Fire weed field view 150 miles north of Fairbanks on the Dalton highway

                                                   After dinner with Fairbanks friends.

                                  Tim with his wedding quilt in the institute director's office.

                                            Close view of the great quilt made by Sister Spens.

                  This is a viny blue flowered weed that grows along the roadsides in Fairbanks

                                 Our cool weather garden of kale. It is great in salads and sandwiches.

                        Missionary fireside choir plus 3 YSA sisters practicing before the fireside.

We have enjoyed another great week of missionary work, institute class teaching and training of new early morning seminary teachers. We also started training our official replacement couple the Hulls. They are a local service live at home couple who will be taking over our position on the 20th of Aug. We had our first training session with them this week. They also attended the training sessions for the early morning seminary teachers. This training for the first time since we have been here was conducted via a video/computer connection from our new coordinator Scott Beams. In the past all of the training has been entirely done by us. It will be a great strength to the seminary program to have  a professional S&I coordinator to do training here in Fairbanks. I don't know why they did not have such a position in the past few years here in Fairbanks especially with us serving as new to the entire program.

We also had the opportunity to review a masters thesis presentation from Cameron Bodly who is a physics student at UAF. His presentation was on acoustic and shock waves and was very interesting at least to Elder Spens if not so much to Sister Spens. Cameron is completing his degree and leaving Fairbanks. He is representative of the  many YSA we have come t know and love for a season then they leave to go off to school, go on a mission or get married. There are only about half a dozen YSA that are here now that were here when we arrived almost two years age.

We continue to have the opportunity to teach visitor/investigators that come to our institute classes. They are usually invited by YSA friends. One commented after class this last week that she loved to come to "institution". They always have to learn the LDS culture and terminology. We gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to an older brother who has been attending our class in Healy (the city at Denali Park).

President and Sister Beesly have been in Fairbanks this week as well. They came for training and to do interviews with the young missionaries. We had our "interview" at the Pikes Landing restaurant over dinner on Friday night. We spent a great hour by the Chena river just talking with them. The senior couple interviews are quite different then the young missionaries.

Sister Spens had the opportunity to go on splits with the sister missionaries on Sunday and that was a first for her.

On Sunday evening we had a well planed missionary fireside with music from the missionaries and instruction from President Beesly and from President Duval. There were several investigators present, recent converts who spoke, and a UAF chemistry professor who will be baptised soon was there as well. The church is growing surely and steadily as people continue to find the gospel. Conversion is always an amazing process and is truly a miracle. Our specific assignment is not proselyting, however, we seem to on a regular basis have people cross our path where we have the opportunity to either introduce them to the gospel or teach them through the institute classes. We have been and continue to be truly blessed in our missionary assignment here in Alaska. The more we work here the more we realize that this is exactly the place that the Lord wanted to send us to serve for these two years.
                                                                                                                    
Elder and Sister Spens

Adam and Aubrey's ring ceremony with Pres. Olsen

Another trip to Denali, this time with Richard and JoDel.

A mama grizzly bear and her cub.

The same mama bear with her twin cubs.

Fourth of July slip & slide in Nenana.

Wearing plastic bags over your clothes makes you slide further.

This is Elijah, Emily, and Cory, all Branch members and great friends.

On the train getting ready to try our hand at panning gold.

Gold Dredge #8 just outside of Fairbanks is an old gold mining machine.

The bridge over the Yukon River with the pipeline along the side and continuing out in front.

A view of the Yukon River.

We made it to the Arctic Circle.

It's been an eventful week.  Richard and JoDel (my brother and sister-in-law) arrived just after midnight early Monday morning.  Of course, it was still light and the sun was just setting.  They told us that when they left Minneapolis (a crazy leg of their trip) that it got lighter and lighter as they flew North.  We were delighted to have them come share our mission for about a week.  

Monday we showed them around a little and then they helped us prepare for the ring ceremony and small reception for Adam and Aubrey.  Jim even "gave away the bride."  Richard and JoDel helped prepare the food and set up for the reception.  It was amazing how things fell into place just in time.  It was nice that more friends were able to come and be part of the celebration.  Originally they were going to get married on July 2.  I think that they were very pleased with the outcome.

Tuesday we had planned to go to Denali National Park.  It was supposed to be great weather, but it poured rain on us the whole 100 miles to get there.  We were blessed that the rain stopped and the sun came out.  We took a bus into Eielson, an 8 hour round trip, hoping to see the mountain and some wildlife.  We did see a caribou and the tips of Mt. McKinley above the clouds.  I was beginning to feel disappointed that we had not seen more wildlife.  However, we soon began to see grizzly bears.  In all we saw three mother bears with two yearling cubs each, a mother bear with 3-year-old twins, and a big male bear.  Some of the bears were very close to the bus, and it was fun to watch the cubs play and wrestle with each other.  Our driver said it was the best bear day she had had in seven years. 

Wednesday was July 4th.  We drove to Nenana to watch the town play in all kinds of races.  There were bike races, egg carrying races, egg toss contests, pie eating contests, three-legged races, gunny sack races, soda pop scrambles, and a sawdust scramble loaded with $200 in coins.  It was a great small-town celebration.  After the festivities, the Verhagen family invited all of us to their home for a barbeque.  We had a wonderful time and Richard and JoDel felt right at home.   There were about 15 to 20 of the young single adults from the branch there.  After dinner they set up a huge plastic tarp in the yard and turned on the hose for a slip & slide.  They all put on plastic bags over their clothes and even soaped themselves down to slide longer.  It was fun to watch.  We really enjoyed the fun.

Thursday we got tickets to visit the Gold Dredge #8 which is a national historic site and to try our hand at panning for gold.  One of the young people offered to get us discount tickets which was very thoughtful.  Each of us found a small amount of gold in our pokes.  They guarantee that you will find gold--at least a little.  That evening we had our institute class and served the pulled pork left over from the wedding.  That made the food preparations much easier.  Richard and JoDel attended class and helped us out again.

Friday we drove to see the Yukon River and as far as the Arctic Circle on the Dalton highway.  Jim had wanted to see the Yukon River before we leave Alaska, so it worked out well for all of us.  It was quite the road trip, but beautiful.

Saturday we visited some more sites in Fairbanks and ended up taking Richard and JoDel to the airport in the evening.  I don't think they ever got used to the light, but I guess we don't either.  It was a wonderful week.  We have come to appreciate how much we love all of our family.  Each one has a special part in our lives.  We are so grateful for the blessings we enjoy because of our family and great friends.  Thank you for being part of our lives.

Love,

JoAnn and Jim

 Our last chance to stay at the mission home in Anchorage.

 We're not sure what these bright wildflowers are.

 Wild geraniums are seen for miles along the highway.

 At the Anchorage Temple.

 These lupines were so beautiful along the roadside.

 The fire weed is just starting to bloom.

 Yellow lupine mixed with white yarrow.

 Some unusual pink yarrow along the highway.

Garrett the crusty summer sailor was home on leave for a week.

The flowers pictured above look like some from someones well tended perenial garden, however they are just the roadside wild flowers that grace the highways of Alaska in the summer. They appear to be about at their peak at this time. The fire weed has just barely started to bloom but will fill the roadsides for most of the rest of the summer. As I have mentioned before living in Alaska is like being in the mountains and forest every day. Our drive to the institute each day is a drive through the woods with a spectacular view of the wildflowers as well. 

This past week we had one of the largest family night groups we have ever had as we met together at the institute building. The YSA want to meet all together probably for social reasons, however the group is so large that they also decided they would divide into three groups for a family night lesson and then socialize in a larger group. We have investigators and non-member visitors coming to our family night as well as the YSA elders. Pictured above is also Garrett who spends his summer fishing for crabs in the Bering sea. His employer has recognized something special about him as a worker on their fishing vessel. He is a recent convert as well as a returned missionary. We did not see him at all last summer. but he had a few days of shore leave and came to sacrament meeting and family night.

We had a good group at our Healy (Denali) branch institute class on Wednesday including two non-member visitors. We enjoy the weekly drive down to Healy and the class is great. We are continuing to seek more YSA to attend the class.

The branch YSA had an assignment to do baptisms at the Anchorage temple so we went down to the temple for what appears to be our last trip not only to the temple but the Anchorage area. We have finally become very familiar with the temple and always meet friends there that we have meet during our mission. We thought we may never be in that temple again, so we were sure to take the picture above standing in the front garden area of the temple grounds. The temple is a great blessing to us and to our entire family and it is wonderful to have a temple here even though we live 360 miles away!

We literally have but two months remaining of our time to serve here as missionaries. We have many things to finish and accomplish before we return to our home in Sandy. We are about half way through the institute summer semester and continue to enjoy the opportunity to be on a teaching mission. We are also in need of training the five new seminary teachers that are yet to be called by the stake that will need to be prepared to start teaching this fall. In-service training and early morning seminary visits have also been a highlight of our mission. We truly love being missionaries and all that that entails and can clearly see that when our service is over we will leave with mixed emotions with leaving the many YSA we have come to love and the other faithful members of the church in the Fairbanks stake which, by the way, may very well be the largest stake in terms of geographical size in the United States. It is probably about three times the size of the state of Utah. We pray for the Lord's blessings to be upon all of our family at home and upon any one else who may read our mission blog. 

Elder and Sister Spens

             Roasting hot dogs and marshmallows by the Chatanika River with the Olsen's grandkids from Pennsylvania.

 Fun in the Alaska sunshine.

 Wildflowers by the edge of the road on the way to Healy.

 Wild iris on the roadside near Nenana.

 Elder Hartman from Little Cottonwood Ward in our home stake.

Our "salad garden" is doing well this year.

Monday evening we came to the Institute for Home Evening and found a company there cleaning the carpets.  What a surprise.  Luckily, they were leaving the main recreation room for the next day.  We ended up with a double group of kids because one house was unavailable.  Since the person giving the lesson forgot about it and was out of town with the refreshment volunteer, we did what seemed right.  Everyone took a minute to introduce themselves to the group.  Since so many come up to work, it is a great opportunity to get to know each other.  We have a closet full of games and a cupboard full of ingredients for cookies.  One group helped me whip up a large batch of chocolate chip cookies while the others played several different games.  We had a great time together.  

Since the carpet cleaners were going to be cleaning again on Tuesday, and we had an invitation to go with Pres. and Sister Olsen and their grandchildren from Pennsylvania, we chose to go on a picnic.  We do miss our grandchildren.  We drove a ways outside of Fairbanks to the Chatanika River and had a great time together.   The Olsen's son and his wife and their five children have come to visit for a couple of weeks.  

Wednesday we drove to Healy again for class.  This time we tried to increase attendance by bringing chili dogs and chips and fresh pineapple.  It worked--we had two additional students join our class.  The wildflowers are beautiful along the roadsides.  I love to see the iris and so many other beautiful flowers.  There is no way to capture the beauty of the flowers.  The fire weed is beginning to blossom as well.  We always seem to stop here and there along the way to take pictures of the flowers.  

Class on Thursday was great.  We had about 35 that came.  We really enjoy teaching and sharing ideas with these great young adults.  The missionaries brought over a big box of bananas that had been given them.  They had eaten all that they could and wondered if we could use them after class.  It was great.  We had hot dogs and chips and banana splits.  It seemed to be a great combination and no one left hungry.  We filled their spirits and their bodies.   

Elder Hartman from our stake at home is serving in Fairbanks as one of the zone leaders.  We had to add his picture to the collection on the blog in hopes that his parents might see it and see what a fine missionary they have.  

Our little garden - mostly in pots this year - is doing very well.  We have had some wonderful salads with spinach, kale, and bok choy.  We have even cooked some that was very tasty.  Hopefully we will have some tomatoes and zucchini by the end of summer.  It's great to be able to share with the Olsens as well. 

Today in Sacrament meeting the speakers were talking about holding to the iron rod.  (See 1 Nephi  8:19-24 in the Book of Mormon)  The rod of iron is the word of God that can keep us in the right way if we hold fast to it so that we can return to our Father in Heaven.  Cameron Bodily gave his version as a parable of the marshmallow.   If you put a marshmallow on a rod of iron and toast it, it may get browned by the fire, but as long as it holds onto the rod, the center stays white and pure and delicious.  If it falls off the rod, it falls into the fire and the center gets burned and is no longer white and pure and delicious.  I thought his idea was worth thinking about.  Holding to the rod as we walk our path back to our Father in Heaven will keep us securely on the right path.  Reading  the scriptures every day will help us hold to the rod and make good choices.  May the Lord bless our family and friends as we walk through trials always holding to the rod.  

We love you,

JoAnn and Jim

 This is an old Russian style fort being re-constructed on the UAF campus

 On our drive to Healy by Denali Park this rainbow popped out and was quite spectacular.

 This is a quilt made by Sister Spens and given to Adam and Aubrey for their wedding.

 Adam and Aubrey's wedding occurred at the branch with only two other friends so it was a small celebration.

 This is the upper part of Skyline Drive where we like to walk.

These were the decorations for the Asian theme dance at the branch this last Saturday. The paper lanterns were made at our family home evening.

We have had another busy week filled with events. We were down in Healy on Wednesday for institute however we had a total no-show on YSA. So we went over to Denali Park and drove into Savage River which is as far as you can drive into the park in private cars. We saw caribou along the way and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. On our return drive about 11:00 pm at night we both commented that it felt like it was 7:00 or 8:00 pm in the evening and the sun would be setting soon. It is just our biological clock telling us what the conditions are rather than the reality of the midnight sun conditions here and the fact that it would be light all night with no darkness. Maybe our biological clocks set in Utah will never adapt to the conditions here in Alaska. 

Our Thursday institute class continues to grow and we have a room full of students. It is a great group of young people and our summer class here in Fairbanks is going very well. We have a wide variety of young people some working for the summer, some return missionaries and some youth recently graduated from seminary. It makes for an excellent summer class as we study the Pearl of Great Price. We always have great class participation and the food that Sister Spens makes is always great.

Adam and Aubreys wedding was most interesting. It was basically them the Branch President a couple of their friends and us. It was truly very small and simple. Sister Spens brought a small cake and some sparkling cider for a brief celebration after the wedding. The good news is that they plan on being sealed in the Calgary Alberta temple this fall by Aubrey's grandfather. Adam has not been a member for a year as yet so they just decided upon his return from Alaska trooper academy to get married civilly and be sealed later. Sister Spens made the beauriful quilt for them in the colors of Aubrey's choice. It was the only gift at the wedding. 

On Saturday night there was a dance at the institute building with an Asian theme. It was well decorated as you can see from the above picture and it was well attended by many young adults. We stopped by for a while and danced a bit. 

This Sunday being Fathers' Day, Elder Spens spoke in sacrament meeting on the subject of patience. Sister Spens accompanied Gary Holyoak while he sang "Bring Him Home," from the musical Les Miserable. There was a great feeling of the spirit in our meeting, and we so much appreciate the opportunity we have of attending church with the YSA and for our associations with these strong young members of the church. We feel like the church is truly in good hands for the future.   

Elder and Sister Spens

 The breakfast cooking crew

Scott Beames our new coordinator [blink detected]

 

Happy Anniversary - 45 wonderful years.

Forget me nots in our own backyard

 

 

 

 

 

 Robert (2nd from right) was baptized on Saturday by his friend

 After breakfast - the Fairbanks Zone

Silly picture of our Zone before transfers

What a fun week this has been.  It all started with a breakfast at the Institute on Monday for our Zone missionaries before some of them were transferred to other areas.  They are a great bunch of missionaries and we love each one of them.  Now we have several new missionaries to get to know and enjoy. 

On Tuesday our new area coordinator came to visit Fairbanks.  Scott Beames is a great teacher and will now be training our seminary teachers several times a year.  We are excited to have someone that is much closer than Seattle to help keep the program on track.  It was his first visit to Fairbanks, so we were able to show him around a little.  We had a wonderful dinner with Pres. Payton from the Stake Presidency and his wife that evening.  It's so inspiring to hear the conversion stories of Pres. and Sister Payton.  We are looking forward to having Bro. Beames come to Fairbanks again before we leave.  He lives in Palmer near Anchorage.  ("Hi" to Larry Tippetts from Bro. Beames who worked in Coleville Utah under your direction).)

Wednesday and Thursday were Institute classes.  We always love to teach the classes and meet with the great young people here.  Since Thursday was our anniversary, I made a cake so that our "family" here could celebrate with us.  We decided that the greatest thing we have done in our 45 years together was raising a family!  We love and appreciate our children and their spouses (who are considered our children as well) and all of our wonderful grandchildren.  We never would have guessed how many wonderful people would come into our lives.  How blessed we are.

Friday evening we had the new district leaders come over for dinner.  We really enjoy working with them in the branch and being part of their work.  We especially enjoy helping with baptisms.  Robert's baptism was on Saturday.  I often get to play the piano for the services which I really enjoy.  

Saturday evening, we were able to attend a musical program at Pioneer Park.  Gary Holyoak from the Branch sings with a barbershop quartet that was a major part of the program.  Fairbanks has a good sized group of men that love to sing, especially barbershop.  They are really good and we enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Today at out sacrament meeting, Pres. Duval our stake president gave one of the talks.  He reminded us that even though our lives don't always go the way we might plan them, the important thing is to "look at what you have and feel joy."  We need to count our blessings and find joy in the moment.  Life is amazing.  We are greatly blessed and encourage our family and friends to look for the joy in their lives.  I have noticed how prolific the dandelions are this year in Fairbanks.  They make a beautiful carpet of yellow all over.  Enjoy the little things!!

Love, 

JoAnn & Jim

 

               Wildflowers are blooming along the roadsides.  These lupines were on the way to Healy.

                                            A final district photo before transfers this week.

                                   On Saturday the branch had a flower planting service project.

                                                         These pansies were a great choice.

                                               Pres. Olsen,  Doug Maynes and Elder Spens

                                               A wedding reception for Jeris and Bethany.

Another quilt for a happy couple who "graduated."

     Yes we call it "graduation" when any of our YSA get married and leave the YSA and become young married adults. There are two additional weddings planned this summer along with two couples who are engaged and will be married after we leave in the fall. Sister Spens has been ambitious and able to produce a quilt for each of the YSA who get married under our watch. Marriage and the process of finding that person who appears to be the "right" one is one of the goals of the majority of our YSA. The are always some relationships brewing especially in the summer when there are so many more young people here to work along with the returning students who have been away and the returned missionaries of which we have had a recent surge in that population. 

     Living in this cool forested northern climate the wild flowers seem to flourish, and they are just starting. They seem to love to grow alongside the roads in the open areas where there is less competition. It is always a beautiful sight as we walk or drive places to have the different varieties show themselves as they decorate the highway or the roadside. 

     It does not take us long to settle into the new semesters institute schedule and we are doing so this summer. It is a more abbreviated teaching schedule with only two evening classes but we still seem to have many other things to accomplish to fill in the time. As you notice above the institute flower planting activity went very well. Before planting we trued up the beds and added compost to the soil. We let the YSA chose the flower type, color and quantity and it came out great. The "forget me not blue" pansies should do very well in our cool and long daylight growing conditions. We were quit amazed last summer at the rapid growth and the spectacular size of the flowering plants here in Fairbanks. The extra solar energy seems to be the secret. 

     There are two missionary districts in the Fairbanks zone and one of those districts is pictured above. Two of the elders pictured are being transferred out of the zone, and two of the elders are being moved into the Denali Park area to work with the influx of young people that have come there to work for the summer. At our institute class in Healy which is the city by Denali Park the young people there talked to us last week about talking to their friends about the church so hopefully there will be some YSA referrals this summer for the missionaries working there.

    There are new and exciting things happening this summer with a new area seminary coordinator having been assigned to the Fairbanks stake. We will now actually have a professional seminary and institute person who will be working very directly with us for training and supervision. We have not had this direct contact in the past and is should be a benefit to the CES programs here. We have five new seminary teachers to train this summer before school starts in the fall. Also we will have some time to train our replacement missionary couple who we understand will be starting about the 20th of August. We continue to be exited to be full time missionaries especially as we can see the close of this mission assignment coming fast. We love to work with the strong youth of the church and to do what we can to build and strengthen the church here in beautiful Alaska. 

Elder and Sister Spens