Week 31, Snowstorms are fun!

Because of the storm, the library was closed yesterday which is why I'm emailing today! This has been such a crazy week that all I can do is sum it up in bullet points!

• First of all, MSU won the Rose Bowl! Just had to throw that out there. Go green! Go white! Sorry Stanford...
• Church was CANCELLED AGAIN because of the snowstorm. What the what!? I was very sick last week so I couldn't go, and the week before that it was cancelled because of the ice storm, so I have no missed church for 3 weeks in a row. Basically, I've become less-active... as a missionary... haha
• Last night it was -40 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. Today the high is -20 and could get as low as -40 again with windchill. As a result, if you are outside anywhere from 30-60 seconds, any exposed skin will start showing signs of frostbite. Crazy! Needless to say, today we've been told not to go door knocking.
• Our car is broken! It needs a new battery, so we took it to the shop this morning and had to sit in a waiting room while court TV was blasting and we tried to focus on reading our scriptures. I don't miss TV. It's wonderful being free of that haha.
• Apparently this winter is the worst one Michigan's had in over 20 years. Making history! Wooo!
• We got to do service for the Deaf couple in our ward. Bro. Hunter let us shovel his walkway. We really wanted to shovel snow, and I think he was helping us more than we were helping him haha. It was so much fun though! Afterwards, we talked to him about New Years Resolutions and asked him what his were. He said that his goal started in October, when he decided to start coming back to church. I asked him what motivated him to come back again, and he said "You." He signed, "You texted me asking me if I was going to be at church, and I said yes, and that's how it started." It was so awesome, and the moral of this story is that invitations are SO VITAL. Most people won't decide to learn more about the gospel unless we invite them to do so. When you invite, you are successful, no matter their response. In our ward, we have a goal to simply invite people to a place where they can feel the Spirit (church, our homes, a ward activity, the temple lights, etc.). I know if you all decided to do the same thing, miracles will happen for you and the ones you love!

Now for some pictures!

 

First piece of news - SNOWFLAKES CAN ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE SNOWFLAKES. Do you see those perfect crystals? IS THIS REAL LIFE?

 

 

 

Secondly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! We celebrated accordingly with sparkling cider. I celebrated Denmark's new year though, because we have to go to bed at 10:30pm and Denmark's time zone is ahead of ours. Perfect!

 

 

 

 Third - I almost forgot to send home the picture of giant Santa! ENJOY!

 

 

Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

 

<3 Sister Christiansen