If you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes

I have heard that the weather here will change quickly but I had to witness it to believe it. The picture of Hal in front of our apartment in the snow was taken just 3 days before the one of me was taken. We get snow here one minute and then sunshine the next. The next couple of pictures are of the front of our office building and inside our office.

We have really been busy at the office lately. Last week we received 10 new missionaries and sent 11 home. I think we are most likely related to two of the new missionaries that came on Wednesday. One is Elder Tenney and one is Elder Hatch. They are both darling so I am sure they are our relatives somehow. Elder Tenney is from Elk Grove CA and Elder Hatch is from a little town in Nevada.

Last week was also transfer week. Transfer week involves a lot of paper work and keeps the office staff hopping to get the rosters updated and the housing and cars figured out. It is so amazing to see the process and have it all come together in the end.

It has been really fun working in the office and being around the young missionaries as they come and go. We have 190 missionaries and 61 cars to keep track of. Hal is also in charge of keeping track of their cell phones now. President Christison is shifting responsibilities around a bit in the office and since we both have some computer training our responsibilities are growing daily. Our days are so busy and full that they just seem to fly by.

We have a new home

We found a place to live last Saturday and we have been running ever since. We haven't had a chance to unpack our suitcases yet but hopefully we will get to that tomorrow sometime.

Our new assignments in the Mission office are keeping us very busy. There is so much to learn before the couple that we are replacing goes home. Well actually they live nearby but their mission is coming to an end. There are 3 other couple besides us working in the office. All of the other 3 couples live in the Denver area and were called by their Stake Presidents to serve in the office for one year. One couple, the Struhs, is in charge of housing for the young Elders and Sisters. One couple, the Rydalchs, is in charge of missionary phones and all of the finances and the Kellys. We will be replacing the Kellys. Brother Kelly is called the "CAR CZAR" and is in charge of all of the missionaries cars. He keeps track of the mileage and maintanence and who can drive and who can't and probably a bunch of other stuff that Hal will learn as he is trained. Sister Kelly is the Mission Secretary and she is going to train me to take her place. So much to cram into my feeble brain.

We have really been enjoying the mild weather here this week. Quite a change from Steamboat's temperatures. We are expecting snow tomorrow but I doubt it will be too much.

We will try to give more updates as we get better settled in.
If you want to send us mail please send it to the mission office address listed in our last post.
Thanks to all of you that have kept in touch.

We are moving

I thought I would let you all know that we are being sent to the office on Thursday. Our mission President called last evening and told us about the transfer. We knew that it was coming but we thought that it would be closer to the middle or end of March. I couldn't sleep last night because my mind was packing and unpacking our car trying to fit everything in. It's a good thing that we took a few things to Karen's to store for us last week.
We are excited and a bit anxious (at least I am anxious) about our new assignments. Hal will be in charge of the fleet of missionary cars and I will be taking over the responsibility of the mission secretary. And just so Meg knows, I will cope with the title of secretary even though the responsibilities are more than opening the mail and answering the phone and typing letters.
You can send mail to us at the mission office address which is:
2001 E. Easter Ave. Ste. 303
Centennial, CO 80122

We will let you know when we find a place to live and our address there if we decide to get mail there or just in case any of you decide to come for a visit.

District Meeting in Meeker, CO

On Tuesday we had our third District Mtg. in Meeker Colorado which is 96 miles from Steamboat Springs. Our District Leader is Elder Smith (kneeling, in the dark suit). It was a great meeting. Singing is not a strong suit in our district mtgs., how ever these young missionaries makeup for it with their spirituality and amazing teaching skills. Our district includes Meeker, Craig, and Steamboat Springs.

Also attending were our two Zone leaders Elder George, standing second from the left and Elder Fauvell, kneeling second from the left.

Winter Carnival

This week was Winter Carnival in Steamboat Springs. There were winter sports events all week with the big hoopla being this weekend. The first pictures are of the snow carving event. Yep, snow carvings not ice sculptures. This event was on Friday for the High School students.

We ventured downtown on Saturday morning to find that the main street through town that is usually cleared of snow now has lots of it. They had brought in 2 feet of snow all the way down main street for the ski events. These are ski events like none other and although our pictures aren't great we decided they were worth posting just so you can get and idea of the fun.

Hopefully you can tell that these little kids are being pulled down the street by very fast horses. The winner of the ski race competition was an 8 year old girl going about 3 blocks in less than 8 seconds. Amazing.

The next picture is the 3 legged ski race. Very funny to watch. We didn't stay for the shovel ski race but we heard that watching grown men trying to stand on shovels while being pulled by horses is quite a site.

It was good to watch the community come together for the fun day. Later that night we watched the night show on the mountain. The light parade of skiers coming down the mountain and the "lighted man" show (a skier covered with lights and shooting fireworks from his suit as he came down the mountain) Sorry that those pictures didn't turn out well enough to post. It was so cold that we didn't stay for the whole event but we did stay long enough to catch a glimpse of the Steamboat culture.

Oh there's Sunshine, Beautiful Sunshine

This is mostly for my family but if any of you friends out there want to lurk feel free.

I have said so much about the snow and cold that I thought that I better write something about the beautiful weather that we have had this past week. The sun has appeared everyday!! It is still cold but not snowing. In fact, we warmed up to 30 something a couple of days and it felt great.

We were driving out of our condo parking lot the other morning and I just had to take a picture of the snow shovel guys. Only this time they weren't on the sidewalk they were on the roofs. It is an amazing process to watch them. They don't clear the complete roof but only certain spots. I'm not sure why but I guess they know what they are doing.

We drove on downtown and I saw another group of guys on a store roof top. There was one guy on one side of the roof and he was tied by rope to a guy on the other side of the roof. I guess if one slips the other one is supposed to be strong enough to hold him up. I'm sorry I couldn't get a picture of that process because it was quite entertaining.

I am also including a photo of my favorite sign in town. The trees behind the sign are usually so loaded with snow that you can't read that the sign says Hot Springs. I just look at the snow and say really? Hot? Where? I know it is not quite as good as Scott's "runs with scissors" sign that he found on a shop in town but I still like it.

We have been out and about meeting people and getting acquainted. We are teaching a young hispanic man who speaks very little english and we of course speak no spanish so it is pretty fun. We did find another hispanic young man that joined us this week to translate. We also talked to a young man named Will at one of the local stores that recognized our name badges and asked us about geneology. We gave him the church web site familysearch.org and he is pretty excited to get to work tracing his ancestors. He thinks that he comes from royal birth because of a blood disorder that he has that supposedly was passed down from royalty. He and his mother have been trying to find a way to trace their geneology so hopefully this will give them a way to do it. We also hooked him up with the family research specialist here in Steamboat.

We have also been making hats for the kids here. A few of the hats I have used as an object lesson when we visit the homes and leave a message with the families. I give the children "thinking caps" and ask them to think of a way that they can help their family to be happy. Then I tell them that every time they wear their hat it should remind them to make good choices in helping their family. The kids are loving the hats and one mom told me that she has loved asking her son to put on this "thinking cap" and remember what he decided to do. We will see how long this gimmick lasts.

That's about it for this week. Love you all.

Welcome to 2009!! Happy New Year

Sunday morning January 4th.
1. 6:00 roll out of bed (not hard on our air matress).
2. Get ready for PEC mtg. Update the progress report for the last week and make copies.
3. Prepare the car:
a. Slip on knee high rubber boots, tuck in suit pants.
b. Put on heavy over coat and hat.
c. Open door and step out side. WOW! What is the fog? Oh it is my warm body stepping into
the -17 degree outside air.
d. Down to the car sweep off 8+ inches of snow.
e. Scrap off ice that is under the snow on the windshield. What is this that is not coming off?
Oh it is on the inside of the windows.
f. Better start the car and warm it up (rrrrhrrrrhrrrrh) finally kicks in and starts running.
I don't blame it really I don't feel much like running in this weather either. 5 minutes,
10 minutes, 15 minutes inside windshield still frozen but I can see. So off I go, still
with fog on every breath.
4. Three minutes later I'm at the Church, and the second person to arrive. That is the way it is
going to be today, everyone and every meeting is going to be late. Still it is a
great day and the members are warm and friendly.
5. We came home and cooked a turkey, ate dinner and off we go again.
6. I gave a follow up lesson to a new member. WOW!
7. Make a couple more stops, no one home.
8. Came back home. Read a couple charpters in Book of Mormon with Lynn. Yes a great Day.

Today is Monday and it is much warmer. It is a whopping -10 degrees outside. It is going to be another great day here in Steamboat Springs.