8.14.17 Arriving in Alaska

My week has been really great! I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home. I sure do miss cousin swaps haha. It's fun to see the pictures you sent of Devin and Danica, I sure do miss those kidos a lot! Every time a see a little boy like Devin I want to play with him , Devin is an awesome brother. I miss him to death . Fishing with Devin was lots of fun at the beach. I'm glad he got to go fishing and have a good time in the water. I miss and love you guys.

I'm not going to lie, it's pretty beautiful up here. I'll attach all the pictures so far for my first week . The weather like every day has been 50s, and one day it was really nice and was about 60, but it's pretty constant.  It rains for a couple days, and then the sun shines for a couple. Yeah I'm still having to get used it still being light at 10:30 PM. But it's not effecting my ability to sleep, we have got good curtains to help block it out. And it's not as bad as it seems, the sins usually going down at bed time. I usually try to get to bed as soon as an can because it's so relaxing just to sleep after a long day. I use my mask a couple of times but I could sleep with out it .

Our apartment is on a street called Tona,  it's like right next to the high schools,  like a 2 min drive . It's about 7 mins to the church .it doesn't have Wi-Fi,  I write emails at the church or at a members house .

Nothing to weird, I'm adapting to like curry. 2 people have fed us curry, one type was really good , the other family pranked our cups with numbing fluid on the tips of the glasses and so when we drank our lemonade our mouths were really numb haha.

Currently I think there is a Filipino named Melinda that my companion (Elder Guerber – Mesa, Arizona) was teaching,  he said she believes everything but just needs to keep the word of wisdom . I haven't gotten to teach any lessons yet.  a couple of people have fallen though on us. But I'm still looking forward to doing so. My trainer is really fun and nice, we both have similar personality and like to have fun.  But we also take it seriously when the time is right . So it's a good fit for us. He's a little taller than me, he's 6 feet 10 inches.  He's gonna play volley ball for Ohio State when he gets back from his mission . He has been out for 9 months now . 

I really like my mission president . I'm super confident and comfortable talking to him. He's like a super big teddy bear haha. He said don't get close to wild life and that we can fish, just not on a boat.

It was cool to spend some time at the mission home before we found out where we were all first serving.  I guessed I was going somewhere totally different then Kodiak. But I counted and there are over 30 different places you can serve in Alaska.  I'm also keeping track of all the planes and places I go since I left home.  

My first week in the field was a lot different than I thought. It was better than I thought though. We went tracking for the first time, probably knocked about 30 doors. We talked to about 20 of them but they all said they were not interested.  But that's ok I'm trying my best to understand that it's not about me, and when they are ready to hear our message, they will listen . I also had a great time at church for the first time. I gave a little introduction to everyone and it's crazy how small the ward is compared to the Pflugerville ward. There was hardly anyone in the ward so it's really small. It's been a lot of fun to eat at members homes and get to know them so I feel more comfortable talking to the ward. We also got to do some service, picking up trash and also helping a member fix up his ceiling. Good times!

I am back in Anchorage for zone conference and Pday.  We are going on a hike called Flat Top.

Here are some pics. I'll hear from you next week. I love you all! 

Here are some of the things that I learned from the orientation thing that first day. One day, it was -40 in one area and 60 in another. That's a 100 degree difference! In the same mission! There are 9 roads in Alaska (state roads). They sometimes have to do church in a giant conference call. Some of the sisters have someone being baptized who they have never met or seen. They taught all the lessons over the phone because this person lives in the middle of nowhere. If someone doesn't have access to a priesthood leader while they do church over the phone, they have been given permission by the first presidency to just look over and ponder the sacrament prayers in the scriptures, and it would be like having the priesthood bless it. If it is under -30, they just have sacrament meeting. If is is under -40, they just have the sacrament and leave. At one part, there is only 55 miles between Alaska and Russia. Alaska averages 1 square mile per person. Anchorage has 41% of all the population of Alaska. There are 8 stakes and our zones match perfectly with them, 8 zones. It is $4.10 for a gallon of milk and $3.5 for a dozen eggs. Some of lakes turn into roads during the winter time. They average over 50 earthquakes a day. There are 13 active volcanoes. When people say they are "going outside" it means they are leaving Alaska and going someplace else.