Tuesday, November 29, 2011

November 2011



Its been snowing like crazy here the past week.  We already have more than a foot now, its crazy and I am the one driving!  A family actually gave us a gingerbread house for Halloween so we have a house to eat.

Bridget is doing well, we have a lesson set up for Wednesday,  we invited her to the Elder Holland Fireside so we will ask her if she came (lots of people, we see didn't see her.)  Yeah the fireside was way awesome!  He gave a really good talk about Peter and James I think.  It was so cool, the spirit in the stake center was so strong there.

So this past week we put 2 more people on date to be baptized and and another person said they want to be baptized but he doesn't know what day he can be baptized yet!  And that guy (Blake) has a room mate and he wants to take the lessons too!  So the work is really picking up.  So news about transfers.  Elder Dellenbach and I are staying in Sand Lake and I am going to be the District Leader now.  I am excited to be a District Leader.

Elder Ashby will be leaving Wednesday morning to fly back to Salt Lake.  He is doing well though.  For Thanksgiving we are eating at a members house, the Penmens, they are an awesome family.  And for big holidays like that they have us go in to our apartments early.

I am not a Dristrict Leader any more.  Its because our dristrict was too small so they combined it with another one.   It has been snowing here a lot.  We probably have about 2 feet now.  And I have to get acostom with the idea of brushing off the car almost every morning.  Bridgets Baptism will have to be postponed because she hasn't been to church yet.



On Saturday a family from Fairbanks came down that I taught all of the new member lessons to.  The came to take out their endowments and to get sealed in the Temple!  That was my first time attending a sealing.

It was such a wonderful experience.  The spirit was so strong there and you could just feel the love there.  There are the family in the Temple picture holding the little girl.  Their name is the Cerny's.


Later that day we had a baptism for 3 People! A mother and her 2 daughters Gracy, Kelly, and Holly.  I physically baptized Holly! That was my first time actually baptising anyone.  I could feel the spirit so strongly testifying of truth.

Gracy, Kelly, and Holly


On Sunday we had a lesson with a 13 year old boy named Aaron.  He was
tracted into on a zone tract in our area.  He has a strong Christan faith.
We shared the first lesson with him and we were about to watch the
Restoration DVD with him when His mother got home along with his sister.
And they joined us for watching the movie!  Then during the movie one of
his friends came to his house and watched the movie with us!  And after we
bore our testimonies of the truth of that message.  We challenged them all
to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  They all accepted and they all
asked for a B of M.  Aaron is on a spiritual quest right now and wants
to know.  It was a small miracle because we had already given away 3 B of M
that day and I didn't think that we had 4!  I thought we had 2 in the car.
But we found 2 more luckly haha.  I am so thankful to be able to serve a
mission.

We have one more baptismal date right now of a 9 year old boy named Demarcus Olloway.  So I am having a beaver hat made for me up here so I will look a true Alaskan!  I found a lady in another ward that will make one if you provide the beaver pelt so she is now in the process of making it :)  I will send a picture when I have it.

I am staying warm enough, Anchorage isn't too cold. The work is going good.  Last week was pretty slow because of thanksgiving and all.  Gracy and her children are doing well, she is now engaged now and is hoping to be married soon.  We haven't been doing much tracking as of late.  But we are going to be finding a lot more since out teaching pool is getting smaller.  Our next Zone Conference is December 14th so we will be looking forward to that.

October 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER KVAVLE!


Kinda looks like they all have the same tie on.

I usually am at the door of the chapel greeting the members in the Sand Lake Ward in the Anchorage Stake.  The weather has really been cooling off first week in October.  There is snow on the mountains and we are getting frost almost every night now.  Our Zone Conference with Elder Walker, our last district, and Elder Dellenbach and I.

So I'm training of Elder Dellenbach is going well,  its kind of odd and I have asked other trainers about it but it doesn't feel like I do much for him.  But the other trainers say that's just how it it but you actually doing a lot for them.  We actually had just a few days that were jammed packed then others that were less busy.  I wrote Sadie a letter a couple of months ago but she hasn't respond.  We have had a few lessons this week and I just love teaching people and seeing the spirit touch them and see them want the spirit more and more in their lives.

Thank you for all of the presents that you have sent me mom!  My companions say that your awesome for paying for us to go out to dinner.  So yesterday we had a lesson with one of our investigators named Bridget, and we had the first lesson with her and at the end of it we asked her if she would like to be baptized and she said Yes!  It was a way cool lesson.  We set up a date for her to be baptized and we are shooting for the end of November like the 26th.

We just had another lesson with our investigator Bridget.  And we invited her to a missionary fireside this Saturday and Jeffrey R. Holland is coming up and will be speaking to us and our investigators!  Bridget was found through tracking a few months ago and we just started teaching her the lessons a month ago.  She is set to be baptized the 23rd of November!  Justin and Catherin, our recent converts are doing good, we have had dinner with them since we baptized them and we are trying to meet with them again so we can teach them the new member lessons.  Elder Ashby goes home November 9th.  Training is hard,  fun but hard. The first snow up here was Sunday morning!  So that was pretty cool.


So I'm not 100% sure what Elder Kvavle is eating...if this was a Birthday treat or not.  It's some kind of weird/gross looking cooked egg of some sort.





Here are a few more pictures...