"Findiarod"

Here's an update from the past couple of weeks. President Kearon from the Presidency of the Seventy visited the mission. It was really cool hearing from a General Authority. We met with him pretty much all day. Most of the missionaries were able to drive into Anchorage. Some missionaries video called in. It was a great time to have him visit. The mission is on an upward swing at the moment.

All the missionaries in the mission participated in an all day tract. We called it the "Finditarod." It was a huge day of finding. All the missionaries tracted from 9:30am to 9:30pm. We only took a 30 mins breaks for lunch and dinner. Elder Larsen and I saw a bunch of neat little miracles. We happened to tract on a street where three Pastors live. That was fun. It actually was really cool though.  We found a lot of people we hope to start teaching. As a mission we handed out 436 copies of the Book of Mormon. We set up 374 return appointments. We had 97 lessons on the spot. Super awesome!

MLC was super sick. I'll have a photo at the bottom.

Here's the big news. We had a baptism!!! Vivian was baptised on Saturday. This was a huge miracle. We had no idea how we were going to get a baptism this month. At the last moment, Vivian committed to being baptized this month. It was hectic getting everything ready but it was amazing. I'm so excited to continue helping her progress more and more in the gospel.

Transfer calls are in. I will be spending the rest of my mission in Palmer. I'm really excited. My new companion will be Elder Jarvis. I'm super stoked. He's an awesome missionary. I've been able to serve around him a little bit. We'll be in a companionship for four weeks then he will trio with other missionaries when I fly home.

 Have a great memorial day.

 Elder Ogden

 Pics at Vivian's baptism

MLC

Pictures say it All:

Bennett was too busy this week to write a letter!  He sent pictures of his busy week:

Missionaries drinking Smoothies:

Hey everyone. This past week was awesome! The highlight was calling home to the family. I'm bummed it's the last call home but excited to see them in a bit.

Our investigator Vivian is doing super well. It's always uplifting to teach her. She's progressing like non other. She started reading the Book of Mormon just a couple weeks ago. She's already read 80 pgs! We've been able to see a lot of mini miracles throughout the week. Here's just one: Elder Ryan and I were on exchanges and we went to contact this part member family and as we were knocking on the door, a truck pulled into the driveway and a lady got out we started talking to her. Turns out she is like a sister of one of the family members we were trying to contact and she's not a member. We asked if she had any religious beliefs and all that good stuff. She told us she believed in God but doesn't belong to a specific church. We shared a verse with her out of the BOM. ALMA 30:44 "...all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." We then gave her a BOM and invited her to read it and pray about it and then got her Facebook and number. She said we could come back! We're gonna follow up this week.

 Have a great week.

 Elder Ogden

 Here's a photo of some smoothies:

Fortune Cookies hold the Truth:

Wha's up!

This week went by super fast out here. As we move into spring the weather has been awesome. I'm loving how much daylight we receive each day. I'm super stoked for summer with its midnight sun.

We've been seeing a bunch of miracles in Palmer. Just the other day we had a lesson with one of our investigators. In the lesson we asked if she prayed and asked God if the Book of Mormon is true. She did ask, and she got an answer! Super cool story. She didn't grow up religious at all so her knowledge about religion and the gospel is extremely limited. She told us she belived the Book of Mormon to be good and liked it. She just wasn't sure if it was absolutely true. She informed us that she asked God but wasn't sure how she was going to receive an answer. She was looking for any sign God would give her still not knowing what to expect. Her answer finally came through a fortune cookie. How cool is that! Apparently the fortune cookie said "you know what you believe, so believe in it with your all." She told us she undoubtedly took it as an answer.

Every Saturday the zone gets together and we tract in an area for the morning. A companionship tracted into a lady who's been feeling impressed to go to a church and start living the gospel. She immediately recognized the missionaries as an answer to her prayers. She even began to cry at the door step as the sisters shared a message about hope in Christ. We're excited to follow up with her and the other people found through tracting.

The work is amazing right now! It's not easy but it's the most rewarding thing ever. 

Elder Ogden

Here's some cool pics from a hike we did on Monday: