Winter is still here!

One of the signs in the bathroom at Rimmy's

Can’t believe it is March already.  In 3 days, it will be 2 months since we have been on our mission.  As of Saturday, it’s been 6 weeks of being in Newcastle.  It still feels very much like winter.  Today was bitterly cold.  It was -15 degrees when we went to church.  That wasn’t figuring in the wind factor (which made it feel like -34).  With all the bundling, the only thing cold was my face, but that’s only from the car to the church/house door.  We wouldn’t really want to be in that for any length of time.  But we’re surviving.  Just for those that might worry about us, we have a stash of stuff we keep in the car - just in case.  We have our snow boots, extra gloves, hats, scarves, sock and some food.  Keeping water in the car is futile - it just freezes. :). We had an orange fall out of the bag and it is now an orange rock!

Temperature this morning on the way to church

This week we had the opportunity to help three days at the Senior Center with lunch.  They were down a person on Monday and it really put them behind.  We told them to call if that happened again and we could probably come in early to help.  That’s when they asked what we were doing on Tuesday - they would be short two people.  So we went in at 10 am on Tuesday.  It was fun.  We got to put together the meals-on-wheels lunches - about 60 of them. 

We’re making lots of friends while we eat.  It’s such a blessing for both sides.  We help and get to know people and they feed us lunch.  The food is pretty tasty.  Walt was actually pretty excited to get to help on Tuesday since they were having cherry cobbler for dessert.

We saw a lady named Bev who hasn’t been to church in probably 20 years.  She loves our visits.  We have been wanting to start up a Scripture Study/Family Home Evening group with some of the widows.  So we invited Bev to come to our house for that.  She said she would!!  I was very surprised.  I told her what we would be discussing and she was all in for it.  That will be tomorrow night.  We’ve invited 4 widowed sisters.  Poor Walt will be the only guy.  We originally planned on guys and girls, but found out some of the guys keeping hitting on one sister.  So just ladies for now.

Wednesday ending up being quite a day.  We went to visit the Smiths.  The wife has ALS, which is very sad.  They have 3 children at home (12, 9 and 4).  They haven’t been to church in a while due to her illness.  None of the children have been baptized, and the Bishop was hoping to get the oldest two taught by the Elders so they can be baptized.  (It’s because they are older than 8, that they would take lessons first.). We’ve been trying to get in a second visit with them for about 3 weeks.  Most of the time, they just don’t answer the phone.  So we decided just to drive out there and show up at their door.  They live out on a ranch with her parents.  We weren’t sure they would be home or let us stay, but we wanted to try.  They were home and let us stay.  It was actually a very good visit.  The wife can no longer speak, so she does a thing with her phone where she types in what she wants to say, pushes a button and it speaks.  Or she can just show me.  I got an opportunity to talk to just her and it was a good conversation.  Recently, she found out that she might not make it past the end of this year.  I was very candid, but kind and compassionate with her.  I know she would rather the kids get baptized when she can be there.  She was emotional about it, as was I.  Having lost Michelle, we are all too aware of opportunities that can’t be gotten back.   A couple of days later, I text her and she said they want the kids to start working on lessons for baptism.  That just made our day!  We’ll take the Elders out there on Friday.

Rimmey's 

Gary - the first person we visited.  We see him every week

That same day, we visited Gary.  He doesn’t live far (relatively speaking) from the Smiths.  We did stop at a place called “Rimmey’s” for a bathroom break.  I saw they had ice cream, and then that they had pie.  Walt was in for the pie.  The bathrooms were great.  Walt asked me what took me so long.  I told him I was taking pictures.  Now he really thought I was weird.  I showed him the pictures (there are lots of cute sayings on the walls).  He said his bathroom wasn’t fancy like that at all.  Poor guy.  The blueberry pie a la mode was super good.  We wish we had gotten two pieces instead of sharing one.  They also had sugar free milk shakes so we called Gary to ask which flavor he wanted.  He was excited about it and said it was quite tasty.  

Our last stop was at our Relief Society President’s home.  We have been trying to visit her and her husband since we got here.  She keeps telling us the road isn’t good or too snowy or slippery.  We’re thinking, it can’t be that bad.  It had been sunny and the snow was melting well, so we asked to come on our way home and she said yes.  The first road was just dirt but was pretty clear.  Then we realized the road to her house was a whole other story.  At first it wasn’t too bad.  I had been told her road had a pretty serious hill.  It got snowier (packed snow) and narrower.  They live on the side of a canyon.  This was new territory for us.  Finally we got to the “big hill”.  It was a pretty serious incline.  We made it half way up the first try.  Walt had to back down to give it another go.  I just closed my eyes.  I was a bit worried about sliding off into the canyon.  There were no guard rails, just snow piles.  We made it on the second try!!   It was so amazingly beautiful up there.  I can see why they built their house there.  They own 50 acres.  Her sister lives there also on 3 acres.   So it was a busy day and full of adventure and visits.

This a down spout glacier!  

Thursday didn’t turn out like we thought it would.  The weather forecast said it would be 34 degrees.  A heat wave.  So we planned on doing something fun after lunch at the Sr Center.  Then the Bishop called and asked us to help a family pick their truck up from the car shop.  We had been involved in helping them get it there.  We pulled out of the parking spot and I bent over to pick up something and my back starting with spasms.  I told Walt to take me right home.  I knew what to expect.  We came prepared for this because we both have had issues with this in the past.  But I was done for the day.  Heat, Tens unit, and muscle relaxers.  I could hardly do anything without pain.  The worst part was not being able to call Bingo at the Manor.  Walt’s favorite part of the week.  We did have our first Missionary Correlation meeting that night.  Walt went and FaceTimed me in.  Love technology!!

Friday night, April and Keith came over for dinner.  We fixed some etoufee for them.  A first for them both.  I don’t imagine many people here have had Cajun food.  They really loved it.  Afterwards, we got Keith signed on to the church website and family search account.  I was showing them around the family search site and how to do family history.  We added his parents (both deceased) onto his chart and all his family info showed up right away.  No temple work has been done for either of his parents.  So we reserved the names and I went ahead and printed out the cards.  He was nearly in tears.  He talked with the Bishop today about preparing to go to the temple.  Walt will get to teach him the temple prep classes.  If everything goes as planned, they will go in June and then they can be sealed in the temple.  That is just an amazing thing.  We told Keith and April - if this is the only thing we helped with on our entire mission, it would be worth the time to be here.  

The dog "bear" that belong to the family with lots of children

Friday we got snow - again.  It doesn’t even me phase me much, although I like driving in it.  I must be like my dad.  We only got 5 inches, but in other towns they got a lot more and had a lot of wind.  It is the wind with the snow that makes it dangerous - snow drifts get pretty big.  We had two appointments cancel, but one was in town and we added one at the last minute that was also in town.  We had picked up some church shoes and a pair of snow boots for the kids we sit with in church.  We also had some food that the Sr Center puts out when there is extra.  Mostly produce.  I also found a cute video to show that the kids would enjoy about the Good Samaritan.  The visit went great and the kids loved the shoes and other goodies we brought,  We are their adopted grandparents.

Our weeks are busy, but we enjoy getting to know people and how we can help them.  We are always able to leave their home with a prayer.  Walt usually asks and they say yes.  He asks them who they want to say it (it’s proper to ask the head of the home that question).  Nine times out of ten, they let him say it.  He’s going to start having me ask.  Prayer is always a good thing.  We have learned a lot about the power of prayer since being here.  It’s such a simple concept but miracles can happen through prayer.  We have started taking our time to think about what we really want to say to Heavenly Father.  Our prayers have become more heartfelt and personal - not just saying words that come into our heads.  It really changes our relationship with God.  We try hard to follow the promptings we receive and listen for His guidance in our lives and in the work we do here.  It really doesn’t work well at all without it.  Heavenly Father knows these people (his children) better than anyone and what they need the most.  Amazing things happen when we listen and let Him guide us.

I think this email/blog got a little long.  There are very few pictures this week.  We will work on doing a better job next week.  We miss you all and love you.  Stay warm!!  

Believe it or not, there are 2 mule deer in this picture.  They will be a lot easier to see in the Spring.