South Anchorage
The
Aurora Borealis is beautiful. I have seen it on a few occasions and photos just can't
capture the beauty of it. The photos that I have were given to me by a member in south
Anchorage. The one time I remember seeing the aurora our neighbors, who lived above us and
were church members, woke us up about 11:30 and told us to come outside. It was beautiful,
with reds orange and green.
Theses
are the boots that I bought when I first made it to Alaska. I was in Fairbanks and it was
summer, but I had no idea how long I would be in the north or what type of footwear I
would need. I bought them at the fair and it just so happens that they are made by
Northern Outfitters, based in Orem, UT. The salesman was one of the company heads and
offered me a deep missionary discount, more than $100 off retail. They served me well and
I can't say enough good about the Northern Outfitters products. I came very close to
buying a pair of their gloves, but couldn't quite swing the expense. To indicate how good
they were, once I had recently pulled out the linings and washed them in mild dish soap
and they were drying out. I wasn't expecting to use them and I was planning to use my
other footwear. Something came up and I needed them. I put them on wet and went outside
were it was well below 0. Within a few minutes the boots were both warm and dry. People
thought they looked funny, but I never had cold feet.
President
Gifford was the mission president for the majority of my mission. I arrived in AK in June
and he and his wife came in July. This was Christmas when I was in South Zone. The mission
collected money and requisitioned this painting, by a famous Alaskan artist, who happened
to be LDS. The missionaries that arranged for it said that when some dealers, including
where they had it framed, found out the artist they offered to buy it, cash on site, and
were willing to pay much more than the artist had charged. It was a beautiful gift, and
I'm sure a good memory for them.
Believe
it or not there was another Elder Kowallis in the mission. This is Jemuel, who is a third
cousin once removed. We had never met and my dad had to look up the relation when I found
out there was another Kowallis. I knew there had to be a relation somehow.
The
famous moose of Alaska. They are all over, and I saw many, this was one of the smaller
ones that we saw as we were out one evening. We are in our car, so we felt kind of
confident being close, but theses animals are nothing to be toyed with, or underestimated.
I had a companion that was chased once by one and I also saw a large bull with over an 80
inch rack once step over a 6 foot chain link fence, hardly straining a muscle.
This
is Portage Glacier. It is one of the famous glaciers in Alaska and is a few miles south of
Anchorage. The lake is very deep, over 600 feet I believe, much deeper than it is wide. By
this time global changes in temperature had caused the face of the glacier to recede
enough that we couldn't see the glacier itself or any calving. There had just been a large
even and that is the reason for the many floating glaciers in the water. It looked much
different when my family had been there in '91.
This
is me shoveling off the car. Yes, I am wearing shorts and yes it is February. I don't
remember the temperature then but it was probably in the single digits or low teens. A
warm coat and quick movement and it isn't so bad. Helps you hurry actually. ;-) This
winter in Anchorage we set a record for snowfall in the city. I believe it was about 177
inches, which meant that we had several inches of fresh snow falling every week. It was
great because it was always white and pretty.
All
missionaries have to study a little. I actually enjoyed it and have continues to enjoy
studying the gospel since then, although I have a hard time matching the daily 2 hours of
study that I had scheduled then.
Once
again, tracting in the winter. Here I have on my regular dress shoes, which means it
wasn't very cold, over 15 degrees, or that we weren't planning to be out long; perhaps
both.
