We live in the endless forest of the interior of Alaska and this time of year it is truly a winter wonderland of perfectly white snow on the ground, trees and roads. There is no dirty snow anywhere only whiteness.  (This is especially for you in Utah who are missing a snowy winter.  Note there is no bright sun shining on the snow.)

Sister Spens and Sister Rivera in the institute kitchen. The kitchen is a great gathering place not only for the young adults but the young missionaries as well.

This is a picture of a picture of Joe Verhagaen taken on his front steps in the town of Nenana. He is in the MTC in Utah preparing to go to what used to be the Eastern States Mission (in 1962-64) but now is many missions, and he is going to the New York City South Mission.

  

This last picture is kind of a farewell shot of Hannah and Mallory as Hannah was leaving to go to BYU Idaho and Mallory is preparing to leave for a full time mission in Brazil in a month when her visa arrives.  

The interior of Alaska is truly a beautiful place to be in the winter because it is really a wonderland of white. It would be kind of like living in the high Uinta mountains if they were flat and the snow was only one foot deep. Winter is absolutly intriguing and the extreme cold just adds to the uniqueness of the land. Where else in the world is the gospel affected by the temperature? If it is below 30 degrees early morning seminary is canceled and the Sunday block of meetings is reduced to just sacrament meeting. At 50 below all Sunday meetings are canceled. 

We saw  a moose the other day by the UAF campus. The moose herd stays in the heavily forested section of Fairbanks and so they are not seen to often, but they are there and just wander and browse on twigs all winter. Their physiology requires that they stay on the move. We have had tracks in our yard where they have crossed the property.  

Speaking of the kitchen above Sister Spens made cookies for the CES fireside at the institute tonight where Elder Jay Jensen spoke of the subject of the Holy Ghost. He gave a marvelous discourse on the significance of the Holy Ghost to us as members of the church. Having the Holy Ghost as our guide in teaching has been uppermost on our minds  in our CES teaching mission. 

The last couple of pictures just reaffirm the importance of our relationships with the young single adults while serving here. They are truly the light and life of our missionary experience whether they are young new converts or investigators or young adults preparing to serve missions or returned missionaries, they all are great people to work with. To set an example for and to teach them is a great challenge. They are truly the strength of the church for the coming years. Those family members who read this also need to know that as our children (and their spouses) and grandchildren are also the light and life of our lives. We constantly pray for the Lord to bless you and all of your families to have the Lord's spirit with you to bless and strengthen your families.

Elder and Sister Spens (or Mom and Dad) 

           Last week this is where the sun was at noon day only about two degrees above the horizon and needless to say not much heat from the sun.

                                    Sister Lolita Gridley--she loves missionaries and was born and raised in                                   Alaska and makes the "kuspuk" style aprons as modeled above.

                                 Some of the young single adults at the Verhagens' home for a party. The Verhagens' came to Alaska in the 70's to work for one year and ended up staying and raising their family in the small villages. They are a great and strong LDS family.

                      One side of a battle of nerf bullets blown through pvc tubes at the Verhagen home.

                                A grizzly bear display at the Museum of the North on UAF campus.

                                        Line dancing any one?  Happy New Year's Eve party.

                   Our little Christmas tree.  (That's not a ufo--just a reflection of a light in the window.) The suburban's little resting spot beyond our apartment. The car actually gets cleaner as the winter progresses because the snow is so clean since everything is permanently frozen. No dirty roads in the winter here.

How blessed we are to be able to contact our family on Christmas Day and later at the family party through the miracles of cell phones and computers.  It was especially fun for us to meet Shellie, my brother Jack's wife.  We look forward to meeting her in person later this year.  We are so grateful for all of our family and extended families.  We pray for continued health and strength for Mom and Dad.  It was fun to be able to "see" them on the computer for a few minutes and talk to them.

Although the institute was closed for Christmas, we were able to keep busy.  It was nice to have some quiet time to relax and get refreshed.  We have met several new people at the Branch and have invited them to attend institute classes when then start up again.  In the mean time, I have been working hard on the library and Jim has been studying for upcoming classes.  It's been so fun to see our friends that have come home for the holidays.

Every day it gets a little lighter during the day if it's not cloudy.  Today we had exactly 4 hours of sunlight!  I will admit, it's hard to get used to the darkness.  However, the cheerful faces of our friends here add sunshine to our souls.  One of those kind people is Sister Gridley.  When we were at her home for dinner a couple of weeks ago, I saw some "kuspuks" or summer Eskimo dresses that she makes to sell.  She offered to let me copy some of her patterns.  She also makes "kuspuk" style aprons.  I asked her if  I could have a copy of that pattern and she gave me an apron already made!   Feeding the missionaries every other week is one of her great joys.

Friday we drove to Nenana to share some time with the Verhagens before the start for Juneau for the legislative session again.  The boys invited us to their party and we took Randi and Karlie Ellingson and Joslyn Feddern with us.  The kids had a great time playing games and having a war of nerf blow darts while we enjoyed talking to Paul and Merrily (the parents) and learning more about them.  Paul told us that the natives play a lot of mind games during the winter hours to keep their minds sharp.  We will miss the boys while they are in Juneau, but Elder and Sister Schindler are anxious to add them to their classes.

Saturday we decided to brave the cold and go to the fireworks on campus.  The museum opens for one hour before the fireworks with no admission fee.  There were a lot of families with small children there enjoying the displays and staying warm for a while.  It was -27 degrees outside for the fireworks.  I was quite warm with my real Alaska mittens and my warm coat, but with a dress on, my legs got a bit cold!  It was a delightful display of fireworks that lasted about 15 minutes.  I don't think we could have handled much more.  Afterwards, we went to the Institute for the Branch New Year's Eve dance and party.  They were having a good time and we only stayed about an hour.  We were home when the new year arrived.  Today because of the cold temperatures, we only had Sacrament Meeting.  The theme of the meeting was repentance, or making resolutions to live better lives which repentance is all about.  How blessed we are to know that Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to return to live with Him and our Father in Heaven if we will repent and keep His commandments.  Those commandments are to help us become more like Him.

I was very impressed with an article in the Ensign, Dec. 2011, titled "Take a Gratitude Challenge," by John Hilton III and Anthony Sweat.  I'd like to share it with you.


"Let's not just talk about counting our blessings--let's do it!  Write a list of 100 things you are thankful for.  If that sounds like it is too many, try this:
   1.  Write 10 physical abilites you are grateful for.
   2.  Write 10 material possessions you are grateful for.
   3.  Write 10 living people you are grateful for.
   4.  Write 10 deceased people you are grateful for.
   5.  Write 10 things about nature you are grateful for.
   6.  Write 10 things about today you are grateful for.
   7.  Write 10 places on earth you are grateful for.
   8.  Write 10 modern inventions you are grateful for.
   9.  Write 10 foods you are grateful for.
  10.  Write 10 things about the gospel you are grateful for.

"When we make a list like this, we discover that a list of 100 doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of all the things God has given us."

As we begin this new year, let us be more aware of the blessings of the Lord and of the kindness of those around us.  May you be blessed with a happy new year filled with gratitude and love.

Love,
JoAnn & Jim

                                   District meeting with the elders ends up with lunch and a little fun.

                                          A special sewing "class" with Heidi and Katrina Miller.

                                                Helping Sage Lewis get ready for some sewing.

After Christmas dinner with Matt Chandler, Riley Nelson and Gary Holyoak.

                                                     Deck the halls with all the grandkids.

       Mae, Spencer, Grahm, Aidan, Gabe, McKay, Calan, Jake, Izzie, Morgan, Gabi, Cate, Gavin, Owen                      Nora, Tanner, Keaton, Taya, Kyla, Tayler, Claira, Parley (opps), McKenna, Lexie, Elizabeth, Lucas

What a wonderful Christmas Day.  We had a chance to talk to most of the family today and yesterday.  That was our highlight.  Today we only had Sacrament Meeting as did all of the wards in the Church.  The choir sang two wonderful songs and the program was intermixed with scriptures telling of the birth of Jesus Christ and Christmas songs.  I had the chance to accompany Gary Holyoak as he sang "Oh, Holy Night."  It was a beautiful arrangement that took me a considerable bit of practicing, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.  Gary has a wonderful voice.  President Duval of the Stake Presidency was there and spoke of the importance of Jesus Christ.  He reminded us that if Christ had not been born or atoned for our sins, the whole reason for the earth would be wasted.  What a a blessing it is to know that we can live with Him again and with our Father in Heaven if we repent and accept His gospel.  I am so grateful for His life and sacrifice for all of us.

Our week at the Institute was quieter than usual.  With the University closed for the holiday break, we had time to prepare for next year.  It is fun for us to have the other missionaries come to the Institute for their district meetings and lunch.  We enjoy their enthusiasm and love for each other and the gospel.  With transfers this week, we were fortunate to keep the entire Fairbanks zone intact.  President Beesley has mentioned that this zone works so well together.  That's a wonderful compliment.

Wednesday, Heidi, Katrina, and Sage came for a "sewing class."  It was great fun to help them with their projects.  They are wonderful girls and I enjoy teaching them and being with them. 

On Monday evening at our home evening group, Gary Holyoak brought his barbershop quartet to give us a Christmas concert.  It was delightful to have them share their love of music with us.  It was so fun to hear them sing Christmas songs as well as other barbershop music.  They have been cast in the Music Man production that is being presented this spring.  They will be perfect and we look forward to seeing it.

Last night, Christmas Eve, we invited the elders to come for dinner if they didn't have an appointment.  We were happy to have  Elder Coombs, Elder Sonderegger,  Elder Kafoa and Elder Blackhurst join us.  We love to share time and food with the elders. On Christmas Eve we provided transportation for President Olsen (our landlord) to the airport to fly up to Barrow with his daughter Julie to be with his wife who is working in Barrow.  Thursday night  we took Trisha to the airport so she could catch a fllight back to Boston to be with her family for Christmas. Today we were blessed to have Gary, Riley, and Matt join us for dinner in the afternoon.  Others in the branch had families to spend Christmas with. 

Thank you for your love and support and prayers.  We appreciate the great blessing  of serving here but miss our family especially at these special times.  May the Lord bless all of you and your families during the coming new year.  

Love,

JoAnn and Jim

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A beautiful sunset today at 2:30 p.m.

                                A few of the Christmas lights at Pioneer Park on the old log cabins.

The Nenana paddle wheel ship in Pioneer Park.

Look who came to dinner at Sister Gridley's house.  The elders know a good cook.

                               Part of Sister Loveless' class in Salcha.  Her brother was there as well.

                                               More seminary students looking up scriptures.

Well I guess this week we can wish  you a very merry Christmas and a joyous season to all! As you can see from the pictures above the time of  Christmas is full upon us here in the great north. We have had occasion to be in the city of North Pole a couple of times this past week and it is certainly a very interesting place at this time of the year. The post office is extremely busy and the town is a decked out with ice sculptures in Christmas themes and colorful lights every where.

The days are very short now as we noticed the colors of sunrise while driving to church at about 10:30AM and noticed the colors of sunset as pictured above at about 2:30 PM. I also watched a moon set the other night and noticed that the moon was moving at a 45 degree angle across the sky towards the horizon. If we were to drive 130 miles north of Fairbanks to the Arctic circle on the 21st of December (the winter solstice) the sun would actually disappear below the horizon and would never come up on that day.

The other day we took a walk through the Pioneer Park streets that were all decorated with Christmas lights. There are many old pioneer buildings that have been rescued and placed in that park and are used for stores in the summer. It is all closed in winter except they do a great job of decorating all of the buildings including the old stern wheeler they have on display there with colorful lights.

Pictured above are many of the Elders of the Fairbanks zone. They are really a great bunch of missionaries and are happy and hard workers seeking out those who are willing to hear the message of the restored gospel. Sister Spens baked cinnamon rolls for them this week at there district meetings that they always hold at the institute building.

The early morning seminary class pictured above is an example of the fifteen early morning classes that occur throughout the stake and that we have the privilege of supervising  as part of our mission responsibility. They are filled with great young people and are taught by wonderful  and dedicated teachers that we have the privilege to work with.

It is a wonderful opportunity to be serving a mission at this Christmas season. To a great extent it allows us not to be to concerned about the materialism of Christmas and to focus on serving the Lord. We would join our testimonies with others and declare that Jesus Christ, the infant son born to Mary in such humble circumstances was indeed the very Son of God and is the Savior of the world. We rejoice in celebrating his birth and commit ourselves to his service this Christmas season and wish for all of you all of the blessings that come through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

With love,
Elder and Sister Spens

Fairbanks Zone Conference

The white elephant gift game

A couple of Elders?

                                                       Thursday evening institute class

Merry Christmas from North Pole, AK  --  The elves are busy making toys for Christmas.

                                                       Santa's almost ready for take off

                                                    The perfect face warmer for the season

Zone conference on Friday was the highlight of the week.  Pres. and Sister Beesley were here for the weekend for zone conference and  for interviews.  We enjoyed having an interview with Pres. Beesley.  He certainly has been inspired in leading the mission and in making missionary transfers which come all too often it seems.  In December, the missionaries leaving will leave three days before their replacements arrive.  It should be an interesting week.  Besides having wonderful instruction on how to share the knowledge of Christ at this season, we had a wonderful "Christmas dinner."  Sister Beesley asked me to be in charge of getting some sisters to help prepare the food and have it ready for dinner at 4:00 p.m.  I was in charge of cooking two turkeys in roaster ovens.  It usually makes me nervous to cook something in a way that I have never done it in the past.  The turkeys were ready three hours early!  Luckily they were in roasting bags so they stayed moist and nice.  We had enough food to feed an army.  With the left overs, we made plates of dinner for almost half of the branch after meetings today to take home.  At least the food is gone and has not gone to waste.  Sister Duval, Sister Hardy, Sister Gridley and Sister Cook helped with the food.  Their help was so appreciated.
After dinner we had a white elephant gift exchange that was lots of fun.  Elder Spens ended up with 1 ear protector, and I got a pair of socks with a purple moose on them.  That should be fun.  Afterwards we enjoyed musical numbers and the elders and sisters each shared something about Christmas that was special to them.  We ended on a note of gratitude and commitment to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

This week was the last week of classes at the institute until school begins again in January.  We had a pizza party after classes were over on Thursday that was enjoyed by all.  We certainly enjoy our association with these great kids.  They are faithful and strong. 

Last Monday morning we drove to Salcha to visit the early morning seminary class there with Sister Loveless.  We didn't check the internet to find out that school had been cancelled because of road conditions due to the freezing rain on Sunday.  Needless to say, we arrived safely and realized that class was not being held.  Tomorrow we are going to return and the weather should be fine.  It's about a 45 minute drive to Salcha, we it will be early when we leave in the morning.  On the way home, we made a quick stop in North Pole to take some pictures of the ice sculptures there.  It's too bad that the rain had melted them a bit.  At least it did not rain for three days like it did last year.

What a wonderful time of year.  I love the Christmas music that reminds us of the wonderful birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We invite you to view the new Bible videos that are about the life of Christ that were filmed in Goshen, Utah, this summer.  The video of the birth of the Savior is very touching and will bring the love of Christ into your heart this Christmas time.  The link is:  http://lds.org/bible-videos?lang=eng
We encourage everyone to view this wonderful video.

We miss all of you this holiday season and pray for the Lord's blessings to be with you and your families.

JoAnn and Jim

                                       Sister Linda Quarnberg's seminary class at Eielson AFB.

                        Enjoying refreshments after the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

Our Alaskan Nativity

Sunset over the mostly frozen Chena River at 3:30 PM

This past week we had a chance to visit with Sister Quarnberg's early morning seminary class at the Eilson Air Force Base chapel. All of these students are children of military families stationed at the base. She has a great bunch of young people in her class that seem very attentive and interested in the seminary curriculum. We have seen some young people that for various reasons are just not into early morning seminary. We have some who are not attending and some who attend but just want to put their head down and sleep. It is nice to see a class where everyone is awake and participating. The young people certainly need the in-depth instruction and learning that comes from seminary to strengthen them for the world they have to live in. We get the idea that the protestant/catholic facility there on the air force base "tollerates" the LDS use of their facility because the seminary students and teacher have obvious restrictions on use like having to cover their bulletin board and the LDS information on it after their use. There are signs and posters all around the facility that say "everyone welcome", but that is not quite the case.

You can see from above that we have put out our Arctic Christmas decorations to give our apartment a little Christmas cheer. We also have the 'grand kids garland and need all grand kids (except Jenny's because we already have them) to send a simple home made ornament type decoration for the garland before Christmas. We try to keep our decorations to a minimum even though our land lord Randy Olson offers us any thing we may want to use of his decorations collected over the past thirty years.

As you can see from the wintry picture above of the mostly frozen Chena river things are pretty well frozen up now and will stay that way until spring. There are almost never any days above freezing in the winter here although Sunday it got up to about 35 degrees for a short period of time and made the usually powdery snow turn soft. We have seen snow men pop up in peoples yards that are typically not made because of the powdery snow conditions. The snow men will last until spring just frozen solidly in place.  Our car needed some additional work and was in the local shop this last week. Our relatively new battery was just not up to the sever winter conditions here as well as a few other running problems that would not have been so noticeable in a warmer condition. Cars have to be kept in top running condition here because anything that is weak or on the verge of failing the low temperatures will aggravate and amplify.

We ordered a number of the Mr. Kruger's Christmas video to provide another missionary tool for our branch missionaries to use. We used it last year as a "living Christmas card" as the full time missionaries liked to call it. We hope they will all be distributed and hopefully will engage some in further pursuit of the gospel.

We gathered at the institute for the First Presidency Fireside this last Sunday. We only had about eight students come because of freezing road conditions due to some freezing rain that fell on Sunday and because the total number of YSA in the branch continues to diminish. There is just a trend towards fewer and fewer students at the institute as a result of the smaller numbers over all. We simply do not have as many students coming to Alaska as there have been in the past plus there is a smaller population of YSA in the Fairbanks area as well. The YSA that are here are very faithful and strong young people and will continue to contribute to the church for the rest of their lives. It is truly a great experience to be here in Alaska as missionaries and work with the Seminary and Institute program of the church.

Enjoy the holiday season,

Jim and JoAnn

                                      Some beautiful native bead work in Katie Oates' pony tail.

                                                      More bead work on Katie's gloves.

Icicles on the frozen exhaust pipe. 

                            Thanksgiving with Gary, Elder Meteer, and Elder Spens in our apartment.

Alisa and Dale Hardy came to help with our Thanksgiving dinner & Elder Williams.

 

                                                    

                                                                        Jackapo and Rachel                     Matt Chandler

                              Jackapo, Cameron, Kamal, Alisia, Gary, Rachel & baby Brooklyn

                                                 Ready to play games after dinner.

What a wonderful week we have enjoyed.  On Monday evening, we had a Thanksgiving dinner and talent show with the branch at the Stake Center.  Everyone came through on their food assignments, and the food was delicious.  The talent show was a variety of fun and an opportunity to learn more about the members of the branch.  Elder Spens participated with a variety of illusions that he likes to share.  "There's no such thing as magic," he says.  We had about 40 or more people that came, members and friends. 

Tuesday evening our guest speaker was called away to Idaho with a family emergency.  We were able to put together a panel of members who work in the medical field, and we had a great discussion on the importance of living a healthy life.  Wednesday, I had another wonderful class with my group of faithful students discussing a conference talk.  Every day I get a little closer to my goal to have the library cataloged.  It's a blessing to have access to cataloging information from the Church History Library to help me out.  I couldn't do it otherwise. 

Thanksgiving day was delightful.  Bro. and Sister Hardy had offered to have us come to their home for dinner.  Since we had already invited several students that did not have families here, we invited them to join us.  Sister Hardy is a wonderful cook and really outdid herself with a variety of additions to the dinner.  At least she let me fix the turkey, dressing, potatoes, and gravy.  There was plenty of food and enough for the guys to make plates to take home for the next day.  I was happy to have the students stay and play games for almost three hours after dinner.  It's so fun to associate with them. 

The car decided to rebel again and wouldn't start even though we just got it back from the repair shop.  Luckily we were able to jump it and took it to the repair shop again.  We didn't expect to find anyone there, but by a small miracle, the owner decided to come to the shop for just a few minutes at the same time.  The use of the spare mission car is a much needed blessing. 

Today we were able to talk to most of our children and grandchildren through the computer.  We are so grateful to be able to see the little ones grow up even though we are so far away.  We are so blessed to be a part of our wonderful family.  There are so many things to be grateful for, especially at this wonderful time of the year.  We are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been restored to the earth with the power of the priesthood available again to bless the world.  We are grateful that Mom and Dad are still with us and  that we can talk to them fairly often.  They have been such good examples of faith and service to me and all of our family.  We appreciate all the wonderful friends that we have both at home and here in Alaska.  It's a great blessing to be able to serve the Lord here.  We love you all and pray for the Lord to bless you.

JoAnn & Jim