Monday, December 19, 2011

December 19, 2011

This computer is so terrible it hurts me to use it,

On other notes, I am really going to miss Kay, I liked him a lot.

I am getting transferred again, I got red dotted due to the small accident I was in, which I should not have been red dotted for, the damage makes it look much more severe than it was and it was my first accident ever, I'm going to see what I can do to have it removed. Since my companion can't drive and he speaks Samoan fluently and there are not driving Samoans, I am getting transferred, the whole ward keeps telling me I need to tell president he cant do it. It makes me sad because I probably will not come back a third time but no one thought I would come back a second so we will see. the worst part is that it is right before Christmas.

I am going to the Huffman area, it is, if looking at a map south of Dimond and east of Seward, the mission home, Brayton chapel and temple are in my new boundaries, I will be serving with Elder Merril, I will be his second companion, or "greenie Braker" I will also be the senior companion.

I have some really good news, last week we had 2 baptisms, fulfilling the wards goal for baptisms. I have served in Dimond Ward 2 separate times, and for 6 weeks each, in those I totaled 11 of the 13 baptisms this ward has ever had, it makes me sad to leave.

Also I finally got a copy of the Jeffrey R. Holland's fireside talk that happened up here in Anchorage back in November, I made a copy for everyone in the mission and I am uploading it to the sky drive today, I hope you can listen to it, it is really good and about an hour long.

I am not excited to go back to palangi wards that much, there are things I like and dislike about both but overall the best place in the entire mission to be is Dimond Ward, you can ask almost any missionary who knows much about that and they will tell you, but the Lord has other plans for me, right now.

This is the link to Elder Hollands fireside: https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=fdb757153a3444cd&resid=FDB757153A3444CD!1713&parid=FDB757153A3444CD!107&authkey=!AEKzTObxDp0d1K0 )

Monday, December 12, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

No I have not gotten the package yet. We have a baptism that will be done on either the 24th or 25th - Christmas the ward is very exited because it also will fulfill the wards baptism goal for the year, this ward is less than a year old.

Elder Collins is a little bigger waste size than me but other wise pretty close, the only things i can think of I want for Christmas is ties with pandas on them, other cool ties, and or money, simply because it is hard to move things much bigger than ties around, or i can buy something funny up here so you don't have to ship it, I am not sure other than that.

(Do you get homesick?) No not really, I miss things about being home like computers games, people, and animals but not really home sick. (notice he put computer games before people)

(Kay Miller isn't doing very well) Thats sad to know I will really miss him, I really like him.

*** The next part of Tyler's blog is from a past companions (Elder Winterrose)letter to his family. I thought it was funny!
I visited the Dimond Ward and my old companion Elder Williams is serving there. We got to teach a primary class of like 12 kids ages 8-7 and a few random youngins. It was funny, and totally random. We talked about doing unto others. They didn't have sharing time so we had to teach them the whole hour. ONE hour without candy.... cause it was fast Sunday. We taught the lesson for as long as their little attention spans could handle it for and then we did a bunch of little magic tricks. TRICKS are awesome for children. Elder Williams even did the one where he licks his eye ball. The kids were so excited/grossed out! It was way funny. You literally have to have something planned for every minute of class though. One slip and you loose control of the group and have to reset, review and restart. It was a blast though.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Monday, December 5, 2011

The last couple days here it has been about 27F and raining, up here that means instantaneous black ice, they call it freezing rain, we were told not to leave our apartment at all for several days, though it is warmer it is still quite a pain, up in my last area it was much colder, it gets a lot more snow too. And they have the freezing rain, church was canceled in 2 stakes yesterday Eagle River and Wasilla due to the freezing rain.

Elder Collins is from Western Samoa he grew up there and left for his mission from there, he is Samoan, he has been out one transfer (6 weeks) less than I have, his family is very active in the church, don't know a whole lot more than that. Can't think of a whole lot you could help with we get a long very well other than the language difficulties, because he does not speak English very well.
But we get along great together.

Work is definitely going slow simply because our investigators are busy, we have had 2 people recently come up and ask what they need to do to be baptized, they are both around 16 and 17 they did not come together but near the same time, one of them the parents don't want him to be baptized and the other we have been trying to meet at his house but he has not given us his address just phone, and he asked for things he could read in the BoM he has the app on his phone with bible and BoM so we gave him some to read while we get in contact with him, Moroni 10:3-5 and 3 Nephi ch 11

The puzzles help but I don't think they make this one in Samoan and when I use it they speak English well enough i can do it that way.

Learning a language in mission is really hard, its difficult because in order to really do it I kind of need to be submersed into it, but they all speak English for the most part and with all the other elders I have to speak English so it's hard to learn the language luckily my companion is doing his best to help me but a lot of times he cant understand what I am saying in English, its frustrating some times, but other than the language things are going well.

.....and yes when I found out that right after I left there is a truck and plow and snow mobiles, ;( i would love to ride them when I get back home, that sounds like a lot of fun to me, that is quite the hobby up here for a lot of people.

I love you very much.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Monday, November 28th

I don't have much time to email got to work on something for mission on the computers, I'm in charge of all that stuff, I am working on a mission slide show for Christmas.

Dad can use my boots I left at home they should fit him and they are very warm.

For Thanksgiving we had dinner at 11 am then a district meeting then sports with our members at gym then second thanks giving dinner, slid into a guard rail and broke plastic on mission car, its not bad, then came home.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Monday, November 21st, 2011

So I have been made the official tech/it elder of our mission, I talked to Sis. Beesley our mission president’s wife and she told me I can have the official title of tech guru. I share new methods of using technology to communicate and share the gospel; I just finished entering every missionary’s phone number into my email as contacts so I can send out mass texts to the entire mission.

They have members of the ward who video tape all of the ward parties, there is one on a tripod and one who walks around and tapes everyone, all of them Samoan, the elders were talking to a member of their ward, who was inviting them to the party, he said "I dance like a wild man, it is fun and everyone has fun watching me, I love to dance."

We have about 30 investigators, not even joking; there is a lot of work in the Samoan wards. A young man walked in yesterday at church and introduced himself in priesthood meeting, and introduced himself as a non member who would like to be baptized, so being missionaries we jumped on that, he is talking to his parents and we will follow up tomorrow.

Yes we do, we have about 30 active investigators, the ward here is much, much more involved with sharing the gospel, on Tuesday night Samoans from all Anchorage, member and nonmember alike are invited to volleyball, non members can only play for 2 weeks before talking with us and deciding whether they want to take the discussions, they have multiple fire sides, they invite all their friends to everything, they do most everything a missionary could wish the members could do.

My first experience here when I was in this ward the first time has helped me very much with the culture, the whole yours is mine is strange, but mine is yours, yours is ours, ours is all of yours, everyone shares with everyone for the most part, it is interesting, missionaries stuff is the exception. Missionaries are given the same status as bishop, chief, or leaders. They do all they can to help us.

The culture is interesting, they just want to have fun, be happy, and learn about the Lord. They are very humble.

I’m not sure what the plan is for Thanksgiving,

????What do you want for Christmas???? The only item I really want for now is panda ties, ties with pandas on them, it’s a running joke I got one I really like and I want to get a bunch of panda ties before I go home, other than that.. money or candies and stuff.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Monday, November 14th


Hi mom I am back in the Dimond ward staying with the Meades, at the house I started off my mission in. I remember a decent amount of what I learned, but it was not much still. I bore my testimony in Samoan this week I had to read it.

My companion is Elder Collins he is from Western Samoa, I really like him, he is teaching me a lot of Samoan, there is a lot of work going on here and I am really enjoying it.

(???Do they feed you enough) Oh yes, members in the Samoan ward get mad at you if you ever go hungry and do not ask them to give you food or money that night.
I’m fine on zyrteck for now; in fact I am back in Anchorage, so I can get it for about the same prices down there, I’ll work on getting that nativity, so you would like the nicest one I can find??? Is December 10th when you need it by or when you need it sent by, I’ll will get it as soon as I can alright? I will do my best to find you a sweet one!

We have gotten a lot of snow here in Anchorage, those 100mph winds are fairly common in Palmer area, that’s probably where that hit.

(???Can missionaries by fireworks??) i sent those because when I was in Houston people would come there from all over Alaska, it is the only place that is legal to get those fireworks in all of Alaska.

It’s a cool place, they had a batman that would stand next to a batmobile all day to get people to stop there, one day they had 6 people in gorilla suits dancing around, one guy owns all of those and he is lds, he makes millions there, they are open all year round.

Monday, November 7, 2011

November 7, 2011




Back row, Elders Carson, Lawson, Fisher, Sutton, Poole, Bunch, Cameron, Na'a, Wigand, Tonga, Sherwood, Williams, Woolbert, Middle row: Elder Adams, Sister Squires, Sis. Walker, Elder William R. Walker, Pres. Beesley, Sister Beesley, Sister Garner, in Front: Elder White, Espiritu, Stone.





I am being transferred tomorrow, I am being sent to the Dimond Samoan ward where I was trained, I will have a Samoan companion to help me learn the language, president Beasley said he wants elders who will learn the language and help future missionaries in the Samoan wards learn Samoan.

So this week Elder Stone and I got to meet Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the quorum of the twelve apostles, Bishop Burton, Elder Christensen, and Elder Tad Callister, we got to spend an hour with them and the other missionaries before he did a fireside in anchorage. It was amazing to be that close to and to shake hands with these people. On Saturday we had the chance to meet Jeffrey R. Holland and he taught us many things, he spent a lot of time in the fireside (which was for non-members, recent converts and so on) he talked about how you can go home from this meeting and not join the church, but you cannot deny that this is true.

You cannot argue the evidence, you cannot kill this, you can go home and be baptized or you can go home and tell the missionaries, my what a strange old man you brought to speak to us, paraphrasing of course. It was really amazing to be there. The speakers were turned up really loud because the previous speakers, Tad Callister, Bishop Burton and Elder Christensen were quiet, it was very loud at the end

It was really amazing. I have never been so close to an apostle, he and the others gave incredible talks both privately to the missionaries and in the fireside.

I will try to find link to it.
It is snowing a lot up here we have gotten several feet in the last couple days alone. I will definitely look for a nativity set for you, should not be too hard to find. I will be in Anchorage now, I should be able to buy stuff for much less than I was able to in Wasilla, there is no sales tax and things in Anchorage are at better prices.
Well I did really want to stay where I am, but i have also wanted to go back to Dimond ward since I left, it’s really hard. I love both of them so much. I have been here for 8 months now but when we went to the fireside with Jeffrey R. Holland Lucy Hansen gave the opening prayer. I baptized Lucy Hansen when I was in Dimond ward before.I am really excited to see them again.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Monday October 17, 2011

We have some child of record baptisms this month, for some less active members we have been workin with, it looks like this will be Elder Stones first and only baptism on his mission.

This last week we have been doing a lot of updating, a couple of people from the bishopric think we may have been inspired to do so because all the stuff I started doing in this area, turns out is something required by the stake that they now have to do, while the stake is deciding new ward boundaries, there is a new chapel being built so our ward will probably be split.

How is the baby going and all that stuff turn out, when was she born?
Gotta get taking off but i love you mom
We did not do a whole lot this week so i did not have much to write about
Bye

Monday, October 10, 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011



No thanks on the CTR ring.
That is funny that you have tons of snow, or at least got it, down in south east Alaska, it has been kinda snowy, but in the area of Alaska I’m in, it is staying about 30F-50F but no snow.

The work has been progressing well, we are having fun in our area, and doing a lot of service, we ate dinner with a professional photographer, so she took a bunch of pictures, I’m on a slow pc so I updated them in a smaller format, I’ll re upload them later.

We will be having several children getting baptized this month in our ward, one or 2 from a less active family we have been working with

The teenagers we baptized are still active and coming to seminary.

I just knew we were going to get stuff for plowing our house as soon I left, haha just kidding, that should help out a lot as well as the polaris ranger with the plow, by the way, I never heard any more about Danny’s dad, what is the news with that? from when he was in the hospital?

I have been fixing peoples computers, it gets me in the door to less actives then we can teach them. The less actives are who we have been doing a lot of focusing on, that is who our stake president wants us to focus on at this time, we have a lot of them hiding in our area.
Jeffrey R. Holland priesthood session was good, so was the first one about memorizing scriptures.

Also do you know if i might be able to buy a new winter hat, it’s about $50 I’ll keep looking for the one i want but for less $$$ also I am probably going to send you a package today

i love you and am getting off, also i got the hat for like $30 instead, thanks bye.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Monday, October 03, 2011


This week we watched general conference at the Willow ward building, and there were only 3 people at the Saturday session at the church Bishop Fishback, Elder Stone, and me.

That is really cool that you were in the afternoon session I was looking for you as we watched, that was a very powerful session of conference. As soon as I saw the Mayan, I remembered that Trevor was a cliff diver there, that is a cool restaurant. Did they still have a lot of robotic parrots and stuff?

We had a lot of fun for 6 hours watching conference with the bishop. I have been in this area just about 7 months and I have earned his trust so far as he has given me his account info and password for lds.org and the clerks office computer I have his password as well, so that we can update the ward roster for him

I might be here in this area for quite a while, Elder Stone goes home at the end of this transfer and if I am moved then this area will be white washed which is where both elders leave, which is really bad for a huge area like this.
I’m fine with staying here it means i get to see Christmas here and it would mean i can focus on the people that i have wanted to, I would enjoy staying. We are teaching about 4 or so people.

When you send the package for Halloween to me can you include some of the packets of nacho cheese sauce?

Monday, September 26, 2011

Monday, September 26th, 2011

My week has been good, I got my package.
I would like to write Josh a letter, although I forgot where he got called to, that might help a little.

I can hardly believe that Marissa went to home coming let alone with Britton, that kid has always been a bit...

Fall started here a while ago, there are hardly any leaves left on the trees.

Oh by the way, transfers are tomorrow, Elder Stone and I are staying six more weeks.

I am glad Danielle is getting married so soon and to someone from Idaho! Josh is probably working are air to air and air to ground weapons guidance systems such as j-dams and things like that. That is a good field to go into, and being stationed in Oklahoma means he is more likely to be on the design and testing end, than in combat and using them. A lot of weapons testing is done in that area of the US.

That sounds pretty spendy to fly to Trevor’s and help out, I hope you are able to spend some time with them.

love you.

I’ll send you the package soon as I find some more stuff to put in it.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Monday, September 19th, 2011



That’s a funny photo of Oreo, she looks kinda weird now, I am going to have to tell Elder Sutton what his dad said, he is my zone leader, hahaha. (So in our Ward Conference in Rexburg President Sutton stood up and said that he might have to stop watching BYU football games if he is going to follow the 13th Article of Faith because there was nothing virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy about their last game.)

I just got the second package today, there have been a lot of confusing things with it and its been annoying but I worked it out with the ups store this morning.

The other elders here have never heard of spud day, I told them about it... it’s an Idaho thing; it’s a lot of fun though. I’m surprised dad you don’t sound more excited about going to something called spud day, sounds like a hoot!

I’m sure the cats love it in my room nice and quiet. No one bothers them in there.

I told Elder Sutton about his dad and he thought that was funny he is in a ward nearby called Knick Fairview, his area borders mine.


There are a few different things in Talkeetna one of them is the place that was on TV for a giant burger it is a $34 burger I don’t know if it’s better than Big Juds I never had one, it was on TV though just tourist food.


I ate one of the meal worm suckers, the other elders where very surprised that they make suckers with real bugs would it be possible to get any scorpion ones?
I don’t know if he ever had a brother that served a mission there, his name would be winckle but I’m not sure, he was converted only 4 years ago

It’s possible I could train but I don’t know it would be fun though.
Elder Stone and I are working well together; we have difference of opinions but nothing serious.
Love ya

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

We did not get to email yesterday because it was a holiday and all the libraries were closed. We did service at the Fair.

Elder Wiegand, Elder Williams, Elder Cameron, Elder White, Elder Stone, Sis. Squires, Sis. Gardner, Elder Carson at fair.

I did have fun pushing old people, we got a cool guy named Phil, he was probably 80 something. We kept asking him where he wanted to go and he would say, "Wherever you want to go is fine". So we pushed him around from noon till 4pm and tried to get him to see as much of the fair as possible. He was a lot of fun. I found out later that he might be a member of our church, the lady said he said he was but others said he was not. The missionaries at one time were taking him the sacrament, the Elder I talked to who was in that ward said he really likes just being around people. He is usually in a ward (not church ward, old people home ward) by himself. I guess sometimes he has dementia. We spent Monday at the fair too.

Thank you so much for sending everything. When did you send them? I have not gotten either package yet. Combo of weekend and holiday makes mail slow.

The things we do on our missions are quite incredible, most people find it hard to believe that we are giving up this much time to serve the Lord, especially when they find out we are paying for our missions. I am very excited for the next 17 months of my mission, there is a lot of learning I still need to do and all the study that we do throughout the day is really helping, we also attend seminary in the morning and we are learning about the old testament.

Our days are getting shorter and shorter, we have had a lot of leaves fall off already, soon it we will not have much sunlight at all. It's getting windy and colder too.

I get to attend the temple tomorrow for the first time on my mission and my companions first time since MTC as well, he has been out 22 months, he has not much time left and this is his first change, so we will be in Anchorage.

Thank you for your love and support.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Thank you for finding that stuff and getting the CTR rings for me I think it will be a big help. I can't think of anything else I need.

Things have pretty much been same old same old here as well, we are doing a service project today and Thursday pushing old people..... that is how they described it to me. We are pushing them around in wheel chairs at the state fair in Palmer. That should be fun!

It sure does help the missionary work as the ward works with us to help our investigators.

Is Chris and Rachel back yet?

I love you I will write more when I think of more things to say.

Monday, August 23, 2011

The weather stays around 55F it is really nice. It is starting to get dark again.

I bet you guys had a lot of fun visiting all of the historical sites, when did you get home? Bringing stuff on the roof of our van is quite a pain, after the grill I decided I did not want to do that again.

I was in the Talkeetna Branch again this Sunday. It is always fun being there, it's really different only having like 40 people here each week.

When does Marissa start school?

We are attending seminary here it just started today @ 6:30 am, it's a lot of fun. Paige and Luke (the teens who got baptized) were both at seminary this morning. We attend it now that it has started, it is at the big house on our property so we get up and go over there in the morning. It starts at 6:30am and that is when we are supposed to get up anyways.

My new zone leader is Elder Sutton, he is pretty cool, he knows I am from Rexburg his dad told him I was coming when I got my call here. If I had not been delayed in Seattle I would have met him my first day here in the mission field.

We saw a dog today that someone shaved like a lion.


Could you please send me my gps and the cable with it, also believe it or not it would be useful if I had my green lazer pointer. Also my big black steel Winchester Knife we do a lot of service and I have found that there is a lot of stuff I need it for. We spend 5 to 10 minutes looking for a knife that will work.

Been here 6 months!

Monday, August 15, 2011
I have been out for 6 months now. Did the 6 month burning of the old tie.

My sunglasses should be at the mission office right now. tomorrow are exchanges and they should send it up here with the other mail going to our area. Exchanges work differently now, they call us Saturday night and let us know where we are going, Monday stays a normal p-day, and Tuesday if you are being exchanged you to there and change places really quickly and leave, Elder Sutton will be my new zone leader tomorrow. I stayed again in this area, I am really enjoying it here. I have now been here over 4 months.

I went to Talkeetna for Sunday with Jeff (recently ordained Elder in the ward office of elder not missionary, he is getting his stake president interview next week) We visited less actives after church, it really is different in the branch than the ward, they meet in closets for their different areas.
We cover one ward and one branch, we cover 2 cities, 4 or 5 areas, like big lake area unincorporated and Willow and things like that.

I really hope you enjoy your whole trip, when are you going to be back in Rexburg?

We did do something interesting now that I think of it, we went to a house that had 12 or 13 american pitbulls that look like they go to a gym to work out. I got some pictures with one of the bigger ones, the pictures don't do it justice!


It sure does sound like a lot of fun going to those different places? Did you enjoy sturgis at all, I'm sure there were a lot of harleys there. I heard you also went to the V-rod factory and took a tour, was it different than most Harley manufactoring plants? I'm sure you had a lot of fun there and Marissa was probably bored to tears.

The early history of the church is something I have done a little studying about, what was done is quite amazing on the part of the saints.

Well I love you very much bye for now.

Monday, August 08, 2011

We are building a deck for the Bishop (our place is on his property). It is fun and nice having the right tools.

Have fun on your trip. I would not mind the car ride if I had a good book or games, but that will be a long car ride.

I got both the letters from Tyke and from Aunt Donna I will try to write them back this week.

I got the puzzle, I really like it, it will help a lot because we are going to be teaching little kids. Did you get the CTR rings?

Love ya

Monday, August 01, 2011

It has been raining here, then 70F, then rain some more. It's raining right now. The weather here is very much the same as Rexburg. People who have been here say it is colder in Rexburg. Not temperatures wise but it feels colder.

I thought of a great idea for kids and stuff, I want to get a bunch of CTR rings, and things like that for kids, even if they are not LDS it still means choose the right. Also if I could get a plan of salvation wooden puzzle or something interactive for teaching kids.

I guess your all alone for a week without Marissa.

Love you!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Elder Tyler, Cj, Joanne, Elder Stone. We call the couple the Yodinkles.
My new companion is Elder Stone he is from Burley. He has been out a little over 21 months he goes home in early November I believe.
For Pioneer Day the ward has a party back at the Mahoni’s place, where we did the baptism. There was lots of food, members, and softball. I hit once and made it all the way home, not on the same hit.
Well I love you and will email more as I have time.
***We sent Tyler a box for the 4th of July and this is how he put it to use!

Monday, September 12, 2011

September 12th, 2011

This past week, Samuel and Nick  were married... uhm... did they have a long talk with Stake Pres. about this??? Just kidding!

My week has been pretty good I really enjoyed the temple. The temple is tiny, it is smaller than the stake center, and it’s also the only temple in the world with an arctic entry. An Arctic Entry is where you come in and there is another door before you enter the temple, when you enter right to your left is a place to take off all of you shoes and coats and hang them in there before you go into temple.


Ok so I need to have all my mail addressed to me and say Alaska Anchorage mission on it or the post office will not send it here anymore, my packages ended up in the church mail box for the Willow building, I only have one for now when they check it again I will probably get my other one.

The zone leaders are Missionary equivalent of stake president, I have a zone leader meeting every second Wednesday of the month, we got to go down with them to the temple, I will post pictures in a minute.

Transfers are Sept 27th, I think I’ll get transferred but idk I could stay here and train. I think it would be fun, yah i would hope I get a nice companion too, I need to get Elder Boulder, he is one of the missionaries coming into the area, the last elders in this area is elder Grawrock my current comp., Elder Stone then Elder Boulder, that is how it has to be. (All types of rock)

We didn’t go down this driveway, we just saw a thousand signs and took a picture.



I will be sending home a package with items a guy here carves. He gave me a bear, a beaver, some mixing spoons and other things. He gave me those to say thanks for helping at the farmers market.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Paige & Luke's Baptism



Their Family

Elder Tyler, Luke, Paige and Elder Grawrock

Lake where Baptism was held.
It is really weird to have such long days and short nights it made fireworks not as much fun but it also allows for us to help our member and to do other things later in the night
Bishop Jones the member we live with is a lot like you... a whole lot like you, we are helping him build the deck on his cabin right now and having light all the way till 10 or so helps.
It does not ever get dark completely unless there are thick rain clouds but it’s still weird.
The baptism went as expected and their parents and grandma where there and seemed to enjoy it I'm going to upload pictures today
That is weird to think all the kids are gone. I am not even alone for longer than it takes to go to the bathroom and that is one thing I’m excited for when I get home, I like to have plenty of alone time.
Well i love you but need to get to moms emails
bye dad
That is cool to hear about Troy, he was a good kid and we had fun together, he will have fun in Florida, i would not have liked Florida because it is hot but he should have fun there.
The baptism went as planned, the next day Elder Grawrock went to Eagle River and i stayed with my new companion Elder stone, i will be putting up pictures of the baptism and everything right now then labeling them
I know that every elder is called to an area for a reason, Elder Grawrock said that he knows that i came into the area because i got along really well with Luke. Each elder is in their place for a reason regardless of whether we know what that reason is.
We had transfers last week I stayed here and my new companion is from Burley Idaho he is very nice.
I love you mom

Thursday, June 30, 2011

June 27, 2011

This week I got to teach the 6 year old primary class, and it just happened to be a lesson about being a missionary, it was really fun to talk to those kids about being a missionary and they all wanted to be a missionary too.
It was a lot of fun, it reminded me of teaching primary for the nine year olds. That is cool that Nick is getting married.
They have quite a lot of people in the area we cover who do nothing but make tourist stuff, no kidding they do a lot of tourist stuff around here.
We can see mount McKinley every so often, as we drive around, there are a lot of trees though so sometimes I can see it. I believe we are about 50-100 miles from McKinley but i think it is in technically our area.
The culture here... how to describe well most people move here to stay to themselves and if you find them they are angry and want to be left alone, most of the time
We live in a strange area, it is close enough to towns that you can drive a half an hour to 2 hours (depending on where in our area you are) and go to a Walmart, but you are far enough out here on dirt roads no one will find you unless they are looking for you, its a really strange area
I don't know about transfers, tomorrow our new mission President will arrive and take over so no one knows what transfers will be like, he will either shake up the board or leave things like they are for another transfer.
Our 2 investigators will be baptized on the 9th of July in a lake at our members property.
I love you
Elder Tyler
p.s. I dont think they mention poop anywhere in the dress code, also you are in the family department obligations to your son come first... something something pterodactyl or something
(For Father's day, Tyler sent Michael a Moose poop tie tack and chapstick)

Thursday, June 16, 2011

June 13, 2011

Yesterday I got the chance to do a baby blessing, for a 9 day old baby, there is a Samoan and his "wife" who came, he has been inactive for 10 years and less active for 20 his soon to be wife and him have several kids about 10 days, 2y, 3y, 7y, and 9y she was almost baptized a couple times in Hawaii but he was holding her back and now he really wants to get back to church and have her baptized, they will be getting married soon, and she will be baptized.

He had me bless his baby because I know how to pronounce Samoan names and words, the baby's name is Tolu Ipuasa Taala

That stuff about Danali is really cool, I realized that apparently our area is more like 200 miles north south than i thought it was

I am mailing Marissa's gift today for her birthday and also my social security card will be with it.

I also got my Alaska drivers license this week as well.

Bob Boyd one of our recent converts since October I think is in prison for gun charges, he is a convicted felon and had a sawed off shotgun and a pistol I did not know he wasn't allowed to have, and some mental problems, and smoked marijuana we have been helping him try to get it back together but now he is in prison, he is about 73 or so and in bad health facing minimum of 3 to 5 years

Also I was wondering if we have any Dances in our family tree President Dance thinks we may be related.

Can you tell me how I am related to Porter Rockwell, I was just curious about that as well.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

June 6, 2011

So about 10 minutes ago elder Grawrock and I were on our way here and right in front of us a car went to go into the other lane quickly and it hit another car and the mirror went flying and then while everyone was hitting their brakes 2 motorcycles almost ran into the cars that were slowing down really quickly. it was pretty crazy everyone was alright but the 2 people looked pretty ticked when they pulled over.How has your weeks been I don't see any emails ):
(we forgot to write him, but I was on when his email came in so I wrote him while he was still on)

The 2 kids are going to talk to their parents this week to see if they can get permission we are pretty sure that the parents should have seen it coming by now, the baptismal date for now is still June 18th, we will find out this week if that is going to work.
The new mission president gets here at the end of the month and will be doing the new transfers, he only has less than a day to be with President Dance before President Dance leaves. He will not get any information on any of the elders except maybe if they have something really serious, so he will not know anything about most of us except from our brief meeting with him as a zone this month.

I have my social security card and will be trying to get my license tomorrow to give you an idea of how long it takes to get mail, I got the ssn card on Friday night. I found out the mail goes to Anchorage and from Anchorage goes all the way to Fairbanks(it has to drive past us to get to Fairbanks), like 300 miles north of us by truck, then on the way back it drops off the mail for our area at Wasilla, then we get it the next day or later depending on when they get it to the ups store, here it goes to the ups store they sort it and give it to their customers, no packages are delivered on Saturdays.

Today we are going on a hike to what is called lazy mountain which is funny cause everyone says it is anything but a lazy hike, i got some cool pictures of the mountains and will take more while up there. left to right Me, Elder Espiritu, Elder Dourghty, Ulu ave, Elder Hinkly, Sis. Lee, Elder Gardner, Elder Lee, Sis Baker, Elder Grawrock, Elder Goodwin(top)Elder Mazzefaro, top ElderQuinlin, mid Elder Wegan botom Elder Uele.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Monday, May 9, 2011

(This letter from Tyler is fairly short.....
he called yesterday for Mother's Day!)

It's fine that you did not chat more, in case you had not noticed I never really spent much time on the phone, I never really know what to say to people. I don't know the official rules for how long, just around an hour or so, next time my companion (whoever it is) and I will do a better job at finding some one with Skype, as we are allowed to do that.

I really enjoy just teaching about Christ, I don't know if you have read it but one of the books we have is Jesus The Christ, by Talmage, people seem to respond to that pretty well.

Because I am the junior companion Elder Grawrock decides what we do on p-day, we usually go play sports for about 3 or 4 hours with a bunch of missionaries in our zone, there is not a whole lot to do here on p-days anyways. We are allowed to go to zoos, and museums and that kind of stuff, we can go hiking. I'm sad we can't go swimming, even though it is cold, or snow machining, ATV's and shooting guns and stuff with members.
left Elder Grawrock ,right Elder Loveland he was incharge of our vehichles in the mission.

I'll try to send some cool pictures.

So I spent $50 dollars on clothing, can I use some money for food?

Monday, May 2, 2011

Monday, May 2, 2011

So the package got here but was kinda a gooy moldy mess....the strawberries looked so good and yet so bad, even in the state they were in they still looked better than the strawberries in stores here (the less moldy ones and less bruised ones anyways), due to the mold I did not try any. I think it would be best to hold off on trying that kind of stuff till I am in Juneau or Anchorage somewhere easier to get it to, also they were in a soft box like the kind they make cereal boxes that is real thin. The other package also arrived Monday, thank you very much for the candy and letters. The prescription medication seems to be working my nose has been pretty clear.

We have 2 investigators on date for June 18th, Page 16 and Luke 15, they are siblings in a non-member family that have taken it upon themselves to investigate the church and to seek after what is right, this is really surprising to everyone for teens of their age to be doing that themselves. We are pretty excited about that especially because they put themselves on date to get their parents more involved in learning about the church.

I have had a pretty good week so far. I went on an exchange with the zone leaders and we did a little bit of tracting, we caused a puppy to pee all over the place at the first house (it was very excited) then 6 pugs at the next house would not let the man hear us, we said we'd try back, then a lady talked about some very bad experiences with her older brother claiming to be a Mormon and that the Book of Mormon was the only scripture allowed in the house, threw out the bibles, and said the Mormon church told him it was ok to drink lots of alcohol and to beat your wife and family, we tried to explain that none of those things have ever been accepted in our church and we made it clear that there are many off shoots, but she said she is still so traumatized from him that she could not let us in. That was my first tracting experience. My next one later that day went better we found 2 less actives and 2 who were open to us coming by and all 4 gave us phone numbers, names and better times to come by, one said that her door was always open to us. We don't tract where I am, I am in the Wasilla Zone but my area is just north of there we cover from Houston to above Talkeetna.
The red X is where our house is, the circle is where our church is and the outline shows our entire area at least up and down, it might be wider or narrower it is about the same distance as going from Rexburg to American Falls.

We drive a 2011 Chevy Colorado truck, the senior campions usually get the designated driver, I am the "co-driver" I sit there. There are quite a few trucks in our mission. Without a truck even getting to our house becomes very hard during the winter here, without a truck we could not visit many of our investigators or members. There is one ward that covers all of Willow, Big Lake, and Houston that has around 300 active I believe, that is our ward. Talkeetna Branch has about 30 active LDS members.

Also did you hear the big news??? Osama Bin Laden was killed yesterday in a shoot out with navy seals. I am really happy that at least the search for him is finally done. We were at a members house, the older couple we visited earlier, they got a telephone call, then we got one from a member and they turned on the news about it. Apparently there is quite a bit of excitement everywhere about that. It is funny because it was told to a New York baseball team during their game, in the 9th inning with it tied 1-1 9-11 weird.

I love you and thanks for the package.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Q: Did you get your strawberries and package?
Tyler: Hey I have not gotten any box, I'm not sure exactly how it works here, no one has mail boxes apparently, they get a box somewhere that everything is dropped off to and the Jones pick them up and give them to us. idk what will happen. No strawberries either. : (
Q: What did you do for Easter?
Tyler: We ate at a members house. They used gold silverware (at least it looked like gold) and they had the whole family over, then we went to an older couples house and helped them with their computer and they gave us some Easter treats with our name on them, they treat the missionaries like their kids.
Q: Who is your new companion?
Tyler: So my new companion is Elder Grawrock, we get along just fine but we have pretty much nothing in common. He is from Aloah Oregon, and thinks Oregon is better than California in every way, we don't let that get past joking arguments. He really likes to work out, we get up at like 5 some mornings and work out and other mornings we get up at 6 to go to seminary in the Jones house because he teaches seminar. I have not been getting to sleep lately, I just sit there and think but I am trying a new thing to get to sleep and it seems to help so far.
Q: Do you like to exercise or do you do it because your companion makes you?
Tyler: The second one. When I say exercise I am talking about an hour plus work out at a members "gym" where I hurt after we are done, it is not lose weight stay in shape exercise it is get big muscle exercises. We have a treadmill at our place and not exercising is not an option. I'm already awake so I do the exercises with a lot less weight than he does.
Q: Where do you live?
Tyler: We live in a cabin separate from the Jones house, about 50 feet from the house. We use the whole cabin, it is just a kitchen with a loft above that we sleep in with a bathroom and shower on lower floor.On Thursday I met a Danish photographer artist something or other. We were waiting for interviews at the church with Pres. & Sis. Dance and a man came in and asked me if he could speak with our pastor. I told him that I can try to help him get in contact with the Bishop. He explained that he was doing a story or something like that on the Wasilla area and found that the area is very religious and is going around to the different churches and talking with the church leaders and doing sketches of them, to show the variety in the area or something like that. His name was Rasmus, this is a picture of him. I told him that my dad served in Denmark in the 80's? and he said that Denmark has changed quite a bit since then, he said he remembers seeing Americans dressed like us around Denmark and that a friend of his apparently followed some of them around and became good friends of the missionaries.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

April 18, 2011


How is everything at home? Things are going well here. My last companion Elder Winterrose said he thinks I am the only Elder in our mission who has had 6 baptisms in his first area. I am having a lot of fun teaching people what I know about the Gospel.

President Dance declared a NO caffeine while on our mission rule that other Elders are struggling with. I'm glad I never drink any. It has not been very cold here, for the most part, it just feels like Rexburg. It has snowed pretty good at least once per week this last 3 weeks. The weather in general sounds the same.

I'm glad to hear about Kolby's call, it is cool to hear about all the people coming home and leaving. Thanks for mentioning Kay I was actually going to ask you today about him.
This is a picture of the chapel and foyer in the Willow Ward in Wasilla it is like a log cabin and its pretty nice. My companion says most of them in the bush here are like that.


This is Elder Ofly he was my district leader. He just went home on April 13th.