THE ALASKA CAMPBELLS: October 2011

Friday, October 21, 2011

ZONE CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES, TRANSFERS, AND SUCH

We've been privileged to attend some zone conferences while here. They have all been a sweet spiritual experience. We even had Elder William R. Walker from the First Quorum of the Seventy at one of conferences. That was a large zone conference. We had five zone worth of missionaries here at the Strawberry Chapel.

Here are some pictures from some assorted conferences

This first set of pictures wasn't exactly a zone conference. It was a sisters meeting for the sisters in the Anchorage area. (Sister Campbell was the photographer. So, if you don't like the pix, you can blame her.) Also, remember that you can click on the images to ENLARGE them.

This little sister is a small package of plastic explosives.

With her, it's lead or get out of my way.

One of the sister's singing --

Here's the whole "gang."

Sister C. is on the back row in a red sweater

LAST TRANSFER

Here is some of the bedlam at the mission home last transfer.

This is in front of Sister C's desk, looking

toward the front door.

Two elders on their way home. Good men! I'll miss them both.

The small strips they are holding are their names taken from my

housing board - their name strips have been there for 2 years.

A comedian! Good missionary!

The elder in the blue jacket spoke with me at his farewell

as my companion speaker when I was on the high council.

More Elders of Israel.

Jake, as it were --

Two more on their way home.

An Arizona boy!

They are on their way to Barrow - our norther-most city.

It will be dark 24 hours a day there soon and the temps will be

in the -60's for months on end. One of the elders is happy

to be going and one is not. Guess which. (by the way, they

are tearing up the place. We've had to send them more supplies.)

The "home bounders" at the Mission Home.

This next set of pictures is from the Five Zone Conference when Elder and Sister Walker visited the mission. He is a member of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy and was President Packer's former Stake President!

Some of our senior couple missionaries

A Navajo and two Polynesians.

Interestingly enough, there are three Polynesian wards and one Tongan ward in the Anchorage area. So, what's up with that??

Named after a member of the Twelve.

Some of the sisters.

More sisters.

MORE sisters!

This is a picture of one of the zones with Elder and Sister Walker
and President and Sister Beesley.

The Relief Society who did the large meal.

Great food!

A surprise picture of President Beesley

A great missionary with an interesting past.

Oh, dem elders.

President and Sister Walker

Walkers and Beesleys

Thursday, October 20, 2011

THE CHOCOLATE MOOSE -- NO, HE WASN'T A MEMBER

Elder Parker and I drove into the parking lot at the mission office two or three weeks ago, after talking with the bookkeeper at a local car repair place. We were talking to each other in the car when I realized we had a visitor meandering around our parking lot, looking for food (he may have been looking for a stray cow). I ran into the office, grabbed my camera and at the same time announced to everyone that there was a moose in the parking lot. EVERYONE went after a camera and followed the big boy around from door to door, taking pictures. Stupid me! I was outside (keeping my distance) and taking pictures like crazy.

He was a young bull (probably a yearling) with a small rack. What he lacked in rack, he made up for with size. He stood higher that the mission van -- the van is taller than I am, and I'm 6' 4". Since it was/is rutting season, I wasn't about to give him reason to charge. I hear that the bulls full of testosterone are pretty mean.

Here he is at the back of the parking lot.

snoop, snoop

looking - looking

I used the zoom lens on all of these.

Munch!

Keeping a wary eye on the humans.

small rack -- BIG BODY!!!

West side of the Strawberry Chapel.

He liked our bushes.

More breakfast.

Here he's walking to the front of the Church. I thought he'd

just depart the premises.

But, no, he came around the building looking for more nutrition.

You can believe that whenever I go into the parking lot now, I survey the entire area to make sure that there isn't another bull, or a cow with a calf in the parking lot. We have a giant parking lot and no place to hide if one is dumping garbage. Somehow, an announcement that I was gored to death by a bull moose while I was emptying garbage at the mission office doesn't sound too heroic.

LONG OVERDUE UPDATE ------

A few weeks ago, I drove down Strawberry Road from the mission office to go to the bank to make a deposit. I happened upon three grotesque monsters along side of the road that were pretending to be pumpkins.The pumpkins (as it turns out) were entered at the Alaska State Fair and the biggest, "Bubba", won the grand prize. (It's amazing what the right seed, a ton of manure, and a 24 hour long growing day will do!) Anywho -- enjoy the big Alaskan pumpkins.