ARCTIC WARRIOR

Hey peeps.

Sister Pike & I somehow survived another week up here in this frozen land they call Fairbanks. It was above zero a couple of times, so that was a perk. Also, there's a little girl in our ward who is a Girl Scout and so we scored some Thin Mints and Samoas from her this week #blessingsonblessings.  

Missionary work wise, it's been super duper awesome (*knock on wood to not jinx it). There are so many miracles and awesome things that are happening right now. Fairbanks 5th Ward freaking rocks. Christina and her nine year old son, Dylan, came to church yesterday and stayed the whole time with us! Dylan goes to school and tae kwan do (is that how you spell it? I have no idea...so sorry) with a bunch of kids in his Primary class and during the opening hymn for Sacrament Meeting was like, "Mom, when am I going to go and get wet like the Sisters said I could?". I died. He's so excited to be baptized in a few weeks with his mom! We are super excited too. Christina & Dylan invited us over for dinner later this week and we are going to finally meet their husband/dad there and hopefully that goes well. He isn't interested in learning more about the Church (yet) and doesn't totally support Christina & Dylan's decision to be baptized (yet) so we're hoping this isn't terribly awkward. We met with Ryan, the guy living in his car, again and he told us how he wants to meet with someone "higher up" in the Church food chain than just us little sister missionaries to learn about the gospel. Even though our missionary job is teach the gospel. Whatevs. He was astonished (big word, go Dunlop) to hear that people actually get baptized after meeting with the missionaries. Crazy, I know...I guess the gospel must really be true or something. We don't quite know if we are going to keep teaching him or not. We think he's just curious more than he is wanting to actually do something with the things we are teaching him. We're passing him on to Bishop Bolland to call the shots I'll keep you updated from there.

We've also been meeting with Aaliyah, who is a nine year old that was fostered and then adopted by this super cute member family, and teaching her the missionary lessons. She finished all of them and is wanting to be baptized on the same day as her friend in another ward and so that should be happening pretty soon. Woo! There's another family in our ward, the Auamau's, and the dad is not a member but he comes to Church every week and he is totally a Dry Mormon. The transfer before I came to Fairbanks, he said that he would think about being baptized and so every time we go over for dinner, Sister Pike and I sneak in a missionary lesson. He only needs two more before he's had all of them! We don't know how to be like, "hey so baptism...?", without it being really awkward so we're still figuring that one out haha. But he's super awesome and his kids rock and I'm a huge fan of their fambam.

Other stuff really quick that I can't remember if I've told you or not: we've started teaching a Preach My Gospel class for the youth in our ward and it's sweet! The youth in Alaska are so cool! We go and do Family History with a group of the recent converts in our ward so they can take their family names to the temple #dressedinwhitetwice and it's way fun. Luckily there are ladies in there to tell me how to do Family History because I'm so clueless. We rolled out a brand new Fairbanks 5th Ward mission plan yesterday and it's way, way awesome and we are really excited that we can get it rolling in the Ward now. 

We had Zone meeting this weekend and President & Sister Robinson flew up to do interviews too. It was also President's birthday on Friday and he rolled up in a cherry red rental convertible something something (I need the elders here to tell me what kind of car whatever it was) car and he walked into our meeting pretty pumped about it haha #happybirthdaypresident. During interviews, President told us that it takes a special set of tough sister missionaries to brave a winter in Fairbanks. We laughed but in reality, we just wanted to cry because we are so sick of being frozen all the time. Then President laughed as he told me, "Sister Dunlop, I don't know what kind of joke a God is playing on you making you start your winter in windy cold Palmer and then finish it out in Fairbanks...". Haha too true, too true. The other day Sister Pike & I daydreamed about what it's going to be like this summer when we don't have to bulk up and put a zillion layers on to survive the thirty second walk from car door to front door. It's going to be great #pumped #stoked #yayforthesunshine. Part of the area we cover is on the military base and every time we drive in, there's a big huge sign that says, "Fort Wainwright: home of the U.S. Army's Arctic Warriors". We think it's pretty funny (missionaries think everything is funny) and always joke about being sister missionary Arctic Warriors. It's true though! I'm so excited for when the temperature gauge doesn't have a negative sign on it. Anyways, that's my life right now. It's awesome, no complaints. Just cold. But what else is new with Dunlop? Nothing. Anyways, love y'all. Stay warm down there. Peace and blessings. 

xoxo Sister Dunlop