Cooks Inlet YSA, Anchorage, Alaska, Week 37

  

Hello,

This week was pretty crazy. I just finished doing a sick hike. I love
hiking, so it was super funny. It's an Oregon day today, so we got
wet and it was a lot of fun. So I'm going to give you the highlight
reel because my fingers are very cold and slow right now, plus that's
all you savages care about anyways.

I love everything. Being a missionary is awesome. I have way too much
fun, and it goes by way too fast. But it really is the best. We didn't
teach many lessons this week, but we did get to do a lot of finding
and found several people for the other missionaries in our area.
However we did get to meet with Marc a couple times, which was super
fun. We are going to start a scripture study class every week because
he wants to, so we're having the other missionaries bring their investigators

too and it's super fun. We had a lesson on Wednesday
with Whittney and she called me by my first name because she had just
got done Facebook stalking me, which was pretty funny. She also
brought her friend Eric, who we taught the Restoration to, and now
he's super committed to reading the Book of Mormon. Awesome sauce.
Other than that we taught a few other lessons. I also went on exchange
with the crazy Samoan, Elder Crichton, and he tackled me while we
played rugby with the young men. Crazy times. Marc also texts us
every day saying that he is a child of God. He told us that we helped
him solve his identity crisis.

And there's the highlights. Now my fingers are a little less brittle.
I love you all! Have a great week!

John

Cook Inlet, Anchorage, Alaska, Week 36

Hola mis amigos,

Alaska is the best. This is the prettiest place in the world. It's
sunny out forever. The sun sets around 9 30 or 9 45 right now and
comes up before I get up. It rains at night then the clouds break up
in the morning and it gets up into the mid 50's. I broke put the short
sleeved shirt. Problem is, I only have one short sleeved shirt. But
because it's so nice out road construction season has started, which
is nice because the roads up here are terrible, but also annoying
because no one like road construction. But any day where you can role
the windows down and jam to classical music while on your way to a
lesson at 8 30 at night and still have the sun shining on you and not
be freezing cold is a good day. Plus, now that it's light out we can
tract at 8 30. It's the best because everyone is home.

Monday was crazy. We went and played sports at Kincaid Park again, but
this time we played soccer. I got straight tackled by a Sister
missionary. What are you supposed to do in that situation? I also got
kicked in the shin, which there's still a bruise from. But it was a
lot of fun. All the scarily competitive people went to play ultimate
Frisbee so we had a nice game of soccer where no one tried to kill
anyone. It was great. Then we all got ice cream. That's what's up.
That's also why I'm fat. But that's life.

Tuesday was fun. We had a good district meeting. Then we tracted. And
I know we did other things but I can not actually remember what we did
on Tuesday at all. Weird.

I can actually remember what we did on Wednesday. We had a lesson with
Marc in the morning. We've started doing Binle/Book of Mormon studies
with him because there's really nothing left for us to teach him. So
we're just studying and learning together which is really fun. Then I
took Elder Call to the university for the first time so we could talk
to people. And so we talked to people. When people blatantly ignore us
we say "or nah" really loud which usually gets them to laugh. Making
people laugh is the best. That way they at least feel better than they
did before. But we also did get to talk to people as they walked by so
it was fun. Sometimes I feel like Dan Jones, who was a missionary in
the 1840's, because we're doing the same thing he's doing in that
picture of him. Then we had dinner with Whittney and we all went and
partied at the addiction recovery meeting. And by party I mean
everything gets really heavy as we discuss the anguish of addiction
and how to overcome it. So not really much of a party. But still.

Thursday we taught our investigator Laura. She asked if we could have
a lesson in the park, so we went to earthquake Park to have the
lesson. Earthquake Park has its name because when that huge quake hit
in the 60's it turned the ground into this crazy mess, and so they
made a park out of it. So always asks the most random questions, but
this time we were actually able to tie it back into the Restoration,
which was nice. She's going down to Missouri this week to go to a
military ball with her boyfriend and probably get proposed too. So
that's exciting. Her boyfriend also hates Mormons. So that's less
exciting. But we'll see how it goes!

Friday I finally got to do service for a hoarder again! We were
helping this nice old lady move all her stuff from her old house to
her new, much smaller one, and she has a lot of stuff to fit in a
small house. No gun safes this time though. She gave us free year old
samoas though. We get a lot of free really gross food as missionaries.
Funny how that works. The sad part is that we eat it anyway. We're not
sad.

Saturday we did our district tract. We got Bible bashed super hard. I
hate Bible bashing, it doesn't do anyone any good. But it feels nice
to win. But not really because the Spirit's never there when there's
that much contention. Then we had district lunch and I learned a cool
magic trick. That afternoon we had another lesson with Marc. He's
doing quite swell. We were in the Church and he asked us to show him
the baptismal font. Then he asked us how many people he could invite
to his baptism. That's the best question anyone has ever asked. I love
Marc.

Sunday was really fun. The Bishop totally guilt tripped the ward
council into helping us get referrals which was awesome. Then the
meetings were really good and we had a munch and mingle afterwards
where there was homemade French toast with this super good syrup and I
ate way top much but it's okay because it was delicious. Then we had
another dinner. Then we had another lesson with Marc but our whole
district showed up and we had a crazy group study thing. Marc led the
discussion. He's like the most elect investigator I've ever seen. It's
awesome.

And that's the week. I'm long winded. But I don't care. I like telling
stories. So that's pretty much all I have for you this week. Take it
or leave it. Y'all are the best. Have some smiles this week.

Love,
John

Sister Albrecht, one of the sisters in their district, drew this.

Soccer

The Zone with President and Sister Robinson

Cooks Inlet YSA, Anchorage, Alaska, Week 35

How's it hanging?

Never start an essay with a weird open ended question like that.

Luckily this isn't an essay so I don't feel too bad. The weather has
significantly improved. The snow is gone, except in the mountains, and
it's usually in the 50's during the day. It's light outside till about
9 45 and the sun comes up at like 6 30. It's so nice. It's beautiful
up here. Alaska is paradise. At least in the late spring and summer.
We might get another snow fall before it's all said and done, but
we'll see.

Tuesday was fun. We didn't have district meeting because we had zone
meeting on Friday, so I was on exchange all day with my district
leader Elder Younger. He's awesome. We were in my area and it was
super fun. We taught several lessons and tracted and it was just a
nice refreshing day because it had been slow for a while. Exchanges
bring miracles. It's weird how it works. Then we met with Marc that
night. He's doing super well, which is nice.

Wednesday we exchanged back. Then we dug a ditch. That's right. We dug
a hole in the ground to move a puddle from one place to another. And
it was the nicest thing. It's been forever since I've been able to do
a simple service project like that and it was really nice. Service is
the nicest thing because you get to just help people. And also hit
things with an ax. But that's not the point. We did service with the
Sand Lake elders and the Jewel Lake sisters and we hammered it out in
no time. Then that night we met Marc at the addiction recovery program
meeting, which was super good, and Marc came out of it saying that he
wanted to change permanently. The lesson was on confession, so it was
pretty hard core. Luckily he didn't just confess everything to us
right there.

Thursday guess who we met with? If you guessed Marc you would be
correct. He wants to meet with us all the time. It's awesome.
Investigators like this show up once in a blue moon. I feel blessed to
be a part of this process. Then we tracted. All day. Until dinner with
Whittney which was good, as usual, because she spends way too much
money on feeding us. Sometimes I feel bad when these people who I know
are poor college students take us out to eat at nice places. But
that's how it is. She's doing good too. Everyone is doing good. It's
nice.

Friday was full of meetings. But Marc came to waffle and fun night
which was sweet. I also learned that if you hit the ball really hard
in billiards and hit something then something will probably go in
somewhere. So that's pretty much my strategy for billiards. I
understand how the angels work, I can just never hit it right. So I
make up for it by hitting it really, really hard. Sometimes it goes
off the table.

Saturday was a pretty standard Saturday. Working and teaching and all
good things. Then we had the evening session of stake conference. It
was great. Marc was there. This has been a Marc filled week. Awesome.
Then Saturday night I had the worst experience ever. Our toilet broke.
It was nasty. Like straight nasty. It took me two hours to clean. TWO
HOURS. It was so horrible. I had to scrub and rescrub and rescrub the
bathroom and it was the worst. The worst. It made me hate everyone. I
don't ever want to use that bathroom again.

Sunday was nice though. It always is. We had the normal stake
conference and it was also awesome. Then President invited us over for
lunch which was super nice. Ham and potatoes are always welcome in my
stomach. Then, because we weren't able to plan Saturday night because
our toilet exploded, we had no plans, so we tracted all day. I feel
like normal missionaries don't Tract this much. It makes me feel like
I'm doing something wrong. But then I'm like whatever and go for it
anyways. I've taught a bunch of lessons tracting this week. Now I just
hope some of them are prepared because I had to give them all away.
Woot woot. YSA life.

And that was the week. But here's the real question. Why are all my
friends getting engaged? What the heck is this? Am I really old enough
that my friends can get married? How many people's weddings am I going
to miss? Shows what friends you are. You won't even wait till I get
home. That's a joke. Get married if you want. Just save me some cake.
See what I care. Jerks. Just kidding. I still like you. Please save me
cake. Just freeze it for me. I like cake. Will there be themed
weddings?

That's about all I got in the tank. Tune in next week for more
exciting updates. Or not exciting. I don't know yet. But I love you
all. I hope you have a good week!

John

    

Cooks Inlet YSA, Anchorage, Alaska, Week 35

So you know those days where you email most people and then you're
like "I'll just send my group email later" and then you go play
kickball and handball and wreck your leg and then forget to email
because your leg is wrecked? It's one of those days. It was a good p
day though. I scored a goal so it's okay that I'll probably walk funny
for a couple days. It's nothing serious, so don't freak out (mom), I
just pulled something.

So, I don't have much time so I'll go through the highlights. Tuesday
I went on exchanges with Elder Bird our new zone leader. He's a super
good singer it's crazy. My voice is gone, so that's not fun. Wednesday
and Thursday were both crazy. Then Friday we had zone conference which
was awesome. Then we had General Conference which was awesome. Then
today was awesome. So basically, everything is awesome, but that's
life.

Alright y'all. Stay tuned for the crazy adventure I call my life.
Sorry I'm so inconsistent and terrible at this. Just know that I love
you and I'm here (2000 miles away) if you need me.

Love,
John