Happy New Year and Happy Anniversary

 

     Happy New Year to all of you and Happy 47th Anniversary to us. It was a memorable week with celebrations and wild weather. Early in the week it was quite warm and was 34 degrees when we went to see the holiday lights at the Alaska Botanical Garden. It was nice walking around the displays and seeing people enjoying being outside.  I had my name tag on and had several people say "Bless you, Sister". Another man asked if we had stopped wearing habits and covering our heads. I'm glad he felt free to ask. It was good to have a chance to explain what we do as missionaries.

     There was a trail for kick sleds that looked really fun. I sat on one but I was too heavy for Elder Robinson to push. So we just got a picture instead. It was fun to feel like a kid on the sled (a big kid!).     

      Later in the week we went to JBER (Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson), the combined Army and Air Force military base. Elder Allred, the military relations senior missionary, took us for a tour on base and got us a 60-day pass. They have cross country ski equipment available for use for free and a nice trail. If it warms up we may go try it. I think I would do better with a kick sled though. It was  interesting to see the F-22 and C-17 planes. I could only take pictures of planes that were static displays or flying. Elder Robinson liked the USO building. They have military families attending 4 home wards in 3 different stakes from the base. We enjoyed seeing the military base community. 

     For New Years Eve we went downtown for the fireworks show at 8 p.m. It took about 20 min to drive, park and walk to where you could see the fireworks. It was kind of crowded but not too bad. There were a lot of families with kids bundled up and sitting on sleds. It was a 15 min show and then 20 min to get home. It was cloudy so the fireworks weren't very bright. It wasn’t on the scale of Stadium of Fire but was just right for a cold night.  Miss America (Miss Alaska) was there greeting people and having pictures taken. There was a very long line to see her. After the fireworks ended everyone said "Happy New Year" and went home to get warm. We did hear neighborhood fireworks at midnight. That was just like home.

    New Years Day was so cold and windy. It was the worst storm in over 20 years. There were wind gusts in Anchorage of 60 mph but in Wasilla and Palmer gusts were 80-90 mph. The blowing and drifting snow caused whiteout blizzard conditions and the highway was closed for a while.  The wind blew over semi-trucks, small planes, small buildings, trees, signs and power lines. With the power out some of the water pipes froze. It looks pretty (the frozen water) but what a mess to clean up. About half of the missionary apartments in the Palmer/Wasilla are are without power and one apartment had the roof blow off. Everyone has been so good to  help find places for the missionaries to stay until the power is restored. They estimate it will take several more days to make repairs because it is still very windy and cold for the rest of the week. The seminary teacher who comes to our church building where the mission office is, lives in Wasilla. She said it looks like a war zone with debris everywhere. We haven’t been able to go help because travel in the area is so limited. The Zone Leaders are doing a good job taking care of the missionaries there and communicating with us in Anchorage. It has been a challenge keeping everyone in a warm place. (The pictures are from the news.)

      I know there has been severe weather in the lower 48 states too. It was sad to see the devastating wildfires in Colorado and other storm disruptions and damage. Even with extreme weather I am glad to have increased snowfall particularly in Nevada and Utah. Hopefully it will help ease the drought of the last few years. We enjoyed winter last year in Anchorage and didn't realize how mild it was until we experienced the wild winter weather this year.  The wind chill this morning was 20 below and it is 45 below in Fairbanks. It will be sub zero the rest of the week and next week the highs should be in the 20's. Hurray! We are so grateful for a warm home!

     We have 14 missionaries going to Chile, Argentina and Uruguay this next month. They are excited to go to their original mission assignments. They will be leaving cold Alaska for hot South America. Some missionaries said they have heard from missionaries who have left already that they won't have nice beds and furnishings like what Elder Robinson has provided here. They said they will miss him! 

     The best part of the week was celebrating our anniversary.  It is interesting to look at the highlights of our last three anniversaries. For our 45th anniversary we hoped to go on a New England cruise in September of 2020, the year of Covid. Instead we were starting our mission in Alaska that September.  For our 46th anniversary an unexpected surprise was being able to go to the Alaska Temple with a missionary who was going for the first time with his family from Utah. With Covid restrictions we never imagined we would be able to be in the temple on our anniversary. It was a wonderful gift to be there. And for our 47th anniversary we were surprised to be able to go on a teaching appointment with the missionaries serving in our ward. Since we were called as Mission Office missionaries we didn’t think we would have a chance to teach a missionary lesson to someone. It was one of the best experiences of our whole mission. We met with Mary, a single mom with 3 children, ages 12, 9 and 6. She has been meeting with the missionaries for about a year.  There was a warm spirit and feeling of love for the gospel and for Mary and her family. It felt great to be a missionary! Afterwards we had a mission-wide Sunday night devotional that was really uplifting. It was a perfect day. (And we still like Halibut on Sunday!)

     Spiritual thought: I have thought this week about President Nelson saying, “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives”. Our time on our mission, highlighted by experiences on our anniversaries, has been a very joy-filled time. We live in a small apartment, far from family and friends at home, working to solve problems every day, facing unique challenges, but it is such a happy time. I am grateful for the focus on Christ that comes while serving a mission. That focus has made our mission such a great blessing. It is hard to think about our mission coming to an end. But while the circumstances of being a missionary in Alaska will change, we hopefully have learned how to maintain our focus on Christ when we return home. That is what brings joy wherever you are. 

      We are grateful for each of you and hope you find good in the things you do this week. Visiting with Mary, she told us even when something looked bad, when she read the scriptures she found something good that came out of it. That is a good lesson.

We love you.

Elder and Sister Robinson

A picture of Aurora chocolates. A chef from Beverly Hills moved to Anchorage and hand paints these chocolates. They are very pretty but are small and expensive. They look better than they taste so I have only eaten one.