Transcription: 10 July 2012

Back Row: Elder Boyer, Elder Dold, Elder Conlin, Elder Leota, Elder Vandenberg, Sister Burbank, Elder Merrill, Elder Dastrup, Elder Burnham, Elder Adams, Elder Allen, Elder Clegg, Elder Brooks, Elder White, and Elder Merrell.
Front Row: Elders Rowley, Elder Record, Elder Hartman, Sister Chan, Elder Na'a, and Elder Moyle.
Missionaries at Denali National Park

On the train, Elder Conlin, Elder Record and Elder Clegg

Alright, so yesterday I didn't email because we were in Denali. We got the chance to go from eight in the morning to eight in the evening. We took a four hour train ride down to Denali, looked around and did a little hike, and then came back up on the train. That was pretty neat. That's like a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was pretty fun, and that's why I didn't email, and why I'm emailing today.

We did some exchanges. We were doing a lot of service, so the exchanges were kind of short. Elder Conlin and Elder Brooks had a really good experience. They were able to meet a family guided by the Spirit – the [Name withheld] family. They were praying where to go, and through a series of events, they ended up like walking into this one lady who was LDS. She had just moved in that day and had been praying for missionaries to come by and give her a blessing, and they happened to show up (haha). That was pretty neat. We have been able to meet with them and help them. Now they all have a really strong testimony of prayer, and they are all kind of interested in church. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching them. Only the wife is a member.

There was a house we tracted into that we felt like we should go into. We went to that house, and they said to come back. We came back on Sunday and had a good lesson with them. They were very open and friendly. We hope to see some good things come of that.

This week was really busy, probably our busiest week – not it was our busiest week yet. It was actually the busiest week on my mission so far. We have been hustling and bustling everywhere. That's why this week's update is kind of choppy and on the go. We are actually on our way to the university [University of Alaska Fairbanks] right now where we will be emailing.

We just had district meeting, which was fun. We did a role play where if someone is struggling to wake up, we do a game where they put a water gun in the middle between the two beds. When the alarm goes off, whoever can wake up first and get the gun, gets to squirt the other one. That was just a suggestion in case they needed help waking up. We found that the more obedient we are, the more things get done, and the more we allow the Spirit to be with us. It has been fun. We have a lot of good people in our district – working hard, all is well.

It was a fun week. Very busy. We have a lot of cool people we are meeting with. They are doing very well. They are searching hard. I like how it's not necessarily our job to convince people, because we're not. We invite people to come to Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance and baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then enduring to the end. We are not there to convince them to come unto Christ or push them to come unto Christ – we just invite. We kind of lay it out and hope and pray that they will accept when we invite them. There has been a lot of people we have run into that are accepting. It is kind of a special point in our mission.

Love, Elder Record