Still Not Frozen

As the title of this week's email suggests, Ryan is still not frozen. That is a good thing since it causes his mother a great amount of concern.  This week will be the true test.  On Thursday, it it supposed to get down to -16 degrees with a windchill of -24.  I can not even comprehend those temperatures.  So, pray for Ryan.  I admire his positive attitude and happy face as he mentioned that the only thing he could do was "just hop on his bike and get out there."

He has currently felt a little discouraged with the work and I know that he is learning great things because of his perseverance and willingness to be obedient to what is asked of him.  So we will up our prayers with faith to hopefully help him see some positive progress in the work of the Lord.

Ryan's words: 

The temperature has sure hit a dip in these past couple days and its getting a little bit chillier.  I am using lots of warm stuff and then getting onto that bike, there really isn't much of an option besides to hop on and get out there.

I would love it if you all prayed for and with me in finding something of a miracle soon, I would appreciate that.  I am waiting for something like that to happen and come my way, until then I'm just keeping working hard and waiting and doing my best.

Group Email:

Hey everyone,

Well as the title says, I am still managing not to freeze out here in Minneapolis, even as we have been peaking down in the negatives this past week, and its only supposed to get colder this week.  

I don't have a whole lot to share this week, so sorry this email  isn't going to be all that spectacular. But hey I heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, so at least you got 3,000 here on this email, and ones a panoramic, so that's gotta be a 2x word multiplier.

Well in dealing with the cold and biking, I have been blessed to have my bike lock end up with a block of ice in and over the lock 3 times this week!  It is crazy. I have gotten to the point where I just always carry a lighter on me because we never know when it is going to freeze up again and leave us stranded or walking some more. It is always an adventure to say the least, I guess.  

It was sad to see this week, but our two most progressing investigators, who both had baptismal dates coming up that we were working towards, decided that they don't want to hear what we have to say anymore.  And as long as they are following God, they feel they don't need to listen to us, go to church, read the scriptures, or be baptized.  So that was really hard to see people that I have worked with since I had found them in my first week in the mission go. But I guess you only see the miracles and blessings after the trials of your faith, so this week will bring some awesome miracles I am hoping.

Well I hope you are having a good time and doing your outside of church reading and all staying warm yourselves, I hope you have a great week and will talk to you all next week!

Elder Pickering