It hit -8 degrees

Hello from the Colorado, Colorado Springs Mission

So much has changed this week! Everything has been so crazy.  This week was even colder than last week.  When we were having dinner with a family on Tuesday night it hit -8 degrees!  That's the coldest weather I can remember being in.  It's pretty miserable to walk in during the day.  It's snowed a lot so biking isn't as efficient and safe as it used to be.  We've resorted to just walking, unless we can get rides from members.  One morning I couldn't feel my face it was so numb!  But nevertheless, the work must go on!  This week in our district we had 2 emergency transfers.  On Thursday Sister Faleao was transferred to the YSA Rescue Team which was sad because she's a lot of fun to have around!  So we were down to a six man district for district meeting on Friday.  Right after we finished the closing prayer for district meeting we got a phone call from our Mission President, Elder Haskell was being emergency transferred to Alamosa Stake.  I would be receiving a new companion and the transfer was happening in 24 hours.  I was devastated!  I loved my companion and didn't want him to leave!  But there's nothing we can say or do to change it, the Lord has decided what needs to happen.  We spent most of Friday packing up his stuff and everyone was really sad, especially Elder Haskell.  Emergency transfers don't really allow you to say goodbye to everyone before you go.  Since he's been in the ward for 7 months he had a lot of people he wanted to say goodbye to.  I met my new companion Saturday at noon.  His name is Elder Mogle and he's from Georgia.  He's a little nerdy but I think it will work out just fine.  

We had our Mission Tour this week!  We had Elder Baxter of the first quorum of the seventy come and speak to us.  He's pretty funny and is from the United Kingdom.  We each got to shake his hand and introduce ourselves to him and when I got up to him, he asked me if he could have my incredible hair (he's bald).  It was pretty funny!

With Thanksgiving next week I am excited for dinner.  The family we are having dinner with is a professional chef!  It's guaranteed to be fantastic!  People in the ward ask us who we have Thanksgiving dinner with and they get super jealous!  It's pretty funny.  So that's something to look forward too!

I love you all so much!  I can't believe that I'm already starting week 16!  I hope you're all doing great!  I love hearing from you all!  Have a great week!

5 things that made me smile:

1. Elder Baxter's comment about my hair.

2. At dinner we asked a 6 year old boy what he liked to do for fun and he said, "Singing Opera!" and Proceeded to sing in a really high pitched voice for the next minute.  We busted up laughing!

3. In the church parking lot we went foot sledding!  We hold onto the bike rack on the back of the car and they drive around in the snow and we slide on our feet.  It was fun!

4. At the pulpit a member in our ward proceeded to tell everyone how his son (a priest in the ward) when he was little used to eat the lint between his toes.  He somehow related it to repentance!  Very interesting!

5. We had a really funny role play in district meeting this week.  I got to play the investigator and was a psycho hoarder preparing for the rapture named Paul.  I did a fantastic job and everyone lost it while I was acting.

God is Great!

Elder Gillingwater