Waiting out a Blizzard

 

Looking out our front door at the blizzard!

It is now mid-February and we find ourselves waiting out a blizzard.  There is not much snow coming down, but what is coming is blowing hard.  Right now it would not be safe to be out on the roads.  We moved the appointments we had today.  District council was scheduled today, but was moved to tomorrow.  The storm is forecast to let up later this afternoon.  If it lets up on time, we will go around and shovel snow for a number of single sisters in the ward.  If it keeps snowing, we will need to shovel tomorrow afternoon when we get back from district council.

 

Last Saturday was also very cold.  The Ottawa food bank does a monthly food distribution on the second Saturday of the month.  Although we have been working at the food bank every Wednesday afternoon, this was the first time we were available to help on a Saturday morning.  The distribution is held outside in the hospital parking lot.  A truck unloads pallets of food, and then the volunteers fill shopping carts with a standard assortment of food.  The customers pull up and the volunteers unload the baskets into the cars so the customers don’t need to get out.  We were able to serve about 100 customers in just over two hours.  Unfortunately, it was only about 10 degrees F that day, with a strong north wind.  Even though Deanne dressed with everything she owned, she thought she was going to freeze.  She didn’t get warm until that night when she went to bed.  We keep reminding ourselves that there are colder places we could have been called.

 

We continue to get more and more involved with the ward members.  We are in contact with many of them several times each week, either through visits or calls and texts.  Dave has been called to be the first counselor in the Elder’s quorum with responsibilities over missionary work.  Deanne has been given an assignment to minister to three sisters.  These sisters are spread out over the far reaches of the ward.  The three sisters are in three different towns, one about 30 miles north, one about 20 miles east and one about 25 miles southeast.  The Bishop also asked us to help out with temple and family history.  We are turning some of our visits to discussions on family history.

 

We were able to attend the Chicago temple again.  The missionaries are not allowed to drive mission cars to the temple, and there is no public transportation to the temple.  Two of the sisters in our district wanted to attend, so we went to the temple with them.  We have been to the temple three times now, and have been asked to be the witness couple each time.  The Chicago temple is small, but it is a wonderful place. 

 

We hope everything is well with you and your families.  We are happy to be here, although today we are eagerly awaiting spring.

 

Love, Elder and Sister Curtis

Pelicans and geese sitting on the frozen Illinois river.

Our district from the last transfer.

With Sister Kendell and Sister Rodriguez at the Chicago temple

Deanne by the frozen river with Bernie mittens

Snow mobiles in the middle of Utica

Mansion in La Salle I believe the Munsters lived here