December 23, 2013

Ice Skating 101

Dear Family,

I would have to say that this week has been my favorite week in Augusta, ME!! Christmas really is a season to be a missionary. We were able to go tracting a few times this week and it was actually successful! And when in doubt we just sang a Christmas song to them! This week I focused more on talking about the atonement and the plan of Salvation with everyone we talked to. It was amazing to see how we were able to have a more focused conversation on the gospel and how we could help them in some way. Such as sharing a scripture with them or telling them about where their grandparents are. It is amazing to be able to testify to everyone that we talk to -- I mean when is that ever going to happen again in my life? 

When planned out properly a missionary's day is remarkable. We go from place to place, not knowing who is going to talk to us or what is going to take the longest amount of time. I feel like I am on a cloud and Heavenly Father is just guiding us to where we really need to be and who we really need to see. 

That happened on Saturday. In the morning we had a few member stop-bys that we were doing and they all fell through. Then we decided to knock on a former investigators door (we weren't planning to do this).  We have tried to meet this person many times but he was never home. We knocked on his door and he answered! We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we did. Nothing like this will ever happen to me again. His name is D. He told us that he wrote a book about his experience with the Elders called Who's At The Door (you can go buy it now!) and he gave both of us a copy. And then he took us out to lunch at Panera! IT. WAS. AWESOME! We had a nice lunch talking about the differences of Mormons and Catholics and telling him some of our funny mission stories. It was quite delightful. There was a point where he started talking about polygamy, and I just testified of a prophet and that put the conversation to bed immediately. 

So the lovely Ice Storm. So imagine your drive way or small parking lot being a complete ice skating rink. Then imagine your car completely covered in a quarter of an inch of ice. Now imagine getting that ice off by smashing your scraper into the windows, But wait! The door is frozen shut to get to the scraper! So you first have to use your key to break the ice around the car door. Now think about walking up a slope of a hill that is completely covered in ice. It is literally impossible to walk uphill because you are just sliding backwards. 

[This is just a picture I uploaded from the internet, but it gives you an idea of how pretty the trees are!]

That is what the past few days have been like. It is really super fun! Seriously! The trees look completely beautiful all covered in ice. And it is actually really fun to smash all the ice off the car. And don't worry the drive-ways are ice but the roads are completely fine. 

Can't wait to talk to you on Wednesday! Love you!

Sister Lassen