Transfers!

  I really don't like the anticipation of Transfers. Its fun do see a transfer winding down and see how far you have come. But then it comes to the point where its staring you in the face and you know anything could happen! I tend to get a bit overstressed at this point. I just hate the suspense!!!!! Well Elder Carr, our District Leader finally called us last night to give us the word....Sis. Coontz and I are staying together! We are so happy! We are also staying full Proselyting so really, nothing is changing...which is good and bad.  We were really excited about the possibility of going back to Kirtland but we know there must be a reason we are staying full proselyting and are anxious to carry out the Lord's will.
 
    This week has been wonderful. Sis. Schanfish (excommunicated member) got re-baptized and it was amazing. It has been a long road and she has had to fight really hard for this but it is amazing to see the power of the Atonement working in her life. They are the sweetest family and I know now that she has taken that step and is being such a good example that her husband (our investigator) will soon follow. Then will their son Ethan (also an investigator) He really is all ready to be baptized...We just are waiting now on his dad giving permission...Pray hard everybody! Their family has come such a long way and it has been such a privilege to learn from them.

    We also saw such a miracle with our investigator Michelle. She has 5 kids and wants to come to church but finding a ride for 6 people has been difficult. So we have been praying for weeks now that she would be able to get a car. Well on Friday we were on our way to an appointment while we were out with a member of our ward when we saw Michelle pull up in the same parking lot we were in! She was driving a car! So we ran up to her and excitedly asked if that was her new car! She said "yes its mine! Now we can come to church!!" We feel so good about their family! And were so beyond thrilled to see this miracle take place! Someone just gave here a car! How incredible is that! Prayer works!!
  
   We did a mini mission with a girl in our ward who is planning on serving a mission too. She became our 3rd companion for the weekend and it was so fun! She is going to be an awesome missionary and we loved being able to really show someone else how much fun missionary work is! We took her to several appointments with less actives and investigators. Did some service for a few hours and of course had to take her tracting. It went really well. I think it was really eye opening for her in many ways. She loved it!
 
   We had one last lesson with Barb this week before we gave her over to the Elders in our ward. With the recent boundary change she was one that we had to give up. It was sooo sad but we trust that the re-organization was inspired and that it will be for the best.
 
    Ooh! We got a Head quarters referral this week!!! I was sooo excited! Its the first time I have gotten one! We called him to set up an appointment and his kids answered and were like "are you a bill collector?" haha! "nope, We're missionaries!" We got to meet them and there seems to be a lot of potential there! He had just been searching online for free bibles because he wants to give them to people!" so he didn't really know what he was getting himself into I think but when we went he was really open and receptive. He is totally going to read the Book of Mormon I just know it. He even asked where and when church was! #prayingreallyhard#
    
   So on Wednesday, there was the biggest blizzard of my life!!!! And we were right in the thick of it! We had gotten a text in the morning from the zone leaders that said "if you can stay off the roads" It wasn't a direct order to stay inside and in the morning it was just raining, We had 5 awesome appointments in Conneaut (the farthest place we could have gone probably) and couldn't bring ourselves to cancel them. So we prayed about it, then decided to go out. Well, on the way there it went from rain to rainy hail then to rain/hail/slush then to slushy snow then to heavy/icy snow...ugh. We were stuck on the freeway though so we had to keep going! Well we made it Conneaut and to our first few appointments. A couple canceled/flamed us(which means weren't home)...go figure. At this point although we had a few more appointments it was really bad outside. We hibernated inside McDonald's for a little while for lunch and had to really re-evaluate our day. Mostly though we just were scared to go outside! It was freaky! We called the Banks to ask for their expert advice (at this point we were trying to decide if it would be better to get outa there and attempt the drive home or just finish up the day and hope it didn't get any worse) Well as long as we were in Conneaut we decided to stay and finish up our day...turned out to be another canceled appointment though (of course!). Then even though we were an hour early we turned up to our next appointment and begged her to take pity on us. She let us in of course and just kept saying "you girls are crazy to be out in this!" Yup....pretty much!. Well after an awesome lesson with them we ran out side, frantically scraped off the layers of snow and Ice that had accumulated on our car in the past 40 mins and drove off. We finally began the perilous journey home and all I can say is I am glad its over! It was the scariest drive of my life!! We could barely see 10 ft in front of us. Everything was just white, white and more white. Ohio drivers are really weird too. In normal conditions they tend to drive 5 or even 10 under the speed limit sometimes. Then in bad weather...they like to speed along like the snow and ice isn't even there! Crazy! I was going 30 miles an hour the whole way home on the interstate. Pretty sure I helped everyone behind me avoid a few accidents...at least that is what Sis. Coontz kept telling me. Not that we really could talk...we were both so stressed out all we could do was sing hymns the whole way home. It pretty much went like this...Me clutching the steering wheel like its a life raft, inching along at a heart racing 30 mile per hour crawl. Eyes peeled for ice and slush patches that would send us careening off the road (keep in mind we have already slid off the road once this winter and gotten stuck several times). Sis. Coontz singing a hymn with me joining in when I could spare the brain power. It was soooo scary. But WE MADE IT! When we got home we had to seriously evaluate if it had been wrong of us to go. If either of us had had any feeling that warned us not to. We didn't regret it though. It had been a good day minus the weather and we felt like even though it maybe wasn't the smartest thing we could have done, God really does bless us when we go forth to do His work no matter what. Whew.....never again though, Never again.

    The next day it almost looked like nothing had happened. So off to Conneaut again:) We taught Christina and afterwards helped her clean her bathroom. We used bleach and by the end of the 40 minutes I had scrubbed that nasty tub I felt so sick! Ugh....I got us out of there real fast and as we were driving away Sis. Braden (the member we were out with) Made me roll down my window "ex hail all the bad air out, then take in the biggest breath of your life....do it again...do it again." It helped at least!

    Well...Gotta go... the church is true! Love you all!
               
SisN