Another awesome August Alaskan day!

Hello! 

We certainly have been enjoying the sunshine here in Anchorage this past week. I think that I mentally prepared myself so much for the snow and cold that I never anticipated the beautiful sunshine! It always catches me by surprise, but I’m not complaining. J

It’s been another great week in the life of a typical Alaskan sister missionary! Our investigators are doing well and the Turnagain ward is catching the missionary fire!! "N" is getting excited for her baptism on Friday and we’ll be seeing her and "E" a lot this week to make sure that things are continuing to go well. J

"C" is doing well too! We were happy to see him at church again this week and we’ve had a couple really awesome lessons! The ward already loves him and he’s continuing to do well. I’m always so impressed every time to see him and the huge life changes he’s making.

"I" was at church this week too!! "I" is a less active member (Sister "M" 's son-in-law) and he is so awesome! He’s wanted to come back to church, he is a convert and stopped coming to church after his baptism. He also wants to make big changes. He’s got an adorable little boy, and wants his son to be able to serve a mission and grow up in the church and he realizes how important his example is. It was great to see him at church!

COOL STORY: So every Tuesday night we go and visit the "Good" family. Monday night when we were planning on what we were going to teach them, the thought of teaching the restoration came to mind, so we were like-okay sounds great! So we got to the "Good"s and there was a lady named "P" there. We introduced ourselves and went into the lesson. We felt really impressed to direct the lesson to her and when we were finish teaching the lesson we asked her if she’d like to know more. She said yes and then saw her again on Friday! When we were talking to her she mentioned how she’s had some negative experiences in the past but she feels like within the last week “God’s been trying to talk” to her. So she prayed and asked that whatever He wants her to do, she’ll be able to figure out. She then made the comment, “who would have thought that within a week I’d be at the "Good"’s and you’d come over too.” It’s moments like that, that I realize how much Heavenly Father loves His children and He’s in the details of our lives. He knows "P" and loves her so much, and put us in her path to help her in her life. Pretty neat!! She’s doing great!

We also had a neat experience at a couple dinners this week. The first was at the dinner Wednesday, the couple that invited us over to dinner also invited a part-member couple over too, and after dinner we got into a really awesome gospel discussion. The husband of the couple that wasn’t a member had some questions about really knowing for sure if the church is true, and how to find answers.  At the end of the discussion we invited him to take the lessons and he said yes!

Dinner on Thursday was a similar experience. It was a part member family with a daughter that isn’t baptized. We mentioned the possibilities of teaching the lessons and they said that’d be great! So we’ll start teaching her this week as well as the dad who isn’t a member yet!  

Life is so good! Can’t believe it is once again the last week of the transfers (who knew six weeks could fly so quickly?!) We’ll see where the Lord needs me for the next six weeks, stay tuned till next week! Life is good and I am happy! It’s been the best transfer ever!!

Love you always!!

Sister Hedelius

J Have a great week!

Can you hear the water running?

Hi :)

Man, so this week is the opposite of last week-I don't know even were to begin! It's been the most incredible week ever and I hope I can share a small fraction of all the incredible experiences of the week!!! :)

So we are teaching three new people this week, all super solid and wanting to learn and be better!

1. We started teaching "N" on Wednesday! Before we got started I asked her if she had any questions. Her question was what it took to be baptized and what the fastest that she could get baptized! WHAT! She is incredible and very smart, she has the most incredible questions and I have learned so much from teaching her. She and her husband (her husband is a member) actually graduated the same year as me so it's been fun teaching them since we're very similar in a lot of ways, and seeing her make the connections to truths she already knows has been incredible. So she is getting baptized next Friday (the 30th)! Pretty neat yesterday we were talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we were talking about Enduring to the End, we brought up the temple and she told us that it was the temple that made her decide she wanted to be baptized, couldn't ask for a more perfect perspective. The temple is the goal and baptism is the gate to get there! She gets it! :) Apparently getting married in a castle and living happily ever after sounded like a good deal. ;)

2. "C" was being taught by some elders in a different ward because he had a friend in that ward. He noticed that there was something different about his friend and the friend told him that it was because of the church, and invited him to go! He is such a self motivated person, he feels the difference reading the Book of Mormon make and praying. He came to church at our ward for the first time and he mentioned how much he loved it! So glad! He's making some major changes in his life and even in the short time I've known him, it's very apparent that the gospel has already been blessing his life!

3. "D" was a media referral that we met on Tuesday! I felt an immediate connection to her because of her name, and she was so excited when we came by, she invited us right in. She already had a Book of Mormon and was telling us about how much she enjoys studying it. She also had a picture of the first vision and it was framed and sitting on her table! We taught her the restoration and we asked her what it meant to her and her comment was, "I feel like this means that Heavenly Father  is giving us one last chance before the Savior comes," pretty neat! Loved that she made the connection! Excited to continue meeting with her.

Elder Bednar came to Alaska this weekend too and we had a meeting with the missionaries and him on Saturday morning. There were also two member of the seventy and a member of the presiding bishopric. I don't know how else to describe it than, it was an experience. It was amazing to see him teaching exactly how I know the Savior would. I was asked to accompany a musical number too so that was pretty special. We were able to just take a hymn out of the hymnbook and arrange it, I felt like it went well and really brought the spirit. We had the opportunity to ask Elder Bednar questions and so I took the opportunity, in his response he gave me a specific assignment with permission to write him and tell him what I learned! Pretty cool, for sure taking that opportunity!

Glad to hear things are going so well for everyone!! Thanks for keeping in touch, your emails always brighten my day and keep me going!

Love,

Sister Hedelius

P.s. I have a short leg.

P.s.s. My district leader had a cool New Era article written about him you all might enjoy! It's worth looking for in my opinion, his name is Elder Nathan Free.

Polor Bears in Anchorage?!

Hi family!!

So I went to the zoo this morning! That was pretty fun!!! Unfortunately no pictures will be coming from that fun-my camera of six years has ran her last course (may she R.I.P.) but no worries-Sister Platero got some on her camera that I should be able to copy over at some point in the next few weeks! I'll have to figure out the camera situation at some point, but in the meantime-sit tight! (And yes-there was a polar bear that I was pretty excited about XD)

Missionary work has been booming in the Turnagain ward!! Unfortunately I don't have any super awesome stories or news to report YET-but we have a few lessons set up this week that should be incredible and some pretty golden referrals from some of the ward members that sound like they have some great potential!!! The elders in a few wards over have been teaching a guy that lives in our ward boundaries named Corbin that sounds pretty great and they'll be handing him over to us tonight! :) Brother Rigg has already been fellowshipping him so the handoff should be great and more news will be coming. :)

Zone Conference was a blast! Talk about a full-body workout!!! At one point they had the "mormon battalion" march off which consisted of a good majority of the elders and all the elders of our district, made me especially grateful to have four sisters in our district! Most of it was pulling handcarts through sand which is a little more difficult than the grass on the temple hill.. haha but I was a lot of fun and the spirit was strong. :)

We also went on exchanges on Tuesday! It was fun to be back with Sister Claspell and to catch up on the past few weeks! :)

Well-I guess I'm signing off! Know that I'm happy and I love being a missionary!!! Hope you all are doing great!

Love you lots!

Love,

Sister Hedelius

Happy August!

Hey all!

Thanks always for the emails this week! It's fun to hear how things are going down south and I appreciate your encouragement!!

So it's been a good week! Unfortunately Sister Platero has been sick so we didn't get to work very much on Saturday, but I was able to clean the apartment which was much needed!!!

I just love this ward so much! We are so blessed that there is a lady (Sister Mahi) who washes our clothes and has us over for dinner every Monday! Isn't she so sweet? She's a Hawaiian lady and has such a big heart. Also we have an incredible ward mission leader. He and his wife came out with us yesterday and we were able to teach a guy named (name withheld-I)! (name withheld-I)  has been investigating for a while, and his kids and wife are baptized but he hasn't made that step yet. We're not exactly sure why yet, but he's got a great heart and it was good to get to know him.

Apparently this was hang-out-with-the-missionaries-on-your-birthday week! Haha we were invited over three times by different people and then we found out it was their birthday!!! Made me feel like my birthday kept lasting all week!

Fun news for the week is.. it's Zone Conference!! This transfer we're doing a trek for Zone Conference and talking about modern day pioneers. :) It should be really fun! Each district gets a handcart, and it will be extra fun because Sister Claspell and Peterson are in my district! (it's been kind of weird having another set of sisters in the district!) But I'm excited! Also having exchanges this week so this week is full of all sorts of excitement!

Well hope you all have a great week. :) Thanks so much for all you do!

Love,

Sister Hedelius