Ice Sculptures

Photos

I loved the little rabbits face. I put the half-way staircase in because I wanted you to see all the snow flying, just think some of these days it was -30 degrees. The picture of Grandpa and Grandma was a day that it was -30. I wanted a picture of us at that cold so you would know that we could walk for 4 hours in -30 degrees. I am not saying it wasn't cold. It was! I had the biggest problem with my feet.

Finally, I put those toe warmers in my boots and then didn't have any problem with them. When it was below 0 I wore the thing I call my zute suit, it is cut out of a layer of foam sandwiched between two layers of fabric. You can see it poking out of my coat. I kept warm enough that I hardly ever zipped my coat because it was so bulky.

Weather Report
High + 35 Low + 19
Daylight with Day lights savings: Sunrise 6:46 Sunset 9:03 For a
total this weekend of 14 hours and 18 minutes of sunlight.

April 8, 2006 Grey's baptism, what a happy day and we were sad to miss it. We spoke in the 1st ward today. Our topic was the Savior so it made me feel close to the family and to Grey. What a wonderful time to get baptized. It is spring, a time of renewal, the week after general conference and the week before Easter. Congratulation, Grey!

This is your monthly words of wisdom from your mom. But don't delete yet as it is pretty great, according to me. We have learned a couple of lessons this week, which are good for the kids.
These are sort of "Good news" "Bad news" stories but great learning experiences for the kids.

First the bad news. Monday we attended a funeral for a 13 year old boy from North Pole. It was a very sad funeral. Are any of the kids back home playing the games where you tie a rope around your neck and pull until you pass out? The rope has a slip knot in it and when you pass out you let go of the rope and then come to. Well, he wouldn't do it at school with the other kids but when he was alone at home he tried it. Unfortunately, he tied the rope with the knot under his chin. When he passed out his chin came down on the knot, holding it in place thus strangling him-self.

The North Pole bishop is a wonderful man with youth, an institute teacher by profession. Of course, the whole school was at the funeral. Andrew was on the wrestling team and the whole team was there and having a very difficult time. Bishop Richardson asked the kids how many were good friends of Andrew and had them raise their hands. He asked how many of them would have stopped him from doing what he did. He really emphasized how very DUMB this trick was. He read a scripture about Satan working in the dark and told them that if they did anything in the dark, where they didn't want anyone else to see them then it was wrong and dumb. He had them commit, by raising their hands, to not doing things that they didn't want anyone to see. Then commit to stopping any friends who wanted to do things that were dumb like that.

It was a very powerful talk for the kids and adults as well. It was a wonderful opportunity for missionary work. We set up some displays, Burt and I did one on Family History, turning hearts of the fathers to the children and turning hearts of the children to the fathers. All the missionaries sang, "Called to serve". There are 16 of us in our zone and it sounded so wonderful.
Now I want to commit my grandkids that they won't try anything that they think is wrong or they don't want their parents or grandparents to see them doing. If you see any of your friends doing such things I want you to commit to stop them.

Now for the "Good news" lesson: We have been going to a family home evening group each Monday night. In the group is the bishop and his wife and the Gho's, (She is Burt's Eskimo cousin and he is from Peru). There are the Shaw's (he is known as the Father of the Geo-physical Department at the University of Alaska, a brilliant man), and the Kelly's, just a fun loving couple. Br. Kelly is about 3 times bigger than Burt and Sister Kelly is this tiny thing who has an 85 year old mother who went into the hospital for surgery and jogs around the hospital every day jogging her pace maker out of place, so funny. We started talking about problem solving, Burt would call it a "Rasmussen sort of discussion". I will try to remember some of the questions that were posed by Sister Gho, is a math teacher at the university, and Br. Shaw.

The Shaw's had just gotten their first truck and Br. Shaw was showing his friend and asked his friend what he thought was tougher a car or a truck. The boys were just tiny but so embarrassed that their dad had asked such a dumb question. Another time they were traveling up the Al-can Highway when a huge semi passed them. Br Shaw could see off at a distance a storm coming in and asked the boys what had more power, the semi or the storm. They all figured it out in their heads.

He asked a graduate student that he was mad at "How much water flows down the Amazon River." He wouldn't let him look it up. They figured it out in their heads and when they finally did look up the answer they were within 1" (I am not sure the measurement I couldn't hear but it was one something in mathematical terms.) It had such a profound effect on the student that he started asking questions like that all the time and the students got to just hate to go in to see him.

Sister Gho would have her children figure out things like what formed sand bars. A couple of things we learned was that sandbars are almost always started by trees. They take on the shape of what started them. She also told us that only 10-20% of water flows in the river. The rest is all under ground. There is a book called "River", they were not sure of the name that tells all this stuff. We want to find it and read it.

Now for my lesson. Listening to Br. Shaw and Sis. Gho I realized what profound effect parents can have on the intelligence of their children by asking questions. I remember hearing Kurt Bestor tell us that his mother always had him play things on the piano. Like on a stormy day she would say, "Go play me a storm," "Go play me a kitten playing with a ball," etc. This is why he became a song writer. Do with that insight what you want.

Wood, Br. Shaw was impressed that you were a math teacher at University of Oregon. I didn't explain anything about finance, because he was so impressed with the math.

Spring is coming fast to Fairbanks, they say it only takes a week for spring to come. You see even though the weather has only been above freezing maybe two days the sun is up so long, today almost 15 hours, that it warms up the pavement and the rocks and the snow melts very very fast. Since it is almost spring I need to get the pictures of the multi-block ice carvings sent. I wish you could see them as the wonderful carvings that we saw. Notice all the details.

Next Sunday is Easter. At our Zone Conference we saw a video of the Savior's last day. It was very hard to watch I turned away as they pounded the nails in his hands and feet. I can't believe he was willing to suffer for my sins so I wouldn't have to suffer if I repent. I love him so much for doing that for me and for you. I am going to include a story that I am going to give when I talk in church on Sunday. Please read it to the kids.

It is very touching and gets the point across that the Savior died for me even if I don't accept him. I am thankful for this opportunity to serve him and take his message to the people in Fairbanks. (The story is called "Seminary Donuts" and if you want it I will send it.)

We have had a couple of weeks of wonderful experiences, hearing stories from families whose history packets we are doing. We wrote a report for the Mission President and our Stake President and realized that we had finished 16 packets. Of these 16 people 8 are excited and are continuing to work on their family history and 5 have done temple ready to take their grandparents to the temple next month to do the baptisms for them. When a man who has
been inactive for 25 years calls the next morning and says, "I am so jazzed about doing my family history I can't stand it."

Another recent convert called and said she was so excited she has been at her friends house for three days straight working on her family history. A 17 year old who has just been baptized 6 months ago said, "Cool, I can go to the temple for my grandparents? How Cool. This is so cool, I can't believe it!" She is meeting us at the Family History Center next week to do temple ready to take family names to the Anchorage temple in May and said "This is cool!" I think at least 10 times in her sentence when I called her.

One lady said that a grandmother we thought we had found wasn't the right person because it wasn't the same spelling. We told her to just throw the paper away if she wanted to but it sure looked like her grandmother to us. The next day she called almost breathless, "I called my mother last night, guess what? That is my grandmother! I have always spelled her name wrong!" She was so excited.

We were so touched to receive our only thank you letter from a lady who joined the church in Oregon 10 years ago. She got her feelings hurt by the bishop at the time and so she came to Fairbanks to hide. She did a pretty good job until we found her and did a family history packet for her. She is the only person who has ever sent us a thank you card. We have had lots of dinner engagements though so we aren't complaining. Well, in case you haven't guessed we are happy.

Heavenly Father loves you all and you are in his hand so I don't worry about you. Just stay happy and healthy, Love from your mom and Burt Kiss all those wonderful grandkids of ours.