Weekly

This week was jam packed so I'll share some random little things with you that don't really fit anywhere else in this weekly. Christina and Dylan took us out to dinner at this Japanese place called "Shogun" where they cook the food in front of you kind of a big deal and it scared Sister Fa'anunu half to death- sorry kiddo. Sister Martinez celebrated her twelve month mark on Thursday (I can't imagine ever getting that far) and we went to this cutie little bakery called Marlo's (that looks like Persephone) and scored super yummy sweet rolls and almond croissants. I have a list of all these cute little food spots in Fairbanks for anyone who ever wants it. Okay, weekly...

THE SUN IS UP

Do you remember how a few weeks ago I was really excited because the sun was coming up at a normal hour and would stay up for more than a few hours each day? YEAH WELL NOW THE SUN IS UP LIKE ALL THE TIME! When we go to bed at night, the sun is still just as up as it is when we wake up in the morning. Super super weird. People have also been telling us that "Leaf" is coming soon. "Leaf" is what happens in Alaska when in literally ONE DAY all of the trees, flowers, whatever bloom and everything is just all of a sudden green. I'm really excited for that because Fairbanks' 50 Shades of Grey that I've been living in for the last four months is making me crazy. I'm excited for color. So excited.

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

President and Sister Robinson flew up for Fairbanks Zone Conference this weekend. After President Monson's talk from Conference a few weeks ago, President decided that as the AAM, we are going to study the Book of Mormon this transfer. Read it more, discuss it in meetings more, pass out and share more, all that jazz. The Book of Mormon makes sense you guys! Just how God called prophets in the time of the Bible and in the lands of the Bible (Jerusalem, etc.), He called prophets for the people living in the Americas and that's where the Book of Mormon comes from. It makes sense because God is our loving Heavenly Father. He wouldn't give prophets to love and lead and guide His people on just one continent. He would give prophets to all because He loves us all. So we talked about the Book of Mormon for like five hours during ZC and it was bomb diggity. And we had the ZC classic pulled pork sandwiches for lunch. I've literally eaten them at EVERY zone conference. Oh man.

Saturday was MIRACULOUS

Adom's baptism made my heart melt. That little kid. His whole gigantic family was there (a lot of them are less active members of the Church or not even members at all (yet)) and it was so awesome. Worth showing up at the church at 6:40am to fill the font for sure. Then we had to run across (drive the speed limit across) Fairbanks for interviews with President Robinson at the other church building. After interviews, we were talking to them in the hall about our sketchy apartment and all of a sudden the church phone rang. I didn't even know the church had a phone, but cute little Sister Robinson ran right over to it, "it might be someone that wants to hear about the gospel!". Da, da, da she's talking to someone and then is like, "I have someone right here who can answer all your questions," AND THEN HANDS ME THE PHONE. So it's this guy who tells me he wants to be an LDS missionary (isn't a member of the Church, but whatever) and asks me all these questions about being a missionary and then throwback to my days of serving in the Bush Branch, I start teaching the Restoration over the phone and invite him to come to Stake Conference this weekend and to have missionaries come and teach him more. And then he's like, "well, I'm actually in the process of getting kicked out of my old religion. And my old religion didn't allow me to have a cell phone or anything like that so I'm actually calling you from Pizza Hut...". Okayyyyy. So I gave him Sis. Fa'anunu and my cell phone number and he said he would come to Stake Conference that night and look for us- I told him I was the redhead and she was the Tongan, there are not very many of either of us in AK. But we never saw or heard from him again. Whateverz, got to teach the Restoration over the phone like I did in Bush Branch so that rocked.

THEN we get this call from the outgoing Stake President, President Duval, and he asks for us to come to the Stake Center because he has a Tongan member up in Barrow that doesn't speak any English and needs his temple recommend renewed. So we go BACK OVER THERE (sorry mileage report) and Sis. Fa'anunu was able to translate the whole interview for the member in Barrow and President Duval and it was so awesome. Love my comp.

Then we had an awesome lesson with a recent convert from 6th ward (that is now living in our ward boundaries but still goes to 6th, long story tell you when I get home) about prayer, had empanadas at the Stewarts' (love them), and then headed back over to the Stake Center for the zillionth time for the Saturday night session of Stake Conference with Paula and Christina (love them).

#SISTRICT

The 2nd Ward Sisters (Sis. Martinez & Nield) live in the basement apartment at one of their members' house. Back in January when I first came to Fairbanks, the sisters that were there (Sis. Petersen & Treu) had a mouse stuck in their window bank thing (I have no idea how to explain this so hopefully you get it) that we thought had died because it had been -40 for a few weeks straight and there's no way something was alive after that. On Friday Sis. Martinez told us she saw the corpse of the frozen dead one but had heard squeaking the morning before. Weird.

We were just leaving the Stake Center after the Saturday night session of Stake Conference and I get a call from Sis. Martinez-who is SCREAMING-in the phone about how there is another mouse still alive and crawling in their window bank thing. So Sis. Fa'anunu go over there and decide we could kill it with a shovel (#QuickwaterRanchstyle). So we grab these ghetto shovels and scramble through the snow/mud #breakupseasonmess to the backyard and look down in the window bank thing and it's running all over in there and after lots of screaming from us and squeaking from the mouse, we eventually decapitated the poor thing, picked it up with a shovel, and chucked it into the river in the backyard #RIPmouse. So I guess the moral of the story is that here in AK, we don't need elders to kill things for us #sistrict. 

5TH WARD IS TAKING OVER THE STAKE OF FAIRBANKS WITH IT'S AWESOMENESS

So it's Easter Sunday and a billion people are crammed in the Stake Center for Stake Conference (or live far, far away in Delta Junction or Salcha and so they're watching it via broadcast) and Elder Robbins of the 70 gets up to announce the new Stake President and HE CALLS BISHOP BOLAND'S NAME! I looked at Fa'anunu and was like, "WAIT NO! HE'S OURS!", and we both start laughing/crying as he makes his way up to the stand. We adore him and are so excited for our stake to be blessed with his greatness. But now we don't have a bishop so that's a good time. Also, our ward mission leader is moving so we don't have one of those either. GO SISTERS!

And now I'm sick of writing so peace out peeps.

Love ya.

Sis. Dun