Week 7 in Alaska, Fairbanks

                                                     Elder Jesperson fell asleep during study time.

                                                                         16 inches of snow

I like trains

Dear family,

You know what's awesome about Alaska? Everything. From getting shot at (the gunfire wasn't really aimed at us, but there was gunfire), to getting more up close and personal with moose than I'd ever care to, and meeting a man who killed a bear with a knife. There's a super old man in our Ward who's a gunsmith, but in his younger days he would go hunting bears a lot. He got bored shooting them with guns or bows, so he decided to go spear hunting, which then became knife hunting. He killed a grizzly bear with a knife because he could. Then he ate it. That's the most hardcore thing I've ever heard of in my life. That guy, his name is Ron Arter, also almost shot a missionary for accidentally walking into his place of business at night. He's crazy. This is the best place ever

Only two missionaries live in our apartment. There's only three places in the mission where there's more than one companionship in an apartment.

Tuesday and Wednesday we got 16 inches of snow. I've never seen so much in my life. It's since warmed up and most of its melted, but it's supposed to snow again later this week. We'll see though, long term forecasts aren't normally all that reliable. We also had transfers Tuesday. I stayed because I'm being trained. I probably won't leave Fairbanks until December 15th. So I'll get to see the dark. I'm excited. Basically everyone in our zone is training right now. It's crazy. But I'm not the new kid on the block anymore, so that's nice.

Thursday was great. We picked up two really good investigators. The first one is named Eric and he's interested. We asked him if he would get baptized and he was like "If God tells me to, yes" and we were like *unexpected answer silence*. We haven't had an investigator say that in forever. So that was nice. Then we were trying this other investigator who ended up not being home, but as we walked away her neighbor came out to smoke. So we talked to her. Then she told us her life story. Her name is Lorinda. She was adopted 6 times. She's twenty, has a one year old son, and her husband died last year. And she's the best investigator we have. She was going to come to conference, but she couldn't make it. 

Conference was awesome. It was probably the best conference I've ever seen, mainly cause I didn't fall asleep at all. My favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's from Priesthood session. We talk to a lot of atheists, so his talk is very useful in teaching. Plus President Uchtdorf is my favorite. All the talks were awesome though. I called Elder Rasband. I knew he was going. I got a member of the presiding bishopric so I was close. But I'm excited for Elder Renlund. His talk last conference was one of my favorites.

So that's my week. I have gloves and a hat, I looted gloves from a departed elder. Plus I have the hat from Grandma which is really nice. I just don't wear them that much cause it's not that cold. But I did break out the snow boots one day this week.

I got my drivers license. I can now legally not know how to drive in the snow. It'll be exciting. Thanks for helping with that. Josh was very nice. And my picture doesn't make me look really high like my Oregon license does. So that's a plus. 

It's really foggy here. It's nice, it reminds me of home. Pretty soon it'll be freezing fog. I miss the ocean a lot. Fairbanks is the heart of the interior so I'm 500 miles from any coast. Anywhere else in the mission I'll be on the coast, unless it's North Anchorage. Or Wasilla. I'll get to the ocean again soon enough. 

Are you still in California? I love you guys.

Love,

Elder Miller

Mom note: I sent back a quick email and asked for clarification on the gun shots and this is the response I got:  

We were in our apartment and we could hear automatic gunfire nearby. We were totally safe don't worry, I just wanted to scare you. I'm pretty sure it was cops. Or army maybe, were near the base. There was nothing wrong. Yes there was another moose incident. They just wander around. They're dangerous though so we avoid them.  (gotta love that kid!)