Greetings from the Great OCM!
Yes Cameron, I
am lovin that mug you sent, especially with the crazy weather this last
week. Right now there is about 10 inches of snow on the ground. On
Tuesday night right as we were going back to the apartment it began
snowing like crazy! It snowed at a rate of 2in. per hour and in the
morning we had 8 inches on the ground, and to make it even better there
was freezing rain as well so 8 inches of snow and a thin layer of ice on
everything! The entire city was in chaos in fact there were people
stuck everywhere. No one could get out of the parking lot that morning
because no one knows how to drive in the snow here! They think that if
they stomp on the gas pedal it will get them out of the snow, but of
course it doesn't. We spent probably 2 days constantly digging people out
of the snow at intersections and along the sides of the road. But we
were able to find some potentials from it, and it kept us busy. It
hasn't got out of the 20's for the last week. The lows are in the
single digits. It snowed another 2 inches Sunday morning, which made it
hard to get all of our investigators to church.
So other than the crazy weather we had some great
things happen this week. We have an investigator who was working to be
baptized on Feb. 22nd but now we have to work through her smoking
concern. In fact we have quite a few investigators who are willing to be
baptized, they just have concerns like marriage, working on Sundays,
and word of wisdom. It is a little frustrating but that is how it goes.
It is rare to find someone without a concern, after all this is a gospel
of change and repentance and is here not only for the righteous but the
imperfect as well.
We went on exchanges with the zone leaders this last Wednesday and that went well. I have seen a great deal of improvement in
our area over the last few transfers. If you could look at a graph you
would see the numbers slowly increasing over time. We just need to help
our investigators solve their concerns. Just a heads up transfers are
on the 20th so that means p-day will be next Wednesday not Monday.
Today we had a district fun day because everyone in the
district had at least one (investigator) at church. It has been hard with this weather
because investigators don't want to drive on snowy roads to church, and Columbus has been terrible with plowing the streets. Anyways, we went
to the church building and played badminton and basketball and had root
beer floats. I don't usually like doing things on p-day because time is
so short anyways but it was fun, and it is good to mix things up every
now and then.
So you had the missionaries over. Awesome! I love getting fed by members. We usually get fed 2-3 times per week.
So
make sure you attend the temple as often as possible, I really do miss
that place. My patriarchal blessing tells me that I will greatly enjoy
my time in the temple and it has proved to be very true. I wish I could
attend often. I wish I could do family history work, but right now the
work of the living is my calling. The thing that prepared me most for my
mission was attending the temple multiple times in a week the month
before my mission. I know that it is God's house and that his spirit is
there. Never take it for granted that you have a temple just a few miles
away.
Have a fabulous week. I love you all very much! Happy Valentines Day!
Love,
Elder Beutler
