Combined: 16 July 2012

Dad: What are the areas in your district?

6th ward, 5th, and us 3rd. We kind of form the bowl around Fairbanks. 6th is the west side, we are north east, and 5th is just east. Although our district is changing now. Elder Clegg is the new district leader for the other district in Fairbanks and will no longer be in ours. We are losing 6th but gaining the 4th singles branch. They are being whitewashed by the sisters. Sister Gardner will be training in the 4th branch. They cover the whole stake I believe.

Dad: Who are the missionaries serving in those areas?

Clegg/Brooks in 6th, Merrill/Vandenberg in 5th, Gardner/a new missionary... in 4th

Dad: Will you please email a picture of your district with a caption of who the missionaries are?

Yes, I'll take it today.

Dad: When you attach pictures, please include the last two digits of the picture and a brief caption of who is there. The last two pictures you sent are hard to tell who the missionaries are. I can't zoom in enough to read their name tags =). Thank you so much for the pictures. They really add a lot to your email update.

K, I'll reply to the email and give you the names.

Dad: It sounds like you really had a great time at Denali. Did you get to sing along with the other missionaries on the train?

Yup, Yup I was one of the main ones singing. You'd be surprised. I've turned into quite the fearless singer and nobody has even used earplugs once! We will sing at people's houses all the time.

Dad: Did anyone get a new investigator as a result (haha)?

No, but I think they'll be more inclined to listen if they ever see missionaries again.

So, I'm finding more and more that I am not a very good multitasker ... at all! Haha. Sorry guys. I'm having a hard time focusing on anything, but what's going on right now. We are able to work hard, but unfortunately I have a hard time transferring all this out of my brain in words or on paper. I've never worked so hard, fast, and focused in my life. It's incredibly fulfilling and fun to help so many people, but unfortunately my brain can't fit much else in. I'll probably be the same when I get back home too. I won't want to sit still. I can't wait to go back to school either. Anyway here's my update.

This was the last week of our transfer, and we are staying together. They are changing up our district though, we don't have Elder Brooks and Elder Clegg anymore – that stinks. Elder Brooks is probably one of the funniest guys we know (haha). That's okay, we'll make it work.

We were able to run into a couple of new people this week. We were able to teach a lot. We have been having some really good lessons with this one family. We saw them and taught them about the restoration, and invited them to read the Book or Mormon and pray about it. Then we went back the next week, and one of them had already read through 50 pages (haha). Normally people don't do that. That was kind of fun, and we are excited to go and help them chop their wood today.

Lately we have been playing music at dinners. I'll play the ukulele, and we'll sing “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Everybody loves it. I haven't seen anybody put ear plugs in yet. We actually sang it at a fireside that was yesterday. We had a missionary fireside where a lot of missionaries got together. We had the mission president speak, and President Duval and a couple of recent converts. President Duval is the stake president. It was really neat, and the Spirit was there. In between the speakers, we had some musical numbers by the missionaries. We sang our “Battle Hymn of the Republic” song with the rest of our district. It was a neat experience, and the members there really liked it. We didn't get any non-members to come, but next time – next time.

[NOTE: The Fairbanks stake broadcasts many of their meetings due to the extreme geographic challenges they face. The missionary fireside Elder Record is talking about was broadcast on the Fairbanks Stake website http://fairbanksstake.org. It looks like Elder Record's district performed the musical number. You can watch the entire Missionary Fireside or skip to minute 12:55 through 16:05 for the musical number. I think the missionaries from left to right are: Elder Clegg, Elder Merrill, Elder Record, Elder Vandenberg, Elder Brooks and Elder Conlin. There is a problem with the video and audio, which seem stuck from minutes 40:00 to 57:50. Just skip to 57:50 to continue.]

What else exciting happened this week? We got to help one person move and drop wood off. Yeah, pretty much just the average week in the Fairbanks 3^rd ward. It's raining right now, that's something new. Anyway, bye.

Love, Elder Record