Santa Claus is in Yellowknife Branch

This is a screen shot of our mission from the LDS Church sight. We are being told that our branch takes in the North Pole. The dot with the cross is Yellowknife. The place that is marked Wetaskiwin is one of the wards in the Millwood Stake. Yellowknife is in the Millwood Stake. There is a lot of space between the two. Yellowknife branch borders Grande Prairie Stake which goes to Hay River. In order for Grande Prairie Stake to service Yellowknife branch, they would have to fly south to Edmonton and then fly north to Yellowknife. Millwood is the closest stake to the Edmonton airport and that is why Yellowknife is in Millwood stake.

Yellowknife is an amazing place. Yellowknife is on the north edge of the Great Slave Lake. Great Slave is the 9th largest lake in the world. It is also the deepest lake in the world, at 2,014 ft. (614 m.) It has been inhabited by First Nation people for 5,000 years. The name Yellowknife comes from the tribe of people that was living when Europeans came here. The tribe made their knifes from the copper found in the area. The name "Slave" derives from "Slavey" - a word sometimes applied to a major group of Dene people indigenous to the region. 

On P-day, June 6, we went to Old Town, less than a mile from our apartment and walked up to the top of Bush Pilot Monument. It honors all the bush pilots who mapped and serviced the Northern Canada Territories. It gives a view of the area from a peninsula and an island.

 This picture is looking towards the downtown of Yellowknife.

You can clearly see Yellowknife is built on rocky ground, the Canadian shield.

This huge rock is in a residential yard.

 Rock cliff downtown parking lot.

These are apartments on the other side of Back Bay.

This is the Giant gold mine on the other side of Back Bay, north of Yellowknife, that closed in 2004.

This is the elevator shaft of the mine and the back of the building seen from the Ingram Trail.

 Looking at Old Town across Back Bay from Giant Mine.

                    

 Old things left over when the mine closed.

 
                                            An old tank and something on sled runners.

  

 

This is the Sailing club just down from the old Giant mine.

 This is a boat house on the other side of Back Bay.

There are boat houses on Yellowknife Bay as well. The island is Jaliffe Island.

Look beyond those houses into Great Slave Lake past the Yellowknife Bay. That is ice and it is the sixth of June. Below is a close up. They say the ice will be gone the end of June, maybe the first part of July.

We watched a guy push his little barge of wood over to Jaliffe Island.

This boat is coming from Yellowknife Bay, entering the Narrows.

 
 This is the other side of the Narrows entering Back Bay.

Can you see that narrow strip of water that is the Narrows? On the other side of the Narrows is Latham Island. It was the Dene Village. Where we are standing is Old Town where Yellowknife originally resided.

A little house in Old Town

The oldest, longest running restaurant, Wildcat Cafe.

Across the street from the Wildcat, on Back Bay, a residence.

Cores from drilling into the rock.

Someone lives in this little house. The shed behind is leaning.

But the leaning shed has a strong lock.

Oldest store and yes, it is still open for business.

The store and the little house.

Houses and businesses along Yellowknife Bay going to downtown.

Park with art and sculpture in Old Town.

Since Yellowknife is the only municipality of any size, it is the capitol of Northwest Territories.

     There will be more about Yellowknife coming. I think with all the pictures the blog may be to big for some people to receive. Everything we have seen so far we have loved. Nothing is out of town. We thought Grande Prairie was far from everything. Yellowknife is very far. We are as far from Edmonton as Edmonton is far from Salt Lake City, Utah, our home. We are twice as far as we ever thought we would be on this mission.

     We know we are where Heavenly Father wants us to be. This is a small branch. We already love the people and feel so welcomed by them. The Stake President flew up here Saturday night and reorganized the Branch Presidency. Elder Brown is the new Branch President and he doesn't have counselors. He has a Branch clerk, and the Elder's Quorum President will be helping out. There are not enough people to go around. We have five active families and two single sisters. We have about 20 people at church, counting us and the Elders.

     We love all of you. It would be nice to hear from any of you once in awhile. We are excited for the young men and women who will be leaving on their missions very soon. We would like to be included in the e-mail they send home and gets sent to friends and relatives. I haven't figured out a way to read the comments to this blog, so don't write a comment here. You can reach us by email - elder.sisterbrown@gmail.com. There are other ways and you can contact us any way that works for you. We read them all. We love, love, love and miss all of you.

Sister Brown, Mom, Grandma, and Robyn