Monday, November 29, 2010

Snow, Turkey and More

Hello Everyone,

First off I'm bummed that BYU lost on a blocked field goal but am also thankful it was a close game. It's also amazing how when you aren't around something and you don't get to watch it it doesn't affect you as much.  And when you don't see it you can trick yourself in a way to thinking it didn't really happen. haha So I guess what I'm saying is I'm grateful to be on a mission while BYU is a .500 team. haha

Well this week was pretty good. It started off with a good pday of making cookies for the Averetts haha and was beautiful outside. That was the calm before the storm though. We woke up Tues and it was snowing Side Ways! And this was the day that we were suppose to travel to Butte for district meeting. So we left a half hour early and thought we'd venture on into town and see what it was like. Well as we are getting into town we see a car being towed up onto a trailer. We then realize it was Brother W's car. This was a surprise but when we talked to him and found out he was ok it was funny because he had said the night before that he was surprised he hasn't had to pull the guys from AZ and CA out yet. haha To answer dads question Elder Askey drives. We don't switch off. He's been out longer and knows the area so that's how they do it. So we get into town and it's not as bad but it's still pretty windy and snowy. So we talk to the zone leaders and they told us to go see what I-15 is like. So we go over there and there is a sign that reads 1-15 closed thru Dillon. So we don't know if that means at Dillon you have to get off before you head south or what so we keep going. We get to the on ramp and it's not blocked off so we get on. We were just going to test out the road and then get off on the next exit when we realize it's Montana and the next exit is 11 miles away. The roads weren't icy they were just snowy so we just took it slow and made it to Butte in an hour and 20 min. Not too bad considering the conditions and visibility at maybe a 100 yards. After we took that back road again because it was clear over there. We later found out it's illegal to drive on the highway when it's closed like that. oops. I guess that's what happens when you have two elders who aren't used to snow
together. Tues night was pretty crazy in Dillon. Because of I-15 being closed there were probably 20 trucks lined up behind Safeway. Also all the hotels were booked. One lady who works at the Best Western said
she had people offering her a $100 to get them a room. The Red Cross ended opening  an emergency shelter at UofM Western's bball arena where people went and slept on cots. Oh and the low Monday night: -18.

Well the work was kind of slow this week with Thanksgiving. We did have a really good lesson with the part member couple the Cs. She is interested in reading the Book of Mormon which really surprised him. He
also is doing really good. He's read to Alma 45 in three weeks of reading. He said he's really enjoying it. Our mission has surpassed 800 baptism/reactivations this year. The goal is 1000 so hopefully we can make it.

Thanksgiving was good. It didn't really feel like Thanksgiving when you're not with family. It kind of just felt like another dinner appointment but it was a fun day. We went to the J's in the morning to just hang out and play games. We then went out to an older couple in the ward the Ps who live 10 miles north of Dillon on
a big ranch. They had a bunch of family over. They also had a really nice big house so that was fun to be with a bunch of people in this cool house eating a bunch of food. The one food they didn't make that I really like that Mom makes was cheesey broccoli but other than that it was all there. And I was able to have a huge piece of Pecan Pie! I've decided I like that way more than pumpkin pie. After that we went out to another families and played some games and had pie. All in all a good day but like I said not the same without family.
Friday we played bball with one of our investigators T and the T family. We happened to show up to play at the same time. I guess every year they play bball after Thanksgiving to 100. We had a lot of fun and T had a good time too. Speaking of T. We met with him on Tues. We are sitting there teaching had Elder Askey is talking about the Holy Ghost when T's roommate walks through the room to his room. Then we hear the door slam and then it opens back up and T's room mate yells at Elder Askey WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?!!! He then drops an fbomb and goes out the back door and slams it. We all sat there in silence for a whole minute. T then says ummm maybe we should end for today and start meeting at the church. It was so crazy and weird. I have no clue what he could have miss heard that would have set him off like that.

Sister J gave us a fake Christmas tree to put in our house. She also gave us some ornaments but when I set it up and decorated it it looked kind of bare so I hunted around our apartment for things to put on it. It now looks Awesome! It's got some Hot Wheels, a Sponge Bob figurine, Christmas and Christ pass along cards on it, and I tied my three red ties together and wrapped them around the tree. I'll have to send a picture of it sometime.

We spoke in church this week in the 2nd Ward. It went really good. I was asked to speak on surprise surprise missionary work. I focused my thoughts to the young men and how to prepare and then used
Elder Nelson's Priesthood talk from conference to focus on the members and how they can help us. It went really good. Speaking in church feels so easy now. I received a lot of praise from Bishop Neilson that that's
what they needed to hear so I guess I did a good job.

Well I better get going. I hope you all are enjoying this time of year. Stay safe. God Bless. Love you all and we'll talk to you later.

-Elder Davis