Many Are Called But Few Are Frozen

We have had snow showers almost continuously for two weeks.  Of course, that doesn't stop anything    up here!  People walk everywhere!  Some don't even wear a cap or hat when it is snowing.  So, every day we have to clean the snow off our car.  The snow is so dry it reminds me of that fake snow in a bag that you buy at Christmas.  Elder Garrett bought a snow scraper and brush combined.  This has a log handle on it and you just brush the snow off your car.  Well, one night last week we had freezing rain.  I was told that this doesn't happen much.  We were glad to hear that because it took some time with the car running and both of us scraping to get it off.

While in the process of scraping, the cell phone in Elder Garrett's pocket started to ring.  We both had on gloves and in the process of trying to retrieve the phone I dropped it in the snow.  Finally, I got it open and it was the mission office calling.  We are working under the direction of the mission and the stake now.  They are both always checking on us to see how we are enduring the cold.  It was Sis. Woodruff in the mission office calling.  (Her husband is a direct descendent of Wilford and we enjoyed getting to know them the one day that we were in Edmonton.  They helped us get winter tires and winter clothing.)  Anyway, she is on the phone wanting to know if we were frozen yet!  At the moment we were almost!

She proceeded to tell me the story of a senior couple who put their missionary papers in.  In the papers they asked not to be sent anywhere that it was cold because both of them had a hard time dealing with the cold.  Their call came back and it was to Ukraine so they decided they just couldn't go there because it was just too cold.  So about eighteen months later they felt like they were still in good health so they decided to submit their papers again.  Again the call came back and it was to the Ukraine.  They decided they must go this time.  They were assigned to work in the prison system there.  After being there for about a year a prisoner was brought in to see them.  This was their son who had been missing for several years.  When in the Ukraine you can get put in prison for the least little thing and it is almost impossible to get out.

We have always felt that The Lord knows what He is doing when making missionary assignments.  We are very thankful to be here and know that we will be blessed in our service.  We have heard other stories similar  to this attest that The Lord knows what He is doing.  We hope to serve and make a difference in this small branch.