Alaska World Ice Art Championships

                                                            Ice sculpting of an Indian

                                    This train ice sculpting is huge like fifteen feet tall and twenty feet long!

                                             This multiple piece was called "Garden Party".

                  At night the colored light give a different look to the pieces like this viking ship.

                                      This is a Chinese themed work with all kinds of animals. 

               This is a large leopard after a porcupine.  It was one of our favorites. It took first place in the contest for the multi-block carvings.

This final piece is one that some of our young people had been working on during the day we visited the international ice sculpting contest. It was the first time that they had done any ice sculpting. It was a pair of wings still waiting for details on the rest of the ice block. President Olsen and Elder Spens both worked on the ice with a wood working chisel to just get the feel of what it was like to carve in ice and it was very unique. We had a sizable group of young single adults attending an activity at the ice festival. There are people that come from all over the world to work on the carving competition. Some work on single blocks of ice like five by eight and two feet thick and others work on multiple blocks and get some of the works up fifteen or twenty feet into the air. There is a small lake next to the festival area where they cut the block of ice. It is amazingly clear with few bubbles and is free of any derbies that would discolor the ice. It is clear as glass even though it is two feet thick.

President Olsen is the branch president of t the YSA branch and even though he is our land lord and we live in his basement we have become very good friends with him and his wife. We actually have a lot in common with them including the raising of five boys and three girls. He has interests in wood and metal working and she is a quilter. We have come to know many of the LDS families that live here in the Fairbanks stake and we would include them now as our friends. Since we have never been transferred while serving here in Fairbanks and probably will not be transferred any where else our circle of friends from here continues to grow. Of course our main circle of friends are the YSA group and that group continues to add to our list of friends as well. Although the YSA group is in a state of constant change with all of their coming and going.  We also have a set of missionaries assigned to the YSA branch, and we have just received a new set of young men to work at the branch. We do work closely with them and do all we can to support and encourage their missionary activities. We continue to have investigators come to institute class that have been invited by the YSA's.

We are beginning to see some definite signs of the approaching spring here in Alaska. The sun is now high enough in the sky during the day to feel heat and the sun is warming the air, trees and the ground. We are actually seeing some beginnings of melting!  They call it the break up season rather than spring because of the many rivers that thread through the country. When the ice gets thin enough and the rivers start to flow enough the break up occurs and the rivers become navigable once again. They still use the large rivers to access the many villages along their shores.

We are looking forward to general conference this weekend and we always set up the institute for the viewing of all of the sessions along with breakfast goodies on Saturday and a pancake breakfast between sessions on Sunday. President Olsen challenged all of us at our family night to watch conference with the idea of having either questions on our mind to be answered or to simply listen to see what President Monson and the other general authorities will be teaching us to do. We are continuing to enjoy our calling as CES missionaries in the great Anchorage Alaska Mission.

 Elder and Sister Spens

 Occasionally we have to wait for a moose to cross the road in front of us and this one seemed to be in no hurry as it just lumbered across in front of us. They are about the size of a large draft horse.

 Sister Spens at the tomato green house at Chena hot springs. There are ripe tomatoes on those vines.

A YSA from the branch Eric is the greenhouse manager at the Chena Hot Springs greenhouses. That is lettuce growing in a hydroponic system and doing quite well.

 The pond behind is a hot spring at the Chena Hot Springs resort. It is a popular swimming spot here in Fairbanks. Pond temp. about 100 degrees air temp. about -4 degrees.

We had a zone conference this week and this is the zone picture with us and the Beesleys in the center.  Sorry some missionaries got cut off in the picture.

 We have an energetic pair of sisters working here in the Fairbanks area. Everyone loves the sister missionaries.

 The Alaska flag with the big dipper is also part of the symbolism of the mission logo.

That is a fire engine that was part of the experience at the Music Man production.

We had great Auroral displays this week. They were intense enough that we were able to see them from the area of the institute for the first time. This shows the top story of the house we are living in.

     This has been spring break at UAF and so there were no institute classes this week. We had a little time so we drove out to the Chena Hot Springs resort where a young single adult member of the branch is greenhouse manager. It is really quit amazing to see the vegetables growing and doing very well at their facility. We had lunch at the resort which included a delicious salad from the greenhouse and then had a guided tour of the greenhouses. All the plants are grown in a hydroponic system and the heat and light is all generated from the hot springs so it is very inexpensive to grow the plants. The road out to the Chena hot springs is pretty much a solid ice sheet. It is like driving on a scatting rink. We tried to pull a car that had slid of the road but we could not get any traction on the slick road to pull the car out. You can drive in those conditions but you just have to be very cautious.
     We have two brand new Elders serving the YSA branch and after a meeting with the branch president they proceeded to become stuck in our driveway. They had just slid off the relatively steep driveway and could not get out. I was able to hook our tow strap to their car and pull them down the driveway about thirty feet through the snow and free their car. I guess we should have taken a picture of that situation but our main concern was to get them out and on their way.
     We seem to see the moose on  a regular basis because we have been told that the moose herd here in the greater Fairbanks area is larger than it has ever been because the wolves that were their natural predators have been eliminated in the area. They are always interesting animals to watch. They seem to be quit oblivious to human presence and do not spook or run away easily.
     We had a zone conference this week and our mission president and his wife came up to Fairbanks along with two other senior couples who are in charge of vehicles and apartments. It was fortunate that we had a great Auroral display for them especially on Friday night. The zone conference was great. We had wonderful training from the zone leaders, the mission assistants and Pres. and Sister Beesley. Most of the training is in the proselyting domain which is not our exact assignment, however it is still very helpful since we have direct working relationship with the branch elders and the investigators they often bring to institute classes. Sister Spens made a batch of her famous home-made sweet rolls for breakfast at the zone conference. The zone conferences are always great spiritual experiences and a time to renew our commitment to serve the Lord in our missionary assignments.
    Lastly the picture of the fire engine above was a unique event. Our family evening group had gone the a performance of the Music Man put on by the Fairbanks Light Opera Society at the West Vally High School auditorium.  Gary Holyoak from our branch presidency took part with his barbershop quartet.  Well, during the performance the fire alarm system went off and we had to evacuate the building and stand out in the parking lot at -4 degrees and wait for the all clear. We waited about fifteen minutes and then returned to a great performance.  On our way home we saw a beautiful display of the northern lights as a finale to the evening.
                                                                                                             
 Elder and Sister Spens

This is Alaska.

      We are showing some things that are different here is Alaska.  We do not have garbage trucks so everyone takes their garbage to the Transfer Site.  There are big dumpsters there for trash of all kinds.

 This is part of the Transfer Site.  Here people deposit whatever they think someone else might be able to use under this covered area.  Anything there is up for grabs you might say.  I have even heard of automobiles being left at the transfer site.  There are always people looking for things that might be of value to them.

 This is the weather vane at the UAF campus.  I thought Calan might like these.  This is only a part of the weather vane.  It show the history of air travel right into the space era.  It's fun to watch when it's moving.

The front of the Institute building.  We never use the front doors. 

 This truck is hauling water home to their dry cabin or home.  Some homes have wells, but there are a lot of homes that have to have water brought by the water trucks or they haul their own in these tanks in the back of their pickups. 

These dogs have just come back from a run and are having dinner.  Notice the interesting dog hotel on the back of this truck.  Dog sled racing is still a very important sport in Alaska.  The dogs used to pull the sleds are not husky dogs anymore.  They are strong and sleek.  It is fun to see dogs wearing boots while they are out for walks with their owners. 

 Here are the rest of the dogs .  We pass the Dog Mushing Association Hall almost every day on the way to the Institute.  They have a huge field with lots of trails to run on. 

Sorry the picture is a bit dark, but this moose and it's brother walked right past our car at our apartment.  We took this picture as quickly as we could out of our window.   Moose have walked through the yard before, but this is the first time we caught them.

As you can tell be the pictures, we do have sunshine!  However, daylight savings time doesn't make much sense here in the summer when we have about 23 hours of daylight!  It will be spring soon, but as you can tell from the pictures, it is a long ways away here in Alaska. 

This week has been great as usual.  Some of the missionaries we have come to know well are leaving and others are going home tomorrow.  It has been wonderful to be able to work with them and get to know them.  This week is "Spring Break".  I'm not sure why they think it is spring.  We don't have classes this week, but we are still preparing for classes next week and working on institute things.  We had a missionary return home last week.  I decided to make up an invitation to Institute classes and send it to his home via the missionaries from the Branch.  He was at the institute within a few hours.  I was so pleased!  It's great to have return missionaries in our classes.  I was so pleased that the number of students in my class keeps going up.  They are such great young people.  We have learned to love all of them.

We are on the way to Family Home Evening with our group.  Hope you are doing the same.  We love you!

JoAnn and Jim

                           This ice bear looks like the crystal candy bears we used to get at Christmas.

                                       A spotted seal ice carving at the entrance to the Ice Festival.

Welcome to Alaska and the Ice Festival.

                        Jung Ames, one of our "graduated/married" young adults and her sweet daughter.

                                          This would be Sister Spens desk at the institute.

                                            Surprise, we found Cristina is already a family friend.

     The pictures above represent friends, events and conditions here in the great Anchorage Alaska mission. As our adventures continue so do our circle of friends and associations and even additions as shown above with the birth of a child of one of the young adults that had just been baptized before our arrival eighteen months ago. And by the way we are now on one of the new six month senior missions as that is approximately the time we have remaining in our assignment here. I have the feeling that the time will pass all to quickly. We are already approaching midterm break in the spring semester of the institute class schedule and we are thinking about the summer schedule of classes.
     The ice sculpting above is representative of pieces all over town. It is a very popular activity here in Fairbanks due to the constant cold that preserves the ice. The international ice festival is currently underway and it attracts artists from around the world.
       As you can see above Sister Spens desk area is highly organized  as our assignment has finally taken on a certain routine with teaching institute classes, conducting inservice for early morning seminary as well as taking care of all of the attendance and grading records, etc. We have also had three new seminary teachers to train and get set up for this semester. Even though we still have plenty to do at least we are not quite so overwhelmed with the whole thing, but rather just keep going and working and moving the work of the Lord in these areas along to the best of our abilities.
     Cristina pictured above is a law clerk working here in Fairbanks in the court system. She also happened to stay at Andrea and Trevor house while in Salt Lake because of her relation to the Chileans that visited Trevor from his mission. We were all surprised with the connections between her and our family.
     We had a great CES fireside with Elder Quentin Cook as the speaker. He basically told the young adults that they were a great generation that were more prepared in terms of their spiritual preparation than any generation in the past. They are called by some the millennial generation and some think they are ill prepared for their future. However, Elder Cook chose to differ and said that the youth of the church and especially the 18 to 30 year olds have better preparation than any other generation in the restored church and will take their place as leaders, fathers and mothers in Zion and that the church is in good hands.

Love,
Jim and JoAnn

 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