Monday, October 31, 2016

Last P-Day we played basketball and scatterball (a mix of dodgeball and tag).  I won a few games.  We did journal signing as well for those leaving the district.  Because Sister Nield is leaving to go serve in North Anchorage, we finally cleaned out the car. The outside is still dirty but the inside looks pretty good.
Wednesday morning we drove down to Anchorage for our transfer.  Because I am getting two companions we had to shove all their stuff into one car.  I felt like we were playing a game of Tetris.
 
Nonetheless, we got it all in there and with places for people to sit.  We were about to leave when I realized I didn't have the car keys. Sister Nield had driven away with the keys.  Some of the other sisters who are serving in Anchorage as well went to track them down and bring us the keys.  We waited at the mission office until they arrived back; not the best way to start off the transfer. We arrived back into Palmer with enough time to drop off the luggage and head over to DQ for a district lunch.  We met the newbies to the district and made plans for a district service opportunity that came up.  

We went to the service project the next day which required us to help clean a yard. Now when someone tells you you are cleaning a yard, you think of raking leaves, maybe mowing the lawn, and that kind of stuff.  This is no ordinary lawn.  This was a scrap yard owned by a member in the Pioneer Peak Ward.  We thought we'd be able to accomplish the task with just our district, but we wouldn't even come close to finishing it even if we had our whole zone.  They wanted this done before winter, but it snowed the next day.

It wasn't even that cold Thursday and overnight it turned Alaska into a Winter Wonderland.  When I pictured Alaska before coming here, this is what I pictured:


It has melted a little, but I think the snow will stay.  I don't mind snow when it stays on the sides of the road and I don't have to walk in it.

So Brother Werner is a Counselor in the Bishopric.  Normally we try to avoid these people or screen their calls as its inevitable one will be asked to give a talk. Well, what are you supposed to do when they text you what they want you to talk about?  So I now had to give a talk on Sunday.  Mind you that he told me Thursday afternoon and I had to give the talk Sunday morning.  "Ain't nobody got time for dat!" So for the next couple of days every spare moment I was preparing my talk.  It turned out I was the last speaker to speak Sunday, which normally means you take up the rest of the time.  Everything went find and I happened to plan more things to talk about than I had time.

A lot of our investigators are on hold for the time being, meaning they are busy until a certain time, which is not right now, so we have been doing a lot of finding.  We met this man named Art OYMing (open your mouth) and he had a polar bear looking dog. He said he lived on a certain street, so my plan was to track the street and find him. We didn't need to because we saw Gracie (the polar bear dog) outside his yard.  We talked to him and got an appointment to come back.  We brought Brother Miner with us and I am so glad we did.  We went there and his house was filled with women, a layer of smoke in the air, and he was half intoxicated.  We taught him anyway and he said he'd come to church only if he could bring Gracie.  Now we say Gracie is a polar bear dog because she looks like a polar bear, but also, she is close to the size of a polar bear!  Okay, not really, but she is a pretty big dog.  We looked at Brother Miner to give an answer to this.  He said it would be find if she sat in the back.  He didn't come to church on Sunday though.

On Saturday, our ward had a YW (Young Women) Auction.  The Elders (really their wives) cooked chili and corn bread.  A lot of people came and even some of the less actives we visit.  The auction held at the end of the event was the best.  Brother Morgan dressed up like some kind of gangster and was cracking jokes the whole way through.  I think of it wasn't for him being the MC/Auctioneer, I don't know if they would have raised $5,200.  They auctioned off desserts and services.  They even had a silent auction going during dinner as well.  All of the donations are going to the YW for their YW camp of rafting.  The decorations were coordinated really well.

Sent from ALASKA !

Sister Shelley Willden



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