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| Nephew Vance Hemsley with daughter, Faith |
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| Richard with our sweet Virginia |
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| Sister missionaries. We took the sisters and Virginia out for dinner after the baptism. |
We spent most of last week in the Anchorage/Wasilla/Kenai
areas, so this first paragraph is pretty much a travel log. Sorry.
We left Sitka on the 6 a.m. flight Monday morning and flew to Anchorage,
and then drove to Wasilla to visit with David Robinson (my brother) and his
wife, Koreen. We thoroughly enjoyed
their company, their cooking and the comfortable bed. David’s getting ready for another over-seas
assignment and Koreen will likely go with him, so we wanted to see them before they
take off. Tuesday morning we drove to
Kenai where we attended Virginia’s baptism that evening. Wednesday we drove back to Anchorage to
attend the temple and spend the evening with President and Sister Beesley and
other couples from the mission.
About Virginia: Last June, while serving in Dutch Harbor we
received an email from our mission president saying that the Lord had
transferred us to Sitka and that we were to spend a week in Anchorage prior to
departing for Sitka. We asked if we
could stay at a missionary apartment in Anchorage so we wouldn’t have such high
hotel bills since it was peak season. The
missionary apartment given to us was next door to Virginia’s apartment. We had prayed for someone to be placed in our
path, and there she was, sitting on her porch smoking, so we visited with her
and invited her to dinner. We worked
like crazy cleaning the apartment and then bought some take-out food and shared
it with her. We taught her the first
lesson and committed her to baptism.
During the lesson she had said that she had lived next door to “the boys”
for two years and always wanted to know more.
Each day she watched them come home and smelled their cooking and
listened to their singing, but not one missionary had talked to her. We taught her twice more before leaving for
Sitka. Over the following months we learned
that Virginia had fallen through the cracks again and again. Finally, (we’re convinced in answer to our
prayers) Virginia was transferred to Kenai and we called the sister-missionaries
there. They took Virginia into their hearts and now Virginia is baptized. It was joyful to see her in white.
While in Anchorage we handed our Bush Branch over to new
missionaries. The church defines the
Bush as “areas of Alaska that are not served by other wards or branches and
that are not accessible by road.” As the
first missionaries called to the Bush Branch we spent a lot of time figuring
out how to teach people effectively over the phone—there isn’t enough band
width for Skype so we never get to see those we teach. We’re admittedly territorial about those
voices we have come to love. So after
meeting with the missionaries and turning over our area book we set an
appointment for last evening to “meet” them on an 800-conference line with one
of our investigators. We introduced the
elders, had prayer and read scriptures and then it was time for us to say
good-bye and for the elders to continue teaching. After hanging up Richard said “I don’t like
this one bit.” We wish we could teach them from Boise. Letting go is hard.
When we got back to our beautiful island of Sitka (noon
Thursday) Richard found a leak underneath our sink in the apartment. The landlords were stateside at a daughter’s
wedding so Richard spent several hours replacing rusted pipes. We had to reschedule our two evening
appointments. Consequently Friday
arrived and we had ZERO lessons for the week, but now it’s Sunday night and we’ve
had 10. But even though it’s a bleak
week for lessons, one of our investigators set a baptismal date for May
19. We’re going to work with him closely
over the next couple weeks to help him prepare.
We just talked with Virginia. She was confirmed today and she says she
feels sooo good. She says she looked in
the mirror and said “I’m beautiful,” which she says she had never thought
before. She says that people tell her
she glows. She told us of the new vibrant
colors she sees in nature and of her overwhelming gratitude for all of it. She cried when she said that she finally
found the place where she belongs. She
thanked us. Can you imagine? We’re the ones who feel thankful.
FINAL MONTH!
YIKES!!!!
Love each of you.
Richard and Linda, Mom and Dad, Papa and Nanny
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