I officially hit my year mark this week! Thank you family for the letter, it came on the exact day (February 6)! Still can't believe it has been that long. When I first got to the mission home I wrote a letter to myself and opened it...It had $80 in it and told me to start working out hahahahaha. I pretty much rebuked myself :)
So let's see...We coordinated exchanges this week. There was a companionship that needed a break from each other. So Elder Rasmusson went to Cowley, and Elder Wilson came down to Powell to stay with us for a few days. We started the exchange Monday night and then had District Meeting Monday morning. We had to leave early because I had a DENTIST appointment! Yeah. There is a member here who offered to give us free check-ups and cleanings. Turned out I needed it (it's been over a year). I have 4 cavities haha and they are from not flossing. He actually had me set up a return appointment and is going to fill all of them for free. That it a huge blessing.
Later on Tuesday we visited our eternal investigator. She has been investigating for 61 years and is still not baptized. Children are married in the temple. She told us that she needs more time...if 60 years isn't enough, I don't know what is! We were pretty bold with her and told her that she has been fortunate to have the Gospel for 3/4 of her life, yet has missed out on all the blessings of the Holy Ghost. She wouldn't set a baptismal date. I'm actually pretty worried for her that she is going to run out of time. The rest of the day was spent contacting referrals. We got into one house. I won't go into details about the family other than there are a twin brother and sister who have had the worst childhood I have ever heard of. They are 9 years old, but the sweetest kids I've met. We are going to be teaching them weekly :)
Wednesday was the BEST. Of the 6 investigators that came to church, we put THREE of them on baptismal date in one day!! The first was Steve Rackness. He is the husband of a very active wife and kids. We are taking it slow with him, but committed him to read 5 pages a day from the Book of Mormon with his wife, and to be baptized March 22! That was so exciting. Our last lesson of the night was with the Young's. After going through the discussions three times in the past, she has decided she wants to be baptized! We set a goal for March 26, but she said she would be baptized earlier than that if she feels ready. The hope is that Brother Young (her husband) could actually baptize her. So we are helping him get active again. Their son Lucas will also be baptized, but we found out he is 8, so he wouldn't count as a convert baptism. But that is ok :)
Service this week was pretty legit. There is a member here that is remodeling an old bowling ally. So the sisters and us helped stain wood for a few hours! I have never done it before but it is actually pretty cool. And will stain your skin like no other. I used paint thinner on my face to get it out of my skin haha. We then had a unique opportunity to bless a mother and her baby who aren't members. The baby needs open heart surgery but is too sick to operate on. I had the opportunity to bless the 1 year old son. Wow. What an experience. This baby just stared up at me the whole time in silence as I had my hands on his head.
I'm learning what it's like to drive in snow (with a small car). When turning right (slower than usual even), the car decided it wanted to go diagonal. So we almost played bumper cars with the car at the stop light. I pulled the emergency brake and we fortunately had a nice drift that straightened us out. Pretty fun! Later, we helped 2 cars get unstuck. Actually we helped GET one stuck first. We stopped in the road to ask this teenage girl if she needed help. By stopping, the car behind us couldn't get going again. So we helped them out too :) Three times this week it has gotten below -20. The coldest I've seen is -31 degrees! Your nose hair literally freezes. It's quite the feeling! Something kind of fun this week was we were looking for a less-active family. When we knocked on the door they thought we were carolers! They let us in and we sang to them haha. They came to church the next day!
I am so jealous you got to go to the Gilbert Temple open house. It looks beautiful! Congratulations to Torie on all of her successes! Tell Jesse to expect a letter from Elder Wilson. :) I don't know when it will come. Hope you all have a great week! I love you all!
The pictures were another service project we did. We helped a lady take down her Christmas decorations and put them into a secret underground storage. Pretty cool :)
