Alaska Week 10, Fairbanks

Dear people,

 So I'm trying this new thing that I learned where I put a bunch of
names in the send to bar thing so that everyone doesn't have to look
up my updates and stuff. I figured this would be more convenient for
people. I'll send personal emails out too, don't worry.

 This week has been pretty crazy. Crazy in a good way though. Things
are starting to really pick up, which is quite nice. We have about 6
investigators left at this point, all of which are actually
progressing, but because we have so few we have to go finding all the
time, which usually means a lot of tracting. Knocking doors can get
old, but it's good. It gives me a reason to break out the sweaters.
Also the fact that it's 30 degrees out gives me a reason to break out
the sweaters.

 Tuesday we went on exchanges. Elder Jesperson made a joke that I
would be able to talk to all the people we're never able to talk to
when he's there. And then we actually did. We set up like 6
appointments, it was pretty funny. Elder Jesperson also has pretty bad
ADD so he loves to talk, meaning that when we teach he does a lot of
the teaching because he just keeps going. It's a good thing because I
learn a lot from what he says and how he teaches, but when I went on
exchanges with Elder Kettle I had to do 75% of the teaching. I felt
like I was actually doing my job, it was nice. I also got the package
Tuesday. Please stop sending me candy. Please. 

 Wednesday we had our last meeting with Daniel, our 7th Day Adventist
friend. He tried to convert us. It didn't work. He's moving down to
Tennessee because he likes the super hardcore Southern pastors better.
So this ones up to you Grandma. We also tracted for hours because we
didn't have anyone to teach that day. We were super discouraged
because tracting can get old pretty fast. I pulled the car over on a
street and I was thinking to myself ""If we can't get anything here,
we're done. We've been tracting forever, we'll find something else to
do." So we rang the doorbell of the first house on the street. No
answer. So we knocked. The guy answered the door and said "You rang
the doorbell and we didn't answer so...... yeah go away" so we went to
the next house. Some crazy old guy. At this point Elder Jesperson says
"Man, it seemed like in Ketchikan every time we went tracting we found
a potential." So at this point we're both discouraged. We knock on the
last door of the street, they had a colorful mailbox so I had hope.
This woman answers the door. She remarked on our nice appearance, and
then talked to us for a minute. She was about to have dinner with her
family so she didn't have much time but said we could come back later.
We started walking away when she opened the door again and invited us
to come in and have dinner with her family. We had a dinner
appointment, but we went back to the Andersons the next day.

 Thursday we picked up Elder Perkins, who is serving in Barrow but had
come down to Fairbanks for zone conference on Friday. He's a real life
cowboy, it's awesome. You remember that Cliven Bundee guy? Elder
Perkins worked for the guy who took that guys cattle. He got death
threats and everything. His dream is to own rodeos. He's awesome. That
day we went back to the Andersons and talked with Maria, the woman was
at the door, and her husband Glenn "the Glenner" Anderson. They're the
coolest people. He's a radio show host, stand up comedian, actor,
they're both crazy hippies, and everyone in the family is basically a
professional skater. We had a crazy lesson with them. They're probably
going to come to church next week too. Maria was worried because she
doesn't want people to judge her husband, he's a local celebrity and
everyone here knows him, but everyone we talked to was like "Baptize
them, they're the coolest people in town."" So that's our goal. 

 Friday we had zone conference, which is basically a 7 hour meeting.
IT was really good. There's always a testimony meeting at the end,
which was really cool. Then we had dinner at Clint Summers house. That
man is a walking party. He loves to swear and rag on his psycho ex
wife, but he's one of the nicest human beings I've ever met. 

 Saturday we had the adult session of stake conference. We got Larry
and Svetlana to come, which was really good for them because it was
amazing. I think President Duval, the stake president, will be a
general authority some day. He used to have a lot of reading problems,
so he memorized like half the scriptures and his talks are always
crazy good. Sunday was more of that, but after church we had a lesson
with Lorinda, who's working through all her issues and is making
progress, she just has a hard time seeing it. We also had a lesson
with Jennifer, who volunteered to come to church with us. What's up
with all of these people wanting to come to church? Aren't they
supposed to make our lives hard?

 So yeah, everything's going good here in Alaska. If Yahoo Weather is
to be believed (which it isn't, it's the worst) It should snow
everyday next week. So that'll be fun. Stay frosty down south.

 Love,
Elder Miller