It's been great to hear from everyone! Thanks again for the love and support etc that was shown for the seven week break I was home. :) I sure am blessed to have great people. Apparently the little people are just leaving the rest of us in the dust with their indexing too! Oh my heck.. over 10000 each?! Before we know it they'll index as many people as are living in China!
I was so sad to hear about Brady Simon's death. Please give the Simons my condolence and love.
So I have spent this week in the Brayton ward! The Brayton ward is right next to the Rabbit Creek ward and due to a recent ward boundaries change the Brayton ward now includes a portion of the old Rabbit Creek Ward, so I was able to see several people I know this this week from my first area which has been really fun! I also was able to see several people from the Turnagain ward including the Wills, S's family! She gave me five great big hugs and told me about her baptism! She told me how warm she felt and how she just felt fuzzy the whole week afterwards! I also got to see L which was awesome! She told me she's been to church three times now!!! That was so exciting to hear! It's not hard to tell that Sister Platero and Clark have been working hard and doing a great job in continuing the work!
I've been with Sister Bullen and her companion is with Sister Frazier who came down early for doctor appointments before she ships home to Utah tomorrow. The timing of me getting here couldn't have been more perfect. Sister Bullen came out the transfer before me so we know each other pretty well! She's probably one of my best friends out here so we've had a blast this week!
It's been chilly, but has started to warm up a bit! We have been plugging our car in every night though (hence the subject line ;) ) but as I gaze out the window the snow does cover the ground beautifully! Sister Bullen was telling me the snow came pretty much overnight! The darkness is going to take some getting use to though... It was weird driving to ward counsel yesterday at nine when the sun hadn't even risen yet! It looked like it was time to climb back into bed! haha :)
So my next area will be the Inlet View ward! My new companion, Sister Dill, and I will be whitewashing Sister Claspell and her companion out, which will be nice because I know they'll do a great job leaving notes for us! I love whitewashing so I was secretly hoping I'd be able to whitewash again just because I love the fresh eyes it gives the ward since we're both new- that wish came true!!! The Inlet View ward is right next to the Turnagain ward, so we'll be in the same district as Sister Platero and Clark (both of which are staying in Turnagain again) so it will be fun to hear about the happenings of those great people! The Inlet View ward is one of two wards in Alaska with so much missionary work that they have a set of Elders and Sisters there to handle it all, I'll for sure be really busy! My old district leader will be in the Inlet View Ward as well so it will be helpful to work with him and his new companion. I'm really excited to work in the ward, I've already met some of the people and I've only heard wonderful things about the ward, bishop, ward mission leader etc. So I'm excited to jump into the work! Sister Dill is really amazing too and I'm looking forward to working with her! She turned down a basketball scholarship to serve a mission, so she's given up a lot to be here, and she's like at least six inches taller than me. haha but it should be really fun! We'll be living with A's who are a family in the Turnagain ward that I know well because he is the High Priest group leader in the Turnagain ward, so that should be great! I'm looking forward to an exciting transfer!
So Sister Bullen and I had a neat experience this week! When we were going though the list of people the bishop had asked the sisters to see, there was a lady in particular that we felt impressed to see. We had a hard time finding her because she lived inside of a house.. Her and her middle-aged daughter live together in a little room smaller than the bedrooms in our house with three cats and a dog. All of their earthly possessions are in this room and not to mention they each struggle with medical difficulties. As we were crammed in this little room and as I looked around, this feeling of optimism just radiated from this lady as she sat on her bed and told us about her life. She'd tell us about a struggle and follow up with "but I'm so grateful for the atonement and the healing power it has". It didn't matter if it was a death of one of her children, or realizing her husband has been unfaithful, her knowledge that the Lord loves her was unbreakable. She is inspiring, and an example to each of us that our situations doesn't stem from if we are loved or not, but that Heavenly Father's love covers each of us.
So I'm emailing here at a Mac store that a member in the Brayton Ward owns and this amazing Christmas music is playing.. and no it's not approved.. but what are my ears suppose to do?? But anyways, if my email is a little difficult to follow it's probably because my brain is singing along to Michael Buble as I type this. haha :)
So I'm not sure what my Thanksgiving plans are, but I'm sure I will not starve. :) haha, I'll have to let ya'll know what happened next week since I won't be in the area until tomorrow. :) I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! How fun everyone will be together! And hopefully Nano Bead will be able to get over the facial hair phobia, or it might be a interesting week.. ;) haha :) I know seeing that mustache after I jumped off the plane at the LAX sure made my day. I can't believe I'll be skyping ya'll a month from today!!! Wow! It seems like just last week that I saw you guys!.. wait.. haha :)
Well here's wishing everyone a wonderful week and a tasty Thanksgiving!
Love,
Sister Hedelius
