December-January update

Most of you have not heard from us since we left  Utah over a month ago! We wanted to get a quick  e-mail off to all of you, letting you know that we are thinking of you and surviving this very frigid, harsh winter here in Brampton, ON. Today, Jan. 7th it was a minus 24, with wind chill temperatures of a minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius.  Today it was the coldest it's been in 70 years. It is a damp cold that makes you shiver all over, even when wearing layered clothing.  Today in the province of Ontario, there were 275 car accidents early this morning, due to the weather.  Since our arrival in Brampton on December 18th our lives have changed drastically. I would say Darrell and I have been" running", since the day we walked into President Scott's office on the 19th of December. As most of you know our assignment was to be member leadership missionaries.  We were very surprised when President Scott asked if we would be willing to work in the office. My first reaction was; this is not what we planned to do!  I had even brought my Bosch mixer, so I could make some bread for those cute little families in one of the small branches up North. I have been asked to manage the front desk, referrals, supplies and convert baptisms. Darrell is over all of the finances and housing.  Another couple in the office takes care of the fleets, and his wife, who is a nurse does the medical and transfers.  We have 295 missionaries, 11 districts, and in our stake, there is over 125 different ethnic groups. We leave our apartment at 7:30 a.m and arrive home after 8:00 p.m. We work Monday through Monday, taking a little time to do our wash once a week on Saturday, and shop for a few groceries, and attend church on Sunday.  I have never been busier in all my life! I have to keep thinking what my grandson Tyler wrote to us in a letter the other day, " the the Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called."  We keep praying that President Scott was inspired to call us, and that we will become qualified for this new position that has been asked of us.   It is truly humbling and many times a day I ask my Father in Heaven to help us through the days and give us strength as we learning something in such a" magnitude". Hopefully, in the months ahead we can get back to a little bit of normalcy.  Someone once said, no matter what you thought your mission would be like, you will be surprised, and that we are!

When we get some time, we will send pictures etc. on our blog.