Week 6 in Alaska, Fairbanks

Dear family,

We got five inches of snow in one day. It was crazy. They say winter is coming up here more than they do in Game of Thrones. Not that I've ever watched that terrible, heathen show. We got stuck in the snow three times and slid a lot. Elder Jesperson is from Vegas, so he's really not too used to driving in wet snow. But once it gets cold enough the snow is too cold to be wet. Then the freezing rain comes and messes everything up.

So nothing really happened Monday through Friday of this week. The most exciting thing was our meeting with a 7th day Adventist. He's on the prospective elders list, but his conversion story is so sketchy. He had just gotten dumped by his girlfriend, had no job, and then two sister missionaries knocked on his door so he took the lessons. That's not a recipe for lasting conversion. Needless to say, he immediately went less active and then eventually joined a different church. He was totally crazy though. So many people had told him so many lies and falsehoods about LDS doctrine that even when we showed him and told him things he didn't believe us. So there's really no prospect there. Plus he's moving to Tennessee soon to join one of those hardcore Southern churches. It's sad really.

Oh! We also met this guy named Clint Summers who's a member in our ward. He reminds me a lot of grandpa. He has a 9 year old son even though he's like 65, he's a veteran, he's had both knees replaced, and he swears a lot. He's really funny. we had dinner with him, which was good. He's technically less active, but he's not really, seeing as how he's about to go to the temple for his endowments. 

We had the best lesson we've taught so far on Saturday. A woman named Charity, who's been less active for 40 years, lives in our ward. So we went over to teach her. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She was crying, we were getting close to crying, the fish in the fish bowl were probably crying, it was sweet.

Dinner with the Valentines was great. We had tacos. Best tacos I've had so far. I wanted like six more, but I restrained myself. They're awesome. Gordon never told me he had cool cousins.

Three new apostles in one general conference. I have money down that Bishop Gerald Causse is gonna be an apostle. I'm calling it.

Did you know they cut my favorite scripture mastery? The one in Daniel about the stone being cut from the mountain without hands. What the heck is this.

So our zone leaders are the coolest guys. Elder Wharten is 26 and he actually just got transferred to be an AP. Elder Pulou is literally a Samoan version of Brother Masse. IT's crazy how similar they are.

We met a guru. We got stuck in a whole near this guys house, and he kindly helped us get out. We were talking to him afterwards, and this guy had been in the air force for 4 years, he still has his pilots license, then he became a geo-physicist, worked for NASA, did studies at the North Pole, studied astrophysics in Hawaii, studied particle physics in Geneva, and met Peter HIggs. He's the coolest person I've ever met. His dad was actually a convert to the church as well, but sadly he wasn't really interested right now. He believes n God though, he talked about a creator. His dad passed away last week, so that could be an opening, but he doesn't live in our area.

Things are going good up here. The darkness is real. It's crazy. But it's also awesome. have fun in California. And at Sea World. Jerks.

love,

Elder Miller

                                                 That's the first time we got stuck. We parked in a ditch.