Here Comes the White Stuff!

 And Father Winter has arrived.  If you have been watching the news (we have not been watching but we are hearing from others) Buffalo got hammered with 5 feet of snow.  It's crazy.  The missionaries are having a ball.  We got 5 inches the day before yesterday and we have about 6-8 inches today.  It is beautiful.  It is freezing cold and the wind is not fun! Monday was our first snow of the season and it really was just a skiff.  But look how pretty it is!

We went out for a walk and it was just so pretty that I couldn't help but take some photos.  Mike is so good to just indulge me.  When the wind is blowing we about freeze but normally we just put on a jacket and our coats, gloves, and sometimes a scarf. We love our morning walks together.  But when the wind is blowing everything sideways we just can't do it.  So, we head to our second choice to get in our steps.  Not near as fun or pretty and if we aren't careful we do some shopping along the way!

On Monday we were doing some errands and a little Christmas shopping and we happened upon the most enchanting scene.  You already know that I love barns but this one I can't stop looking at.  Maybe it's the total picture with the scenery around it.  I love the yellows, greens, blues, reds. What do you think?

We found a little cemetery on Old Post Road in Clinton, with very old graves and then we found a a field full of yellow flowers.  You would think it was Spring.  This countryside just captivates me. 

We were able to visit with some of our members on Tuesday, meet with the Sisters for a lesson, and ended up cleaning the church with some of our members.  We only clean the church once a month because we are only there on Sundays.  It seems I always have the privilege of cleaning the toilets. Lucky me!

Our District Council was a little sad.  Our Zone leaders are both heading home and one of the Sister's will be heading home two weeks later.  I get so attached to these Elders and Sisters that it's hard to say goodbye.  Also, this coming Tuesday is transfers so that mean we might be saying goodbye to one of our Rome Sisters.  It's a good thing for them to move around-just tugs at our heartstrings.

L-R front row-Sister Paige Have, Sister Gracey Cursor, Sister Tasi Schwenke, Sister Maddie Powell, Us

L-R back row-Elder Benjamin Rawlings, Elder Nathan Norton, Elder Jacob Pierce, Elder Andrew Martin

Book of Mormon was awesome.  We taught about Zeeazrom and how Satan deceives us.  We learned of the importance of having the Holy Ghost and learning to pay attention to the whisperings of the Spirit.  We feel so blessed to have the Book of Mormon in our lives.  It is a powerful book full of promises.

On Friday, we met with the two cute ladies that we met on the mountain and the week before had given them each a Book of Mormon.  We fixed a couple of things with their Family Search accounts and then I asked the Mom if she had read the Book of Mormon.  She said that she had read what I asked her-which was 3 Nephi 11.  I asked her what she thought.  She said ,"hmmm, I'm not sure" and then she looked at Mike and asked if he believed all the stories in the Bible.  He told her that he did-all of them.  I told her about my favorite story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. She then asked Mike what his favorite was and he told her it was of Joseph, sold into Egypt.  She has heard wild stories about Joseph Smith because those stories are still told around here. I think that she thinks he's a joke.  I was a little sad when we left.  I thought this would be easy because we are convinced that our meeting them was orchestrated by our Heavenly Father.  We prayed and feel that we need to start at the beginning and let them know that Heavenly Father is our Loving Father, but I feel really strong that we need to introduce them to the real Joseph.  We will for sure use the spirit.  Pray for us, please, to know the right way to talk with them about it.  On that note, we are having Thanksgiving dinner with them at the Golden Corral in Syracuse.  It will be a fun time.

Saturday was a busy day. We headed to our church to start filling the baptismal font for a baptism later that day.  As it was filling we ran to Walmart and bought a bunch of food for Sunday.  We would be hosting all of our Stake Leaders for our Branch Conference and because they live 2 or more hours away we thought we would feed everyone.  We had big sub sandwiches, pasta salad, green salad, Mac and cheese, chips, and cheesecake.  Man the fridge at the church was packed.  I made the pasta salad because to buy it in the deli was about $6 to feed 3 and we were counting on 30.  We headed back to the church and set up chairs and made the salad.  

We had a wonderful baptism (the Hamilton Sisters and Austin from the Hamilton Branch) Hamilton doesn't have a font in their building so they use ours.  I played the piano for the baptism and it was great.  Afterwards we set up tables for Sunday.

When we got home we found an email telling us that, because of the bad weather, our Branch Conference was cancelled.  And so that meant that we didn't have any speakers.  I actually started putting a talk together at 9:30.  It was a talk on gratitude and the miraculous ways gratitude affects our bodies.  Did you know that having a grateful heart can actually lower your blood pressure?  I didn't know that but I do know that when we have a thankful heart that we actually receive more blessings.  I challenged everyone to do something to start on the road to having a more thankful heart.

We actually had 16 at sacrament meeting but two left immediately after Sacrament meeting to get home before the storm. We actually ended up feeding only 11.  Not the 30 we were expecting.  I guess that's the way it goes.  We headed home in snow and it has snowed ever since.  This picture was taken just after we got home and it has snowed another 4 inches since then.

We feel blessed to have somewhere on the warm side to keep us out of the storms.  We love being missionaries.  Sometimes we wonder if we are doing it right but I think we are doing what our Heavenly Father wants us to do.  We sure love our Savior. And we are so very thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost.  

We have started listening to Christmas carols and we look forward to adding a few lights to our home and feel the Spirit of the Season.  We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with all the good things our Heavenly Father has to offer.  We love you!