CHILLY!!! (1-6-14)

Hi Family!!

So school was suppose to start up for everyone today, but all the schools are cancelled. It is -10 right now and when the wind picks up later today, it will be -30 to -40! Our mission pres says that no weather is too cold as long as you are dressed for it...good thing today is P-day and we won't be out in it too long.

Monday-P-day and we went to Gordman's, we ended up in the sunglasses/cologne section and Elder Cortez got me like 8 times with this nasty smelling cologne, I got him back with some ice smelling cologne, just normal missionary stuff. :)

Tuesday-we had a trainer meeting in Sioux City, which is about a 1 1/2 hour drive. We had to get up at 5:45am and get ready. We met the AP's at the mission office and they took a van full of us, which was nice because we got to sleep on the way there. President Weston and his wife spoke to us for the full 8 hours or so we were there. They bought us all pizza for lunch that was really good. I really liked listening to what Sister Weston had to say, she is SUPER nice and she just loves everyone and everything. She talked about the 10 things we should learn as missionaries and that those 10 things should be used in our lives everyday.

After the meeting and after we came home and had dinner, we went out to find some less actives to visit. We came across a house that we thought were non-members and since we didn't know their names, we stopped by. It turns out they are members and they had just got home about an hour before from the husband having surgery. We were able to talk to them and give him a blessing. They were really nice and were glad we stopped by.

Wednesday- We had a district meeting at 11am and got out at 1pm. Since it was just Elder Cortez and I with all these sister missionaries, we had to go somewhere else to eat lunch. We went to PepperJax again and we just happened to get there during the 3rd quarter of the Nebraska game. We got to watch the rest of the game, since Nebraska won, Elder Cortez wore his Nebraska beanie with pride! :)

We then went and visited 3 less active families

Thursday- we shoveled snow for most of the day, like all day! We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings since Elder Cortez and I were given a gift card there by a stranger. We then had FHE with a less active family and we did a matching game and a game about the Prophet's with the wife and 3 kids.

Friday-we talked to Mike again, it turns out he has read the Book of Mormon 2 times and he is writing his own Book of Mormon and Bible. He wants to go to church where the members have been all over the world and seen different religions and see how others live around the world. We tried to tell him that most of our ward members are returned missionaries but he doesn't think to seem that counts.

Saturday- we talked to Jerry and what he needs to do to get his temple recommend

To answer some questions....church now starts at 9am so we go to church, come home and have lunch and do our studies for a couple of hours then go out and work. We usually try to visit less actives.

YES!! My testimony has grown, it's different now because growing up at home, nobody really questioned my beliefs. I never had to really stand up for what I believe in, and now I do.

Love you all, Elder Searle