Hey Family!
Hope everythings going just great down there in the land of the prophets (thats what they call it up here) This week really has been amazing! Its kinda weird to think that i'm finally here!
Well since I really couldnt email you last week i'll kinda give you a breakdown... Flying in here was really cool. Looking out the windows of the plane you could see all of the mountains with all of the glaciers which i've never seen before so it was so cool! The airport's right by the ocean so flying in you could see that there still was a few ice chunks flowing around out there!
The temp when I landed was 48 degrees which was almost a 60 degree difference from when I took off!
Well I went and met the A.P.s and President Beesley and they took me to the mission office for training. It was a little weird since it was just me and they usually have about 10 or 15 missionaries but it was fun! Then I went to the mission home and ate dinner and I found out that I was getting sent to the Soldotna area in about a half hour. Elder Coombs is a zone leader down there and his comp was leaving a week early so me coming a week early actually worked out really well!
We drove down to Soldotna (4 hour drive) and got settled in. I never actually realized how huge and far away everything is up here! Soldotna looks like its just across the bay from Anchorage but its a way long drive! The drive to Soldotna honestly is breathtaking. Just like those pictures you only see on greeting cards.
The Alaska mission is by far the most expensive mission in the church. Everyone has to have vehichles because the houses are so far apart and so you go through gas pretty quick. Most of them are on dirt roads in the middle of the forest which is awesome! The mission cars are actually really nice and we have a 2010 Chevy Colorado. But for most of the transfers the elders and sisters have to fly in to their new area.
The whole sun not setting till 2am thing kinda throws me off but its pretty cool! I'm just a little worried for what its going to be like when winter hits...Anyways, The reds are running and everyday there were between 100,000-300,000 red salmon going up the river everyday! So everyone from Alaska who are trying to fill their freezers come down as well as all of the sport fishers from the lower 48 so it honestly is a zoo here! There's RV's parked in almost every parking lot and people even camping out on baseball fields!
The work up here is actually pretty good. My comp showed me a scripture that actually perfectly describes it: Jeremiah 16:16. All of the elders who go to South American and other places are pretty much fishers of men because they literally catch them by the net fulls but up here. We really have to be hunters up here because everyone is just hiding and we have to go find them.
People are up here in these isolated areas for a reason. They dont like to be found and they dont want to be bothered. I guess we kinda look like FBI agents in our suits so we've had some pretty... interesting experiences with some people. The work up here really is a lot of reactivating members. There seriously are HUGE amounts of inactives.
Everyone is so busy because of the salmon so its pretty hard to get appointments. I love Elder Coombs and i'm really lucky to have had him for a week. I've learned a ton from him and I feel like I am really starting to get in the swing of things.
This week I committed 2 people to baptism which was really cool! The only bad this is that we got transfer calls on Saturday.
I found out that i'm getting transferred to the Kenai Ward to get trained! Its really close to where I already am. I love it here so i'm so glad for that! Also if you haven't already figured it out thats the exact same area that dad started in! Getting up here on his birthday was pretty cool but starting in the same area he did is just amazing.
They're whitewashing the area which means that both of the elders there are leaving so we pretty much have to start from scratch. Its going to be a lot of work but i'm really excited for it.
So I have to drive back up to Anchorage today to meet all of the other greenies coming in and go to training (again) with them. Then tomorrow i'll meet my trainer and we'll come back down. He's supposed to be one of the best so i'm really lucky.
Anyways... Do you know who Brenden Frasier is? Well my comp is really obsessed with him and he was staying with one of the members in our ward. Even though I have no clue who he is I thought it would be pretty cool to give him a Book of Mormon. My comp was freaking out and saying that he wouldnt do it so I ran up to the door and of course he had to come with. I knocked on the door and started talking to some people but the Frasier guy left to fly home just a few minutes before... Dang!
So I know how I was complaining about the food at the MTC... well let me tell you. I'm going to send some pics home of what I eat for breakfast and lunch and you'll understand what i'm going through. Words cant even begin to describe. But we've had a ton of salmon that have been just caught that day. My favorite way it has been prepared so far is to grill it on tinfoil and then just to put a lot of lemon pepper and garlic salt!
So since the salmon were running we decided to head down to the river today and catch our limit. We got down to the river only to find out that yesterday was pretty much the last day the reds were running so we caught NOTHING! (of course it stopped on our P-day) But the Silvers start running in a few weeks so hopefully i'll be able to fish then. Anyways i'm sorry this is so long but there's just been a lot going on!
Love you guys!
-Elder Brown
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