9.25.17 Silvers and Transfers, Staying in Kodiak

This week was super great, but I forgot to add something about last week at zone conference. We were told by the mission president that we will be getting Facebook in our mission. That's all they told us and so I'll let you know more details in 2 weeks when we go back to anchorage.

The weeks out here keep flying by, it's always nice to start the week out fishing and so we were out fishing at monashka for the day. We were only there 4 hours because we caught our limit of 2 silvers each. The rest of the day we cut them up like usual and a member lets us vacuum seal all of our fish to preserve it. My companion is going to send home about 50 pounds of silver salmon. He said it's a little pricy to send since it has to be shipped frozen. But let me know if you think it would be fun and I can send some your way if you request. It might take a while to collect a lot but I can try haha. And to answer your question about mill bay, it's basically just an ocean. So you can’t see any of the fish and there are only a couple people that fish there. When you fish at the rivers , there are so many fish you can see. So it's nice not having to fish blind unlike the ocean. 

We got transfer calls this week..... We are both staying in Kodiak to finish up my training. I'm guessing that I'll be here for at least 11 more weeks just because they won't want to white wash the area after elder Guerber leaves. I'm assuming that my next companion will be a Filipino because there is such a large  population of Filipinos out here.... And I don't speak their language. 

This week we went tracting for an hour a day. We didn't have to much success but I realized something this week. As a missionary, my purpose is to INVITE other to come unto Christ. They have something that we can't control and that is their agency to accept or decline our message. It makes me happy because I know that I'm doing what the Lord wants me to do. We pray every day that someone will be prepared in our path. 

We had dinner with Jeff hicks and his wife Donna, who is a super strong member. She knows everything about the gospel and is super educated. She doesn’t come to church because her husband isn’t a member. They are moving sometime next month but we are trying to at least plant some seeds in him.

Like I said before , he admitted that this is the most true church on earth, he just has to read and believe in the book of Mormon. That is the second time we have got to meet with him and he's almost finished first Nephi. 

We noticed we will have to work with him on the word of wisdom as well, but for now we are just trying to show him we are nice, loving people trying to better himself and his entire marriage and life. So please keep him in your prayers. If you have any finding ideas please send them my way, that is something I would love to hear. 

Last Saturday we tracted Into a Jehovah's witnesses home who welcomed us in and we talked for a while. The one thing that I got out of talking to them was that we had the fullness. They sounded so certain that they had the truth and that's where it becomes almost impossible for anything to be accomplished. But we got to share what we do, and talk about the book of Mormon and the restoration of the priesthood and modern day prophet's. It was intriguing to see all the doctrines that they didn't have . As a missionary, I have very strong desires to teach and testify and allow the holy ghost speak to their hearts. I'm excited to see where we can go with Jeff in particularly because he's definitely seeking further truths.  One thing I didn't know about Jehovah witnesses is that they believe that Jehovah is God the father, and not Jesus Christ. I really do appreciate having the truth. They also baptize by immersion, but they have no authority from God. We are so blessed to have the truth. We must share with others so they can be a part of the fold. 

We did a good amount of service this week. We went to the Thompson's house and started sanding some wooded frames so they could paint their house a different color. They are one of my favorite families in the ward. This took a while because there were multiple coats of paint we had to sand off with tools that decided to break a lot of the time. That's part of the fun though! 

Thank you so much for the package, we made more cookies the day we got the chocolate chips, thanks for the potatoes, they taste good with salmon. I've been adding BBQ sauce to the fish before we cook/grill it, it turns out really yummy. Let me know of pictures that you want in the future, I'm sorry it's always fish. I do better with request. One of the fish was 12 pounds. 

And yes I'm super excited for general conference. We are going to INVITE the hicks and the Sheritts to listen to some. I have never been as excited as of now to listen to general authorities. 

Last night I was studying after we were in for the night. I read every Isaiah chapter in second nephi. Nephi talks about the greatness of his words but you can only understand them if you have the spirit of prophesy. I wish I could understand more from that section, but honestly me and my Companion tried studying from it together but it tires us out. It's like reading a different language at times.... 

I wonder this, because all those chapters are already in the old testament, so why were they added to the book of Mormon? They obviously must be pretty important, at this point I just can't understand. I want to hear your thoughts and things you take away from Isaiah. Thanks pappy. 

We will be listening to conference at church. Not in a member home. We have called and texted so many less active families for revisits,  but not a single one of them responded. The work is slow out here, sometimes I pray it would be faster. But who knows, maybe my faith is being tested to always do the Lords will even when things aren't seeming to be working. 

Like always , thanks for updating about the world. It sounds like natural disasters can humble people to the highest degree and they are ever so grateful. I'm glad not too many were injured though. I also heard something about the church buying a manuscript and more land.... I want more details on that. It sounds super interesting. One of my favorite parts of the day is working with the members during dinner. There are some who have strong desires to share the gospel, and others that don't. I've noticed that the ones that do are super always super kind, loving and wanting to help others. Which is why the gospel is the good word. 

Have a wonderful week!