In the MTC they always tell you “if you just make it to Sunday, you’ll be fine” and it was a “just make it to Sunday” kind of week this week. I feel like we’re running around with our heads cut off and we keep singing “Jesus Take the Wheel” whenever we start losing our minds (which is actually a lot) but Elder Ellis told us in General Conference that we’re strengthened in the struggle so...here we are [tracting in the fresh foot of snow we got a few days ago #blessed]. First of all, my baby Sister Melton is a CHAMP. I’m such a fan. Early Wednesday morning, Sister Yeates and I drove down to Anchorage for transfer logistics in the craziest, thickest fog I’ve ever seen. The next twelve hours after that were just a blur. At one point there were like twenty missionaries slipping all over the parking lot loading luggage into mission cars and trucks and then I found myself sitting in this tiny room with President Toone and five other elders waiting to get our trainees and then Sister Melton and I were eating pizza and having our first companionship study and then I was with my departing missionary homies (you know who you are) and all the new kids at the temple. It was insane. Eventually, Sister Melton and I were road tripping it back up to Wasilla (which is normally about an hour and a half from Anchorage, but this time it took us three hours) in this crazy fog but once we get to Eagle River, we get trapped in the worst traffic jam Alaska has ever seen. The entire population of Alaska was on the road. Once we made it back up to Wasilla, we had to make a quick Qdoba stop because #hangry and then came home and slept like rocks.
Day #1 of pinkwashing in Wasilla wasn’t as rough as I thought it was going to be. It’s actually kind of nice because there’s so many things you can do-meet members, tract, contact investigators, etc. There’s a ton of potential investigators that have been sitting in the Area Book for who knows how long (literally some of them are +3 years) and so we decided to go through and meet everyone. We set up a lesson with a lady who ended up living super far out in the boonies (and we later found out she didn’t live in our area #oopsies) and when we get there, she pulls out her Book of Mormon (what) and has all these questions about God and prophets and life after death and tells us about how she wants to find truth out for herself and wants to do what God wants her to do and we invite her to be baptized and she is open to it and it was just miracles all over the place. We stopped by a members’ house and they invited us for dinner and let me just tell you that was an experience #freezedriedeverything. Then we went and tried to contact a potential investigator in this super sketchy apartment complex and I think I scared Sister Melton to death #welcometothemission. She’s a trooper.
Day #2 wasn’t quite as gold. We had a struggle bus Weekly Planning session because we know like one person in our area and then we helped Peggy and Bobby with the Memory Lake elders hang up some Christmas lights and Bobby almost staple gunned our fingers to his house. Sketch. Then we had a referral to try but it ended up not being an investigator and instead it was actually was the first councilor in the bishopric, so that was awkward. We had a lesson with this new member who told us she served her mission to the Interior Lamanites and she has this greasy rat dog that watches tv and eats toast with her that was crawling all over the place and then there was this hungry dog in the backyard throwing itself against the door trying to get in and eat us. Love mission life. Then we tracted this street and the wind and snow was blowing all over the place. No one had signed up for dinner (PSA: the missionaries don’t care if you just feed them grilled cheese, they just like being fed #feedyourlocalmissionaries2k17) so we went to Wendy’s for some 4 for $7 (#alaska) and then Sister Melton had lost her allotment card so we went back to our apartment looking for it and in the process of our searching, our phone broke. Literally broke in half. The old Wasilla elders had given us this trash phone where the screen wasn’t totally attached to the keyboard because some screws were missing and so the next hour was this hot mess process of trying to find some elders that could get us a working phone and looking for Sister Melton’s allotment card. There have definitely been brighter days.
This email is getting ridiculously long so: we had Saturday morning crepes with the Young Women’s President, did some service with the elders at this Family Carnival Day that no one showed up to, tried to set up an appointment with an investigator and a recent convert showed up instead (#awk), survived church and met a few more people, tracted in the snow and dark, felt prompted to stop by a potential’s apartment complex but it was locked and we couldn’t get in and then #faith and someone let us in and we met this cute lady and talked to her for two hours about the Restoration and she was so excited and told us about the “warm fuzzies” of the Spirit. I love being a missionary.
XOXO Sister Dunlop
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