It’s melting!

I can't tell you how wonderful the sound of dripping is to us!  It sounds like the long cold winter may be ending! We had a busy week with lots of visits to doctors.  We took Manathan to her postpartum in Ames in the morning and then brought Alain to his neurologist in Ames that afternoon.  We took two sets of kids to school every morning. We helped Alain and Nancy apply for jobs.  We took Edmond to talk to Immigration in Des Moines trying to figure out why they sent his green card application back.  Man this stuff is complicated! We even got to teach Pauline and Nancy lessons.  We took Pauline to her doctor in Nevada and to run errands in town.   We took dinner to the Dents and shared the chicken tortilla soup with Pauline and the Harringtons too. My sinus infection is better!  

It started snowing in Des Moines and this is what the car looked like when we got home!

We tried Taco Johns

Elder Quincy changed Amy's tire.

There were 8 deer behind the church when we left last night.

Good Br Jones met with and helped 3 African families with their taxes.

We had fun guests for Sunday dinner!

They took down this tornado damaged church!

They took down lots of tornado damaged trees this week!

Driving to Ankenny we saw something we haven't seen for months!  Cornstalks!   It's been all covered with snow until now!

Snow in Des Moines!

Another layer of mud on the damaged walls.

The last icicle dripping from our deck which came down Saturday !

 Life is good and getting warmer in Iowa! We were stopping by some homes on Friday night and we weren't cold!  The walk from the car to the door was enjoyable!  I didn't even have my coat zipped or my gloves on!  I could really get used to this!

Surprising change

We had another really cold week.  Apparently it's been unusually cold and snowy in Iowa this winter. We only had Luis and the Sisters for our FHE!  It was good though and our demonstration with sand and a rock foundation worked great!

We had zone conference changed to Wednesday because of road conditions.  President Badger asked us to stay after and meet with him for a minute.  He asked us to change assignments and come work in the office starting in May.  So we'll move to Des Moines and get trained for a month, then the mission headquarters are moving to Iowa City in June.  I am not sure how my Africans will get by, but Elder Quincy tells me that no one is indispensable! 

The Rodriguez' neighbor's kitchen caught on fire and burnt done their fence and melted some siding!  Scary!

We had all our French Sunday School class there but Alain! 

We fed the habitat for humanity work crew at the Church Saturday!   The Sisters had one young lady ask how to join our church.

Credo dressed up in my coat Saturday. While we arranged an appointment with immigration for her dad.

Zone meeting was great as usual!

This is the couple well replace in the office. 

Thursday we took the time to mend walls in the Ankenny Elders apartment.  They had Fufu mix on their table.

This was the smaller of the two holes.

Still repairing Marshalltown .

Samuel on the high frozen snowbank in front of the school where we pick the kids up. We took a friend of Hardy's to Des Moines for a court date.  We took a friend of Susan's to get her car from the repair shop.

We got Paul's glasses. Alain had his EEG.  We visited Pauline in the hospital.

I gave Elysee a little driving lesson. We took dinner to the Newberry's and saw their new baby!  I attempted bearing my testimony in 3 languages today. I used Whats App for the first time.  We had a fun FHE with the cute Bickham family.  We taught Nancy and Kevin about priesthood and arranged for a spanish speaker to give the baby a blessing.  Timing got mixed up but it will happen.  We put more sand in Amy's driveway and Elder Quincy did lots of shoveling and ice removal at the Church. I've been battling a cold turned into a sinus infection and Elder Quincy gave me a blessing and has been babying me.  I sure married a good man!

Cold hands, Warm hearts

It's still cold here, but we've had a day over freezing and the sound of dripping warms my heart! They had to cancel church again yesterday! And Pauline was going to come!  We get around fine so we decided to take the sacrament to Br Hoffa in Conrad.  It was bad!  The roads were fine, but the wind would blow the snow in spots to create whiteouts! We ended up turning around just a couple of miles from Conrad.  So we were worried about driving to Iowa City 100 miles away for the African fireside!  We had arranged to give Paul and Lea a ride to make sure they got there in time because they had speaking assignments!  We decided to go to Toledo and take the sacrament to Linda Bennett and see how the roads were before picking up Paul and Lea.  Long story short is we went to the fireside and they gave wonderful talks!  

Brandon sent me this picture of the pigs he feeds.  Cute things!

Funky icicle on our patio.

Monday's family home evening was so Fun! Luis came, Jerry came, Susan came. Nancy, Kevin and Keyden came, and the Sisters came!  Big change from last week when we were alone!

We took cute Marisol to Grinnell for a job interview.

Elder Quincy did lots more shoveling!   He also put new brake pads on Nancy's car.  We helped Alain get an MRI!  That was a miracle that it even happened!   And we took him to the orthopedic surgeon and helped him apply at Wal-Mart.  We talked to his HR department and sent more info to the insurance. We took Paul to get new glasses and set up an appointment with a retina specialist and took Lea to get her phone working again! We took Susan to the store and the church and home. We took kids to school and Elysee to Walmart. We took Pauline to the doctor in Nevada.

Melting!

 

Paul and Lea missed our messages about no church again! So we took them to visit the Tsolukas.  Samuels ear is hurting so Paul ( his first time and in French) anointed and Elder Quincy (in English) sealed the annointing. 

The road to Conrad.

The squirrels here don't hibernate!  I don't know how they survive the -50 wind chill!  These guys came right up to my car at the stop sign.

After the fireside.

There were 5 African countries represented there.

We didn't realize that the missionaries were grounded for the day until we were headed home!

Life is good here!  We are looking forward to warmer weather but enjoy the kind and warm hearted people we serve here!

Loving Iowa

Elder Quincy got me these awesome flowers to brighten our apartment all week!  We also had a delicious dinner at Legends.  We took Valentine's to some lonely people and to some kids.  

We were the only attendees at Family Home Evening Monday night!  First time that's happened!

Thankfully our Subaru gets us everywhere safely!  We took the Tsolukas to see an apartment,  kids to school and back, to Toledo, Conrad, State Center, and back delivering Valentine's, to Ames for District Council, to Des Moines and Ankeny taking care of supplies for apartments we've inspected and it does great even when we see lots of cars off the road!

Elder Quincy shoveled the church sidewalk at least 3 times this week!

This cool machine grabs the snow piled in the road and spits it into a truck.  It reminds me of the one the Cat in the Hat drives.

Keyden is Nancy's adorable baby!  He came to the church with her to fill out a job application. 

We showed up to shovel at the Harringtons and ended up putting their rain gutter back up!

Getting stuff from the mission's storage.

Jamison loved his Pokemon!

We helped Sarah hang the rest of her pictures.

Evelyn and her bunny.

Friday we helped Paul and Lea with their taxes and get Paul an appointment to get new glasses. Saturday we helped Alain send in paperwork,  get his prescription, and fax a letter to insurance.  Then we took Lea to get her phone working and took Elysee grocery shopping.

Church was cancelled Sunday!

We had about 8 inches of snow.  

We rescued the Sisters who live down behind this house and brought them with us taking the sacrament to;

And to Barbara Costello. Then we brought them home to help us eat the food I'd cooked for the pot luck we didn't have after church.

We visited the Harringtons.  Elder Quincy shoveled their driveway.  Everyone was thrilled to meet the Sisters!

We shoveled the church and then borrowed the shovels to get the Sisters driveway done.  

Soon after we started a kind soul with a plow on his truck came and helped so we just had to clean that pile out from in front of their car!

I was summoned for jury duty.  I wonder if they'll excuse me?

Meg sent us this heart warming picture last night!

Wal-Mart parking lot this morning.

This is us standing on the pond we walk around in the  nicer weather.   Thick enough for me to brave it!

We talked with our daughter in Texas this morning who said it was too cold for her kids to play outside at 53 degrees.  We thought 19 felt nice today!