Week 10 - January 17, 2012

Hi family --

Sure enough, it snowed and stuck this week! It hung around for about three days, but when we woke up yesterday most of it was melted. It wasn't a ton anyway. None of the roads closed or anything, but it was still kinda fun as the first snow of the season. I'll tell you what though, this first experience with snow has made me promise to myself that I won't live in the snow, only because salted roads make everything super nasty! The car is crazy dirty, your clothes get all gross if you barely brush up against anything, and you're always scraping stuff off your shoes. That's super negative sounding... at least the snow is super pretty. And if you're wearing enough layers it isn't so bad, so I haven't frozen to death or even lost any toes yet. Haha.

We got to hear from a general authority this week! Elder Bruce Porter of the First Quorum of the Seventy. He made a few stops throughout the mission (because it's a hard thing to get everyone together all at once), so we drove over to Lexington to meet up with another zone to hear from him. First, President and Sister Woodbury spoke. They are so great, and I really really love seeing them. I also love how excited they are to see me, even though they barely know me. Feeling loved is always nice! Then Sister Porter spoke, and she did a wonderful job. Then Elder Porter spoke. He called it a "discussion" and when he said that I was really really nervous, but he just asked a few general questions to us to respond to, and then he did the bulk of the talking. He is sooooo smart, but not in a way that makes you intimidated. You just want to absorb everything he has stored up in his brain! It was really really cool. And actually, his sister is in our ward and lives in Versailles, so he came to our ward on Sunday and we got to hear from him a second time! Super cool.

I meant to get more of us in the picture, but it was the best I could do propping the camera up on the car.

We didn't have lots else to do this week. We have been visiting with a girl named Roxy lately, I don't think I've written about her. She's 18 and a senior in high school. Her older sister is LDS, and we're trying to reactivate her and her family. She speaks great English, but her parents only speak Spanish, so that's why we get to teach her and not the English speaking missionaries. Anyway, we're really starting to commit her to reading and praying, and she already comes to mutual and enjoys the young women. I think she has wonderful potential, and we're really excited for her.

Elder S on a frozen pond! It almost broke through. Haha.

Didn't have lots of other success this week, although we have done some good service with members and visited some less-actives and recent converts.

It's all coming along pretty well. I can't believe I'm almost done with my second transfer! That's nuts! It's so weird the way time moves here, with long days but such fast weeks.

Anyway, y'all keep on being the good people you are. Thanks for being such good examples to me!

Much love,

Zac