Here we are in the forests of Alaska where heavy stands of birch
                                           trees are common. We actually live in the forest.

                                          The birch is a hard wood that people like to burn if they can
                                          get it. The Alaska black spruce is more common and is
                                          used for firewood more often. Lots of people burn wood
                                          here, and for many it is their only source of heat.

                                          On our walk we ran into fresh moose tracks in the snow.

We have been warned that if we come into contact with moose while out walking that we should just wait and give the moose the right of way. The moose may defend  their right to use the trail most aggressively.

On the other hand our car still seems to be resisting the cold temperatures here. On Monday one of our power steering hoses blew off.  Fortunately  it occurred right in our own driveway and not out on one of our trips to visit early morning seminaries. The Mission keeps an extra car here in Fairbanks that we able to use while ours was being repaired.  We are back on the road again. On Thursday, we went to the DMV to take our Alaska driving test and get our licenses.  Our studying paid off, and we passed every question. 

A Chinook moved in and it warmed up to 40 degrees on Sunday. It was 20 degrees when we arrived at church and it felt by comparison quite comfortable.  We understand that our cold weather has been transferred to Utah.  One of the blessings of being here in the mission field is the time we have to study the gospel. We are both enjoying this opportunity especially as we prepare to teach the many classes at the institute this coming spring semester.  Seminary starts again this week, but Institute classes begin when the University starts again on Jan. 20.

As we begin this new year, we encourage our family and friends to find the blessings that come from regular family prayer, family home evening, family scripture study, and family meals together.  We have been promised blessings that will strengthen our families as we do these things.   We love you all so very much.

Jim and JoAnn

                        Getting close to the total eclipse of the moon with my point and shoot camera.
                                              Sorry it was snowing in Utah and you missed it.

                                                      Noon on the shortest day of the year. 

                                                          Winter solstice at our apartment.
                                      That's the sun showing through in the lower part of the bushes.

                                                  A sneaky raven waiting for something to eat.
                                              Ravens get very big and fat here and are all over.

With the solstice, the days in Alaska will be getting longer.  It has not really been bad and now it will getting brighter every day.  Life in Alaska is always interesting.  This past week we were not allowed in the building because the sewer lines were frozen out in the parking lot.  It took close to 48 hours to get the pipes defrosted and functioning.  That gave us an extra preparation day to get ready for Christmas Eve.  We had a wonderful time with the Elders and Sisters in Fairbanks and North Pole.  We fed 12 plus a guest at the Institute on Christmas Eve.  It seemed to be a treat for them to have some enchiladas for a change. 

Christmas Day was a new experience for us.  We have pretty much missed the rush of shopping, parties, and the stress the holidays can bring.  On Christmas morning we went the the Catholic church to help out.  They fed about 200 people althought they expected more.  Those that came were mostly native Indians that needed help or were homeless.  It was my opportunity to help Saint Nicholas give gifts to the children and adults.  Each of the adults received a package with a pair of warm socks and other useful things.  The children received a toy.  There were wonderful people from so many different churches helping out and all working together to ease the suffering of those around them.  One man had bandages on his hands from frost bite that he got that night.  It is very cold to be outside for very long.

It was so much fun to talk to grandkids and children and parents on Christmas Day.  We are so blessed.  May you all be blessed with a wonderful, healthy and happy new year.

Love,
JoAnn and Jim

MERRY CHRISTMAS

                                                    Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

                                                              A couple of hungry moose.

                                              The Alaskan Pipeline hanging over a frozen river.

                                                      The temperature is dropping.  As you
                                                          can see its 40 below zero!!

The top picture was taken at the Institute where we spend most of our time with the young single adults. We thought it had a Christmas flavor with the manger scene in the middle.  Since the University of Alaska at Fairbanks or UAF as the students call it is closed for a three week Christmas break our classes have ceased as well.  We are in a planning and preparation time for spring semester where we will be doing all of the teaching with student day classes, night classes as well as stake sponsored adult classes.  The next picture down is of the ubiquitous moose.  We are starting to see more and more of them.  We were right behind a truck that had just collided on the icy road with a moose that pretty well caved in the front grill of the truck. Then that afternoon when we arrived home we found that couple of moose had been at our very door eating some of the dry dead flowers and grasses at our window.  Literally they were inches away from where we look out to our car when we remote start it in the mornings.

The next picture is where we drove right next to the Trans Alaska petroleum four foot in diameter pipe which runs parallel to the road by the Tanana river.  The last picture is in the yard of family in Delta Junction where we stayed the night while on a trip to Delta Junction and Tok to visit early morning seminary classes. However when it is thirty below zero the classes are canceled so we just had a nice trip, met the young missionary elders and made so new friends with the people we stayed with for two nights.  Our car has done some strange things in the extreme cold like having idle speeds vary from zero where the engine just stops to two thousand RPM where the car will do fifty on the road without touching the gas peddle.

This evening we were able to attend a fireside and met many new people in the ward we really live in.  We had a delightful time remembering special Christmas times, singing, and hearing wonderful stories.  It made JoAnn think of the kindness and effort her parents put into making Christmas special.  Her favorite memory, though was when Michael was born just before Christmas.  It brought the spirit of the Christ Child into our home that year.  May you be blessed with love and happiness this season and throughout the year to come. 

Have a Merry Christmas.
 Jim and JoAnn

                                                     Tonight's temperature -30 degrees

                                    Look, it's the sun.  What time do you think it is?                                   

                                                            Light poles in North Pole.

                                               Good weather for a nice photo of the mountains.

It's been another fun week.  We continue to have new experiences each day.  The temperature is starting to get colder, but we expect it to do better than that.  We really are staying warm.   Most of the gas for the car is used up in warming it up before we go someplace.  Cars really don't like very cold weather.

This week was the last day of Institute classes until school starts again in January.   I decided we needed to have a Christmas Party after classes.  We always have "munch and mingle" after class, but I tried to make this special.  We feel very blessed to be able to associate with such great young people.  I'm going to accompany a couple of solos on Sunday, so I have had a chance to practice on the newly tuned pianos.  It's fun to be able to practice with a purpose.

We have prepared the schedule for classes next semester and already have had a request for two additional classes.  When 3 or more students want to schedule a weekday class, we are going to try to provide those classes for them.  They have to give us a time slot that will fit their schedules.  It's not quite the same in a small institute.  We are also offering another night class for anyone who would like to come.  We will be studying the Gospels and ending class at Easter time.  That should be a wonderful class.  We are also scheduling a class for Relief Society ladies in the day time.  We will be studying the teachings of the living prophets.  I'm really looking forward to have a chance to teach as well as do secretarial work.  We had a great inservice meeting with our seminary teachers this week but had a bit of technical difficulty which didn't allow others out of town to call in.  We will do better next time.  (Oh, the time is 12:45 p.m. for the picture--lunch time.)

We do miss some of the frantic preparations with family for the Christmas season, but have been able to feel more peace and joy in thinking of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  May you find time to reflect on the Savior and read His words.  His life was the greatest gift of all.

Love,
Jim and JoAnn

                                        A view of the main part of Fairbanks from the University.

                                                                Our Christmas window.

                                      Our Christmas decorations borrowed from Sister Olsen, upstairs.

                                                                  This is our kitchen.

                                                        Another view of our living room. 

This is just a  little tour of our house so you know where we live.  We have always liked to see our children's homes so that we can picture where they live.  It was wonderful to be able to talk to so many of the family after Gavin's baptism on Saturday.  We are so pleased with his desire to be baptized and to follow the Savior.  It was especially nice to see and talk to Mom and Dad.  Technology is wonderful.  This afternoon we enjoyed seeing the First Presidency Christmas Devotional with the branch members.  We have grown to love the young people that we have met here in Fairbanks.  They are so excited about sharing the gospel with their friends. 

We had some Alaskan technical difficulties with our apartment this week.  The vent pipes on the roof froze and we got the benefit of sewer gasses.  It was pretty nasty.  It took a couple of days to realize that the washer/dryer in the bathroom was not plumbed correctly.  While I went to a Relief  Society meeting with Sister Olsen, Jim and Bro. Olsen put a "P" trap in the plumbing and no more problems.  There are some unique problems here that we are learning to live with. 

What a wonderful time of year to think about our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We are so blessed to know that He lives and did live.  His birth was so humble and His life and example so extraordinary and perfect.  May we remember Him this holiday season and do something for someone that may need help and follow His example.

We love you.
Jim and JoAnn

                                              We will soon be taking the state of Alaska's drivers
                                               test so we need to be familiar with the regulatory signs.
                                               So how about the one above just down the road from
                                               where we live. Moose crossing so watch out!

 

                                                 Her is another unusual regulatory sign. Dogs sleds
                                                 and mushing are very popular here in Fairbanks.
                                                 This is apparently a popular crossing area.

                                                     It warmed up to 12 degrees today so we went for
                                                     a long walk through the woods above the University
                                                     of Alaska. We saw fresh moose track and a couple
                                                     of dogs on the 'pooch' trail.

This has been a unusual week.  Monday started with warm temperatures and freezing rain.  It was our first experience with freezing rain.  It's a skating rink out there.  Because of this unusual weather schools and seminary were closed for the week.  Warm weather made it possible to make snowmen - a rare occurrence here.  We understand we swapped weather for a few days.

Thanksgiving Day brought many thoughts of blessings we have received.  We missed being with our family, but we were invited to share Thanksgiving with a member family.  It was fun to see different traditions.  One of their traditions is a pie fest.  There were about 25 people for dinner and 18 different kinds of pies!

Saturday we decided to brave the cold (it was back again) and go for a walk.  I kept thinking about "walking in a winter wonderland."  In Alaska there are a lot of winter trails for cross country skiing.  We found some trails that allowed foot travel.  Unfortunately, they were about 18" wide and very lumpy.  It was amazing to me that at each of the crossroads we met a couple walking their dog.  They were able to guide us to the correct path.  Other than that we didn't see anyone.  I thought about how often we are guided in our lives to take the path that is best for us.  I know if we stay close to the Lord, he will guide us in the decisions that we make.  (Our trek included walking across a frozen lake - a new experience for me.)

Tonight was the baptism of Staci Homelvig, a student that has been taught by the Elders mostly at the institute.  She is a wonderful girl and so very happy with the choice she has made.

 Have a wonderful week.  We love you.
JoAnn & Jim

                                         Our first moose sighting on the way home from church.
                                          There are warning signs on the roads here in town but
                                          they seem to keep to the woods

                                    Sunrise from our road with the Denali range in the background.
                                    From here Denali is about 125 miles away across the forested plain.

                                            Elder Spens with the ice sculpture at North Pole. Can
                                           you tell which is which?

                                          Sister Spens with her warm coat good to -45 degrees.
                                          Anyone for a sleigh ride?

                                          Sunset from the Institute building. The sun at mid-day is
                                          only as high as the tops of the trees in the foreground.

                                      Denali park in the winter.It is cold wind swept and abandoned.

       We drove down to Denali  while visiting early morning seminary teachers in outlying towns. In winter even though the park is open it is pretty well abandoned. All commercial hotels , gift shops and restaurants are closed and snow blown.  Most all visitor facilities are shut down at the park as well.  The park rangers do have several dog sled teams you can rent with a guide to venture into the park.  The Nenana valley where Fairbanks is located is a vast sub-arctic forested plain that supports a very large population of moose. There are a lot of them that live here in town but there is so much forest that you just don't see them to often especially in the winter.
         We are starting to work on the curriculum for nest semester at the institute, and I believe we will be teaching more classes and be much busier.  It has warmed up today to 29 degrees and that seems very warm after weeks of around zero. We are starting to see dog sled activity as the snow gets a little deeper and we have seen people with a single dog pulling them along on cross country skies which seems to be quite the thing here. We are have a big Thanksgiving dinner/family home evening with all of the young single adults on the Monday of  Thanksgiving week. It is apparently the big event for the season. Last week I taught the Doctrine and Covenants class and it was the first time that we did not have any young single adult investigators attending. We are in constant communication with the proselyting elders assigned to the single adult branch and Institute and trying to come up with ways to introduce young people to the church.  JoAnn has invited the Elders over for dinner on Thanksgiving eve for a good spaghetti dinner.
          We are so grateful for family and friends that have taught us so much.  Each day is another blessing.  We continue to pray for you and for your families.  How grateful we are to be able to serve the Lord on this mission.  May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,
Jim and JoAnn