New Senior Couple and a Missionary Baptism

 

     The days are getting shorter very fast now. Sunrise is 8:51 a.m.and Sunset is 6:36 p.m. We lose about   5 1/2 min of daylight every day. It does mean that we see pretty sunrises and sunsets to and from work. I really enjoyed that last winter. We have our studded tires on now which really helps with cold and icy roads. 

       We welcomed a new senior couple to the mission last week. Elder and Sister Barrett arrived a little over a week ago. We arranged to rent a home in the ward where they will be serving and they are so excited to be here. They are from Texas (a 30-acre farm outside of Dallas). Elder Barrett had lived in Alaska from age 6-18 years old. He was here during the earthquake in 1964. His family had a hotel they owned at the time and during the earthquake they opened it up as a shelter to whoever needed housing. They made some lifelong friends. He said that because of helping so many people at the time they developed very loyal customers for as long as they owned the hotel. He has a lot of interesting stories about early Alaska. They will be here for 6 winter months but joked they may want to stay through summer too. They have 8 children and 19 grandchildren and wanted to start with a shorter mission. When they submitted mission papers they requested Alaska or the Philippines. Two very diverse places. They thought both places would have friendly people and be different from Texas. I'm glad we were able to get them a home to rent. It is the home of an older couple who have gone to live with family in Arizona. It is furnished and just needed a little cleaning and replacement of linens. Elder and Sister Barrett like horses and farm life and were so happy with the Alaska decor. It is very warm and cozy with room to spare and a nice yard.

     There is an interesting story about picking Elder and Sister Barrett up at the airport. President King was out of town and asked if we would meet the Barretts at the airport last Saturday afternoon. We were sitting on a bench at the bottom of the escalator by baggage claim when we heard someone about 40 feet away say, "Elder and Sister Robinson, I never thought I would see you here!". We all had masks on and had no idea who this man with 3 children was. He seemed so happy to see us. We greeted him and found it was Andy Shelton whose parents live in our neighborhood in Provo. He had come to Alaska with his children on an adventure for fall break. He is Lisa's age and we have been friends with their family for over 30 years. He was on the same flight as the Barretts and so knew we were picking them up. I feel bad I didn't think to get a picture. I love seeing an unexpected friend!

     The other highlight of last week was being able to attend a baptism of a new ward member. The missionaries have been teaching Walter for about 6 months and he decided to be baptized. I love baptisms, remembering those covenants and the blessings that come from baptism. The missionaries conducted the meeting and there was a wonderful spirit. It is a miracle to see how the missionaries are able to carry out the responsibilities of finding, teaching and baptizing someone. It has been harder and slower with Covid changes, but they continue to work hard every day. I am grateful we were able to be a part of a missionary baptism on our mission. One thing I have liked being in Alaska is to hear the stories of conversion from so many of the members here. In about 50 years Alaska has grown from one stake to 10 stakes and a temple. Everyone here is blessed for the addition of each new member. Covid and social changes have made missionary work more challenging than expected but the missionaries continue to work hard and find success. I liked the scripture in D&C 117:13 about Oliver Granger in the Come Follow Me Lesson this week. Although he was not successful in what he was called to do, he did his best. The phrase "when he falls he shall rise again, for his sacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase". Success is in working hard, doing your best and getting back up when you fall. The Lord works with the rest of the details. 

     This week Elder Robinson has another apartment to prepare for a senior couple coming Oct 29. This apartment will need to be completely furnished. He has also been helping missionaries with household problems (leaking faucets, broken door locks, washing machine and boiler problems). Colder weather brings more heating and plumbing problems. It is harder to get repairmen out quickly and the landlords appreciate if he can help with smaller things. He is getting to be a very good handyman. There is always something to do. For me, Covid is still a challenge (mostly testing because of Covid contacts) and getting missionaries ready to go to their original assignments in South America and England. We have a lot of fairly new missionaries. Over 40% have been here less than 6 months. Some are a little nervous about the cold, dark winter months.  

     We were excited to see Sister Bluth, a missionary who served here until June. She came back for a short visit with her mom to show her the mission. Plane fares are low right now. She thanked Elder Robinson for finding the best apartment she had during her whole mission. The missionaries do appreciate his efforts.

     Spiritual Thought: The baptism was a great experience. I just wanted to add how this week I have noticed the Lord helps us to be able to do the good things we need to do and still have time for the things we want to do. It was Stake Conference this weekend and we had planned to go to the Adult Session on Saturday at 7 p.m. At about 5 we found out the sister missionaries in Wasilla did not have heat in their apartment and it wouldn't get repaired until Monday. We had 2 space heaters we could take to them but it is about an hour drive to Wasilla. We were dressed to go to conference and hoped we could drive out and back in time for conference. As we were driving to Wasilla there was a huge traffic jam (it seems like a weekly event) going back in to Anchorage. I thought there would be no way we would get back in time. We dropped off the heaters and headed back to Anchorage thinking it would take more than an hour to get to the meeting if we were stuck in traffic. Amazingly the traffic was extremely light on the return trip and we made it only 5 minutes late. I feel that trying to help and serve others didn't take as much time as we thought and it worked out to get where we needed to be when we needed to be there. There is always time for service!

     Hope it was a good Fall Break for school kids (and family). Fall is such a beautiful time of year. Happy Birthday to Ruthie and Scott this week. We love you!

Elder and Sister Robinson

Random pictures from the past week. No more Halloween decorations in the stores, only Christmas. This house had a ghost in the yard but I thought it was a snowman. I love the big white clouds we see in Alaska. It was too cloudy to see the Aurora in Anchorage but this remote research camera shot from Poker Flats in Fairbanks was the best I could do. One of the most colorful and active Auroras since we have been here. In Anchorage you can see it about 28% of the time.  Picture of the Big Dipper. Picture of the Antiochian Orthodox church and cemetery by the missionary apartment in Eagle River.