Hi Mom,
Did you get your box today? (p.s. I will try to make your birthday box better - not so much candy, etc. ...)
I don't know yet. The mail hasn't come in. I'm sure if I didn't, it will be here soon.
Where did you eat for Easter Sunday?
At the Doyle's house. It was our first dinner with ward members for a week. We have two missionaries in the area, and we make sure they get most of the dinners. But the Doyle's invited both of us, which was a pleasant surprise Sunday morning at church.
Did you eat anything traditional that Alaskan’s like to have at Easter?
No, they don't do anything special beyond what most of us do for Easter.
I heard you guys had another four inches of snow and that a roof in a church auditorium caved in. Was that one of our ward building cultural halls?
Yes, we've experienced the most snowfall in Anchorage that has ever been recorded. There's a lot of snow.
Yes, interesting that you heard about the church auditorium caving in. To answer your question, no, it was not one of our meeting houses.
However, interesting story about that: Sister Tupua, a Sister in our ward was picking up her car from the shop. The guy who owns the shop, who was handing back her keys and running the bill, who also is an assistant pastor at this church, got a call 30 minutes after the roof collapsed and was told about the event. He hung up the phone and told Sister Tupua about the unfortunate occurrence.
Sister Tupua walked back to her car and, feeling unsettled about the event, called me to see if there was anything that we could arrange as missionaries to assist. I called our Bishop and made sure I was following protocol, and then after receiving the go-ahead, I called the guy who was an assistant to the pastor 45 minutes after the building collapsed and offered up services from the 26 missionaries in our zone and from other members in our ward to help clean up wreckage.
He thanked us and said that we couldn't do anything on the property yet because they were waiting for the insurance company to inspect the damage. But when they needed help, they'd call us.
Since that time they haven't called us, but how's that for first-response?
How has it been driving around in the snow and (I suppose) Ice?
Roads aren't too bad. Most of us missionaries cruise around in 2011 Colorados with 4 wheel drive. However, mission-wide, we had 15 accidents last month. Some very bad accidents. Thankfully, no missionaries have been hurt at all.
How are you and E. Flynn getting along? Is it easy to live with him?
Yes, he's a great missionary and friend.
Tell me one thing that was awesome, fun, funny or cool that happened this week.
We had another wedding/baptism! I've worked with this couple since I first got into the area. The girlfriend was immediately excited for baptism, but she knew she either had to move out of her boyfriend's house or get married. They decided to get married. The husband, who has quite an amazing background, is still working on some things, but he's excited to get baptized soon.
Love,
Elder Johnson