Still heading south

28 September 2015

First, an observation. I have been heading south my whole mission!
From Fairbanks, to wasilla, to anchorage north, to anchorage south,
and finally ending in SOLDOTNA! (Anchorage folk call it slow-dotna,
cause it is a fishing town, and feels like it.)

I think I'll talk in pictures cause I have some grand ones.

First, apartment mold:

You know your apartment is wet, when it's not raining outside, but the INSIDE of every window is wet in your apartment.

Next, our INCREDIBLE ten mile hike we went on last pday. Ten miles :)

Moosen on the hike. We only saw five.

Hike again ;)

Then, Palmer on exchanges

Fall Fell

21 September 2015

Good thing it's 30 degrees every morning. But I'll tell you what,
Alaska pulls of the most BEAUTIFUL 30 degrees you've never seen.
(Cause most of you have never been hear at precisely this time).
Picture: snow dust dark framed spiked peaks, wearing a scarves of fall
colors around their necks, with a cyan blue sky and zero pollution to
dim it. Then picture me shivering without a coat trying to acclimate
myself for winter. Then you've got my life.

Just when I was about to die because of lack of sunshine, it finally
stopped raining. Just watch me get called to go to Juneau next
transfer.

This week we got teaching a fantastically prepared girl, she's half
black, half native, her name is Audrey, and she is the spunkiest,
funnest friend. Good thing we had to pass her off to YSA.
But hey I am not bitter.

As for our other sweet investigators: they have got to be the most
COMPLICATED cases I have ever seen. 99% of the time I am just at a
loss as to what to do with them. But Eve, though we weren't able to
meet with her last week, came to all three hours of church. We also
had one of the young women bring her catholic friend. I was praying
that sacrament would be something simple, like faith, that would be
easily understood by her (she's Buddhist and Thai if you've forgotten)
and so of course Heavenly Father tried my faith, By giving us a whole
sacrament meeting about the law of common consent, as pertaining to
sustaining church leaders, spoken by a very eloquent and intellectual
high councilman. You win some, you lose some.
But then (by sneaky request) we had a last minute lesson on baptism in
gospel principles. So it turned out alright.

Ooh.  Tender mercy: when I went to the temple, my Ward from Fairbanks
was there on a youth trip! It's the only area I've served in that I
haven't been able to go back to visit (probably because it's 500 miles
away) and it was so cool to see bishop, and a few other people. It's
been almost a year since I left there, and they still remember me. :)

Another cool thing. We've been working a lot with a less active, part
member family named the heckels. We go caroling as a district every
Saturday night and sing "nearer my God to thee" to people in our
different areas, and this week we went to the heckels. After we
finished, sister Heckel just broke down and it was one of the coolest
things, to hear her talk about how the lord had been reaching out to
her lately.

It's been a very up and down week, but so it goes! I love you!


Sister Galli

P.s.  We have been doing a lot of practices with the Book of Mormon
with members. How would you describe your favorite food to someone
who'd never tried it? Now try describing the Book of Mormon with the
same zeal, and don't be apologetic. :) it's a great old time. Now
carry a Book of Mormon with you wherever you go for the next week. Now
you are prepped to have a missionary moment!

Of moose and men

14 September 2015


Publisher's note: I think the photo with Laurel and Sister Watts below has got to be a missionary classic.Check out the freshener scent!




I ate so much moose for dinner last night.
It's also 40 degrees in the mornings now...and it's getting dark.
We run into moose on the daily.
It's rained rained rained rained.

And that's your Alaskan update.

So MIRACLES this week.

We went to a gas station and asked the guy working there if he saw
missionaries a lot. He did. Also he had a Book of Mormon. And he had
read some. Yes he had questions. Sure he'd like to meet with
missionaries again. His name was Brandon.

We went to another gas station to buy the product that we hadn't been
able to buy at the previous gas station. The lady there had seen
missionaries before.  Yes she had met with them, about a year ago. Yes
she would like to meet with us again. Her name was Pam.

Then we got pita pit. This really rad girl that works there that we
see all the time got talking with us. Yes she would like to meet with
us. Yes she DID meet with us. Her name was Audrey.

Oh boy there were miracles. We have needed a new investigator SO
badly. For so long. Thursday morning we called sister Robinson, and as
we were getting off the phone with her she said the most inspired
thing: " I hope you meet a new investigator- TODAY!"  That was the day
we met Brandon and Pam. The next day we met Audrey. God is good and he
allows us little success for just long enough that we KNOW it's not by
our efforts that we have investigators.

My dear compy had been sick, and she has been so nice as to allow me
to witch doctor her. It's worked great.

We also got to go to the temple! Everything Is better with a sister
Dall with you.

God has taught me resilience. But I still don't listen to it all the
time. Also, this Ward is FIIIIINALLLLLLYYYY getting more missionary
minded. That's been one of the main things we've been doing here.
Challenging challenging challenging, inviting, cajoling, promising,
begging, pleading, following up following up.... What's it take
people? But we are seeing change. We've got some good ideas on the
horizon.

So I challenge, cajol, and plead with you. Take a Book of Mormon with
you. Give it to someone who you think,probably won't want it, but just
might. It's the most joyful thing.

I love you!

Sister Galli

Insulation is a real thing

7 September 2015

Isn't the human body a neat thing! I have been observing this week how
it knows that I am heading into winter and has been packing on a
little insulation. It's just a grand ole time!  I am only being partly
facetious when I say that. It actually is cool. Last year at the same
time I put on a lot of weight, too, and I was a lot warmer after that!
So hey ;) perks.

My week was CRAY. we are the missionaries over the bush branch (aka
all the little tiny villages all over Alaska where there are only 1 or
2 members) and we finally were able to get involved with that. We went
to church with them and it was the coolest thing! It was All over the
phone, with people calling in from naknek, king salmon, st. Mary's,
bethel, mt. Village, etc.  it was super incredible. They do an over
the phone role call and people,kept forgetting to put their phones on
mute, so we could hear people texting,and coughing and their children
complaining and stuff when they thought we couldn't hear. So that saw
as funny. It was a really cool experience though and there is a lot
more work to be done here than I thought, which is awesome because we
definitely need More work! The branch president is SET on us going to
king salmon for a few days, a tiny fishing village and the likelihood
that president Robinson will let us go there is virtually 0%, but hey,
I am hoping for a miracle. That would be the coolest ever. First
sisters to go bush. :)
We had an incredible lesson with eve, our Thai investigator. She is
starting to get a hold of this whole Christianity thing. And she made
us Thai food, but not quite spicy enough cause she didn't think we
could take it. Lame. It's just so cool to see her feel the spirit,
even though it's a sloooow process.

We also had a lesson with the heckels, a part member family that has
kids that are not baptized. It's been cool to see them really learn to
trust us. I have learned so much about the power of truly LISTENING on
my mission

We also had zone meeting this week, and MLC. We talked about some of
the struggles with iPads. They are a lot more complicated than I
expected. I think it will still be a while until we get Facebook. I
kinda hope I am not here anymore.

This time is going too fast. I tell you what.

Another neat thing is that the Ward is finally learning to trust us.
We are working with the Ward council and yesterday we taught young
woman's and fast and testimony meeting was largely missionary
centered.

Well, I encourage you to invite invite invite your friend. We as
members tend to think that the invitation is the last step, that you
build and build to that, and their answer will determine whether they
get into the celestial kingdom or not. Well, that's false.  The
invitation is the first step, because how are they ever going to
picture themselves taking the lessons if no one has ever opened them
up to the idea? Then follow up invitations are probably where they
will accept.

So invite :)

Love you!
Sister Galli