Wow !!  So much happens here, but it's all just little things here and there; nothing too exciting really.  I wish I had time to write about everything but I don't, so here are just a few things that happened this week.

Hike:  We hiked Gold Chord Lake up at Hatcher Pass which was gorgeous.  This, by far, was the easiest hike I've completed and we still did get a great view.  Later that evening, we had our first ward party since I've been in this ward and it was a great turnout.  It was in celebration of Pioneer Day.  The hamburgers went fast, so I ended up with a hot-dog.  We played on stilts and did an egg race with spoons.  The kids ended up throwing the eggs at each other at the end and some of the adults were playing baseball with the left over eggs as well.

Long District Meeting:  We went way over time because the Zone Leaders training took up the entire time.  They trained on goals and we all discussed the mission culture and our standards of excellence.  We all gave our two cents and it took us forever to come up with some solutions to the problem.  All that we talked about is being brought to President in a meeting call MLC which is Missionary Leadership Counsel. They will discuss new goals for the mission.  Exciting changes are hopefully going to be made.

Shopping with Bobby:  Bobby doesn't go shopping all too often, so when he goes shopping he stocks up.  All of his friends were either unavailable or off working on the slope (which is a place where a lot of people go to work up in Barrow for 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off and make quite a bit of money).  He asked us if we would help him shop. The only person we could get to help drive him there and back was Brother Henson. He was coming back from visiting Anchorage and would help after that.  We were then on a time crunch to get to dinner so we had to move fast.  We had helped him write down his grocery list the day before and were then going to get everything.  It was taking a lot longer than expected, because Bobby needs to make sure he gets the right brand of things.  We had Brother Henson get the other half of the items on the grocery list and meet back up.  We were in and out and on with our lives.  Bobby said that was the fastest he has ever finished shopping.  We were only 15 minutes late to dinner because of 5pm rush hour traffic with everyone coming back from Anchorage.

Singing at Church:  One of our members wanted us to call the women in charge of the music and volunteer to sing in Sacrament meeting.  She asked us last Sunday when we could sing, and because of the possibility of me getting transferred, the only Sunday we could do it was yesterday.  We had a week to pull together a song, but we had already been practicing, "Come Thou Fount", from when we were asked to sing at a baptism that got postponed.  We practiced Saturday with one of the elders playing the piano for us and our district just staying in to listen.  Sister Pike had invited President Toone to come watch us perform Sunday while emailing him last P-day.  He emailed back saying he would try to make it.  This week we get a call from Sister Toone verifying the address of the Church and the time our ward started.  They came and so many people wanted to meet the new Mission President.  It was awesome and it felt good that they would drive up from Anchorage to hear us sing in Church.

Ammon:  So in the Book of Mormon, there is a story of a missionary who wanted to preach the gospel to people, so he decided he needed to serve the king.  The king has him and some other servants tend to his flock and have them get water at this well. Some bad guys come and scatter the flock as a fun thing they do and in the past the king kills the servants because they lose the king's flock.  Well, Ammon ends up chopping off the arms of the bad guys to protect the king's flock and is able to bring the whole flock back to the king.  We told this intro to our investigator Mary and then read the following chapter where Ammon is able to teach about God to the king. After we read the chapter she asked, "how many arms did he chop off"?  Haha!  We laughed and told her she could read the previous chapter to find out.  If that interest is what motivates her to read the Book of Mormon, then more power to her.  The Book of Mormon is filled with some crazy stories like the Bible which both testify of Jesus Christ.  2 Cor 3:1, "This is the third time I am coming to you.  In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."  From the Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 29:8, "Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word?  Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another?  Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another.  And when the two nations shall fun together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also."  We need both books.  Read the Book of Mormon.  

Sent from ALASKA!
Sister Shelley