We are coming home.

We are coming home. 

Today is December 24, a strange sort of day for us. We won't be celebrating Christmas until New Year's Day, when we will be home with the kids and grand-kids. When we woke up this morning the temperature was -28 F, feels like -46 F. The sunrise was 10:08 a.m. The sunset will be at 3:06 p.m. We have gained 1 minute and 8 seconds since the shortest day of the year.  The low will be -34 F tonight. When we wake up tomorrow it will still be -33 F.We are planning on packing our car tomorrow. The high for the day is at 3 p.m. at -29 F. But it will be getting dark at that time, and will get colder fast.

Last Sunday we took the Elders to the airport so they could attend the Christmas Zone Conference in Edmonton. They will stay down for Christmas and return after we have gone. We have enjoyed these two fine Elders.

Elder Gorsky and Elder Sinco

It was dark as we left the airport at 4:00 p.m..

 

This rock has cool frost.             We do service at Aven. 3:30          There is a huge quarry next to                                                            is dark as we are leaving.              Aven. Someday it will be a tower

                                                                                                          addition to Aven Senior                                                                                                                              Community.

  

It is now another day and it is dark in our alley at 3:42 p.m.

These three birds are Rock Ptarmigan. They are all white in the winter except for a black tip on their tail. They are from northern climate, but they migrate to Yellowknife when they move from high latitudes to escape the dark arctic winter.

Inukshuk help travelers in the North find their way.

Local sleigh riding and tobogganing hill is in a neighborhood. So, the road is blocked off for the winter.

Snow berms are built to keep riders safe.

There is a wide turn at the bottom which travels down the street to a barrier to stop.

View through Sombe Ke Park. Looking at Museum across Frame Lake. The flag enclosure is for the skating rink. This city knows how to make winter fun. People in Yellowknife do not stay inside just because it is cold and dark. They bundle up and play.

We are inside the Food Rescue tent. This is the kitchen area. We did a lot of service in here. This was a get together to thank all the volunteers for the year. The are closing and will open in the new year. The lady in the red vest is the director. She also collects nativities.

Outside of the tent. It has a kitchen, office and warehouse area. We did service in the parking lot sorting recyclables for the money they could bring to Food Rescue. The bags came from the mines and they let Food Rescue have the deposits.

Sister Krause is our oldest branch member. She is 78, just had a knee replacement and drove up until a few months ago. She lives alone with her two dogs, Whisper and Mishka. Her two daughters live near and look in on her.

We have waited for eight months to see this "Christmas tree" lit up. And one afternoon, it was. 

We have loved Yellowknife. It is time to go home. We anticipate leaving on Tuesday, December 26, 2017. It should take us four days driving for eight hours each day to get home. Bad weather, bad road conditions, wrecks, and wild animals could change the plan. Also if it is crowded at the border or just takes a long time to get through US customs, we could be longer.

Hopefully we will be home on Friday, December 29, 2017. We have a new Stake President at home, he's been at it for three weeks. He said to call and he would like to meet us and release us. That sure sounds final. We will also be getting a new Bishop in our Ward the week we are home. The one we had is in the new Stake Presidency. We think we will be speaking in church on January 14. If you want to know for sure, reach out to our phones, emails, or Facebook. We have never seen comments on this blog. If you don't know these methods, use email elder.sisterbrown@gmail.com

We love all of you. We are looking forward to seeing you all again. 

We are thankful for Jesus Christ, our Savior. We celebrate the anniversary of His birth. We are thankful for a Heavenly Father who gave His only begotten Son to help all of us return to Him again. We are thankful for Joseph Smith who acted in faith and asked Heavenly Father which church to join. He found out that he shouldn't join any of them. Joseph Smith became instrumental in translating the ancient plates with help from God, to bring forth the Book of Mormon and in the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days.  

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a lovely year in 2018.

Elder and Sister Brown