Sister Hall is on her Way!

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      We are so excited that Summer left this morning (June 7) to begin serving in the Chicago mission. Everyone in the mission will be so happy to see her and will do all they can to help her.  President King tells the missionaries they have 18-24 months to serve and a lifetime to remember it. So make good mission memories. I know there will be miracles too. The thing with miracles is that it usually follows a trial of faith. Even in hard times it is good to remember you are not alone. Friends and family are cheering for you. But especially with the Lord on your side, the blessings will come. Go Sister Hall!





     Since we first received our mission call to Alaska Elder Robinson has really been looking forward to fishing here. He has been hoping to find someone to go with who will teach him the tricks of fishing in Alaska. Fortunately this weekend Kate and Jed went fishing in Seward and as you can see they were very successful. They went fishing for Sockeye Salmon at Macdonald's beach by Resurrection Bay. It is in saltwater so they fish by snagging instead of regular fishing like in freshwater rivers. When the salmon run in saltwater they don't bite so you snag their body using a big hook on your pole that you drag across the water. When you hook one, you pull it to shore and beat it with a club. That was a bit surprising for a quiet, sedate sport like fishing. Annie and June were pretty good with the club/bat. 





      Jed caught his limit for each day for a total of 15 fish and 40 lbs of salmon filets. The RV park where they stayed was for members of the military and had an area with all of the processing equipment so they could clean, filet, vacuum pack and freeze dry their fish. Kate and Jack did a good job of processing the fish that Jed, Annie and June caught. Elder Robinson is excited to go along next time. (I don’t think Collynn and Celina will like the fish pictures)




      It has been rainy and cold most of the past week so it was nice to have good weather over the weekend. Kate loved the beautiful scenery on the drive to Seward. I'm so glad they shared their pictures. 





     Elder Robinson has been busy getting 2 new apartments set up. He has one more to do this month before the next transfers. The missionaries really enjoy helping Elder Robinson and do most of the moving. With travel though it can be a long day. Normally I help but my back was hurting so I stayed home and just answered phone calls. I did a few days of "Fitness with Cindy for Seniors" back exercises (they are great!) and try to sit less in the car and at work. I had a missionary who called that was having back pain so it was good to be able to give him some firsthand advice. We are both feeling better now. 

     We have a mission tour by Elder Whiting from the Area Presidency this week. Most of the missionaries will come in to Anchorage for the meeting (about 130). They will also have a meeting in Juneau and Fairbanks for the remaining 50 missionaries in those locations. This is the first large meeting for the missionaries since pandemic restrictions last year. Everyone is quite excited to get together. More and more of the missionaries are getting vaccinated so it is easier to meet together now. 

     There was exciting news from home this week. The Stake Presidency was reorganized on Sunday in our home stake in Provo. President Scott Jackson was released so he can serve as Missionary Training Center President in Lima, Peru. He retired from his orthopedic practice and will leave July 1 for Peru. He has been such a good neighbor, friend, bishop and stake president. He lived across the street from us for many years and Elder Robinson served in the bishopric with him. He came to our home to set us apart as missionaries. He is such an inspiring man. The missionaries in Peru are so blessed to have him serve there. The new Stake President is from our home ward and is President King's younger brother, Kevin King. Now there are two President Kings we know and serve with! Again we were so happy to be able to attend the conference virtually on YouTube when the change was announced. I am so grateful for this technology! I'm not sure how much longer they will do it this way but it has been such a blessing for now. 

     Here is a picture of what it looks like at sunrise and sunset with about 2 more weeks until summer solstice on June 20. Sunset in this picture was at 11:30 p.m. and sunrise at 4:28 a.m. It is interesting too that the sunrise and sunset is much further north on the horizon than it was in December. We used to be able to see sunrise and sunset looking out our front window to the south. Now we have to stand on our deck and bend around to look much further north. In fact we really can't see it looking out our window anymore.  So I drove around the block in the car last night to see a beautiful sunset. (top picture is sunset, bottom is sunrise). It is twilight in between so you don't see the stars because there is too much light.



     We are excited to have some family come to visit. LeAnn is coming on June 18 -25 to babysit Kate's kids while they travel Alaska with some friends. Then Lisa and family will arrive June 26-July4. David and his family and LeAnn and her family will come July 10-18. They have all planned some really fun activities. We look forward to going along on some of the activities but are especially looking forward to seeing family. I'm so glad they rented cars in March before there was a shortage. I just hope the reservations work. It reminds me of the Seinfeld show where the rental agent takes the reservation but doesn't "hold the reservation" so he ends up with a tiny car. That would just add to the Alaska Adventure!

     We hope you are enjoying studying Come Follow Me and listening to some of the podcasts. We like studying the Doctrine and Covenants and the focus on missionary work. It also shows how the gospel changes individual lives. The background stories have really added to our understanding of the time period and make the scriptures more meaningful.   We are grateful  to remember our ancestors and their legacy of joining the church and being faithful pioneers. It is also a reminder that we need to continue to be an example of pioneer faith to our children now. I heard the quote this past week that "We are not called to succeed in all things but we are called to be faithful in all things". We may not always get the outcome we want but we can always be faithful to what is true. 

  This week is David and Krista's wedding anniversary.  Also Max Owens (Ben and LeAnn's oldest son) will graduate this week on June 11. He will be going to BYU-Idaho. Ryann graduated May 24 and will go to BYU in the fall. Congratulations to you all!



We love you and hope you are happy and doing well. Remember to pray for each other and be kind.

Love,

Elder and Sister Robinson 

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