Apr 18, 2016
We didn't get put into military prison!

Wow! What a balmy 50 degree day in Fairbanks, Alaska. Yes, there's still snow on the ground.

.. But it's mostly gone. Ish. Break up season (aka all the mud puddles!) is well underway. That 

means all the snow melts and then it runs in the streets and you hope your basement you
live in doesn't flood. You also wear actually good boots so as to avoid having soaking feet all 

the time.

So part of our area is on Fort Wainwright, and we visit there often to visit members and contact 

less actives and such. I don't think we're allowed to proselyte there, so when we visit we try not 

to look illegal or like we're doing something bad. We're friends with the guy who gives us our 

pass to get on base every week, but everyone else always looks suspicious of us...  So when I 

was changing the song on my CD player as we were pulling up for them to check our passes I 

was terrified to look up and see someone signaling us to drive over underneath the big tent off 

to the side.

We pull up and a very stern, official looking man signals for me to roll down my window. 

"Welcometofortwainwright. 

Youvebeenchosenforarandomvehicleinspectionpleaseturnoffthecarandstoptouchinganything."
;
It didn't process for about ten seconds and I'm sure I looked really dumb, but luckily my 

companion, dear Sister Christian, shut the car off and they looked at our car with a weird mirror 

thing and checked for bombs. Then they asked us to open all the consoles and the hood of
the car, and me being flustered can't find anything, including the lever that opens the hood and 

I look even more dumb... We get out of the car and then my beloved companion starts talking 

to the guy inspecting and he becomes a normal person. And then we pass and go on base on 

our merry way.

Good thing I have lots of scary military friends to protect me from all the scary people I meet. 

Perks of being a missionary of a YSA branch that covers a military base...

Okay, enough about the military.

Service! We go to the Foodbank every week with our district, and it's really fun. We've written 

hundreds of handwritten thank you cards for them, swept the parking lot, sorted through moldy 

strawberries for days, and put together the actual food boxes for people. I did the strawberries 

for a good couple hours last week, and I don't think I want to eat any anytime soon. I've also 

had Mexican food for almost every meal from Friday to today. Just a heads up, I have found 

exactly one good Mexican restaurant in Alaska. And there are waaaaay too many bad ones.

Wow! This is really long. I went on exchanges with Sister Strong, she and Sister Larcom moved 

into another apartment so Sister Christian and I are lonely now, we talked to a lot of people but 

none of them know yet that they want the Gospel. Cancellations. Zone conference. I hit 11 

months and forgot about it.

Love you all!

Sister Rollins

Look, some of us matched on purpose!

Bet you haven't seen a picture like this before...