Letter from Jan 23

Jan 23, 2012

My dear Parents, and any other familia that happens to be around...I'm sitting at my counter in our kitchen.  I just ate some smoked salmon that Carleen gave us last night.  Carleen is young and hilarious.  She took our pictures a week ago and is editing them and we'll send home the dvd of them.  Hold on.  I just cooked some $1.69 frozen lasagna - microwave dinner - and I'm gonna go eat it.

So last night we went over to Carleen's for dinner and she'd cooked us food storage rice and beans like she said she would - ha ha - but added spam and garlic to the rice and also cooked nachos and moose bacon and we could eat with our fingers, nuthin fancy, cuz we're super comfortable with Carleen.  So we went over to this family's house after Carleen's and just sang and played piano, well I played, simply "to bring the Spirit in".  We sang Primary songs and sang and laughed.  Sometimes we just need to go over to families' houses spontaneously as missionaries cuz the parents need a boost and so do the kids.

It is not quite so cold today, about 10°F and there is no wind :) it's quite nice, I just had my pea coat on, I was okay.  I'm wearing my maroon wool sweater I got from Mary, my rose-colored downeast t-shirt, my wood bead necklace I got from Mama, my tan skirt that Mama and I love, my blue spandex leggings, and my wigwam socks.  Hee hee. And my Cate the Great boots.  But only when I go outside.  I can slide those on and off quite easily.

Since we were gonna go to Anchorage today but now we're not, we called the family that was gonna feed us just to let them know, also telling them it's okay if they already made plans, we have plenty of food.  Well the husband was sick but the wife insisted we stop by so she can give us some $ so we can buy our own dinner.  She is the R.S. president.  We are very grateful to her.  Sometimes we actually don't mind not having a fam to feed us cuz then we can have a lazy dinner and take a quick rest during that hour so it's okay.  Hee hee.

This week we have a goal of putting C on date!  We weren't even able to meet w/her last week. Man. At church yesterday in gospel principles class the discussion about priesthood organization got a little deep and we asked her later, and yeah, it was all going over her head - oh no! I just bumped a picture of Jesus and it fell into the sink.  My goodness.  Anyway it's cuz this ward has too many talkers.  Smart people.  I was actually quite interested.  But the problem is, while C is smart - she hasn't even learned the basics yet - and sitting in on a deep, thorough discussion of priesthood organization - Samara, you remember, stuff about "quorums" - can be like sitting in on a calculus class when you're just starting pre-algebra. Sigh.  So yeah, hopefully everything will work out with her.

Well I just love my family.  And I love being in Alaska.  The sun doesn't rise very high and the sunsets are beautiful.  I've taken a few pictures.  I'm sending my memory card home in the package - it has some videos of me attempting to film the sound of the wind - I should have filmed in daylight when you can see the snow swirling like mist wraiths across the ground and blowing through the air like a sand storm and the trees going crazy.  Hee  hee.  My pea coat is so covered in animal fur.  Far away you can't tell.

I'm excited to study my study guides!  Well I mean the scriptures with my study guides.  Like it says in D&C 20:11...we gotta OBTAIN THE WORD!!!  Oh wait did I tell you A, la mujer mexicana, went to church yesterday?  And getting a translator was crazy.  Carleen said she couldn't translate a Sacrament meeting.  We called another woman and that was the night before - we left it to the last minute accidentally - and then in the morning her back hurt - so we called others - no go - we said prayers - she called back, said she felt okay to go :) :)  Prayers are answered - A sat with headphones and understood.  Love you!!!