Huge Things!

Weather Report
High 54 Low 40Sunrise 7:47 a.m. Sunset 7:53 p.m. = 12 hours & 6 min. Daylight.

We will be going off Daylight savings next week and then I will lose my time to go walking. What will I ever do for exercise in this big city and with an office job – woe is me!

The biggest huge thing in Alaska, Denali,! We were able to go to Denali with the bishop from Fairbanks. He had put our name in the lottery and we won. During the season you can only get in by bus but after the season they allow 400 cars a day to drive in all the way on 4 different days. Almost 6,000 people apply so we were very lucky. And the day was the most beautiful! They say you only see Denali (Mt. McKinley to the lower 48) from top to bottom 10 days out of the year and the day we went was one of those days. It was a fantastic day where we not only saw the mountain but we saw an unbelievable 13 bear and 10 wolves right by the road.

We saw the "three bears", actually mamma and her two babies. One of the baby bear stood up on her hind legs and the three of them crossed the road between all the cars who had stopped to see them. When in a bus all summer you can’t get out of the bus to even take a picture but when you drive in you are allowed to get out of the car. If the animals get within 50 yards you have to get back into your car. So the wild animals never see people. They are used to vehicles traveling on the roads but really never see people.

This wolf was feeling pretty good as he stretched for us. We saw three bear eating a downed caribou and all 10 of the wolves had just finished a caribou and were stretched out in the sun. It was so funny to see. I want to tell you more of the wonderful day but won’t so just know it was a once in a life time opportunity that we are so thankful to have had. 

The greatest huge thing was the spiritual experience we had two weekends ago at the temple with brand new members of the church from Fairbanks. These were all people that we helped do packets. To see Br. Rodriguez sobbing as he was baptized for a father and grandfather was more than we could take because after doing the research for his family we felt like we knew them. He will be eligible to go to the temple for his endowments in October. He and his wife are talking about waiting until their wedding anniversary in January. Br. Rodriguez says he just can’t wait that long.

Sister Davidson called us and asked us to attend the sealing session where she was sealing 30 people in her family. When we got there she asked us to be proxy for her parents while she was sealed to them. What an unspeakable honor! I have always wanted to have a “real spiritual” experience in the temple and we had one that day. When one grandmother was being sealed to her husband the sealer stopped and asked, “Who said yes?” The proxy answered that she had. “No, the sealer said, “I heard two people answer.” Then he looked at each one of us and asked again, “Who said yes?” None of us heard two yes’s. Afterwards I asked Sister Davidson if that was her grandmother who answered. She said she knew that it was. This family history is so wonderful and such a blessing in our lives.

Keep The Squash Coming

Weather Report
High 58 Low 46
Sunrise 7:13 a.m. Sunset 8:38 p.m. = 13 hours & 25 min. Daylight. We are losing daylight way too fast. But fall is coming fast.

August 15th we looked out our window and saw "termination dust" in the mountain tops. This is snow that signifies the termination of summer. The mountains are full of yellow and orange. We don't have but a very little bit of red, maple, color. But it is so beautiful! Burt and I went for a walk up Eagle River and if he gets the pictures off his camera and on to my computer. We walked right by a moose who was standing along the path. It was scary but he didn't seem to care that we were on his path. We got a picture of the lady walking towards us so you would see how close we were.

Life was hectic enough at the mission office as we were learning just how to do our job. But then the President asked us if we would be in charge of a booth at the fair. Our theme was, "Families Are Forever". And our sign said, "Free Information on Family History". It turned out to be a rather big job on top of learning the office but was a lot of fun. Me coming to Alaska and doing a fair - can you believe it! It was a resounding success as the numbers rolled in about referrals, family history packets requested, and lessons taught by the missionaries. I got a call just yesterday from someone who had stopped by the tent and wanted to know more about doing genealogy. We got to know the missionaries working in the Wasilla Zone and the ward members very well. But just when we should have some peace and maybe a minute to our selves the other office couple had to go home so Sister Casper could have surgery. "No rest for the wicked" holds true still. And as one of the Tongan Elders loves to say, "But the church is still true!" Tomorrow will be our first day in the office alone and doing the work of 4 people so you won't hear from us for another month.

And hopefully, I am still a missionary.
Thanks for keeping in touch, I love and miss you all, Lenore

A p.s. for my true friends who will still love me even if I get in trouble. We are getting to know so many more missionaries and it is so fun to see all the little new missionaries come. My biggest problem is I can't stay out of trouble because we have mission rules that says we can't hug the elders. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that I can love these cute kids so much and not give them a hug with lots of tears when they leave for home. Well, you are right, I can't!! I was afraid I was getting sent home this past week. I have come to the conclusion that the only way I can stay out of trouble is to not go to the "out" meeting. We will see, I have 5 more weeks to get stronger and more righteous!

Hey, kids, here is my letter to everyone but I wanted to tell you that we had a Bethel reunion on Saturday. Actually Dianne and Bob Graham had their 40th wedding anniversary and invited all the people they knew from Homer to Anchorage to a dinner at a restaurant on the golf course, called "O'Malley on the Green". It was so fun to see people that even remembered me. An Eskimo lady Elsa Mather, just gave me a big hug when I introduced myself and said, "Lenore, I bought a sewing machine from you and I still use it!" She then proceeded to tell me everything she had made that she learned how to do in my sewing class. Her husband was Jim Mather, a Gussic who taught in the High School so I don't know if you would remember them or not. Bob's sister, Colleen was there and didn't look more than a week older than she did in Bethel.

We received the strangest but most welcome gift we have ever gotten. It came from Logan and was a spaghetti squash. We were so excited and ate half of it tonight for supper and laughed at how expensive it was, almost the same price as if we had bought it here in the Farmers Market, and loved every mouthful of it. Thanks you wonderful people from Logan. Burt figured it up and even at the price decided it would be cheaper to have you grow our vegetables from now on.
We love you all so much.