Transcription: 14 November 2011

Talofa everybody! This is Elder Record and today is the 13^th of November. Oh and I found out that if you really want to impress Samoans, and really want to say hello in a respectful way instead of just “talofa,” you can say, “Malo soyfua.” That's a very respectful way to say hello, and it means a lot to them. Anyway, we just had a blast this past week. The Samoan people are awesome! They're super nice, super friendly, and they treat us like family. It is so much fun to be able to talk with them and meet them. It's awesome, it's like we are starting to pick up Samoan and get excited about learning it. It's hard, but after a while, and with the Spirit, you start to be able to pick up the sounds – the vowel sounds – and things like that. So, it becomes easier to remember what they say instead of just hearing a bunch of vowel sounds.

It is kind of different here because the Polynesian ward is spread out over a bunch of different wards. Tracting is really not effective, kind of like it would be in Utah because you are trying to pick up non-members out of a bunch of members. Here it is like picking out a Polynesian out of a bunch of non-Polynesian people. A lot of stuff is done through referrals. The Polynesian people are amazing at that. It is like they found the truth and then they tell you, “now this person needs to know the truth.” They are very gung-ho about sharing the gospel with others because they care about them. I'm so excited to continue to work with them. It was awesome having Church in Samoan. I have to admit though towards the end – I was already tired – in Elder's Quorum I started to get a little sleepy.

Earlier in this week we went to the Canada Game Centre again on Monday and played football, basketball, and later did some singing with Brother McDonald. He used to be a professional singer. We had our last dinner with the Terperfields. They were awesome and gave me a super cool hat. It's solar powered and has lights on the cap and charges itself. Apparently it can last for days without being charged again. It's pretty cool – and it's a comfortable hat (haha). So I have to use it at some point. They also wrote me a letter, like a farewell card. That was nice.

On Tuesday we did a bunch of cleaning and packing. We listened in on the transfer meeting at 12:30, because we were not going to be transferring until Thursday, so we just listened to them (haha). We had to go searching for a bunk bed, because our bunk bed is not sufficient to hold two big guys above six feet. I'm little and pretty nimble, so I was able to get on the top bunk, but they are going to have to rip it down and get a new bed or they are going to have to rip it down and resize it (haha). [That will be interesting when they get up there. They left this morning to go back to Whitehorse.] On Tuesday night we had dinner with Sister Brown, and a lesson with some investigators. They were at the dinner with us. We talked about 1 Nephi chapter 8, and shared Elder Bednar's follow up article in the October Ensign, which was pretty good.

On Wednesday we did more preparations and opened up the Family History Center and did a little with that. We were able to have our last lesson with a different investigator. We read the Book of Mormon with her and encouraged her to read more on her own.

Thursday we drove all the way to Anchorage. It … yeah, I don't like driving (haha). That was a long ride. I was in Brother McDonald's car, so we sang pretty much the whole time. It was pretty fun (haha) to sing to my MoTab CDs and stuff.

We were able to go to the temple. I will be sending in a letter some of the names I wasn't able to finish. It was kind of neat. For Daniel Owen, I was able to get the baptism and confirmation done, and I was able to get the initiatory and endowment done all in that one day. I really felt the Spirit when he was being baptized. I just started bawling (haha), and I've never felt that before in the temple. So that was really cool, and I really think he is going to accept the gospel, and I'm excited to see how he does. Well, excited to not to see how he does because I won't see it until after I die (haha), but excited to think about it more and do more family history work on that side. Probably not on my mission, but we'll see.

I love missionary work. I love the Samoan people more than I have ever loved a group before. They treat me like family, and I love them with all my heart. I am so thankful to be able to serve with them and bring others to a knowledge of the goodness of our Savior. I love this work. I'm so glad I am able to be a part of it. I know that the gospel is true, and that our Savior, Jesus Christ, provided the way for us all to return to live with our Father in Heaven again someday.

Questions: 7 November 2011

What is your companion's (picture) home town, and blog url (if any)?

I have no idea

What is your current calling(s), Junior Companion?

Yes

What is the best mailing address to use in sending mail/packages?

Oh, ya. I'm glad you asked. Now that I'm out of Canada everyone whose sending me a package should send it to the mission office. Mail will be a lot faster and cheaper too =). The address is

3250 Strawberry Road

Anchorage, AK 99502

United States

What is your actual apartment (picture) address?

I leave on Thursday and maybe won't be in my new area until Monday, so I'll get back to you.

What is the name of the ward in which you serve?

Northern Lights Ward (Samoan)

2240 Baxter Road

Anchorage Alaska North Stake

Yes

Who is the bishop's name (family picture)? Bishop Filoialii?

Don't know yet.

Did you travel with Elder Hartman back to Anchorage?

I will be traveling with all four of us because it's the branch temple trip. The two new Whitehorse elders will ride back with them. Elder Hartman and I will stay in Anchorage.

Did you get any referrals during your transfer?

I'll have to wait and see =)

Are you learning Samoan?

Yes

Transcription: 7 November 2011

Hello Everyone, This is Elder Record and today is November 7^th and this is my weekly update. This week was kind of different (haha), it was pretty cool. First off, this is the last week of the transfer, and we knew that Elder Hartman would have been leaving – and he is – and we knew that one other person would be leaving. They had already said that Elder Bowes was going to be able to stay, so it was assumed it was going to be either me or Elder Johnson to leave. But, we both kind of thought that it was going to be me to leave. We were at dinner with the Hirsch family, and we got a call from President Beesley, so Elder Johnson took that. President Beesley basically told Elder Johnson everything that was going on, but he didn't tell us until he and I were in the car leaving. He told me where the other elders were going. Elder Bowes is going to be staying like we expected, and he is going to be having Elder Duncan as a companion. Elder Johnson said that I was going to be leaving (haha), but he wouldn't tell me where, and he wouldn't – which was good – until the next morning when President Beesley was going to call us officially with our transfer calls. Elder Hartman is going to Anchorage to be in the Klatt Ward. I think that's South Anchorage, I'm not sure. That is where Elder Bowes used to serve and that is where Elder Hartman's old companion was serving for this last transfer, but he is going to be switched out and Elder Hartman is going to be in there. That was so exciting, it was like Christmas (haha). We were all anxious to see where we were going.

I found out I'm going to the Northern Lights Ward or the Northern Lights/Chester Valley area. It's a Samoan ward in the Denali District of the Anchorage North Zone. Elder Johnson wouldn't tell me where I was going, but he just laughed and laughed, because he said that I was going to laugh when I found out where I was going. We would always joke, because I would kind of whine a little bit when we eat too much (haha), just because it's not fun to eat a ton if you're not using what you eat. We would always joke about how I would struggle to eat the food if I was sent to a Tongan or Samoan ward (haha). So that was so funny when I found out I was going to be going to a Samoan ward because they feed the missionaries like craazy. So, I'm really going to have to exercise a lot to be able to eat that much or find some way to not eat that much. That's just part of the culture. If you are going to go over there, they are going to make you food, so I'll be prepared. Yeah, I will probably exercise like crazy in the mornings and probably even at night. It will be fun. I'm excited. I will probably be learning a little Samoan, that will be pretty cool. That was on Friday. We did get our calls on Saturday morning where we were going. It was kind of neat because President Beesley told me, when he was telling me where I was going, he said, “Elder Record, the Lord wants you in the Northern Lights Ward.” I thought that was kind of neat too that it's not just where I'm going, but it's where the Lord wants me to go. So, I know that if I do my part and do my best, and work my hardest, that the Lord will be with me and He will provide the way for what needs to be done there. He will give me the help that I need, because He really has called me there.

Last Monday we went to the Thompson's for our last visit there. We'll probably be there again on Tuesday. We had a pretty competitive game of Monopoly (haha). It was very fun. It was unique. We love making deals. Whenever we play Monopoly with Brother Thompson or Elder Johnson, we always make a ton of deals.

We have been visiting with an investigator. We were able to give her a chapel tour. She's reading the Book of Mormon a lot, which is good. I expect at the rate she's learning and reading the Book of Mormon, she will get a testimony of it eventually, just by how sincere she is searching. I mean, how could she not? The Book of Mormon is very powerful. I will read every morning in it for about thirty minutes. Every time I read in the Book of Mormon, the simple truths really help focus your thoughts and help you feel the Spirit.

This week we get to go on the branch temple trip, and they are going down to Anchorage. That is how Elder Hartman and I are going to get to Anchorage – and the other missionaries too. So we get to go on the temple trip, and I am going to be doing some of our family names on Grandpa Record's side. I am going to do the work for Daniel Owen, and any other people I find. That will be pretty neat. I'm excited to go back to the temple. It's weird being out here where the temple is kind of far away. Where we're from, we will be having three temples within like fifteen minutes of our house. We are very lucky. The more I'm out here, the more I realize how much I love Utah (haha). I'm kind of bias. I love having the temples there.

This week has been really fun. It's been a weird week because we have had to do a lot of preparation for the new transfer – like updating our area book, and polishing that off for the new missionaries that come in. Elder Johnson is going to be having a companion, Elder Norris from Fairbanks. Elder Duncan, Elder Bowes companion, is also from Fairbanks. They are serving in Fairbanks, I don't know if there are from Fairbanks – I doubt it.

Last Sunday, the one before yesterday, a less active member came to church. We had never seen him before. That Sunday we gave the 5th Sunday lesson for the 3rd hour on Family History. It went really well, and apparently he was talking with brother Hirsch about family history just a little while before. Anyway, he called us and wanted to come to the Family History Center so we told him when it was open. He came, and I was able to help him find between 10 and 20 people that he could do the temple work for. It was so much fun to see his face light up. He was so excited. He couldn't wait to tell his friends and family about the family history center. It was so much fun to see how the spirit of Elijah rekindled the fire of his testimony. We saw him again yesterday in church and, oddly enough, the lesson was on Temple and Family History work. He enjoyed it a lot and had plenty to say now. =)

The gospel is true. I am so thankful that we have a loving Heavenly Father and that he ensures that none of us are forgotten. Everyone has the opportunity to hear and accept the gospel. I know the Book of Mormon is true. It was written for our day, and can give us answers to life's problems. I love my Savior. I know that his church was restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. I am thankful that we have a prophet today.

Transfer: 7 November 2011

We do not expect a detailed update tomorrow from Elder Record. He is being transferred to the Anchorage North Zone in the Denali District in the Northern Lights/Chester Valley area with Elder Spencer Curtin as his senior companion. He will be serving in a Samoan ward. We are not exactly sure yet if that means he will be learning Samoan or not. It appears he will be serving in the Northern Lights Ward (Samoan) with Bishop Filoialii. More details to come.

We are so excited for this new assignment the Lord has for him.

Summary of Whitehorse, YT

A summary of Elder Record's first area from 16 August to 14 November 2011. Pictures taken in Whitehorse start here. You can filter on all of Elder Record's Whitehorse letters written while serving there. Whitehorse was Elder Record's first area. He grew tremendously while serving on this assignment and looks forward to his upcoming assignment.

Companion:	Elder Brad Johnson
Callings:	Trainee District Chef District Photographer District Hugger
Location:	Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
Area:	Whitehorse North Area Whitepass District Juneau Zone Whitehorse Branch 108 Wickstrom Road Juneau Alaska Stake
Branch Leader	President Little
P-Day:	Monday
Info:	About Whitehorse
Appt Address:	159 Rainbow Road Whitehorse, YT Y1A-254 Canada
Mission President	President Jon S. Beesley and Sister Evona (SuuzE) Beesley

Questions: 31 October 2011

How did your week go as "senior" companion?

Good, it passed like any other week. =) Whitehorse didn't explode.

How long does it take for someone to be converted to the Gospel?

As long as it takes for them to want the gospel and make it a part of their lives. It could happen overnight or take years. For us, we determine that if they are keeping their commitments we invited them make to the Lord, they are progressing. It's all about progression because none of us can ever stop and say, "I've made it, now I'm done." I like the definition for conversion in the Bible Dictionary, and I found it is almost the same as the definition for repentance found in the same.

Eric: Do you know how big Elder Dean's plate was with the Oinker on it?

As big as a basketball hoop.

We made pumpkins with one of our investigators.

Elder Record's pumpkin master piece.

We got our district shirts today =),
Elder Record showing the new district T-shirts.

Transcription: 31 October 2011

I was so excited to hear about Lorielle going to Oklahoma. It'sss … oh man! … as soon as I heard she was going to Oklahoma it seems so perfect. It's like honestly, I keep saying this, it's like I knew she was going there. It's like I already knew that and had just forgotten. When I found out she had gotten her call there, I was like, “oh yea that's where she was supposed to be going – I forgot.” But it's soo perfect, I'm soo excited. It's going to be soo fun. I did the math and I'll be out just over six months by the time she comes out and so we will most likely be coming home within two weeks of each other (haha), which will be soo cool. I'll be coming home a little earlier. It's going to be so much fun. We are going to be able to email each other back and forth while we are on our missions and stuff and share mission stories. It's kind of different when I'm emailing home, there are certain things that would take too long to explain, but if I were to talk with Lorielle about it, she would know what I'm talking about, and she would be like, “oh yeah, I know how that goes.” She would know all the inside missionary jokes and things like that. That will be so much fun, I'm so excited for you Lorielle.

It's been so much fun out here. This week has been pretty fun. This week has been my “senior week.” I have been leading out basically in everything. I've been driving, I've been planning every night, I've been doing everything just about. It was so weird because before, I was so nervous and did not think I could ever do that. But like two days before I was going to start my “senior week,” I felt very confident and calm about doing this. As I've been through the week, it wasn't a problem. Everything just went by really smoothly. It was just like a normal week. I was surprised, but not really. It's like that amount of time for training was the perfect amount of time. It was almost as if, and I'm sure it was, the Lord had made it so that that period of time training was perfect for me. It has been, and the circumstances that we were in and stuff like that; I'm excited to see what happens.

This coming week is the last week of our transfer. So November 6^th, a Sunday, is the last day of the transfer. After that, Elder Hartman will be leaving Whitehorse and either me or Elder Johnson most likely will be leaving. We know there are two missionaries leaving, but it's all just guess work really. But, I am pretty sure we know two of us are leaving. Elder Hartman will be leaving because his visa for Canada is running out. Yeah, we'll see what happens and what the changes are. It will be exciting to see what happens.

Yesterday they had a Primary program and it was amaazing. They don't have very many kids, but the Spirit was there so strong, and it was just after the Sacrament too. So I had really felt the Spirit, and I was just bawling – not like crying, crying, but my eyes were watering a lot. I was sniffing the whole time (haha). Elder Johnson looks over at me and he just laughs. It was funny because he said that there was a point where he felt like his eyes were about to water, just because of the emotion of the Spirit that was there. He said that when that happened, he thought that “oh man, if I'm feeling like this, Elder Record must be bawling.” So he looks over at me and my eyes are watering and tearing up like crazy. He told me I do a pretty good job of not making it obvious that I'm doing that (haha). Anyway, it was very good, the Spirit was there very strong. The other elders had a couple of investigators there, and we had one there. I think it was very beneficial. We also had some less active members there. What a day for them to be there and to feel the Spirit so strong! The other elders' investigator told them later that everything they talked about in the Primary program and that they testified of was just about exactly the things the missionaries had been teaching him. So he was very impressed. It was a wonderful Sunday.

Last Monday was our P-day and we went to the Canada Game Centre and we played football (haha), and it was so much fun. I found out that I'm actually pretty good at football. Elder Johnson used to be a quarterback for SUU (Southern Utah University), so he's very good. He was saying how impressed he was with me, so I felt pretty good. It was fun to play football and be good at it I guess, because the other elders are really tall and they beat me in basketball pretty good (haha). It was good exercise. I was sore after that, but it was okay because it felt good.

We had our specialized training this week. I was lucky enough, since I'm Elder Johnson's trainee, to listen in on the district leader and trainer leadership training on Tuesday morning. I also got to be in the normal specialized training which was fun. They had me talk about family history a little bit on the spot (haha), which was all right. I feel like with family history, everything has been handed to me in my lap. I've had the desire to search it out and the determination to keep at it, and it seems like things have just been handed to me. I've become familiar with how things work in family history research along the way. So it's been beneficial. I'm not an expert by any means, but I'm familiar with it.

Elder Johnson and I gave training in the fifth Sunday meeting yesterday on family history. I made a slide show for the FamilySearch website. I basically based my portion of the lesson on President Packer's talk titled, “Family History: Getting Started” that was given in the Liahona magazine in August of 2003. It's a very good talk, and I definitely suggest reading it. It talks about getting started in family history and explains mostly what I talked about.

We have been meeting with one of our investigators. Initially it seemed like it wasn't going to go anywhere with her and her husband. But lately, we have just been persistent in reading the Book of Mormon and things like that, and she has been resolving her own concerns and progressing at her own speed, but progressing none the less. Brother McDonald has always had missionaries come to visit them, hoping that the new set of missionaries will be the ones for them. So they've had several missionaries teaching them over a long period of time. He has been saying that he is so excited and that he has been seeing the growth that they have made. He notices it, and he says it's significant. We have definitely felt like she is progressing, and hopefully she can help her husband out too. As they read the Book of Mormon, they will come to feel the Spirit of it and they will come to know it's true and their concerns will be resolved. Everything will just kind of fall into place as they study the Book of Mormon.

They also had a Halloween party on Friday. We helped out with this little haunted forest walk they had. I didn't, because I'm not very good at scaring people. The other elders hid behind a tree and would say “boo” at people and scare them. Elder Johnson was pretty funny. He is pretty good at scaring people (haha).

Today is Halloween. Things will be kind of different. We will be starting the day off in the morning at eight. P-day is going to end at four. We are supposed to be in our apartments at seven and do our studying then, so the night will end at seven instead of nine, because it's Halloween. Probably because it's kind of futile to go tracting on Halloween because everybody is trick-or-treating.

This week has been pretty cool and fund. Lots of new stuff happening. I'm excited to see what happens in the future. I was talking with President Beesley when I got permission to watch Lorielle's blog video, and kind of see the news about her. He asked where she was going, and I said, Oklahoma. He was very happy and excited for Lorielle and said there is going to be a lot more missionaries there than there are here. But, he said the work is going to be awesome out there where Lorielle's at – so he thought it was pretty cool (haha).

I hope everybody is doing good. In the video Eric seems to be a lot taller than I remember him. I think Chris looked about the same. Lorielle, she looks the same (haha). It was very fun to watch that. I cried during the video, just because I felt the Spirit strong. Missionary work is amazing. It's all about other people. It's fun to not focus on yourself, to have that opportunity to devote all your time to helping others and to help others be happy. So as long as you can remember that, it makes things so much fun. It's a wonderful experience. I can't wait for Eric and Chris to go, and maybe Annie. It will be an amazing thing when that happens. See you later, talk to you next week. Bye.