Monday, January 28, 2013

January Thaw

 
Well, the weather warmed up a bit this week.  We got up above freezing.  You'd think that would be great, and it is in a way, but it does have its drawbacks as well.  This is a photo of the road in front of our apartment.  We were waiting for the bus.  So I'm looking at this pile of show and wondering how I'm going to climb over it when the bus gets here.  And it was much worse than it looks in this view!  It was about 2 1/2 feet high and a little bit sloshy.  Somehow we made it over the pile and onto the bus!

This view shows what the parking lots look like (somewhat).  Since the snow was a bit softer, the cars were getting stuck all over town.  Alan helped push a couple of cars.  Since they rarely clean out the parking lots, the snow (ice) is pretty deep.  Then when it melts, or softens out, it is a deep "slosh" - perfect for cars to get stuck in, spinning their wheels!  The tall building in the center is our apartment building.
 


This was taken the next day, when the pile was even deeper!  Maybe 3 1/2 feet to crawl over to get on the bus!
 

This machine is coming down the street cleaning up these piles from the side of the road.  Actually only one side of the road got cleaned up, but it's something!
 
Then today, when the temperatures dropped back down, all those soft, slushy spots had turned into --- skating rinks!  It was a good trick walking to church.  We decided to take the route that had been sanded and salted (well, sprinkled with dirt) instead of the shorter way that would have been like ice skating.
 



We've been having good attendance at our English group lately.  I think we had over 20 people this week.
 

 
One of our friends brings her little angel with her.  She is usually on the grumpy side, but she was making googly eyes at Elder P.!  I think she found one that she likes!
 
And, the best news of all  -- This week we were blessed with a baptism!!  One of our friends that has been coming to English for quite a while and has been taking the discussions, decided to be baptised.  I have some nice pictures, but our Area Presidency has asked us to be careful about posting photos of the missionaries, so I will save them for now.  But we are so very happy for our friend and for the elders.  We love them all very much!
 
This is where the baptism was held.  It is at a sauna or bath house.  We were able to rent this room for an hour and have 10 people in it.  There was a sauna (hot room) off to the side and a dressing room and showers.  The water was on the cool side (for cooling off after the sauna.)  And there is an area with sofas where we sang and had testimonies.  We were surprised how many people go to use the bath house.  It was quite busy!  A special day to remember!
 

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