Mother's Day and a Day Late

 

     Sorry I missed getting the blog sent yesterday. With it being Mother's Day, I took the day off to enjoy some family time. I never expected we would be able to celebrate Mother's Day with Kate while on our mission. She prepared dinner and taught us to make pizza starting with tossing the dough! She also made delicious Nutella gelato. So we stayed late visiting and I didn't get home to write the blog. 

      Thank you for flowers, candy, good food and your thoughtfulness. I especially enjoyed visiting on the phone with everyone. I thought it was interesting to be on the missionary side of Mother's Day phone calls. I hope everyone enjoyed some family time, remembering all the good things mothers do and expressing your appreciation.  I was excited we got to hear Zack speak in his home ward Sacrament meeting. He gave a great tribute to Krista (her delicious cooking, help in school and love for her family while having cancer) and some good examples of mothers in the scriptures. I am grateful for how COVID has changed our ability to participate long distance in some of these things. 

     It has been a very busy week. We had a new senior couple arrive from Utah. They drove through Canada and we thought they would arrive today, May 10.  Instead we got a call Saturday night that they would arrive Sunday afternoon. We had spent the week getting the apartment ready for them but hadn't bought any groceries to welcome them. Since they were arriving later on Sunday I didn't want them to have bare cupboards. We got some things for them Saturday night and drove to Wasilla on Sunday afternoon to make sure everything was ready, including some food in the kitchen. It all looked good! Sister missionaries had lived in the apartment before so it was not in too bad of shape. But it was completely empty when we started. We bought a couch and chair and some other furnishings. We wanted to use some things in storage if they were in good shape. I'm not great at decorating but it was fun to work together with Elder Robinson and see how it turned out in the end. Elder Robinson went back to meet them today and help them get settled. We have two single senior sisters coming at the end of June and another senior couple at the end of July. Elder Robinson thought he was almost done setting up apartments. Not quite. We are going to Fairbanks tomorrow to take some beds and desks to missionaries there. I'm not sure if it is because they have been spending more time in their apartments with COVID or because things were not getting replaced but we have been doing a lot of refurbishing. President King has received a lot of phone calls from happy missionaries. 

     It is finally starting to get greener here. I took a picture from the drive to Wasilla a week ago and one yesterday, so you can see spring is starting to peak through. 

     The ice breakup is just about finished too. I was surprised how black the ice looks. Elder Robinson thought it was rocks sticking up from the river bottom. But when we drove by a week later they had all melted and all we saw was sand. The river looks pretty now that it is completely thawed.  

The roads are much cleaner too. Here are some pictures of how they sweep up the gravel from the road, grass and parking lot. I couldn't picture it at the beginning of winter how they would collect all the gravel. Alaska really has an innovative way of handling snow removal and road maintenance. I think removing the grit helped the grass to look so much greener quicker. Now the temperature needs to warm up a bit more. 

     Elder Robinson wanted me to show you a car repair from winter driving. You can see how they tried to duct tape the bumper. When that didn't work they used zip ties to hold it on. There are a lot of cars with this type of repair. It is a tough place to drive in the winter. Or a lot of bad drivers. 

     I wanted to show you the delicious cod dinner with the other senior missionary office couples. We got together on Saturday night for dinner and games to celebrate Mother's Day. Elder Tracy had gone fishing the week before in Seward and caught a lot of cod. He prepared the most delicious fresh cod in lemon butter. So flavorful and tender. I brought fingerling potatoes (really yummy!) and salad. We had pie and ice cream for dessert.  The men dished up and cleaned up. I think that is a Mother's Day requirement. It was a fun activity. Elder Robinson is sure looking forward to having a lot of fresh fish this summer. I hope so too.

     With it being Mother's Day I thought a lot about the stages of Motherhood and the joys and challenges. I remember telling my mom that I didn't think I would ever be as good of a mom as she was. She said "Of course you will. You'll be better because that is how we grow. Each generation needs to be better than the one before." She had such confidence in the future generations. I look at my daughters and daughters-in-law and see so much good in what they do. I am glad they are much better than I was. This quote about moms is for each of you "You are doing God's work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you, and He will bless you, especially when your days and nights may be the most challenging". (Elder Holland). It seems so long ago now but the time passes and now it feels like it was a small price to pay to have had the great  experiences that came from having my children. I'm so grateful for each one of you!

     An update on missionary work: President King was telling us about the Bush Branch that is for members in remote Alaska. They meet with a phone connection (not even Zoom). The missionaries teach mostly by referral. There is one family that joined the church a few years ago. They are unable to have children and recently adopted 5 brothers and sisters (ages 13 and younger) from the same family who were in foster care. The live in King Salmon, Alaska, (pop. about 400) by the start of the Aleutian chain. The dad is a hunting/fishing guide. After they adopted the 5 children, they had another child left on their doorstep for them to care for. So now they have 6 children the missionaries have been teaching. The three older children were baptized last week and were the speakers in church yesterday. Another convert to the Bush Branch is a teacher in Sivuqaq (pop about 700) on Saint Lawrence Island by the Bering Strait. It is closer to Russia than Alaska. The teacher is not a member but had lived in Herriman, Utah, before moving to Alaska. She found the church connection to the Bush Branch and since meeting with missionaries by phone, has decided to get baptized. She has family who are members in Reno. She decided to fly to Reno to be baptized by family and then will return to the island to continue her teaching job. It makes me think that the gospel really will go to every corner of the world. 

     That's it for this week. Hope this will be a good week for each of you but especially for Lindsey and Celina who have birthdays coming up. We love each of you and think of you each day!

Love,

Elder and Sister Robinson

This is a picture of Sister Tracy, Sister King, Sister Smith and myself with a bouquet of flowers one of the sister missionaries (who has returned home) sent to thank us for being her mission moms. So nice!