April 2012

New Address for Elder Kvavle:

Elder Scott Kvavle
Alaska Anchorage Mission 3250 Strawberry Road
Anchorage, Alaska 99502


Conference was awesome this weekend!  As a missionary it is better then holidays!  I loved the in conference when they said that you can be active in the church and less active in the gospel, I think that is how many people can tell themselves that they don't need to go to Church.  But they need the gospel. Almost all of those talks were directed toward the investigator that we had watching.  His name is mike and he wants to be baptized he is just sorting through some stuff right now.  Uncle Dave will be ready to come eventually.  I see it so much out here where people get offended and use that as a reason to stop coming,  its so sad.

It is light here now till about 9:15pm now and we are gaining a little over 5 min of light a day now so we are excited :)   I go on exchanges with the district leaders in the zone, and there are 3 districts.  We also go on exchanges with trainers and trainees.  Being a zone leader eats up a lot of time out of our day but we still are running to appointments all day with one of our awesome members.

I had a good Easter weekend.  It was very spiritual and I am very grateful for everything the Savior has done for me.   I have noticed that wisdom comes with a combination of time and diligent study of the gospel.

I got one of the Tongan books today!  Thank you so much for it!  I was fasting yesterday for the gift of tongs and for opportunities to be able to speak the language and for materials to come into my possession.  Prayer answered, and Elder Boyer (my companion) was praying for that as well.  

The investigators that we are working with mainly 3 of them, are progressing.  One is on parole for like 2 years and normally you cant be baptized till you are off parole but there are sometimes cases where they can be baptized, but the First Presidency has to OK it.  So we will see what happens.  We have zone conference once every 3 months.  We have district meeting every week that we attend.

So this pas week has been an interesting one, Elder Boyer and I had to deal with a lot of problems in the Zone.  So last Tuesday a companionship had to be emergency transferred.  So I went with one of the missionaries and Elder Boyer went with the other one.  We were just going to stay that way till transfers which is tomorrow but we got our transfer calls and Elder Boyer is going to Delta Junction to train a new missionary and speak Russian.

I am staying with the missionary who is having some trouble which is in the Tongan ward.  So I guess the Spirit new that I was going to serve in the Tongan ward so that's why I got the impression to start learning Tongan.  So I am not a Zone Leader any more.  I am a District leader Elder MacPherson from Utah.  He has been out only a month longer than me.  So I go where I am needed.  I did not see any of this coming.  But I will go and do....  I know the lord has need of me here and I know that I can help the people here and my companion as well.  Because the Lord knows his people and He knows how to succor them.  And yes I was only in the Campbell Park ward for only 5 weeks!  It didn't feel long enough, and it is getting white washed again, which is always hard on the investigators, especially since it was just white washed last transfer.  So the Tongan ward is interesting, WE EAT SO MUCH!  We get fed like 2 or 3 dinners a night!  But the Tongan people are very nice. The Tongan culture is different than ours.  They will do anything for missionaries.

March 2012

We moved to our new place on Saturday.  And we did got our transfer calls.  Elder Kafoa is staying and I am going to North Anchorage to be a Zone Leader with E. Boyer.  I have served around him and I like him a lot.  So it will be a lot of fun.  I wanted to stay longer but the Lord needs me to go to anchorage.  And yes there are missionaries in the Yukon.  They are in Whitehorse.

My investigators are doing well, and elder kafoa is ok with the transfer.  We had a really powerful lesson with Jimmy.  We commited him to come to general conference and read out of the book of mormon which was huge! for him.  I am glad that he is making progress.

My companion is Elder Boyer from Las Vegas.  He has been out for 16 months.  We are in the Campbell park ward which was the Assistants are so they kept it going really well.  We have a really nice place to live in.  Probably one of the nicest in the mission.  Being a zone leader is stressful sometimes.  We are planning for zone conference, which we have a lot to plan for and its on Wednesday and since Elder Boyer and I are both new to the area we had no clue what the previous planning meeting consisted of.  But we got everything ironed out last night in a planning meeting with president and the AP's even though we were planning till 11pm.  But it is a lot of fun being a Zone Leader.

So when Elder Boyer and I got into the area we both felt a strong impression to learn a new language.  And Elder Boyer feels like he needs to learn Russian and I felt like needed to learn Tongan.  So that's what we are both poring all of our spare time in now.  President Beesly speaks some Russian so he gave some material and CD's to him and I have a little book that helps me learn the lessons.  So we are going today to a book store to find me a Tongan English dictionary.

Last time I was in Anchorage I was in a different zone so this is new for me, I haven't seen anyone from my last ward up here but I will keep a look out.  The work in this ward is really hopping so we are excited to be able to help the ward.  The ward mission leader is so awesome he has lots of plans to help us out.  I love the gospel, something Elder Boyer and I are doing is praying every hour and we pray for the gift of tongs and interpretation of tongs in every prayer.  We have come a long way in just a week.  Reading the scriptures in Tongan helps me get the feel of the language much faster than if you read anything else, that is a huge blessing!

Zone conference was awesome.  We learned a lot of cool things.Here in Alaska we have a pair of missionaries in each ward.  So many companionship's make up a district.  So many districts make up a zone.  So our zone encompasses a whole stake.  And there only 7 stakes in Alaska.

Elder Boyer and I get along great.  He is a great missionary and a great person.  We have wanted to serve together for our whole missions.  As a zone leader we don't have a lot of free time and what little free time we do have we are studying our new languages.  But just a few days ago I said my first prayer all in Tongan!  But as a zone leader now we get a lot more time around President Beesley which is great because he is a spiritual giant.