A trip to Delta Junction

     Elder Robinson and Elder Tracy drove to Delta Junction this past week to help missionaries move in to a new apartment. It is about 420 miles from Anchorage and took about 7 hours to get there. It was mostly snow-packed roads and not much traffic. 

The missionaries were really happy to see them. They moved out of the birdhouse apartment I showed last week into a larger apartment with a washer and dryer. Elder Robinson also brought them some extra furnishings. They liked the beach shower curtain.

      Delta Junction is a town of about 1000 people. It is the end of the Alcan highway and the junction of going south towards Valdez and Anchorage or north to Fairbanks. The Alaska Pipeline runs alongside a lot of the road.  There was a nice small hotel they stayed at and they were able to to take the missionaries out for dinner. This is a picture of the "garbage" omelette Elder Robinson had for breakfast. It had all kinds of meat and vegetables in it. I think they added whatever was leftover from the night before. Pretty hearty.

     The Alaska Pipeline is an interesting engineering feat. I remember my dad went to Alaska several times for the Department of Interior while it was being constructed in the mid 1970's. One of the engineering problems was the heat of the oil as it flows through the pipeline. The oil is120 degrees as it enters the pipeline. At high volumes (1-2 million barrels/day) the pipeline heats up enough to melt the permafrost around it which destabilizes the ground it is built on. It is not as much of an issue above ground but is a bigger problem when the pipeline is underground.  There are pipes to vent the heat when the pipeline is underground. Another problem is that low temperatures during winter with low volumes of oil (less than 300,000 barrels/day) causes the oil to freeze creating a blockage in the pipeline. There are heating elements at the pump stations to warm the oil as needed. Just some interesting info about the pipeline. That is a lot of oil moving every day but is reduced to minimum amounts now. It has been a great source of revenue for the state. 

     With winter weather there are more moose sightings. Elder Robinson saw some moose on the drive to Delta Junction. One of them has a two-tone look. I saw moose in Anchorage but didn't get a picture because I was driving. I saw 4 moose crossing the road on the way to the mission office. Two of them had really big horns/antlers. They slowly crossed the road to graze on the other side. I think 4 of them counts as a herd.

     We have transfers coming again next week. We have 3 apartments to get ready for young missionaries. We had to hurry to get one apartment ready sooner because one of the missionaries had a Covid-positive test after contact with a ward member with Covid. There were 5 sisters sharing an apartment and one of them tested positive so we needed to move the sister and her companion to another apartment to isolate them. We worked about 6 hours cleaning and furnishing the apartment. (Pictures so you can see what the apartments are like. This is an older one). I had the sister retest after she got her result because she was vaccinated less than 3 months earlier and did not have any symptoms. I know it is rare to have a false positive, but wanted to check. Two hours after they moved in to the new apartment she got the result of her second test and she was negative. While a false positive is rare it can happen with improper handling. It was a relief because several missionaries she had been in contact with were scheduled to fly home or to new missions. No other missionaries tested positive. Transfer week would have been an awful time to test and monitor covid cases. That was a blessing! There are 8 missionaries going to South America this week and another 6 will go in 3 weeks. We have missionaries in Barrow, Kotzebue and Bethel that are coming back to Anchorage. The missionaries in Nome are meeting with a lot of people and will stay through one more transfer even though it is cold and isolated. They wanted to stay just a little longer.

     I know there was a lot of rain a few weeks ago on the West Coast and in to Utah. We had a lot of rain too on the Kenai Peninsula. There was a landslide by Cooper Landing north of Soldotna that closed the road for a day and a half. Pres. and Sis King had been attending Zone Conference and Stake Conference and were stranded there until the road opened. Most of the area had 10-14 inches of rain in 3 days. Portage had 26 inches in 3 days. In Anchorage we had 3 inches. Crazy weather. 

     Spiritual thought: As office missionaries we don't get a chance to go on missionary teaching appointments or interact much with people who may be interested in hearing a gospel message. I am grateful when we do hear missionary stories from members and their friends. After attending the temple this week we visited with a member who is a temple worker from Palmer, named Barry Willardson. He was on the 1982 BYU National Champion Golf team with Keith Clearwater and Rick Fehr. That got Elder Robinson's attention. He told us about going to eat at a small restaurant in Palmer. They were talking with the owner who had moved to Palmer 4 years ago from Mexico. Brother Willardson had served a mission in Mexico and had lived in Mexico for a few years as well. He spoke Spanish with the owner and talked about his mission. They were so happy to talk with him. He shared a Book of Mormon with them and now they are meeting with the missionaries. He was such a friendly person to talk with and able to talk about the gospel in a warm inviting way. When you love others and love the gospel it seems to connect so naturally. I do love the gospel and the blessings that come from scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, keeping covenants, having a living prophet, and following the teachings of Jesus. I also love people but am sometimes afraid to talk to people I don't know well. Making the connection between the two is the challenge. I think of Ammon in the Book of Mormon and his example of love and service to the Lamanites, the Nephite enemies.  He served and loved the people first and then was able to share the gospel. Love comes first. So good missionary preparation is to love and serve people and love the gospel! It reminds me of Christ telling his disciples "If you love me, feed my sheep". Sharing the gospel is a way of showing love to others.  Love the sheep and you will want to feed them. The story by Sister Malan in conference 1989 is a memorable story about caring for the lambs. It is called The Summer of the Lambs. It is a good reminder of why we share the gospel. 

     That is it for this week. Next week will be really busy with transfers. I hope everyone gets negative Covid tests on time for travel and stays healthy. Elder Robinson hopes everyone gets settled in a comfortable apartment.  We love you all and hope and pray for your welfare.  We are so blessed with wonderful family and friends. 

Love,

Elder and Sister Robinson

Random pictures of Alaska at 9:00 in the morning on Nov 1 and then sunrise at 9:41. Beautiful day when it finally gets here. Also I thought the license plate was funny and took a picture. Then I noticed the tire had something extra.