Rain, Rain, Go Away!
Hello!
This week has been such a quality week! I seriously love the mission more and
more each day!
A few things about Wasilla and Alaska in general:
1. There are
roads that are for cars, and then on the side of the road there are separate
dirt roads for 4-wheelers and dirt bikes because nobody really drives cars
here. They get around on dirt
bikes and 4-wheelers, which is actually pretty cool.
2. You
literally cannot find anyone in Alaska—they hide their house numbers! No joke!! Some of them even add extra numbers just so that people
can’t find them.
3. We pretty
much go off-roading every day. My
dream of having a Jeep and going off-roading everyday has been fulfilled on my
mission. Our car is just covered
in mud when we return home.
4. I see moose
so often now that it is not even exciting any more. It’s just a normal thing.
5. If it is the
beginning or the ending of hunting season, no one is home. Literally all of the houses are empty.
6. It has
rained every single day since I have been here—literally!
7. The
mountains are all covered in snow, so everyone says it should start snowing
this week.
So, as you can tell—Alaska is pretty awesome, except for the
rain and snow. Haha, but honestly
I love it!
P-Day Hike (next four pictures)
This week has been so awesome! I have grown to love my ward. The people truly are some of the most amazing and genuine
people ever. They are so good to
us, and I am so thankful for that.
We are working with some of the coolest people ever. One of the guys we’re working with is
Bobby Smith. He is less-active and
is struggling with obeying the Word of Wisdom right now, but is one of the
coolest guys and has such a cool life story. He is a seven-time World Champion bull rider, but is now deaf
and blind but one of the hardest workers I know. When we teach him, we literally have to yell as loud as we
can for him to hear us, but our lessons with him are so amazing, and he truly
has such a strong testimony.
Another guy we’re working with is named Bro. Stoelberg. He is from New York, so we totally
bonded over that. Anyway, he is so
cool and has such a crazy life story.
He was in 9/11 and survived it.
He was also on that plane that landed in the Hudson River [The new movie
that just came out in the movie theaters, Sully,
is about this incident,], and has been in prison a ton. He has just had a crazy life and
hasn’t been active in over 20 years.
He hasn’t even stepped a foot in a church building for that long. We met him my very first day in
Wasilla, and that following Sunday he came to church. Just yesterday, he received a calling, and it was the
coolest experience. For the last
few weeks he has been totally active and just excited about getting
involved. He has so much faith
it’s crazy! He is working on going
through the temple, which just makes me so happy!
Our newest investigator is a guy named Samuel Bird. He lives in a bus—it’s pretty
cool. We have our first official
lesson with him this week, and I have so much faith in him.
We also started teaching these two teenage girls whose
mother was recently baptized six months ago. We taught our first lesson to them on Friday, and they have
such strong desires to really know if this church is true. I am so excited for the chance to teach
them because, as I watched their mom while we taught them, she was just so
happy watching her girls take the step starting on their own journeys. She wants nothing more than for her
family to live together for eternity, and I know as we were sitting there with
them she could see for the first time that this is a possibility for her. I am so excited to continue teaching
them!
We have a baptism this Tuesday for our investigator, Gracie,
and I am so excited for her! She
is just the sweetest girl and is so excited to take this step. She asked me to speak at her baptism,
which made me so happy.
I love this place!
I love the people! I love
this Gospel and the message we get to share each day! I love the Book of Mormon, and I know that it is the true
word of God! I know that whatever
guidance we need we can receive it if we sincerely ask our Heavenly Father and
then daily, gently, search the scriptures. The Book of Mormon is so true. I don’t understand how people who really read it don’t
believe it! It truly is one of the
most amazing books! I feel so
blessed to be given the opportunity to carry it everywhere I go and testify of
it to everyone I see.
Love you all so much!
Thanks for all that you do.
Hope you all have a great week!
Love, Sister Lake
P.S. Little MTC reunion this week...got to see my MTC homies. So much fun.
P.S.S. Funny story for the week—The elders keep complaining
about how they have no food, and so we told them we would bring them some. They got super excited, and when we
showed up with some roosters, they weren’t too happy.
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