Cooks Inlet YSA, Anchorage, AK, Week 33

Yo,

This has been one of the craziest and most tiring weeks of my life.
Woo hoo. But it's also been really fun. There's been a lot of real
sincere prayer this week. I'm going to fall asleep while I type this,
holy cow. I'll just get into the meat of it so I don't ramble to much
here. Also, does anyone know what Middle Tennessee is doing in the
elite eight? I'm confused.

Tuesday was my last day with Elder Santana which was sad. He was
probably my favorite companion so far. So we went hard in the paint,
just like Middle Tennessee, and we talked with a lot of people. Marc
was struggling pretty bad that day, but we were able to contact him
and help him too. So it was a good last day of the transfer.

Then Wednesday was crazy. We had to be at the stake center at 9 in the
morning to do a training with President before we picked up our
trainees. They were really good trainings, but I still have no idea
what I'm doing as a trainer. Then we all went into the big room where
the trainees were and I thought in my mind "Golly, I hope I don't get
introduced to my trainee first because I don't know what to do. Do I
hug him or what?" Then President is all like " Elder Call! Where do
you think you're going?" And so Elder Call points somewhere on the map
of Alaska and then President says "Elder Miller! Why don't you show
him where he's really going!" And I was like "Golly" but what came out
of my mouth is "That's what's up brother!" And I hugged him super hard
on accident. And then I forgot to tell him which ward we were serving
in. But President corrected that mistake. So if you haven't picked up
on it yet, my new companion is Elder Call from Spanish Fork, Utah.
He's a pretty quiet guy, but he's got a strong testimony. He's pretty
funny too, and when we get in awkward situations he makes
situationally inappropriate jokes and I laugh way too hard. This
should be a fun two transfers, if I don't die of stress before we get
to the end.

Thursday we went tracting for the first time. As I expected I did most
of the talking, but we found this woman named Julie who was actually
super interested and we taught her a lesson. It was awesome. I can
count the number of real lessons I've had tracting on one hand with
two fingers cut off. Greenie power right there. We also had our first
lesson together at our dinner appointment. We were teaching Laura, who
is super funny because she does a lot of research on the Church on the
Internet, but she doesn't go to church sponsored websites or anti
Mormon websites, she goes to random, positive, third party websites.
So she comes at us with a bunch of questions that are super deep. And
so we answer them and she understands. But we haven't even really
taught her the basics yet. But she's super interested and loves
learning. So I won't complain. Then I got my haircut at another
lesson. Missionary perks.

Friday was rough. I started getting really sick. I have a horrible
cough and stuff. It's unpleasant. But we persevered because that is
what we do and we went out and got to work. We did more tracting and
finding and we tried to teach a few investigators and less actives but
everyone canceled or wasn't home. So that was hard. It's funny how I
used to think it was weird how trainers were called dad's, but now I
have this weird paternal need to protect Elder Call from the suckiness
of the world. I want him to have the best mission ever. I don't want
there to be hard days for him. This is super weird.

Saturday I got quarantined to the apartment except for set lessons
because I'm sick. It honestly is terrible to not be able to do
anything. Luckily that day we had a lesson with Marc and with Linda
who are both doing really well. All our investigators are doing good
right now, so that's a real blessing. But then we had to stay inside
and play checkers. Elder Call is really good at checkers. Like, scary
good. The good news is that I'm probably losing a little bit of the
freaking 20 pounds I've gained out here cause I'm not eating a whole
lot. Always look on the bright side. Being sick is great.

Sunday was awesome. Because of general conference today was testimony
meeting which was super good. Bishop looked at Elder Call in ward
council and asked him to bear his testimony in Sacrament meeting. Then
we had a super good Sacrament meeting. When I bore my testimony I said
talofa (which is hello in Samoan) and they actually said it back! It
was awesome. That's what's up. Everyone just bore super powerful
testimonies and by the end everyone was crying for the most part.
Funny how that works. After church we had an awesome Easter dinner. We
had ham, and rolls, and scalloped potatoes and it was just like being
home. It made my Easter. Our last appointment for the night was with
Marc and we had a really great heart to heart with him. We gave him a
date for baptism in June. I'm hoping that he can get baptized before I
leave this ward. That would make my mission.

And that's the week. Happy Easter everybody! During the Easter season
(and hopefully always) remember the greatest words perhaps ever spoken
by an angel "Why seek ye the living amongst the dead? He is not here,
for He is risen." Now go eat some leftover ham or something.

John