Week 32: Floods, coincidence, and bus drivers

Dear Family and Friends,

The rain has been crazy here. It's sunny and warm (-ish) out today, but there has been a huge puddle/lake in our parking lot that comes up over my shoes every time I back my companion out. There have even been floods on K-Beach-- One mile way down out of our area the road is completely immersed in water and has been closed off. I even heard they lost about 30 feet off the bluff, and the apartments are being watched for evacuation. Luckily, we are safe though and all is well.
So I have never seen so many yellow buses in my life as I have seen in snowy places, especially here in Alaska. It seems like most everyone takes the buses to school around here. We have a couple of Bus drivers in our ward and they have the funniest stories! They bus anywhere from elementary kids to high schoolers. One is one of our High councilmen in the Stake and he has this voice that you can hear above all else. On his bus he has this seat for little kids who won't follow the rules and he call it the "sin bin" -- trouble is, everyone wants to find a way to come up and sit there with him. The other lady in our ward who is over the Relief Society shared a story from her bus yesterday about these little kindergarteners- one of the kids hit another little kid, and they went to talk to the principal about it. When the principal asked the first little boy why he hit the other he said it was because the boy told him he wouldn't go to his pizza party. The principal turned to the other boy and he simply said, "I wasn't hungry." The boy giving the invitation said then, "You didn't have to eat! you can play." the other boy just said, "I didn't want to." And thus we see the life of a kindergartener. Oh the Drama. The sister in our ward sat behind them trying not to laugh the whole time. Apparently she had some teenage girls who would drench themselves with perfume- and she is allergic. She decided to tell all the girls to stay on the bus for a minute while she let the boys off. The only way she could get them to wear less perfume was to tell them that boys liked it better when they only have a little bit of perfume on- they have to lean in closer. She is SO FUNNY. Here we are, shocked that she told these little kids that and all she wanted was to be able to breathe. Anyways, as those kids say, she is "just a bus driver"- as if any one is JUST something. haha, you have to be a special kind of person to do something like that.

It was homecoming this week for the High School here- reason I mention this is because there was this HUGE stack of pallets in there parking lot for the last couple of weeks and finally it's gone- wish I could have seen the bonfire!

We met a woman in our ward who is bed ridden, but has traveled the world over and over again. She is from France, and has raised all sorts of exotic pets- a baby elephant, giraffe, etc-- I wish I was as ambitious as her. Every time we call her on the phone, she always says goodbye in French-- which I am not even going to attempt to type out because I know it will be wrong. Something interesting she shared- she has been out of what we would call "civilization" for different reasons, traveling with natives of africa for years at a time and other people, and she discovered Alaska herself one day and moved to the bush, to teach at a village. She was saying how every time she came back to "the world" she would recognize how dark and awful it was becoming. People just began to do more and more things that made them unhappier, and we can see this all over the world today. She said how much it pained her to see. We do not always notice the change by increments of things we do to make us unhappy, but there is a huge contrast, and she recognized that. Each of our part in this is just to do the best we can, and to turn our hearts away from the things of the world- to be IN the world, but not OF the world. What helped her in coming back was turning to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our new investigator texted us this week after the second lesson we taught her- she said, "Hey I just wanted to let you know that I read the chapters and prayed afterward and got such a happy feeling and I can really feel God trying to work in my life." We are so excited for her and for her persistence in listening to the spirit she is feeling. We had a training for all missionaries in the mission this week and a recent convert in Anchorage shared her story, and I remember her sharing that she had felt the spirit all her life, but now she knew specifically what it was. It had carried her in everything, but now she can know that Heavenly Father is not only guiding her. She has sacrificed so much for the Gospel, but she knows that time can heal that, and that she knows that God is directing her now, and that all will be well.

My companion likes to say that coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous- well, we had one specific coincidence the other day with our investigator who has been going through a rough time with situations in his life and has moved out of our area. Sis. B and I had been driving on flat tire all day, even pumped it with air, but we needed to change it. We were bringing some cookies (that mom baked) to the Elders, and met at a halfway point, and guess who happened to be there, helping his friend fix his tire?! It was wonderful to see that he seemed to be doing alright and he asked us to give him a chapter to read. He is still going strong in the Gospel and I can see it helping him in the rest of his life.  (insert:  I wonder if he helped the sisters change their tire???)

Can I say how much I love and appreciate the letters! I got a letter from someone this last week, and I can tell you that they have helped me so much! thank you for the support! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Wuehler

ism: "Something I have learned about Alaska since moving here-- on almost every corner there is a church and a liquor store"

Scripture: Mormon 9:9,11, 15-20, 27-28
For do we not read that God is the ^asame ^byesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no ^cvariableness neither shadow of changing?

11 But behold, I will show unto you a God of ^amiracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same ^bGod who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do ^ano miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous ^aworks of God?

17 Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his ^aword the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was ^bcreated of the ^cdust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought?

18 And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty ^amiracles? And there were many ^bmighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles.

19 And if there were ^amiracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he ^bchangeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do ^amiracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should ^btrust.

27 O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. ^aDoubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and ^bcome unto the Lord with all your ^cheart, and ^dwork out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

28 Be ^awise in the days of your ^bprobation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your ^clusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and ^dliving God.