This transfer is already half way done. The days are long; the weeks are short. But then I think, "we went hiking just Monday? It feels like forever ago." Well here are just the highlights for this week:"
P-Day: Well, yep, we went hiking. I haven't hiked since I was in Wasilla and it was fun not to confined to just the cultural hall in the church. We were rushing a little because we were a bit behind with laundry and emailing. We did the fastest Walmart shopping ever. We met up at the church to go
hiking at Thunder Bird Falls which was my third time hiking this trial. But it
is still beautiful every time and this time there was snow which made pictures
a lot different. Afterwards we had planned on having a fire at one of the
bishop’s house but we were a bit early so we played scatterball for a little
bit. Then we drove to have s’mores around a campfire and played this game where
two on a team would throw a frisbee to try to knock off a can on top of a pole.
It is harder than it looks but a lot of fun.
Facebook: We got Facebook this week during zone
conference. Approaching Thursday we were to watch videos recorded as part of
District 3 (film segments of missionaries in a different mission showing us
what they are doing and applying the skills of missionary work). During zone
conference we were trained on using Facebook by watching more videos and
talking about what we will be doing. The time came for us to download FB and
log in to our accounts. Some of us needed to figure out our passwords and try
to change it if we couldn’t log in. We are limited to what we can do on
Facebook and as of right now we are limited in time to use it too. We have 30
minutes Tuesday through Friday
morning to do what we need to. Hopefully we will be allowed more time in the
near future. We also got trained about the new Christmas initiative which is
very similar to last year’s as they found a lot of success and positive results
from it. We are thinking of different ways we can spread the world through FB
and helping others to remember Christ this Christmas.
Friendsgiving: We attended a youth activity where the youth
invited their friends to a little Thanksgiving meal. At the end they played
this game which was very similar to speed dating. The inside chairs would
rotate down a person and the two people would answer a question about
Thanksgiving traditions, people they are thankful for, and even favorite
Thanksgiving foods. One of the adults sat across from Sister Johnson and said,
“I’m excited; I haven’t been on a date in 20 years!” So funny. There were a lot of people there who aren’t members
which was great.
Sing for Fireside: Normally when people find out what I went to
school for they usually want me to sing. This time one of the members we had
dinner with said that some of the members are performing for a fireside on Sunday which was in 3 days
from then and that the director was looking for a singer. I don’t usually like
to sing in front of people songs that I don’t have down with lots of practice
but I felt impressed that I should offer my talent. In this way it is more of a
service and I feel better about performing for those types of situations. I
went to the practice the next day and the director was so appreciative. Mind
you I still have a cough from my sickness last week and at times the cough
makes it seem like I’m dying. I prayed a lot and drank over 160 ounces of water
on Sunday to prepare to sing. It was only because of
the love of God that I made it through the entire 7-minute song without one
cough or even a need to clear my throat! #blessed
Saturday: So many tender mercies (miracles to be
thankful for). So long story short my mother sent me a birthday package in the
mail and said it will be getting to Anchorage no later than 3pm on Saturday. Normally that would be fine and it would
just be sent to me later but she said there were things in the package that
needed to be refrigerated. That made things a little more complicated
especially since the mission office isn’t open on Saturdays. Tender mercy is
that Sister Johnson got permission to attend a baptism in Anchorage on Saturday so, after a lot of communication with Sister
Jeppson in the office and the post office, we were able to pick it up and keep
it in our cold car during the baptism. While we were there we went to take a
picture in front of the temple and I was blessed to see some of the members
from Soldotna who came up from the 3-hour drive to attend the temple on that
day. What are the odds of me running into them?! Some other minor tender
mercies happened which made the day pretty great.
Sent from ALASKA!
Sister
Shelley Willden
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