It's a beautiful Sunny Monday here in Anchorage, Alaska!

Hey ya'll!!!

So I'll just get straight to the point, yesterday was AMAZING! Miracle of miracles doesn't even explain how great it was! :) Three nonmembers at church, and a part-member family with a son that wants to get baptized!!! Sister Hatfield and I were so full of joy it was leaking out our eyes. I think I said about 23 prays of thanks! I am just so grateful to be the witness of all these miracles! So yes, it was amazing. :)

ALSO- fun story! The bishop of the ward here (Bishop Esplin) is Steve Chamberlain's cousin! Also, he grew up in Nephi and his dad knows Grandpa Dalley. Gotta love those small world mormon connections!  

They keep calling me "green" here. I wonder what color I'll turn after I've been out here a few more weeks... (Joke..) ;) 

The weather here has just been gorgeous. I think I mentioned before I feel like I live in a snow globe! It's just beautiful! We were driving home the other night and it was just lightly snowing and you could see it from the street lamps.. breathtaking! It reminded me of when it was snowing at Disneyland and was so magical. So yes, I love it! It's been really warm. I don't think I've seen it even drop in the negatives and it's been slowly getting lighter and warmer outside. I noticed this morning it was light outside at 8:00! Today was super sunny too, I think it was in the upper twenties. So now you're up-to-date on the exciting weather... haha moving on... 

The ward here is great. I am blown away at there incredible efforts on helping the missionary work go forth. They love feeding the missionaries too, haha I can only think of maybe one night that we didn't have a dinner appointment. They are very generous!!  

The Bush branch is great as always too! The lessons via skype and the phone are wonderful as well! I really love those bush branch members and I'm always blown away with their faithfulness despite being so far away from other members!

That's fun that you saw that picture online at the iditorod service! I meant to tell you to look it up so you could see it (maybe I did?)! Haha I'm glad you could recognize me. :) We are also volunteering when the dogs actually run by (COOL RIGHT?!) so I'll have to take pictures. I'm still not sure how to send picture but hopefully I'll be able to figure it out...  

I was so excited to hear about the new missions!!! I've heard there are 20,000+ more missionaries that are serving than they anticipated! So exciting! I feel so blessed to have a small part in bring forth this work!

Dad also asked about my living arrangements and travel arrangements! We live in a little apartment that's part of the basement of a person's house (a Polish family to be exact) and we are spoiled.. a dishwasher, washing machine.. etc. it's great! I'll have to take a video and send it home to give ya'll the grand tour! We drive a car, not a truck, but there are plenty of other companionships (usually Elders) that drive trucks. We drive everywhere..so I'm grateful for the first 30 minutes of the day to exercise since we don't get much of it the rest of the day. haha 

So here is a great talk everyone ought to look up! Check out "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox! It was a BYU devotional given in 2011 and it changed my life! Also mom, if you don't mind posting it to my Fbook that would be great!

Sister Hatfield has been getting me addicted to kicking cars..haha you know when there is a build up of snow and ice under a car and you kick it off? People of Alaska always have a build up of ice under there cars so whenever we're driving we always point to a car and say "how badly do you want to kick that car??" haha trust me, it's an addiction.. haha

Always thanks for the awesome emails! It's fun to hear from my favorite people down in the lower 48! Keep up updated on the great states of Colorado, California, and Utah!

Love  ya! 

Sister Hedelius  

 

Service for the Iditarod Feb. 15, 2013- picture purchased from the Iditarod Website

I'm in Rabbit Creekk!!!

Hey ya'll!

First of all, SISTER HATFIELD IS MY TRAINER!!!!!! I just love her so much! We get along super well which is sooo nice. She's great and teaching me so much. :) I honestly lucked out and can't think of a better trainer. We are constantly laughing and having a blast. This week has honestly been one of the best weeks of my life! ALSO, Alyssa, you trained her sister, Sister Anderson! Small world. But yeah, she's great! 

As my subject reads, I'm in Rabbit Creek!!! It's a little area super close to Anchorage and I love it! It's one of the more difficult areas of the mission because it is the super nice part of Anchorage but we're working hard. 

We also cover the Bush branch which is really interesting!  The Bush branch consists of all the members in Alaska in little villages all over Alaska. To have sacrament meeting and all other meetings they call into the same conference call type thing and listen to the meetings. Yesterday, for example, there were like 40 people all on the same line to listen to sacrament meeting. cool huh? It's seriously amazing. To teach people in the Bush branch we skype or call, and we actually have a nonmember (Billy) that has been calling into the Bush the past year and we committed him to baptism when we talked to him this week!!! It is difficult to work out a place and time etc since he lives in a little village in Central Alaska, but his spirit is so strong and it's not hard to see how much Heavenly Father loves him. 

In some ways I can't believe I've been in Alaska for only a week, and in other ways I can't believe it's already been a week since I got here. Time is different as a missionary, something all you RMs can relate to I'm sure. haha

Because Sister Hatfield and I live so close to the mission home we get to help out Sister Beesley a lot which is a blast! We see other missionaries all the time which is nice and fun to talk to them to see how the work is going in their areas. :) The APs are always here which is fun too because they are awesome! I seriously love it here! We're actually at the mission home today writing emails because of the holiday. (Happy Presidents Day everyone.. hahaha ;) ) You know, at first I was a little disappointed I didn't get to go to some crazy place, but I'm seeing more and more the benefit it is to be in Anchorage, and how much I really need to be here now!

Breanna asked about the temperature and it hasn't been too bad! Maybe in the 20s most of the week. It is pretty consistent on the temperature. I.e. it's not like Utah where it's 2 degrees in the morning and 85 in the afternoon haha. Also, we are gaining 30 minutes of sunlight every week so the sun was actually out when we left our house this morning! Crazy! We did go tracting the first night and it was pretty cold, but yeah. I'm fine. :)

It's GORGEOUS! I mention that to Sister Hatfield like five times a day. haha we left our house one morning and it was so nice. The sun was shining and it was lightly snowing and I about cried because it looked like a postcard!!!

I saw my first moose this week too! I think it was Thursday.. It was on the side of the road by the highway eating a tree... hoping to see more eventually!

We ate Valentines dinner at a lady's house and I guess a grizzly broke into her house a few months ago and made a mess in her kitchen. I heard the bear was huge too and when we went to her house you could see where the bear got in. Cool huh? But don't worry mom, the bears are sleeping right now. :) Hoping to see bears in a few months though... :)

Oh cool story! Matt Wright (one of my GHA friends) is here in Alaska! I didn't know he was serving his mission here, but sure enough! It was great to see him and catch up!!!

Thanks again for all your love and support. The package was so great too! The fun Valentines surprises were so fun too! I just love you all! 

Don't forget how much I just LOOOVE the letters! I just love em! Keep them coming!

Enjoy your holiday!

love,

sister Hedelius

P.s. Since Sister Hatfield and I both have last names that start with H we call ourselves H^2.  We were prayed for as H^2 this week at dinner. haha :)

Safe and sound with snow all around!

Here is a quick note to let you know I'm safe and sound.

It was great talking to you. I'll email you in a while :)

Alaska is GORGEOUS. :) Can't wait to get to work!

Love,
Sister Hedelius

Guess where I'll be in a week!!!

Hey everyone-

So we got our travel plans Thursday and I've been anxious to hop on a plane ever since then.. needless to say, I'm excited. :)

Thank you so much for all the letters and support! I can't even begin to tell you how much they all mean to me! :) Hopefully I'll have more time to email in AK but if I don't.. know I really appreciate them!

Not to draw unwanted attention to dad, but I do hope you're doing okay. Sounds like between dad's black eye and Bryce's there was a lot of excitement this week. :)

So several people asked about the food, and it's been good. haha. Remember how I told you that there is a lady who makes all the Jello? I saw her this week but I haven't had any jello yet! haha also I've noted the suggestions of those who've gone before me and not had any of the orange juice. haha OH and I had a delicious sandwich for lunch. I don't think it qualifies for a sammich though because I timed the lady making it and it only took her 4.2 seconds.. haha Also due to the fame that the BYU Cookies and Creme milk has in our home, may it also be noted I had that with my breakfast. And in the words of Jacob's friend, "I could hear myself getting fatter as I drank it."  haha

Well enough about the food.

My day-to-day schedule usually consists of 6 hours of class time, 50 mins of gym time, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Zone teaching for 90 minutes and studying in  between. Pretty exciting huh? haha Bryce asked if it was a lot like EFY and I would say yes times 50!!! The spirit is so strong all the time and you learn so much in the classes. As excited as I am for Alaska, I'm really going to miss the MTC.

My district is AMAZING. Mom asked a little bit about them.. there are 2 elders going to Alaska, Elder Bradshaw (who dad apparently knows of. Also fun fact, he was the two time state champion for the Big Mac Challenge.. haha), and Elder Davis (spiritual and physical giant-he is 6'9"!), the four elders going to Alabama are Elder Hall (Alyssa Hall's cousin!), Elder Christensen (he went to snow!), Elder Johnson (went to USU and has been telling me how much I need to go there haha), and Elder Scott (hilarious. His humor just cracks me up. haha) The sisters are my companion, Sister Grayson who I told you about. :) She's great! Sister Archer (also going to Alaska, she's from Bountiful!) and Sister Houston (she's going to Alabama and I'm really going to miss her. She can get me laughing forever haha.)

I'm really impressed with all the Elders at the MTC. They have been really respectful with getting the doors and taking our meal trays. Crazy fun fact, in a few weeks there will be more Sisters than Elders at the MTC!!! Who would have thought that day would ever come?! haha

That was exciting to hear about all the mission calls that have been issued! Be sure to tell everyone congratulations for me!

Dad and Jacob both mentioned in their letters about the big conferences. I LOVE those so much. I think they're my favorite part of the MTC. We had Sister Burton come last Sunday (R.S. General President) and she talked to just the sisters, and then last Tuesday Elder Layton of the 70 addressed us. We have devotionals every Tuesday night and I'm already looking forward to the one in 4 hours... :)

I look forward to talking to those who I'll be able to talk to next Monday! Keep praying for the missionaries, I appreciate the support!

Love ya,

Sister Hedelius!!!!!!