Really white Christmas

So the Friday before Christmas Eve it started to snow. It stopped
Christmas morning. The snow here is different, especially when it is
colder. It is pure powder, and it falls only a little at a time,
nothing like the massive and wet snow of Virginia. On Christmas Day we
spent some time shovelling some people"s driveways. We did that again
yesterday. My arms got a little sore from all the work. It was -20 and
it has warmed up to -8, which is nice.

So Salvador moved to Bonnie Dune! It is perfect, because Bonnie Dune
is the only Stake with a Spanish sacrament meeting. Plus the sacrament
meeting is pretty small, so they need people. We met with him on
Christmas Eve. One of his friends, a guy named Alex, basically let him
stay with him for the time being. We talked with his friend and he
seemed fairly interested in what we had to say, but more than anything
he really wanted to be a good host. He almost seemed offended if we
wouldn't accept a drink or anything. He is a very nice man, especially
for letting Salvador stay with him. We were going to teach Alex on
Christmas but he had to cancel and we were going to have to push it
back anyway. On Boxing Day we got Bishop to come with us and meet
Salvador. It was a really good lesson. We are going to work towards
helping him get the Aaronic Priesthood.

Christmas was a lot of fun. We came at 12, thinking we would go to the
Spanish group. Angel also came, which was a Christmas miracle in
itself, but we told him to come at 12. So we ended up spending about
an hour just visiting. There was a bit of divine intervention there.
The next Ward started at 1 and they had a beautiful sacrament meeting
with lots of music and narrators instead of talks.

So this week has definitely been a good one.

Élder Grimmer

So the beginning of the week was frigid, but it warmed up quite a bit.
It went from -20 to -1 basically overnight. What has really been
killer has been the wind. It was -17 one day, but with the wind chill
it got as cold as -40. Yesterday was relatively warm, but all of the
sudden a burst of snow and wind hit us. That was fun, it was literally
like watching a wall come towards us.  When I warmed up, it felt like
shorts weather, which is funny because when it first hit -1 it felt
very cold. I guess we adapt.

This week has been full of finding. We have tracked like no other,
street contacted, bus contacted, anything you can think of. On one
street we knocked and knocked and I felt like turning back, but we
kept going. It was a good thing we did; we found a Chilean man who
really liked to talk a lot. He was cool. Everything is fine up here.

So it has been cold. Today was a lot warmer, it's only -10. Not quite
shorts weather yet, but not really that bad. It's interesting how when
you live through -20 and then wind chill, -10 suddenly isn't so bad.
Still we have been layering up and facing the cold. After a while your
face just hurts. Fun.

So this week has been good. We have been doing lots of finding. We
talked to a really cool guy named James who was smoking a cigarette.
We shared the Christmas video, and he really liked it. We talked in
the cold, and he seemed pretty interested. We got in a few doors, so
that was cool.

We are at the point with Mario where we just need him to pray and get
an awnser. His sister is a member, and he believes everything is good,
but he doesn't have a testimony yet. That is what we focused on last
night. He called us and asked if we could change the time to 8, and we
should up at 8 and he wasn't there. He called half an hour later and
asked if we could reschedule, and we asked him if we could meet right
now. It was a really good lesson.

I am well

Élder Grimmer

It dropped about 10 degrees this week and is still falling. The
earlier part of the week was fine; it was still around -1 or so. On
Sunday we went tracking for about an hour; when we left it was -1 and
it started to snow. By the time we got back in the car it said it was
-10, all In under an hour. Plus wind chill, that was fun. Then
yesterday it kept dropping to a bitter -17. That's 1 degree
Fahrenheit. With windchill it was closer to -25. We went street
contacting. Plus I was on exchanges so I couldn't grab a better jacket
or gloves. Thankfully the elders I was with took care of me. It got so
cold my legs started to feel hot.

So other than the cold this week has been fairly normal. We just got
Tranfer calls. Elder Christensen is leaving us to train two
missionaries. He just finished being trained, but he'll do fine.

This week was the Spanish Christmas party. It was tons of fun. I
talked with a family one of the members invited. We had to leave early
but apparently they danced for two hours after we left. It was a lot
of fun.

So we haven't had a lot of things happening this week, but we have
been working hard. We met with Angel. He is doing alright. So random
mission moment, one of the wards was having a break the fast, and we
showed up as it was ending. One of the members works at a Safeway
bakery and he brought all the extra bread they didn't sell. He gave a
bunch, and we had already broken our fasts, so we just ate a bunch of
bread. I think I ate 5 rolls and 3 slices of rye bread.

So life is good.

Élder Grimmerou

So it has been a dry week, and it just started snowing this morning.
It has been hovering around zero for that past week. A lot of people
ask us why we don't have coats, but it's not really even cold yet, and
besides we carry coats in our car in case it does get cold or if we
are going tracking or something.

This week has been fun but a bit slow. We had a district thanksgiving.
We made potatoes and stuffing, and a member gave other elders the
turkey. It was really good.

We went on a lot of exchanges this week. I still have two more. They
have been really cool experiences; I got to interview one of the
people that the YSA Elders are teaching who is going to be baptized
this week. She was so prepared. I feel that there are people that have
been prepared for us as well, and in each area. We just have to find
them.

So we have been trying to find people a lot this week. We just got a
bunch of referrals from other missionaries, which is cool. We met with
Salvador, and he is a bit depressed. His situation is rough right now.
We had some members pick him up, but I guess he slept in. Not much we
can do there. We basically have a bunch of "wet Investigators" who
have been baptized but either don't know or never really learned the
doctrine. We are working with a part member family, but first we need
to help the Father really gain a testimony before we can try and work
with the rest of the family.

So we have working hard, and we are starting to see some fruit of the
work, but it is slow. Regardless, the work is sweet.

Con amor

Élder Grimmer