Elder Bennett Ogden

Landed in Alaska

Assigned to Fishhook:

Thursday was not fun at all. I was sick all day and the dryer at the MTC left black marks all over my white shirts.

Friday was the most boring day ever. We sat in infield orientation all day. I fell asleep like five times. I also poked two holes in my fingernail. So much blood came out. I took some photos but the computers here aren't working so I don't know when you'll be able to see them.

Saturday was just Saturday. I actually started talking to my roommates ( Elder Leland and Elder Freestone) they are actually really funny. They both are very sarcastic. They can be racist at times and they aren't politically correct. It got a bit awkward at times but I came to really like them.

Sunday was horrible. I lost my voice completely. Elder Jones and I had to teach district meeting but elder jones taught the entire thing because I literally couldn't say anything. It sounded like I was going through puberty. The worst part was that it was my branch presidents last sacrament meeting in the MTC so the MTC president was presiding. Of course I got called on to give my talk. I had to whisper into the microphone. It was so bad. Everyone was giving me this pity/ discussed look on their face.

Monday was good.

Tuesday was very long. I woke up at 1:30 for my flight. We had a layover in Oregon. It was so pretty flying into Alaska. The clouds are very thick so all I could see was mountains shooting into the sky.

Wednesday. My first area is Fishhook. I got my first companion. His name is Elder Agad. He is from the Phillipeens. He's short but he's a cage fighter so that's cool. He acts like he's 12 when he's actually 21. He speaks English and tagolag on his mission. I also got my iPad. Elder Agad can't drive so I am the driver. We drive a Nissan frontier truck. I have no clue where anything is. Everyone here owns a truck. Our apartment is one of the biggest in the mission. We have our own workout room. Everyone here loves to cross country ski. They all wake up early and do the land cross country skiing. I can't believe how long the sun stays out at night. We never use the lights in our apartment even at 10:30. It's always overcast here so when the sun comes out it feels like you are getting fried. We also have to take 1000 IU vitamin D pills each day.

Thursday. We did some service for some members. We pulled weeds but we had to cover all of our body because a lot of the plants here mess you up if you just touch them. We are supposed to never touch devil clubs. We also have to limit our service to two hours a day because we do so much. All the house here are way small and made out of anything they can find. The houses in my area are either cabins or trailers. The trailers and most houses have trash all over the place. Some people make fences out of the trash. There are also a million spiders here. I've already seen five moose. They are everywhere. I'm next to this mountain called pioneer peak. I want to hike it so bad. The mountains in my area are kinda a mix between the Tetons and the Wasatch front. We have a list of people in our area. It's pretty funny because we have a do not contact list with around 15 names. Apparently if we go to these house we will for sure get a gun pulled on us. I don't want to test my luck.

Friday was good. I noticed there is this one area in our mission where these people live next to an airstrip. They all own personal planes and just park them in front of their house.

Saturday. We went tracking. A lot of people would open the door see us then immediately shut it. Nearly half the people here have private property signs and they mean it. When they have one sign they usually have four. There are a million bees here. Apparently you can't kill Ravens. Natives will shoot you if you do. All the missionaries keep telling me about the Alaskan 40. On average missionaries gain 40 pounds in Alaska. One missionary gained 100 pounds.

Sunday. The ward is really small. It's less than half the Highland ward. That surprised me. What surprised me even more was the youth speaker said this was a lot for them.

Anyways it's all good.