Alex's Mission: Week 23-Rocks Springs, WY

I had an amazing birthday! We were teaching lessons all day and found 4 new investigators! The sisters also surprised me with a cake! Still pretty stressed because we will be having baptisms for the next few weeks! This week's baptism is a family called the Youngbloods. They are an older couple. Maybe 40-50s. When we began teaching them she was married to another guy and not the one she was living with. They had been living together for almost 20 years! The divorce process was long and treacherous and it took them almost 6 months to figure it out and get it finalized, but they are getting baptized and married this weekend! It will be an amazing day.

We have been to the hospital several times this week giving those who are sick blessings. Those are always very hard because you dont know anything about them! In one of the blessing, I felt like she would return home safely that night. I kinda wonder what happened. One of the guys we gave a blessing to suddenly had his pancreas burst. It s scary how fragile life is and how these things can just sneak up on us and come out of no where. If nothing else it was a call to make the most out of our time that we've been given.

Our high councilman let us know yesterday morning that we were going to talk in church in just a few hours. Elder Hanks got up and I zoned out and started thinking about my talk. It felt like 3 or 4 minutes later he said "in conclusion". I looked at the clock and he had talked for 4 minutes and sat down. So I said a silent prayer. I had a few bullet points I wanted to speak on and I just kinda said whatever came to mind. I didn't even look at the clock and I had spoken when I was done the perfect amount of time. God really does make up the rest when we give him what we have.

I have really tried lately to measure my success by obedience and diligence and tried to forget everything else. I like that way a lot better and I really think that it is appropriate. It will help me change and will enable God to help others change through me.

Elder Hanks got asked out a few days ago! That was pretty funny. I thought she was going to ask me but she asked Elder Hanks instead. It was after a lesson with a family in which we taught the law of Chastity. At its conclusion she asked to walk us out to our car. We thought she wanted to talk about a concern that she had when her family wasn't there. So we were like OK. She asked us if the law of Chastity prohibited dating! I asked her how were we supposed to get married without dating! She proceeded to ask Elder Hanks out! It might have been the funniest day of my life! I contained myself for the moment miraculously. I thought she was talking about me at first but then I realized it was Elder Hanks. It went from really awkward and uncomfortable to hilarious!

Anyways thats all! Thank you all for the love and support! It is appreciated and I really do try to return it!

Oh yeah its freezing here. The wind chill was -40 at one point. You can't stay outside for very long or it hurts to breathe and you die. It's snowed so much and been so cold. The cold is like nothing I've ever experienced. It's biting and cuts to the bone.