Summer Solstice

Hello Family and Friends,

After gaining nearly 14 hours of daylight since winter solstice in Anchorage, summer solstice came and went this week. Thursday was the day with the longest amount of time between sunrise and sunset this year. In Anchorage, that equates to 19 hours, 21 minutes, and 29 seconds, from when the sun rises at 4:20 a.m. to when it sets at 11:42 p.m. Now the days will start to get shorter. Even with the sun down, it never gets totally dark. It's nearly light enough to go mow the lawn day or night. To make it even better we've had clear skies most days. Last summer was very rainy, so we feel blessed that it has been mostly sunny this summer. The lilacs have just started to bloom here. We are usually dressed in jeans and long sleeves. Kitty still wears a jacket over to the trailer in the morning. We see people out all the time in short sleeves and shorts. 

After our good times with the other Senior Missionary Couples last week in Valdez we are still awed by the indescribable scenery. We have been in recovery mode. It takes a lot to have such adventures :-) Alaska is so huge ... lots of driving. To put it in perspective, driving to Valdez is about like driving from Mapleton to Boise or Las Vegas. The people here view it like driving from Mapleton to Ogden. It is good to be back in our second home.

Priesthood Meeting today started with the fishing report. One reported his friend picked up three Kings (salmon) and 75 Reds (salmon) on the Copper River last week. The rest all got skunked - meaning the run is not on at all locations. Relief Society was full today with a lot of family visiting. Many are from Utah.

We have thoroughly enjoy the visitors that stop by the Visitors' Center. We share the progress of the temple, let them look out the window to view the construction, and talk about the purpose of temples. We enjoy telling and hearing stories of the Saints in Alaska. We especially enjoy the young people who have just completed doing proxy baptisms in the temple - they just glow. Many visitors come from the lower 48 as they say here. Only a couple of international visitors. We had a tour bus show up on Friday heading to or from a cruise. 

We had a wonderful visit from the Dewey's from Smithfield UT. We have a special connection with them that started at the beginning of our mission. On their mission as Record Preservation Specialists in Juneau during COVID, they were miraculously able to get all the Tlingit Alaskan Native census records held by Sealaska Corporation digitized and indexed. Many of the villages no longer exist. Since that is part of  Kitty's heritage it was a very special experience. Kitty's great grandmother was born in Wrangell AK and was a Tlingit Alaskan Native. Dewey's came up to attend the temple and sealing of one of their special elderly friends who joined the church while they were serving here in Alaska. They have been called on a mission to Sweden and leave in a couple of months. We really admire them.

We are not quite sure how to deal with the turnover in subcontractors. We start to get to know one crew well - enjoy their friendship, appreciate the work they do, and then the next day with little warning they are off to the next job. Some we will get to know better because the duration of their work will be longer. It reminds me of the association with young adults in YSA wards - always said you have a couple of months and then they are off to the rest of their lives. Farrell met Isaac on Friday testing concrete - same thing Farrell used to do about the time our oldest daughter, Anna, was born. He found out Isaac had served a mission in Papua New Guinea 10 years ago, but is a native Anchorage resident. Farrell told him if he found a date we would take them out to dinner sometime. Farrell doesn't think he will have any trouble doing that since he has a wonderful personality and is handsome.

We share a short devotional on Monday mornings with the leads of all the subcontractors. It is a challenge because they are so varied in age and background. What is generally common is family. Most have Christian backgrounds. We enjoy telling them that they have a Savior, that He loves them, and that they have a great future ahead. We emphasize the importance of their God given agency. Perhaps it does some good. It is mostly over Zoom, so we don't see all their faces. Kitty and I take turns.

The construction continues on a good pace. They poured another 50 cu yds of concrete into the Level 1 footings on Friday, so we are up to about 200 cu yds so far - don't know what the total will eventually be. Semi loads of rebar show up and get placed. Interesting to us that there is no rebar cutting or bending on site -- it is all prefabricated, many pieces with multiple bends. The largest so far is #8 or 1" diameter in inches. Then the pump truck shows up along with multiple concrete trucks. This process will continue on for some time. At this point the pictures for our weekly report look pretty repetitive. The contractor flies a drone on a preprogrammed pattern and those are usually the best descriptors.

https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/anchorage-alaska-temple/photographs/

Kitty walked home from the Visitors' Center Friday thru the gate in Spencer's yard and saw a mama moose and twin calves munching their way down Sue's Way. She stopped at Sister Spencer's and had a nice visit with her as they watched the moose trim her hedges. They are huge and the babies were the smallest she has seen so far. Sister Spencer said she saw some babies so young once that they were just learning to walk. Moose here are as frequent as deer back home in Utah. 

Have a great week. Enjoy your summer. Keep in touch. We miss you all. #ThinkCelestial

Love, Elder & Sister Badger