Drive to Valdez:

Super solid week in Palmer. Elder Laursen and I have been putting in a lot of hard work. We were able to find two new investigators through tracting.

We got to drive the five hours to Valdez. Valdez is a super cool small community in Alaska. It's very similar to Petersburg. There are no missionaries there anymore due to there being so few people to teach. We drove down on Wednesday then drove back on Thursday. We didn't have enough time to take some good pics so I highly recommend hopping on Google to look up some sick pics of Valdez.

Valdez is absolutely gorgeous. It's pretty much a small fishing/oil/ ski community surrounded in a bowl of huge mountains. A long time ago a farm let bunnies out of their land. So now there's just a bunch of bunnies all over Valdez. It's super cool. Driving in to Valdez was super beautiful but also super sketch. There were 80 mph winds blowing against us as we passed through Thompson Pass.

Anyways sorry for the short email. But the mission has been great. I'm just working hard. Giving my all these last few months. 

Elder Ogden

P-Day Hike:

Super solid week out here in Palmer. I'm gonna have to make this email super short but just to give you an update. We put one of our investigators on date. We were super thrilled about her accepting to be baptized especially since it was the first lesson we had with her. The sad part is that her family is super Catholic. They heard about her decision and made her choose between the family and the Church. It's a big bummer because she believes 100% in the Book of Mormon. We're going to continue to work with her. Hopefully we can overcome the family issues.

We received word last night that one of our potential investigators wants to get baptized. She hasn't been able to take the lessons due to her being a foster child. Thankfully she talked to her legal guardian and received permission. We will start teaching her and plan the baptism asap.

The work is going great here. I'm loving my time in Palmer.

Here's some pics from a hike we climbed last pday:

The Law of the Harvest

Great week out here in Palmer. It's been a bit trippy being back in the same zone where I started my mission. I've been able to bump into a few ward members from my first area. I also got to see the Millers. They are converts from my first area. It was the best feeling in the world seeing them still active in the Church and serving in callings. I forgot to take a picture but I'll make sure to do so next time I see them.

We had zone conference and stake conference all in the same weekend. It was actually pretty chaotic having both the day after I got to the area but I'm super happy we had them early. The mission President has recently been emphasizing the Law of the Harvest. The Law of the Harvest is pretty much comparing the work a farmer puts into raising a full field of corn to missionary work. When harvest season comes around the farmer can expect a full field of corn. It's similar to missionary work, in the aspect of putting in all the things necessary to help investigators progress in the Gospel. Just as a farmer must fertilize, plow, plant seeds, provide water, etc. As missionaries we must tract, read the Book of Mormon with investigators, have daily contact, and so forth. All these things lead towards baptisms.

The work is awesome here in Palmer. I'm excited to be serving here. The ward members are super cool.

Have a great week.

Elder Ogden