SNOWMAGEDDON!

Yep, it snowed about 12 inches yesterday and last night. It's been fun. Last week, I took 29826 steps. It's kind of humbling to know that's about 1 day in a Brazil mission.... yeah... I'm not ready for that.

The Short of Things:
Well, this past week has been crazy. There were two snow storms, the first bringing 6 inches of snow, the second falling with 12 inches. Also New Year's Eve happened (possibly the best night of sleep I've gotten). There was a white elephant gift exchange and I got a package of Twix. There was a lot of hanging out with the North Elders this past week and not a whole lot of teaching, sadly. But it's been fun. I'm glad I'm a missionary. Despite the inclement weather, I still enjoy it.

The Long of Things:
Monday 30- After hanging out with the other Elders all day, we had dinner at the Myers, which is always fun. They're a crazy/awesome family.

Tuesday 31- New Years Eve! We had to walk that day because we ran out of miles. It was pretty dang cold and there was snow everywhere. We walked down to the Montoya's house to make sure it wasn't broken-in to (they're out of town and asked if we could check it for them). Then we walked to Emilee's, taught her a lesson and she fed us dinner (it was a very last-minute thing). Then we were walking home (we wanted to be in early with New Year's Eve and all that) and we stopped by the Myers'. They gave us ribs and a ride home.

Wednesday 1- 2014! We had district meeting and a white elephant gift exchange. I got a package of Twix. It snowed about 5-6 inches, so we just hung out at the other Elders' apartment.

Thursday 2- We saw Emilee and had a great lesson with her. She's teaching us the lessons now. It's been great. Then we went to see Hank and family. It's always crazy at that house. There's always something happening. We also have interesting conversations. We talked about Greek gods being Christian. Then we saw Kimmie. She's a member who has some health issues so she can't always make it to church. She did make us some delicious Reese's cupcakes. Then we had dinner with Sister Kerr.

Friday 3- Weekly planning! The great and dreadful. We did that for a while, then we went to contact some people. There were a bunch of people we tried to see but almost no one was home. We did see Sister Lamb. She's quite a funny person and very enthusiastic. She gave us zucchini bread. My toes started to get cold though so we went home so I could get another pair of socks. Thus prepared, we ventured out again. We saw the Kholer's and talked with them about missionary work (he's the Elder's Quorum president).

Saturday 4- This was a depressing day. We tried to see a bunch of less-actives but they either weren't home or weren't interested. We did stop by the Bishop's to talk about missionary work in the ward which was good. Then we went to the Myers' and went out to see some people. It was pretty good, we saw the few people we tried to. The Myers' gave us chili and we went home to eat it.

Sunday 5- Church was cancelled because of the weather. It was pretty weird. We stayed at the North Elders' apartment all day because the weather prevented us from going out. It was a long time to be holed up. I got really good at solving a rubix cube though...

And that brings us to today, with a foot of snow on the ground and temperatures of -1. Much different from what I can expect in Brazil. Woo hoo!

Another week spent serving the Lord,

-Elder Michael Carlson

P.S: love you all!