First, I have many people ask me about my sons on their missions, so I thought I would give a brief update. My sons are serving 2 year missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One is serving in the Winnipeg, Canada mission which covers the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. He is currently serving in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan.

He is loving the people there. He doesn’t really enjoy the city, he doesn’t like being around a ton of people or the traffic, but he is enjoying the work. He is also enjoying winter. He is used to the cold temperatures, but the wind is a new thing as we don’t get a ton of wind here in Willow. It makes the cold penetrate a lot faster he says.

My other son has finally made it to Brazil. He was called to the Juiz de Fora mission in Brazil but when it was time to leave the MTC, he hadn’t gotten his visa yet; he served in Tampa, Florida for a couple of months waiting. He had been quite dedicated to his language training, so when he arrived in Brazil, he was able to understand both signage and some of what people were saying as well as respond to basic questions and information.

Once he arrived in Juiz de Fora he received his first assignment to serve in Uba, Brazil. He has been there for approximately 3 weeks. He says it’s warm, but not too hot, but it’s very humid, so he is sweating a lot. The whole mission is in a more mountain type region, and Uba is very hilly. They don’t have a car, so they walk everywhere they go, and he says if they’re not going up, they’re going down, and there’s very little in between. He loves the food, and he especially loves the people and the opportunity to serve them.

Now, on to fresh air. This is the first winter that I have made the goal to go walking every day. It’s mostly because we have the dogs here currently, but I am grateful for that excuse. Earlier in the winter I had to wear a facemask so that my cheeks didn’t freeze, so I was breathing through the facemask, which isn’t my favorite thing to do and doesn’t allow for much really fresh air.

But over the last month or so, it’s warmed up, and most mornings, it’s above zero hovering anywhere between 5 and 15 degrees when I am ready to go out walking. This is nice because it means less gear, and also no facemask. A couple of days after it started to warm up a bit, as I was headed off with the dogs, I took a deep breath in, and oh my goodness, it was so refreshing. Since that day, as I step outside and set off, I take a few moments to just breathe deeply.

It almost feels like it’s clearing the cobwebs of my lungs each day. When it was super cold, I would have to really just grit my teeth and get out the door. But the last month, I have been looking forward to that clean, fresh breath of air every morning. I know that touching nature regularly is a good thing, but I’m not taking my shoes off to walk in the cold and ice. But, that fresh air every morning just gets me going on the right foot I think.

For years here in Alaska I heard people talking about opening their windows to air out their houses in the spring. I thought they were crazy, because to me, it was still cold outside. But as I’ve gotten older, and I think especially this year, I am ready to open my windows and air out my house just like I’ve been airing out my lungs each morning.

I love living where I live, where the air is crisp and clean in the morning, and where I can step outside and just breathe.

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