Beautiful Solitude

First item is about the weather. Of course. The low this week was -51.
That occurred during the night so we haven't experienced colder than -48.

We are dressed warm enough but when I ran into Safeway one day with a cap to just above my ears my earrings froze my ears. It was so funny when I realized why my ears hurt. Now that is cold because it didn't take more than a minute to get into the store. We went out and took a picture under the sign at Gottschalks that said -40 only to have it go to -51 the very next day. Oh, well! Alaska is having a cold wave, colder than it has been in 107 years.
Funny but when we first came I said to Burt, "I bet it is the COLDEST it has ever been this winter!

You know how that goes. I swear every year is "the coldest", "the hottest", the "driest" what ever it has ever been. Sure enough the paper said a couple of days ago that we had a record. When we woke up Sunday morning and it was -31, Burt hollered in, "my word it has warmed up today!" Then we know we are either sick or in Alaska. The rule is everyone calls the weather number and if it is below -30 we only have sacrament and Priesthood/Relief Society, if it is -40 or below, we only have Sacrament and if it is -50 church is cancelled. During the week anything below -30 they don't have any youth programs.

We are loving it here in Fairbanks. Because it is so dry we don't suffer from the cold. We live at a members home and they let us park our car in the garage and then we either plug in the car or remote start it 10 minutes before we leave so we just don't notice the cold. We did however go for a 1 block walk the other day at -45 and you know it was cold on the face but that was all. We haven't gotten our selves a face mask yet because we just aren't' out that much.

We have lessons every night this week and three during the day. We are having more meetings than we have time to finish the "Gift of Family History" packets. But we know we will do them faster as we gain experience.

We are working mostly with new members and less-actives with the GIFT program and people are loving it. It is such a positive thing for us because we are just talking to people about families and everyone loves their family. We are teaching one family, The Pinkston's in North Pole. They are the ones with the fire. He wants to believe it but struggles with the authority problem. I don't mean Joseph Smith I mean - well let me explain.

He was terribly abused as a child, left home and joined the airforce and found that it was very controlling. He just can't wait to have his 20 years over in 15 more months. He really wants the LDS church in his life but looks at the structure and sees all the elders in white suits and ties (there are some of you who can relate to that) and he doesn't like it. He relates to Burt because Burt hates his suit and wishes for levi's and sweats. He is praying and reading the Book of Mormon and is doing great there. He came to Sacrament meeting on Sunday and said he didn't feel the spirit. He is used to his saved church where they jump up and down and are very noisy. We know he will soon appreciate the peace in our church, have you ever known sacrament meeting to be very peaceful and quiet. Oh, well.

He is coming along and it is very rewarding to us. It is very good for Burt because he DOES NOT like the teaching part of this mission but Br. Pinkston won't let the young elders come teach him. He likes us because his grandparents were the only kind and loving thing about his growing up so he thinks we just might be kind and loving. Don't anyone tell him other wise. They were born in 1966 and 1969 so you can see they are our kids to us and it is okay if they look at us as greyed hair, kind, and loving.

We are happy, experiencing the cold (notice I didn't say loving the cold), and learning to live with each other 24 7's. Our testimony is growing every day. Gosh we love these young Jr. Missionaries. It is astounding to see them teach!. They are just awesome! These Alaska's members are a different breed and most of you would fit in very well with them. We have eaten dinner at some members homes that are so far out in the woods away from any one or thing else, it is truly a "Never Never land".. It is just unbelievable how beautiful the solitude is here! .

We Love Fairbanks

I will start each letter with the weather report. This they say is the bragging right of people in Fairbanks. The coldest this week has been -43 and the warmest has been -18. Tonight it is supposed to get down to -45. We have been the coldest spot in Alaska all week. Can you believe we are colder than Barrow? The trees are beautiful, all covered with hoarfrost, magnificent! Every street is a winter wonder land!!

We loved Fairbanks right from the first. It is not like living out in the Bush and yet isn't as big as Anchorage so we are happy. There are all the big stores here like, Home Depot (want to come up here Lane?) We have Safeway, Wall-Mart, even a Sam's Club, Office Max, and of course all the Taco Times and a Mac Donald on every corner. There aren't as many restaurants as Layton has however. The Elders treated us to lunch on our anniversary after our Zone meeting on Wednesday at one of the Panda places (the Gallagher's would feel right at home here.) It is just like I remembered, with a shopping center, lots of trees, a housing area and more trees. Lots of places for 5 McDermott's to run, play, and get lost in. The OJ's would love the fact that there is a giant Barns and Noble, a University, and lots of lakes. However there is no sailing yet but I haven't seen anyone on their ice skates either.

I think we really like North Pole the best of all, however. Of course, all the Christmas things make it so much fun. But the people here are just so much fun. We went to church here on Sunday and the bishop gave a talk where he included the people in the audience and waved his hands all over. We had an investigator from a saved church who loved it. They have an activity every month. Wednesday they are doing Scripture Skits and people were talking about it all day Sunday.

My spiritual story for the week is a family we met Saturday night in North Pole, the Pinkston's. It is a part member family with her very active in the LDS church and him in a saved church. They have been having problems in their marriage and about to separate. We met her at a baptism last Saturday and she asked if we could come talk with her husband on Sunday night. We met Saturday night with another couple (she is working on her PhD and flying all over Alaska teaching people in the Bush so we had a lot in common. Anyway they mentioned that there was a fire and someone lost their house. In church the bishop announced that the Pinkston's lost their home Friday afternoon in a fire. We couldn't believe it and sure didn't think we would be meeting with them Sunday night. But no, she said "come over"! We were not prepared for what we heard. They feel like the fire was an answer to prayer. There were so many signs which included the burned drapes even.

He was trying to decide to build 6 more units but she felt their marriage wouldn't endure that and the fire made that decision for them. Now he didn't have the money to do that. She has known all her life that there would be a fire and had all their personal things in fireboxes. No original photographs on the wall and two weeks before she had done all their financial paper work and written all her friends. All that type of stuff was burned in the fire.

The list goes on and on but the real clincher was that when they were driving away a fireman picked up a burned and frozen bundle of something and after taking it home and chipping it away it turned out to be her Book of Mormon. She showed it to us. Al the pages were melted together around the edges but she could pry it open but no pages were burned. She had been reading in Jacob 6. The scriptures marked were verses 3, 6-11. Her marker was lying open on the page and the flames had scorched up around these words. I would never had believed it if I hadn't seen it. With everything all together her husband took this as a sign. Interestingly he had asked her about being sealed in the temple just last week and told her he felt that he wasn't doing just what God wanted him to do in his church. It just didn't feel good any more. We spent 3 hours answering his questions as fast as we could. He even said he wanted to serve a mission with his wife and asked us how we did that. It was wonderful!

We are well and happy and can't wait each day to see what we will see and learn and feel. We love the gospel and each other more and more. This is surprising because we are having problems doing discussions, as we want to teach in completely different directions. Burt wants to talk and talk and talk and I want an outline. I have come to the conclusion that teaching with him is like dancing with him. It sure is difficult to know what the next step will be but together we make beautiful music.

I need to tell you about the size of our Stake. If you put it on a map of the lower 48 it would cover an area from Seattle Washington to Colorado, roughly. That will give you some idea of the job that the Stake people have keeping track of everything going on inside an area that large.

Stories To Tell

We have so many stories to tell about our trip up here. We did pretty good getting out of Anchorage. We had to buy a car, get insurance, get it registered, buy Burt a coat, and attend a temple session. I just couldn't leave Anchorage without going to the temple. It is the smallest temple we have seen and it was a thrill to be there. I kept looking around I fully expected to look up and see Dianne Graham there.

Then we were on our way to Wasilla. We stayed at Elder and Sister Agard's place for two nights to be trained in the Gift of Family History. They have been doing it for three months with such wonderful success. One of the things we did while there was make a packet like we give the people we work with, the less active, new members, or perspective member. We are so excited, don't tell any one, but we plan to make one for each of the grand kids.

We had an appointment to get the car winterized in Fairbanks and then found out Thursday night that the temperature in Fairbanks was -42 degrees. We were worried that we wouldn't even make it there. So we called around and no one could do it in Wasilla for two weeks so we threw things in our bags and took off with out a moment to spare. EXCEPT that the drive up was so beautiful Burt had to stop and take a picture every corner we went around. I finally had to hide his camera.

Well we arrived and our story about where we stayed is for another day. We got in Friday night, went to North Pole for a baptism and ended up with an appointment to teach a part member family next week and a chance to talk in a combined Priesthood/Relief Society the next week. I also found two people interested in the Gift of Family History on the plane to Anchorage.
We talked for the whole three hours. Not bad for one day in Fairbanks.

Naomi, I am finding that I can find people to teach (she told me I would be able to find people)
We spent Saturday afternoon looking for apartments and decided that we would have to spend $1,000 for an apartment. It just made us sick and wondering if we could even last our mission at that price. We went to the Fairbanks 2nd ward this morning and the Relief Society President offered to let us live in her basement for only $600. I cannot tell you how that was an answer to prayer, It is so perfect for us and a beautiful new place. I think we just had to look yesterday to know what a blessing it is when we found it.

We are at the library between church meetings to write to you all because everything is closed tomorrow and we wanted you to know that we haven't frozen yet!! Last night was only -23. Funny, funny thing is that at Anchorage and here we have had to sleep with a window cracked open because it is too hot for us to sleep. At -23 degrees that is hard to believe isn't it.
We love you all and once we get settled will be more regular in emailing you. I don't think we have been so bad except that it seems like we have been gone two months rather than two weeks. Our new address will be 1009 10th Ave but we will be getting a box # as soon as the post offices opens on Tuesday morning so don't send us anything yet. We don't want to get our mail mixed up with our wonderful landlord's.

We love you all so very much, Hug all our beautiful grandkids for us, They will be getting a card from us from the North Pole soon.