69th Week in Spokane

This week was definitely an exciting one! It started out with a companionship in our zone having some difficulties and so we went on a 24 hour exchange with them where I went to their area with one of the elders and the other elder came to our area with elder Tamblyn. It went really good except for two things.. one. elder Tamblyn got sick, and is still sick. and two. It snowed about 7 inches! So it was pretty exciting and we were able to help the other elders out. So when we got home the next day about three o'clock, elder Tamblyn went to bed and I went out and shoveled for a couple hours! We've got a pretty big driveway and with seven inches of snow, it took some time! Not to mention the temperature was in the low teens! Well, the next morning, there was about another seven inches on the ground! So we went out and shoveled that out of the way! And then of course by night time, it was raining! And it rained all the next day.. and about half the next and then everything froze! Before I tell you what happened next, let me remind you that missionaries have a mile limitation that they are allowed to drive per month. Also, for mom's sake, I'll spare some of the details until after my mission!! So in our area, there's a shortcut that takes you up the side of a mountain, its called Blume Hill Rd. (in case you want to Google map it!) Well, we had an appointment at the bottom of this hill at six and then right after we had an appointment at the top of this hill. So obviously we took this short cut that would save us about twenty miles. So here's the problem. There was a sign that said "not maintained in winter". Well, this sign has been up for about two months and I've been up and down it countless times, especially since we're teaching someone who lives at the bottom, and there's never been any problem at all, we just pop our truck into four wheel drive and off we go. And this night, there were fresh tire tracks going up this hill, so I never thought twice about it. So we went up and it was no problem.. until the last 200 yards.. it was solid ice! So we kept going up it with the momentum we had and that took us about 2/3 of the way up.. then we started sliding backwards. But luckily the side stopped us because there was a little bit of snow there, just before the ditch. Well we tried a few times to get out but with no luck, Whenever we tried we would just slide backwards. so we thought we'd just try to back down to where there wasn't any ice. Well that didn't work either because we had zero control while we were on that ice. So we called up a guy in our ward that sells chains and asked him to come get us. Well, he didn't bring any chains and so when he came, the exact same thing happened to him, except he was bounced into the opposite side of the road into the other ditch, which was a good thing because this ditch was only about six inches deep. So he tried using that to get him to the top of the hill and that didn't work so he decided to try backing back down the hill using this little ditch. he got down almost all the way to where there wasn't any more ice when his tire popped out of the ditch flinging his back end across the road to where his back tire was hanging off the other ditch. So they got out, called a tow truck who then came and got both of us and we got home at about 11:00 that night. So like I said, I'll have to spare you the really exciting details for when I get home.. for moms sake! So that was our little adventure this week! As for out teaching. we were able to start officially teaching a part member family, who finally agreed to take the missionary discussions!! So we are very excited about that! There's also a few other very exciting things going on right now with our teaching that I look forward to reporting on as they unfold a little bit more. I love you all!