So this last week was a little odd. We were doing everything just like normal, and then on wednesday things got cold. FAST! I went on an exchange on Wednesday with Elder Fontaine on the Oregeon City 4th ward. That man is a beast. He's a really cool, and very professional missionary. He's been doing wonders for that district of missionaries. It was 25 degrees for most of that day, but with the 25 MPH winds and the humidity it had the chill factor of 10 degrees. It was the first day I had been on a bike since I left St. Johns Ward a year ago. I feel very blessed to have a car. I'll just say that. My butt was bruised the next day... I think I've gotten soft. We were tracing for an hour and half in the frigid weather and we were hoping that just one person would let us in so that we could warm up. Nobody let us in, but a few people scheduled return appointments with us. It was awesome :) I love tracting. I wish I could do more of it.
Then on friday we were told to stop driving and start walking everywhere. It snowed easily a foot and a half here in Canby. They get snow here like every 5 or 6 years. ha ha. kinda crazy. right after our cars got grounded a member in the ward told us that he was going to drop off something. Little did we know he was going to drop off half of the hostess store. Want any twinkies? I had literally forgotten what those things tasted like. We had a lot of fun walking everywhere. It was nice to just change up the routine. We got to spend a lot of our snow time with the A. family and also with D. It was amazing to see those miracles come to pass.
We asked H. (she came home from her mission the day before I got to canby for medical stuff) if she would like to see an example of the plan of salvation lesson so that she could learn how to teach it. She said yes, and we got D. over there so we could actually go inside, and also so that we could teach him at the same time. He had a ton of good insights. He's still in that fighting the middle ground stage of things though. He's got a girlfriend that's anti religion, but is still comfortable around us. He knows he wants to be active, but he's got some decisions to make concerning a lot of things. I hope we can get in with him more this week. We gave him a "Preach my Gospel" missionary manual after our dinner appt on Friday. He thanked us for it. He was kind of stoked about it.
We picked up two new investigators that we will be turning over to the Spanish and YSA elders this week. I'm glad to give them both more work to do, because both sets need the help in finding new investigators. They are both pretty solid investigators too.
Other than that, we had a little fun playing in the snow with people who just needed the one on one time and other less actives. It was a good week. Church was cancelled. But it was good stuff.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we taught a lesson with E. while trudging in the snow for 2 hours, and then it was another hour of travel time on top of that. It was awesome. I totally destroyed my shoes walking around for the last three days in them because of the ice layer (which was a result of the freezing rain on top of the snow) but it was a lot of fun.
I love you guys a lot. One thing that stuck out to me just last night was the idea that the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are actually Jesus' mission journals. Jesus had a lot of the same experiences that we do as missionaries. Going from area to area, even Jesus did not have the same level of success in each City. But despite the mocking and the litany of disrespect that he received he remained stalwart and true to the things that he learned about the eternal nature of his Father. He taught the people with parables that the people were familiar with. He tried brand new ways of reaching each individual person. He wasn't stagnant, he was constant. He wasn't belligerent, he was bold. He may not have been liked by everyone, but His mercy was and is for everyone.
I love you all. I hope the mercy and grace of Christ has touched your lives this week. I hope you can see the miracles in each and every day. I'm rooting for you, and I pray for you guys.
Love,
Your Elder Lloyd
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