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| Colorado Springs Major Snow Storm |
This week was ridiculous to say the least! So many things were happening right after one
another. This week marked the day I lost
my driver’s license, the storm of the decade, transfer calls, and getting sick
again for the umpteenth time! Here's
where it all began.
On Tuesday night, we drove onto Fort Carson
to meet with a returning less active member to discuss his goals of where he
would like to be in the next 6 months.
Some of those goals were reading scriptures, becoming temple worthy, and
meeting with us weekly. To help him with
these goals we were going to go to institute with him the following night to
talk to him some more and help him feel comfortable being there. Wednesday night rolled around and as we got
to the gates at Fort
Carson we were stopped as
usual to have an inspection of the car and validation of our Drivers Licenses,
Registration, and Insurance.
Surprisingly the MP (Military Police) noticed that our insurance card
was almost a year expired! She was ready
to write us a ticket right then and there!
We were calling so many phone numbers to try and verify that we had
current insurance but because it was so late in the evening, we were
unsuccessful and being able to do that.
We got a hold of the senior couple in the mission who oversee all the
vehicles missionaries drive who explained we had insurance but wasn't able to
prove it at the time.
She let us go
finally an hour later and we had completely missed Institute, and the person we
were meeting had already gone home. We
were really bummed but knew we'd get a chance to see him again. It wasn't until
Friday that we realized that the MP never gave us our driver’s licenses
back! We drove over back to Fort Carson
as soon as we could and to our dismay we discovered that after 24 hours of
being held onto, our driver’s licenses were being sent to the addresses on
them. So mine was on its way to California, and my companion’s was headed to Washington. We had no idea what we were going to do! We ended up having the Mission Office call our
parents to inform them of the ordeal and to forward the cards back to us as
soon as they got them. But for now we
have to do as little driving as possible and drive cautiously so we don't get
pulled over!
***Editors Note***: After a week and a half, still no
driver’s license in the mail from Fort
Carson. They will be getting a call on Monday from
dad.
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| Sister Koval, Me, Elder Haskell, and Sister Kane |
This week I also had the chance to go to the zoo with some
other missionaries including my trainer Elder Haskell. It was really great to see him again. He's been a great motivator to help keep me
focused and on track with my purpose as a missionary. I really want to be a humble servant of the
Lord and follow in His footsteps.
Someday, I'm going to look back and realize that I lost myself in the
Work of Salvation and truly became of one heart and of one mind with my
Heavenly Father. I know I'll get
there! The zoo was great! Don't worry dad, I didn't kiss any giraffes
this time.
This weekend, the weather forecast was that we were going to
get up to 16 inches of snow! I was not
excited in the slightest. After a week
of 70+ degrees I was looking forward to Spring.
It started to snow lightly on Friday but hit hard on Saturday. It snowed so much that we had to have our
Mission Vehicles parked, and they're still parked today! It snowed so much this weekend that for the
first time in a decade they cancelled church for the majority of Colorado Springs. The only ward that was meeting was the
Academy Ward (my previous area, that I still live in), which was at 9:00 am and
they were only doing a Sacrament service.
All other wards in all 4 stakes that make up the city were completely
cancelled. My companion and I went to
the Academy ward for Sacrament meeting and I got to visit with a lot of
familiar faces! It was great to see them
all again and a lot of the young men were really excited to see me back! It feels good to know that you can leave an
impact on so many people in such short amount of time.
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| Treacherous Driving! |
This week marked the end of the transfer and we were pretty
much expecting a call from our Zone Leaders telling us that my companion would
get transferred to a new area. Well, we got a call pretty early into the
evening from our Mission President, who only calls to inform Missionaries if
they are moving into leadership positions.
The call was for my companion Elder Low who is going to be a Zone Leader. He was so excited! That pretty much guaranteed that I was going
to be staying in the YSA ward for at least another 6 weeks. I'm very happy about that because this ward
is great. I am really nervous because we
have such a large area to cover (3 Stakes) and I've only been there for 6
weeks.
My new companion is Elder Guerrette and he's going to be our
new District Leader! I'll get my new
companion tomorrow and will tell you more about him next week! Hopefully he doesn't snore like my current
companion! If I stay in this area for
the next 3 transfers, I will have lived in the same apartment for half of my
mission! I think that's a first in this
mission!
To finish the week off, I got the flu again. It's just a minor head cold but it makes this
winter weather that much more miserable.
It's supposed to snow the majority of this week, but I hope the snow and
my cold clear up soon. Regardless of
either, I'll be putting in my best effort to work hard and teach by the
Spirit! We had a training meeting about
being a "consecrated" missionary and serving with one goal/purpose in
mind. I know if I devote all my time and
energy into working hard, then these minor hardships I face won't affect my
effectiveness! I'm really enjoying
myself and know I'm right where I'm supposed to be!
Well I hope you all have a great week and that where ever
you are, I hope the weather is better than here! You're all in my prayers! Take care, and I'll talk to you soon!
5 Things that Made Me Smile:
1. Had a great time seeing my Trainer Elder Haskell again.
2. Someone in my last ward sent me a pancake in the mail. They coated it in Elmer's Glue so it was solid
as a rock and wrote a letter on it. It's pretty cool!
3. Getting to see some of my favorite members from the
Academy Ward was great!
4. The Mission Offices phone call to my dad, "Hi this
is the mission office and we have a small problem.” I hope he wasn't freaking out when she started
the phone call like that!
5. Elder Buxton had his birthday yesterday so we threw a
party for him Sunday night and it was great being able to see my old district
before they all got transferred all over the place!
God is Great!
Elder Gillingwater
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