Made it to our new home...

First, you MUST click on the YouTube link below and watch Bekah sing.

Second, we wrote this yesterday, before we were on Internet, and hopefully have enough "juice" to cut/paste whatever we wrote.  We'll send photos of our new home when the storm dies down enough to stand still enough to shoot -- maybe by Sunday.  These shots are of our trip here.  They're not at all like our island, which is breathtakingly beautiful even in this storm.   

We hope we keep this optimistic, blessed feeling about where we’re serving. We arrived last evening after a very cold flight from Anchorage. The prop hummed along through the blustery snow and winds and stranded us temporarily on an island called Cold Bay (well-deserved name). We feared we might have to knock on one of the six or seven doors in the community to ask for a place to stay the night, but the winds relaxed a little and we were able to get into Unalaska (Dutch Harbor to “outsiders”).

Richard boarding our plane in Anchorage

Cold Bay -- our plane sitting on the "runway"

Our island has sweeping white mountains rising sharply from translucent cobalt-blue oceanic waters. Bald eagles are as thick as crows. There are about 4,000 permanent residents here and about 3,000 additional seasonal workers employed mainly by fisheries, all of whom live along the northern seacoast. We drive a Chevy S-10 extend-a-cab pickup which is in desperate need of a wash job, but doing so would likely freeze the doors shut since the gales have dropped the chill factor. Locals say the wind will let up Saturday. Alek, age 10, haughtily informed us that Unalaska is the warmest place in Alaska. I’m still thawing from the plane ride and recall that I wasn’t freezing in Anchorage. Today I wore 9 layers (10 if you count the zip-out liner in my raincoat). All we want for Christmas is our sweaters and boots that we shipped to our mission address. Meanwhile, we’re wearing everything at once and looking a lot like greenhorns.

Today we went to town seeking a high-speed Internet connection. Town consists of 2 stores, 2 schools, a community center, several ship-servicing companies, and utility offices. We met Jan, one of two employees at Tel-Alaska. She wanted to know more about the church. She had heard we were coming and had an Ensign that she loved reading. She will be coming to church a week from Sunday. Next we went to Safeway to get cookies for the Primary children and we met Aimee, who called herself a less active member (piercings). We asked her to come back. She said she would. Then we went back to the church, where we have our living quarters, and got ready for the Primary children. About twelve came. Amidst the mêlée of music, running and squealing children Darlene Jeppsen brought us a beautiful dinner. She’s my newest best friend—bright happy eyes and easy tears. Her husband is not a member – has his own electrical business and works long hours – and her brother “should be a member but isn’t.”

If there’s this much work and warm reception when we don’t even try, imagine how lucky we feel to be here. There’s actually a big job that has been prepared for us to do, and we’re about to roll up our sleeves. We’re so happy.



In addition to the Dutch Harbor Branch our mission president also asked us to be the first missionaries to the Bush Branch. The Bush Branch is composed of members from the interior (remote places of Alaska) where there may be only one or two members in a distant settlement. We think the branch may have fifty members but we have yet to talk with the Branch president, a busy dentist in Anchorage. Sunday meetings are held by telephone. We’re looking forward to embarking into this area as well.



In between our errands Richard replaced our bedroom doorknob with one that locks, braced the closet rod, ran the wires for our Internet (which should be connected tomorrow, thank goodness), fixed an entry table leg in the church, and hung some brackets. Together we cleaned floors, did several wash loads, and made our twin beds into a king. We’re feeling a lot more comfortable than we did yesterday, and we’ll just keep going in that direction.

We love you. Keep the home fires bright.