November 29, 2021: The slope schedule

 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 experience on my mission. 

It was at Hallie's moms house which is on top of Lazy Mountain, in a very old cabin which only used electricity for lights. We walked in expecting a crowd of people and there were 3, very old ladies sitting at a small table. They each had shaved haircuts. We got all the Hocus Pocus, witch vibes from the ladies. They ushered us to sit down and eat, while they asked us about our missions. It was a humble meal and I could they were proud of the food they had. One lady handed us a basket of green rolls and told us to take some! She said, "If you can't tell, I'm Hewish". Haha! Like we were supposed to know that from the food she baked? We hid the green looking rocks in our pockets and continued the conversation. We later tried breaking them on the icy parking lot at the church and they wouldn't break. That says a lot. The other food was so interesting! Plain parsnips, plain turkey, beef stuffing with weird things in it... they didn't have clean water so they offered us coffee or tea which we politely declined. They brought 3 different pies out and made us take a slice of each. There was a bright green lemon meringue, a dark pumpkin, and apple butter pie. We died choking down the pies from laughter and grossness. I now feel humbled and spoiled from regular-people-food. 

We had an 8 hour oil change in Anchorage! So we made the most of it and had a pass off lesson with my friend Dewan and the YSA elders. We dared Elder Matheney to bring up "grape popsicles" during our visit. The elders made sure to find out that Dewan is allergic to every fruit BUT he can have artificial, grape popsicles. It was legendary. 

We got asked at a craft show if we were Nuns. HAHA. Nope!! But it gave us a reason to share our purpose to her, which she politely declined. 

We went to the 4th of July firework show in downtown Palmer to find people to talk to! Not thinking, we thought that one layer of pants and our rain boots would suit us for the -15 degree weather for 40 minutes. WE WERE LITERALLY FROZEN. I found a friend who laid on the snow with me watching the show. We got her and her dads number and we set up a time to meet up! #freezing4Jesus

Choose JOY,

Sister Elly Rex

Pics:

-Rita&Elder Jennings

-Blacks, Adam's, Carpenters Thanksgiving 

-Hazel, Hallie, Dee Thanksgiving 

-Traut&Saunders Thanksgiving 

-Artic Roadrunner w/Dewan

-Palmer Zone, Friendsgiving 

-Iceman&rockman 

-Aylas volleyball game