10-3-16

Hey everyone!

This week was awesome! We were so blessed to be able to listen to
General Conference this week! It was great to hear the direction from
our General Authorities! Also it was great to hear from President
Monson! When a Prophet only has energy to speak for 4 minutes we
better pay close attention to those 4 minutes! I thought it was
interesting that everything he could of talked about in Priesthood
session he chose the Word of Wisdom. I was so grateful he did! With
some of those we had listening that was the message they needed to
hear! Also I noticed a lot being said about the Plan of Salvation.
The Plan of Salvation has taken such a new meaning to me being on my
mission. I have come to truly love the plan our Father in Heaven has
given us! Helping those learn that they not only will see their loved
ones again but can be with them for eternity is one of the greatest
things I have ever experienced. I really loved President Nelsons talk
about joy. This gospel is all about TRUE joy. I can tell you that true
joy is only found in following Jesus Christ and keeping his
commandments. Like President Nelson said, "joy is a gift for the
faithful."
So this week we have been trying to help this less active come back to church. She really wants to be a good example to her kids and start having a better life. We read some scriptures with her one day and you could just feel the spirit hit her. That night she called us out of the blue and asked for a blessing. So we went over with our Ward Mission Leader and gave her a blessing of comfort. The spirit was so strong and the next day she told us how she was going to give up drinking. It was been so awesome to see the Atonement work in her life. Through Christ I know and have seen people change! 

Well on a less spiritual note, I had mutuk this week! I don't know if  I'm spelling tht right but Mutuk is Whale Blubbler!! So the story goes we were tracking and came across this lady

 we talked to the other day before she was super nice and let us in.

Her husband is Native Alaskan straight from the villages, we gave them a Book of Mormon with an invitation to read it. As we were about to leave I asked him in conversation if he eats mutuk. His wife jumped right up and said "we love mutuk!" She ran to the fridge and pulled some out and told us we needed to try it. I guess it was raw too haha. Oh man it was so chewy! It felt like a piece of gum. Flavor wasn't too bad, some were worse than others haha. Then after that she pulled out some smoked salmon and had us dip it in seal oil. That wasn't bad at all, it was a lot better than the whale blubber. They told us that the whale we eat was from a village up by Barrow. What happens is they kill the whale with a harpoon and the whole village comes out and chops it up! Crazy right!? Then after that she was so nice she gave us a jar of smoked salmon and told us to eat it with some crackers. And it was awesome!!! 

Anyway that was one of the coolest tracking experiences I have ever had.

So earlier this week we went out to the boonies to help one of our investigators to kill some chickens. I never knew how long it takes to pluck chickens! It was pretty crazy this guy we helped should be on one of those Alaskan shows. He goes out to his coop and started shooting the chickens in the head! He kept missing so it was hilarious watching this guy pumping out bullets trying to kill these chickens hahaha! Anyway that was a different experience this week!

-Elder Barney