Oct 26, 2015
Go away JUST LEAVE

At the beginning of this week, Sister Galli's goal was to have more meekness in trial (she's 

studying the song "More Holiness Give Me" line by line each week.) It wasn't as bad as we 

expected!

In fact, we met an amazing couple yesterday! They were invited by some members to our 

Meet the Mormons movie night we had on Friday, and then they wanted a Bible, and 

missionaries make great messengers :) so we raided the church library and headed on 

down the road! They were super friendly and Sheila has a beautiful Texan accent that Sister Galli picks up as she talks to her. They love learning about other religions and right now are just searching for what God wants them to do. Talk about prepared! They're fabulous and 

wanted to make sure we came back again.

We also had some fun finding experiences. We've had a goal to talk to 10 new people a 

day, which would happen if there were actual amounts of people in Alaska. We've been 

averaging probably about 3, which is most of the people we see that aren't in their cars. In 

an effort to see and be able to talk to more people, we decided to walk most of the way 

across town (about 30 minutes) and talk to everyone we saw. Since it was Saturday 

morning, we figured we'd see several people... And we saw a whopping 2 people getting 

into their car 50 feet up the road. It was a good time. The best part was that I felt inspired to walk up to this house and knock on their door, so I head up the driveway with my trusting

 companion. We get close to the door and see a lovely little sign on white paper written with a nice red marker: "Do not knock. Don't ring the doorbell. Go away. JUST LEAVE." We had a good laugh... Poor guys, they must have had a rough day. #alaska

Stocking salmon and ammo for the Second Coming is actually a thing.

Sister Galli is doing really well at not being trunky, even though she's only got one transfer

 after this one. We've convinced ourselves she has another year. As for other elders in my

 district... I can't say the same time. Describing how you're so excited to buy your RV and
drive back to Alaska every day doesn't help.

Two of the big families in town have kids who just got engaged, so that's the talk of the town.

Grace is my new favorite subject. Divine assistance you receive through faith and

 repentance. I don't know about you, but I need all the divine assistance that I can get.

The trees are now all bare, both of leaves and of snow. All of Soldotna is holding its breath as we wait for real winter to set in. We haven't plugged in our car yet!

Stay warm, remember who you are!

Sister Rollins

Oct 19, 2015

Ditch diving

Greetings.

Pro tip: don't drive into a ditch. If you pray hard enough, you might be able to get out of it (Sister Rollins: 1, Ditch: 0) but then you might lock the keys in the car (Sister Rollins: 1, 

Ditch: 1). We'll see if I can win next week. Did I mention that this Jeep we drive is still 

cursed?

People are doing pretty well. Sister Galli got to experience Funny River for the first time! 

It's... Tiny, and odd. Classic Alaska, with dirt roads and people talking about driving into 

town and lots of old homesteaders. They're probably the cutest people ever.

We are working with a lot of people who I met at the beginning of my time here and either 

were busy during the summer or we just lost contact with and now they're interested again. 

It's weird having the same teaching pool as I did five months ago... And thinking that it's
been five months! But good. I love it. There's lots of cute old ladies.

Our spiritual message that we've been sharing with people at dinner has been going really well. First, we pull out a bucket of jelly beans. Then, without telling them what it is, we go 

down the list from chapter 4 of Preach my Gospel and tell everyone to take a jelly bean
for every experience that they've had. Then, if they want to, they can share some of those 

experiences. It's been really cool to hear people's experiences, and they catch on to the 

theme pretty quickly, but some of them surprise you... The point of the jelly beans is that
we often limit our spiritual experiences to church and maybe reading the scriptures, but in 

reality, just as there are many flavors of jelly beans that are all sweet, so too are our spiritualexperiences different but still sweet. It's been really cool to be able to feel the spirit that is 

brought from sharing experiences as well. Hey, here's my commitment to all of you: go over that list and share one of those experiences with someone. It could be me, or it could be 

your mom, or anyone else. But do it.

I love you all! I see moose and miracles on the daily, and miracles probably more often. But they're both real and awesome.

Love,

Sister Rollins

Oct 12, 2015
Comforters and muddy roads

Rain! Rain. Rain. No snow. Raaaaain. Oh hey rain.

The clouds make it just barely not snowable.

This week was great! Sister Galli and I have finally gotten into the swing of things. She now gets my jokes when no one else does, and we've mastered communicating without anyone else noticing.

Raking leaves and chopping wood happens often. A lot of people here don't rake their 

leaves, though - they just mow over them and grind them up. It works pretty good, especially because there's no such thing as leaf pick-ups or even trash pick-ups in most of Soldotna. #smalltownlife

Chopping and stacking wood is fun! More so with a log splitter. I think I've talked about it lots of times, but it happens a lot. Maybe this week I'll take a picture so you can see our district 

in action.

One of our converts of a little over a year got to go do baptisms at the temple for the first 

time on Saturday! The drive is about 3 hours, so it's not made too often. Even though she 

was surprised at some things, she definitely felt the Spirit and the feeling of peace that you 

always get from the temple. I was so excited for her, especially since I haven't been for... 

Five months now. Woo. (I thought I was going at transfer meeting, but then it was closed for cleaning. Sad face.)

We came up with the next big Mormon missionary hit song: "The Commandments are to 

Make People Happy!" It's a catchy ditty. Remind me to sing it at my homecoming talk.

Ronnie got confirmed on Sunday! That kid is just a dear. He is one of the sweetest kids I've ever known. His dad came, too, which was super awesome and somewhat unexpected.

We made some delicious halibut! Sister Galli has mad making-up-recipe skills, so we took 

some halibut from our freezer and made a cream cheese and basil and honey mustard plus other things I didn't catch spread. And baked it in the oven. It was delish with the naan some

one had given us.

People are fascinating. Zone Conference was fun. Ponderizing scripture of the week: 

Moroni 8:3. I'm trying to be mindful of everyone in my prayers. They get a little long, but 

thinking of other people all the time is what I'm trying to do, and it's going pretty well. So

know that I'm thinking about all of you and praying for you.
Love,

Sister Rollins
Sister Galli and Sister Rollins



We found a pretty sunset and cooked some fish! Too bad most of our
pictures only one of us is smiling...

Oct 5, 2015
To be determined

GeNeRaL cOnFeReNcE holy smokes! Was amazing and edifying. Also, instead of the first 

session being at noon, the second one was at noon. But that's okay! Because then there 

was time on Sunday night for Ronnie's baptism. His whole family came (which was probablyaround 20 people) plus many members of our ward, which was so good. His dad, who
hasn't been attending church for several years, gave the baptism talk, and it was awesome. Not because he was eloquent or for anything in particular that he said, but because he just 

radiated happiness because his son was getting baptized. He still has a long way to come
back, but he's started.

Scripture I'm ponderizing this week: Jacob 2:8.

The trees have lost nigh unto half their leaves, and the first snow has yet to fall in Soldotna 

(although Homer, 90 miles south, and Cooper Landing, 30 miles north, both received their 

white blessings.)

Miracle of miracles, we actually tracted into someone who was interested! She has a good 

friend who's LDS, and they've had several in-depth conversations about religion. She was 

very friendly and invited us in (who does that? Only people who are prepared!) and we
had a really good question and answer session that was actually the Restoration lesson. So that was an amazing blessing. Also, since Sister Galli has mad people interaction skills, tha was super helpful.

We also helped out at the farm for the final week. All summer we've enjoyed the delightful 

farm folk and fresh vegetables, and it was sad to say goodbye! But it's a little chilly to be 

sticking your hands in a bucket of water, and the vegetables have barely been surviving the
frost, so the season is over and we now have open Wednesday mornings. 'll probably miss 

the rants about how awful Fish and Game is and how beavers are annoying. You win some,you lose some, you shoot some mose and life is good.

Wood stacking is fun. I am now entirely comfortable with a log splitter. Those things are awesome.  And loud.  Don't worry, I only lost hearing in one ear.

Sister Galli! My new companion is fabulous. It's really strange after being with Sister Price 

for four and a half months, but it's still good. She's from Salt Lake City and will be going 

home in three months! So she's excited to go back to BYU this winter semester.

The church is true, the book is blue! Remember that "Our purpose in this life is to have joy and prepare to return to Gods presence" (Preach my Gospel). Not our purposes, but just the one purpose. We have to have joy as we prepare to return to God's presence. That was
definitely a theme from conference - we're not here necessarily to receive all the blessings, but life on earth should be a time of joy! So keep on smiling :)

Much love,

Sister Rollins

Sister Rollins and Sister Galli in front of the Anchorage Temple
It's snowing and Sister Rollins is the only one that is excited.

This is me and Ronnie and Sister Galli! Like literally 50 people came
to his baptism. It was awesome. And crazy.

Sept 28, 2015
Big girls don't cry, so I suppose I'm big

Sister Rollins, Marie and Evie, and Sister Price (Marie and Evie are two of our favorite old people  :)  The assisted living center Evie lives in is the one I want to live in someday, for future reference.  It's super awesome.

The Soldotna district at Exit Glacier in Seward!  Fun times

Hello hello from Soldotna, 

Alaska! Still my home for yet another six weeks, which will put me at six months here! Crazy 

to think that I'll have been here this long. Unfortunately, Sister Price is leaving,though... And 

my new companion will be 

Sister Galli! She's from Salt
Lake and went to BYU as a 

freshman year the same year I did. I've been on exchanges 

with her once, so I already 

know her a little, and I'm 

excited! She'll probably end hermission here, since she has buttwo transfers left.

It hasn't snowed here yet... 

Fairbanks already has several inches, but it's supposed to snow tonight here. It's been chillyin the mornings, not so bad in the daytime... But it's not cold yet. Because 30 isn't cold, it's 

just cool.

Since Sister Price is leaving here after being here for six months, we've had a lot of 

goodbye lessons, which is somewhat sad. Lots of people are giving her little departing gifts, and then they feel bad not giving me one... So they give me stuff too :) I now own some 

Russian-made pashanka (I have no idea how that is supposed to be spelled, my apologies) dolls, which are cute and adorable.

Thank you for all of the letters and little things people send me! I really appreciate them, 

even if I don't get back to you right away - our preparation days are quite busy.

A moose hit a member in our ward's car this week! He bounced off the windshield and over 

the car. Their windshield thankfully didn't shatter, but it had approximately 10,563 cracks in 

it and is now missing a side mirror. Kids, if you're going to hit a moose, hit a baby one... 

Otherwise your car will not survive.

Tracting in the rain is hardly effective, but sometimes necessary. I almost lost a shoe to the mud, but I was able to save it from a cold and dreary death.

I'm excited to finally be able to go to the temple again - I haven't been able to go since I've 

arrived. Missionaries in Alaska get to go once a transfer if they're within an hour or two of 

Anchorage, and Soldotna's a little far... But since we're going to transfer meeting, we'll get to go! Since we've been teaching Vaughn and Samantha a lot about the temple and the 

blessings we receive from going there, it will be nice to actually get to go.

I was able to reach my goal of reading all of Preach my Gospel this transfer! The 

instructions in that manual are truly inspired. Probably my favorite chapter was the fourth 

one - "How do I recognize and understand the Spirit?" I've definitely grown to better 

understand how the Holy Ghost is present in my life - when you can literally do anything thatpops into your head because you have time and a companion to help you, you realize that 

so many things that pop into your head are actually useful, valuable things to other people. So go do some of those things this week.

I love you all! We'll be very busy this week, what with Sister Galli meeting everyone and 

Ronnie's baptism on Sunday to prepare for! General Conference is also something to be 

excited about - I loved the General Women's Broadcast this past Saturday! It's a bit odd to 

think the second session will be at noon instead of the first, but hopefully I'll survive :)

Love,

Sister Rollins

Sept 23, 2015

Hello from Alaska!!!
My wife and I enjoyed spending a partial P-Day with your lovely daughter and her 

companion.  We ate lunch together and then went fishing for a little bit.  No luck on fish but 

sister Rollins turned out to be a "natural" with the open face spin cast reel.  She did a 

fantastic job!  We love your daughter's cheerful and friendly demeanor .... such a sweet gal.  Always has a smile on her face!  My wife and I spend summers here renting a couple of our cabins ... and I fish-guide a little.  Lots of fun ... and Alaska is AWESOME!!!  Make sure you visit sometime ... you would love it!  Thanks for raising such a choice young daughter of 

God!!!

Brother and Sister Heap

Sept 23, 2015

Hyperoxygenation via rectal injections of ozone

Somehow, last week we made it to Seward! In a sketchy old 70s van with three sets of 

missionaries and a baby. And the baby's mother, of course. So now I've been to Seward 

twice, once on purpose and once on accident! Fun times. This time we went and hiked Exit Glacier, which was super touristy and I met a lot of Asians. It was cold and a little sad how much it's shrunk... Even the nice ward member who took us says she remembers it being 

way bigger when she went on a field trip to go see it 10 years ago. You can't even touch it 

anymore, which is sad. No glacier water drinking for us :(

Also, note to future peninsula visitors: Homer food > Seward food.

We had some cool experiences this week! One of Linda's neighbors, Mercedes, had her 

first baby and there were many complications. (Linda was baptized about two months ago.) Linda, who is one of the most kind and caring people ever, of course went to go help her in

the hospital and such. And she told Mercedes she really needed a blessing, and she
agreed. So we went with the elders for her to receive that blessing, and it was a beautiful 

experience. I haven't seen a days old baby many times, and they are so precious. 

The blessing was beautiful, and all present were humbled by the experience. And to think 

that baby was just with God not even a week ago!

Speaking of kids, the Soldotna Primary Program was yesterday! I don't think I've realized 

how many kids are in this ward, but there's a lot. Like, too many to fit on the stand all at once. Which is good. They did a great job singing and testifying, and a couple of kids played
Primary songs, which was neat. There was the classic kid who sang extremely loud (almost as loud as Max Spencer!), the seventeen boys in senior primary who only mostly paid 

attention, and the sunbeams sitting on the front row - one of them walked up to the 

microphone, looked to her teacher for her line, got told her line, and then said "that one's not mine." Dear Sister Lockett smiled and said "okay, perfect!" and then they sat down.

Ronnie, who was in the Primary program (he's 10) is on date to be baptized General 

Conference weekend! He's super pumped. He was a little bummed I couldn't baptize him, 

but he's excited and learning really fast. His parents are supportive, but didn't even want to 

come to church for the primary program...

Dustin's fallen off the map. I guess he doesn't like us anymore?  Yeah, Dustin's kind of disappeared... And everyone's asking about him and we don't have anything to say because he hasn't talked to us or his sister or anybody really in three weeks... Awkward.

Current moose count: 14
Current caribou count: 6
Current companion count: 1
Current countdown until transfers: 8 days

My ninja accomplishment of the week was taking off a pair of tights (they were sticking to 

my skinned knee that I got because I'm clumsy) during a lesson without anyone noticing, 

including my companion. #skillz

Oh, and I've been trying to get a picture of this giant stuffed musk ox that's in somebody's 

house. They have giant windows. We'll just have to knock on their door and ask, maybe...

Remember, as the primary kids sang: your savior loves you. A lot.

Sister Rollins