Hey Mom,
Glad to hear everything is going really well. WHAT!!!! RUSSIA!!! You'll have to congratulate him for me. Ah. I'm so jealous. We're teaching this kid from Ukraine right now, Sasha, and he tells us about how awesome Russia and Ukraine are. I'm also picking up some Russian. Kak Dela (what's up... pronouced Cok Doolla). Haha. He also told us how gorgeous the woman are out there. I wonder if Derrick met anyone..... And Florida. Tell Lexin congrats as well. That's awesome!
That's too bad the ward is struggling. but i am glad that they're all banding together. (i think i used that word out of context...) But let them know they're in my prayers. Poor Colton. I hope he'll be alright. And also Jared. That's rough. Dawn also has problems with her Kidney. She has cancer in both of them. I told her she could have one of mine =).
Speaking of Dawn. She vanished into thin air. We have no idea where she is or what she's doing. Hopefully she's OK.
Anyways. You need to tell J'Nell to stop breaking phones. How many has she gone through? 4? And Maddie.... i can't believe she got one too.
This week was pretty interesting. I don't really remember what happened because it went by so fast. Oh. It was hot. Hot and Miserable. The humidity is awful. It got up to 100 degrees, plus 90% humidity. I almost died that day. Horrible. We played a lot of B-ball, Did a ton of service and Taught some awesome lessons. Mike Billings, the one who won't smoke, told us Tuesday that he's going to quit smoking and wants to be baptized on July 31. Elder Perkins and I were speechless. We thought he was going to be an eternal investigator. Also, this area is on fire. We have 2 baptisms lined up, including Mike's, and we expect a lot more before August. It's a great time in Coatesville. for the most part.
But today will be a day to remember. We had transfers today. Elder Perkins is now in Scranton, PA (yes... that's where "the office" is filmed). I have a new companion, Elder Conradt from Hawaii. He's a pretty cool guy. I don't know much about him because we met.... an hour ago. the one thing i do know, is that it's going to be an interesting exchange. We might butt heads a little bit, but I'll do my best to make it the best. He seems like a good guy. He's been out a year and a half so I'll be able to learn a lot from him. I'm nervous though. I get to stay in Coatesville and pretty much take over the area until Elder Conradt gets to know everyone. So that puts a lot of pressure on me. Hopefully i won't crack =P. But yeah, besides that nothing big has happened.
So what are some of the fun things you guys are gonna do this summer without me? Some of the fun things I'm going to do without you are: Baptize everyone in Coatesville, Walk, Sweat like crazy, lose a million pounds, Get doors slammed in my face, Have really awesome spiritual lessons, Meet cool and crazy people, become Elder Conradt's best friend, Stress over my Investigators, Rebuke the Ward Mission Leader, Have awesome P-days, and read my scriptures for hours. Yeah, I'm lookin' forward to it.
Now that i'm thinking about it... Hopefully Derrick didn't go off the deep end. There's a guy from the ward who went to Ukraine to live for a few months and came back a different person. From what i've heard about him, before he left, he was a really nice guy that would do anything for you. Now, he smokes, drinks, swears like a sailor, and has gone Less-active. The reason he had such a big change was because of the culture of the people in Ukraine. I just hope Derrick didn't get "rattled" over there.
Guess what... I've got an awesome tan. I look like a burnt white person. and i'm proud of it. My skin is super dark.... on my arms and face. Everywhere else is white.... blinding white. it's pretty funny. YA CRUT!! (some more russian, "I'm cool" pronouced.. ya croot).
But yeah. That's pretty much it. Hope all's well in Orem. Love ya
Elder McBride
June 12, 2011
ReplyDeleteDear Elder Jake,
I apologize for the weeks I may have missed sending you letters. I often find myself in the middle of nowhere without internet. That being said, know how proud I am of the wonderful work that you are doing. You are constantly in my thoughts and prayers.
I hope you enjoy these excerpts from my blog:
What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. I have wanted to blog, but have been too busy or too exhausted. I am sure everyone is familiar with that feeling of not enough hours in a day to get everything done that you want to do. As such, I may be doing catch up over the next few days… we shall see how far I get tonight.
I got back from my last blog and expected to turn around in a couple days and head back on the highway. However, I was at 80 hours in the past 8 days so I need a few days off for my hours to decrease. As coach drivers in Alaska we are limited to 80 hours on duty in any 8 day period. However, when crossing the border into Canada it turns into a 70 hours in 7 days. It may sound the same, but when you are working 60+ hours in 5 days you have to take off a couple days in order for your hours to start dropping off.
That being said, I was reassigned to a tour that left on the 29th of May. This gave me a few days off in Fairbanks that I took advantage of by touring the city and jumping on a couple excursions. The excursions are things offered to our guests in order to drain just a little more coin out of their purses. While burning hours I learned about the gold dredges and sluice mining, I also got the opportunity to pan for gold where I found about $16.00 of the precious yellow metal. Later in the same day I rode a sternwheeler down the Tanana River. This was a three hour tour that took us to a Native Alaskan village where we learned about salmon fishing and the way of life of the Alaskan natives in the interior. One interesting fact I learned is that linguists have determined that the dialects spoken in the interior all stem from the same Athabaskan dialects that can be found along the Pacific Coast and down into the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. A map can be found here on Wikipedia and following is a listing of the Athabaskan dialects as broken down by area:
• Alaska: Ahtna, Deg Hit’an, Dena’ina/Tanaina, Gwich’in/Kutchin, Hän, Holikachuk, Koyukon, Lower Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Kuskokwim/Kolchan, Upper Tanana
ReplyDelete• Yukon Territory: Gwich'in/Kutchin, Hän, Kaska, Mountain, Tagish, Northern Tutchone, Southern Tutchone, Upper Tanana
• Northwest Territories: Bearlake, Dëne Sųłiné/Chipewyan, Gwich’in, Hare, Mountain, Slavey, Tłįchǫ Yatʼìi/Dogrib
• Nunavut: Dëne Sųłiné
• British Columbia: Babine-Witsuwit’en, Bearlake, Beaver, Chilcotin, Dakelh/Carrier, Hare, Kaska, Mountain, Nicola, Sekani/Tsek’ene, Slavey, Tagish, Tahltan, Tsetsaut
• Alberta: Beaver, Dëne Sųłiné, Slavey, Tsuut’ina/Sarcee
• Saskatchewan: Dëne Sųłiné
• Washington: Chilcotin, Kwalhioqua-Clatskanai (Willapa, Suwal), Nicola
• Oregon: Applegate, Clatskanie, Galice, Rogue River (Chasta Costa, Euchre Creek, Tututni, Upper Coquille), Tolowa, Upper Umpqua
• Northern California: Eel River, Hupa, Mattole-Bear River, Tolowa
• Utah: Navajo
• Colorado: Jicarilla, Navajo
• Arizona: Chiricahua, Navajo, Western Apache
• New Mexico: Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, Navajo
• Texas: Mescalero, Lipan
• Oklahoma: Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Plains Apache
• Northwestern Mexico: Chiricahua
Later in the week I had opportunity to take a small plane up above the Arctic Circle where during the Summer, the sun never sets. We landed in a Native Alaskan village named Fort Yukon where we were given a tour in an old school bus of the community and were able to learn how the Alaskan Natives now live after their introduction to western civilization. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. The First Nations, as they are called in this area, started as a nomadic people following their food wherever it may wander. They did not start building permanent settlements until Europeans started to make the scene in the early 1700s. At that time, many of the natives found it profitable to set up permanent trading camps where they could trade furs, artisan works, and slaves to the white skins in exchange for weaponry and whiskey. I don’t know if it was a good trade. At this time in Fort Yukon unemployment ranges around 85%. Many of the people still live without electricity and running water and are permitted to live off the land. Subsistence living, living off the land, is still a way of life for many of the Alaskan Natives.
In regards to the visit we made to Fort Yukon, visiting the community really made me grateful for what I have. Too often I take for granted the blessings that are mine.
On the flight back from Fort Yukon, the pilot took us over Fort Knox, AK. Fort Knox is an open pit gold mine that looks much like the Kennicot copper mine in Utah. They are currently averaging about 60 lbs. of gold each day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, which in today’s market is about $1.4 million a day. It is quite the impressive operation. We finally got back to Fairbanks at about 11:30 P.M. where I was able to get a beautiful picture of the sunset…
On May 29th I left on my first solo tour with revenue guests. What a great adventure! Just to give you an idea of what a tour consists of,
On our first day of the tour we depart Fairbanks at about 8:30 A.M. and make our way to North Pole, AK, just 30 minutes SE of Fairbanks. Here the guests can visit with reindeer, read letters to Santa and if they are lucky, see the big man himself as he works on his Naughty/Nice list. Interesting note about North Pole, AK… Every letter that is addressed to Santa at the North Pole is delivered here. All of the 100s of thousands of letters are read, and those that are answerable (i.e. have a name and return address) are answered by either Santa, or one of his many helpers. The high school students and the military personnel and their families are busy year long answering these letters. It is also worth mentioning that the post office will even accept and deliver envelopes with hand drawn stamps…
After about 30 minutes at North Pole we head on down the Richardson Highway toward the historic Rika’s Roadhouse. Sites seen along the way are Eilson Air Force Base, The Knotty Store, The Alaskan Pipeline and myriad views of the Tanana River and the Alaska Range.
ReplyDeleteRika's Roadhouse at Big Delta State Historical Park, has been a gathering place for Alaskan travelers since 1904. The Valdez-to-Fairbanks trail brought travelers to the banks of the Tanana River, where they crossed by ferry. John Hajdukovich, Yugoslavian entrepreneur, envisioned a business opportunity here, and bought the land along with a fur trading post in 1909. The two-story roadhouse, built of logs that were floated down river, became a year-round oasis for hunters, trappers, prospectors and travelers as well as local Athabascans and homesteaders. However, John had many other interests, including the responsibility of US Game Commissioner. Sitting still and running a roadhouse did not appeal to him very much so he simply asked guests to make themselves at home and leave some money on the table. He ran it in this way until 1918, when finally a dependable, hard-working Swede named Rika Wallen was hired to take over. The roadhouse was restored in the late 1970's by the state of Alaska and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Rebuilt with original timbers on a new foundation, it is still a welcome retreat from the dusty road. (http://www.rikas.com/roadhouse.html )
And, if I might add… they have awesome cinnamon rolls, bearclaws, and a strawberry rubarb pie that is to die for!
After we take our leave from Rika’s we head through Delta Junction where we meet up with the official end of the Alaska (or AlCan) Highway. The Alaska Highway is 1500 miles of road that was constructed in 1942 under extremely harsh conditions in just under 8 months by the Army under the direction of our then President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The road was built as part of the war effort to help protect our borders from Japanese invasion. A little known fact is that the farthest Aluetian Islands of Alaska are only about 750 miles from Tokyo, Japan and during WWII one of those islands was overrun by Japanese forces making it the first US territory to be taken by enemies since the war of 1812. The Alaska Highway played a major role in the land-lease program that was set up, transporting 100’s of planes, trains, trucks and other supplies to the Russians for use on the Eastern Front. Fascinating history!!
The Alaska Highway leads us to Tok, AK which is the final community before we head into the Yukon Territory. Tok has a population of about … (to be continued…)
I love you and I am proud of your work! My prayers go out to our Heavenly Father constantly for you and your companion and the work that you are doing.
Stay true, stay strong, stay safe!
Love,
Dad