Christmas

With no Institute being held and Seminary being off until school resumes in January, things are very slow here.  It has turned colder.  We have seen temperatures as low as 10 degrees.  That certainly isn't as cold as the rest of Alaska.  We in the Inside passage are protected by islands and the altitude of sea level.  There has been lots of snow.

We were well taken care of on Christmas day.  Bob and Sawa Francis invited us to a wonderful Christmas dinner.  They also invited Landon Goodman, a YSA member with no one to spend Christmas with.  Bob and Sawa appear to be close to fifty.  They met online several years ago.  She is from Tokyo and was working in SLC.  He was traveling to SLC 3 times each year with his job and it just worked out.  We enjoy both of them very much.  Sawa is a real help in the branch.  Bob works for the fisheries department of Alaska.

We enjoyed our Skype visits with our kids and grandkids.  They help to make being away from them easier. 

Last evening the Branch Presidency put on a wonderful dinner for the YSA members.  We had 40 there.   Lots of the YSA members had returned from their universities for the Christmas break.  We had a lot of new names to learn.  Diane and I went to the church to help Sister Olsen prepare and set up the dinner.