We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet

I fear this might be the last week of Fall.  There's a lot of rumors of snow coming soon. Here are some of the highlights:

P-day fun:  There's a member in our Branch who likes to play the card game Magic so we played with him.  This is my first time ever playing, so it was a bit hard for me to catch on.  I realized that it has it's own language or lingo.  With the game you really need to know the language to play well, but the great thing about the gospel is that i can be taught for even a child to understand.  Mosiah 2:40, "O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can understand my words, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might understand ... " and 2 Nephi 31:3, "For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth The Lord God work among the children of men.  For The Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for He speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding."  We are taught line upon line, precept upon precept for us to understand the mysteries of God.  Later for FHE we played charades and then went to the stake center to play basketball with some members with the branch.

Lessons with Less-Actives:  We had a lesson set up with Walter and he wanted to meet at the Steese chapel.  We asked the ZL's for the key, and when we got to the chapel we realized it was the wrong key.  We just waited for him to show up and have him follow us to the stake center.  Fairbanks is small enough for us to travel to all the chapels fairly quickly.  He said he wants his life to be back to how it was when he was investigating the church.  That would mean for him to put Christ first in his life over his worldly tasks.  He said he is willing to do whatever it takes.  We had another lesson with McKinley, but he said he wants to be called Mack.  Him and all the boys and my companion were talking about video games prior to the lesson.  I didn't have much to contribute to the conversation.  We saw Cory this week.  He has been reading the BOM!  We met Alex who has been a convert for only a couple of years.  The member present we brought was Laura who is new to the branch and she, herself, is a convert for a little over two years as well.  We are doing fairly well with working with less-actives in our branch.

Service in Nenana:  We are going to Nenana every Wednesday that we can and are trying our best to help serve the people in the area.  We helped out at the Library, weed the Garden in front of the church before winter comes, and then helped out with this service project with some nonmembers cleaning their trash from their house construction.  There was a lot of us helping which made a huge impact to the pile. They were very gracious for all the help.  The members wanted the missionaries there to help and have presence with these people.
General Conference:  Conference was amazing.  The talks were a lot about the natural disasters going on and how we can help by mainly helping with our families and our communities.  After the Saturday session, a member took all the missionaries out to lunch at Denny's!  That was a lot of money.  This same member took us to dinner the other day and paid for us to get winter boots.  We told him we were good, but he insisted.  On Sunday, in between sessions, we had pancakes that the branch made. Chocolate chips and bacon in the pancakes!  Heaven!!

Conference was really good and I'm glad we get to watch it twice a year.  President Monson is really sick, so he's watching it from his home, but it is so cool that we know that we have a Prophet who is leading this Church under the direction of Jesus Christ through revelation.  Apostle Robert D. Hales passed away during the conference which is sad, but we know he's in a better place right now sent back to Heavenly Father.

Sent from ALASKA!
Sister Shelley Willden