Simple Week With Great Fishing!

Well this last week was pretty bland too. We went and taught people. I mean what more can I really say because I hate getting everyone excited about investigators only to have them drop off the face of the earth a week later. Like I'm afraid it will jinx them or something like that. :) Really though, like same stuff different week. We were way busy all week but I just have no clue where our week went. Oh one highlight was that we had a branch party on Saturday for Pioneer Day and a ton of people showed up from the branch and we had awesome dutch oven cooked food.

Sorry I didn't write much last week.. I was just pretty burned out from fishing and really it seems like one week just passes on past the next here. It's like walking on a long road with out any landmarks to judge where I'm at and where I'm going. And I hope the short letter mom wasn't just a reaction to my short letter because I spent most of my time last week writing a dearelder to C., and then I had to write my mission pres but didn't even get to finish that letter because I ran out of time. EMAIL HERE SUCKS. Plus just because I didn't write back doesn't mean that I didn't like your email, cause I did!

Tell D. that scout camp only sucks when nerds on a power trip are in charge of the dining hall. Sorry Poot, next year will be better. Sometimes I feel that some people think that boy scouts is the army.... and its not.

I have a huge box of books and stuff to send but I haven't sent it yet because I am procrastinating.

Oh and did you ever email me C.'s full MTC address including MTC box # and his departure date? Because I would like to be able to write him real letters! :) Love ya!!

Elder Britton Winterrose's Cohos

Elder G.s' Coho

Whale Pass Cohos

We went fishing today. We were slaying them. I caught like 20. I would catch em, muscle them in, and then J. B. would hit them with a stick to stun them and then we would huck them on the bank. It was fun. Tonight we are driving to Kassan and we are going to get pictures of the old old totem poles. OH something cool to mention, we are going down to Hydaburg this week for a totempole raising. We actually get to help carry it and then stand it up. That should be pretty neat.

Well I hope everything is good back home! I love you guys and miss ya lots!

Love, Elder Britton Winterrose.

Oh and one more thing, we had the coolest lesson this week in Priesthood. It was about keeping the sabbath day holy, and it just happened to fall on the Opening day of deer season. Luckily almost every one was at church. Haha.
Take Care. Love Ya!!

Random Stuff

Hey everybody!

Sounds like C. needs Ziploc bags. The cafeteria is all you can eat, plus if you wear your suit in it makes for epic smuggling. I once got like 20 cookies and 3 pieces of fruit out...

I feel pumped every time I think of C. being in the MTC. But I was also thinking about it and realized that it is like when he was born all over again. Like the new baby excitement, hahah! I'm not bitter or cynical about it at all though.

His story about the Tongans makes me laugh.... because its 100% true.

I'm just going to go through your letter and reply real quick:

• I did find my camera. Last night I found it under my mattress, I have no clue how it got there. 
• I still am not sure what I'm going to do next summer. Ideas that are bouncing around are: BYUH summer term, EFY Councilor, or Coming back up here to Alaska to work and play. Still not sure though...

You need to get his MTC box number and MTC departure date for the address on his blog. Also link it to dearelder so people will know to write him.  Speaking of addresses, could you check and see if C. M's has changed for me? Idk if she is going home for the summer... and I have a letter for her.

This week was good. We were able to teach a new investigator in Hydaburg, named S.  He is way cool and we will see how it all plays out. We met him on the Ferry coming over from Ketchikan, when we were heading back from Juneau the other week.

FYI: There are 3 Elder W.'s in my mission, Elder Tyler W. - Who I trained who is awesome!, Elder Kyle. W. - my former district leader/homeboy who I met on facebook before we came out together, and last but not least Elder Jeff W. who is on a course to becoming the AP, he's a great missionary and also came out at the same time as Elder Kyle W. and myself.

I like that quote too mom!

Our week should be pretty busy. We are just trying to find right now! Have faith that the Lord will provide!!

I've got some junk to send home! So I'm gonna box it up and ship it back.

I hate not having a watch....

So this week Elder K. and Elder Jeff W., our zone lords, will be coming down to spend a day proselyting with us and two evenings sleeping at our pad.  I AM PUMPED. The funnest thing about being in Anchorage was getting to spend time with other missionaries. And I know we will do tons of work! Got to love it.
Well I think that is pretty much it for this week. Pretty lame letter but what can I say!  Hahah.

I miss you all dearly!

Love,

Elder Britton Winterrose

Transfers And We're Staying Put!

Well, another transfer has come and now gone. Elder G. and I are both staying here in Craig so hooray for that! We will be leaving early to go up and go fishing tomorrow but I figured that I needed to get this email off before C. is set apart. First off, I loved the talk. I thought it was excellent. Always remember what you spoke on because it truly is revelation given to you by Heavenly Father to help prepare you for the people you will have the opportunity to meet on your mission. Just remember what the Lord says in D&C 29:7 "Ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts". You really don't know and won't know until you invite them to act. That is why they will focus so much on inviting, and following up in the MTC.

Your MTC experience will be drastically different than mine, but if I had only one suggestion it would be to journal it up. Write down everything you can. I guarantee that you won't remember all those funny things if you don't. Have fun. Take earplugs. Get everything laminated, especially your Preach My Gospel manuals, and if they have the mini PMG buy one! You won't regret it! I love you tons! Study while you have the time because you won't have as much in the field. You will do great!

Dain, I did get your postcard, I have just been very slow in replying, I hope I catch a fish that big tomorrow.

Well, I still couldn't find my watch or my camera... :(. So I will need to replace those eventually.

Is bro going to efy? Because he should be.

Elder Kyle W. is getting transferred from Ketchikan to Anchorage so that is sad. He is going to be a zone leader. I'll miss him! Transfers are always strange.

Oh yeah! Don't forget to send me C.'s MTC email and address. Seriously. I need it. You better make sure that boy has as many awesome packages as I got!

Don't buy wax type highlighters C., they make it harder to read the text.

That is really all I've got for today. I'm not really in the mood to sit and type. :) I love you all bunches! I miss ya tons.

Love, Elder Winterrose Sr.

P.S. DUDE! YOU'RE GONNA BE A GREENIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

P.S.S When you are in the MTC and you see a plane in the air, ask the rest of the group how far away they think it is, and after they reply just say "Nah, it's two years away... :)"

P.S.S.S. The MTC is as fun as you make it. It is one thousand percent about attitude. So just know, it's gonna be awesome. Oh and don't forget to take little nicknacks that you can stick in the ceiling tiles and in the little boxes in the walls for other people to find after you get out.

Be pumped. It's gonna be the ride of your life!

Love, Britton

Andrew, My Brother

Where to start....

OH I KNOW!

Elder Britton Winterrose
Alaska Anchorage Mission
PO Box 221649
Anchorage AK 99522-1649

This is the mission office's new address. They had a permanent one built inside one of the church buildings in Anchorage. So if you want to send me anything please make sure you are sending it to the new address as written.

To answer the question of what is in the box. Here's a list: 10 Lbs of vacuum-packed King Salmon provided by Elder Kyle W. and Elder J. in Ketchikan, some 5 lbs of Smoked Salmon from our freezer, around 20 lbs of Silver Salmon, and around 20 lbs of Halibut, provided by the B.'s.

Other things before I get to writing whatever comes to my head.... I lost my camera. I think I left it in the Library last time I loaded pictures onto my hard drive, but I'm not sure. I can't find it anywhere. Luckily it was right after I loaded all the photos. It was a nice camera while it lasted.

And my watch got stolen. I was doing service on the 4th at the City of Craig festivities. I was in charge of making cotton candy. Talk about blessed service. Anyways. I went to wash off my hands, so I took off my watch for a second, went and washed my hands, and when I went back it was gone. I'm kinda ticked because it was pretty nice. So that was a bummer. But I guess we just have to live and learn.

Really though it has been a crazy week.We did service with the ward where we cut a few cords of firewood from old clear cuts that the forest service opens up for firewood. Then we split it and loaded it. The Priesthood quorums will deliver it to families who need it to supplement their supply to help them make it through the winter. A lot of people heat their homes with wood stoves up here or at least supplement their heat with the wood stove.

Then Thursday we went to our mission conference held in Juneau for our zone on Thurs-Sat. We had to catch the ferry on Thursday to Ketchikan so we could make our 5 p.m. flight, but when we got to the ferry terminal I started looking for my Drivers License so I could board the ferry but it wasn't in my wallet. That's when I remembered that on Monday we had been over at the P.'s house and one of the boys had bo-jacked my wallet and scattered the contents around the house....... It's not like I could really be angry with any boy doing anything of this sort because I was a little bum-head myself and I guess it just comes back around.:) So his little prank ended up with us missing the ferry, driving back into Craig, going to their house, finding the drivers license in his little brother's bed sheets, and then us narrowly catching a 10 a.m. flight off the island into Ketchikan. We still beat the ferry! Flying was really nice. I wish we could fly every time. We were in a Cessna and the weather was kind of stormy but the flight was great. We saw whales and it was cool to see the island from the air. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of logging roads...

We arrived in Ketchikan and got the fish to the shipping place and I chowed down on some McDonalds! Then we went and embarked on my quest to find Andrew R! We headed down the Tongass Highway but the other Elders were a little skeptical because we had to head past all the other housing and we just kept driving. We weren't sure really where he was living or if the address you gave me was for his home or work. Nevertheless we continued. Finally we drove past this building and down to the end of the Highway. Finding that it wasn't the right address we just flipped around and went back to the building we previously passed. Elder W. and I went down to investigate. The place looked like a big tourist lodge... and it turned out that it was a big tourist lodge! Haha. It was way nice. When we walked down the first person to greet us was the boss and just happened to be a potential investigator that the Ketchikan Elders had been trying to get in contact with. She told us where to find Andrew, so we walked into the big dining room of the George Inlet Lodge. He was in there serving up some guests so I just walked up and stood next to him. He broke off his conversation momentarily as he looked up at me, looked back down, and then the face registered and he looked back up at me with his side smile/what the H look and said something along the lines of "Really? All the way up here? I thought you were in Anchorage still!" He told us to follow him and his cousin(?) told him to have us stay and eat. So we got our other two companions, Elder G. and Elder J. and enjoyed a dungeness crab feast, courtesy of Andrew! They had a competition to see who could eat the most crab and Elder W. and I tied two tourists, (let's face it, we won but we can't afford to tip : ) so we got to stand up with the other two people and do a crab dance in front of everyone. It was pretty funny and the crab was wonderful. They also had some awesome cheesecake after for dessert. After all the food wrapped up, and the tables were bussed and set, we got to talk with Andrew for a little bit. Now I cannot even begin to explain the beauty and complexity of the logistics that had to occur for Heavenly Father to bring Andrew and I to the same place with the perfect timing, but the perfection of it is far beyond serendipitous, it is miraculous. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to bear testimony of the power of the Atonement to one of my good friends, to my brother that I have prayed for nearly every day of my mission. I hope that he takes the initiative to seek out the truth on his own and sincerely question and find out if the book of Mormon is true. I am most overwhelmed though just from getting to be part of it. How great is a God that helps us help not only ourselves, but one that allows us to be His hands, to work with His precision - even in the lives of those we hold most dear.

We can become the change that the world needs, if we yoke ourselves to him.

The visit with Andrew and the excitement of Channing entering the MTC has me filled with gratitude. I am grateful most of all for the Atonement and for loving parents, and all of those who have strived to help me be a better, kinder, more responsible, more Christ-like ... me. I just want to help others now. That is why I am here. That is why I am serving a mission. Because I know that if I spend my time in the service of God, helping others' brothers and sisters, that Heavenly Father will bless and help mine.

No empty Chairs in Heaven.

We were able to make it to the conference and we had a wonderful time. We got to speak very, very briefly with President Beesley, but they spent most of the time telling us about themselves... I mean helping us to get acquainted with them. They are both way awesome and Sister Beesley loves to fish. Someone mentioned fishing and her eyes lit up! They are way different than President and Sister Dance but I am sure that I will grow to love them. Read more about theme here: http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/50122/Maiden-flight.html

Well I am pretty much out of time. I love you all and I hope you enjoy eating the fish as much as I enjoy catching it.

Just remember, always pray for your brothers and sisters, even if you think their lost.

Love Elder Britton Winterrose!

PS. I love ya all!!