No Time Like the Present

Hello All!

Angel Moroni on existing Temple at sunset.

Farrell writing this week. Beautiful clear cold day today. We have had one 18°F night and days reach the low 30's. Forecast is for 6" plus of snow this week. We drug out all our extra layers some time ago and will be wearing them for the next several months. Once it snows here it doesn't melt until May. We inherited an older snow blower from the local facilities manager for the church here that no longer had a home. In anticipation of the incoming snow I thought I had better see if it ran. It does and is quite a nice commercial machine. It ran it down the driveway and found it has a tendency to turn in one direction. That was a puzzle until I realized one of the tires was smaller than the other even though the numbers match. Hmm …. I will have to see if a slick surface evens them out. Also this house came with a portable generator -- that's good. We used it twice last year. You can just plug it into a transfer switch on the back of the house and power anything important i.e. furnace, fridge, and freezer. It is now fueled up and starts. If all else fails, we purchased a 1/4 cord of wood. There is a fireplace here that actually works (only used it once last year because we had no wood). So we are all set for winter. 

It snowed on Wednesday and never melted.

The Gailey's, a senior missionary couple serving in Soldotna, came up for a temple session Wednesday morning. We were able to get together with them for lunch at a local Thai restaurant. We had only ever picked up a couple take out orders there before, so Kitty was surprised at how nice it was inside. The service was great, the food was very good. It was great to see friends and enjoy a nice visit. We love serving with such wonderful people. As we were leaving it started to snow. After we arrived back at the visitors' center the sun was shining. Then is snowed for about 15 minutes and the sun came back out, but the snow never completely melted. We saw moose prints in the dirt on site after the wind blew the fence down the next day.

After being here a year plus, we have the basics of what we are supposed to be doing down and it usually works well. We thoroughly enjoy the visitors. We have an instruction manual put together by people from the Special Projects Department. I have been commenting in writing on some of the conflicting information in it and will send that in for review tomorrow. Not sure how that will go over. It kind of comes down to making a move in the direction we think is best. That is one thing we have learned on a Senior Mission -- if you wait for someone to tell you what to do, you won't get much done. On my recent review of the manual, it is becoming obvious that we need to take the next leap and up our game. There are so many ideas and opportunities. It is like any church calling, there is always more to do. 

Kitty has become very proficient at photo manipulation and organization. What she does is perfect. What I do is passable. We seldom have the chance to interact with the mission president -- only on Sunday night when we have a mission wide zoom call and it is usually geared to the younger missionaries. We actually hosted one of those calls several months ago -- all about the temple. The mission president was obligated elsewhere at the time. The mission leaders are very busy people. The point is that we have to be proactive in almost everything.

After having internet on and off (mostly off) for two weeks, it is all back up and running now after two service visits. The problem was an outdated coax filter in the line that took 5 minutes to fix. As we have mentioned before, we are very dependent on it. Sending GBs of pictures and reports or participating in video (Zoom or Teams calls) is the norm. For our devotional to all the subcontractor owners/foreman this week I decided to show a video over Teams. It was a good idea but just didn't have the bandwidth to make it work. I ended up adlibbing the narrative for the whole video. That was an interesting challenge. It turned out OK but I am on a quest to do it better in the future.

The drone I crashed a couple of weeks ago has returned from the repair shop. Even though the damage was minor, they sent a brand new one for a small fee. So back to the skies. I have also learned that to continue flying it, the contractor requires the operators to have an FAA Remote Pilot Certificate. Book of Mormon and other study in the morning, FAA study in the evening. A proctored test is in the near future. Cost is $175. If you fail it you can take it again 14 days later … but you pay the fee again. I don't intend to do that. I am having fun with it. Definitely tends to keep a 71 year old mind active.

Pretty exciting to see the temple growing. The standard questions:

• 

  27 October 2024 Courtesy of Jonathan Hughes

  Are they going to work all winter, even in the snow and cold? Yes, that is the plan with the caveat that you can't do all activities like dirt work. They will add heat and cover where possible. They will do steel and even some concrete pours. Expect some interruptions -- weather days.
• Is it on schedule? Yes. The public announcement was completion Summer 2026. I add -- but remember it is a construction project so expect plus/minus on the timing. They do have weather days built into the schedule.
• Are all the workers members of the church? No. Most are not. We thoroughly enjoy all of them -- great people. We even enjoy the ones who are a little rough around the edges. We love associating with them on-site. Know many by first name. We can often recognize who they are from a distance by how they walk, or run.

The picture above is from this website. You can check out the progress at:

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

Kitty became aware of a live event that took place Saturday morning via Sealaska, the native corporation she is a member of because of her Tlingit heritage thru her maternal great-grandmother. 

U.S. Military Offers Historic Apology to Angoon for the Devastating 1882 Bombardment.    https://www.youtube.com/live/_uxPqjg-xlo

The event showed Tlingit indigenous natives of Alaska in full Regalia. Took place in the local HS gymnasium, home of the Angoon Eagles. It was loosely organized with impromptu speeches, but quite interesting. Really appreciated the prayers. The apology was sincere and I hope healing.

Angoon, Alaska is 38.8 square miles in total area, with 24.4 square miles of land and 14.4 square miles of water. Angoon is a small community on Admiralty Island, located on the southwest coast at Kootznahoo Inlet. It's the only permanent settlement on the island. Angoon is 55 miles southwest of Juneau and 41 miles northeast of Sitka. Angoon is home to the Kootznoowoo Tlingit tribe, whose name means "fortress of bears". The community is known for its subsistence lifestyle, and daily life is shaped by the seasons. It is a five hour ferry ride or 30 minute float plane ride from Juneau.

"Gunalchéesh" is a Tlingit word that means, "Thank you." They used it a lot in their speeches, so Kitty looked it up. It is an ancient word that is related to a verb that means to make something possible. It can also be used as a gesture to acknowledge someone and make them feel valued and loved. Here is a link on how to really pronounce it (Good luck!).     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIjJqaZ9RN8

By the way, the "l" in Tlingit is pronounced the same way.

Swim meet in Texas

We also watched two granddaughters compete in a live swim meet in Texas via YouTube. It was four hours long, so we fast forwarded thru the other swimmers:) Our older granddaughter can swim better than we can. What cute little fish! They each swam in several events. It was fun and we are so happy for them. We were also able to see our daughter on the sidelines cheering them on. She helps out the team and they are blessed to have her. Thank goodness for technology.

Cute pic from baby shower.

We are anticipating the arrival of our 27th grandchild within the next week or so. Our sweet youngest daughter and her husband are having a precious little boy and keeping all the possible names a secret. Still amazed at these little children coming into the world. So proud of our daughters, daughter- in-laws and sons and son-in-laws for these beautiful children. Proud of the grandchildren, too. They grow so fast. Kitty always says grandchildren grow ten times faster than our own kids. It sure feels that way. Treasure every day -- there won't be another one exactly the same. #Think Celestial

Love you all, Elder & Sister Badger

Internet and Instacare

Dear Family and Friends,

Anchorage Alaska Temple Wednesday evening.

Kitty writing this week. It seems like the weeks are just flying by. Mondays bring our 9 a.m. meeting with Westland and the various heads of the different trades. We take turns giving short weekly devotionals. We take pictures of the happenings on site, then head back to our office in the Visitors' Center. I label the pictures while Farrell starts on our weekly report. He fills in all the progress on the site from the previous week along with the weather and all the trades on site. I then add in all the labeled pictures and a missionary moment. I often stay late and if we have a lot of visitors we may have to finish the report on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning we had a GCI service call as our internet went out in the neighborhood. We really depend on it as the days are getting shorter and it's our link to the outside world. I enjoy listening to Follow Him on YouTube while I exercise in front of the computer. I've been off a little lately due to my sore throat, muffled ears, and being tired. I called the mission nurse, Sister Joseph, and she suggested I go to the local Instacare since it can take so long to get into an appointment. We have an Owner, Architect, and Contractor meeting at 12:30 over Zoom. We usually attend these meetings from our office. All the interesting developments, decisions, and progress are discussed. We appreciate the professionalism and the spirit that accompanies these meetings. Both the Monday and Tuesday meetings begin with prayer. Oftentimes we will have visitors, so I welcome them while Farrell attends the OAC meeting. We left the VC early, I readied for the temple then we headed to Instacare. The doctor thinks I have allergies and suggested a number of things to help. On Tuesday evenings I am an ordinance worker at the existing Anchorage AK Temple. I barely make it to the temple on time for our 6 p.m. preparation meeting. This week I was also given the opportunity to attend the 7:30 p.m. endowment session, so Farrell came over and went with me. We sat by the Cards in our ward. They are so friendly and inclusive. Attending the temple is one of the highlights of my week. Since it is a small temple we get the chance to help out all over, except in the office.

The Eagle River stake also drops off cookies at the visitors center on their way to the temple around 6 p.m. Tuesday. Wednesdays are Cookie Day/Worker Appreciation Day. We like to set up around 9:30 a.m. We put up our Cookie Day sign, set out the cookies, water, cups, napkins, and literature about the temples, family history, and Book of Mormons in both English and Spanish. We go back and take it down around 4 p.m. The workers love Cookie Day and we leave any leftovers there for them to take home. There are rarely any leftovers;) 

This week we had two youth groups come to the VC Wednesday evening. The Rabbit Creek YW came at 7 p.m. and the Temple View ward youth came over after they did proxy baptisms at the temple at 7:45 p.m. They are delightful and really enjoyed all the show and tell items Farrell has been picking up from the construction site. We have some uplifting videos to show them and gave them Article of Faith cards and commemorative *Anchorage Alaska Temple* Think Celestial* glow-in-the-dark wristbands when they leave. The leaders usually have treats for them which they eat outside before getting in their cars:)

Anchorage Alaska Mission

Thursday was thankfully quiet. Every weekday we don our hard hats, high vis vests, boots and camera and go out onsite to take pictures of the ongoing construction and greet the workers. Right now they are putting in chilled water lines for A/C along the west side of the temple. The north gate is locked so no one accidentally drives into the trenches. We have had quite a few visitors and several trucks with deliveries wanting to know where to go. We give them the correct phone number and invite them to come to the open house when the temple is finished. We pray for the workers and their families, that they will be safe and feel the Spirit as they build this House of the Lord.

Friday morning was so cold I put on my snow pants for the first time this fall to walk over the the VC. It had been 18 degrees, but was 22 degrees by the time I left. The days are getting shorter and is dark when we get up in the morning. It was also our dear granddaughters birthday Friday. She turned eight and will be baptized soon. We had three sweet grandchildren born really close to each other eight years ago. One grandson was baptized in UT a week ago which we attended by Zoom. Our granddaughter lives in TX and we hope to see them next year. Another grandson's birthday was today and he will be baptized in November in UT. Such an exciting time! 

Cute family making themselves at home at the Visitors' Center

Friday afternoon a mom wanted to attend the temple with her stake, but her babysitter cancelled, then their furnace went out. She brought her three children to the VC and they saw our show and tell objects, watched movies, colored, and enjoyed themselves. They were so cute. They were getting ready to leave when the power went off and then back on. The electrician came by and told us he needed to shut down the power and it would be off for about an hour. It was already 3, so I decided to go home. I turned off all the lights before the power went off, but one of the little boys started playing with the switches. Another family stopped by as we were locking up so we invited them in. They had a great view of the temple from the window and it was still warm inside and the sun was shining. When they left we headed to Costco to get gas and pick up a few things. 

I slept in Saturday morning, we cleaned a little, relaxed, and enjoyed a fun evening eating finger food and playing Phase 10 at the Swenson's. I should clarify, Farrell does not play games. I enjoyed playing and we enjoyed eating and visiting. Brother Swenson invented the card game AlaskaAlaska. We don't always play the same games every month. We love getting together with friends up here and listening to their stories. Many involve travels, hunting, fishing, family, and interesting life experiences. Brother Swenson and President Smith are very witty.

We enjoyed our Sunday meetings today. Sister Mishler spoke about President Russell M. Nelson's talk about the Second Coming of the Savior. That was one of the most inspiring talks I have every heard. It was the last talk given at General Conference earlier this month. The entire talk gave me chills listening to him tell us repeatedly to get ready for the Savior's return. Here is the link, if you would like to listen to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV0uA3a_eIU

After church we called our precious grandson, rested for a while, and made a nice green salad. We were invited to dinner at the Anderson's. We know them from the temple and mutual friends. They have a beautiful home about 10 minutes from here. We enjoyed visiting with them along with a few of their friends and neighbors. Brother Anderson in an endodontist and an avid fisherman. He showed us pictures of fish we had never seen before. Two sets of young missionaries came over, had dinner, and gave us a short lesson. Anderson's gave us a bag of fish when we left which was so kind. As soon as we were in the car we tuned into our 8:30 Alaska mission wide Zoom call. It's always great to connect with all the other missionaries. The work they are doing is so inspiring. Then, yeah, the overhead light in the VC was on all weekend and we only noticed it tonight on our way home. We stopped and turned it off:) Time to get to bed. Another week has zipped by.

Have a great week. We miss you. Keep in touch. We really enjoy hearing from you. #Think Celestial

Love, Elder & Sister Badger

First Snow

Hello all,

Sky above corner temple lot.

Farrell writing this week. We received our first snow -- just a 1/2" and then it melted away. Today (Sunday) feels like a late November day in Utah. Most of the leaves are off the trees. While the rest of the lower 48 were relishing in their view of the northern lights again which turned out to be spectacular, we stepped outside several times, looked around, didn't see anything (clouds) and finally went to bed. Of course, if we had put a little more effort into it to drive a few miles north, we would have been in the middle of the show.

First snow backyard.

We've had some especially sweet visits this week at the visitors' center. Two individuals came with the young missionaries. They are investigating the church. One was a lady in her early 80's. What an original Alaska story she had. She married in Oregon (late 60s) and her husband said he didn't want to live in the city. They bought an old bus, drove it to Fairbanks, parked it, hopped on a plane to fly 60 miles north of the Artic Circle, took a boat up a rugged river, picked a spot to build a cabin and started to work. This was in September. Oh, and they had a five yr. old daughter. He used a chainsaw to built it into the side of a hill. It was insulated and chinked with moss. They survived three winters there. She made it sound like it was just as normal and pleasant as a modern home. Unfortunately, he was killed in a plane crash in the early 80's. That is not an unusual story here. Weather is usually the deciding factor. We explained to her our beliefs in marriage for eternity. I asked her if she ever remarried and her response was, "Why would I, never found anyone as good as my husband." She has read the Book of Mormon twice. The other visitor was a 72 year old man. Such a sharp and spiritual man. He understood everything we told him. Much of it he had believed all his life. Anyway, good times and good people.

Visitors at Anchorage Alaska Temple.

We enjoyed a visit from the Achievement Day girls and their leaders. We had a prayer, spoke, showed them a short movie, and told them about the progress of the new temple. Afterward they went over to the the operating Anchorage Alaska Temple to visit with President and Sister Newman, who are also the grandparents to three of the young girls. They were able to go into the waiting room for a few minutes and visit with the them. They were so precious.

Existing Anchorage Alaska Temple view.

                                                                             One man at church today, who hadn't seen the temple site for three weeks (operating temple was closed for it's annual maintenance for two weeks), just could not get over the progress. If we miss a couple of days, things really change. The often work on Saturday while we aren't here. The perimeter wall ICF's keep reaching for the sky. We have concrete pours a couple times per week. The iron workers (assemblers for the structural steel) showed up this week and began welding. They use a propane weed burner (at least that's what I call it) to heat up the concrete embedded steel plate before they weld a "knife edge" on it. That is another steel plate with holes drilled in it to mate with a horizontal steel beam. The sparks from the welding are a brilliant bright pick. A crane will start swinging columns and beams into place shortly. Everyone wants to know if they are going to have it enclosed by winter. The answer is no, but hopefully enough in place that they can enclose sections with plastic. They did get the main gas line tapped into from Brayton Drive and installed so if they can find a big enough heater, they can warm up quite a space surrounded with plastic. Apparently, a 2" gas line at 60psi is a lot of BTUs.

We did get our time lapse camera installed several feet higher on the trailer so we can see the progress. We do seven day time lapse sequences and have been doing them since February. Fun to watch a week compressed to a minute and a half. Also now using our 360 degree camera. We can set it in the middle of an area and with one snap get a 360 degree spherical view of the whole area. You can pan up down and all around.

Corner temple lot off Brayton Drive.

The sad news of the week was I finally got up the courage to use the "company" drone to do some picture taking. I had read up on everything and knew the details but had never flown one. I flew it for about an hour having a great time. Just about when I thought I had it all figured out I let it get just out of sight. I got an error that said the camera gimbal was stuck. That was not good. Then I noticed from the control screen it wasn't flying any more i.e. elevation went to 0. That was definitely not good. I looked where I thought it had gone down to no avail -- the backyard of our residence. I had taken off from the temple parking lot. I was searching through the bushes behind the existing temple -- that probably looked interesting on the security system. I finally realized that the drone had a find function via GPS. So … got in the car and tracked it down to the side of our house. Yes, it had crashed but the damage was not catastrophic -- no broken glass or plastic. The built in collision avoidance didn't avoid the little tree limbs in the area. It has no avoidance function above -- just to the sides and down. Of course I was extremely embarrassed. The general contractor uses this drone several times a week and it has become an essential piece of equipment. What to do...? I went and bought another one, the same evening, from the local Best Buy. I had wanted to have my own anyway :-). So with a little swapping around, the contractor is still in business. The damaged unit is in for repair (2 weeks). If that is successful, I'll swap them again. Who would have thought that would be part of a mission experience.

Having dinner tonight with the Taylors. He is the Alaska State Attorney General. They have the most interesting stories. He was invited to talk to the local Baptist group recently about parental rights. He used New Testament scriptures for most of his points. One parishioner came up to him afterwards to complement him on using more scriptures than the pastor. It was not his original intent to do that but was impressed to take that route. As members of the church, we are counseled to avoid contention. That doesn't mean avoid differences of opinion. I have talked to him about how he does that as a lawyer -- no small feat. Basically comes down to have civil discourse and act with integrity -- not his words but mine. I don't know that I could pull that off in all circumstances.

The best experience of the week was the one Hudson (grandson) and Laurel (his mother/our daughter) made possible for us. He was baptized Saturday morning by his dad and we were able to watch and hear from Alaska. We love him and are so proud of him. As usual we saw the hand of the Lord in this in a simple way. Our internet has had problems and has been mostly down for a few days. I was checking it out in anticipation of the baptism Saturday morning -- not working. Time came for the baptism, the internet came back on, we participated for the full time and then disconnected. I went back to connect again and it was down. We learned tonight that the problem was a utility company putting in an underground fiber optic conduit. They had nicked the internet cable. Internet has been down all day but seems to be working again now.

We love you all and know that God loves you. He knows and loves you personally -- not just in aggregate with all the other people in the  world. We don't have the details of how He does that but it is a fact. #ThinkCelestial

Love always, Elder & Sister Badger

Families are Forever

Dear Family & Friends,

Sunset with Angel Moroni on left.

Kitty writing this week:) It's interesting celebrating your birthday in the mission field. You miss the simple things like being surrounded by family, them singing you Happy Birthday, and dishing up cake and ice cream to a crowd. We arrived in Anchorage one year ago on my birthday. The year before that we were flying back from Seattle after going on an Alaskan cruise. The last three birthdays have been very quiet. I miss our large family gatherings. It was great talking to one of my sisters and almost all of our children. Farrell made a delicious ribeye steak dinner with all the trimmings and an angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. We picked up beautiful fall roses at Costco. I appreciate all the friends and extended family who texted and reached out on Facebook. It is nice being remembered, but getting older is not as much fun as it used to be as a kid:) 

Sun halo on Legacy in Anchorage AK.

I was talking to one of my daughters while walking over to the temple site Tuesday and saw a sun halo in the sky right in front of me. I am always appreciative of the beauties of the earth. The sunsets here are incredible and I love the trees,  flowers, and clean air. The snow is also beautiful, but we still have a few weeks...we hope.

Family at Saint George UT marathon. 

Yesterday several of our dear children, their spouses, and a granddaughter ran and cheered in the Saint George Marathon in memory of their oldest brother and father, Jared. The granddaughter is one of his identical twin daughters. They have been training hard. Our youngest daughter holding the sign is 8 months pregnant. Her husband is on the other side in green. I wish I could have been there to cheer them on. They are motivating us to get is shape and exercise more again. 

Jared passed away tragically 10 years ago today. He was charismatic and looked a lot like my mom, had hands like my dad, was brilliant like his father, and I loved him the moment he was placed in my arms. We all miss him terribly, but know he is watching over us from beyond the veil. 

I am always so grateful October General Conference comes this time of year to buoy me up. I am always reminded that because of our Savior's atonement and His resurrection we will see our loved ones again. A version of this picture hangs in our Anchorage Alaska Temple Visitors' Center. It is one of my favorites.

Our dear prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, age 100, declared repeatedly in his address during the semi-annual General Conference today, "Now is the time for you and for me to prepare for the second coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ." His full address:  

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/10/sunday-afternoon-session?lang=eng

Birthday roses.

It's the end of fall here. We had our first overnight freeze this week. Farrell dumped out the pots and took the flowers inside. Most of the fuchsia flowers fell off, but there are new buds and the lobelia is coming back. There are only a few leaves left on the trees. It was really windy Friday. After our paid lawn helper raked the leaves from our yard there were seven huge black bags.

We were glad to have a quiet weekend. We loved watching General Conference. Elder Wada spoke again about some of the experiences he told us about during Stake Conference. It took me a minute to figure out where I had heard that story before:) If you haven't listened to General Conference I highly recommend it. It is one of the most inspiring, hopeful, encouraging things we have the privilege of participating in. We try to listen to a talk again every night. The last talk by President Nelson was especially inspiring. He is truly a prophet.

I did take and pass my AK driver's license test on Friday so I am officially an Alaska resident and can vote in the election next month. I have had a little cold with a sore throat, headache, and my hearing has been muffled for about 3 1/2 weeks. I was given a blessing last weekend.  I am grateful it is finally doing a little better this evening though not completely gone. I feel very blessed and will try to be patient.

Hope you have a wonderful week! Keep in touch:) We miss you. #ThinkCelestial

Love always, Elder & Sister Badger