I really don't have enough time to tell you about all the awesome adventures that we have experienced this week! The work was slow, but I love my companions. Also there is a Men's Warehouse here and one of the members works there and can get us 50% off any suit... I was thinking maybe.... Idk though. My homecoming is in like just a blink.

I will forward you my letter to the president though! I love ya!!

OH Just kidding.... I spent 30 minutes writing my letter to the president and then the flipping system crashed.... deleting my letter. BAHH!!!

Oh well.

I love you guys!!

No freaking time left!!!!

Tell C. I got his letter and that it made me laugh!

He's gonna be a bomb missionary!!

Love, Elder Winterrose

Well this week has been strange. It is weird being in Anchorage again. It just feels different, but everything is going really well. I really like Elder B. and Elder R. Elder B. is solid and Elder R. is hilarious, we get along pretty well together. Who knows what week two will bring! Hahah.

The work is slow in this area but I have faith that it will pick up in the Lord's timeline. It's strange serving in a ward where the mean age is 24.  It's kind of weird right now too because 80% of the ward is leaving to go back down to college this week or already has left.  But we were able to start meeting with one new investigator and we have at least been able to meet with SOMEONE everyday this week. (The hardest days are when you are busting your bum and you don't get to meet with anyone.)  But really, I like my companions, and we are having a fun time doing work even if it's slow.

I think its awesome that you shot the 50 cal mom, but you should have videoed it so I could watch! Haha. It sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip in Utah.

We were pretty blessed to go to the temple this week too. Elder B. worked with a family in Wasilla and they were sealed on Saturday and they took out their endowments on Friday. President Beesley let us attend both parts, so it was really nice to get to go to the temple, and to witness my first live family sealing. It is cool to see the missionary work progress to that point and to watch as the true blessings of baptism are realized. I always learn so much when I go through the temple. I feel like I really have to go often after I return.

I love you all, sorry for the short message. I just don't have much time. My hard drive is being wacky! I will have to wait another week to send pics!! :(

Love ya!!

Britton

Hey everyone,

Well I'll be honest. I have really mixed feelings about this transfer. I am really disappointed that I am leaving Craig. I feel like my time there got cut short. I was really looking forward to this next transfer because the work was picking up.  We had a solid teaching pool of genuine investigators, not just a bunch of people to visit, and I really loved the people there. I'm sad that both me and Elder G. are being transferred. I found out on Saturday that I was leaving because I called Alaska air to find out if I had a flight booked for the next week and we already found out on Thursday that Elder G. is training.  So as I eagerly awaited my transfer doctrine call from the Assistants, I compiled a list of things that I didn't want to happen. And this was before I even got my transfer call...

1. I didn't want to be bumped to junior. - Missionary life just seems smoother when I can call the shots. Plus I've been busting my bum to be obedient and it was really starting to show in the missionary work.

2. I didn't want to serve in a threesome. - It's hard enough to function as a companionship, let alone throw another rock in the blender. I served in one last winter, and although it was just for a few weeks, I really disliked it. Plus it splits your  (He didn't finish this sentence.)

3. I didn't want to leave. I knew I was leaving, but I still was in denial. I was almost certain that I would have another few transfers there. The work is really pumpin' there and I would hate for it to stop.

4. I didn't want to go back to Anchorage. I didn't have much time left and I love serving in the bush. As does every missionary.

5. I didn't want to get paired with a disobedient missionary.

Now I didn't know about number 5. Hahah. I am sure my new companions, Elder R. and Elder B., both of whom I've never met, are both great guys. And if they aren't, then they will be by the end of the transfer. Hahaha.

As for the big news. I am serving with Elder R. (~7mo.) and Elder B. (~21mo.) as a junior companion in the Cook Inlet YSA ward in Anchorage.

I hate for this letter to just sound negative. Obviously the Lord is trying to teach me something (humility) and is trying to teach me to not compare my progression to my peers, but to instead look to the blessings and tender mercies that have been provided to me so I can effectively gage my growth and progression along the path he has prepared for me. It sucks. But it's for my good. And the good of the work of the Lord. I promised to serve Him with all my heart, so I will. And I will learn the lessons He is trying to teach me.

Well this is pretty much my feelings for now. I am going to go and try to catch some fish. I will ship the fish home to grandma. I put her name on the box. Hope that doesn't cause any conflict.  I love you all. I'm gonna try to catch A. at work.

I am excited to see old friends and to make new ones. I really, really love the Members and Non-Members on the Prince of Wales Island.

Those who the Lord loves he chastens.

I got a letter from C. too! Awesome letter.

My camera is totally fried. So yeah send the old one up or something. :) Love ya.

I will attach some Pics! Love ya!!

Elder Britton Winterrose.

PS The fish will probably be shipping out tomorrow, Tuesday, morning. Love ya!! Make sure some one is there to pick it up off the hot porch.  :)

Lots of Kings and Investigators

HELLO FAMILY FRIENDS AND STRANGERS!!

This week has been awesome. I will start off with my P-day.

WE CAUGHT KING SALMON. HUGE ONES!

IT was awesome. We all limited out! I caught the biggest one, measuring in at 43 inches, and it definitely weighed more than 30 lbs. It was awesome.

We just went out to try to snag some Pinks in the brackish water of the Port St. Nick river but we were about to leave and on the way out these people had some kings on the bank and I was like, "WHERE DID YOU CATCH THOSE!!" And they pointed us toward the spot. I cast out, reamed hard on the rod, and sank that hook into my first king... the rest. as they say, was history. We fished so hard that my arms are sore. Those fish are so big and strong it's unreal. With just one flick of the tail they start peeling the line off your reel as your drag buzzes and screams. Almost every time I hooked one, it would just rocket out of the water! Many of the biggest ones I hooked into snapped my 30lb test braided line like it was 2lb test, right off the first jump. Had they not, it probably would have trashed my rod and reel because the fish would be too heavy!!! It was SO AWESOME!! I will find some one and get them to email the pictures that Elder G. took on his camera... because my camera was fried from it's little dip in the water last week.

I FREAKING CAUGHT A KING. MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!!!

It was such a blast.

The work this week has gone well. My companion, Elder G., was sick this week... and still is.. But he is pushing through it. I made sure he took a day to sleep and regain some energy on Wednesday because he looked like death. Then Thursday morning we were able to get him in to the doctor at the clinic and they prescribed some stuff to slow nasal drainage and to stop the cough. He still has a little cough but has more and more energy each day. So far I have dodged what he's got, but only time will tell. He is a freakin trooper! Just pumpin through it as best as he can. Even with him being ill, we were still able to do some good work this week.

We taught P. the 1st and 2nd, and she is keeping her commitments by praying, reading, and going to church. She was very nervous and apprehensive about going to church but has relayed to us her desire to go again this coming weekend. She has set a date of September 3rd as her baptismal date, pending her spiritual witness. She is doing well.

We were able to visit J. H., a former investigator and by some miracle were able to catch him in one of the brief windows of time that he was actually not gone on business. We discussed the first lesson that he had with the missionaries back in January and were able to reteach the 1st and invite him to meet with us again. We should be meeting with him this week.

We were unable to meet with T's mom, T., because Elder G. was ill but we should be able to see her this week. We are trying hard to see her. We also began teaching the parents of a wonderful family, the C's. They are native Alaskan and we met them at a city event. We were able to meet with them on Sunday and teach them the first. I feel like they will really start to progress. They have 2 daughters and 2 sons over the age of 14 who we are working to begin teaching as well.

We have a few potentials that we are striving to set up a solid appointment with - I am confident that we will be able to teach them at some point in time this week. We were unable to meet with S. J., our investigator in Hydaburg, because of his work schedule.

We were able to see and visit briefly our other investigator who is on date for the 10th of September, K. D. She is headed out of town and has been extremely busy over the last few weeks so she hasn't been able to come to church. Hopefully, she will begin to progress after she returns from her current trip off the island.

The work is really going well. We have a large investigator pool for such a small island. We are being blessed and I feel it daily. I am grateful to be here on Prince of Wales. I hope to stay another transfer... if it's my Heavenly Father's will.

Mom, if you want to put up my reply to your question last week do it!  It's cool with me. Also if you go on my facebook and look up SeAlaska you should be able to tag me in some pictures of the totem pole raisings. That would be pretty sweet if you want.

Well I guess that's all for this week. I love ya guys! I hope you all just keep pressing forward. Remember if you are feeling trapped: Knock and it shall be opened.

Prayer is the key to opening the door of revelation and repentance.

Love,

Elder Britton Winterrose

The Work Is Really Moving and So Was the Totem Pole

First off: I love hearing about all the stuff that is going on back home. 99% of the time the play-by-play makes me laugh, it doesn't make me homesick. Really though, I love it. If I don't want to hear something or about someone I will be sure to tell ya, hahah!

Well this week has been pretty crazy. We were able to drive down to Hydaburg a town of ~200 Haida natives. They were hosting a culture camp in the days leading up to their big Totem Pole raising that happened on Friday. We were able to help out and meet a lot of the people in the community the first few days. When we first arrived we were greeted with the cold stares typically granted to outsiders, but after the first day we had met with the Mayor/Head Totem Carver and the cold stares turned into warm greetings as we served along side them. Friday was the day of the totem raising and we were able to help carry the totem the whole way. It was pretty neat, and we got to talk to a bunch of our potentials and they were really happy to see us involved in showing and appreciating their culture and town. Hydaburg is the kind of place that most "white" people here are afraid of, but the missionaries are now welcome there. Overall I feel that it has really helped move the work along there.

We were also able to teach one of our investigators, K, that we had been struggling to contact. She hadn't been keeping her commitment to read and just that day or the day before we had been discussing in companionship study what we would do if that was the case. We felt inspired to read 3 Nephi 11 with her and to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with an emphasis on receiving personal revelation. We discussed and read together and promised her the blessings that having the gift of the Holy Ghost would bring to her life. She really was feeling the spirit strongly so we extended an invitation to be baptized and she accepted and selected September 3 as her baptismal date. We are now working with her to help her get to church and understand the importance receiving revelation through church attendance. She was supposed to come on Sunday but the weather cleared up and her family pressured her into going to the beach... I hate sunny days hahah. Seriously though no one is home when it is sunny. Everyone is fishing or beach combing or just out enjoying the weather.

We were also able to contact a less-active recent convert from last year, T, and her parents. Her mom had shown a minimal interest towards taking the lessons when T was being taught but she never acted on it. I was able to have a nice conversation with T's mom during the visit and the spirit was really strong. I invited her to come to church with her daughter, and she was hesitant about going, but T told me the next day that the conversation had really got her mom thinking and so they both came to church. The Sacrament talks were on Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The first speaker was a wonderful recent convert, and then Sister E an older sister in the Ward, and then Elder Grate and finally myself. The spirit was very strong and T's mom was in tears for much of it. She even told us that we can start to meet together this week.

In other news... Our monthly mile allotment has been cut by 300 miles. I understand that many of the areas have experienced even more drastic cuts in mileage, and I would hate to have a surplus of miles sitting around when others need them, but we have lots of driving. For example - T and her mom live in Coffman Cove, a three hour round trip from here in Craig. Other frequently visited places include Thorne Bay (around 100 miles round trip), Hydaburg (around 80 miles round trip) and Kassan (nearly 110 miles round trip). Even the trip from our temporary apartment to our mailbox is 15 miles. Now we are doing our best to conserve miles, but we use a ton of miles getting to the people we are teaching and to many of the less-actives living even further away than the cities mentioned above. We try to only do 1 trip between Klawock and Craig (a 12 mile drive) but most of our work occurs in these two places and sometimes we aren't able to do it all in one trip. We will do our best to do the Lord's work and be obedient to the 1500 miles that we are now allotted, but I'm afraid if sustained it would hamper the search for the lost Sheep and the growth of the Gospel here on Prince of Wales. Like I said though, I will go and do the things which I have been commanded.... :)

I'm writing a day late because our p-day was crazy. We went fishing in Whale Pass for Silvers to help Brother B get enough fish to take back to Idaho for his family when they leave on vacation. We caught enough fish, but I lost one of his fly rods... I slipped and put one hand down, and as I was trying to stand back up, my other foot slipped - double slippage - and I was almost dunked.... As I tried to stop myself from falling in the river, the fish I had on yanked, and the rod shot out of my hands. I watched history repeat its self... Long story short - we ended up waiting till the tide went out, then I walked the bottom of the stream looking for the lost pole. And when I went to look for the lost rod, I forgot that I had my camera in my waders so my camera got baptized. He is sitting in a bag of rice at home right now. Then we went back to fishing and lost track of time and ended up getting back at 8:30. The Light summer nights play games with your mind... And you loose track of time. I shouldn't have though because of the awesome watch that Dad sent me.

We also had to move this week because the family, the B's (whose house we were staying at) had family coming into town for a few weeks, so now we are the branch vagabonds/freeloaders. :) We are staying with the E's, the ones whose sister is the mission pres's wife there at home. They have an extra guest house that we are living in until their guests arrive, sometime in the next week. Then we get the boot again and will live in the B's home till our old pad opens back up, while they are on vacation.

Tell C. that I love him and I hope he is doing good! I've been too busy so I don't have time to send him a dear elder. I'll just send him a sweet post card later this week.

I got the letter with his address.

I got the watch. I helps remind me that I am working on my Fathers time... I will take care of it. And the watch size is perfect. Thanks Dad, love ya.

I've got some sweet pictures of the totem pole raising and I am working on getting them to ya. I think Sis. E will send them for me, Ill ask them tonight.

Life is good. The work is good. I love ya and miss ya all!

I'm gonna fish the crap out of Washington when I get home. And then Hawaii.

Love,

Elder Britton Winterrose