Many are cold but few are frozen

Ice cream below zero. Cold.

American Swedish Institute

This is on the inside of an apartment building where the windows freeze on the inside and out. Happy Winter!

Notice the -24 windchill...

Sorry it took so long, we were home all day, no wifi!

Hola Family,

I didn't do a very good job at keeping notes of the cool things that happened this week, so I might jump around a lot. To start off, this week was cold. We discovered pretty quickly that the official salutation of Minnesota is "stay warm." It makes us laugh every time because literally EVERYONE says it. I have been surprised how easy the cold is to handle if you have a big coat haha. It hasn't been as bad as I expected but most of our work is car to door door to car. Dad asked if the work has slowed down a tall because of the cold, and the answer is not even a little bit. It actually has been one of our busiest most productive weeks. We are finally hitting our stride and scheduling has been awesome. Basically we bundle up and go to work. Today which is obviously Pday we have 6 set appointments. That never happens. Especially on Pdays. We are connecting with the members and had meals every day this week. Really good stuff like puerco con achiote, empanadas, sesina, this other breakfast thing that I don't remember the name, alambre, etc. Our bodies are having a hard time keeping up #tums4lyfe.

Church was cancelled this Sunday in Minneapolis because it was so cold. In the city wards a lot of people bike and walk and take the bus, so they cancelled. We went to the Bloomington English ward instead. It was weird being in an all English ward for the first time in 6 months. The dynamic is totally different, and my brain has started automatically switching to Spanish during church. One of the speakers was one of the counselors in the mission presidency and he talked about receiving revelation through the Holy Ghost. His talk was really powerful. Something that I really liked is when he talked about when Christ was talking to the apostles and said that to those who follow his commandments, he would manifest himself unto them. It wasn't a promise just for them, but in today's world "manifestations" are for crazy people. But we are promised that Christ will manifest himself unto is if we are obedient, and he does that through the Holy Ghost. I thought it was neat.

Sis W is really sick today, so we basically have to cancel everything and just chill. It's interesting to me how when you are really good friends with your companion, it's not annoying when they're sick, you just want them to feel better. But either way we've been doing really well. Sad that I'm getting transferred because that means starting
from scratch. More about that in a second. I really appreciated your emails this week. I am super jealous about
cross fit, that sounds so fun. I've decided to start working on my pull-ups again. I was really good for a while, but let it go, and now I'm just sore.

Ryan are you alive?!?!?!

Grandma said that Ashlyn's surgery went well, it sounds like they had lots of help. I'm grateful for the Friday email from dad. It's true that sometimes the little acts of obedience seem so tedious, but they make all the difference in missionary work. My focus lately has been on patience. I have found myself getting impatient with our investigators because they aren't progressing as fast as I want them to be. To me it's so clear and so simple. But I'm learning a lot about what it means to be patient and how it shows our love.

The video of Lauren made me laugh so hard. I died. I seriously love videos if you are ever bored just snap one or two. So transfers. I'm going to Lakeville! The dream team is gone:(( but it's ok. I'm ready for a new adventure and I know that Richfield is in very good hands. I can't believe I've been here for six months. It feels so long, but so short at the same time. It just kind of throws a wrench in everything because I feel like we are doing really good work and this area is progressing rapidly. It makes it hard to leave, but maybe Lakeville needs that too. There is a family we have been teaching that we met with 3 times last week. Which is a huge deal, the last person that was willing to meet with us that often was Christina. We also started teaching Ahmed (Mitch) who is recently married to a member. He is from Egypt and has been investigating for a while. One of the reasons he hasn't been baptized yet is that at some point he wants to return to Egypt to see his family, and that is not exactly safe for a Muslim-turned-Christian. A few of our long term investigators are making really good progress.

I've spent some time packing this afternoon because Hna W was sleeping, and it makes me sad. It's been home for the last six months. Even more so with Hna W. We are totally going to be friends for a long time. We already have plans:) but like I said, I am really looking forward to new people, new experiences, new challenges. Lakeville is a Spanish branch of about 20 active members and most of Lakeville itself is rich white people. The missionaries live with a member family, and most of the work is done in Burnsville and outlying areas with trailer parks. It
will be a very different experience. My new companions name is Hna Rowland, she came out with me. That's about all I know. Hna W was "born" there which is mission slang for it was her first area.

That's basically all I have to say today, so here's to new adventures🎉 Stay warm!

Love, Emily