frozen pipes

January 11, 2010

It is freezing down here. I don’t think I ever complained about the heat in any of my summer letters. It apparently was the hottest summer on record. There was a month where the temp was above 100 and I loved it. It was awesome. But this cold weather is terrible. This is Texas! This apparently has been the coldest winter on record. On Saturday it dropped down to 16 degrees. SIXTEEN DEGREES! Temps have been below freezing for 3 days! (For San Antonio that’s outrageous). We figured out that it was colder in San Antonio than it was in Orem--There is something sick and wrong with that. The pipes froze on Saturday morning so sister Hill, the Smiths and I were all outside with blow dryers trying to melt the ice so we could take showers. Holy Moly. but luckily today it will be back in the 50s which makes me remember why I love texas so much. Winter may exist, but it comes in 3-day chuncks instead of 9-month bouts.

So anyways, my new comp is Sister Hill and she is Awesome! She’s from Orem Utah. Her family lives by Harmon’s. She’s on fire and she’s a really hard worker. We are finding, finding, finding. WE had a cool lesson with a woman named Annette who is married to a very less active, but nice member of the church. We invited her to take the lessons and read the book of Mormon and she agreed. WE are also going to start teaching a non member couple who’s son is in South Africa on an LDS mission. They aren’t necessarily interested, but since our teaching pool is low and sister Hill needs practice teaching (she’s really amazing at teaching already even though she’s only been out 4 days) this couple agreed to let us teach all the missionary lessons to them. Cool. They can see what their son has been doing for 18 months in Africa.

To give you an idea of Sister Hill’s personality I’ll tell you a few stories about her. The night before going to the MTC her family went to a fancy seafood restaurant. She walks in and sees a tank of live lobsters so she goes to the tank and pulls one out and then walks to the table with her family and sits down. The waitress suddenly noticed and asked where she got the lobster. “From the tank.” Apparently the waitress wasn’t too happy, but to get a good tip she asked, “So what are you celebrating tonight?” “I’m going on a mission tomorrow.” “Oh really? Have you filled your canteen?” (For those who are unaware….well nevermind.) Sister hill responded, “Nope, but I’ll do it right now.” And she took the lobster and gave it a big kiss…

Another story, last year at the Utah/BYU basketball game (where apparently people boo-ed a prayer?) The half time show people were looking for 5 guys to do a café rio eating contest. Sister hill was wondered why it had to be a guy and she volunteered herself…and guess who won the contest….yes… my trainee, Sister Hill beat out 5 other guys in a mexican food eating contest. So basically my companion rocks.

Hahaha. Oh wow. By the way, I love being a missionary. Can I just tell you how great it is doing what I do everyday? Even when appointments fall through and investigators hide from you, the moments where you can feel the spirit speak through you and enter someone's soul makes it totally worth it.