And So It Begins

Dear Family & Friends,

Sister Badger is writing this week's post.

We met our first Anchorage Temple construction visitor this week. He came up with his wife to look where our Temple Visitor's Center trailer is going to be located. Then he marked with orange tape which trees needed to be taken out to accommodate construction parking and another trailer. He has just finished the St. George Temple and was looking forward to resuming retirement. It was fun to see them at church today, although they found out they aren't in our ward. They leave again tomorrow and will move back up here in Dec. He told us he prayed mightily about being asked to work on the Anchorage AK Temple and knows this is where the Lord wants him.

The current Anchorage Temple and meeting house are on a one-way street. From our house, it's one minute away by car or .3 miles. The good news is that when the project begins, we can park on a parcel donated by members years ago, so we don't have to drive ALL the way back home, which is a 4-5 min. drive. The bad news is we will likely not have a restroom in the trailer as hoped. Of course, that means that I will not need to clean the restroom daily for visitors. One of my least favorite jobs. Praying, as this is the Lord's work and he knows our needs, it will all work out.

Saturday afternoon. Marked trees. One-way street on the left.

Orange paint on the ground.

Our new home is beautiful, but because it was an Airbnb and was cleaned by housecleaners, there are a few things we needed like a real broom and dustpan. Locally we could find brooms, but no dustpans. Lowes didn't have it in their store but offered free shipping. The picture below shows how it arrived in the mail. It's quite entertaining to guess what's come in the mail or by UPS that week. 

The style of the lined drapes in the master bedroom is to puddle them up on the floor. One of the two windows is close to the bed, and I didn't want to break something slipping on the extra fabric at night. They are both located over heat registers and are dust catchers. These drapes don't belong to us and if I had permission would be time-consuming to alter, even if I could borrow a sewing machine. I instead received inspiration to use clips to make them all the right length without damaging or permanently altering them. The clips were inexpensive on Amazon and I am really pleased with how they turned out. Keeping everyone safe has always been important to me, especially now that we are getting older. 

I volunteered Thursday afternoon for Days for Girls through Just Serve.org. Had a good time visiting with other Sister missionaries and new friends as we learned their "Gold Standard" way to fold washcloths, underwear, and serge using a freeway entrance. Basically, the serged inserts must be the exact size with no cut-off serger threads or excessive loops. I thought I knew how to use a serger, but this stretched my skills. They only meet once a month, but I am looking forward to spending more time there next time. One friend we met purposefully looks for the most beautiful material for the shields and pads. It was fun to match the colors and fold the combinations into cute squares. 

Along with all the incoming young missionaries, we met Friday at the ward building that houses the Mission Office for orientation and lunch. We learned about the rules, safety issues, and interesting facts about Alaska. President Larsen talked about introduction to a mission, issues they may encounter, motivation, and best practices. It was well done and so wise to address the issues they will inevitably run into up-front. His wife, Sister Mindy Larsen, talked about adjusting to missionary life and balance. His counselor, President Smith taught us to be careful of Moose, Bears, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Mud Flats, Bore Tides, and being stupid. Cow Parsnip sap causes blisters when exposed to the sun. Who knew! Some of the stories were tragic and some were kind of funny. Some elders boiled water and threw it in the air to watch it freeze. Unfortunately, they didn't check the wind direction first and were doused in scalding water. The young missionaries are allowed to go fishing six times on their mission from shore with approval. 

The clocks were turned back last night and we woke up this morning to 4-6 inches of snow and it is still coming down. I wore my snow boots to church for the first time. It was Fast and Testimony meeting today. It was tender to hear all the sweet testimonies that were borne. Some were from new members. One expressed deep gratitude after a year in the church for acceptance and being surrounded by Christ-like people. I especially felt uplifted being reminded that the Lord gave us weaknesses to make us humble, and if we humble ourselves before God and have faith in Him our weaknesses can become our strengths. It has been humbling to still be working on weaknesses while on a mission, but I have faith He can use me even with all my faults to accomplish His work and perfect me in the process.

Ether 12:27

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become 

strong unto them.

We have experienced so many tender mercies while we have been here. This week there was a need for drone pictures for the new Anchorage AK Temple by the staff in SLC. Elder Badger contacted our Bishop who put us in touch with Fred Rhoades, who owns a drone. He showed up yesterday at four with a set of great drone shots he had just taken. They were much appreciated. Since we woke up to snow the next morning, the timing was perfect. 

View from our bedroom window this Sunday morning.

On our way out of church today a young man in our Temple View ward, Evan Clift, was putting on his skate skis. He looked like a young Olympian as he left the church parking lot to skate-ski home from church.

Backyard view at 4 p.m. today

Time to go. We were invited to dinner by the Card family tonight, so I'll finish up. Elder Badger is spending a lot of time reviewing the approximately 1000 pages of temple drawings and appears to be thoroughly enjoying it. We are getting busier as the weeks go by. We taught the 5th Sunday lesson to the youth last Sunday. The topic was Procrastination and Solutions. I gave a PowerPoint presentation. Wish I was doing everything we taught them. We did say it was a life-long process as things are always changing. Take care. We love you. We are so grateful to be serving the Lord here in Anchorage. Keep in touch. #Think Celestial

Love, Elder & Sister Badger