"Oh the weather outside is frightful.."

Elder Kummerman walking in the snow with his ice Scraper

Holy cow it snowed a lot this week.  From Saturday morning to Sunday night it did not stop snowing at all.  With Saturday's snow being more of a slush, it caused all the roads to be nothing but ice and with the snow coming in on top of it Sunday there was no way we were going to be able to drive safely.  After all was said and done it ended up snowing about a foot or more here.  With all the snow and the 50 mph winds, Church all across the Lincoln Nebraska Stake was canceled due to saftey reasons and cars all across the Nebraska Omaha Mission were grounded for the whole day.  Sadly when the cars are grounded and church is canceled it does not mean that the missionaries get to sit at home all day in sweat pants and drink hot chocolate while spending the day playing UNO and watching the Restoration.  We got to work.  We packed on all of our winter clothes and went out into the frigid weather and started shoveling snow.  We shoveled snow and scraped car windows for probably 3 hours yesterday, just helping the people out as we went through the city.  We were able to meet around 20 new people yesterday and help them see that Mormons aren't really all that weird.   I absolutely hate the cold, but I highly enjoyed spending a part of our day in the service of others.

The rest of the week was pretty eventful as well!  Especially Wednesday and Thursday with the meetings we had!  

Wednesday was our first District Meeting with our new District.  I'm so excited about the rest of this transfer.  I love these Elders that I get to serve with.  They're all a bunch of goofballs and know how to have a good time.  District Meeting was really a good way for me to see how the rest of this transfer is going to pan out.  10 Elders in one District is a lot, and we're going to have to do 1-2 exchanges every week of the transfer just to make sure we do them with everyone, but I'm excited for the challenge and excited to serve these Elders.

Thursday night was a nice little surprise when Elder Garff and his new boy from Bolivia, Elder Lopez came to Crete so we could drive them to Omaha for Spanish Conference.  They came a little bit early and Elder Kummerman and I were able to go on a quick little exchange with them.  We stuck Elder Lopez and Elder Kummerman together since we knew that Elder Kummerman would love only speaking in Spanish with Elder Lopez (He's been in the US for less than a year and doesn't speak very good English), which meant that I got to be with Garff for at least a little bit.  

Spanish Conference

Spanish Specialized Training (pic by Sis Weston)

Spanish Specialized Training (pic by Sis Weston)

Spanish Specialized Training (pic by Sis Weston)

Thursday morning we took off to Omaha.  Spanish Conference was amazing as always and I still feel very honored to be a part of this group of Elderes y Hermanas.  Garff surprised me though when halfway through the meeting he leaned over and said, "Can you believe we only have two more of these before we go home?"  That's too few!  There's no way I only have that short of time left as a missonary!  I refuse to believe it!  This work is hard.  It's easily the most challenging thing I've ever done in my entire life, but I've never been a part of something so rewarding and so amazing either.  I feel very privileged to be a part of it.  My testimony has grown tremendously and I know for a fact that my Savior loves me and this is His work.  I pray that I'll be able to use these next 8 months in their fullest.  

Our remaining Mexico Group.  The Hermanas
both had to go home early for medical stuff.

I hope you have a great week!  I love you so much!  

Lots of love,

Elder Zack