December 26, 2011 THANK YOU!

Christmas week was slower in teaching than other weeks but we used our down-time by delivering invitations to everyone we knew, inviting them to church on Christmas Sunday.  Four investigators came. 

On Christmas Eve we met with half a dozen families at the Womack’s home and shared cheese and chocolate fondue.  Afterwards we read Christmas stories from Matthew, Luke and 3 Nephi. 

On Christmas day, three people we’re teaching, Tambi, Rod and Grant, talked in Sacrament meeting.  Tambi’s husband, Scott, who was recently ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, blessed the Sacrament for the first time. 

More about Patty and Rod:  They’re rather poor after spending their money to go to the temple last month for endowments and family sealing.  So Rod, who is a fireman, offered Patty a scalp massage.  While Rod went after the towel and shampoo Patty thought it would be nice to light some tea-candles on the TV, which she did.  When Rod returned he threw the towel on the TV, was working on Patty’s scalp and said “My goodness it's bright in here.” He turned and the entire TV was up in flames.  He grabbed the burning towel and ran outside and threw it in the yard, on top of his tarp, and went back in to extinguish the rest, which was easily done.  Then he noticed the brightness coming from the yard, looked out and saw the flames on his tarp.  He ran out and turned on the garden hose, which was frozen, so he started shoveling snow on top of the fire.  Meanwhile Patty was airing out the house wondering why Rod was out shoveling snow in the middle of a crisis.  So Patty purchased Rod some battery-operated tea-lights and a new tarp for Christmas.  Although half melted, their TV still works, which they consider a blessing from paying tithing. 

Thank you, Meridian Fourth Ward, for all your wonderful messages and gifts.  We decorated our apartment with your cards and notes.  Steve and Rosie’s origami is taped to the kitchen cabinet.  Thank you Rafe and Jackson and Emily (former Primary class members) for your cards, as well as the rest of the Primary.  Our home ward spoils missionaries! 

We love and miss our family, but being missionaries at Christmas is the best thing we could be doing.  It gives us an opportunity to give a Christmas gift to our Savior.  What we feel He wants for Christmas is all of Heavenly Father’s children to come back.  We hope our offering is an acceptable Christmas gift to Him. 

Love to each of you.

Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nana

December 16, 2011

The Pendant Miracle:  The Calverts are active in the community (Sister Calvert is Rotary president and on the Coast-Guard committee) and have recently activated.  The church grounds were unlit and dark when Sister Calvert was carrying her huge jello salad to the Christmas party and she took a hard fall.  She reassured everyone she was all right and her jello salad was shoveled up and thrown over a snow-covered embankment and the broken bowl and larger salad parts were thrown in the dumpster.  Later she discovered that her necklace was missing, which was announced on Sunday morning.  We asked her what it looked like.  It was an irreplaceable hand-carved Russian pendant that was an anniversary present from her husband, very thin and about two inches high. We went out between meetings and, miracle of miracles, Richard spotted her thin silver chain in the lawn, about ten feet from her fall, but we couldn’t find the pendant.  We decided that the pendant might be over the snow bank or in the trash with her broken bowl, so we and the Calverts went home to change after meetings so we could return and dumpster-dive, which we did to no avail.  However, after carful search and a prayer from us, Brother Calvert found the pendant in the snow bank just above the drop-off.  It was underneath the snow and the Calverts tearfully and thankfully testify that finding it could only have been an answer to prayer.  We love for new members to have these experiences.  We call Calverts new members, but they were both baptized at age eight.  However, Scott has never held the Priesthood and Tambi stopped attending before age 16.  Giving up coffee was their only real challenge and, thanks to Koreen Robinson for introducing us to Choffy, giving up coffee is not a problem for any of our investigators.  The Calverts will be going through the temple as soon as Scott receives the Melchizedek priesthood, slated for May 2012 stake conference.      

Scott emerging from the hillside WITH the pendant.  Hero!

Tambi and Scott

We’ve been teaching Christmas stories and have personally learned much.  We hope we can follow Mary’s (the Savior’s mother) example and keep all these precious things in our hearts (see Luke 1:39-53).

Saturday morning we volunteered at the library and had forty children and their parents attend our reading of Frosty-the-Snowman, magic show activity (starring potential-investigator, Dr. Fribush), and craft (we helped them make snowmen out of paper plates).  Parents have stopped us on the streets with positive comments about our library program.  Community service helps our missionary work in many ways.  

Dr. Fribush doing magic tricks.

We have two new investigators!  They’re golden.  We’re trying our best to measure up to the trust they so willingly give us.

We reached our goal of teaching 20 lessons in Sitka last week.  People were happy to see us when we went to their homes with candy-sack invitations to the Saturday-night Ward Christmas party.  The adults in the ward expressed a desire to have a party without kids, so we volunteered to take all the kids, age two and up.  We matched up old to young and did indoor relay races.  The kids raced to build snowmen from rolls toilet paper and then we had an indoor snowball fight out of balled-up paper towels.  It was delightful pandemonium.  The ward wrapped gifts for each child and after they were thoroughly worn out we put on a Rudolf cartoon for the last fifteen minutes.  They were so exhausted they just raised their hands for popcorn refills.  

We’re celebrating Christmas Eve with the Womack family and Christmas day with the Ady and Swanberg families.  How blessed we are to know such great people. 

We love you each and all, and wish you a wonderful Christmas. 

Much love,

Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nan 

Moon rising over Sitka at 3 p.m.  Before 5 p.m. it's as dark as midnight.

December 5, 2011

We flew to Anchorage the week of November 14^th and we saw the Ady family sealed in the Anchorage Temple. What a spiritual feast to have President Perkins, the Temple President, perform the sealing. It was a highlight.

When we returned we worked hard to recoup our teach-ees and found that most hadn’t known we were gone, which was good.  The following week we went to zone conference in Juneau and were gone three days.  In between traveling we had a fabulous Thanksgiving celebration and attended The Nutcracker, which is a community-centered event for the 7^th year running.  Whoever isn’t on stage is in the audience cheering their friends and family members.  We were in the audience, of course, but recognized many cast members from our Ward family and community friends.  It was a Sitka-style version of the story.  The performers looked professional in their costumes and precision performances, but included in the story were dances of fishermen, Ice Maidens, the Snow Queen, little Herrings, and a Klondike Can-Can.  It was a wow.  The family we live with performed in several dances. 

This week we're slammed.  We have a week-full of people to see and invite to the Saturday Christmas party.  Saturday morning we have a presentation of Frosty the Snowman to the Library children, complete with magic show by Richard's medical doctor, Ron Fribush, and then Saturday evening we entertain the ward children during the Christmas party while the adults have their gift exchange.  We've given them a time limit of 45 minutes.  We're going to try to get Dr. Fribush to repeat his magic act for the ward children.  

It’s way too much fun in Sitka. 

Love,

Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nanny

Record snowfalls in November

Cute snow shovelers

Thanksgiving with Tambi and Scott at 1 p.m.  They'll be heading for the temple soon!

Tambi shows her FIRST ribboned crust

Thanksgiving dinner at 6 with the Swanberg's and Ady's

Pie with Jackie and Thomas at 8!  Oh my!

Beautiful Sitka

Artist, Nancy Behnken, designed my Sister Kathy's Christmas card. Kathy was a champion blanket jumper.

Snow, snow, snow.

At Zone conference in Juneau we caroled with the other missionaries in the mall.  Fun!

Our friend, Heather Kroll from California who now lives in Juneau.  Awesome!

The Nutcracker.  Our landlady is in the yellow skirt on the left. 

Costumes were outstanding.  Dancing would rival any large city.

Can you think of anything kids could do that would give them more confidence?

Linda's primary class:  Daniel, Briggs and Aubrey. 

November 12, 2011

Here’s a picture of our number-one ward missionary, Brother Womack.  What a great man!  Fearless and awesome!!!

Brother Wm. Topsekok and little Jasper (who turns 3 in April).  Brother Topsekok is white but was adopted by a native family at birth.  His first language is not English.

William Topsekok lost his oldest son in the big storm they had on the north-west coast of Alaska.  We usually teach William (of the Bush Branch) on Tuesdays, but this week we’ve been talking with him a few times a day.  Teller, Alaska is 80 miles north of Nome and inaccessible right now.  It’s on the coast and you can drill down on a Google map to see the tiny village.  There are no trees or hills to help mitigate the wind so it was a total onslaught for them.  The ice-sheets from the water hit land and waves swept over the road in fury.  Kyle, 25, was on a 4-wheeler at 4 p.m. and hasn’t been seen since.  There’s no way a human can survive the weather everyone in Teller knows it, so even though a body hasn’t been found they’re mourning Kyle’s loss.  We wrote earlier in the year about Brother Topsekok, telling you how his wife had fallen through the ice on a snow-machine and died, leaving Brother Topsekok to raise their 1-year-old son.  A few months thereafter Brother Topsekok was baptized in February 2011.  This newest tragedy re-opens his previous wounds.  However, Brother Topsekok testifies that he is able to suffer this loss much better because he has the gospel.  He compares his current experience to his former loss and shares his testimony with us.  We love Brother Topsekok and his little son, Jasper.   

 

The Sitka Ward is full of amazing people.  A newly married couple, Michaela and Keith Larsen, finished biking across Canada this Fall and gave a wonderful presentation of their experiences to the community last Sunday.  They biked 5,900 miles in four months, through 11 Canadian provinces.  Prior to their marriage Keith had biked from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to the farthest edge of Florida.  When he visited Sitka he told Michaela of his bicycle trip and she, being an athlete, was envious.  He knew he had found his match.  But…she had just received a mission call to South America, so she wrote to the first presidency and they told her to marry Keith, which she did. 

We’ll be in Anchorage Monday through Friday afternoon to see a family sealed in the temple, so we’ll be in catch-up mode when we return, trying to get back into the families we generally teach. 

We love you!

Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nanny

Elder Later riding a whale tail at Whale Park

The mountain look like mounds of very white powdered sugar.

View of our daily drive

31 October 2011

Have we been busy!  Last week we set a new record for the most lessons we have ever given in one week—26!  We also had a baptism yesterday and it was one of the best. 

Sitka used to be Alaska’s capital and it was here that the Russian sale of Alaska to the USA was transacted.  Unlike the rest of the state, Alaska Day in Sitka was a week-long celebration, which culminated October 18.  On the 17^th there was a costume ball featuring costumes from that period of time and everyone talked about what they would wear.  On the 18^th the school children had early release (10 am) so they could prepare for the parade and re-enactment ceremonies on Centennial Hill.  All the store windows were decorated and each day the newspaper featured winners of contests.  Weeklong activities included slave auctions, authentic Russian food for the entire town and the Russian Archangel dancers performed 90 minutes of wonderful, spirited dancing.  Throughout the week there was free food in the park and police women with plumed hats giving kisses and tickets to those NOT wearing Alaska buttons.  They also jail people for resisting, and you cannot get out of jail unless you call a friend to bail you out, which isn’t cheap, the bail-money going to charities.  We bought our Alaska buttons early and have been wearing them on the opposite side of our name badges.  

Scheduling missionary during celebration week wasn’t easy, nor was it easy the week after.  We decided to get busy, so we made a list of 35 people to find and visit to assess their interest in the gospel.  We’ve barely made a dent in the list and already we have new people to teach. 

There’s one ward member who is a missionary’s dream—Brother Womack.  He tirelessly and fearlessly asks everyone entering his gift shop if they’d like to meet us.   Our mission president and a visiting general authority told the Alaska missionaries NOT to ask members for referrals.  They said that if we work hard the members will learn to trust us with their friends.  Our baptism yesterday was a referral.  Brother Womack and a few members here trust us.  We are careful and appreciative of that trust. 

We reconnected with a woman we met while in Anchorage last June.   We taught her two lessons while we were there, but after we turned her over to local missionaries she fell through the cracks.  When we were able to contact her she was in the midst of moving to Kenai, so we taught her by telephone—something we’re getting accustomed to.  We matched her up with some sister missionaries in Kenai and now she’s back on track for baptism on January 8.  We hope and pray she can make it.  We’re helping her through the 12-step program for addictions to cigarettes.     

We love our family and friends!!!

Love,

Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nanny

President and Sister Beesley preside over the Alaska Anchorage mission.  They're amazing.  Google Jon Beesley and you'll get just part of the story.

Delivering lots of Rotary roses to shut-ins.  Rich took this.  Roses are all over the car, and the ones that wouldn't fit sent on our laps in the front seat.

Casey and her pink spider.  We read "The Busy Spider" to the kids at the library on Saturday and they made webs and spiders.  On Thursday we read "Little Cloud" and they made a lamb into a cloud.  Or vise versa.

Christiana's baptism.  Brother Bauder baptized her.  Her husband, Ben will come along in time.