Beautiful Juneau and Ketchikan

Elder Record

Man! This week we were in Juneau and Ketchikan, and it was incredible; it's beautiful there. If I were to ever go on vacation to Alaska, I would go there. It was amazing. We had a lot of fun walking through down town and OIM'ing and visiting people whose homes were down there. It was awesome. We were just working hard and going from place to place. The scenery was amazing. Ketchikan is setup … like the whole city is packed in close, but it's on a hill too. So it's like walking in a movie, and it's beautiful – super green, the water is beautiful. Anyway, it was really fun; and the work is going really well down there. The missionaries are doing a really good job. It was cool because I got to be with Elder Blackhurst again.

Elder Bernie and Elder Record.
This was p-day at mormon hill in Juneau,
another BEAUTIFUL CITY!!!!

In Juneau I got to be with Elder Bernie and Elder Thorne; some of my other companions, who are Zone Leaders down there. So it was really fun. I got to be with the missionaries. They are doing great! It was really nice. We got some really good insights for how everybody is doing and what we need to do for transfers; which we are working on this week. We are trying to seek the inspiration from the Lord where they should go and what should happen, and how we can best help the missionaries to improve.

We have been given a couple of referrals. We are excited to go contact these people. The ward is really getting excited about missionary work; and … that's good (haha). We love serving.

So yeah, if I were to ever come back on vacation, I would probably take one of those Alaskan cruises and stop in Ketchikan and Juneau because those places are amazing!

Life it good. I can't wait to work more in our area next week. Actually, we are going to be kind of busy because we have all the transfer stuff to do and a lot of new missionaries coming in. In July there is going to be even more. Elder Martinez will be leaving in a few days. So we are helping him cope (haha). I know who my new companion is, but nobody else does so I can't tell you yet.

Anchorage before we left.
Now it's green =) in a matter of less than a week.

It's amazing you can almost pull up a chair and watch everything grow. It pulls my thoughts to the Savior and the new life that can fill people's hearts as they let him in. The change can be slow, but it's wonderful to be in that chair watching the beautiful transformation that can happen in people's souls. From night to day, dark gray to vibrant green and full of life. I know this gospel blesses our lives because it's true. The Savior's help is real. I was thinking about grace the other day. It is basically divine help or strength given to us. I read a verse in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 7:13, that I thought described grace very well and how we access it. Grace isn't just for after we die. Grace is for today. Grace is for right now.

Love, Elder Record

Elder Record waiting for the ferry to Ketchikan

Cruise ship in Ketchikan

Ketchikan, AK

Work in Juneau

Hello Family! We are here in Juneau and life is amazing. The trees here are beautiful. We got to fly in and see the ocean. It smells great here – not inside the building, but outside the building. Right now I'm looking at a waterfall that's really little. Apparently there were bears outside yesterday at church. It's so green. I'm pretty happy and excited to be here.

When Elder Zwick came here, he said that we should begin setting goals, not just with ourselves for the work we are doing, but we should be setting those goals with the ward. So we came up with a system for recording that. I have a little card that I can fit in my planner. We meet with our ward mission leader and have goals and people in mind. We talk with him about people he thinks, along with us, that we can teach and find – goals like that. So it's pretty handy because I think it will get the work going a lot. Instead of just being us planning the goals, it will be a whole bunch of people planning with us. It will make things easy and make more things happen, and they will be updated all the time on how things are going so they will constantly have it in the back of their head. So it looks like missionary work will definitely progress, especially in the ward we are at.

I love Rabbit Creek ward, and Brayton Ward, but Rabbit Creek ward give the best. They have like 20 to 25 active priests. It's insane! We took them to the mission home and had that little fireside. We have been taking them out teaching with us. We have gone over to all the priests' house teaching the lessons to them too, so they could see them and how it works. In Rabbit Creek, we have like four potential investigators. The members are setting up lessons for us. So, that's pretty cool. It's exciting to see everybody excited.

What else is super awesome about this week? We went to Fairbanks. That was pretty cool too. I got to be in my old area a little bit, and help them reconnect with a couple of people. It was warm and sunny and hot. We then came back to Anchorage, and it was not. Now it's kind of warmer. Juneau is like 60 degrees. There is like a cool breeze that comes off the ocean; it's so nice.

Let me look at my planner. What other cool things happened? We are starting transfers to look at where people should go. That's fun. It's kind of weird though; it's like I'm picking my next companion, so that's weird.

On Tuesday we got to go and see one of our investigators, who is super awesome. He could totally get baptized, if he realized he was ready. Right now he wants to take a step back and make sure he understands the Bible, which … I don't think anyone understands the Bible; okay well maybe some people do. Anyway, we are going to study with him and cross reference things with other scriptures, and help him understand and come closer to Christ. Hopefully as he does that, he will feel more confident and want to study the Book of Mormon and ask if it's true. It's either going to take him a long time to be baptized or not very long at all.

We got to help a recent convert move some of her stuff around. We got to know her two kids. They are probably going to let us come by and teach them. They are not members of the Church yet. Anyway, that is how the week went. It has been super busy because we have been meeting usually with President Beesley, with any spare time that we had.

I love you all, bye.

Love, Elder Record

Volcanoes

Due to the recent reports of volcanic activity in Alaska, I thought I would share a map of the volcanoes relative to Elder Record's location. The volcanoes are pretty remote, and I don't expect Elder Record to report any problems this Monday.

For more information, read the CNN report "Alaska volcano 'fountaining' with fire, spreading expansive ash cloud".

View Mt Pavlof in a larger map

Mother's Day

[NOTE] We had a great visit with Elder Record yesterday. He was able to talk with his Mom who was traveling back to Utah from Arizona. The rest of the family followed up with a call on speaker phone.

Since I talked to most everyone, I'll just write about a couple experiences I've been having. We went to go contact a referral this week in the Brayton area. We had one of the Priests from the Rabbit Creek ward with us. It was kind of funny because we thought we went to the right place but we ended up going to the wrong address. The people there weren't the people we were trying to contact so we asked if we could share what we had with them. They said no, so we asked if they knew anyone who would. They told us to go see the people downstairs. So we went to go see them. A little girl answered the door so we asked if her mom was there. The mom came and invited us in and we taught her the message of the restoration. She invited us back to teach her with her husband how that message will bless our families. It was really neat to see. It's the first time I can remember being invited in from the doorstep and then being able to come back. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share the gospel and it's an amazing feeling to be able to talk with someone about it who wants to know.

We also had the opportunity to be a part of [Name withheld]'s baptism. He was baptized and confirmed by a young man in the ward who is about to go on a mission. Wes also received the priesthood from his little brother who ordained him to the office of a priest. Wes bore a powerful testimony. You could tell how much he loves the Lord.

Love you all =) Happy Mothers Day again to all the wonderful mothers! Thanks for all you do in helping us to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love, Elder Record

Flight Itinerary

We just received Elder Record's flight itinerary. He arrives at Salt Lake City International Airport on Wednesday, 24 July 2013 at 7:57am. We are so excited! That's Pioneer Day!

Hola! Mi Familia

Hola! Mi familia. This is Elder Record and Elder Martinez. Elder Martinez just celebrated cinco de mayo. He is from Mesa, Arizona, Mom.

There is a family in this ward who is kind of less active. We are hopefully going to go and see them some time this week. They are from the colonies. They got out of the polygamist colonies in Mexico. This person's mother was born in Chiuaua, Mexico. So, maybe they know some of our predecessors that were from there. I am excited to talk with them.

We just finished a lesson with this guy who is going to get baptized this weekend. He is so awesome! He is full of the Spirit. He studies and prays. He is just an honest seeker of truth. He is just a good guy and soaks it all in like a sponge. It is so much fun to talk with him because … well you know how I get, like when I get way excited talking about a topic I've been studying. Well, he is the same way. It's fun to talk with him because we just start talking about the topic. He's awesome. He is so ready! Hopefully we will get him introduced to a little family history so after he's baptized, he can go be baptized for some of his ancestors. Hopefully they accept those ordinances on the other side that were done on their behalf.

There are tractors. It is break up. They are getting all the dirt off of the grass. They don't spray salt here, they spray dirt and rocks – because it gets too cold I guess. Because of so much snow, I think it's more of a traction issue than wanting to get rid of the snow – because it's just going to be here (haha).

[Name withheld 1] and [Name withheld 2] are awesome! She is an active member, and she has got a strong testimony. These people are amazing! We go over like twice a week. They are just so spiritually minded. [Name withheld 1] is a non-member, but he is coming along. Right now we are on the topic of the Plan of Salvation. He is just soaking it in like a sponge. He loves it. Great people! The Spirit is always there so strong when we go, and it's so much fun to be there. That gets me super excited (haha).

Life is good. I have never been this busy in my entire life! We go from one thing to the next – boom, boom, boom; covering two wards. We go home and go to sleep, and then start first thing in the morning again. We just keep going and going. It's super fun. It's fun to be around President Beesley because he is so cool, and Sister Beesley is so cool too.

It's fun to see all the missionaries too, and to help them out. We got to call some of the new missionaries that are going to be coming into the MTC and arriving in June. We will call more later. We get to make a lot of trips to go on exchanges with new missionaries and zone leaders out in different areas. Here in a little bit – I think the week of the 27th – we are going to go fly out to Juneau, Ketchikan, and then I think we will go to Metlakatla too. We will come back to Juneau and then Anchorage. We are also going to go up to Fairbanks and probably Soldotna.

It's fun and just great to serving the Lord and be helping people out. We'll talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Record

New Assignment, No Sleep

Hello everybody! This week on Tuesday, we got a text from President Beesley that said to meet with him. So I went and talked to him and he called me to be the next assistant to the president. So I've been busy, crazy the whole week. It's actually been super fun because we got to be a part of transfers. The transfers were basically already done. The two assistants will be going home this transfer, so they needed to call two new ones. Anyway, they were already doing the transfers, and they got everything figured out where they wanted everybody to go. So, then we came in and reviewed it with them. We gave some of our suggestions and changed a couple of minor things. Then we took it to the temple, and thought about it, and prayed about it, and then we came out and discussed any changes we thought we needed to make. There were a couple. We then prayed about each missionary, for their new area and asked the Lord to bless them. So it was pretty cool. It was a really neat experience.

I prayed pretty hard for the Lord to strengthen me because of the lack of sleep I get sometimes.  But my lack of sleep is nothing compared to President Beesley.  He one of the most humble, patient, forgiving, diligent, and kind people I know.  I'm so happy to be able to serve around President Beesley.

I think this mission is one of the worst as far as logistics; as far as moving people around. It is just so big and so much needs to happen. In other areas of the United States, the seventies are only there for one day, but here they usually extend their time to three days, but usually that's not even enough. That is really cool because I get to be here as an assistant when Elder Zwick comes. That will be fun. I'm excited about that. So anyway, with logistics, we have been working really hard on those. I had to spend a couple of late nights. So, I'm super tired. But, it's super fun and happiness, because I get to be around President Beesley all the time.

Elder Record, Brother Swensen and Elder Terry

My companions are awesome, and I'm going to miss them. It was kind of fun because I got to call them and give them their logistics.

I got introduced to a couple of people in my new area. I'm going to be covering the Brayton and Rabbit Creek Wards, the two southern most wards in the Anchorage Stake. I went to a couple of lessons with Elder Duvall and Elder Durfee. When I was in one of the lessons, this guy had kind of been lingering and wanted to finish reading the Book of Mormon before he got baptized. Then we were talking with him, and for the first time in a year since his motorcycle accident he's going to be able to go back to work. However it won't be until September before he actually goes back. So he said he wants to be baptized before then. He is going to be baptized on May 11^th. We were really excited about that. It will be one of the first things that happens when I get into the new area. We met some good people, and it seems like there are a lot of people prepared that I will get to work with.

Our investigator that I talked about last time got married, and he is going to get baptized this Thursday. He asked me to baptize him.

Life is hectic, and it will continue to be hectic because we are going to go today – I don't really get a P-day, but I'll get to email. I will then be helping with the new missionaries coming in – their orientation and everything like that. So I will probably have a few late nights until about Wednesday. But, I get to sleep in until 7:30am because we are staying up late because it's crazy and busy and the work just needs to get done.

This has been a weird winter. It has snowed really late. It's cloudy and bright outside. I can see... well I guess I can't see the sun, but it can see the brightness of the sun, but I can't see the sun. It's a beautiful morning. I sing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” every time I leave the family history center on Wednesdays... and every time I leave district meeting. Anyway, good bye. I love you everybody. Have a great week.

Love, Elder Record