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