We got to talk to Caitie for about an hour on Christmas Day! It was SO good to hear and see her.
She is very happy and loves Alaska💕

Short and Sweet

This is going to be short and sweet #sorry but I gave my fambam the Alaskan lowdown yesterday, so if you want to know more stuff…ask them☺️

This week was good. All our peeps (Micah, Christian, Ray, Darryl, etc.) are good. The sun stays up for a little longer now, so that’s good. Christmas as a missionary is freaking dope. For our Secret Santa gift exchange in our district, I got a mini drone so that rocks my socks. I saw two moose this week. Someone had a seizure during our dinner appointment on Christmas Eve, but it's Gucci, they're ok. I didn't trip down any more stairs. I tried to make a snow angel in the snow but forgot it was freezing outside so it was just icy. It was Christmas. I see bald eagles everyday #america. I think that's it.

I love y'all! Chat with ya next year (haha I'm funny)!

Love, love, love, love,

Sista Dunlop💕

Mountains, Stairs, Zone Conference, and Pizza

Hi. First of all, the hike we went on last week was AMAZING! It was -11 when we left the parking lot and our hair turned white with frost on the way up, but it was SO worth it. From the top, you could see the entire Palmer valley, Pioneer Peak, Matanuska, Lazy Mountain, and out to the Knik glaciers. Alaska is so dope. Also, it warmed up enough to snow this week so that rocked. It made it look more like Christmas (but yesterday all the wind blew the snow from away from Palmer over to Wasilla so that was a little sad #prayforsnow) up here. Yayayayay! Tender mercy of the week: AK mountains are pretty and all, but they're not the same as WY mountains so during studies this week, I found a talk about the TETONS that's super duper awesome so here ya go, read away people: Spiritual Mountaintops

Casualty of the week: I fell down the stairs in our apartment. Not just some of the stairs, like all of them. It was a full on wipeout. Some of the stair ledges have broken off and so now there's exposed nail heads sticking up and our socks always get caught on them when we go up and down the stairs. It's deadly. We asked Bishop Beames if we could borrow some wood glue or something to fix it but his wife had a baby this week and he never got around to it. Awk. So anyways, I was going downstairs to put my shoes on and my sock snagged on the top stair nail and then I died. Then we spent the next ten minutes laughing/crying about the whole thing before calling the Mayhue's (the AAM housing coordinators) and asking them to mail us some wood glue. 

We had the Palmer Zone Conference on Thursday and spent all day inspiring the heck out of each other. I freaking ADORE missionary trainings and meetings. They're so long but whatever, they're worth it. President Robinson talked about being a light to the world and being an instrument of the Spirit how we (as missionaries) are here to power people's lives with the gospel. It was super cool. Then the APs did a training about the importance of companions and did a "newly-wed questionnaire" game show kind of thing that Elder Bird and Elder Jensen and I had joked doing about last transfer haha #awkward. But it was awesome. 

Sad story: Nick dropped us this week. He had been sick for a little while and so we haven't been able to see him but when we dropped by this week, he told us that he didn't want to keep progressing in the gospel and that he felt he was in a place to put his testimony on hold for a little while. It was way sad but I know he'll come back soon. He told us that he would keep praying, reading the Book of Mormon, and coming to church though so that's awesome!

It was an awesome week for Micah! We took him on a tour of the chapel, which is a new thing the church missionary headquarters are pushing for missionaries to do and some really cool miracles and experience have come from it, and he really liked it. When we showed him where the baptismal font is (the one here in the Palmer chapel is bright blue haha #ghettobutawesome), we invited him to commit to baptism and he was so excited so now MICAH IS ONE DATE TO BE BAPTIZED JANUARY 1 2017 #newyearnewMicah!! I'm so excited. We also had a cool miracle this week with him where we were at his motel room (so many people live in motel rooms in AK...wut) and as we were finishing up to go to our next appointment, there was a knock on the door. Micah answered it and it the less active member that we were supposed to go and meet with next! It turns out that he is next door neighbors with Micah and had seen us knock on Micah's door! He invited all of us to go out to pizza with him (praise Alaskan pizza, it's so good but I don't know why) across the street and the whole dinner he was talking to Micah and cheering him on and was so excited that Micah was getting baptized and shared his testimony of the gospel with him and all this cool stuff while Sister Christian, Sister Mataele, and I just sat back and ate pizza and watched. Blessings. Heavenly Father works in amazing ways! Then we shared the #LightTheWorld initiative with the pizza restaurant's manager and he loved it! Miracles everywhere!

On Saturday, we celebrated my four month click day by going to Taco Bell. I've never eaten so much Taco Bell in my life until I became companions with Sister Christian haha she loves it. Every Saturday night in December, our district has gone caroling in the snowy cold and this week a bunch of random people let us come IN their houses to carol (usually we all just cram on their doorstep, sing, give them a pass along card and talk about the #LightTheWorld initiative, and peace out) and had us taste test a bunch of sketchy Christmas cookies, pretzels, and chocolate somethings. Sometimes I feel like people think missionaries' bodies are just garbage disposals haha. 

So that's about it this week.

Here's a TON of photos.

Merry Christmas!

Go forth and be awesome. 

Love, Sister Dunlop💕

This mountain is called "Three Sisters"

Palmer Zone Conference: Lazy Mountain, Colony, Matanuska, Valdez, Fishhook, Palmer, Cottonwood, Pioneer Peak, President & Sister Robinson, President & Sister LaVoie, and the APs

It's Windy

I don't really feel like writing a super long email (probably because we're going to go hike mountains in a second and I'm freaking PUMPED) so here's a short one: People say that Fairbanks is the worst place to be in the winter but Alaskans say it's Palmer. Why? Because in addition to it being below zero just about all day and every day, there's insane wind (20-30 mph) that hurt so bad. It makes my bone marrow hurt. It was so windy one night this week that the wind blew all of the boards from our balcony off (it's a sketchy balcony to begin with) and then another we saw birds that couldn't even fly straight because it was so windy. Yayyyyyyyy.

We had two different referrals pass off lessons this week (one from the elders in Fish Hook and the other from the Palmer elders) and have been going and finding a lot of less actives and teaching them. Sister Christian has only been in the area for one transfer and Sister Mataele and I just got here, so we are all trying to figure out the area together...it's a good time. One of the referrals is a guy named Micah who is GOLDEN. He went to church with his friend last week and has decided that he wants to turn his life around and be a better dad for his family. He basically asked us to let him be baptized and so once he overcomes some Word of Wisdom issues, he's good to go! He wants to be baptized on Christmas so that would be the coolest Christmas present ever (besides FaceTime with my fam (tbh stoked). It's been so cool to see how the gospel makes good people become great and how Heavenly Father brings people to the gospel. 

It was also the Colony Christmas celebration in Palmer this weekend (there was a parade, fireworks, and everything...in subzero temps. Nothing stops Alaskans) and our Stake celebrated by setting up this gigantic nativity display throughout the church building that was free and open to the public. All of the rooms had different themes and they have live performances and all this cool stuff.

I love you all! Stay warm down there. 

Love, Sister Dunlop the Eskimo💕

Lazy Mountain

Hello from Lazy Mountain! It was a balmy -10 when we started our car this morning and it's only been above zero a few times this week. Yay! Lazy Mountain is super duper pretty though so that makes up for it being so gosh dang cold all the time. Last Monday was insane with us running people all over the place in Anchorage and then leaving Oceanview and going on exchanges in Beach Lake with Sister Richards. Late Wednesday night, we crammed (literally) four sister missionaries and all their stuff (which was a lot) into a truck and drove up to Wasilla, about an hour away. There we met with our new companion(s), unloaded our stuff from one car to another, and then drove for almost an hour to get to our house in Lazy Mountain. It's ON Lazy Mountain. We live with our bishop, Bishop Beams, and his family above their garage in this barn/loft one room party thing. It's tiny and so cute but there's not a lot of water and so Bishop has to go into town and get water for the well every few days. It's a party. I'm a bad missionary and don't have photos of it for you but eventually I promise to get you some. Sorry. Also, this email is pretty short. Sorry again. 

I've only been here for a few days but Sister Christian has introduced Sister Mataele and I to some of our investigators and people from the Ward. We are teaching this guy, Nick, who is native and told us stories of when he was in a group that traveled around Alaska and played the drums. Super dope. He told Sister Christian a few weeks ago that he would be baptized as soon as he felt "no resistance like the wind was to his back" about the gospel. And then on Thursday, that was exactly what he told us. That he knew the gospel has been restored and that the Book of Mormon is true and that the "wind was to his back", but he still didn't seem to want to get baptized yet. He's a ripe tomato that won't get off the vine. Good times. Side note: the Heckels are getting baptized on Wednesday! I'm so, so, so excited for them but it makes me so sad that I won't be there for it because now I'm up here in Palmer and Anchorage is a zillion miles away, but I'll be there in spirit! I LOVE THEM! Also, Arthur is getting baptized soon and I won't be in Anchorage for that either, so that's sad but whatevs. 

Anyways, that's all really. We are just having a trio party up here in Lazy Mountain. It's so good. Here's some photos to make up for this shortie email. I love y'all!

Love, Sister Dunlop