Samoan again!

Friends and family!

Well this week was awesome! It was so busy that I feel like we didn't
have much downtime at all! So we flew in to anchorage Monday around
noonish so I spent the day with the dimond elders and we went and
played basketball with the zone and it was so fun! It's so fun to be
around and play basketball with missionaries now! Then I spent Tuesday
in a trio with them too and elder palmer said bye to everyone and he
got ready to leave. Wednesday was super busy. It was transfer day! We
got to have elder tuimoloau spend the day with us! (For all those who
don't remember who that is... it's my companion that I trained and it
was so good to see him again!) we dropped elder palmer off and took
some other elders to the airport! Elder tuimoloau was transferred to
Fairbanks! A Samoan in Fairbanks! Haha

So on like Tuesday night we were at the chapel where northern lights
meets for mutual and I got to see everyone and it was so cool to see
them again! It was cool to just see that they remembered me and
everything! All the youth yelled elder Fawson and came and said when I
walked in the gym! It was so cool!

Its super cool to come back to the Samoan ward! I love it! It feels
like home! So there are 3 Samoan wards here in anchorage. (Northern
lights, dimond, and lake Otis) and I am in the dimond ward now! Elder
chan is so fetching awesome! He just barely finished his training and
is ready to work! He was raised in American Samoa but recently lived
in California! The ward is really awesome too! So we cover downtown
anchorage and a lot more! If you look on a map it's basically
everything west of the Seward highway. It's a huge area and did I
mention it's really cold? Haha

Thursday it snowed here so to kick off the Christmas initiative with
some service we went and shoveled drive ways with some other
missionaries! We got to meet lots of people and hopefully helped them!

Friday night our ward did a missionary fireside and it went really
awesome! So basically it was centered on the plan of salvation
questions. (Where did I come from? Why am I here? And where am I
going?) and they decorated 3 rooms for each question and did a little
rotation thing and a 15 min lesson or so in each one then a little
video at the end. And don't forget about all the awesome food at the
end!! We got teach the why are we here room and it went really good!
Sadly there was only one non member there but it showed the ward that
things like this are possible and work!

It's so fun to serve back here in anchorage with the Samoan people! I
love it here and I love my companion! Thanks for everything you do for
me!

"Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work."

Love, Elder Tyler Fawson



Setting up for our fireside!

Elder chan!!

The elders serving in northern lights now!

Transfers

So long Kodiak, hello Anchorage Samoan Ward!!!

Friends and family!

Well this week was awesome! We got transfer calls this Friday and they
were surprising! Haha so I will be going back to the Samoan ward in
anchorage! Haha a different one though so that's good! My companion
will be elder chan and he is awesome! He just finished his training so
he's pretty new! But it will be exciting to go back to anchorage and
eat golden carol every night again! Haha but it is sad to leave kodiak
for sure! I have come to love so many of the people here! I'm so
grateful for the opportunity to serve here and help the work here! But
I am excited to serve around other missionaries again. It will be fun
to play ball with everyone again!

This week in kodiak we did so much service! We did some service for
someone everyday this week! We got to move a dresser, do some yard
work, cut some pipe, move some couches, desks, and tables! Haha it was
crazy! We definitely got our exercise in this week! Haha!

Thanksgiving was awesome this week! We got to spend time with tons of
different families and lots of food! And played some ping pong! Haha

Sorry I didn't have a lot of time this week to email because we fly
out this morning to anchorage but I'm grateful for all you guys and
everything you do for me!

D&C 6:36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

Love, Elder Tyler Fawson

Happy thanksgiving!!

Some awesome families!! The blacks and morrisons!!

So long kodiak! 

Lots of great memories!

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