Sister Elly Rex: Anchorage Alaska Mission 2020-2022

  Many people move to Alaska to work on the slope, which consists of working multiple weeks on the clock and multiple weeks of off. This is also referred to as the slope schedule. We related this slope schedule to our Thanksgiving feasts this week. We had 4 Thanksgiving dinners with families in our area. So we ate 4 full course meals in one day, and haven't been hungry for the next 4 days. #missionarylife We started at Bishop Adam's house, where he brought glacier ice back from his most recent hunting trip, for the punch. Their Thanksgiving made me feel as if I was 12 years old again and my mom had invited the Nelson, Robertson, Gosney, and Sonne families over for a party. I LOVED IT. We street contacted into a Woman 2 months ago named Hallie Truelove. She wasn't interested in our message at the time but she invited us to her families Thanksgiving dinner! We were 2 hours late, and debated even showing up. But I'm so glad we did!! It was the most interesting dinner exper...

  Everyday this past week has gotten to -20 degrees. One day, we were driving in our frozen car, with what it felt like icicles hanging from our noses, and saw the temperature change. Sister Baxter said, "It's getting warmer! It's -3!" Happy Thanksgiving Folks, I'm grateful for my coat.  We honestly have been really struggling getting the members of our congregation involved in spreading the gospel. I've been in this area for 5 months now, and so many tears have gone into trying to help our friends being taught get friends in the church! This week, we managed to have 2 fellowshippers at every lesson. After a lesson, one of them(Tom Wardhaugh) called and basically said that he is going to help us with uniting the ward into our missionary efforts. My heart is full of gratitude for this good man who is willing to sacrifice time to help bring others into the gospel fold. This was a big miracle for the Matanuska ward/congregation. We showed up to "Susan the pu...

  "Wanna see my children?", Brother Saunders asked us as he lead us to his basement, through their food storage shelves, and slid back a secret door. We were skeptical, so we followed and found a vault full of fancy guns and crossbows. Only in Alaska.  So yes, the rumors are true. Sister BB and I split up. It was a sad breakup. Sister BB has been my personal angel these last 4 months. She is a literal ray of sunshine and has helped me feel pure joy.  I miss her so much already:,) My new companion, Sister Baxter is from St. Louis, Missouri. She's been out almost as long as I have and she's AWESOME. It snowed a foot the first night we were together... so this winter is gonna be a fun one!  Shannon Schrader invited us over to her hotel apartment and we discussed many questions with her. She thought "Mormons"; properly referred to as, "Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", weren't allowed to wear pants, cut our hair, we were ...

We were driving through Downtown Palmer when a black lab runs across the road. We pull over, grab the friendly dog(Banjo), and call his owner. We were thinking it would lead to a great finding opportunity! Little did we know it would... No one answered the phone so we walk over to the closest building nearby. A friendly man welcomes us into his shop and tells us that Banjo is his. It was here that we had our finding opportunity... we walked into a Bigfoot Art Gallery. So yes, we found Bigfoot and the world famous artist who travels the world to see sasquatch activity. He was even on the show, "Finding Bigfoot". RobRoy is one interesting fella! The recently widowed, 85 year old Dejuan Tracy takes my hand, looks at me with tears in her eyes, and says, "It's ok. I will see him again". What a simple, beautiful testimony she bore to me in less than 5 seconds. I love Dejuan with my full heart.  We later went by her home for an uplifting message! She sadly informed us ...

We felt like we should take the longer route home one night and I'm sure glad we did! We ran into a woman, Shannon Schrader who we met 3 months prior. She was outside with her friend taking a smoke break. When we saw her, we instantly pulled over and ran to talk with her. She invited us into her hotel-of-an-apartment. She informed us that she had been praying to God that she needed purpose in life and she couldn't seem to find it. She asked God to send her someone to lead her to find hope. Then, we showed up a couple minutes later. We taught her the first lesson, The Restoration of Jesus Christ's Church. She accepted to hearing the other messages we have to share and thanked us for being Angel's sent from God in her most needed time. Her young adult son had recently passed away and she's all alone in Alaska. I'm so glad we took the extra time to follow a prompting that helped a woman find hope through Jesus Christ.  We had our weekly bible study with our elderly...