Welcome to a Nuclear Winter Wonderland!

Ok so this week it finally snowed! It actually snowed a ton which is really good because the valley depends on moisture and this is the first snowfall of the winter. However, at the time of this writing, it's pretty much all melted, which is somewhat sad. But it was pretty freaky, after it snowed, this thick fog rolled in, and I just felt like I was in the middle of nuclear winter, because I didn't see the sun at all for a couple of days. But the snow and ice made bike riding a tad exciting, which I shall get to in but a moment.



Also, I found out more about the 9-11 call. We went by her house, and she looked all bruised and quite sick and hadn't slept in 2 days. Her husband wasn't there, so we were all like "oh man it was him". But then we were riding our bikes 5 minutes later and met him, he had just gone to the store to pick up some groceries and stuff for her. We still don't know what happened, but we know it wasn't him, which is good because he is a really cool and really nice guy, and we couldn't imagine him doing it.

This week, we went to do a baptismal interview in Monte Vista, for some other Elders in our district. It's pretty cool because they got flushed in this transfer, and they found an investigator pretty quickly. So they taught her and she quit smoking all by herself in 1 week, and then we went to do the interview. Well the interview was at 3, and so we got there but she wasn't there, so we waited for 3 hours for her to show up so we could interview her. We didn't get back home until about 6:30. So it was kind of a waste of time, but at the same time it was worth it because she got baptized. Which was a really good thing. Me and Elder Terry are pretty good friends with the Zone Leaders, and so we get to hear a lot of stuff about how the zone is doing etc. For the month of December, the San Luis Valley Zone had 4 baptisms, and 2 of them came from our district. Which definitely makes us feel pretty blessed to have the success we are having. The other 2 actually came from different missionaries in Alamosa as well, so we do feel quite blessed. And that's a big thing about a mission, is that success is a gift. You could be the best missionary in the world and not baptize anyone. We had Christmas conference yesterday, and our mission president informed us that our mission had 73 or 78 baptisms this month. Which is, kind of a mediocre number for us to be completely honest. Well apparently, some other mission in the North America central area had 8. And so our president really drilled into us that our success is completely a blessing from God, and we should not attribute anything to ourselves, and so it was a good lesson.

Which leads me to Christmas conference: So Awesome! The theme was that we want our investigators to Do, Feel, Know. That is: Keep and Do commitments so that they can Feel that this is true, which leads to a Knowledge that this is true. It's something we've been kind of doing subconsciously, but it really brought it to a focus. One of the best parts, was when we were doing role plays, President Pfile joined in in our role play! Which was just amazing because I learned so much from him sitting there. He is just so inspired it is crazy.

As for teaching this week, we were teaching our less active and her boyfriend. We decided to watch The Testaments because we both felt it would kind of introduce why we are telling them to read the Book Of Mormon. Well it's kind of a cheezy movie "Don't you want to know my name?" "I already know your name". But it is quite powerful. Well right before the climax, her boyfriend decided he had stuff to do and got up and left. And then she sat and texted on the couch for a while and then got up and helped him. So there me and Elder Terry were, sitting alone on their couch watching the movie. Kind of awkward. And really frustrating. So tonight, we really want to see if they have real intent, so hopefully it goes well.

We also managed to contact the family that has been kind of ignoring us. They set up an appointment for tonight, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully well. Me and Elder Terry have really been focusing on the commitments we want to leave them and really praying to know what to do. We have a pretty good idea. They still seem solid, but just really busy.

Ok, so one of the bad things about this week was all the snow and ice. Now, I'm a pretty good winter driver if I do say so myself. (my parents may say otherwise) However, when it comes to biking in the snow, well that's another story. This is the first time I've ever tried biking on snow and ice, and boy has it been an adventure. The first day, I was riding along the glossy road, and in my infinite intelligence, wondered what would happen if I slammed on the brakes. Well, my back tire fishtailed out and I ended up on my bum. Well, lesson learned right? So we are riding down the road further, and this little yippy dog runs in front of my tire. Which leads me to a moral quandary:
A) I hit the dog, certainly killing it, right in front of the owners (who were standing outside)
B) I slam on my brakes, hopefully being able to stop in time, keep myself stable, and not slide into the oncoming car approximately 10 meters away

I chose B, and fortunately the car stopped because I would have ended up under its tires for sure. My back tire gave way, and I hit the ground, almost crushing the dog which then tried to bite me, all the while my companion and the owners are just killing themselves. Haha. Very funny.

THEN, we are cruising along this county road, and my glasses fogged up big time. I couldn't see a thing, and I jerked my steering wheel a bit, and this time I fell off my bike completely, and slid on my back probably about 6 feet along the ground before coming to a stop. Well at this point I was pretty ticked off. In fact I was the maddest I've been on my mission so far. I remarked "I can't see a thing with these glasses", to which my ever wise and inspired companion replied with whatever Luke says when Obi-Wan gives him the helmet with the blast shield down. (With the blast shield down, I can't see a thing (?)) Well, I started laughing and felt a lot better.

And I had my first "convert" baptism on Saturday! Devyn got baptized (the 9 year old with active parents) And it was pretty cool, and really exciting. But also kind of not because I really didn't do any work for it. The other Elders taught her everything and we just did the commandments and the interview. Still it's nice. It's nice to account for 25% of the baptisms in the zone this month.

And on the way home from Christmas Conference which was held in Pueblo yesterday, it was so windy that I saw semi trucks tipped over on the side of the road. Which was pretty weird.

And that's all. Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Elder Gibb