The Mat-Su Valley rolled into 2022 with 81mph wind gusts and power outages in -30 degree weather for the past 2 days. It's still hitting us hard! We couldn't leave our house, because cars were flipping in the wind... so we did a scripture study with our missionary friends. We were more distracted on looking out the window than paying attention to the study. I said to Sister Baxter, "Hey! That's weird, its snowing!". I walked outside and came back in. She responded, "no, that's insulation!". We turned to look out the window again and we see pieces of our roof flying off!!! Shingles and sheets of plywood go sailing. We hear a thud and insulation starts pouring into our apartment from the second story!! The Landlord calls us and tells us, "hey your roof came off, do you have a place to stay?". We evacuated to the stake president's home, The Paces. Our mission president is letting us sleepover until the big storm goes away. Thankfully the Paces are one of the few people in the valley with a generator. 92% of the valley has no power.
This storm is INSANE. It feels like a 3 day earthquake that never goes away. The windows and the walls stretch in and out. The whole house creaks back and forth. The winds scream so loud that you can hear it in any point of the Paces mansion. Not to mention, Alaska is a polished sheet of ice right now... it's been a crazy weekend with little sleep. #choosejoy?:)
We realized our apartment was not on a strong foundation during this storm... but our testimonies can be when they are focused on Jesus Christ!
Helaman 5:12
"Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall".
We went on a walk to knock some doors by our apartment. A lady, Ms. Leah stops to talk to us and informs us that she is trying to "recruit us to her" because we are a "cult"? I am always confused why people think that, maybe it's because we are always so joyful in different situations? We decided to smile and start walking away when she yelled, "STOP! COME BACK!". Usually this is a red flag but we stopped, and walked back to her. She told us we needed to knock on a door and pray with Phyllis and Junior. (She was kind of a wacky woman). We were hyped because we just got a referral from a random stranger!
We knocked and Junior instantly let us in. He pointed to the queen sized bed in the middle of their little, empty apartment and said, "Phyllis is over there". We walked over and kneeled by her bedside. Phyllis is a tiny, 76 year old, paralyzed, very weak woman. I said a prayer and she said she used to go to our church! I looked up, and she had a picture pass-along card of Jesus. The next day, we came back with Brother Quisenberry and he gave her a sweet blessing. He told us that the spirit told him she wasn't going to be on earth much longer and that we needed to give her the chance of accepting the gospel. She is currently praying about being baptized and Junior is reading the Book of Mormon with her. What a miracle!
We volunteered at the recycling center when we met Brian! Our job was to rip up books to be shredded. Brian was super open and told us his life story. He has had a rough life. He brought up how he is open to different churches and hasn't found his truth yet. We invited him to church and he was so excited to come!! When he left, he told us to tear the books apart in the bin he was grabbing from. We walked over, and saw that he was ripping up copies of The Book of Mormon!! We saved the ones who were left. Then, a worker runs up to us and tells us she found the biggest book of Mormon ever! She handed it to us and walked off. It was an anti-book of Mormon!! I willingly shredded that baby.
Choose Joy!!
Sister Elly Rex
Pics:
-MTC comp, Sister Edwards!! Pday ice tag.
-Kristin&Cole light show
‐Dave, who is directly related to the house on the prairie family, makes sure he has his name on his honey jar so no one steals it at the nursing home. He also asked me if I would apply to be a stripper at their nursing home... I definitely declined but I found it hilarious!
- I pulled over on the highway during this awful storm to save this purple tote. It was scary but #everyToteLifeMatters
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