The Big Announcement

To all our friends and family,

Elder Farrell Badger writing - Well, today was the big announcement!

The last day the Stake Center will be used, where we have been meeting since our arrival, is February 16. The Temple View and Huffman wards are moving to the Strawberry building where the mission office is located. The larger Rabbit Creek ward will meet in another building. Baptisms will be in the Arctic building. 

We had a productive meeting tonight with the couple who direct the public affairs communications in Alaska. I have felt for some time that we needed to make contact with them, knew their names, etc. but had put it off. This prompting became persistent so called them Friday night. They didn't know of us and it became obvious during the discussion that our actions working with them will be critical to get important information into the hands of the community. They were most gracious and grateful for the discussion. They are a resource to the coordinating council (a group of nine Stake Presidents in Alaska) and also work with the Area President and Area Authority Seventy.

We meet weekly with the Owner/Architect/Contractor representatives and then a second meeting with the Contractor team alone. We also meet monthly with the other Temple construction missionaries around the world to continue our training, learn best practices, and hear their spiritual experiences. It is fascinating to see the internal workings of how a temple is designed and brought to completion. I can't get enough of reviewing the plans.

In the meantime, we get to enjoy this .......

On our way to the Girdwood Branch this morning where the Stake President told us we could help out.

Apparently, you can show up at the building (Catholic-owned) and take your pick of which service you would like to attend :-) Unfortunately, no one was there at the appointed 10 a.m. hour. After several phone calls with no definitive answer, we left and headed back to Anchorage. We ran into the Stake President at church and learned that the Branch was not operational today because the Branch President (and family) were out of town. We'll call ahead next time.

Studded tires on a bike? It is a thing around here. Apparently about the same cost as studded car tires.

As you can see from the pictures we got a little snow...understatement of the week. In the picture below, I am standing in the church parking lot behind our house. They have to put all that excess snow somewhere. There were two storms back to back that dropped about 30". The mayor declared an emergency and the national news picked it up. Snow removal on the roads lags by about three days. During that time it packs into ice that turns into ruts and blocks. Making it through an intersection is one bumpy ride. Then the road graders come along and throw chunks of ice everywhere including at parked cars and bystanders. Ginormous snow blowers clear entire waist-high lanes and blow it even further over to the side of the road. 

If you look closely at the picture on the right you will see the Angel Moroni wrapped in a snow blanket. That picture is out our kitchen window. We have another foot of snow coming tonight according to the forecast. All this snow stays on the ground through Spring, which I understand is sometime in May. We are down to 7 1/2 hours of daylight -- headed to 5 1/2 hours by December 21st. I enjoy shaving every morning in front of my exceedingly bright "Happy Light". Don't know if it does any good, but it feels like morning. We follow up by going to the local gym to get some exercise. The sun now rises at about 9:00 since the recent time change. It is always low on the horizon -- shines directly into your eyes when driving no matter what time of day (or at least it seems that way).

The Temple View ward had a Neighborhood Harvest Dinner Friday evening. The twist was it was all wild game. We had everything from Caribou to Dall sheep. My favorite was Moose meatloaf. Sister Badger (Kitty) and I had visited and invited all the close neighbors a few days earlier. Three families showed up and we really enjoyed the experience including the Alaskan stories told by the young and old. The story of the grizzly charge told by President Smith (Counselor in the Mission Presidency, avid hunter, and fisherman) seemed to be the fan favorite.

We walked to Bell's Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and back. There is a footbridge going up and over the freeway. It's fun to see all the interesting people and just window-shop. We picked up some frozen shrimp and visited with a few neighbors on our street. It was a brisk walk and we really enjoyed getting out and seeing the sights. We are just awed by how beautiful it is here. We feel very blessed to be serving our Heavenly Father in Alaska. Everyone has been so friendly.

    

Take care. #Think Celestial

We love you all,

Elder & Sister Badger