Winter is Here - December 7, 2020

 It is 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a beautiful sunshiny day and 5 degrees outside. The sun comes up around 10 a.m. and goes down around 3:45 p.m. Two more weeks until winter solstice. There will be about 5.5 hrs of daylight on that day. I love seeing the sunrises and sunsets. Such beautiful colors! Elder Robinson spent the day moving apartments in 8 degree below weather in Wasilla. They had about 10 elders helping so it went fast, thankfully. 

This picture is of  3 elders that have helped with just about every move. We have enjoyed so much getting to know them. They are the Filipino elders. Elder Stock on the left is going home this week. He started his mission in the Philippines and came to Alaska when everyone came home with Covid. Elder Salvoro in the middle is from the Philippines. He came to Alaska about a year ago. He is so excited to learn English and says it will make such a difference getting jobs when he returns home to be able to speak English. He has one more year here. He is about 5'5". Next to him is Elder Keller. He is 6'7”. He also started in the Philippines but came to Alaska in May. He has one more year too. They are so helpful and work well together. I think they will be great Elders Quorum Presidents with all their moving experience. 

I like the snow in Alaska. Everything is so pretty when it snows. The hard part for me is driving on the snow packed roads. Even with studded tires and 4WD there is a lot of slipping and sliding. Most mornings I wake up to the sound of snow removal equipment working. The pile of snow is getting bigger in the parking lot. Each day we drive by a gym that has an inflatable roof. It is about 50 ft tall. Whenever it snows, workmen climb to the top and shovel the snow off the roof and down the sides. It looks like going down a super slide. I would be so scared to have that job. 

You may have heard about the landslide in Haines, Alaska this past week. It rained almost 9 inches in one day and triggered landslides, avalanches and flooding which caused evacuations there. There was flooding even in Juneau but no missionaries were evacuated. There are no missionaries in Haines right now because that area is accessed through part of Canada. I have been talking in zone conference about having Emergency Preparedness Kits and First Aid Kits. The missionaries really do have to be prepared for all kinds of disaster situations plus being prepared for being stranded inside because of snow storms, icy roads, and quarantine. 

The Samoan missionaries have come back to Alaska.  They are so disappointed to not be able to go home. With international changes though other missionaries are returning to their original missions. A sister went to Japan this past week and an elder will go to Paraguay next week. It feels like that musical chair game, Fruit Salad, where everything gets all mixed up and you see who is left at the end. It is transfer week and we have 6 new missionaries coming here and 10 going home. 

I think of Spencer and Lindsey talking about being on their mission for the holidays and how unique it was. Christmas will be harder now with Covid. Anchorage has restrictions of only a total 6 people from different households can be indoors together. We have Zoom devotionals planned. They also have zone conferences planned on Christmas Day and New Years Day. I think the missionaries' Christmas wish would be to be able to be together. Several apartments have Christmas trees that members have given them. They love hearing Christmas carols too. There aren't a lot of things they want, just being able to be with people. Like everyone else I think. 

With the group restriction in Anchorage, I have been working more from home. It has made me think about other times in the scriptures when sharing the gospel has been limited. There are still ways to communicate though.  We are blessed to have technology and good young missionaries that know how to send their messages through social media and other means of technology. Even before Covid it would have been hard to contact people working outdoors here. They spend a lot of time making videos and using Facebook. The members help too by posting things like a favorite scripture or quote. It helps to like or comment on the mission pages too. At first they weren't getting many referrals but lately there have been quite a few. It is also a good way to get the members more involved. With Covid it seems more people are on social media. 

It was interesting in Testimony meeting today the number of people who talked about the blessings that have come because of Covid. One sister talked about how she had been caught up in a lot of the negative political posts on Facebook and how grateful she was for the challenge from Pres. Nelson to post things you are grateful for. It helped her see goodness instead of being critical and negative. Her family had recently had Covid and were quarantined. She was grateful that instead of feeling neglected and left alone, people brought food and left it on her porch and offered to get things from the store for her. Even though they were isolated she felt connected to people in a positive way. Another sister had Covid and still felt sick after 4 weeks. She went to the hospital and was told she had pneumonia. She said she had been praying that she didn't have leukemia (she thought it really strange that that thought would come to her mind). After more testing why she hadn't recovered they found she did have leukemia. It was a type of leukemia that usually isn't found until later stages because it is more insidious and it is diagnosed secondary to another problem. She is grateful they were able to diagnose her earlier because of having Covid. She is home and getting treatment. She felt blessed to be prepared for the diagnosis and to get it when she did. 

One last testimony was from Sis. Powell, one of the sister missionaries that has been so helpful to us with technology. She said that one of her favorite scriptures as a missionary has been the scripture in 1 Nephi 4:6-7: " I...was led...not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth". When she was called to serve as a tech specialist she said she knew the least about tech of anyone she knew. But she was willing to do it. She is actually really good now. It is the willingness to go forward in what is asked that the answers come. Elder Robinson noticed that in working to get apartments and make changes, he checks listings each day and when he absolutely needs something, he finds it. He commented that it seems everyone in Alaska is a landlord. But that's because that is who he is working with a lot. We do feel blessed that in learning what we are doing, the answers come when we are willing to "go forth".

Hope you have a good week as you go forth in the things you are doing. You are always in our prayers. I am especially grateful this Christmas season for fewer distractions and being more focused on things that truly help me to feel the Spirit of Christ in Christmas. It is the most wonderful time of the year!

Love, 

Elder and Sister Robinson

Some miscellaneous pictures from "The Last Frontier" (Alaska's nickname--Do you know your state's nickname): 1) Snacks at Costco that I'm not sure even Jack would eat. 2) a moose licking salt from the driveway of the mission home. I don't know how they get up and down but they do. 3) a picture of the bison meatloaf dinner I made. It tastes pretty good but I still like beef better. It has 1/2 the fat of beef so it doesn’t hold together as well.