Alaska Mission

Why did the moose decide not to cross the road?   (He didn't want to be someone's dinner.)

A view of our icy roads.

A newspaper photographer caught this image of the aurora on Thursday night.

This has been an interesting week of things to be thankful for.  The weather has been in the 20's during the day time, and it feels so warm!  The ice on the roads is sublimating and most of the roads are getting pretty clear of ice.   Especially those that are not in the shade of the trees.  The city road teams are loading the snow on the sides of the road in dump trucks and hauling it away to prevent flooding in the city once it decides to get warm enough to melt.  The icy road picture was taken today and shows what we have been driving on all winter. 

On our way to home evening group, we came upon a moose that was having a hard time deciding whether or not to cross the road.  Finally it gave up and moved back.  We have been so blessed with safety.  Fifty moose have been killed this winter in Fairbanks alone by being hit by cars.  It usually totals the cars.  At our home evening, we had a wonderful lesson by Trisha Haines on gratitude.  Trisha is a wonderful girl.  She has been investigating the church for over a year and a half.  We are blessed to have met her.

Tuesday we noticed the back tire was looking low.  We searched everywhere on the way home from the Institute to find an air pump.  None of the service stations had a working air pumps.  As soon as we got home, Jim checked the pressure and decided that we needed to go right back to Sears where we bought the tires and see what was wrong.   They found a screw in the tire and were able to fix it for free.  Another blessing.  We might have been in big trouble if we had waited until morning--especially since we had to be at the Institute for Seminary inservice at 6:00 am. 

Classes this week have been great.  We have had many comments from those in our classes that we taught them just what they had needed that day.  Another blessing.  As we left the Institute, the sky was full of the northern lights.  We had seen a faint green band several times, but this time it was swirling and moving all over the sky.  Our camera doesn't have the ability to take a long exposure, so we borrowed a picture from newsminer.com.  The newspaper had a big spread and titled it "A Night to Remember."  We drove home and went to the top of our hill to watch it for quite a while.  It was really exciting.  A long exposure camera intensifies the colors quite a bit.  We feel blessed to have seen such a wonderful display.  What a beautiful world we have been blessed to live on.

Saturday evening we had Elder Smith and Elder Gledhill for dinner.  It's always a blessing to share time with the elders.  They always leave a wonderful message.  Today Sister Olsen (the Branch Presidents wife and also our landlord) and I were invited to attend Priesthood Meeting.  We were on a panel along with our husbands for open questions about life, etc.  It turned out to be very enlightening to all of us.  Our testimonies of the blessings of the Lord in our lives have helped us grow and learn and hopefully teach our family of the importance of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We are so grateful for our knowledge that we can be forgiven of our sins and mistakes and someday return to live with our Father in Heaven and with Jesus Christ and with our families forever if we remain faithful.  So many blessings!!

Love to all of you,
JoAnn and Jim