Robbins Roost In Alaska

Naknek, Alaska * Bottom of Alaska, Top of the world, a truly Heavenly experience!

2007-04-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Main street in Naknek.
My friends are reminding me that I haven’t sent out a letter or put it on my blog page for some time. I guess I don’t know how to describe a missionary experience quite like we are having. It is anything but typical and way to much fun to be called work. First let me describe Naknek – a small village of about 600 people. We have a trading post, a tiny awesome library, a school for all ages, a restaurant, about 8 bars and 8 churches. We have one road, Peninsula Highway 1, which leads to King Salmon, an abandoned air force town, about 18 miles away. Our address is Peninsula Highway Mile 1.5 or Box 508 99633. Or don’t put any address on at all the postmistress knows everybody in town. As does everyone else. We did not move to this small village unnoticed.

Home is where the heart lies.
The church, our home, is among the bushes, just off Peninsula High Way 1 on the left and about 500 yards from the Naknek River on the right. There are very few drawbacks and a lot of things we like about living in the church. There is always room for lots of people to come for activities during the week or meetings on Sunday. One of the two classrooms is our bedroom and we each have a bathroom marked “women” and “men” so we don’t get confused. We have lots of room to exercise in. We have a “small” church kitchen but large compared to the tiny kitchen we had in Anchorage and no kitchen at all in Fairbanks. We are always up in time for meetings and our home is always clean for company.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The Tundra between Naknek and King Salmon, they say is beautiful in the spring, which can’t be far off now. When we first arrived, January 4th ,the temperature was –38 and with a wind (we never had wind in Fairbanks so this was new to us) it was VERY cold. This last week in March the evening temperatures hover around zero. The day time temperatures are from 20 – 40 above. That sounds warm but there is always a wind blowing so it really hasn’t been very warm yet. It doesn’t snow much here but we had ten inches last week and every few days we wake up to hoare frost covered trees, so beautiful! Living at the church we don’t have to get out very often and the cold just doesn’t bother us. The church is warm and cozy.

Our foxy friends and others.
Naknek is a commercial fishing village. Eighty percent of the Red Salmon catch is from here. Anyone in town will give us salmon and we love it! We have become fanatics about high and low tide. High tide brings in the whale and seal and low tide bring the eagles to fish along the shores. So many picture taking opportunities! We saw a small herd of caribou, about 50, and a large herd of moose, about 20. Usually the caribou run in herds of a couple of thousands as they migrate through Naknek and moose don’t get in herds so it was unusual to see 20. This little red fox is our pet. He comes outside our back door at 7:20 every evening to step into the church and eat doggie treats out of our hand.

Across the frozen river!
Our friends at the library took us over to South Naknek one beautiful day in cold January. That is the only way there, to drive across the river. There are only appx. 50 people living there and they have a “flying school bus” to bring a teacher and a handful of kids over to Naknek for school each day. The ice was very bumpy, there were pockets of water standing on the ice. We were a bit nervous but Burt drove over in Al’s truck. They went ahead and Al got out and checking each “puddle”, pronounced it safe, then Sheila and I drove across in her 4 wheel drive. Two weeks later they drove a 28,000 lb piece of equipment over and residences are still driving today, the last week in March.

Up above the world so high!
It was so exuberating to cross that frozen riber but then we were offered a ride in a helicopter through the Katmai National Park and along the Aleutian and the Alaska Peninsula Range, and Oh, My Goodness! The former branch president flew us to the Brooks Falls where the bear come to eat salmon each summer, to the top of glaciers, down and around steaming volcanoes, to the Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes and we saw a sun set from up above the world that stretched from one end of the sky to the other. Words can’t describe it! I felt like I was in heaven and could almost imagine how God feels when he looks down on this beautiful world! We have over 600 photos to show you when we get home.

The Heavenly Kingdons!
In Naknek we have done family history, volunteered at the school, cleaned the church house for meetings and activities, talked and/or given a lesson every Sunday, and performed all the branch presidency duties, and written a news letter every month. We plan a game night every week, a Napoleon Dynamite party, weekly YW/YM activities, YW conference High Tea, a Conference Sunday brunch and pot lucks galore! But the crowning moment in our mission experience was when we invited a family to hear the gospel. (This picture of them is at the Napoleon Dynamite party). They accepted and we have started teaching them. They come out to all the meetings and have searched their whole lives for the gospel. They are humble sweet people, have wonderful family values, and will be such an asset to this struggling branch here in Naknek. This is the reason we were sent here. With only 11 members of which only 2 are active, they were considering selling the chapel. You can’t hold church when the only members are a man from one family and a woman from another. Well, we haven’t activated any of the “hard core want to be lost Alaskan Mormons” but we found instead a wonderful couple who could add so much strength and a reason for church every Sunday. Pray for us and we will send you a picture of them being baptized in “Paradise Point”.

It is conference weekend. I love to hear from these prophets, seers, and revelators. I am so thankful for Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the gospel. Everyday here in Naknek is evidence of God’s love for his children.

We love you all and will see you soon,
President and Sister Robbins

2006-10-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hmongs, Mormons, Snowflakes, Temples

2006-10-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

A wonderful trip to Homer Alaska and we saw some awesome Glacers.
On the way home we happened on "Teal Lake". What wonderful fall colors!

Weather Report: High 42 Low 34
Sunrise 8:56 a.m. Sunset 6:30 p.m. = 9 hours & 30 min.

Last Sunday we were excited to open the newspaper and read on the front page and two whole pages about our missionary, Elder Bennion, serving among the Hmong (silent H) people. He is among the best missionaries here and learned the Hmong language easily. He has since been transferred to Fairbanks as a Zone leader and a brand new missionary, Elder Page, from Centerville has taken his place here with the Hmongs. The Hmong Branch meet in our building for Sacrament Meeting and then join us for Priesthood, Relief Society, and Sunday School.

Go to this site to see the article and click on the links below Elder Bennion’s picture to see an interactive slideshow and to learn about the Hmong People. One link even takes you to http://www.lds.org/ What a missionary tool! I wanted to send this last week but since we were going into transfer week I didn’t get it sent. Tonight we attended a baptism in the Hmong branch of a father and his 8 children. What an outstanding experience to see a young elder who has only been in the branch 3 transfers, 18 weeks, speak and translate himself and do half the baptisms. Elder Page did his first baptism tonight and he was so cute. He spoke mostly in English and the Tom Lee mentioned in the article translated for him when he needed it. But you have to understand that Elder Page has only been here for 6 weeks and these elders get no training in the MTC before they come. He spoke after the baptism and started his talk by telling us he was having problems and that he left his dry underwear home. Tom Lee will probably be a general authority some day he was so impressive when he conducted the meeting and spoke.

In the same newspaper there is a couple of pages talking about the parks in Utah and then a picture of the temple in Salt Lake. The title of the article is “Utah’s Top Jaw-dropper sits right downtown” then they go on to tell our history etc. etc. They said that as many people go to temple square as all 5 of the national parks combined. What a missionary tool!

Last Sunday we attended church in the Girdwood branch. There are only about 5-6 families that attend here and their Branch President is a man with a full beard and a pony tail down below his waist. It was held in a Catholic Church with the signage in front of the chapel as shown in the picture.

Have you ever had a cross on your chapel? It was just dedicated by the Catholic priest a month ago and he said it was the only sign like that he knows about. The community of Girdwood is a small tourist town 40 miles south of Anchorage. Alyeska, Alaska’s famous ski resort is here. It is hard to believe that you can have a ski resort at sea level with 7 feet of snow most winters but it is, after all right on Turnagain Arm Inlet.

Today, Saturday October 21, we spent all day in the temple with another two families that we did Family History packets for right after their baptisms. I was the escort for Anne Marlin who has embraced the gospel 100 percent. She said when she was baptized that it was just like the church was made for her. The Philippian sister is 35 years old and her husband is 82. Their two boys are 9 and 8 years old and the cutest things. What a wonderful emotional day!

On a holiday note! Buy the stamps with the snowflakes for your holiday letters. The snowflake in the upper right hand corner is from Fairbanks.

Huge Things!

2006-09-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-10T04:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Spoiled With A Kitchen

2006-08-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Weather Report
High 62 Low 51 =Very very rainy
Sunrise 6:09 a.m. Sunset 9:56 p.m. = 15 hours 47 min. Daylight

I am sitting here looking out our big window at the most beautiful mountains. The sky, clouds, and mountains are beautiful even when it rains for a week straight with nothing but rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. Fall is here in Alaska and we love it. We have talked and don't know why we miss the winter months because the summer is beautiful. People ask here, "Do you know what the most beautiful day of the year is called?" "No, what?" "Summer!" Or they say "there are two seasons here, winter and a whole day of summer." But the way the clouds, beautiful, white and fluffy, hang all around these magnificent mountains is such a peaceful sight. Maybe we love it because we were in a basement in Fairbanks. I don't know, but we are blessed to have three wonderful, large, windows looking east to the mountains. Our apartment is small and we can only be in the kitchen one at a time but that is better than no kitchen and doing our dishes in the bathroom sink. Boy, are we spoiled!

How do we like our transfer, you ask. Well, we have been here three and a half weeks and have had time to fall in love with the office. We work every minute as fast as we can all day and come home and fall into bed at night but we look forward to every morning and going to work. I couldn't even imagine that I would love an 8-5 job but it is nice to know every day what you are doing. No time for naps, of which we had grown accustomed to in Fairbanks. We see missionaries every day here and some days it is all day long but we missed the wonderful times in district and zone meetings in Fairbanks, being taught by these young magnificent servants of the Lord one minute and teased the next. Did I tell you when we left we found out that the zone leaders had put our picture on the zone board with the caption, "Old People working with Dead People." Gosh, we loved those missionaries. Every time one of them calls in the office they often say, "Hi, Sister Robbins, this is your favorite Elder!" I love it!

We help a lot at the mission home with the dinners and the meetings with the in-coming and the out-going missionaries. This is so fun to see this happen. Now if only I have their tickets right so they get on the right plane tonight at midnight as they go off to see excited families who have waited two years to see them! And do I have all the board cards made just right, in the right area with the right companion for these new excited missionaries who just here from the MTC are ready to convert the world. Tomorrow I will send a letter home to the anxious parents with a picture of the missionary and his/her new companion. Burt has a very boring job, he just keeps track of all the finances for the mission.

Do we love it here, Yes! And we are sorry we drug our feet in coming. Do we miss the Fairbanks people, oh, yes but we had dinner tonight with a couple who come down once a month for four days to work in the temple. Next month we will have three families, new converts bringing the family names we helped them find to the temple and we will get to go with them. What a blessing!

We love and miss you, Lenore and Companion

First Transfer Is Official

2006-07-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember that I sent a picture two weeks after we got here at the time and temperature sign. It was -40 at 1:30 in the afternoon. Two days ago we reached our highest temperature of +82 degrees just two weeks before we leave. This was a difference of 122 degrees in just 5 months. The coldest picture was taken at 1:30 in the afternoon with just enough sun to take it. The hottest day was taken at 9:30 at night at a different sign and even then we had to wait a few minutes so the sun would be behind the sign so their wouldn't be so much glare on the camera. What a funny country to live in. It snowed in Barrow, just North of us, on our hottest day here. I included the picture of the two of us just so you wouldn't forget what we look like.

Weather report
High + 82 Low + 56
Daylight: Sunrise 3:47 Sunset 12:09
For a total this week of 20 hours and 25 minutes of sunlight.

We have lost over an hour already and it is hard to believe that we are going down hill so fast. But I tell you things are growing fast around here! Flowers and trees love this 20 plus hours of daylight.

The good news here is that things are great! The bad news is that we got our dreaded call from Pres. Lewis and are being transferred. The really bad news is that we are going to Anchorage, the really, really bad news is that we will be in the Mission Office. But the best news of all is that we are willing to do what the Lord wants us to do, well one of us is dragging the other one. Our new mission financial clerk just doesn't want to trade Northern Lights and Beautiful Sights for Rush Hour Traffic and Office Hours.

With a transfer date of July 24 we will be thinking of the Pioneers as we wend our way South. We won't be pulling a handcart but you should see the little car we have to put ALL our "stuff" into. The Jr. Missionaries are required to keep their "stuff" to their 3 suitcases but our two computers, two printers, winter coats, kitchen supplies, old people pills and 4 winter tires - just don't fit.

We spoke in the Delta Junction Branch last Sunday and will be speaking in the Salcha Branch on the 23rd. These little branches just capture our hearts and we love them! We have family history packets to finish up, people to say good-by to, choices to make about what we really can do without, and Time is going way so fast!!

We still have time to think of you often, miss you a lot, and wonder what you are doing. Thanks for keeping in touch. I will let you know how we are managing when we get settled in down South.

We Are As The Army of Heleman

2006-07-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

The following is a note that Lara sent, actually it was in her blog. I didn't get your permission to send it on, Lara, because it was in your blog for the world to see.

"I have to tell you though, about the missionaries in Sacrament Meeting.
After one of them spoke, they both stood up together to sing a song. I started bawling before the piano even started! They looked so handsome standing up there preaching the gospel, I just wanted to pinch their cheeks and take them home with me. I can do that now. Cheek pinching totally belongs to old women who cry in Sacrament meetings. Call me Ma'am in public though and I'll pinch your head off. Anyway...once they started the song there was no end to the tears. They sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" (We are as the armies of Helaman). It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. I didn't look around but I'm pretty sure I was the only sniffler in the whole room. What is my problem!

I think that is my new favorite song. As we walked by the temple after General Conference last April, a group of Elders were lining the sidewalk singing that song as we passed down the middle. I have never felt the spirit so strongly. I didn't want to leave but the crowd pushed us on.

We are as the army of Helaman.
We have been taught in our youth.
And we will be the Lord's missionaries
to bring the world His truth.

I can't wait till Grey is old enough to be a missionary. By the way, does anyone out there want to hear the gospel? I need to do my part here to bring the world His truth. If you ever get any missionaries at your door, just let them in would you? How could you not? They are so adorable!'

Now this is from Mom, I couldn't help responding because:

Loved your note about the adorable missionaries,. It made me cry to read it. You have to know that is why we love our mission so. We have that experience every day. The church is having the missionaries sing now and it really invites the spirit. We had a zone meeting the other day and Elder Halverson, of the 70's was here. He had a couple of missionaries get up and give the second lesson and Burt and I were the investigators. I am known among the missionaries as a "tough" investigator because I don't just sit and say yes to everything they say. When these Elders got half way trough their discussion they stopped and sang "Oh, how lovely was the morning." I couldn't stand it, the tears welled higher and higher. I couldn't, even in jest, be difficult, the spirit was so strong. Elder Halverson said, "Yes, Sister Robbins we saw you slowly melting." To see the elders so clean, handsome and boldly bearing their testimonies just touches me so much. We come to the library every day and see the "creeps" that hang out here and I am so thankful for the gospel and that our boys, 60,000 plus, are out teaching about obedience, honesty, faithfulness. Just last week we heard them teach us about obedience. Today the President's Assistance's taught us about our attitude and the effect it has on the people we teach, what a lesson!. I look at them and say, "This is a 19-20 year old BOY teaching me about obedience!" What a program is this missionary program! Yes, I see our little grandchildren in their position in just a few short years and am so thankful.

Last week when we were talking about obedience one little elder who was teaching said he had a companion who wouldn't work and he said he didn't either. Then he came to Fairbanks and had Elder Jepsen, who we consider the "most obedient" elder in the mission, as his companion. He bore his testimony on how much more successful they were than in any other district that he had served in. Then he said, "I am so happy that I can now be the missionary that my mother thinks I am." Wow, I just can't get that out of my mind. Thank Heavens for good missionaries and good mothers home supporting them. Can't wait until all of our grandson's and their mom's get to this point.

By the way, you can invite the missionaries over for dinner and when they leave they will leave a spiritual thought and/or a song. It is very touching and would be good for the kids to see.
I love the gospel so much and am so thankful for this mission experience.

I love you all so very much, thank you for your support with your letters, email, pictures, and phone calls.

4th of July celebration here in Fairbanks

2006-07-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

The boat in the picture is the Nenana, one of the last riverboats that worked on the rivers here in Fairbanks. All of the flags are the 50 state flags and in the middle is the color guard with the US flag. With two large military bases here it was a very patriotic celebration particularly so because Ft. Wainwright has a battalion in Iraq right now. What Grandma has in her hand are arctic strawberries that grow wild along the river bank.

There are a couple of pictures of some kids demonstrating some of the events that will be in the Eskimo Olympics that they will be having here in a couple of weeks. The other pictures are some that I took at the bird refuge here in town.

Do You Think Grandpa Is A Sound Sleeper?

2006-07-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

To all our little and big Croakers

Congratulations to JORDAN DAVID ERICKSON who is getting baptized today as I am writing this. We can't believe that he is 8 years old already and growing up so fast. Have a very happy day, Jordan!
We also want to thank Dylan, Austin, and Cissy for getting their dads to send us DVD's with pictures of them. It always makes us cry and very homesick that you are growing up so fast. But we are happy that you lookhappy and are just as cute as ever. Thank you so much for the pictures.
Guess what! Dylan has some wonderful news, hope it is all right if we tell for him. He is expecting a little baby brother or sister right about his birthday time in February. Cissy was born Nov 2 as a birthday present for Austin's BD Nov 3rd so maybe Dylan will get a birthday present February 13th. We are so excited!

It sure would be fun to see pictures of everyone else at home! Hint! Hint!

We have a couple of great stories to tell you this month. First I will tell you the funny one and then I will tell you the spiritual one.

Remember when we went camping and grandpa was afraid about the bears. Actually, I think that happened the very first Frog Camp when we only took the boys. I wonder if any of them can even remember that. Now think of all the times you went to the bathroom out in the trees because you didn't like the bathrooms at Camp Aries (Frog Camp).

Well, There was a story in the paper the other day about a man from Fairbanks who went on a trip. No matter where you go from Fairbanks you are out in the woods. There is just nothing but trees and green as far as you can see. Well, he is driving up the Elliott highway when he had to, "answer nature's call". He stopped, took his pistol (everyone carries guns if you go out into the woods here) and a roll of toilet paper and headed out in the woods.

He said, "I wanted to go away from the road far enough so anyone driving by wouldn't see a white tail." He was so worried about people seeing him that he wasn't careful and all of a sudden he heard what he thought was a horse running, he turned around and there was a grizzly bear just about 4 feet from him. That is VERY close! He turned around fast and shot him with his pistol. He said he was very lucky that it was close enough that he hit him.

Photo of the trees, hills, and the river up by Hay Stack, where we went driving today to visit a member of the church and isn't far from where the man saw the bear.
Photo of the man and the bear that he shot. He is very lucky to be alive.
Photo of Molly Juma's baptism.Remember Ivan's baptism in the canal at Mink Creek and the water was so cold you couldn't swim. I bet Ivan remembers how cold it was! The Chena River is cold because just the week before was breakup and the ice was floating down this river. Molly said if she could get baptized in that cold water then she knew that she really wanted to be baptized. There were several people who wanted to clap for Molly but didn't think they should. I am glad that we all clapped for Ivan because we were proud of him. I was proud of Molly too, and think she will be a very good member of the church. We did a family history packet for her and she is so excited to go to the temple to be baptized for her family. She has two little boys who both prayed when we went there for dinner the other day. In their family who ever prays gets to tell how we do it. Justice, youngest brother, said he wanted us all to hold hands while he prayed. Then John prayed and said he wanted us all to fold our arms. Grandpa and I thought that was a very cute idea.
Photo taken by the sign that says "Ivan's Alley". It is such a pretty mountain.

Here is a secret story about grandpa. Don't tell him but I had fun yesterday with him. Because the sun shines all night it seems that we are staying up later and later so some days we are so tired we have to have a nap. Yesterday was one of those days. I just barley got to sleep when Grandpa started snoring so loudly it woke me up. I woke him up and told him but he just said "Okay!", didn't even turn over but just went back to sleep and started snoring again. Well, since I couldn't sleep I thought I would see if I could get him to quit. I lifted his arm up high in the air, he didn't quit so I put his arm over his cheek. He didn't quit, so I put his arm over his ear, he didn't quit, then I put his arm over his throat with a sadistic laugh, he didn't quit so I pushed his hand over his nose and held it. You guessed it! He didn't quit. By this time I am laughing so hard I was sure he would wake up. He didn't so I got up and then he woke up and wondered why I was getting up so soon. He said, "Oh, I didn't even go to sleep!" HA, next time I am going to get the camera out and take his picture sleeping with his arm up in the air, over his ear, over his cheek, over his throat and over his nose.

Grandpa and I work hard but we have a lot of fun as well. We know the gospel is true and are thankful to be able to serve the Lord in such important work as Family History. We are excited to come home and make each one of you a packet just like the ones we give new members here. Then you could add them to your white Family History binders. We hope that all you older Froggers are taking the opportunity to go to the temple and be baptized for the dead. If you need some family names we could probably get you some cards. Also, don't forget to be writing your life story. A wonderful Christmas present for us would be a copy of your life history.
Don't send us "stuff" and "things" because we don't need anything. We need to know about you. Please write your stories. You could even send a scrap book page of pictures of all the activities you did this summer for our birthdays. Then when we get home we will write our story for you and that will be our Christmas gift to you. Is that a deal!

XOXOXOXO
Lots of hugs and kisses, Croaker Style,
Grandpa and Grandma,

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
We are hoping we can have a BBQ it is so raining this weekend, we don't know. We are thinking of you and wondering what you are doing. Are you camping, picnicking, BBQing, hiking, swimming, playing softball, what????

Glacier Fields

2006-06-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

The first picture is my favorite picture of Denali, you can see the glacier fields.The pictures are the Midnight Sun game taken at 11:15 p.m., Looking at the Sun set about 12:30 at the end of the game. It looks darker but it is really rather light. Watch the ground squirrel , he is watching the people and then when people would walk by he would duck. It was so fun to watch.

Weather Report
High + 72 Low + 48
Daylight: Sunrise 3:00 Sunset 12:47
For a total this week of 21 hours and 48 minutes of sunlight.

We just short of 22 hours of daylight and the sad thing is that it is starting to get darker now that we have had our "Mid Night Sun" celebration.

The fun thing about being in Fairbanks is that they have a big celebration on the longest day of the year. We were busy doing missionary work so we didn't make it up town and I am sorry but we did go to the ball game with the bishop and his wife that night. The game starts at 10:30 p.m. At 12:00 midnight they stop the game to sing the Alaska State Song and then the game resumes for 9 innings. If it is tied, which it was on Wednesday night they would play until sun set, which was at 12:48 p.m. They play all the game without artificial lights and it is so fun to see. It was just light enough the whole game. Our team, the Gold Panners won the last inning, the last one up to bat hit a double causing a run in and we won by one point. That was very exciting but the most excitement for me was the sun just about ready to set and it was beautiful. We would have stayed up another hour and watched the sun rise except we had a Zone conference the next day and needed to be at church, all in our places, at 8:30 a.m. We had a visiting general authority, Elder Ron Halverson.

The Zone conference was wonderful and what a treat to have a general authority. He taught us about the 76 section of the D&C and explained the importance of our mission and introducing people to the gospel. The 1st ward Relief Society prepared a lunch of fruit and Halibut Chowder like I have never eaten before!

Weather report: The sad part is the smoke from the fires, you may have heard about. Some people in Nenana lost their homes and the Parks Highway to Anchorage is closed about every other day. Today is a funny day as they are all talking about the floods in Eastern Alaska which will affect the Chena River and us today, the fires just 50 miles South of Fairbanks, which has smoke blowing in our faces every other day, and we had snow last night on the Richardson Highway going to Anchorage. Now that is some weather!

I have included 3 pictures of our trip to Denali, no time or room for the other animals as I am getting kicked out of the library.

We love and miss you all and hope you are having a wonderful summer, I guess, it is difficult to imagine because it still feels like spring here. It is so beautiful.

Don't Try To Walk To Nome

2006-06-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

Croakers Chronicles
To all our little and big Croakers

It is awfully quiet on the Frog Pond. I guess we haven't heard from the little Croakers because they are so busy in their summer programs. Everyone please write us and tell us what you are doing. We only know the following:

Austin and Ciera Johnson went with their McDermott cousins, Keaton, Gavin, Reagan, Collin, and Breanna to a summer camp at the Alpine Family Camp and had so much fun. Thanks to Uncle Lane for giving us a DVD with all the pictures on it. We are talking about having one of our Frog Camps there when we get home.
The Erickson's have a batting cage in their back yard so that is keeping them all very busy.
Jaiden is in summer reading and swimming. Swimming is a good thing to do because I hear that it is a lot hotter there than it is here.
Grey, Kate, and Love are all moved into their new house and have tiny baby chickens. Won't they have fun raising them.
Happy Birthday to Hunter, he just turned 13 on June 3rd and is going fishing with his grandpa Booth this summer.
Happy Birthday to Jordon, he will turn 8 on June 26th and this is a big birthday for him because he will be baptized probably, the next weekend. Everyone go to his baptism and give him a big hug from Grandpa and Grandma Robbins. We are sad to miss such special times.

The Gho family (remember the Eskimo cousins of Grandpa Robbins) told us a funny story the other day about sand bars in the water. The story is about a family that the Johnson Aunts and Uncles knew when they lived in Bethel, Alaska. Br. Gho explained that a sandbar will grow very fast if something gets in the water to make the water drop sand it is carrying all around it.
Sometimes this will happen when you are going down a river you have traveled a lot. One day the Jacks (a family from Bethel that we knew when we lived there) were traveling down river in their boat when a son asked, "Dad why are those seagulls walking on the water?" At that very moment the dad drove the boat right up on a sandbar and got stuck. Do you get it? The seagulls were walking on the sandbar and just a couple of days ago they had traveled up river in very deep water in that very spot.

Another Alaska story is about a man from our ward who for some very strange reason decided that he was going to walk to Nome (Uncle Lane and Aunt Dani used to live in Nome when they were very little). Now if you look on the map you will see Nome way over on the left side of the map by the Bering Sea and Fairbanks is in the middle of the state hundreds of miles from Nome. You will also notice that there are no roads to Nome from Fairbanks and there are a lot of bears from here to there. Well, Br. Achenbach put everything he owned in a big red wagon and started walking. He was very upset when he didn't even get out of town because he was tired of pulling his wagon up a hill. Well, we don't think Br. Achenbach is crazy but maybe he is because there are a lot of hills before getting to Nome and he possibly could become dinner for a bear before he got there.

We visited a family to make them a family history packet and we were amazed at their names. One little girl was Destiny Dasia Sky TeeMarie and her sister was Paradise Aysha Lily Rain. How would you like 4 names like that to remember. You wouldn't get them mixed up with Mary Jones in genealogy now would you?

A family in the 3rd ward had a wonderful idea for a family camp out. The Nicholls have 5 children, one being a brand new baby but they wanted to go on a camp out so they loaded everything in the truck and drove around looking for the best camp site. Guess what the very best place was right in their back yard. They got out of the truck, unloaded everything, set up the tents and cooked their dinner over a fire. Their pets were the wild animals. They couldn't go inside unless they used one of three tickets they were given so they saved them to go inside to use the bathroom. They had a wonderful time and didn't even mind when it rained on them at 4:00 a.m.

Sometimes you don't have to go very far from home to have the most fun of all. We drove around looking for an address one day because it was called Frog Pond Circle. Sure enough we found it to be a big circular drive with a little pond right in the middle. There were three beautiful homes with nice big yards around it. I thought, "If I buy a house in Alaska I want to live here so we can have Frog Camp right here on Frog Pond Circle."

We are loving our mission and feeling very close to Jesus as we pray and ask him to help us find names for people so they can go to the temple. He does help us and we have some wonderful stories to tell. We also have fun with the Elders. We had to inspect their apartments this week so we gave them some awards tonight. We have one elder leaving to go home to Kansas so we told the story about Dorothy and Toto. We put some colored glasses on him, made him shut his eyes, hold out his hands, and say three times, "There's no place like home, There's no place like home, there's no place like home." We then put a stuffed Alaska puppy, who we named Toto in his hands and Sister Robbins said she was going to be the first girl to kiss him when he was released.

Photo Grandpa took of Elder Moberly trying to get away from Grandma
Photo of Grandpa and all the elders outside the church this afternoon.
Photo taken a couple of weeks ago at the Large Animal Farm at the university They had a birthday party for the 3 baby Musk ox and invited the whole town to come. We had birthday cake and everything. It was a lot of fun! We took a couple of young boys who were just baptized with their parents about 6 months ago.

We love and miss you all so much and you will always be our favorite little Froggers, Grandpa and Grandma, the Old Froggers

P.S. We sure wish we could hear from our other missionaries, "What are you doing Elder Woodbury and Elder Allen?"

Grandpa Is Converted

2006-06-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Weather Report
Temperature: High + 74 Low + 47
Daylight: Sunrise 3:15 a.m. Sunset 12:26 a.m.
For a total today of 21 hours and 15 minutes of sunlight.

The funny thing is that last Sunday, 5 days ago the high was 44 and the low was a record 29 Degrees and it snowed. Today was uncomfortably warm. There is a fire in Nenana and the smoke is blowing up here. We could hardly breath yesterday. It is really sad because people say that for the past two years it has been so smoky from fires that it just ruins the summers. You survive the cold only to have fires - it just isn't fair!

We had just the best week ever. Last Sunday the Bishop in second ward thanked us in Sacrament meeting for all the new members who were going to the temple to do baptisms. Two new members bore their testimonies. It was very emotional for me because one of my stresses for this mission was not having the baptisms like the Elders and Sisters do. Well, it was payback time for all the packets we have done and I don't even think any more of not having baptisms because we had 65.

We do the research for the packets, finish them up and hand them back. We don't see them again except to help the people do "Temple Ready". Except for one name last week. Br. Rodriguez was one who was so excited to go to the temple, I think I told you that he stopped us in the street to tell us "he was going to the temple". Because he had no dates or places we were unable to find anyone for him to take except his parents. I couldn't sleep at night thinking that as excited as he is he needed more names to take to the temple. You get in Mexico and research is really difficult to do.

Another thing was that every time I would open my Legacy program to work on another packet it would open up to Br. Rodriguez. It is supposed to open to the last person worked on and we hadn't worked on him for a couple of months. I finally got it, someone was trying to tell me something so last week while Elder Robbins was searching for someone else I just pulled out Br. Rodriguez file and plugged it in the computer guessing on his grandfathers birthday and there it was! I could not believe my eyes. I was able to get his grandparents and 7 children. We gave him the information on Sunday and he ran around the church telling everyone, "I have my grandparents, I have my grandparents." Then he told us tonight that this made him think of an aunt who he hadn't talked to in years so he called her and she gave him so many names he couldn't write fast enough. And by the way would we help him do temple ready for them. Oh, my gosh, the blessings are unreal.

We taught a district meeting this week and we taught them "Lessons of Life". Some of you know that program. How to take an experience that you just had, find out what you learned from it and then find a scripture that goes with it. Well, my dear Elder Robbins hasn't been too impressed with our lesson, "Lessons of Life" so he decided to sit down and try it Wednesday morning before we left. He wrote down the wonderful things that have happened with the people going to the temple and then found the scripture, Alma 30:34. It reads, "And now if we do not receive anything for our labors in the church, what doth it profit us to labor in the church save it were to declare the truth that we may have rejoicing in the joy of our brethren."
That did it, he is converted he says and is now memorizing that as our mission scripture. "Oh, life is Wonderful!"

We did apartment checks for the Elders and Sisters today and as they met at the end of a tracting session we gave them some awards. They were so funny and especially Elder Moberly who is going home to Kansas in two days. For him we told the story about Dorothy and Toto. We put some colored glasses on him, made him shut his eyes, hold out his hands, and say three times, "There's no place like home, There's no place like home, there's no place like home." We then put a stuffed Alaska puppy, who we named Toto in his hands and Sister Robbins said she was going to be the first girl to kiss him when he was released. Elder Robbins got a picture of a very red faced elder. I got a picture of a handsome Elder Robbins with all the young Elders outside in the parking lot. It makes my heart skip a beat to look at them.

There is way too much to tell. We went to Denali and next week I will have to include pictures of that trip. What a beautiful fun filled day we had!
I will include my favorite picture of the glacier beds and will send the animals next week.

Love and miss you all but wouldn't trade anything for this experience.
Lenore

Croakers Chronicles

2006-06-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

To all our little and big Croakers

It is awfully quiet on the Frog Pond. I guess we haven't heard from the little Croakers because they are so busy in their summer programs. Everyone please write us and tell us what you are doing. We only know the following:

Austin and Ciera Johnson went with their McDermott cousins, Keaton, Gavin, Reagan, Collin, and Breanna to a summer camp at the Alpine Family Camp and had so much fun. Thanks to Uncle Lane for giving us a DVD with all the pictures on it. We are talking about having one of our Frog Camps there when we get home.
The Erickson's have a batting cage in their back yard so that is keeping them all very busy.
Jaiden is in summer reading and swimming. Swimming is a good thing to do because I hear that it is a lot hotter there than it is here.
Grey, Kate, and Love are all moved into their new house and have tiny baby chickens. Won't they have fun raising them.
Happy Birthday to Hunter, he just turned 13 on June 3rd and is going fishing with his grandpa Booth this summer.
Happy Birthday to Jordon, he will turn 8 on June 26th and this is a big birthday for him because he will be baptized probably, the next weekend. Everyone go to his baptism and give him a big hug from Grandpa and Grandma Robbins. We are sad to miss such special times.

Another Alaska story is about a man from our ward who for some very strange reason decided that he was going to walk to Nome (Uncle Lane and Aunt Dani used to live in Nome when they were very little). Now if you look on the map you will see Nome way over on the left side of the map by the Bering Sea and Fairbanks is in the middle of the state hundreds of miles from Nome. You will also notice that there are no roads to Nome from Fairbanks and there are a lot of bears from here to there. Well, Br. Achenbach put everything he owned in a big red wagon and started walking. He was very upset when he didn't even get out of town because he was tired of pulling his wagon up a hill. Well, we don't think Br. Achenbach is crazy but maybe he is because there are a lot of hills before getting to Nome and he possibly could become dinner for a bear before he got there.

We visited a family to make them a family history packet and we were amazed at their names. One little girl was Destiny Dasia Sky TeeMarie and her sister was Paradise Aysha Lily Rain. How would you like 4 names like that to remember. You wouldn't get them mixed up with Mary Jones in genealogy now would you?

A family in the 3rd ward had a wonderful idea for a family camp out. The Nicholls have 5 children, one being a brand new baby but they wanted to go on a camp out so they loaded everything in the truck and drove around looking for the best camp site. Guess what the very best place was right in their back yard. They got out of the truck, unloaded everything, set up the tents and cooked their dinner over a fire. Their pets were the wild animals. They couldn't go inside unless they used one of three tickets they were given so they saved them to go inside to use the bathroom. They had a wonderful time and didn't even mind when it rained on them at 4:00 a.m.

Sometimes you don't have to go very far from home to have the most fun of all.
We drove around looking for an address one day because it was called Frog Pond Circle. Sure enough we found it to be a big circular drive with a little pond right in the middle. There were three beautiful homes with nice big yards around it. I thought, "If I buy a house in Alaska I want to live here so we can have Frog Camp right here on Frog Pond Circle."

We are loving our mission and feeling very close to Jesus as we pray and ask him to help us find names for people so they can go to the temple. He does help us and we have some wonderful stories to tell. We also have fun with the Elders. We had to inspect their apartments this week so we gave them some awards tonight. We have one elder leaving to go home to Kansas so we told the story about Dorothy and Toto. We put some colored glasses on him, made him shut his eyes, hold out his hands, and say three times, "There's no place like home, There's no place like home, there's no place like home."

We then put a stuffed Alaska puppy, who we named Toto in his hands and Sister Robbins said she was going to be the first girl to kiss him when he was released.

Picture #1 is one that Grandpa took of Elder Moberly trying to get away from Grandma.

Picture #2 is of Grandpa and all the elders outside the church this afternoon.

Picture #3 was taken a couple of weeks ago at the Large Animal Farm at the university They had a birthday party for the 3 baby Musk ox and invited the whole town to come. We had birthday cake and everything. It was a lot of fun! We took a couple of young boys who were just baptized with their parents about 6 months ago.

We love and miss you all so much and you will always be our favorite little Froggers, Grandpa and Grandma, the Old Froggers

P.S. We sure wish we could hear from our other missionaries, "What are you doing Elder Woodbury and Elder Allen?"

Lessons of Life

2006-06-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

Elders and Elder Robbins, Elder Moberly getting his kiss,

Weather Report

Temperature: High + 74 Low + 47

Daylight: Sunrise 3:15 a.m. Sunset 12:26 a.m.

For a total today of 21 hours and 15 minutes of sunlight.

The funny thing is that last Sunday, 5 days ago the high was 44 and the low was a record 29 Degrees and it snowed. Today was uncomfortably warm. There is a fire in Nenana and the smoke is blowing up here. We could hardly breath yesterday. It is really sad because people say that for the past two years it has been so smoky from fires that it just ruins the summers. You survive the cold only to have fires - it just isn't fair!

We had just the best week ever. Last Sunday the Bishop in second ward thanked us in Sacrament meeting for all the new members who were going to the temple to do baptisms. Two new members bore their testimonies. It was very emotional for me because one of my stresses for this mission was not having the baptisms like the Elders and Sisters do. Well, it was payback time for all the packets we have done and I don't even think any more of not having baptisms because we had 65.

We do the research for the packets, finish them up and hand them back. We don't see them again except to help the people do "Temple Ready". Except for one name last week. Br. Rodriguez was one who was so excited to go to the temple, I think I told you that he stopped us in the street to tell us "he was going to the temple". Because he had no dates or places we were unable to find anyone for him to take except his parents. I couldn't sleep at night thinking that as excited as he is he needed more names to take to the temple. You get in Mexico and research is really difficult to do.

Another thing was that every time I would open my Legacy program to work on another packet it would open up to Br. Rodriguez. It is supposed to open to the last person worked on and we hadn't worked on him for a couple of months. I finally got it, someone was trying to tell me something so last week while Elder Robbins was searching for someone else I just pulled out Br. Rodriguez file and plugged it in the computer guessing on his grandfathers birthday and there it was! I could not believe my eyes. I was able to get his grandparents and 7 children. We gave him the information on Sunday and he ran around the church telling everyone, "I have my grandparents, I have my grandparents." Then he told us tonight that this made him think of an aunt who he hadn't talked to in years so he called her and she gave him so many names he couldn't write fast enough. And by the way would we help him do temple ready for them. Oh, my gosh, the blessings are unreal.

We taught a district meeting this week and we taught them "Lessons of Life". Some of you know that program. How to take an experience that you just had, find out what you learned from it and then find a scripture that goes with it. Well, my dear Elder Robbins hasn't been too impressed with our lesson, "Lessons of Life" so he decided to sit down and try it Wednesday morning before we left. He wrote down the wonderful things that have happened with the people going to the temple and then found the scripture, Alma 30:34. It reads, "And now if we do not receive anything for our labors in the church, what doth it profit us to labor in the church save it were to declare the truth that we may have rejoicing in the joy of our brethren."
That did it, he is converted he says and is now memorizing that as our mission scripture. "Oh, life is Wonderful!"

We did apartment checks for the Elders and Sisters today and as they met at the end of a tracting session we gave them some awards. They were so funny and especially Elder Moberly who is going home to Kansas in two days. For him we told the story about Dorothy and Toto. We put some colored glasses on him, made him shut his eyes, hold out his hands, and say three times, "There's no place like home, There's no place like home, there's no place like home." We then put a stuffed Alaska puppy, who we named Toto in his hands and Sister Robbins said she was going to be the first girl to kiss him when he was released. Elder Robbins got a picture of a very red faced elder. I got a picture of a handsome Elder Robbins with all the young Elders outside in the parking lot. It makes my heart skip a beat to look at them.

There is way too much to tell. We went to Denali and next week I will have to include pictures of that trip. What a beautiful fun filled day we had!

I will include my favorite picture of the glacier beds and will send the animals next week.
Love and miss you all but wouldn't trade anything for this experience.

Denali

2006-06-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm attaching a few pictures from Denali, I think you will like them. The grizzly is hard to see in his picture, it's the one with a person's head in the picture as the bear was on the other side of the bus and I could not get a clear shot of him, but once you see him he stands out quite well. We also saw a wolf but he was moving to fast to get a shot of him. We all of the large animals that are in the park except for a Lynx but they are very hard to find and move so fast that they are seldom seen.

Love to all, G.Burt

Northern Lights

2006-05-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

Weather Report

High +22 Low -5
Sunrise this morning 6:30 a.m. Sunset 7:26 p.m. for a total of 12 hours and 50 min of daylight. It seems to be increasing fast at 6-7 minutes a day.

Hi, It is spring on the top of the world. Spring Alaska style that is.

When it is +20 I still wear my thermals but have only a sweater on and am very comfortable for in and out of the car. We still dress up very warmly for our security job at Ice Alaska, however. . The other thing that is so strange here is that it has not been above +22 this week and the snow is melting. Like spring in Utah there is a lot of dirty snow around which they are hauling off by the truck loads. They don't put salt down on the roads so it is easier on the car but they put little rocks and we are wondering what they will do with all the rocks on the road now that the snow is melting. We actually saw grass on the median the other day and everyone was talking about spring. Someone saw the pussy willows budding out, we haven't but Spring is definitely on its way. Everyone says when it really starts it will only take a week and it is here. Will let you know when that happens.

Just when Burt had decided we would never see the Northern Lights we saw them! It was a splendid night. We had just gotten out of the shower with wet hair when the Elders called about 10:45. No question about it we just grabbed out coats and headed for the hills. We were very cold at 0 degrees and when we got home decided it was because of our wet hair.

It is hard to remember well enough to compare Northern Lights of 30 years ago but these were close to the best I have seen. It is hard to describe the show they put on as they dance and swirl and change colors all across the sky. I wasn't sure that we were going to see them change colors and then it happened and we could see the reds and yellows. When they dance and change colors they are moving so fast that Burt couldn't get a good picture. We like the mostly green ones that you will see from the pictures but believe me the pictures just don't do them justice. As I watched them I kept thinking of peoples thousands of years ago, seeing the lights for the first time, how scary that would be. It was an exciting night.

We spoke about Family History in the second ward last week and I finally got sweet revenge on Burt. I spoke first and left him short of time. We will be talking about the Savior in the 1st ward in two weeks and he is insisting on going first to get even. We are probably the only couple we know who fights over getting their equal share of time.

I think I have told you before that the Christmas lights are on all year long, I guess. With almost 13 hours of daylight they haven't turned them off yet. We went to the Stake Presidents house for dinner last Tuesday and I noticed that we were greeted with the usual Christmas lights every where but also with two Halloween scarecrows on the walk going in. Inside the tables were covered with Easter decorations. I loved it! Just leave all the decorations up all year long and think of the time you would save putting up and taking down.

Thanks for your responses. I love you all so much! Thanks for caring, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma

Bicycle Bumps

2006-05-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Pictures today are ones we took Monday on our big hike for the week. We walked up behind the University in a series of trails they have up there.

we ended up at the lake, notice that it is still mostly frozen. But the day was very hot so I don't think it will be long until we have breakup in the mountains.
we chose to hike the Bicycle Bumps trail, it was a fun up and down little hills,
shows the big pictures of where we went,
shows just how close the trees are in some places, notice the different trees in the different pictures,

Croakers Chronicles

First let's hear it from the cousins!

Sarah and Annie are the proud owners of a little dog named Sammy. They are having fun teaching her tricks. . I think this is their first dog.
We all have tough things that happen to us and we were sorry to hear that Collins little lamb died.

A busy month for Sarah, she took second place in a history fair project, she got National in her running of a mile (10 minutes and 45 sec), she got all A's (4's in modern language), congratulation for working hard!
Annie is in a school opera/play called "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble,"and she plays as Sylvester, the biggest part! Wow!
Caroline said she was not wearing coats to school 2-3 weeks ago but guess what. Today I wore a short sleeve shirt and no coat for the very first time.

We have some email addresses to share with everyone. Our missionary cousins Dave, davidwoodbury@myldsmail.net and Jeff at jeff77board@hotmail.com. Let's keep writing our cousins to tell them to "Keep up the good work!" Jeff had two baptisms last week. Can't wait to hear from Dave. Sarah has a new email address animalluver_18@hotmail.com as does Hunter hunterbooth6393@hotmail.com.

While we are talking about Hunter we are happy to report he received very good grades, just starting Tae Kwon Do class and is a White Belt but by now is probably a Yellow belt, and is building his very own web site. Check it out at http://spaces.msn.com/hunterbooth/ and tell him what you think.

We were in the mountains two days ago and found a street named "Love Road". It was a beautiful wooded area. Also, a members house in on Sarah's Lane and next to it was Laura Road.

Here is our funny story for the week. We have a cute young couple who have three tiny children living in our house and taking care of it. They have a two year old little boy named, Zack. His dad started the big lawn mower the other day and Zack was so interested as his dad was telling him that it was a "lawn Mower" and he cut the grass with it. The next week when he got it out and started it Zack ran out of the house saying, "Oh, goodie dad is getting the "Lenore" out. His mom and dad have been talking a lot about Burt and Lenore and that was what lawn mower sounded like. They are wondering what he thinks Burt is. What do you think would be a good thing to call Grandpa Burt?

Grandpa and I went walking today up above the University in a big trail system into the mountains. It was so wonderful. Every thing is turning so green and it was actually hot. We hiked to a lake and heard a lot of noise and went to look. We couldn't see anything and thought maybe it was ducks but it really didn't sound like ducks and we wondered if it was frogs. Then we said, "No there couldn't be frogs because how could they live during the cold winter?" We asked grandpa's cousin, Sister Gho and she said it was a tree frog. This frog freezes hard during the winter and when spring come it thaws out and hops away. Isn't that amazing!

I guess, by the time you get this letter school will be out. Write and tell us what you are doing this summer. I bet most of you have started playing baseball already.

We love and miss you, from Granny Frogger and Grandpa, the Old Croaker By the way he says he loves you all and sends the pictures but you all know that.

Cranes and Geese

2006-05-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

Photo Report

Two geese coming inCreamers Field
Crane coming in notice his long legs and his red top notch
Contrast the view from Pres. Grose's house in the Denali Branch. We spoke there two weeks ago. This picture was taken outside his house on the private air strip in front of his house and looking at the Alaskan Range.
Missionary picture was taken last transfer. Leaving missionaries leaving all have their missionary clothes on. This picture was taken at 7:00 a.m. with full sun in our faces so not a good picture. Sister Jenkins is from West Point, Sister Klenk (not being transferred is from SL), Elder Watt from Layton, Elder Palmer from Tooele, Elder Tuita from Tonga (the three on the right hand side). Gosh, we are sad when these kids leave, we love them!

Weather Report
High + 60 Low + 27
Daylight Report: Sunrise 4:57 Sunset 10:43
For a total this weekend of 17 hours and 46 minutes of sunlight.

The sky is so pretty at night now. We had Sister Klenk the other night and her companion didn't get here until 1:00 a.m. so we were outside and the sky was the most clear beautiful blue. It is not really very dark at night and it reminded us that it is only 6 1/2 weeks and there will be 21 hours of daylight on June 21st.

We are the stop off point for the sisters when they get their transfers. We have transfers every six weeks and that is how we keep time here in the mission. Every thing happens from one transfer to another transfer. The elders do pretty good but the sisters have had a lot of bad luck. Sister Jenkins was here the whole three transfers that we have been here but she has had 5 different companions. Two of them got sick, the third one had to go home to have surgery, the next one was a sister Rep who was sent back to Anchorage 3 weeks before she went home, and then she had Sister Klenk for just two weeks before sister Jenkins was transferred to Wasilla. Then we had Sister Klenk (pronounced Klink) for the two weeks with Sister Jenkins.
At that transfer they sent up a visa waiter (a missionary who is waiting to go somewhere else, in this case Sister Dent was waiting to go to Spain and her visa hadn't come through yet). So at this point we had Sisters Klenk and Dent, pretty funny. Well Sister Dent was here Monday night at 11:00 p.m. and she got her visa the very next day so she left at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday and her replacement didn't arrive until Friday night at 1:00 a.m.

So we had Sister Klenk for a companion twice this week and Sister Jenkins at everyone of her transfers. That is not the funnest part of Elder Robbins missionary work. Speaking of fun parts we just got notice from the mission president that he wants us to do the missionary apartment inspections.

Neither of us are happy about that little job! Last month we spent two weeks apartment hunting for the Elders so you can see we do have variety in our job description.
We were transferred this week from Fairbanks 2nd ward to Fairbanks 3rd ward.
I cried when Pres. Wood told us we would be leaving 2nd ward. I just hadn't realized how much I had fallen in love with that little ward. They are the poorest ward in the stake and struggling so in their pool for ward leadership. But the interesting thing is that they have the most baptisms.

There is plenty to do for the members. One Hispanic fellow who joined the church last October came home after doing two or three ward jobs as well as his home teaching in one day. His wife said he dropped on the couch and said, "This Mormon stuff sure is hard work!" Then there is a little Philippian gal who told the bishop a couple of weeks ago, "There is just too much Mormon!" Both of these brand new converts, baptized just last October, are wonderful people and we have gotten them both involved in their family history. Sister Alexander is so excited as she reads the films from the Philippians and sees her family names. Br. Rodriguez is taking his father and mother's names to the temple next week and is so excited.

Spring is in the air in Fairbanks and according to what everyone tells us in two weeks everything will be covered in green growing things. It is fun to see all the people and children outside playing, walking, talking, laughing and just so happy to see sunshine and feel warm. I don't know how happy we really are because I told you last winter that I didn't feel any pain from my arthritis. No thumb, knee, or back problems and I could sleep all night with no pain. Not so the past couple of weeks. They tell me that it is because it is so dry in the winter and now we have water everywhere. By the way this also brings mosquitoes which we are not looking forward. But we are just enjoying being able to take nice long walks. And there is so many places to walk. Tonight we walked out by the airport, Burt wanted to see the float planes. The water is still frozen so no float planes on the water but a lot tied up with their floats on just waiting for break up. We saw something we have never seen before and it was an air plane campground.

Each site is just like a camp site in the lower 48 except there is a spot to tie up your plane and a place for your tent. It was so nice with restrooms, showers, pavilions, fire pits and even a place to hang a dutch oven. Then right in the middle was a phone booth. I have never seen a phone booth at a camp site before. You could stay one night free and after that it was $5.00 a night. You pay your fee and put your ticket in the window of your plane.
So fun!
The birds came and went at Creamers Field. It was so fun to see the hundreds of Geese, ducks, swans, cranes etc. We drove up there about every other day and there was always a line of cars. People take their lunch and just sit and watch them. Fascinating! This past week there weren't many birds and it was kind of sad to see them come and go so fast. Spring is wonderful in Alaska! Haven't seen any hungry bears come out of hibernation yet, much to Elder Robbins delight.

Lara reminded me that I didn't write last week. I guess when I don't hear from kids I just assume I just wrote. Hint, hint!
Love you and God bless you all,
Sister Mom

Taco Scramble Popcorn

2006-04-23T08:01:00.000-07:00

Croakers Chronicles

Sarah Woodbury's BD is really March 30th but it is so close to April that we will celebrate it this month especially because we don't have any birthdays in April, isn't that weird. So everybody join mein a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!
Grey was baptized April 8th. What a wonderful week to be baptized, the week after General Conference and the week before Easter.
Jake wants to know if we live in an igloo so we have included a picture of our house. How do you like it?
Jake is doing great, he skipped two reading levels. Congratulations Jake!
Jordan is taking drawing lessons and we especially loved his picture of a blue town named Blueville.
Caitlyn is enjoying her first year in Young Women's and she got straight A's last term. Congratulations Caitlyn!
Caroline got her braces off a few weeks ago and says it feels weird. She saw Ice Age 2 and I am not sure but I think she liked it. Did anyone else see it? You know that was the theme for Ice Alaska so Grandpa and I got to see it free for helping at the Ice Park. Congratulations Caroline for winning the spelling bee!!
Jaiden loved the ice pictures of the Mermaid and the Violin player the best. She says she waves and says hi to all the missionaries she sees because she wants people to be nice to grandpa and grandma and cousin's Jeff and David. Thank you, Jaiden.
Dylan is amazed that he has Eskimo cousins and yes Dylan we are coming home if only long enough to have an Eskimo Frog Camp. We saw his daddy, Uncle Bill on television talking about his art work.
Naomi just finished a family history project at school as did Austin. You two have just done what Grandpa and Grandma do every day. Naomi also did a Japanese history unit and is starting a Chinese History unit - doesn't that sound fun! She is also redecorating her room.
Ivan likes recess and lunch the best. Did you find out what your dad put in your Orange Juice? He got third place and barely won a pinewood derby race.
Gavin and Keaton, how do you like your new little lamb?
Did I tell you we found a Hunter's school and Frog Pond Circle,
Kate, Love, and Grey moved into their new house and are happy to be in a home again.
Reagan was in a road show, "On the road to Africa." She was an old lady trying to catch a rare yellow belly butterflies. That sounds so fun. They must have done a good job because they got second place and the best scenery, which Aunt Dani painted. Way to go!
Collin played one of the missionaries in the play and impressed all the girls.
Ice carvings: lady taught me how to carve ice and I am excited to teach each of you when we get home. Maybe we should care ice as well as pumpkins on Grandpa's birthday because I think frog camp it will be way too warm to carve ice.
We loved all the pictures we got of Easter eggs, flowers, a snowflakes, and especially the frog pictures and cutouts. Grandpa and I spoke in the Denali branch this morning and we talked about Family History and some of the things we do with our grandkids. The Bishop's counselor said at the end of our talks that he hoped he could come to Frog Camp this year.

Did your parents all read to you the story about the boy who accidentally hung himself? If not, please have them read it to you because it is a very important story with a lesson. Please be carefully that you always do what is right and don't try dumb things. In Primary you learn to do what Jesus would want you to do and I hope you always will.

I thought I would include a recipe this month. We had a zone activity last week with all the missionaries in our zone. We watched the movie, "The Work and the Glory" and had a pop corn tasting bar. We had a lot of toppings for the pop corn and they were to taste every one. The following recipe was the winner. They kept coming back for more. I will give you the full recipe but we just had the popped corn in a big bowl, the broken chips in another bowl, the melted butter in a bowl and the taco seasoning mix in a bowl and they could put in as much as they wanted. Grated cheese is optional (Grandma loves it with cheese)

Taco Scramble
8 cups popcorn
4 c corn tortilla chips slightly broken
6 Tbs. Butter
1.25 oz taco seasoning mix

In a large bowl, (or your individual bowls) mix popped corn, tortilla chips. Melt butter and stir in package of seasoning mix. Pour over popped corn chips. Gently stir until well coated. Cool slightly before eating.
Another favorite was to pour butter, sugar, lemon rind and lemon (or Lime) juice over. I was surprised but the elders loved this one as well.
We love you all so very much, Grandma

Hey, this is Grandpa Frogger, how are all of you ??? Grandma left her
computer on and I thought I would slip over here and just say hello, Love
you guys, Grandpa

Ice Sculptures

2006-04-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

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.

For The Grandkids

2006-03-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't however, gotten any emails or letters from anyone so there won't be any Croaker's Chronicles just a funny story.

When Aunt Dani was a little girl, about 5 years old, and living in Alaska, she had lots of Eskimo playmates. After playing outside one day she came in crying, "I AM Eskimo! I AM Eskimo I have black Hair!" What happened was that her friends told her she wasn't an Eskimo and being like all kids and wanting to fit in, it made her cry. She didn't want to be different from her friends. I had to laugh because her hair was not black but was darker than her mom's or sisters so she considered it black and her eyes were so clear blue that it was funny thinking of her as an Eskimo. I don't know how I calmed her down maybe I told her she was an Alaskan just like Booksie and her other friends.

The funny thing is that Grandpa and Grandma were at some friend's house for dinner last week. They work with us doing family history in the stake. After a wonderful meal and lots of small talk it was time to go. Then Sister Gho said we probably should have a genealogy lesson for our family home evening. She started telling us that we need to get past the "begets", that is what the bible says when it tells people about their genealogy. She said we needed to tell stories about our grandparents. Grandpa jumped in and started telling about a great grandfather and all the fun stuff that he has just found out about him and how important that was to him. Sister Gho looked so surprised, went into the other room and came out with her genealogy book. She opened it up, pointed to her great grandfather, and asked, "Is that your grandfathers name?" What a surprise, Sister Gho, an Eskimo, is Grandpa Robbins cousin a couple of generations back. Their Great Grandfather Charles Jamison had one son who was Grandpa Robbins line and a daughter whose grandson came to Alaska and married an Eskimo. So Dani now you are an Eskimo. You can all tell your friends you are related to the Eskimo's in Alaska.

Isn't it wonderful that Heavenly Father wanted us to come here on our mission. I get home sick at little moments. Saturday, for the first time, we had to wait at a train crossing while a very long train passed by. Of course I thought of our two train Engineer and conductor and wished you were all here to take the train ride to Anchorage. I hope we get to do that before our mission is over. Of course, everyday at the Ice Alaska there are kids playing all over the ice things and I just wished you were here to do that.

Guess what we are even getting to see our friends the birds. Yesterday Grandpa and I took a long hike out to a place called Creamers Fields. There are 1800 acres in that field and it is a bird refuge. It was beautiful in the snow but not many birds. People say we won't be able to believe how wonderful it is in the spring. There are thousands of birds here. We can't wait.
You have had more snow there than we have and the grandkids are building lots of snowmen, I hope. I picked up a handful of snow last night and it is like picking up a handful of sugar. NOTHING sticks together. You don't see any snow men in this town and it seems strange. So build some snowmen and send us a picture, if it hasn't melted already.

I will add a couple of pictures (I hope I haven't sent already) from Ice Alaska that I think you will like. Look really close at the "Rear Ended" and see a moose sitting on a truck. Can you see all the teeth carved in ice on the "Allure" picture?

Love you all,
Grandpa and Grandma Robbins

Yukon Quest Dogsled Race

2006-02-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

Weather Report

Sun rose today at 8:56 a.m. and will set at 5:16 p.m. for 8 hours and 20 minutes of day light. A gain of almost 7 minutes a day.

High today +30 low +25.

The strange thing was it was –51 on January 28 and exactly two weeks later on February 11 the temperature was +45. An astounding difference of 96 degrees in two weeks. They said it never gets up to +45 and some years February is colder than January. We were real worried about that on Jan 28th. The strange thing is this warm weather we are having is troublesome for frozen pipes. When there isn’t much snow and it gets warm the pipes freeze more than they do at –50 degrees. The warm pushes the cold down. That is your science lesson for the day.

Now, if you are our friends or family you are way to busy to read my ramblings today so don’t. Or just skip to the part about the Yukon Quest and my “Love You” salutation and we will still be friends.

We could have problems with exercising but we were given an exercise booklet in the MTC with lots of well illustrated exercises and a big elastic band. It has been too cold to be outside to walk, which we would really like to do but the good news is we have a big apartment and there is plenty of room to walk around, do our MTC exercises and do some stair climbing. On Tuesday and Thursday I do my pool exercises (on dry land) so I can think of my friends in the pool. We walk around the church a couple of times a week and use this time to study our scriptures. It has taken us one month to learn D&C 4. We aren’t’ slow are we? This past week we have been able to get out into the BEAUTIFUL country and walk. You saw our picture last week of the beautiful Frozen Chena River, which wasn’t frozen in the spot of our picture because the power plant puts in hot water so the water was open and there were ducks floating every where. There are lots of trails and we can just know that this winter wonderland will be beautiful in the spring.

Does everything on a mission have to be just great? I hope not because we had our problems this week. Everything went wrong, our printers and computers at the Family History Center, the library and even at home wouldn’t work. We felt like we should have been doing more but we couldn’t work any faster because of technical problems. But to even make matters worse we had our first “No show” appointment and our wonderful investigator went on a retreat with his old church. That doesn’t sound good does it? Well, we aren’t’ giving up on him!!!! But 17 months seemed like an awfully long time a couple of days last week.

Saturday we went up town and watched the dog sled races. We were right down on the frozen Chena River, just a couple of blocks down from the open water in our picture last week. There were 22 teams and each team had 14 dogs pulling their sleds. The dogs were so fun to watch because they LOVED it and were so excited to run they just kept jumping up and down and barking so loudly. These dogs are all tied up to the sled and each other but one dog was so excited he kept ducking under his reins to the next dog and finally got frustrated and just jumped straight up in the air over the black dog and back again. We laughed and Burt got a couple of great pictures before the handlers came over and held on to the dog so he couldn't jump any more.

Another team #17 was so excited that the driver got off his sleigh and stood right in front of his dogs and talked to them, gave them a hug, and got back on the sled and they took off. The teams are going to be running for 1000 miles to White Horse, Yukon. Look on a map so you can see how far it is. They say the dogs don’t settle down until about 10 miles out of town. They will run most of the way on the big Yukon River but sometimes will be up in the mountains.

Eagle Pass will be especially difficult because the wind blows so hard. The drivers and dogs all sleep on the trail and there will be food drops for them occasionally along the way. It will take them at least nine days to get there. It is called the Yukon Quest and was a fun thing for us to watch. What a fun, rugged sport!

The gospel is still true!!
Love from two Old Froggers.

Yukon Quest Photos

2006-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

We went to the start of the Yukon Quest dogsled race on Saturday and it was so interesting and fun. The race is considered to be the toughest dogsled race in the world, harder than the Iditerod. It's 1000 miles long going from Fairbanks, up through Eagle, down through Dawson City and ends in Whitehorse. They cover the distance in 9 to 10 days which is unbelievable to me. There are food cache's for the teams but that is all the help they get. They sleep on the trail and are pretty much on their own. I have to tell you about the white dog, he was so excited that he could not stand still. He kept jumping over the dog next to him. Finally one of the handlers had to come and hold on to his harness so that he would not get tangled in the lines.

Valentines Day

2006-02-13T13:54:00.001-08:00

You kids can get into all the cute Valentines hearts and kisses stuff that would make this note look so good. We don't have any so if you could send us some. I just wrote that part and remembered that Caroline sent a note so I copied her little red heart. Isn't it cute. What a surprise now, I can type red so I will say HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL OUR LITTLE FROGGERS!

Saturday we went up town and watched the dog sled races. We were right down on the frozen Chena River. There were 22 teams and each team had 14 dogs pulling their sleds. They dogs were so fun to watch because they LOVED it and were so excited to run they just kept jumping up and down and barking so loudly. These dogs are all tied up to the sled and each other but one dog was so excited he kept ducking under his reins to the next dog and finally got frustrated and just jumped straight up in the air over the other dog and back again. We laughed and grandpa got a couple of great pictures before the handlers came over and held on to him so he couldn't do that any more.

Another team #17 were so excited that the driver got off his sleigh and knelt down right in front of his dogs and talked to them. They calmed down a little and then he got back into the sled and they took off. The teams are going to be running for 1000 miles to White Horse, Yukon. Look on a map so you can see how far it is. They will run most of the way on the big Yukon River but sometimes will be up in the mountains. Eagle Pass will be especially difficult because the wind blows so hard. The drivers and dogs all sleep on the trail and there will be food drops for them occasionally on the trail. It will take them at least nine days to get there. It is called the Yukon Quest and was a fun thing for us to watch.

News from the Tad Poles, Poly Wogs, toads, (what were the girls called?)

Breanna and Caroline get their braces off just about the same time. Send us a picture without your braces, you two.
Collin is through playing basket ball and they had a pretty great season.
We are showing his picture around Fairbanks and they think he is darn cool.
Breanna just got through cheering for the wrestling team and they took state. And look out if you are driving in Southern Utah, she has her driving permit. But I hear she is a very careful driver.
We found a Hunter street and our clerk at the store this morning was named Breanna and she was so cute and friendly.
Sorry, Dylan, we haven't found Dylan mountain yet!
Keaton's basket ball team didn't lose any games.
Caitlyn's team did very well in a very difficult math competition.
Hunter congratulations on the A's and B's. We sure have smart grandkids.
Caroline and Hunter think Alaska is way too cold for them. Remember though, if you are such a summer person you will miss all the beautiful and fun things in Fairbanks this time of year. Check out Grandpa's email for some really fun pictures of the dog sled race we saw on Saturday.
Caroline reminds us that our missionary grandson and cousin, Jeff, has been on his mission for 10 months. He is doing very well, as is Cousin Dave in California.
Two hearts for Dylan! He turns two in Valentines day!

We are loving the missionary work and finding lots of people who want to learn more about their families. One Relief Society wants us to do a program for their Enrichment night and we are excited to do that. We had our first transfer, that is when some of the missionaries go to another part of Alaska to work and we get new ones here to take their place. It was a sad day for us because we love those Elders and Sisters so much. We keep thinking about Jeff and Dave and how much the people in Mexico and California love them.

Love from two Old Froggers (thanks to Caroline for that title) who love you all very much. We miss you so keep those emails, cards, and letters coming our way. Be sure and check for Grandpa's pictures.

Valentines Day

2006-02-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

Breanna and Caroline get their braces off just about the same time. Send us a picture without your braces, you two.
Collin is through playing basket ball and they had a pretty great season.
We are showing his picture around Fairbanks and they think he is darn cool.
Breanna just got through cheering for the wrestling team and they took state. And look out if you are driving in Southern Utah, she has her driving permit. But I hear she is a very careful driver.
We found a Hunter street and our clerk at the store this morning was named Breanna and she was so cute and friendly.
Sorry, Dylan, we haven't found Dylan mountain yet!
Keaton's basket ball team didn't lose any games.
Caitlyn's team did very well in a very difficult math competition.
Hunter congratulations on the A's and B's. We sure have smart grandkids.
Caroline and Hunter think Alaska is way too cold for them. Remember though, if you are such a summer person you will miss all the beautiful and fun things in Fairbanks this time of year. Check out Grandpa's email for some really fun pictures of the dog sled race we saw on Saturday.
Caroline reminds us that our missionary grandson and cousin, Jeff, has been on his mission for 10 months. He is doing very well, as is Cousin Dave in California.
Two hearts for Dylan! He turns two in Valentines day!

Life's Lessons

2006-02-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

We Love Our Families With All Our Hearts

We are on a mission teaching the gospel and we talk a lot about families.
We are teaching families how to do their Family History so they will know their families and can do the temple work for them. Families are the most important thing we have because we will be together as families in the Eternities. That makes us so happy. . . We have not met very many children since we came to Fairbanks because we mostly work with mother's, dad's and couples without children so it makes us miss our grandkids a lot.

Our hearts are turned to our grandchildren more than we ever have before and we are so thankful for every one of them. We know how sad it would be if we didn't know that we will be home in 1 1/2 short years to see them again.

The scripture that we use to teach people about family history fits our family as well. This scripture is found in the last book in the Old Testament page 1184.

Malachi 4:5-6 Behold I will send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

ALASKA IS COLD

The weather has been very cold in Fairbanks. In fact it is the coldest it has been in 107 years. We have had about 3 weeks of -40 degree temperatures with the coldest being -51 degrees on January 28, 2006. We are warm and only feel the cold when we run from our warm car to a warm house or store.

On the very coldest day Grandma ran without a cap from one store into another, thinking it wouldn't be very cold. Just as she got to the door her ears hurt very bad. She realized that her earring post were metal and picked up the cold, transferring it into her ears. They were sore and red for a whole week. We were reading the scriptures when grandpa started laughing "Here is my life's lesson."

2 Nephi 13:17-18 (Abridged by grandpa) Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the (ear) of the daughters of Zion. And in that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round tires like the moon.

To Our Little Froggers

2006-02-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

It is time for a letter from your Frozen Granny. One of the things we have been looking for are places and things with the grandkids names in them. We found a Valley named Ivan's Valley, North Pole has a Lolly St. (we have an Aunt Lolly), there is a Grey Fox St (Cousin Grey) , and writer's first name was Dermott (the McDermott family girls can name a boy Dermott). We are teaching a family whose last name is Lane (Uncle Lane). We will keep looking and let you know when we find your name.

It has been very cold and actually fun to know we can survive extreme cold.

Other fun things are things they have been doing at the science lab. They throw pans of boiling water out side and it makes a big puff of frozen steam, no water. When they blew bubbles outside they froze. Instead of bursting, they dented and deformed and blew across the ground in a circle of breeze. When they did break, they shattered like plastic or glass. This can only be done at -40 so I don't think you can do it in Utah or Oregon. If you want to see it you will have to come see us next winter. If it gets that cold again we will let you know. It is like spring outside right now but they say it will get cold again.

We spend a lot of time studying and learning more about the gospel so we know how important it is to read the scriptures. We heard a speaker talk at the MTC about her children reading the Book of Mormon before they get baptized. We thought this was a wonderful idea and would like to challenge each of you to read the Book of Mormon before we get home. Get some colored pencils and just start reading. You don't have to understand every thing you read bit when you read something that you do understand you could underline that in a color. When you read something that you really really like you could underline it in your very favorite color. You don't have to read very much. Set your goals to read each night according to your age, five minutes a night for one, one chapter for another, or maybe just 2-3 verses would be enough for the very youngest. Let us know if you will accept this challenge.

We sure like it when you write or email us and we especially like your pictures, it makes us feel like you are near to have your pictures hanging on our wall. Have any of you learned a life's lesson and found a scripture to go with it? Following is my life lesson and grandpa thinks his is very funny.

Please send us some of your lessons. If you send them to us we can send them to everyone else.
We love and miss you and thank you for supporting us while we are here with your love, letters, and prayers, Grandpa and Grandma Robbins

River Walk

2006-02-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

The sun finally came out and we took a walk along the river as you can see it was very pretty.

We put on our full "arctic gear" for the event as well.

We are very busy with the Gift of Family History packets and have spent 4 hours in the library today working on them. We have found that we get much more done at the public library than at the Family History Center because the public library has all the programs available, including Ancestry.com, two computers we can use, a meeting room that we can use, wireless hookups for the notebooks and it does not cost anything !!! Can't beat that.

Beautiful Solitude

2006-01-30T13:42:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-23T13:39:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

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.