A Great Week

This week has been great with a new transfer and again with Elder Piiparinen. It was a great start to a new transfer, but it was sad to to see the missionaries giong home. I was extremely close to that group. This week after transfers started out a little slow, and there were a lot of cancellations. Sunday made up for all of it. We were able to teach six lessons on Sunday, and we started teaching three new investigators. We also invited a man named Eloy to be baptized, and he accepted! He came to church and loved it, and we taught him right after church. He wants to be a member so bad, and he has great intentions. Elder Piiparinen and I had a great day, and we are looking forward to this week to continue teaching and finding. After this week things will be really busy with zone conferences, but I am looking forward to them. Alaska is a great place to be, and is definitely the best mission in the world. Hands down. Alright well I hope everyone is doing great. Have a great week!

Love Mat

Old/Old/New

It's been a very fast paced week as we've been getting ready for transfers. They actually take place today in about an hour. We just had a few minutes to check our email. Well, Elder Kerecman has one transfer left on his mission, and has been called to train a new missionary in a ward in Wasilla. That means I have a new companion--but he's actually not a new companion. I've never heard of someone serving with their MTC companion 3 times, but Elder Piiparinen was called to be my companion, and he's here with Elder Kerecman and me for the day. Elder Kerecman leaves in just a couple of hours, and then it will be back to work. We're pretty excited to serve together again, and we're even more excited to build the work in the Campbell Park ward. Time for round three! Well, I'm running short on time so next week will be more of an update. Have a great week!

Love Elder Squires

Cool Finding Experience

Hey Everyone. It's been a great week, and a warm one too. I think it got up to 45 F the other day. It was sweet! Now it's dropped again, but it was a good little break from the cold. This week Elder Kerecman and I worked hard to find and teach, and we had some great success. We've been able to see some great missionaries this week with a few meetings that we had. Church yesterday was awesome. More investigators attended than we've ever seen here in the Campbell Park Ward in the past few months.

We also had a really cool finding experience yesterday. We had talked to a woman at her apartment complex the other day, and she said we could come back a couple of days later. When we went back yesterday, her brother was at the door, and he was really excited to see us. He said he knew some great LDS members, and thought the world of them, and that he's been wanting to attend the Mormon church for years. He also said he wanted to get his hair cut and a nice suit on so he could come looking sharp. I almost thought I heard a chorus of angels singing hallelujah in the background haha. Anyway, the work is going great. We'll be spending much of this week with President Dance so not quite as much proselyting will be able to take place, but we will work hard with the time that we have. Have a great week!

Love Elder Squires

It's Already 2011!

I can't believe it's already 2011! 2010 was a quick year. This past week was fun with everyone recovering from Christmas, and then recovering even more from New Years. This year was the first in I think 25 years where it was legal to light off fireworks at home on New Years. It sounded like a battleground all night. I didn't think I was going to be able to sleep very well, but I fell asleep quick, and mortars are no competition against a sleeping missionary.

Elder Kerecman and I had a great week. We had another full 7 days of proselyting, which we were thankful for, because this week is when the fun starts with lots of meetings around the mission. We were able to find a lot of new people to teach this past week, and we've taught a lot more than usual. We are hoping that because we are finding and teaching so much, baptisms will start to follow. We've definitely been greatly blessed so far. On Thursday we had exchanges with the zone leaders in the Chugach zone, and I spent the day in Eagle River. It's so cool to be able to see different parts of the mission and be around so many missionaries. The next two weeks ahead will be fast, and another transfer will come to an end. Happy New Year!

Love Elder Squires