Robinson Alaska Mission

We had a really fun past 10 days with family visiting. David, Krista, Zack, Millie and Reed -- and LeAnn, Ben, Max and Scout came for a visit for a week. We had a lot of fun in Seward, went for a hike to Virgin Falls in Girdwood and spent a rare summer day by Campbell Creek in Anchorage. Kate finds the best places to visit. While the excursions were fun, our favorite activities were just being with family at the beach, hiking and playing in the water.  It was cold and intermittent rain in Seward for the fishing and wildlife boat trips. Elder Robinson and Zack got seasick fishing but it paid off in catching fish. Zack and Jed caught an orange rockfish. I was surprised to learn that the eyes are bulging from being reeled in from deep in the ocean which causes pressure shock. Makes a pretty scary looking fish. There were 7 from our group (David, Zack, Ben, Max, Scout, Jed and Elder Robinson) of 18 on the fishing boat. Our group caught the biggest halibut about 50-70 lbs. I think Jed c...

  This week Kate and Jed took us out to dinner and then we went for a nice after dinner walk in downtown Anchorage. The flowers are so big and beautiful. There were not many people walking around, although there are a lot of tourists in restaurants. They are really full. It is hard to eat out because there are not many workers. It takes a long time to get seated and then longer to get your food. Many restaurants also have shortages of some of their food items. It is hard for businesses to bounce back after being closed and having to change their business model. We enjoyed eating out but walking around was the best! It was so busy this past week with transfers. We had 29 new missionaries arrive and 14 of them were sister missionaries. That is the most we have had since we came here. It was also the first we have had everyone meet together in person. It went really well. Elder Robinson was responsible for getting the luggage transferred from the airport. Twenty-six of the missionarie...