Week 61

Friends and family!

Well this week was pretty good! It was rainy pretty much everyday this
week but I will take it instead of snow! Haha well Monday for p day we
pretty much played basketball the whole time and we actually had interviews
that night! And for all you who are wondering how that happens if we
are on an island.... well we FaceTime president! Haha it takes some
getting used to but it's cool! They went really awesome!

This week we had tons of opportunities to help people move so we
worked off our dinners pretty well! It's funny because there's a lot
of people who aren't members but have our number laying around so if
they need something moved they give us a call! So it pretty useful
that we have a truck out here! Haha but it was great opportunity to
serve!

We did lots of dock tracting this week! Salmon season just ended so
all the big boats are in and they are working on them getting them
ready to go back out do some other kinds of fishing and crab! So we
got to talk to a bunch a people and even check out some big boats so
that was pretty cool! It's funny because the fisherman are some of the
roughest looking people but they are some of the nicest I've ever met!

We did some service on Saturday and helped the Rices patch a hole in
there bathroom under the electrical panel! We were there for dinner
Friday night and they asked if we had any experience doing drywall
because they needed help doing that in the bathroom. (They are a
really old couple). But I said I do a little and that we could do it!
So we did it and they were super impressed and said it looked awesome
and that it looked like I knew what I was doing! So that was a relief!
Haha (Thank you dad for teaching me! Little did I know those skills
would come in handy on the mission) then we moved some gravel for
them! Brother rice is the fire chief and so he took us over to help
him with something at the station and gave us a tour and showed us
everything on the trucks! I even got to sit in one! I felt like a kid
again! It was awesome! Haha

Liza is doing good! So she couldn't meet with us on our usual Thursday
appointment with her but she did some of the ARP book so that was
awesome! Saturday we got to see her for a minute and see how she's
doing and she's doing good! Her friend was there and she loved us
coming to see her and thought it was awesome we were helping her
overcome her addiction! So we got the friends approval so that's
good!! Haha and Malinda we didn't get to have a lesson! She was busy
all week with different things but we have an appointment Wednesday so
that's good!

On Sunday, Farani (our only Samoan investigator) came to church for
the first time ever so that was really awesome! He really liked it and
so hopefully we can have an awesome lesson with him this week!

During my studies on Sunday morning I came across this awesome line in
Alma 37:46 and thought it was so awesome and that I should share it
with you all,

"The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever"

Well that was my week in a nutshell! I hope you all had a great week
and I'm glad we made it through elections!

Love, Elder Tyler Fawson

Week 60

Friends and family

Well this week was good! First flat tire of the mission this week also! We went out today to a flat tire in the pouring rain so we had a fun time this morning changing it! Haha

We got to do a little bit of service this week. We helped the Long family take some stuff they needed to get rid of the thrift store. They are an older couple and awesome family and the wife has had a lot of medical issues and they said she doesn't have to much longer so they are moving down to Utah where all their family is and they plan on  buying motor home and traveling around with what time she has left. It's so cool because they are going through so much and they are still optimistic through it all!

We had a lesson with Malinda this week and it went really good. We decided it would be best if we read the Book of Mormon with her for the lesson and so we did and we didn't know if she had really been reading but to our surprise she was already at Jacob 5! Crazy awesome! So we got to read the super wonderful and long chapter of the allegory tree! Haha but it was really good and she is learning so much and is doing awesome!

We had an awesome lesson with Liza this week too! We didn't have any idea what to teach her so we looked over everything taught to her and we decided to introduce her to the Addiction Recovery Program and it went awesome! We did a little preview of it with her and showed her the step 1 video and she wants to do it! We committed that we would do it with her! So it will be really cool to get familiar with it! We are now trying to find people in the Ward to help us teach and help her with it! But she is making progress which is a good thing!

Friday we had zone meeting and it went really good! President actually came to it and we got introduced to the new Christmas initiative video and got the new pass along cards. Overall it went really good and it's still fun to video conference into them! Haha

Saturday there was a YSA activity that we got to go to and it was really cool! Just so ya know there's on 5 YSA here in kodiak so it's pretty small! But we went shooting!!.. well they went shooting and we just watched lol! But it was pretty fun! And super cold! Haha

This weekend was actually stake conference too! It was really cool. The whole overall theme seemed to be teaching the saviors way. It was really cool because of course if was directed to everyone and especially the teachers in the stake, but it was cool to because what do missionaries do all day?.... TEACH! I feel like I got so much out of it and who better to study the teachings of than the best teacher to walk the earth?! And that it doesn't matter if we have a calling to teach or not, we are all witnesses and take is name upon us! 

Well that was my week in a nutshell! Good luck to everyone this week with the most stressful week of the year! ELECTIONS! Thanks for everything you all do for me! I love you all!

Quote to ponder for the week:

"We don't get baptized again... we partake of the sacrament."

Love, Elder Fawson

Week 59

Friends and family 

Happy Halloween! If anyone knows where the origins of Halloween come from feel free to let me know! Haha this week was awesome and full of miracles!

So we have a new investigator that is on a baptismal date!!!! Malinda is an older lady who was in the women's shelter and the missionaries helped the shelter out with something one day and met her. But they couldn't teach her there. She had a stroke a bit ago and has gone through a lot in her life. She just got moved into a new apartment and the sheltered had called us and asked if we could pick some stuff up and drop it off at an apartment for them. And it was Malinda! This was a couple weeks ago and then this week we had a lesson with her and it went awesome! She loved and believed everything we taught her. She accepted the invitation to be baptized on November 26th! So that's pretty cool! We went back again on Thursday and had a plan of salvation lesson with her and a member from our Ward and it went really good too. She even read some of the Book of Mormon! She's awesome and it's so cool how she was put in our path!

We did a lot of tracting and dock tracting and it was actually really fun! We had some good times and got to talk to a lot of guys at the docks that had been all over their world in their boats. Weirdly enough the guys at the docks are the coolest!

Friday was pretty cool! We were going to teach Liza but we had the feeling to go try some else really quick before to drop something off and then we went to Liza's and it was so cool because we caught her right before she was walking out her back porch to smoke! The lord knows what time we need to be places!! We really wanted to focus on the priesthood and giving her a blessing to overcome her addictions and I got the opportunity to give her a blessing and it went really good! She has stopped drinking alcohol which is a good start! But it was such a cool lesson with her! After we went to our dinner which was with the barco family and they are really less active but love to feed us and sister barco had her friend over who wasn't a member and she was going through a lot and didn't know if she was going to have a miscarriage or not so sister barco asked if we could give a blessing to non members and we said of course we can! So we had a quick little lesson about the priesthood and asked who she would like to give it and she said me! So I got the opportunity to give 2 blessings Friday night! It was so cool! I told elder lee he is taking the next 2 now haha! 

On Saturday we were at the martins house with a lot of the members and we shot arrows at pumpkins! Haha it was super fun with lots of good food! 

Sunday was the primary program at sacrament meeting and it was awesome! I think it was the most people I had ever seen come! We got to meet a lot of new people! Sadly Liza and Malinda didn't come which was a bummer but we will work on getting them to come this next week!

"Opposition permits us to grow toward what our Heavenly Father would have us become."

D&C 122:7

Through all mortal opposition, we have God’s assurance that He will “consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain” (2 Nephi 2:2).

I love you all and I'm thankful for everything you do for me!

Love, Elder Fawson

Week 58

Friends and family!

Well this week was great! Haha Elder Lee got here safe and sound but it took forever! We didn't have to good of weather at the beginning of the week and we went to pick him up at 6:45 Tuesday night and the airport was dead.... we walked in to ask what happened and they said the flight was canceled. So we tried calling the APs and nothing and finally president called and said he would would fly in at 10:15 that night. Later we got a call that flight was cancelled... haha so finally president called us and said he would fly in the next morning at 8:30 and he finally got here!!! Haha he was at the airport for 5 hours till they went and picked him up again! Elder bacon got to palmer safe and sound also! 

Anyway we had a good week! We got to have a lesson with Liza Peterson who is one date and came to church yesturday!!! It was awesome and the Ward has assigned her visiting teachers to go over periodically! It's awesome! She is doing good we are just helping her through the word of wisdom challenges.

We met a lady a couple weeks ago while tracting and she told us that she wasn't interested but that we should go back and she would give us cookies!... so we took her up on it! We went back Thursday and she didn't have any cookies so she said come back Friday.... so we went back Friday and she made us super good cookies and had just had a bunch of wood delivered so we asked if we could stack if for her and she said she would love it! So we went back Saturday and she made us lunch too! It was make and build your own pizzas and it was awesome! She taught us to toss the dough also! Haha and we are trying to squeeze the gospel in whenever we can! I strategically "accidentally forgot" my Book of Mormon there so hopefully she finds and reads it! 

We did lots of tracting down at the docks this week and we found a bunch sea lions! They are sweet! I dared Elder Lee to go poke it! Haha (don't worry mom I wasn't being serious)! Haha but it's fun to talk with all the hard core fisher guys! Weirdly enough they are all super nice!

We have been just trying lots of new ways of finding so hopefully we can find some new people that need the gospel in kodiak! Thank you for everything you all do for me!!

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."

Love, Elder Fawson

Week 57

Friends and family!

Well this week was pretty good! It started out really wet! We got the aftermath of a hurricane 5 times the size of hurricane Mathew from the Bering sea! There was a bunch of flooded roads but that's about it! Nothing too bad! It was cool to see the weather though! The second half of the week was awesome though! It reminded elder bacon and I that there's rainbows after rain!

On Friday we got transfer calls and elder bacon is leaving to palmer and I will be getting elder lee! He is from Washington and is such a cool guy! This will actually be his last transfer so I will be "killing him off!" Hopefully he doesn't get me too trunky!!

We had a really awesome day Wednesday tracting! We went to the backwoods area and tracted and it was actually semi successful! We met a lot of cool people! We taught a couple door step lessons which is always a good thing and they invited us back! We actually ran into this dog that ended up following us for like 5 houses and when we would knock on the door he just sat there and so it threw the people off a little bit and then in the middle of the conversation they'd ask us is that your dog?!! Haha it was so funny to explain the situation! But that night we actually had found out that there was a public service announcement sent out that there was 2 males in he exact same area we were and that they were trying to break into houses! So we aren't sure if they were thinking us or the heck happened but crazy!!

Friday we got to do some service so that was really fun! We went and helped Manuel take out some windows then went and helped put out pumpkins for the fair! It was pretty cool!

Saturday we went to visit a part member family and as soon as we were about to leave they asked if we wanted to carve pumpkins with them and we couldn't pass up the opportunity so we got to carve some pumpkins!

Overall this week was really good! I'm super excited for this next transfer. We didn't get as many lessons as we would have liked to but we got some more tracting practice in!

Thanks for everything you all do for me! Love you all! 

"Some things can only be learned by faith"

2 nephi 2:2

Love, Elder Fawson

Week 56

Friends and family!!

Hey there everyone! Hope everyone had a good week wherever you were. This week was good!

On Monday we went to this place called pasagsak! It was way cool and we went to the beach called fossil beach! I have lots of pictures for y'all.

So with my family moving over the last weekend I thought I had gotten out of moving!... nope I didn't! The lord didn't want that to happen! Haha so on Tuesday we got the opportunity to help the Thompsons move and they are a really awesome family and it was good to get to know them.

Friday we had zone meeting and it was awesome! It was a little different since we had to skype in! Haha but it was really good! We talked a lot about the importance of members. 

Tuesday we got a call from president Robinson asking what the best hotels in kodiak were and if we could get the numbers for him and he told us he hadn't ever been to kodiak before and this is the only weekend they will have time too so they decided to come out! President and sister Robinson flew in Friday afternoon and left Sunday afternoonafter church. It was really cool because we got to go to the nicest restaurant here in kodiak with them! It was good food! Haha so they know the schwantes family here so Saturday they got a tour of the island from them and then they came to our Ward mission leader meeting that night and it was awesome to have them there! Sunday they came to church with us! It was so cool to have them come out Andrew kodiak! They are awesome and it so cool to see how much they care about each missionary personally!

We did lots and lots of tracting this week and it's been interesting to say the least! So we have decided to to tract the kind of Backwoods areas because we figured those don't get tracted too much. We seemed to run into a lot of anti's this week so that was a bit of a shock to us but it was good! I learned a lot about our church from them. They had so many crazy things it was bizarre. It's so weird what some people hear about the church! But it was good because we just testified to them instead of trying to argue with them.

But on the good side of tracting we found a lot of people who weren't necessarily interested but wanted us to come back and have dinner and stuff with them so we are going to take them up on that! Haha and we got a few opportunities to teach a quick 10 minute lesson of the restoration so that was good!

Love, Elder Fawson

The scripture I have been working on memorizing lately is Moroni 7:48! So if you don't know that one check it out! It's pretty good!

Week 55

Friends and family!!

This week was really awesome! General conference weekends are pretty awesome! It is such a blessing to be able to hear from gods prophet and apostles!

On Monday we went a hike on what's called barometer mountain and it was so crazy! It was a very big mountain but we made it up and the view was amazing! One that that's a little different with being on the island is we Skype into our district and zone meetings so that's a little different! But it's a good time! It's funny because we just mute it and we can really say whatever! Haha 

We are still tracting lots and it is seriously the funniest thing to do! But besides all the laughs and crazy people we meet it's really cool to see the spirit work on people when we meet them till the time we share what the Book of Mormon is! It's actually been somewhat useful for us which is good. 

This week we had a really good lesson with Chris and Emma! (The family we Tracted into) and we talked about the Book of Mormon and it's importance and they loved and accepted it! They really want to start going to a church so hey why not just go to the true one! We had a lesson with Keily family and they are doing good. They just don't really want to change church's because they both grew up in the unification church. And that's all they have really known so we are working on them.

General conference was really good! I guess why wouldn't it be? Haha but I feel like the hit the Book of Mormon, repentance, and sustaining your testimony a lot! One of the most powerful talks to me was president uchtdorfs talk in the priesthood session about alma and amulek. It was awesome! I loved when he talked about everyone needs to find their amulek to be successful and that Everyone needs to hear the words I need you and The lord needs you. And than we need to see with our hearts. And then president Eyring talked about how there is no difference between the oldest apostle and the youngest deacon in gods eyes if you fulfill your priesthood duty. And of course David A Bednars about the difference between believing in God and believing him. It was a good weekend! Another weird fact... I only have 1 more general conference on my mission! Weird! 

Overall this week was really good I feel like we were spiritually nourished! Haha thank you guys and love you all!

Don't let your questions paralyze your faith!

Love, Elder Fawson