Friday, December 31, 2010

Missionary work is SNOW GOOD!

This week was awesome.  I just want to start off, by thanking everyone for the Christmas gifts and letters.  It made my Christmas here great.  Christmas doesn’t really feel like Christmas as a missionary.  It really just felt like another day.  The biggest difference is the fact that I'm here, and how that ties into the Christmas season.  Teaching people during this time of year seems so much more special, because they are thinking about the Savior more.  And people seem kinder.  Although Spanish people tend to be more welcoming as it is.  I love how much they want to feed the missionaries.  It’s kinda amazed me.  We'll go to church, and after Sunday school is over, all the Spanish wives come over to us, and start asking us when we can come over.  Not if we can come over on this or that day, just when we can come over.  It's amazing to feel of that love, especially since most of them are in humbler circumstances than the English speaking people in the ward.
I had also been asking for snow recently, and was slightly disappointed by a non-white Christmas, but it worked out better that way.  On Sunday (Boxing Day) we went to church, and they were saying that we were supposed to get about 15 inches later that day.  This I was thrilled about.  It started to snow at about 11 O'clock, and by 6 there was already 6 or more inches on the ground.  Whenever it snows in the upstate mission, the cars are grounded, meaning that we can’t really do much missionary work.  At about 10:30 we were getting ready to go to bed, when we heard a car alarm going off right outside our apt.  So we went to investigate, and found that a lady had gotten stuck in the snow on the hill right beside our apt.  So, we bundled up, and went outside to dig her out, and help her get her car to a better spot, since she was almost home.  By the time we were finished only Elder Wendel was tired.  So myself, Elder Jairl, and Elder Maldonando went outside and started shoveling off our front porch, and the stairs.  By now, there was about 12 inches of snow on the ground.  As we were shoveling and just having fun outside, we noticed that another car had gotten stuck going up the hill to the Inn that is beside our apt.  So we decided to go down and help them get unstuck.  The person lived in another town, but didn’t feel comfortable driving in this storm, so they decided to rent a room for the night at that Inn I mentioned.  After getting him unstuck and turning down the payment that he offered, we went back to our apt and re-shoveled the front that we had shoveled before.  It had collected about 5 inches again!  We decided to go to sleep after that.  In the morning we woke up and found that we had received about 21 inches of snow total.  This storm we were told was the worst December storm they’d had in New York, since 18something!!!  It was soo awesome how much snow we received.
Since them we've been grounded because of icy roads, and haven’t able to do much work.  But we did walk around the next day, and help people to get their cars out of the snow, which they were very grateful for.  I think we touched a lot of peoples hearts, and it was not only a great opportunity to do service but also missionary work.  Almost everyone offered to pay us, because normally people who do what we did ask for money.  But when we turned it down they'd ask why, and we'd explain that we're missionaries, and get to share a bit about what we do.  We’d then leave them with a pass along card, and tell them that if they called the number they could get a free DVD about Christ.  Unfortunately there were no Spanish people, but the English missionaries might get some new investigators. 
Anyways, that’s it for now. I love you all.
Carson (Elder Dilling)