Last Sunday night we captured some more aurora pictures.  There is a house in the bottom right and a tower with red lights in the center facing north.

This is the south end of the horizon with Mars.  The aurora made a band across the entire sky.

         On preparation day, the elders and sisters in the Zone had a cook-off.  The judges are on the right.

We invited the zone leaders for dinner on Wednesday.  They serve at the Branch.

                                   This ice musk ox is in the entrance to the international ice festival.

                                      A couple of squirrels are waiting for the ice festival to begin.

                  These two young moose were across the street from our apartment as we returned home.

You can see on the tree where this moose was chewing off bark for dinner.

     The branch had a carnival on Saturday.  These young adults are getting ready for a three-legged race.

This week has been filled with fun and great classes.  We were excited last Sunday to see the aurora again although it was not quite as spectacular.  It's an amazing sight nevertheless.  We drove a little ways to the top of the hill we live on to get a clearer view of the sky.  There is no way to describe the beauty of the northern lights in the night sky. 

Monday the zone came to the institute for preparation day.  They decided to have a cook-off complete with judges (those who forgot to bring something to cook or didn't know about it.)  These missionaries love mixing spices together to make the best burgers or fancy baked chicken or even a raspberry chocolate cake in a dutch oven in the parking lot.  It's wonderful to see how much they enjoy being together. 

Tuesday was class in the evening.  It's been wonderful to study the doctrines of the gospel in depth and read quotes from past and present general authorities giving us great insights.  We even had a seminary student come with his mom.  He really seemed to enjoy it. 

Wednesday was a little frustrating for me.  I had called the "help desk" in Salt Lake for some help with a computer problem.  However, by the end of the day on Tuesday the computer wouldn't even let me log on!
After a wonderful devotional over the phone with the missionary couples in Anchorage, I called for more help.  I was on the phone for about 5 hours getting things taken care of.  Finally they were able to get me on and restore all my files.  I was glad that Wednesday was not filled with classes and that I had the time to have things worked on.  Computers are such a blessing, but they can also try our patience at times. 

On the way home, we decided to find the new site of the World Ice Art Championships.  There are a few sculptures at the entrance ready to greet visitors.  The official sculpturing begins on Feb. 28 and goes for three weeks into March.  They had cameras online last year so that you could watch the work in progress.  The weather has been warmer, but still under freezing and above zero most of the time.  As we drove up the road to our apartment, we saw two moose eating branches and tree bark in the neighbor's yard.  They looked like young moose.  It's always interesting to see them. 

Thursday was busy with classes and cooking.  We love to associate with the young people here and enjoy teaching classes.   By the end of the day, we are ready to go home and go to bed.  This week I decided to try tacos.  It was a good idea along with the cinnamon rolls, of course. 

Saturday was wonderful.  The Stake Relief Society had a conference from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.  There were wonderful classes to participate in all afternoon.  The theme of the conference was "A Step by Step Guide to Stepping Up!"  Rather than making us feel overwhelmed, we were encouraged to find small things we can do to help us improve a step at a time.  We were encouraged to set one goal that we could start with.  It was wonderful to see so many people that have become our friends in Alaska.  It is a blessing to hear them testify that joining the church was the greatest thing they ever did.

In the evening, the branch had a carnival.  Elder Spens offered to set up a little magic show.  He developed additional "illusions" that he had not tried before.  Some were quite baffling.  I'm sure he will be anxious to show the grandkids what he has learned.  It was a fun evening complete with cotton candy, snow cones, fish pond and lots of games.  We had a good response and lots of fun together. 

Today there was a wonderful spirit in our sacrament meeting.  Elder Spens was among the speakers. With four speakers, he chose to give a brief testimony of the importance to keeping covenants with the Lord.  The other young speakers gave heart-felt talks about how covenants have blessed their lives.  It was not easy for them to share their experiences.  The Lord will always keep His promises. It is up to us to remember and keep our promises.  That is what the gospel is all about--helping ourselves and others come closer to Christ every day.  

Have a wonderful week.
JoAnn and Jim

                                        At family home evening, we met up with Flat Stanley.
                                        He is a character in a favorite story book that has world adventures.

                                               A beautiful sunset from our front yard.

                            On Saturday we went for a walk in the forest at Creamer's field.  The sun was
                            warm and the sky was clear and blue, and it wasn't too cold,  20 degrees.

                          Our friend Cristina took this picture of us.  We met her and walked with her.

            This is the aurora on the 18th of Feb. It was quite a spectacular display of the northern lights.

                       Another picture the same night of the aurora over Fairbanks from our front yard.

                                 These bands of intense green move and flow like a river in the sky.

                    The aurora sometimes starts like this and then intensifies as it moves across the sky.

     We have had another great week here in Alaska. The night skies were lit up with fairly intense aurora for the last couple of nights. Our land lord Bro. Olsen who has lived here in Alaska all of his life said that the display on Saturday night was just about as spectacular as he had seen in his lifetime. The pictures above only show a small portion of the horizon to horizon display. The aurora is constantly moving sometimes very slowly and sometimes very rapidly as the colors ebb and flow. It is truly a glorious sight to behold and no camera or even video can portray the splendor of the northern lights. We were returning home Saturday night about 8 PM and I said to JoAnn wouldn't it be nice if we had a good display of the northern light one of these nights since this will be our last winter here. JoAnn saw a small aurora display in the sky as we drove along our normal route home. By the time we arrived home the sky was beginning to intensify and so it continued.  There were some beautiful displays on Valentine's day, so we decided to figure out how to take a long exposure pictures on our camera for the next time.  We were pleased with our pictures on Saturday.

    Our work with teaching the YSA continues as we spend most of our time at the institute building. We are either preparing, teaching or working on clerical or administrative tasks to keep the institute and early morning seminary programs running.  President Packer said that the seminary and institute programs were nice but not necessary when they started but now are a bulwark of protection for the youth of the church without which the youth of the church would be at a great loss. This week we also met three or four brand new YSA three of which were new investigators looking into the church and one was a young lady who just dropped into the institute to indicate a desire to return to activity in the church and just wanted to know what time meetings and classes were. We also have frequent calls to the institute regarding YSA or their families requesting information about the church and its meeting schedule or how to get church records etc. Our phone number is the only one in the City of Fairbanks that when they call in the day time they will get a person to answer and we seem to help a good number of people this way.

     I guess we had better tell you what the significance of "Flat Stanley" is if you do not already know.  Often in second grade the children read the story of Flat Stanley.  This particular Flat Stanley (because he is flat) was sent to an aunt in Fairbanks from a young girl in the lower 48.  His adventures in Alaska will be recorded on film and also on paper and returned to the sender.  It makes a very fun class activity to learn about many places around the world that Stanley visits. 

Love,
Jim and JoAnn   

                      Some of the Branch learning teaching and learning how to family history indexing.

                             We have several new missionaries in Fairbanks here in a training meeting.

                                    A city Bobcat "shoveling" the sidewalks in front of the Institute.

                              Here comes a road grader to help out. Interesting equipment in Alaska.

 The weather has been warmer, and we are grateful for that!  When it gets warmer, the tractors start coming out to clear the sides of the roads and the sidewalks which are also used for bike paths.  We thought this was an interesting pair of machines working on our sidewalks. 

It's been a fun and busy week here.  There have been new missionaries to meet as well as other interesting activities.   Monday nights always mean Family Home Evening with a group from the Branch.  For an activity we made Danish woven heart baskets to put on Trisha and Cristina's Christmas tree for some Valentine decorations.  We each selected a scripture about the heart and wrote it on a slip of paper that we put inside the basket.  It was fun watching the guys make baskets they probably hadn't made since elementary school. 

Tuesday evening we had class as usual.  We broadcast our class on the Fairbanks Stake web site in hopes that we might be able to reach some of those who cannot attend.  Along with class, we had an activity for the elders quorum to learn how to do indexing.  It was a great opportunity to show the guys how to look at old records and transcribe them on their computers making them available for people to use in finding their ancestors.  We felt like we had accomplished something by the end of the evening and hopefully we will be able to help others get enthused with this great service. 

Wednesday morning we had our inservice meeting with our seminary teachers.  We were able to share some of the training that we received in Anchorage last week.  We are so grateful for our teachers' commitment and willingness to teach early morning classes.  They are wonderful.  When we have to be at the institute by about 6:00 a.m. we really appreciate those who teach early every day. 

Thursday we had classes again.  I was so pleased to have seven students attend my class.  It was an answer to my prayers and I told them so.   We have so many wonderful young people that we wish would take the opportunity to join with us in our classes.  Today we had Bro. and Sister Thomas come to the branch.  They have just been called as leaders for the stake for the single adults and have been asked to help in activating  those who are not attending.  It will be great to work together in this project.

President and Sister Beesley were here in Fairbanks for training and interviews.  They came to visit with us this evening over a bowl of soup at the institute.  We also were able to call in on the polycom to a fireside in Barrow.  Elder Tonga (who is from Tonga) told how he became a member of the Church.  He had a friend that invited him to attend church with him for a long time.  However, he didn't want to know anything about it.   One evening it was his birthday and he was having a big drinking party with his friends.  His friend next door came over and gave him a gift for his birthday.  It was a copy of the Book of Mormon.  He was so upset that he threw it out in the yard and told his friend to leave.  Later that evening he got very drunk and just trashed his house.  In the morning he saw the book in the yard and wondered how it got there.  He picked it up and opened it.  He read a few verses that really touched him.  His friend saw him out in the yard with the book and went over to see him.  Elder Tonga wondered how his friend got a broken nose.  He told him that he had hit him while he was drunk.  Elder Tonga didn't even remember.  However, he did read the book and prayed about it to know if it was true.  After turning his life around, we was baptized and is now serving a mission to help others come to know Jesus Christ and have the blessings of His gospel in their lives.  What a blessing it has been to us to get to know some of the wonderful missionaries in Alaska.  We also know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and it will bless the lives of those who read it and pray to find out if it is true.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our family and loved ones at home!

JoAnn and Jim 

                               This is an early morning seminary class we visited in Delta Junction

                        This is Sister Michie the teacher of the early morning class in Delta junction

                               The second all sisters conference in the mission home in Anchorage

         This is the "general authority" room where we stay whenever we stay at the mission home in Anchorage.

                          The mission home in Anchorage with there heavy snow and lots of mission cars.

 A closer look with the little Chev four wheel drive truck that the mission allowed us to use while in Anchorage.

     The snow is heavy in Anchorage as you can see here. The mountains in the distance are just the beginning of a vast mountain range that persists from Anchorage north for about two hundred miles and is called the Alaska range. Basically from Anchorage north is a vast wilderness of mountains including large glacier fields. We flew down to Anchorage on Wednesday afternoon. That night Sister Spens was able to attend the all sisters conference at the mission home. We found Anchorage to be blanketed with a heavy snow that made us appreciate the four wheel drive vehicle that we borrowed from the mission. That car got us safely to the mission home on Wednesday night even though the roads were heavy with snow. Sister Spens enjoyed the sisters conference and Elder Spens was assigned to stay in his room that night during the conference.
     Sister Spens helped out by making cinnamon rolls for the missionaries for breakfast. Thursday late in the afternoon we went to dinner with the other CES couple the Schindler's and then attended the Anchorage Temple that night. On Friday we had CES training at the Anchorage institute however the 20 minute commute to the institute because of the heavy snow turned into over an hours commute. The training was also shortened because of the heavy snow so as to allow all participants an early start for their commute.  Several of the missionaries were snowed in at the mission home and were not able to leave for their areas until the weather lifted and the roads were better on Saturday.  It was wonderful to be able to spend time with them and feel their enthusiasm and spirits. 
     The "general authority" room pictured above is where we always stay when we are at the mission home in Anchorage. We are told that it has that name simply because of all of the general authorities that have stayed in that particular room while visiting in Alaska. It is simply a nice room in the mission home.
     On Friday night we attended the temple again along with the Wrigley family including Mallory who will leave this Tuesday for her mission in Brazil. The first of the week we spent in Delta Junction with the Wrigley family and visited the early morning seminary class pictured above. We continue to enjoy our work here with the institute and the early morning seminary. We have made so many wonderful friends and have come to love the YSA as if they were our own children or grand children.
 
Elder Spens and Sister Spens

    Elders and Sisters preparing for a special training meeting.

                         This morning after our Sacrament meeting.  Guess who was taking the picture.

         This is a view from the end of Skyline Dr. where we live looking into the city filled with ice fog. 
                                         You can see a roof top just around the bend in the road.

                  We found this moose track with others just a few feet from the entrance to our apartment.

NEWS  FROM FAIRBANKS:  It's the fifth coldest January on record since the gold miners came to Fairbanks and started keeping records.  Today it was -51 degrees at the airport at 11:00 AM.  It's been so cold that the towing companies have been doing a great business.  One towing company reported that one of their two trucks shut down with the cold as well.  Cars don't seem to like the cold and ours is no exception.

We are grateful to have had the spare mission car this week to get to the institute and back home again.  Our car is supposed to be back in business, but we have not heard from the repair shop yet.  Perhaps tomorrow we will get it back.  The weather is supposed to get warmer tomorrow.  We do hope so.  We had planned to go to Delta Junction to visit the seminary and wish Mallory good luck on her mission to Brazil, but the weather was too cold for safe travel today.  Because of the cold we only had sacrament meeting again.  The branch had planned a carnival for last Saturday, but that was cancelled as well because of the cold weather.  The ice fog has been very thick which makes driving in the city really tricky.  Since we live on the hills, we rarely have fog this high and our temperatures are somewhat warmer.  It was interesting to see the cars lined up for pictures to be taken by the UAF temperature sign today.  It's just crazy to see students in shorts and no shirts having their pictures taken by the sign.  You can bet they don't stay out very long!

We were delighted to have a new group of people from the stake come to our class on Tuesday.  We are trying to reach out and make more classes available.  I'm afraid no one came for my class on Wednesday.  It's a challenge to have classes during the day since so many have classes.  Sometimes we have small groups of students that request a weekday class.  It was very cold on Thursday.  We are very grateful for our faithful students.  Matt walks down from campus and usually comes with ice frozen to his beard and eyelashes.  We make sure that he gets a ride home either with us or with someone else.  We always invite people to bring their friends with them.  It is hard for us to see the drop in the number of students here.  We keep working on ways to invite and encourage them to come.

We are preparing to go to Anchorage this week for training.  However, the two CES missionary couples are the ones doing the training this time and I am a bit stressed to say the least.  The young elders reminded me that who the Lord calls, He qualifies.  I'm sure I'm learning a great deal in trying to prepare for this assignment. 

Transfers are this coming week, so some of the missionaries that we have come to love are being transferred.  We feel so blessed to be able to associate with the young missionaries.  They have great enthusiasm and a love for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.  Our sacrament meeting talks today were based on forgiveness and forgiving others.  I certainly hope my children will forgive me for some of the mistakes I made in trying to help them understand things that I felt were important.  It is important to learn and understand that we all have been given the agency to make choices for ourselves.  We must also remember that the Savior has promised to forgive us and welcome us home if we repent of our mistakes and forgive others.  As we strive to become more like the Savior, we will become more patient and loving. 

Have a wonderful week.
Love,
JoAnn and Jim

                                                   Ice sculpture polar bear, UAF's mascot.

                                                             This speaks for itself.

Our Institute library with all the books cataloged!

       On the way to the temple in Anchorage, Jim shot this nice picture of the Alaska Range from the bus.

                            Part of our rescue crew.  Note the tow truck on the right in the background.

  It has been a great week serving as missionaries here in Alaska. As you can see from the temperature sign  with Sister Spens bundled up that winter is solidly here at thirty eight below! This sign is on the UAF campus and is a popular place for the young Elders to have their pictures taken. We have adjusted to the cold of the north to a degree. When it gets up to around zero Fahrenheit it actually feels warm to us. When it is thirty or forty below you just cannot have any exposed skin for any length of time or you are in danger of frostbite. I helped with the changing of a tire in Anchorage last Saturday and worked with a metal jack without gloves but it was only a couple degrees below zero and I felt fine without hat or gloves.
     We started Institute classes for our spring semester this last week and we are off to a great start. Our population of YSA continues to diminish and so our classes are smaller. However , the young people are faithful and strong members and are great students to work with. Sister Spens as usual prepared great food for the young people and one young man said, "if you have food they will come".
The polar bear ice sculpting is also on the UAF campus across from the institute and is the schools mascot. The ice sculpting in the area seems to pop up about this time of the year and it should last for the next four months.
     We also had the opportunity of going to the temple in Anchorage this past week with the stake on a bus. About 54 people went down for the temple trip. It was a great experience and gave us the chance to associate with the great faithful members of the stake. There were about three YSA and three youths old enough to perform baptisms at the temple. The forested mountain picture is of the Alaska range south of Denali park. It was clear and beautiful weather for the trip.
     The picture of the four people clustered in front of our car are part of the rescue team that helped us just after the fireside with Elder Packer commemorating the 100 years of seminary. This event was held at the Fairbanks stake center. After the broadcast as we were driving down the road from the stake center our car just stalled and totally quit on us. We were in the middle of the road and I turned the flashers on and then a car pulled up behind us and a family that had been at the fireside got out and helped us push the car about 500 feet down the road and off to the side. Others gathered to help and the Elders arrived to take us to the back up mission car so we could have our car towed to the repair shop. Just then a tow truck drove by and I hailed them and asked them to tow the car to the shop. They were on the way to Healy and had time to take care of us as well.  We drove away with the Elders to retrieve the extra car and as we drove home Sunday night we felt blessed that the Lord had been watching over us with our car problems and provided immediate solutions to everything. We also felt blessed that the car decided to quit in town and that the weather was only -3 degrees.  It is great to be serving her as missionaries of the Lord.

Elder and Sister Spens

                             It was so good to see the sun that I had to take a picture out our window.

               Today's newspaper talks about the low temperatures we have been having.  It was -47 when Jim and President Olsen went to pick up a returning student last night. 

  In his spare time this summer, Jim created this birch bowl similar to one we saw in the Anchorage Museum.

            Another artifact replica of a knife and box with Tlingit designs that Jim made this summer.

We started out this week with specialized training for the missionaries at the Institute with Pres. and Sister Beesley.  It is always a pleasure to have them come and feel their testimonies.  Their encouragement and direction to the missionaries is a blessing.  We appreciate the time we have to spend with them.  Their son was also with them this time sharing their mission experience.

With classes starting this week, we have been preparing lessons and schedules.  We are excited every time we see one of the students return from the holidays.  We expect others to come back this week as well that were gone for Fall semester.  I have also been working on completing the cataloging of the books in the library.  Each day I get closer to the end.  I hope it will be helpful.  We have had a lot of use of the library last semester, and I hope it will continue.

This week we stopped by a quilt store near the Institute that I had seen before.  I saw a quilt in the store that caught my eye.  It was called a 10-minute block quilt.  It looks like we may be having more weddings in the future, so I decided to give it a try and get ahead of things.  Sister Olsen has quite a collection of fabric that she had offered to build these quilts.  I was able to find some fabrics that went together quite well.  When the weather is well below -40, it is easy to spend preparation day sewing in the warm house.  It's much easier to create quilt throws than bed quilts as well.  They are not as large.

Today it was -45 degrees and there was ice fog in the valley.  That means that we only have sacrament meeting.  The cold can be dangerous if you get stuck.  We offered to stop by and pick up Trisha and Cristina on the way to church, but they said they would be fine.  Half way to church, we got a call asking us to come to their rescue.  Trisha's car would not start.  Often on cold mornings our meetings are a little slow to start in hopes that others will arrive.  This morning they were waiting for us.  We had a wonderful talk from the stake primary president on the importance of having courage.  She talked about Queen Ester in the Old Testament and how much she needed courage to go before the king.  However, she prepared herself by fasting and prayer and asked her people to do the same in her behalf.  We all have things in our lives that require a great amount of courage.  It takes courage to live the commandments and to be examples of those who love the Savior and show it by the lives we live.  We are grateful for family and friends who have shown us great examples of courage in the face of illness or life's troubles--or even when life seems relatively good.

We are so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We love serving here in Alaska even in the cold.  Our hearts are warm with our testimonies that Jesus Christ lives and that this is His church restored to the earth for the last time.  He loves all of us and wants us to follow Him so that we can return to Him someday.

With love,
JoAnn and Jim