Indiana Snowstorm

We have had another week without school. Monday was a teacher prep day, and then it started snowing on Tuesday. It snowed about 5 inches, then overnight on Tuesday night we got about an inch of ice, then another 3 or 4 inches on Wednesday. The ice caused lots of power outages across the whole area. Luckily, this time our power stayed on. I didn't have work on Wednesday, however, because the plant didn't have power.

In Utah the roads probably would have all been cleared within a day. Here, however, they were unable to handle the snow combined with the ice. They are just beginning to get many of the side roads cleared now. Isaac and Mariana have been happy to have a week at home with Sam, although he did leave a few times to look for work. School is going to extend well into June to make up for all the lost days.

Samuel is Home!

The big day arrived, and Sam came home yesterday night. We went straight from the airport to the Stake President's home for his release. We have spent the time since then catching up and adjusting.

Elaine's Ballet

Her production is over for another year! She lives for this time and has so much fun for the three weekends they perform. She played a "street urchin" and a "chef".
This year was the first she got to do a pointe number. She was very excited about that. You can see her on pointe in the middle picture.
The show this year was Orphan Annie, and I must admit I couldn't see how they were going to turn a musical like Annie into a ballet, but they did a very good job. If you'd seen the musical, you would have no trouble understanding the ballet at all.
Unfortunately, this year with the economy the way it is, we did not sell out every performance. In fact, we only sold out two of the seven, and one of them seemed practically empty.
Still, the girls (and two guys) had so much fun that I don't think it mattered how many were in the audience!
We are just hoping Craig still has a job this time next week and she can continue to take ballet!
The bottom photo is Elaine with her good friend Caitlyn. Everyone thinks they are sisters and maybe even twins; they do look very much alike, especially with their hair up in buns!

It's official--Jake and Lindsey to the Cowboy state

Jake found out yesterday that his new job is going to have him in Wyoming. He starts in a week. For the time being, Lindsey and the kids will stay here to get the house ready to sell. They will be looking for a new house near Casper.

He will be selling car warranties to car dealerships throughout the state and spending a lot of time on the road. But he will get weekends and holidays off and he gets a salary instead of straight commission.

They are quite excited.

Samuel's Mission E-mail January 12, 2009

Everyone:
Wow. This is officially the beginning of my last full week as a missionary. That's pretty crazy. Well, I guess it has to happen sometime.
As for last week, starting with Thursday, we had a car-free day, so after weekly planning we walked into our area, contacting as we went, and tracted for a bit, then ate dinner, and then got picked up by one of the ward missionaries for our ward correlation meeting.
On Friday, we had our normal district meeting, we tracted and street contacted, and we visited Sister Cowgill, who has been going through some very difficult times recently. On Saturday, I was on exchanges with Elder Roark in my area. We did a little bit of street contacting and tracting, and we also visited the Reeds and some other less-active or part-member families.
On Sunday we had our normal church meetings. We actually had an investigator there--Florence Ndetu (I think that's how you spell it), a Kenyan who had been attending another ward with some friends for a while and decided it was time to go to the ward in her area. We should be teaching her on Friday. After church, we took a couple youth out tracting with us. It went pretty well. In the evening we visited the Frenches (a part-member family) and street contacted a bit.
We don't have much of anything going on today. Probably I'll work on packing up a few more things and starting to see if I'm going to have to mail any more stuff home.
Elder Samuel Stephens
The time is far spent; there is little remaining to publish glad tidings by sea and by land
Then hasten, ye heralds; go forward proclaiming: Repent for the kingdom of heaven's at hand
--Hymn #266

New Calling

Just in time for Samuel's return, I have recieved a new calling to the Stake High Council. It will be a good learning experience for me, I am sure, and give me a new view of how the church works. (And plenty of driving experience.)

-Newel

Samuel's Mission E-mail January 7, 2009

Everyone:
Well, it's the new year! Which means that I have only a little while left on the mission... that's crazy... so I won't think about it!

As for the week, on Tuesday of last week, I was on exchanges with Elder Yuill. He wasn't feeling well in the morning, but in the evening he felt better and we did some street contacting and answered some of the questions of this guy named Garet.
On Wednesday, New Year's Eve, we had a Zone service project where we made some cards for those serving in the military, and we street contacted a bit, and then in the evening (since we had to be back in by 6:00) we did our weekly planning. On Thursday we had a Mission Conference up at the chapel behind the temple. That was pretty cool--it was focused mostly on the Book of Mormon. We had the entire mission there. Afterwards we street contacted for a bit.
On Friday I was on companionship exchanges with Elder Holmes. We had district meeting in the morning, and then we visited some of his investigators and such, and did a good bit of tracting and street contacting.
On Saturday, we took a couple of the young men out and tracted for a while, and then tracted and street contacted some more on our own. On Sunday, we had our church meetings (now at 9:00 AM instead of 11:00 AM), street contacted, and tracted some in Elder Yuill's area to help him out.
On Monday I was on exchanges with Elder Otis in his area. We did some street contacting and tracting, and worked on contacting some of his referrals and less-actives and such. In the evening we went to have dinner and family home evening with a couple of families and one of the other sets of elders, but they were so late in getting there we ended up having to leave just as they were starting.
Yesterday, we did a lot of street contacting and tracting. In the evening we visited the home teachers of the Grants, a part-member family in the ward in which the non-member wife and daughter are both very regular attenders of the ward. The daughter recently gave a talk in sacrament meeting in which she said, "I'm not a member yet...", so we wanted some more info. And today we went to the temple.
So, it's been a bit of a different week, but we kept pretty busy. No new prospects yet, really, but we're working on it.
Elder Samuel Stephens

Quick trip to Nevada

Anette, Creed and I just got back from Nevada where we stayed with Anette's parents for a few days. We were mostly there to check on Anette's mom, who is recovering from heart surgery. When Anette went to the doctor with her mother, Creed and I spent a day in Las Vegas. We went to a big toy store, had lunch at Planet Hollywood, and walked along parts of the Strip.

Saturday the three of us snuck away for a few hours and visited the Valley of Fire state park. It has spectacular rock formations. We took a couple of short hikes.

It was in the 50s there, so it was nice to get out of the snow. We came home to zero degree weather and frozen horse troughs. Yuck.

Family thanks

Just want to thank every one for the Christmas presents that we received and tell all of you how much we love and appreciate you. Jacob, I have a hand full of shotgun shells that I found in my coat pocket. I'll bring them back next time we come down. I enjoyed the hunt with Flint and Jacob. I remember when Flint would follow me when I went hunting and fishing. Now I follow along with Flint and Jacob. Time really goes fast as we get older. Ruth and I are proud of all of you. Thanks so much for just being you.

We have a new cell phone, a "Jitterbug". It has no texting, no pictures, just acts like a regular phone. The number is 1-435-915-4025 mostly we are home and won't have it on but when we travel we have it on. Love you all, Mom & Dad

Samuel's Mission E-mail December 29, 2008

Everyone:
Well, this week was a little different because of having Christmas in the middle of it. So, I'll go ahead and get into it:
On Tuesday we did a lot of street contacting and tracting, since we were going to be having days off. Wednesday was a non-proselyting day, but we baked cookies and caroled to some people in the zone as a zone (well, we split into two groups for it). We also did our weekly planning in the evening.
Thursday was Christmas, so we had lunch with our district, and then went and ran a bingo game at a care home for the residents. After that, we went to Bishop Hoopes's home for Christmas dinner. It was an excellent dinner, but the combination of calling home and the fact that the Bishop's kids were playing their Wii made me a little homesick.
But then I got back to work on Friday and felt fine. On Friday we had our district meeting, and then we tracted and street contacted. We've been teaching a lot of first lessons, but we haven't had much luck in getting return appointments. On Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Haws, so I tracted and street contacted with him instead of Elder Spencer. And on Sunday, we tracted and street contacted after our church meetings. Notice a pattern?
Well, this morning we got together with our zone and had a smoothie-making contest and an improv comedy thing, and that was fun.
Well, it's getting down to the wire, now. I don't really have anything else to say.
Elder Samuel Stephens