July 18, 2016
Lightheaded

Fed some reindeer.  The reindeer lady likes us, and she's even feeding us tonight...

It's really hot outside.  Like 97.

We’ve ditched our car several times this week and just walked several miles, which is neat.  There’s not many people walking around, but we talk to all of them!

We had a lot of people come to church yesterday!  They had a great experience.  I taught in Young Women’s about baptism – how Jesus was baptized, so we should be baptized as He was and make those covenants with our Father in Heaven that allow Him to bless us even more than otherwise!  Gotta love Jesus.

Apologies if this isn’t the most coherent email, I’m a little lightheaded.

Love you all!

Sister Rollins

sent via voice recording:

So this is Sister Rollins and Sister Rose and we are currently serving our missions...the Lord's missions...for us...in North Pole, Alaska!  We just got done with the long wonderful day and we saw some really cool miracles and we wanted to tell you about one of them.  This story starts we have been trying to walk more...we have cars and we can use it any time we want but today and our mission president has instructed us that we need to get out of our cars more.  So today we parked at the church and we went and we walked probably a mile/mile and a half to this person's house.  It was like probably 95 degrees in Alaska and it was really hot and there was no one for us to talk to on the way.  But we made it all the way there and we knocked on the door and they...weren't home.  

So we looked to our left and we looked to our right and we looked for some people to talk to and there was a family playing outside next door.  We went up to them and their dog ran up to us - it was a little dachshund, a cute little thing, and we were like "oh your dog is so cute" and we started talking to them about their family and about have they ever met Mormons before.  It turns out her husband is a less active member and she had read some of the Book of Mormon before but not recently and she had never prayed about it.  We invited her to do that and we asked if we could come back and teach her and she was like "yeah, I don't know when because I have to check my husband's schedule but here's my phone number and we gave her our phone number and it was an amazing miracle that she was so prepared and that she can now be taught by missionaries and hopefully enter the waters of baptism.  Yeah.  It was a miracle.  

Then we talked to a crazy guy who told us that ISIS is taking over Alaska, who had a boxer.  Don't talk to people with Boxers, that's what I learned.  Just kidding.  Anyway, Boxers are great.  It's true...boxers are great.  So that was our miracle of the day for July 14, 2016.  So go do missionary work.  Talk to your family members and invite them to hear the Gospel 'cause they just might listen to it.  Also we smell like smoke and cats because of (something mumbled).  The end.

July 11, 2016
Kilomastificatory Pulmonary Resuscitation

Whirlwind whirlwind whirlwind whirlwind.  Say that ten times fast.

Last Monday I hopped on a plane! It was a neat experience. I sat next to a kind motherly 

figure by the name of Robin, who was headed to a funeral. We started talking, and we never 

stopped! I shared from the Book of Mormon about what happens after we die, and how we 

know all of this through revelation from modern day prophets... Unfortunately we only got 

through a lesson and a half but she wants to read and learn more! It was super cool because 

we got along really well. She lives in Nenana, so the sisters there are going to teach her... The 

best part was when she told me she felt like God had been preparing her the last three or four 

months to meet me. Me?! I'm not much of a person to meet. But I'm so grateful she recognized 

that I'm doing my best to represent Christ and she felt of His love through me.

I spent Tuesday in Anchorage at a Mission Leadership Council. We gave a training about 

kilomastificatory pulmonary resuscitation. President Robinson was convinced they actually 

renamed CPR... I need to be careful about pulling jokes and not ever telling anyone the 

punchline :)

Basically I haven't even been in North Pole this week, which is a super bummer. But we had a 

great zone meeting and even got cookies for being responsible missionaries! And then we took 

a picture to show our appreciation.

Had another great lesson with my favorite people: Franny, Chris, Ida and Terry joined us for the 

first time. They're seriously amazingly humble and just love to read the word of God. Franny 

especially loves the Bible, but they all participate and make the best comments. We've been 

working on getting them comfortable coming to church, since they feel pretty judged... Franny 

said she regretted not coming last week, so we sang her a song and told her it'd make her feel 

better, which she loved it. I haven't sung for people in a long time...

Anyway, be confident in the Lord this week! And in yourself. Remember, "to be worthy does not 

mean to be perfect." - Gerrit W Gong. You're worth it, it being the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Just you.

Love you all! Go hug your favorite person today.

Sister Rollins

Sister Rose and I got necklaces from Tricia, this cute lady in our ward :)

Alaska!

July 4, 2016

Easily distracted by ranch and French fries

Exchanges with the 2nd ward sisters, mosquitos, Zone Conference, the most delicious sandwich

 in the world, hey look, a parade!

Grandma's earrings, Firefli's baptism, strawberries, Nilla wafers, and a vicious poem competition,

 one more non smoker in the world!

The Gospel. It changes lives, people!

Imagine a sandwich with Ranch instead of mayo. Now add some avocado, and some spicy 

turkey and pepper jack cheese. But wait, don't forget the bacon! As well as some lettuce and/or 

fresh basil.

We had a lesson with Linda and Claire this week. We were talking about Joseph Smith and his 

experience, and as we were talking it struck me that I didn't really feel the peace and comfort 

that usually accompanies that story as we talk about it - the Holy Ghost manifesting of its 

truthfulness. However, in the middle of our conversation one of the girls randomly started talking 

about something else, and suddenly the feeling in the room completely changed. The
drastic changes we sometimes feel tell us more than when we're feeling the same things all the 

time.

I love you all! Also, my companion enjoys Chick-fil-A sauce as much as I do. Just a friendly 

reminder. Neither of us have had it in about fourteen months.

Sister Rollins

I forgot the pictures... Best testimony of the week: "this s*** is real"

Physics equations are strangely comforting
June 28, 2016
This week just blew by. Except there's no wind here...

Exchanges with the 5th ward sisters meant I went back to Fairbanks for a day, which was very strange. I've never been anywhere close to any of my previous areas, so this whole seeing previous ward members in McDonald's is really strange to me. It's not bad though! 

North Pole is doing fabulous! We had two different people this week walk up to the elders and ask to meet with the missionaries, so that was neat. They both live in our ward, and one came to church and enjoyed it! The other has a sister who came to our ward activity Saturday.

Speaking of our ward activity, it was HOT. Okay, like 85... But it seriously feels boiling. We survived with water balloons and a slip and slide... If you go on your knees, your skirt doesn't get that wet...

We started teaching two teenage girls, Claire and Linda this week. They're doing awesome, they came to church and loved it! Their mom is really cool too, but for now she works on Sunday's so can't come to church :( but they've been reading in the Book of Mormon as a family, which is super cool! They are such cool examples of doing things as a family to me - the mother and daughters are just best friends and do everything together! It's really cute.

I'm loving being with Sister Rose! She's a lil sweetie. We laugh a lot and have good times talking to atheists from Iowa. Also, the most common comments when people find out where we're from:

"Neither of you are from Utah? Wow!"

"Oh, Ohio and Iowa are really close, aren't they?"

"Oh, y'all are from back east!" (...literally Iowa is not in the east, nor is Ohio really. But that's okay.)

Love you all! This week I read Ether 3 and was blown away by the brother of Jared's praying skills. First, he acknowledged his will wasn't the best but God knows best. He then thanks Heavenly Father for his blessings, and then humbly asks for God to finish the work he has started that he can't complete. Except he says it way better than I do... Go learn how to pray better by reading that chapter :)

Love you all!

Sister Rollins