Elder Mike Brown: Norther Lights

Hi Family!

Well another week is gone, and in just a few more days I'll officially be able to count how many months I have left on my two hands! I was just sitting next to Elder Nielson who was bugging me because he can count how many weeks he has on both his hands. So i guess I'm not that close to coming home but I'm getting there! It's so crazy thinking about how Kate only has 3 months left. You're going to have to start planning her Homecoming party pretty soon! I'm a little bummed that I'm not going to be there when she gets back, just because she's going to be so weird! Hopefully I'm not like that, I guess we'll see!

So I guess there was a pretty decent sized earthquake just north of Anchorage this week. All of the missionaries were talking about how huge it was, but to be honest I didn't even feel a thing! There's been quite a few since I've been out but I haven't even felt one yet so I guess there just needs to be a REAALY big one so i can feel it! Apparantly the people in Anchorage felt it really good and there were a bunch of things falling off of buildings and stores.

So I have to say I feel pretty bad. It turns out that the apartment that we moved the sisters into last transfer had bed bugs... BAD! The four sisters that lived there had pretty bad welts from the bugs sucking their blood in the night. It was pretty nasty! So this week we had to get a few companionships from the zone and move all of their stuff out of their apartment. Unfortunately a lot of their stuff had to get thrown away. Most of their personal belongings were sent down to Anchorage to this place that will kill off all of the bugs. We all wore shower caps on our heads and over our shoes so I'm really hoping that we don't get them in our apartment too!

Since Dawn's baptism is coming up this Saturday we spent a lot of time this week working with her! She's doing so great! Last week she was smoking 12 cigarettes a day and as of last Friday she's completely cigarette free and not even using a patch! Is so awesome to see how the Lord really does provide a way for us to keep His commandments if we have a sincere heart and real intent. With all of the sessions of General conference and her baptism it's going to be a pretty busy weekend so we're going to have to try and squeeze her baptism inbetween sessions.

Well some other good news is that hunting season is finally over!! You wouldn't think that it would really have that big of an impact on the work but it's crazy how many people are gone. Literally almost all of Alaska is gone in September. This week the Northen Lights were out so good! Last winter it was really warm and I wasn't able to see them a whole lot but they're SO COOL!!! I haven't had my camera with me when they've been really good so hopefully I'll be able to get some pics this week and send them back to ya!

Hope that everything's going awesome! I love you guys!!

-Elder Brown