Saddest news of my life: the ZLs took my red truck away.

I'm just going to start this weekly out on a bummer note to get it out of the way. But yes, Spice has been taken from me by the Zone Leaders. Cried myself to sleep last night and don't really want to talk about it. Their truck got sent to the shop and they don't want to drive the Jeep (it's the only extra missionary car we have up in FBX) because they have a "truck area" (homes, all areas in Fairbanks are "truck areas" sorry kiddo). So they played the ZL card and got the other elders involved and long story short: they got the keys. It's sad, I know.

Go like Alaska Frost Photography on Facebook because they're bomb diggity. 

Okay so all the happy things about Fairbanks this week...I met this HOMEGIRL investigator (who I LOVE and ADORE) and she is photographer and her boyfriend is a less active member of the Church who is also a photographer. She invited us over for dinner one night this week and showed me all her photo toys...I died. She has a gun safe literally FULL of lenses, cameras, and all these other fun things. And then she was like, "we're going to go chase the auroras tonight (side note from Dunlop: for those of you who don't speak Alaskan, this is where you drive out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night with your big fat parka and camera+tripod and park your little self in the snow and shoot the auroras for hours #goals) and I know you sisters have that missionary curfew thing so you can't come with us, but you can borrow this lens and shoot here in Fairbanks. We're going out past Eilson so you probably wouldn't make it home in time,". OKAY I ADORE HER. Sis. Fa'anunu and I ran back to our apartment, bundled, and then headed up to shoot. Missionary curfew was kinda a bummer because the lights really get cool at like 3am, but we did what we could :)

We saw a baby moose & I got shoved in the snow. 

We went to Dylan & Christina's to teach one of their new member lessons on Wednesday night and we were standing in the living room waiting for Dylan to come back from his friend's house and he BURSTS through the front door and is like, "SISTERS THERE IS A BABY MOOSE OUTSIDE!" Sis. Fa'anunu hasn't EVER seen a moose before (what the heck, right?!) and so we pulled our snow boots on and ran down the driveway *meanwhile Fa'anunu is losing her mind she's so excited. So we took a selfie with this cute little baby moose #noshame. Then Dylan was being a nine year old boy during our lesson (weird, right?) about the Ten a Commandments and so I promised him that if he could memorize all of the Commandments in order by the time our lesson was over, he could shove me in the snow. BUT if he couldn't remember them all, I got to shove him in the snow. Game on. Honestly, I don't really mind being thrown in the snow anymore (#thecoldneverbotheredmeanyway) because I've been cold since we landed in AK so it's more of just a numbness now. Side note: it was twenty four [above zero] the other day and I don't think I've seen the temperature that warm since October in Anchorage #tendermercies. So, as you might guess, Dylan memorized all Ten Commandments and got to shove me in the snow. Sister Fa'anunu didn't realize she hadn't filmed it the first time, so Dylan got to shove me in the snow twice. Then he just walked away me left me there to freeze and die. It's okay, he knows all the Commandments now and I guess that's what matters #missionarysacrifices. I'll probably throw him in the snow before I get transferred out of Fairbanks though tbh...

THE North Pole was the biggest letdown in the history of ever, but Zone Conf. was good. 

President and Sister Robinson came up to Fairbanks for zone conference on Friday and President is getting a little trunky on us (they go home in June) and he decided to have everyone drive down to North Pole for ZC, because why not?! To those of you who want to keep thinking that North Pole, AK is a magical place, skip this next part because NEWSFLASH it's not. Anyways, we decided to stop by THE North Pole on our way over to the church and we almost drove right past it because IT'S SERIOUSLY JUST A LITTLE POST PAINTED LIKE A CANDY CANE ON THE SIDE OF SOME RANDOM ROAD SHOVED IN THE SNOW. IT WAS SO LAME AND I WAS SO BUMMED AND ALL MY LITTLE ELF DREAMS WERE CRUSHED BY IT'S LAMENESS! Whatevs, we got out and took a picture anyway #doitforthegram. Also, I licked the North Pole and my tongue didn't get stuck #bucketlist #blessup. 

Zone Conference made up for the bummerness of the North Pole though. President Robinson opened it up by saying, "Fairbanks definitely isn't for wussies,". Maybe one of my all-time favorite Pres. Robinson lines. Probably tied to him pulling up in a rental minivan for interviews and telling Sister Fa'anunu and I that we need to be "missionaries that match the message" #mormonminis #backwindowfamilydecals. I think they were just out of red Dodge Chargers at the car rental this weekend...sorry President. haha! Zone Conference was all about families and temples. YASSS! When Elder Ardern was up in Fairbanks with us last transfer, he told us that as missionaries in Fairbanks, AK right now we are to "prepare this land for a temple". A TEMPLE IN FAIRBANKS WOULD BE SO AMAZING! OK YESSIR ELDER ARDERN I WILL GO AND DO! Alaska has the same number of temples as Wyoming (aka one) and it's far, far away in Anchorage. It's hard for members to get there though because plane tickets are expensive and the drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage is sketch. I know there will be a temple here some day. It's just going to blend in with all the white snow that's here nine months out of the year, but that's okay. Something that President Robinson has taught me a lot about is that our goal isn't only to help people enter the waters of baptism, it's to help them make it to the temple where their families can be sealed there for time and all eternity. What an awesome blessing and what a testimony of how much our Heavenly Father loves His children! He doesn't intend for our families to be together just for our lives on Earth, He allows for us to be families forever! 

So yep, that was pretty much what went down in Fairbanks this week. Because of General Conference this weekend, we will have transfer calls on Wednesday night. If I stay in Fairbanks, Fa'anunu will be the first companion I've ever had for two transfers! So that might be dope...we'll see what happens. Also, to all you JH homies on Spring Break on an island, don't send me photos. I like pretending that living in 24 degrees surrounded by piles of snow is warm. Thanks love ya bye.

Peace & blessings.

XO Sis. Dunlop

Rando

It was a random week, so here's a random email....

On Tuesday night, Bishop Boland asked Sis. Fa'anunu and I to crash a

wedding. He didn't use those exact words, but that's

pretty much what we did. So we went to the wedding (it was happening

in one of the church classrooms) and it was freaking awkward but

it's okay, there was cake. We had stopped by the church to drop off

the shovels we had been using that day to shovel driveways-I think

I've done more shoveling just this transfer than I've done in my

entire lifetime #AK-and Bishop stopped us in the hall. There were like

maybe ten people at the whole thing, and a bunch of them were less

active members so that's why he wanted us there. The wedding lasted

.04 seconds and then Sis. Faanunu and I said hi to a few people

but they obviously didn't want to talk to us, so we took some cake and

peaced out. Crash a wedding? Check.

We did more service at the Ice Park again a couple of times this week. It

was Spring Break for the schools and the youth ice sculpting

competition and so there were a bunch of little kiddos out there

sculpting ice - so crazy. Other update: I didn't win Bingo this week at the senior center, so

that was super sad but it's okay. It was St. Patrick's Day when we

were there and all the cute little old people were greened out to the

maxxxxxxxx- shamrock sunglasses, giant green hats, green lipstick. We

ate corned beef and cabbage like all week this week  #death #sos

We had dinner with Christina and Dylan (and their hubbie/dad Randi)

this week. They are doing super awesome! Christina loves visiting

teaching and we are helping her get ready to go to the temple in

Anchorage next month with the rest of our ward. She rocks. Side note:

she wore rubber duck leggings under her skirt to church yesterday and

it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

Here's some rando pictures to finish off this random email.

XO Sis. Dunlop

ICE ICE BABY

Sup fam. Okay big announcement of the week: THE SUN RISES AT 8AM NOW AND SETS AT 7PM AND IT'S A BIG FAT BLESSING I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THE SUNSHINE! I didn't realize how much I missed it until the other day when we were sitting at a stoplight and the warm sun was right on my face. I almost started crying #happytears. So yeah, that's the big and exciting news from Fairbanks. Woo. March & April are when the daylight is normal in Alaska. Right before it goes into 100% sun all the time - that's going to be weird.

Aayliah was baptized on Saturday! IT WAS SO CUTE- I died. Sister Fa'anunu and I were standing at the top of the stairs holding her towel for her and she climbed out and gave me the biggest, wettest hug ever. I love that kiddo. Then when they closed the font door whatever things (you know what I'm talking about??), she climbed back into the font and started swimming around haha. She was so happy. She kills me. Sunday was a really special day for their family because after Aaliyah was confirmed, they blessed their new baby girl too.

Aaliyah's life story in a few sentences: she was fostered by this member family with three other foster kids (all younger than her, none of them are related) like five years ago (she's nine now) and then the family had to wait a while but was able to officially adopt those four kiddos in January. Now that Aaliyah has been officially adopted, she was able to be baptized and has been waiting a really long time to be able to. It was so awesome to be able to teach her and be a part of her baptism. It was so happy!

The Ice AK Festival is going on right now and continues through the end of March and so we are volunteering at it a few days a week (aka we clean up garbage then go sled on the ice slide and climb around on the sculptures- "volunteering"). But now that these next few weeks are Spring Break for most of Alaska schools, they trained us to do tickets so we sit in a warm little hut and punch tickets and hand out maps of the park. It's pretty chill #hahaAKpuns. But these ice sculptures are INSANE! They are giant harvested blocks of glacier ice so they are super blue and pretty. Then the ice sculptor teams come with their chainsaws and pick axes and chip away at these huge things of ice and make dinosaurs or log cabins (that you can actually walk into and they have a bed, kitchen table, and living room) or the Statue of Liberty. They're out there all day just chipping away at a giant ice block and sipping hot cocoa. It's probably not hot cocoa though, this is Fairbanks we are talking about #alaskansarecrazy

Peace & blessings love ya'll bye

XOX Sister Dunlop ❄️

The Sky's Awake So I'm Awake & the Iditarod

Okay so...we saw the Northern Lights EVERY NIGHT this week and they

were SO DOPE you guys! They were blue and green and pink and purple

and they seriously like DANCED across the sky. I died. Literally,

started crying. Whatever. I love Alaska. Even though it's freezing.

Our little (she’s 10) investigator, Aaliyah, is getting baptized this weekend so

that's super exciting. We are really happy for her! Yay!

She was fostered by a member family a few years ago and was recently

adopted by them and so now that the adoption is finalized, she can be

baptized! Yay! Dylan was really sick this week and had to go to the ER

but he was able to get a priesthood blessing and is doing so much

better! Christina still rocks my socks, she's one of my favorite

people ever.

We went and watched the Iditarod start this morning (in the -30s with

wind chill) which was so AWESOME, but freezing. The mushers were so bundled

you could barely see their eyes haha. I would be the wimpiest musher

ever. Bless mushers.

That was the most random letter but whatevs.

Peace and blessins love ya byeeee.

XOXO Dunlop

WEEKLY

Yo. It was a crazy week with transfers (*cries because Pike is down in Anchorage now), blizzards & melting snow, and then a double baptism at the end to top it all off. Mish life is crazy.

Transfers: sad but good.

Sister Pike is killing it down in Jewel Lake now and Sister Fa'anunu came up from Juneau on Thursday night. Poor Sister Fa'anunu is stressed out of her mind having to learn this area. She has been out for almost five months and was trained in Juneau so Fairbanks 5th is only her second area. She's from Tonga and is learning English on her mission (baha jokes because that means she studies it with her companion and baha jokes because I have no idea how to teach English). Good stuff. Also, I taught her how to scrape ice off our truck the other day and she was super confused why we needed to plug the truck in before we went in at night haha. She keeps saying, "send me back to Juneau," lol sorry kiddo. Welcome to Fairbanks. 

Christina & Dylan's baptism: SO GOOD.

Dylan caught the flu that morning but was a such a champ and toughed it out and was baptized. His dad (who is not a member of the Church) came and supported Christina & Dylan which was super cool. All of the chairs were full of our awesome Fairbanks 5th Ward members - I adore this ward. Go team.

Funny story: Dylan gets in the font to be baptized and all the little primary kids gather up in the front so they can see and some KID drops his handful of RAISINS in the font. But at first, we didn't realize what they were so Sister Fa'anunu and I panicked because we thought it was bugs or poop or something so that was awkward. Whatevs, Dylan was baptized and then Christina was baptized. Awesome. Moving on...after the baptism, we had to wait for all the water to drain out and then I had to be the brave senior companion and go see what it was. It was raisins. Nasty nasty. 

Before Christina left, she was like, "thanks for letting us use your tub". Hahaha I adore her. Sorry that was probably the lamest email ever.

Love ya!

Xoxo Sis Dun

Truck and Transfer Calls

Yo peeps! Sorry that this week is a modge podge of random things that have happened. It's been kinda crazy with transfer calls, Elder Arden of the 70 and his wife coming up for a mission tour, the sun shining, new cars, and all the other Alaskan stuff. I just want everyone to know that a couple of times this week, we went outside in only our hoodies. And we didn't die. Miracles are happing up here in Fairbanks. It was above zero for more than an hour! Also, saw the Northern Lights! Check that off the Bucket List. TBH, they weren't all that exciting because it hadn't been very cold that day, they were just green streaks in the sky. That is pretty cool I guess. I take that back, I saw the Northern Lights this week and it was awesome! Also, there were dog mushers out the wazoo in Fairbanks this week and we saw the finish line so that was pretty dope too. I love Alaska.

In other news, Fran (our Jeep that froze last week) is still MIA. The original plan on Tuesday was that the Zone Leaders would take her to the shop and get her fixed then bring her back so we could go out and be missionaries (side note: we don’t actually live in our area and it's too far and too cold to walk all day so we were a little trapped without a car #alaska). They magically got her to start and drove off to the shop but apparently Fran died like four or five times on the way there. So the ZLs come back and are like, "you don't have a car anymore..." *starts crying a little bit. So then we had to call the 2nd Ward sister missionaries and have them take us to a lesson, drop us off, and pick us up. Then we went to a lesson with them and then they had to drop us off for another lesson at Christina and Dylan's but they weren't home yet so Sister Pike and I walked around the neighborhood freezing our lives away until they came home. It was just a mess. On our little walk, we called President Robinson and we were like, "yo homie...this no car thing ain't gonna work for us kiddo," (kinda in those words but actually not really). And so he worked his mission president magic and made it so that we could have the ZLs other truck- that they had previously wrecked, hence "other" (go elders)-that had just come out of the shop that day #tendermercies #miracles #lovemylife #happyvalentinesdaydunlop. 2nd Ward took us to get the truck keys from the ZLs and we happily drove away in our new truck. WE LOVE OUR TRUCK! Her name is Spice (like Ginger Spice from Spice Girls) and Sister Pike and I LOVE her. Sorry Fran, you've been replaced.

We got our transfer calls and Sister Pike is heading down to South Anchorage (I love, love, love, love South Anchorage #promiseland) to be in the Jewel Lake Ward and Sister Fa'anunu is coming up from Juneau to be in 5th Ward with me! So sad that Sister Pike is leaving but also so excited to #1 stay in this area (this ward freaking ROCKS and I'm still recovering from my heartbreak of a "one and done" in Lazy Mountain, I love that place!) and #2 have Sister Fa'anunu come up with me! It's going to be super duper awesome and I'm way pumped for it. 

Elder Arden and his wife came up for a mission tour this weekend! They flew up with President & Sister Robinson to Fairbanks on Friday and we were in a training with him all day. It was really cool/really long but also really awesome. He talked a lot about overcoming trials and having faith, hope, and trust in Heavenly Father that will help us get through. There have been moments on my mission that have been some of the hardest moments in my life, but there have also been moments that have been some of the happiest. I wouldn't trade serving in this frozen ice land for the world. I love being a missionary. 

Want to talk about happy moments? How about Christina and Dylan getting baptized on Saturday?? Happy. Moment. I'm probably going to cry but whatever. I am so excited for them. They are fantastic human beings and they're some of my favorite people ever. I adore them! It's going to be awesome! Get stoked.

So anyways I love y'all, I love Alaska, I love being a missionary. Life is good up in the frozen north. Peace and blessings.

XOXO Sister Dunlop

This photo makes my OCD crazy...LOOK AT THAT GAP SCOOT OVER ELDERS

Chicken Tacos, Bingo, Frozen Fran

Hey! DUDE WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED AT HOME?! FOR REALZIES?!! Holy shooooooot. The world is ending down there. Anyways, it was kind of a weird week up here. Sister Pike was sick for the first part of the week and so we had pretty chill days visiting people that talked our faces off. Alaskans can chat. Forever. Awesome! Side note: homegirl Mama Laura sent me a keyboard for my iPad and it's super fun to type on (and it keeping my fingers warm) so this is probs going to be a long email. Sorry. You can just skip to the photos if you want, that's what I would do. But, here we go:

We had amazing chicken tacos with Christina and Dylan this week. I don't know what it is about tacos and Alaskans, but they make some real good tacos. What a blessing. We thought that their husband/dad was going to eat with us but after we finished eating, he came in the door from work and as soon as he saw that we were there, he just went upstairs and took a shower. Super awkward. Like you could've cut the awkward with a knife. So we left. It wasn't that bad, but it could've gone a lot better/worse too I guess.

We go and do service every Friday afternoon at the Pioneer Home and play Bingo with elderly people. It's service because we just sit next to them and help them find the number/letter combo the Bingo caller called. It's a good time. I sit with this lady named Candy and we lose hardcore every time- we've literally never won. On Friday after the first few games of us totally losing, she leaned over to me and was like, "I think if I just crawl under this table and die I'd be more likely to win than just sitting here. I'm not coming back next week, I'm done playing Bingo". Then took her little walker and peaced.

Frozen Fran. Our Jeep's name is Fran (I think I've told y'all that before) and she was frozen solid Sunday morning. Like nothing was going to start her. So we called our YSA homegirl to come and save us and she dropped us off at church because her ward didn't start until later in the afternoon. We were like 30 minutes late and church was only two hours long because it was -38 outside. *AK rule: if it's -40 or colder church is cancelled all together, in the -30s it's just two hours, and if it's -20 or warmer, it's all three hours. Also, all the military dads/husbands are back from NTC now so it looked like there was a totally different ward in 5th ward during sacrament. Super cray. I get to go meet all of them because they've been gone since I have been in Fairbanks.

After church one of our ward missionaries told us that she had jumper cables in her car and that she could take us back to our apartment and help us jump poor frozen Fran. She told us she was driving her friend’s car because her truck died at UAF yesterday. We were like, "whatever we don't care" because we were just glad we didn't have to walk a zillion miles home in -35 or something. We go out to the parking lot and it's the ghettoest ghetto little car crammed full of snowboarding stuff and it smelled like weed, like lots of weed...killer. So we get to our apartment and she has super short cables so she pulled around to the front side of our car but was still too far away then her borrowed-weed smelling-snowboarder friend's ghetto car got STUCK in the three inches (max) of snow that was on the ground. Like stuck, stuck. It was ridiculous. Then we spent half an hour freezing our faces off (our eyelashes were all frozen and we couldn't feel our fingers) trying to rescue this ghetto car out of a tiny patch of snow. We eventually got it-after digging it out with the sharp edge of our window scrapers and pushing it. She pulled the sketch car around and we put our car in neutral and pushed it out so that the short little jumper cables could reach from her car to Fran #girlpower. We hooked up our cars and then for the next 45 minutes tried to start Fran. It wasn't going to happen. So she was like, "maybe it just needs to warm up," and then she left. IT'S NOT GOING TO WARM UP UNTIL LIKE AUGUST WE ARE IN FAIRBANKS! It was super nice of her to drive us home and try to help us though haha. About an hour later the first counselor in the bishopric and his wife came (praise them!!) to try and save us but to no avail. He told us that it was something more than just needing to have the car jumped. So they left and we called our AAM car guy and told him what was going on then he told us to go to the car place tomorrow and have them take a look at it. But we can't drive the car anywhere. The Zone Leaders came and tried to save us but they couldn't fix it either (PS please remember it's like negative a billion degrees outside). Then the elders in Badger Road called them because their truck wasn't starting either so the Zone Leaders left us to go and help them way out there and they took our car keys with them. We were just stranded. Our homie first counselor and his wife came and got us and we went over to their house for dinner and then they drove us over to the church so we could teach our "Preach My Gospel" class to the few kids that showed up despite how freaking cold and dark it was outside. Then they dropped us off back at our apartment and we are just having the 2nd ward sisters drive us around today because we are currently car-less. It's a good time. We don't really know what to do so the Zone Leaders are figuring it all out. Cars hate me.

This upcoming week: it's supposed to be like +25 degrees on Wednesday and I'm pumped out of my mind! THAT'S ABOVE ZERO. LIKE A LOT. I don't think I've been in weather that warm since October in Anchorage #tendermercies. We get our transfer calls on Thursday night, so that should be exciting. With the way my transfer calls have gone so far, I'll probably get another companion next transfer (boo) or get another "One & Done" bump to a new area. I've had a new companion every transfer so far...what the heck Dunlop. I freaking adore Sister  Pike! We've had so much fun together and have seen so many awesome miracles here. But she was trained in Fairbanks 5th and then I came up and greenie broke her- so she's been here for a while and I think she's about ready to head down south where the sunlight is in Anchorage or something. What else for this week? Oh! Elder Arden, of the 70, is coming up to the AAM this weekend for a mission tour and he's flying up to Fairbanks with President & Sister Robinson for our zone conference on Friday. That's going to be super duper awesome. I think that's about all I've got. Sorry it wasn't very exciting- just a frozen cold car, a little Bingo, and some chicken tacos with Dylan and Christina really. Anyways, love y'all. Peace & blessings xoxo/Sis. Dunlop

Here's a lame selection of photos from this week: