Sunday, January 18, 2009

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.

Monday, January 5, 2009

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.