Closing Delta Junction:

Transfer calls are in!

With the upcoming transfers Elder Johnson and I will both be leaving Delta Junction. Delta Junction is actually going to be closed for a little while. President Toone has told us that there simply isn’t enough missionaries in the mission at the current moment. Hopefully we get more missionaries soon. It was sad telling all the members of the close but thankfully they are all awesome and will continue to do missionary work.

With the transfer Elder Johnson will be moving to Kalifornsky Beach. I will be moving to Chugiak. I’ll be serving in the Bear Mountain Ward with Elder Barney as Zone Leader.  I am out of this world thrilled to serve with Elder Barney.  I would say we served around each other while I was in Petersburg but I was on my own island while he was in Canada. We saw each other for a couple days but never got to fully know each other. Anyways I’m super pumped to serve with him because he’s a good friend.

We’ve been busy getting the area ready to be closed. Hopefully we’ll be able to accomplish everything we need to. Tomorrow Elder Johnson and I will pack up everything and drive the six hours to anchorage. Wish us luck on the icy roads.

Have a great week.

X-Country Skis Wanted:

This past week was super fun. Elder Johnson and I have still been working hard in Delta Junction. We were able to take a day trip to Tok for a wood cutting party. Zone conference was amazing. The Zone also held a talent show.

Elder Johnson and I have been working hard this past week. We’ve been able to meet some new people and even teach a few lessons.

This week we joined the Elders Quorum early in the morning. The temperature was extremely cold as it continues to drop heading towards winter. We all drove to Tok, spent a few hours cutting wood, then delivered it to a ward member who is in vital need of wood. It's an amazing feeling helping those in need.

We had Zone Conference yesterday. We spent the first part with the usual meetings but then after lunch we had a special talent show. Each companionship preformed a talent as well as each district shared a talent and skit. It was nice to have a little change and just have fun as a Zone for a brief moment.

The snow has been coming down. We’re thinking about getting some cross country skis to travel between houses. Hopefully we get our hands on a pair.

Have a great week.

Andrew's Baptism:

What a week! I spent the first two days of the week in Salcha. Elder Johnson and I spent two days in Tok. We’ve continued helping people with wood projects. The best part of the week was seeing Andy enter the waters of baptism.

The first part of the week I was able to be on exchanges up in Salcha. The Salcha Elders also cover the Elison Air Force Base. It was really neat being able to serve there for a couple days.

After I got back from Salcha, Elder Johnson and I drove down to Tok. We were able to spend the night there. There’s an awesome family in Tok who always hosts the missionaries when they’re down there. We were finally able to contact with a referral we received a couple weeks ago. The reason why we weren’t able to contact the referral sooner is because he lived 150 miles away from us. I’m so grateful we have vehicles in nearly every area in Alaska. Missionary work would be extremely difficult if we only had bikes.

Highlight of the week was without a doubt seeing Andrew Pfeiffer baptized. It’s incredible to witness the change that takes place in investigators lives. Missionary work has been extremely difficult here in Delta Junction. It’s amazing to be able to see one person enter the waters of baptism. 

Have a great week.

Russian Tongues:

This week was full of amazing experiences. We were able to find some service opportunities for nonmembers. The family was actually Russian so only the kids spoke English. It was all good as there was 13 kids in the family. We chopped wood with them and were able to talk to them about the gospel. It was one of the best feelings as the kids asked questions about god and the church. They asked questions such as why are there so many churches today? What is the Holy Ghost? Etc. It was a testimony builder to have the true answers to the sincere questions they had.

The spooky part was once the mom saw us and recognized us as LDS missionaries she freaked out and started getting mad at the kids. I had no idea what she was saying because it was all in Russian. It was sad to see that the mom would not allow her kids to hear what we had to share about the Book of Mormon. The mom believed in speaking in tongues so when we offered the prayer she huddled around us and started whispering a bunch of jibber jabber. It truly was spooky.

We’ve been able to help a lot with service. We helped around the farms.

We also have been meeting with Andy a lot as we prepare for his baptism coming up this week. It will be exciting to see him as a new man.

Have a good week. Till next time.

Here is a cool tower at a farm we did service for. You climb the rope to get to the top

Northern Lights are Out:

Another week full of chopping wood and giving service. As everyone in Delta prepares for winter we've continued our efforts of service tracting. We've been able to help a lot of wonderful people by service. It's actually been really effective because everyone here already knows who we are.

General conference was awesome. I really enjoyed Elder Oaks talk on the family. I thought Elder Stevenson did fantastic on his talk of the solar eclipse. Elder Hallstrom did great. Elder Callister gave an outstanding talk on the Book of Mormon.

Andy has been progressing well. We've been meeting with him a lot recently as we've been teaching him all that he needs to know before baptism.

It's that time of year again. The northern lights are out and about. The past few days have been full of beautiful lights. It's been incredible as Elder Johnson and I literally do missionary work at night under the northern lights. It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen. The other day there was a bright green stream stretching across the entire sky with other small lights dancing around. It's certainly something words can't describe. Nor can a camera on an iPad capture the beauty.

 Have a great week.