Halloween in Alaska

Hey! hope you enjoy this email...Well this week was a pretty good week. There wasn't a whole lot going on Monday for P-day, but Elder Vailea and I went to the gym with a member to play raquetball. I had never played before and it was really fun. After raquetball the member made Elder Vailea and I race on these rowing machines. We each had to row for three minutes without stopping, and whoever had the best calorie burn rate won. Elder Vailea won, but it was a close second. He got 18 calories a minute and I got 17. I don't feel too bad considering he's a monster and I'm really out of shape. We both felt like crap after. I almost fell over when we were walking away, and both our legs were shaking pretty bad. It was pretty funny. We were both tired and just wanted to sleep after, but we still needed to go work. Tuesday it snowed finally. It only snowed for about 30 minutes and it didn't stick but at least it snowed. It's been clear skies since then. I guess it's really unusual for it to not have snowed this late. It usually snow in early or mid October I guess. This whole week has been extremely windy and cold. The wind was blowing so hard that lots of trees were falling over into some streets. It makes it really cold when it's already in the 30's and the wind is blowing 40+ mph. When we tracted our faces were getting frozen and it's weird to talk to people on their doorstep when you can hardly move your mouth. We were tracting the other day, and after we knocked on the door, the house alarm went off, and it was extremely loud. We just turned and walked away. I thought a cop or security car would pull up, so we went down the road a little ways before we continued. The alarm turned off after like 10 minutes and no security showed up. I'm sure it looked conspicuous when the alarm went off and there were two guys in dark clothes walking away from the house haha.

On Wedensday we had a lesson with Shawn. It was a really good lesson. We taught part of the 2nd lesson (The Plan of Salvation), and she had lots of questions and comments, so we will teach the rest tomorrow. It was awesome, because she said how she enjoys reading the Book of Mormon, and then told us that she knows deep down in her heart that the Book of Mormon is true. I was pretty happy when she said that. She just needs to see the importance of baptism and when she does I don't think she will have any hesitation in getting baptized.

It's amazing to see the kind of protection missionaries are given by the Spirit. We are put into lots of situations that are dangerous and uncomfortable, and I look back on them and see just how amazing the protection is that the Lord gives to his servants. There is a different kind of protection as a missionary than there was at home. From things that have happened to other missionaries, and things that have happened to me, I can definitely tell that the Lord preserves those who are fulfilling his purposes.----Anyways....Halloween went really well. We weren't allowed to tract, and nobody was home, so our best option was to go to the ward party. We had an investigator that went, too so that was good. We spent a lot of the day helping set the party up, and running back and forth between appointments. Elder Vailea and I had pretty good costumes; we were missionaries. Not just missionaries, but I was Elder Vailea and Elder Vailea was me. We switched name tags for Halloween and threw everyone off. That's about the best we could do haha. It was really cold and windy Halloween night, and it was funny to see people trick or treating the same way we did when we lived in Fargo. The parents would drive their kids around between houses, and the kids would run back to the car after each house. If I remember right though there was snow in North Dakota during Halloween when we were there.

Well, I'm enjoying my mission. This transfer is already halfway over, and it's amazing how fast time flies. I am learning a ton in my studying and in our teaching and working. I read a lot, and it's really my favorite thing to do, but how you really learn is by teaching and serving. I hope everything is going well for everyone and that you are all happy! Love Mat