January 20, 2011

We’re teaching often. On good days there are too many to teach and we barely get to appointments. Between times we try to serve and support the community in various ways.

Right now we are working with several people at different levels of progress. “J” is a survivor of a 20-year Nazi-style religious compound. She is understandably guarded so we teach in baby-steps, the first principle being that she is a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father.

Sometimes we see the light, happiness and relief in the eyes of those we teach and realize that they are better off than when we found them, and that’s our payday. Joseph Smith said to teach correct principles and let the people govern themselves. So we teach and teach and teach and invite and invite and invite and pray and pray and pray. We love this calling. It’s what we have worked our entire lives to do. Being here at this time is the right place for us even in severe weather.

We’ve found a pocket of people whose experiences and stories we are collecting. They are of Aleut descent and lived through WWII, or are the children of people who lived at that time, and have stories about the Japanese bombings of this island as well as the US-led evacuation of Unalaska. The evacuation wasn’t handled well and there are resentments toward our military forces. Harriet wants Japan to replace the hospital they bombed. We’re attaching her photo that we took yesterday as well as her photo with her sister at the time she was evacuated. They dressed up for the occasion, not realizing where they were going.

Harriet with her older sister, 1944, day of evacuation

Harriet today

This week we are beginning to teach the temple preparation lessons to a few of our branch members. There will not be a Sunday class because of varying schedules so we will be teaching individually.

Our little grandson, Hunter, will be baptized March 5. It’s a heartache to miss it but we know our family receives blessings from our service.

We love you.
Richard and Linda



Our back yard



Cloud formations are fabulous here.

Meringue in the sky.  Taken yesterday on the way to an appointment.

We took the following photo of the Northwestern for those of you who watch  "The Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel.  The locals ignore the movie-star crab fishermen, although they are included in prayers.  The boat harbors are buzzing with crab boats, fishermen and helicopter cameras.



Richard serving lunch at the senior center. 



January 7, 2011

Most important BIRTHDAY PEOPLE: JANA and HUNTER. Especially Hunter, who turns eight and gets baptized, a huge event in his young life. Some dear friends will be there supporting him for us. We’re grateful for our loved ones and appreciate that things roll along pretty well without us.

Bekah (4) took this on Jana's cellphone

If we could point to one day that we’d like to live over again it would be yesterday. The sun was out for the first time since we arrived and the island was glorious. No wind. We were out in the community all day and we took a good amount of mingling throughout the community. We served lunch at the senior center and then last evening we received a baptism commitment from Patti. She’s a teacher and wants to be baptized in the Bering Sea. With that in mind we set the commitment date for June when the waters are warm enough to allow immersion without requiring resuscitation afterwards. Besides, there’s a little work to do yet. When we left Patti’s about 7 p.m. we could still see the horizon, evidence that the days are getting longer.

We’re teaching a lot but have a nagging feeling that we’re not quite in the right place yet. We keep praying and trying and trying and praying so maybe we’ll figure it out. Meantime, we invite, invite, invite and try to be where we’re supposed to be, and then just wait to see what we’re supposed to do.

Our Primary president, Rande Leggett, runs a huge crane. She's been loading and unloading vessels for twenty years. To see her up there in that tiny booth making that huge thing walk across the beach is pretty impressive. She’s kind and easy-going and always planning good things for the children. We’re including her photo and a photo of her crane.

Rande Leggett, Primary President of Dutch Harbor Branch

Rande's crane

This is Rande in the little cab where she uses lots of gears and buttons to drive this baby

The attendance at church has steadily declined since our arrival, which we’re trying not to take personally. Last Sunday we had enough commitments to fill the chapel, but the electricity went out at 6:30 a.m. and didn’t go back on until a few minutes before church started at 10. It’s still black-dark at 10 a.m. here – it looks like midnight outside and the bitter cold makes lengthy outages worrisome as inside temperatures drop. We knew only the most rooted would come. We had 21. One was our investigator, Patti.

If you have a chance to watch “The Deadliest Catch,” you’ll see some shots of our island. The boats from that show are tied up in the harbor and the crews are getting ready to go after crab. The children sing prayers to protect the fishermen and we feel the spirit of hope in the air. We’ve been stopped by a few members who are in Unalaska for the fishing season. We want them to be safe and wish we could do more than just give them our card.

We love you. Stay well.