Saturday the 21^st was our first full day in the Mission.  We arrived Friday at about 2:45 PM.  (Our flight from Seattle was a little bit late due to strong head winds of 100-134 mph.)  We were met at the airport by Pres. & Sister Lambertson (counselor in the mission presidency) Elder & Sister Jacob and Elders Bowen and Stephan.  Bowen and Stephan live in the same apartment complex as we do and they were assigned to take our luggage to our apartment for us while the senior missionaries took us to the mission office and introduced us around.  Before we left the airport, Pres. Lambertson made sure that we had our picture taken in front of one of the stuffed animals (bears, moose, etc.) that are positioned about the airport.  We ended up with a Musk Ox.  Only the best for us. ;-)

At the office we met the Dunns and the Poulsons and a handful of young elders whose names I can’t recall except for Elder Dickson, who is the grandson of some members of Candice’s ward in Orem.  They told us to look out for him and he was one of the first we met.  He apparently takes care of some of the IT stuff in the mission.

After meeting everyone, the Dunns took us on a short tour of the city, gave us a map with relevant areas marked on it and took us to our apartment.  Then we met the others at Chili’s Restaurant and they bought us dinner.

After dinner we went back to the office, met Pres. & Sister Lavoi (the other counselor in the mission presidency) Elder & Sister Mason and some more junior missionaries, picked up our vehicle, a 2014 Nissan Frontier crew-cab pickup and left for our apartment.  We managed to find a Fred Meyer on the way, got a few groceries and found our apartment without too much difficulty.  After an 18 hour day with two airline flights, we unpacked just enough to get to bed and then crashed.

Approaching Anchorage - Chunks of ice in the water!

The Musk Ox

I would have preferred the HUGE moose we saw on another level.

The door to the Mission Office

(Note snow shovel)

Wasatch Front  has nothing on Anchorage!

The mountains form a shallow semi-circle to the East of Anchorage.

To the west is the ocean. (Actually Cook Inlet which flows into

the Gulf of Alaska and then to the ocean.)

Looking East from Strawberry Rd., 

just a couple of blocks from the Mission Office

Sister Taylor is excited to see all the Birch trees this spring and summer.

Note the snow piled in the corner of the lot.  And this has been 

a mild winter.  Some years the piles don't melt until August.

There's only a few inches of snow on the lawns.  

An inch or two of ice on the parking lots and side roads.

The Anchorage Temple.  One of the small ones, as you can see.

We get to go next Tuesday with the newly arrived missionaries.