The Best Two Years: White Out

December 14, 2015

Hi everybody!

I usually don't write two newsletters in one P-Day, but I have some extra time, and the events of this P-Day definitely warrant another newsletter.

Last night it snowed about 4-6 inches, and it just kept coming down all day! It's been crazy! And the roads are terrible! The plows can't do much because it just keeps snowing. The snow finally stopped around 4:00, and I couldn't see any mountains all day because everything, the ground, the air, the clouds, was white. It's supposed to start up again this evening around 6 or 7 and then go all night again. We might just get snowed in!

So this morning, we were on our way to Walmart and on Main Street, we passed a college student who had gotten herself stuck in a snowbank. We pulled off into a parking lot and ran back to help. Another guy and three college kids came to help as well. After a few minutes we were able to free the vehicle and get her back on the road. It was cool to be a part of that. None of us knew each other. After we finished, two of the college kids went back to whatever they were doing, the other one went off to wherever she was going. And the other guy who was a little older got back in his vehicle and went his way. It's so cool to see random people coming together to help people. It makes me think

that there is hope for the human race after all.

After we got back from Walmart, we stopped by the Zone Leaders's apartment. We almost got stuck ourselves. The ZLs weren't home, but right before we were about to leave, some guy got his car stuck in another bank. So we went to rescue him too. That's when the ZLs conveniently showed up and also joined in, along with a couple college guys. After a while of pushing and digging, we freed him too. So we got two awesome opportunities to serve people today. It was really fun.

At 12, we had a zone activity. First we had a snow war in a church parking lot. It was super fun, and super cold! It didn't help that the wind was blowing like crazy, and it was still snowing super hard! We were so cold and soaked by the end of that. Elder Phelps (the awesome missionary who is from Michigan) and I discovered garbage bags in the kitchen and wore those as "armor" and used metal serving trays as shields. It was goofy, but so fun! Unfortunately, I lost my clip-on name tag. So basically I can't zip up my jacket until I get another one, because our name tags have to always be showing, and my regular name tag that I wear on my shirt pocket doesn't have a clip so it can't attach to my jacket.

After we came inside, myself and several other Elders changed out of our snow clothes and into our sports clothes and played an epic match of indoor soccer for about an hour and a half. We started out half court, but then switched to full court. That was so fun, and it was good exercise. And I'm still pretty good at soccer, so that was good to find out as well.

So that's pretty much been the day. Oh, except for the stupid part at the end. After sports were over, I went to change back into my proselyting clothes, and I slipped off the stairs and rolled my ankle,

which now hurts a lot. I was just thinking "Seriously?! I have an epic snow war, and then play soccer for an hour and a half, and it's the stairs that do me in. Of course." It's always the stupid things that

due the damage it seems like. It would have been so much cooler to say that I rolled it scoring an awesome goal (which I had a few) or something like that. Instead when people have asked why I have a bit of a limp, I get to explain how the stairs were too big of an opponent for me. It's kinda lame (and it really does hurt), but I do still get a kick out of the situation.

Well, I've got to go now. Hopefully you enjoyed this extra newsletter. I miss you all! Have a great week!

1&2) Myself and Elder Phelps being goobers with our "armor". I've mentioned Elder Phelps a few times in my emails. He's one of the greatest Elders I've ever had the privilege of meeting and he's one of the nicest people I've met. We are both from Michigan, but we were also both born in Arizona! So we have a pretty cool fellow statesman bond.