went on to ask where are these people that will be taking over those leadership positions in 30 years from now when the church has grown too much more significant size that it is today?  He then pointed out that he was speaking to those leaders.  The youth of the church.  I realize this also includes our grandchildren, and all of the young  in the church.  That is the reason that we need to teach all of the youth of the church the basic doctrines of Christ, while they are young.  Much of what he said came from the book Preach My Gospel, which he highly recommended that all members of the church should be using especially parents to teach their children the basic doctrines of the Gospel.  It was a great fireside that we thoroughly enjoyed.  As we drove home on snow-covered roads I said to JoAnn that it is getting very wintry .

                                   Looking outside from the Institute window.  It's a forest here.

                                 Elder Spens studying for the class he taught on Thursday.
                                 This is his new office.

                                   Sister Spens trying to remember all the things she is learning.

                                                      The main hallway at the Institute.                               

                                               This serves as lunch room and fun room.

                                         This is our driveway.  We live in the blue house up the hill.
       Here you could literally go "over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house."

     It's been a wonderful week.  We thought you might like to see some of the places that we are getting used to.  Thursday we took care of all the institute business by ourselves.  It was wonderful meeting so many of the students.  Jim substituted in the Doctrine & Covenants class and really enjoyed it.  My duties took me to the kitchen preparing food for the snack between classes and the light dinner after.  These kids really like to eat and enjoy each other's company.
     We were also able to visit two of the seminary classes that meet in our building.  Seminary is at 6:30 am here.  I know that's not new to some of you, but it stretches me to be awake and present by then.  Tomorrow we are traveling to North Pole to visit two seminary classes there.  Sounds fun, doesn't it.
     Today we met with the singles branch that meets in our building.  We will be part of their branch for a while at least.  I was impressed at their spirit and insights.  One speaker spoke about how faith brings action and power.  She told us that faith is like a muscle that you must exercise to keep strong.  When you pray for a worthy goal, your faith will be strengthened.   I know that we must always remember that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us and that he will help us reach Him if we keep the commandments and have faith that He knows how to help us and what is best for us.  Remember that "faith is like a mustard seed, if planted it will grow."  But we also need to do our part and nurture it so that it can grow.
     We love you all,
     JoAnn and Jim

                                                                                The Malaspina ferry ship of the Alaska Marine Highway.
                                          We are in Katchakan on a Sunday returning from church
                                           services.

                                          The Malaspinia in Sitka harbor on pilot maneuvers. Sitka
                                           was the old Russian capitol.

                                          A very old Russian Orthodox cemetery in Sitka.

                                          The Russian Orthodox church in Sitka. A parade is about
                                           to start celebrating the sale of Alaska from the Russians
                                           to the U.S. its called Alaska day Oct. 18th. It is only
                                           celebrated in Sitka.

                                          Driving on the Alaskan highway through Canada towards
                                           Alaska. Frozen roads were typical and night time temps.
                                           at about 1 degree below zero.

                                           The Fairbanks area with the frozen Chena river in the
                                           foreground.               

                                          We stopped for the night before taking the ferry here
                                           in Maple valley near Seattle at the home of the  Seely's
                                          (our son Mike's wife's sister) and went for a walk with Merrill and Ruth
                                          (Merrily Seely's mom and dad).

     Our journey to the Alaska Anchorage mission was certainly spectacular.  The Alaska Marine Highway with all of its mountains, spectacular water ways and whales was an adventure of scenic splendor  a slow tour of beautiful country.  We eventually worked our way north to Haines Alaska.  It is surrounded by spectacular alpine snow covered peaks.  Then we began our 700 Mile Drive from Haines to Fairbanks.  The first thing we ran into by the river that flows into Haines was a collection area for bald eagles   We saw dozens of bald eagles perched on trees and flying,  waiting for salmon in the nearby river.  As our trip continued we drove deeper and deeper into Canada and the temperatures got colder and colder.  The road became frozen and icy and we felt quite isolated in that  there was very, very little traffic.  We spent one night in the farthest western city of Canada called Beaver Creek and  the temperatures  dropped one below zero.  We arrived safely in Fairbanks and have been settling into our apartment, getting things organized through a little shopping and touring the city of Fairbanks to get used to the road. At the Institute JoAnn has been receiving training  in the office and I've been working on preparing lessons to teach and  getting used to the system and preparing to do in service for early morning seminary.  There are a great group of young single adults here that we will be teaching and attending church with on Sunday, and getting to know.  We had a great stake conference this last weekend and got to know many of the people.  The faithful saints are here and we realize also that they have a great stake president, who is a powerful spiritual leader of the saints.

                                                "HI" from Sister Emily Underlin at the MTC

                                           A view from the ferry on our way up the inside passage.

WE ARE HERE IN FAIRBANKS.   Our trip getting here was interesting indeed.  The ferry trip from Bellingham, Washington was mostly rainy, but we did have sun for part of the trip.  We even saw a pod of whales.  After docking in Haines, we traveled the rest of the way in our car.  Shortly after leaving Haines, we had snowy roads for the majority of our trip.  It was fun to see about 30 bald eagles sitting in the trees waiting for the salmon in the river.  (We also saw about 30 cars on our first day as we drove toward Fairbanks.)  When we left Beaver Creek on Thursday morning, it was -1 degree.  I guess that's nothing here.  After some navigating, we found our new home.

We have been learning much in the last day and a half about the Institute.  We met the mission president, Pres. Dance and his wife this morning at a missionary training meeting.  Tonight was Institute night.  We were able to meet two of the teachers and some of the students.  It will be a great experience working here.   It looks like we will be doing a lot of teaching next semester.  I am grateful that the secretary is staying an extra week to help us get going.  So much to learn.

We met Elder Matt Squires who is a zone leader for the singles branch here.  He remembered me from Park Lane.  It was fun to see him doing so well.  I was pleased that he remembered me.  Hey, Park Lane teachers, he remembered you, too.

MTC

First Week at the MTC

Our first week has been many things. It has been inspiring, intense, difficult, fun, and so much more. For us to see what our boys have experienced at the MTC before their missions has been eye-opening. It is overwhelming to see the sea of young missionaries here. Our classes have been challenging as we have learned to use Preach My Gospel to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. This week we will be trained in our responsibilities with the Institute and Seminary programs.

We feel blessed to have this opportunity to serve the Lord. Our prayers are with our dear friends and family. The scripture that I have come to appreciate more this week is Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Today we were able to attend Sacrament Meeting, and several other meetings. In Relief Society, one of the speakers was a young missionary from Jordan. She is the very first missionary sister from that country. Her conversion story was wonderful. She and her brother found a paper with a telephone number on it on the ground and were curious as to who it belonged to. They called and the person on the other end said they were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, "How can we help you?" They were invited to church and felt a wonderful spirit there. The missionaries offered to teach them. They thought they were going to have English lessons, but they got a message as well and an invitation to church. They thought "why not?" After several months of learning about Christ they joined the church. She is a beautiful sister and will be serving on Temple Square.


(Sorry no picture. We haven’t got the right computer running yet.)

Spens Family Picture

Before leaving for Alaska, we had a family picture taken.  We have now added another beautiful granddaughter to the family, and we haven't even started our mission yet.  We will be posting updates regularly for our friends and family.