Gearing Up

Dear Family & Friends,

Men climbing a frozen waterfall.

The Senior Sisters have been given permission to make a 5-minute movie about what the senior missionaries do up here in Anchorage, Alaska. They have three young media missionaries assigned to help them. They work about 30-60 minutes a day on social media. We all had a long meeting on Monday and discussed possible shots and schedules. We have office missionaries in charge of housing, finances, cars, and secretaries. MLS missionaries are helping with Member Leader Support. There are two couples in our mission doing Military Relations. Brother Cox joked that CES missionaries stood for Cooks Every Second. It really stands for Church Education System and they help teach Seminary and Institute. They are often up teaching Seminary early in the morning and also teaching Institute in the evenings. Sister Cox has spoiled everyone with her delicious sweet rolls. They work with young adults and young adults love food. The Sisters would like a drone shot of all the senior missionaries from the area waving in front. As Temple Construction missionaries, they want to wait until our trailer is up and running so they can get a shot at the Visitor's Center and the construction site, so we will be last. They are talented, so this should be interesting. 

Bulldozer piling up hauled off snow.

There is so much snow here that they haul it off and make huge piles of snow mixed with the gravel. Here is a picture of the bulldozer pushing it up the hill again last Monday after we had a few more inches of snow. 

We enjoyed another long day on Tuesday with construction meetings at 8 a.m. and again at noon. I am an ordinance worker on Tuesday evenings and I really look forward to it. It makes for a long day, so I try to take a nap if I can. It was a quiet night at the temple. We were expecting a large group coming to do baptisms, but they did not show up for some reason. We always suspect the weather. I was able to spend quite a bit of time being shown all the parts of the baptistry. Then we toured the laundry. Even though this temple does not have clothing provided for regular patrons it does have to wash, dry, and fold all of the clothes for the baptistry and missionaries. They go through a lot of white towels in the baptistry and are very busy. Since it was quiet I also was shown what was inside every organized drawer in the sisters' dressing room. All those beautiful counters are also functionally labeled storage areas. Then I spent some time learning all about the front desk. It looks really easy to say, Welcome to the Temple, but there are lots of emergency protocols - fire, earthquake, flood, etc. I learned a picture of your recommend on your phone is not allowed. I had wondered that myself. Three areas of the world are experimenting with digital recommends, but I have never seen one. 

Bell's Nursery

We have been gearing up for the demolition of the Brayton Chapel. There have been lots of meetings, coordinating, and conversations. The project manager from Westland Construction from Orem UT, Josh, and the project manager from the church living in Olympia WA, Brad, flew up on this week and visited all the neighbors surrounding the temple. There are about 22 homes on three sides of the property. The fourth side is Brayton Drive with a Highway on the other side of that fence. They talked to them about the construction, and property lines with new fences, and resolved any concerns. We invited them over for dinner since they were in the neighborhood. We enjoyed their company and appreciated their sacrifice as it was a cold dark evening when they headed out to visit a few more homes.

We needed a little excitement, so on Friday, we walked through our local greenhouse. We love flowers. It is so calming and hopeful to see all the beautiful vibrant colors. 

Afterward, we drove a few minutes down the road on the highway toward Turnagain Arm to see the frozen waterfalls. The blue frozen ice is the color of the glaciers. There was a guy ice climbing and his friend down below was belaying him. We were going to get out and take a picture with Farrell for perspective, but seeing that guy up on the ice was even more fun and worked as well.

Ice climber about halfway up on the far right. A friend is belaying below.

I went a few minutes away to get my nails done on Saturday and Helen was all dressed up in a beautiful yellow-gold oriental outfit. She is from Vietnam and does a great job. Her shop was all festive with lanterns and a large picture. It was quite busy that day because there was a Sweethearts school dance that evening. Happy Chinese New Year - the Year of the Dragon - Feb 10, 2024.

It was our last Sunday in the Brayton Chapel. We went to the Huffman Ward at 10:30 and to our Temple View Ward again at noon, followed by Relief Society. The talks in both Sacrament meetings were so uplifting. Most centered on overcoming adversity and trusting our Heavenly Father and his timing. We are so blessed to have living prophets on the Earth. In Relief Society we discussed Walking in Covenant Relationship with Christ by Young Woman General President, Emily Belle Freeman. I highly recommend watching it. Our Savior Jesus Christ is always waiting for us with open arms to help us and walk with us every step of the way. 

"Thankfully, we walk this path together, calling out encouragement along the way."  
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/10/42freeman?lang=eng

Have a wonderful week. Please text, email, or blog and let us know what you are up to. You are in our thoughts and prayers. #ThinkCelestial

Love, Sister & Elder Badger