SNOW!

There's been some snow in Summit County!

Whelp, things moved pretty slowly this week... We still don't have our truck, and the weather was a pretty big hindrance.​ On Monday after I emailed, we tried to go sledding down a big hill that's right next to our apartment. It didn't go so well. We started trying to climb up the hill, but the snow was like 4 feet deep, so it was a reeeeaaal struggle to move anywhere. We both took the sled down half of the hill once, and then we were done. It was completely exhausting! Also, I forgot my hat, so we had to trudge back through the four feet of snow to get it. But it was a learning experience!

Yup--It's cold!

Oh boy! Then, on Tuesday, we had interviews with President Murdock and specialized training from the Assistants and Sister Murdock. It was great. It was from 1:00-5:00 in Denver, though, so practically the entire day was shot. Before heading back up the mountain with the Vail elders we stopped at Café Rio for some dinner. There was a nice man there from Montana or Michigan or something; anyway, he's a member of the Church and surprised us by paying for our meals! That was really nice. So we talked to him as we ate, then headed back up to the land of the freezing.

On Wednesday we went up to Leadville as usual and taught a lesson for the first time in the week. It was with Jesse and Cole. They were pretty out of this world, mentally, so I don't know how well they grasped our lesson on the Book of Mormon. But they have a roommate, a girl named Tony, who was really interested in what we were teaching. She doesn't do drugs, so we have great hopes for her!

On Thursday we found an apartment complex that we're pretty sure has zero natural-born Americans in it. The first man that answered was clearly straight out of Africa; his name was Alpha. Next an Asian man answered, then a nice young man from Peru named Danish (more about him later), a petite fellow named Juan from El Salvador, and a young man named Carlos from Mexico. We were able to teach a short lesson on the Restoration of the Gospel to Danish, and he seemed willing to learn more, but he wasn't there when we went back on Sunday. Hopefully we'll be able to contact him again soon! Carlos also seemed really interested!

On Saturday in Leadville I met one of our investigators, Manuel, for the first time. He has been taught about the Restoration, and we planned on teaching him about the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson! He seemed really sincere about his commitment to read it from the beginning. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see anyone else that day, because there was a storm coming in and we wanted to get home before the roads got too bad. So that was a bit of a bummer; we didn't get to see a lot of people that we would have liked to. Also, we found out from Brother Cook, who owns the building we live in, that he's just sold the property and we'll have to move out by the end of March. So we're currently house hunting!

Church was great, and Sunday was fairly productive, but suuuper cold! I don't know what the temperature was, but it was colder than normal, for sure. Maybe it was just the snow and wind chill. But it's alright, because I still have all my fingers, and my ears, and my blood's still running warm! Church was cancelled in most of Denver because they got a ton of snow that day.

The Church is true and I'm so glad I have this chance to be a part of the work. Even though it's hard, and cold. I love the Lord and I'm grateful for the power of the Atonement in helping me accomplish tasks beyond my own abilities! I know that the Atonement is real. Take a moment and this about the blessings of the Restored Gospel in your lives! I love you all, and hope you're having a warm winter!

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers