Week 42, Anchorage, Alaska Mission

Hombres,

So the big news this week is that I'm getting transferred! After
spending 26 weeks here in Cook Inlet I'm heading off to Homer! That's
on the southern tip of the Kenai peninsula. That's deep bush right
there. It's also a tourist town, which is going to be pretty fun. I
can get everyone Salty Dog hoodies if they send me money, just saying.
My new companion is going to be Elder Contreras. I'm super excited,
this is so cool. I'm also going to be the district leader, which is
less exciting, but it will be fun. My district is all over 150 miles
from me. So that will be nuts. District meeting will be over PVC,
which is going to be weird.

So let me tell you about Eve. She's the best. She read the entire Book
of Mormon. In a week. That's crazy. We've taught her a few lessons and
she's on date for baptism. That's awesome! But now I won't be here for
it which is really sad. Dang it life.

Now I must go, but have a great week everybody! I love you all. See
you next week! Well, not really, but you get me.

Love,
Elder Miller

Eating Pie with President Robinson 

Elder Call, Elder Miller, and a senior couple 

Getting nose hairs waxed 

Eating pie with President Robinson

Week 26 in Anchorage/ Cook Inlet YSA

I've spent 26 weeks so far in this area. Transfer calls are this
Friday so I'll let you know next week what's going on. I don't know
what I want to happen at this point. I love this ward and the people
here and the work is going really well, so that probably means I'm due
to leave. That's okay though! Life is exciting as a missionary no
matter where you are. But if I don't stay, I hope I go somewhere
crazy. But we'll see what happens.

I would love to send you pictures of the baptism this week, but I
can't. Mainly because there was no baptism. We rescheduled Marc's
baptism for the 25th of June, so if I get transferred out to somewhere
not in Anchorage I won't get to be there. Jackson's is on the 2nd of
July now, so I won't get to see that one either. Dang it. These people
have come so far and I absolutely love them, I wish I could see them
take that step in following the Savior. But the important thing is
that they're doing it. I don't need to be here for that.

Jackson is the best investigator ever. This week he started sharing
the Gospel with his family and friends, and recently gave us two
referrals. That's awesome. He's also the funniest person ever. He
challenged me last week to a fancy-suit-off last week, so I destroyed
him. It was awesome. He's told us that after he's baptized his goal is
to find a Mormon wife, move to Utah, and have 82 kids. He already
knows the drill.

Other weekly highlights include: We had a sweet temple trip, Elder
Call and I had our last trainer-trainee meeting, I ate way too many
bowls of crunch berries (the cereal), all the departing missionaries
are getting really trunky, and we had a lot of scary times with bees.

Despite all the craziness this week turned out pretty awesome.
Hopefully yours did too. And hopefully this one does too.

Cook Inlet YSA, Alaska Anchorage Mission, Week 41

Howdy again,

This week has been pretty much awesome. I got a light sunburn because
we've been outside so much and it's so nice out. Looks like it's going
to be cloudy for the next little while, but it was worth it. Rocking
the short sleeved shirt is always nice. Gotta love it.

So some awesome things happened this week, first and foremost being
that Marc passed his baptismal interview and will be being baptized
next Saturday! That's what's up! He's the best and I am so excited for
him. I love it so much.

Jackson, who is also on date, is also a boss. He asked us for a
blessing and he is super committed! It's the best! I love being a
missionary it's the best life.

Also, we got robbed! How cool is that? We went out to the car one
morning and it had been broken into! They stole our jackets, which is
super annoying because that was a really nice jacket, but it's cool!
Now I can say I've been robbed. It's exciting.

So this week was really good. I am going to do condensed highlights
because I don't have that much time, but know that I love y'all, and
you're the best. Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Miller

Cook Inlet YSA, Anchorage Alaska, Week 40

Howdy,

So clearly last week I failed at sending out the group email, but all
you need to know about that week is that it was great. Life is
awesome. For real. The sun is out till 11. I wake up to the sunrise at
4 30. Then go back to sleep. Everything is lush and green. The snow is
all gone, it's in the 60's and 70's all the time and life is
beautiful. People talk to us outside, we teach a lot, and I'm a happy
man. It's great. Hopefully life is going great for you as well.

Let me tell you about Jackson. So Jackson Jonas was craving Wendy's
two Thursdays or so ago, so he went to Wendy's. The drive through line
was super long, so he decided to go inside. Unbeknownst to him, a
temple trip had just gotten out, so there were about 30 Mormons inside
that Wendy's. He figured he would talk to them first because he knew
eventually they would talk to him. So he asked them some questions and
referred him to the other missionaries who referred him to us. We met
him for the first time last Tuesday. He's now on date for baptism on
June 18th. He already told us the church is true, he reads the Book of
Mormon, and he came to church. I've never met anybody like this, it's
nuts. It's like the most exciting thing ever. Being a missionary is
the best. You should try it some time.

Marc is also doing really good. His phone shut down because he's
broke, so we can barely communicate with him, which is less than
desirable, but we make do. He's still on track to be baptized on the
4th of June so that's also super exciting. I love it. Like so much.
You don't even know. It's for real.

Another high light of this week is that we had 4 member present
lessons and the ward is getting super excited about doing missionary
work. It's going well. I'm really sad that there's a high percent
chance I'm leaving this transfer. I learned so much from this ward and
from these people I will definitely miss it. But that's okay because I
still have 3 and a half ish weeks to slay it here.

That's some of the highlights of this week. Oh, we also met this super
cool lady named Neesha who took a Book of Mormon and set up a return
appointment with us and it was cool because that never happens. Good
times.

Alright, this week was pretty awesome. Next week will be too.
Hopefully yours is as well. Love y'all.

Elder Miller

Cook Inlet YSA, Anchorage, Alaska, Week 38

Howdy,

Clearly I'm getting steadily worse at emailing home. But that's okay.
It's been a long day.

It's beautiful out here! Everything is green, the trees and flowers
are blooming, the sun is shining, it's awesome. Alaska is the most
beautiful place on earth. For real. It's light out all the time, I
don't even need to turn on the headlights in the car. This is the best
place on earth. There is no where I would rather be than here serving
the Lord. I'm going to miss it so bad when I have to leave. Luckily
that's not for a long time. Being a missionary is the best.

Tuesday was a super long day. It was the last day of the transfer, so
everyone was partying and it was super hard to work. We were not
partying. We were trying to find things to do. But when there's no
district meeting and nobody wants to go tracting with you it puts you
in a rough spot. So that was fun. We said goodbye to the district and
it was sad. Good times.

Wednesday was pretty much the same. Except it was the first day of the
transfer and it was also rough. But that's okay! Because you have to
persevere through the rough days to really appreciate the good days.
And there's definitely more good days than bad. Which is really nice.
You just have to stay focused, work hard,and be diligent and it is
always good.

Thursday was the bomb. We taught lessons all day long. It was sweet.
We've been trying to work with members more, because that's like the
only way to get anything done here. So we set up a bunch of lessons
with members and we got to teach all day. I was so happy. We also
taught some less actives we don't normally get to, which was also
cool. Then we had a lesson with our new investigator Danny, who's a
boss, and we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he thought it was
awesome, and then we invited him to be baptized, and he totally said
yes. So that's awesome. We're getting things done. It only took me 5
months here to figure it out. That's what's up.

Friday was a wonky day. We taught Marc and had a good day, but it was
like super disjointed. Then at the end of the day Elder Call and I had
the most awesome companionship inventory I've ever had. It was sweet.
Good things happen on wonky days.

Saturday our schedule got all sorts of messed up. Our investigator
Laura who is moving to Wisconsin soon wanted to meet at 9 in the
morning during studies. And we did and it was an awesome lesson, she's
totally gonna get baptized done the road. But then we had to study
after, which was weird. Then we met with Marc again, had a really good
discussion, had another lesson, then went to dinner and got like 4
referrals. That's what's up. This weak has been crazy. That's what
happens week one of the transfer.

Sunday was great as well. We had no ward council because of mother's
day, so we met with our new ward mission leader and then had a lesson
with a less active who came to church. Then after church I ate way to
many chicken nuggets. It was brutal. Then after that we Skyped home,
which was weird and good. Home is weird. Then we had a sweet lesson
with Marc and a bunch of members. But sadly we're going to have to
move Marc's baptism date back. Today he messed up, which is okay, it's
all a part of the process, but now he's going to have to wait a little
bit. It's sad,but it's good for him. We want him to be good and ready
for this. It's all in the timing.

Alright you have a great week. Remember that you're awesome. Peace.

Elder Miller

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