Alaska Mission

                    We had to stop and take a picture of the beautiful sunrise on the way to the Institute.

                                  Trisha in Pres. Olsen's judge's robes for Halloween at home evening.

 Elder Ulu'ave on the far right and Elder Williams at our apartment for a final dinner before Elder Ulu'ave
leaves for his double home of Utah and Hawaii.

                                   Sandy and Cameron at Sandy's baptism this last Saturday.

The top picture is looking into the deep southwest as the sun starts is winter decline. We still have about eight hours of daylight but the day length continues to shorten. The Alaskan winter has more or less settled in with days and nights hovering around zero degrees. The little snow we get is so powdery that it blows of of the road and also the car. We have started to plug the car into our block heater that comes on for three hours before we start the car in the mornings. The heater and the remote start are real advantages here in Alaska.

The next picture of Trisha is at our family night Halloween party. I think she really enjoyed putting on Judge Olsen's robes since she works as a law clerk here in Fairbanks. The party was great fun and we were overwhelmed with Halloween goodies since the were very few trick or treaters who came to the house. Even though Trisha is not a member yet President Olsen asked her to be the director of our family home evening and to host it at her apartment.                                                                                                                                                                 The picture of the two zone leaders was taken at our apartment when we had the farewell dinner for Elder Ulu'ave. At dinner we found that he knows Ti Salakielu from Hawaii and has been to the Salakielu home in Sandy as well.

The last picture is of Sandy's baptism. She is truly a very spiritual lady. Cameron came to UAF in the Physics department last year and Sandy is the secretary of the department. Cameron had the opportunity to introduce her to the gospel and she has been investigating for the last year. She finally met with the missionaries and committed to baptism. She said that she has been looking for the right church to join and had been seeking the truth for the past three years. She is extremely happy to have found the true church and to have been baptized. Her husband is already recognizing that she has changed with her acceptance of the gospel.
 
We have experienced two great firesides this week end. First Elder Holland and Bishop Burton came to Anchorage on Saturday and presented a fireside on Saturday night that was broadcast to Fairbanks stake. Then on Sunday night the CES fireside was a presentation by Elder Packer. It has been great to have been instructed by members of the quorum of the twelve this weekend.

Jim and JoAnn