Well, the end of the story is that the truck belonged to a seminary teacher. He works for the church, so they gave him an old missionary vehicle. We told him what we did, and he flipped. Apparently he is a huge Utah fan. Huge. He told us that we better replace that sticker. So I'm going to have my parents mail me a BYU sticker and a Ute sticker. We will give him the BYU sticker first, wait a week and then give him the Ute sticker. It'll be funny :)
There is some sort of tropical storm somewhere on the coast, so the weather has been AMAZING. It's so warm! I love it. I am really being blessed. I bet it's colder in Utah right now than it is in Alaska.
I saw the Northern Lights this week, they were pretty cool. I was told that they weren't as bright or as colorful as they can be, but they were pretty cool nonetheless.
This is how I would describe what I saw:
They were sort of dim, but they covered the whole middle of the sky from horizon to horizon. To describe the way they covered the sky, I would describe a river in the sky.
The colors were green, like a glow in the dark green.
My companion told me that they either dance, flash, or stand still. This time they flashed a bunch.
As far as I know, the northern lights are solar bursts from the sun hitting the atmosphere.
Again to describe them like a river, it would be a stand still river, with drops hitting the surface. When the 'drops' would hit the surface, the lights would flash just a tad bit lighter and brighter. It was really cool.
I got a letter from Papa, and he asked what they looked like, and he said to him they were kind of spooky. I would have to agree with him on the type that I saw. It was a spooky flashing green.
Later on this winter I should see brighter and more defined northern lights.
We trained reindeer again this week, and it was a lot of fun. Because of transfers, I am really the only one who knows how to train them now. I think I explained a bit of what we are doing, but I will give an overview of what we did.
There were more missionaries that came this time, and each of them was to train a reindeer. Eventually we will end up training two or three reindeer. I love getting down and dirty, and some other missionaries are a little uncomfortable doing that. So, I pointed out Louis to a fellow missionary, and told him how to hook on the rope. That way he didn't have to worry about wrestling with a reindeer to put on a halter. To halter a reindeer, you have to entice it to come close to you by feeding it, then you need to grab on to its antlers and hold on for dear life as they flip and flop trying to get away. After you get a good hold on them, you grab a halter and put it on. After the halter is on, you attach it to a rope, and hold on as they try to get away. This is their first time being on a halter, so it is scary to them. Naturally they freak out. Its hilarious to look around and see all of the reindeer dragging all the other missionaries around. Elder Lancaster is not pulling his reindeer, his reindeer is pulling him:
Remember Sugar? Well she didn't get the best of me this time. I grabbed on and held on tight. She is now haltered.
Because Elder Gilmore has Louis, I was able to find another reindeer:
I haven't named her yet. :)
Next time we go over there, they will be less afraid because they will be more used to the halter. Our goal is to be able to train them to walk like a dog on a leash first, and eventually train them to be able to pull a sled. It's fun work.
Now to missionary work,
Grayson isn't grounded anymore, so we are going to start teaching him again.
We found a new potential investigator! His name is Bill.
He lives above and across the hall from our apartment. Here is Bills story:
He has always wanted to play the banjo. He is an engineer. Quite an intelligent engineer. He has done a lot of noteworthy things. Well, something happened with his leg or something, so he has been taking a break from work. He told us that when we was taking a break, he bought a banjo and decided to learn how to play it.
He said that when he picked it up and looked at his banjo, he observed that the banjo was a horrible engineered instrument. Its apparently 30 or so pounds, and the strings have to be plucked pretty hard to make enough sound.
Because he is an engineer, he redesigned the banjo. It is much louder, and much lighter. He sent the banjo to a friend in Tennessee, and they were amazed with it. Mike Scott, a Guinness World Record banjo player who has his own line of banjos, requested that Bill make a banjo for him.
He showed us the banjo, and its actually really cool. I was very intrigued. We brought up what we do, and he told us that he was Christian. He shared with us his conversion story. He told us that he has proved that God exists through math. He wrote a paper on it. So Elder Good asked if he could have a copy, and last night Bill brought a copy to us. I don't think Elder Good knew quite what kind of a paper Bill was talking about. Its at least 25 pages. Bill told us that he'd be happy to take us out to get a pizza and talk about it, God, and 'Utah and shiz'. So this morning before studies I looked over the paper. I'm only a fourth of the way in, but there is so much opportunity of teaching Bill the gospel! As I was reading it, I was reminded of Elder Russell M. Nelsons talk, "Thanks Be to God" I found that talk in an Ensign I have, and we are planning on sharing it with Bill.
I really wish I could explain more about this experience with Bill, because I have missed a lot of detail. But I'm excited to see how this pans out.
The other day I read a talk by Tad R. Callister called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary." It is a great talk. I found comfort in it because I knew that I was living a lot like the consecrated missionary that he described, but I also felt comfort in it because I have so so so much to work on. I want to do my best. I am so glad that the Lord is behind this, because I have no idea what I am doing.
I love reading and studying the scriptures. I feel Gods love everytime I do. I love it so much!!! I hope you all are truly studying the scriptures and becoming "Consecrated Members". We all have a lot to work on, but that's the whole point of life!
I love you all :)
Elder Tyler James Garver
4 PM in Alaska. The hours of sunlight are still pretty normal.
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