Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

If you couldn't get the hint from the subject of my email...it snowed in Nebraska this week! It is FREEZING now! I'm pretty sure my legs are going to fall off. All is well though! It actually feels like Christmas time now :) I love it! It's been a really great, exciting week and a lot has happened so I'll try to get through it all!

Last Monday after preparation day, we had a deep clean of the TC because we were Christmas decorating so we had to make sure we cleaned it really well for the lovely decorations. 

Tuesday we were able to serve at Seven Oaks (retirement home just up the street) and we dusted a bunch of shelves and things. I love serving old folks! Then we were at the TC the rest of the day and didn't have a single person come in which is a really good thing because we had a million boxes of Christmas decorations allllll over the place! It was crazy, but so much fun! That night after the TC Sister Durrant's ribs were really bothering her. I guess she has some ribs that are out of place or something, so we stayed home that night so she could rest. We called Sister Weston and she told us to set up an appointment to see a doctor, so that's what we did Wednesday. Luckily nothing is really seriously wrong. It's just kind of something she has to deal with the rest of her life. It was weird because the haven't been bothering her too bad lately, but then on Tuesday she had a instant sharp pain coming from her ribs, but now she's fine and it's back to normal. Poor thing. Then after her doctor's appointment, we got to go help finish the Christmas decorating and then served at the TC the rest of the night. The Christmas decorations are absolutely gorgeous! I'll have to take a bunch of pictures of the gallery and show you next week. Anyways... Thursday we were at the TC in the morning and again, I don't think anyone really came in, so we were able to help with the finishing touches of the decorating. They go all out with decorations here so it took forever to get everything up! Now it looks magical and beautiful! That night a family in our ward took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and then we brought a little present over to Jenny (less active) who just got the new job that she's been wanting for a long time so we went and congratulated her with a surprise visit. Then we went to another less active's house and decorated gingerbread houses for the Gingerbread display here at the TC. So much fun! 

Friday we had mission tour and Elder Nielson from the quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us with his wife, Sister Nielson. It was so incredible and inspiring...We each got to go up and shake their hands and tell them a little bit about ourselves. After it was all over, President Weston came up to me and said "Elder Nielson wants to meet with you after. Meet me in the Stake President's office. You must've made a good impression on him." Now, it was one thing to have President Weston come up to me because he is very intimidating. But then to have him tell me to meet him in the Stake President's office because a general authority wants to meet with me! I'm like freaking out and shaking really bad at this point! Well, I go in there and he asks me a bunch of questions about myself and my family, and how my mission has been. He asks if what he said in the meeting benefited me at all and then told me thank you for coming in and meeting with him. ?????? I was so confused. I think he probably has to report on how the mission is doing and how the missionaries are doing, so he requested to meet with me for some odd reason! It was really neat, and I surprisingly felt very calm when answering all his questions. I came to realize that he is just a normal person like all of us. No reason to be nervous or embarrassed at all. Just be who you are! It was so cool! 

Ok, so funny story really fast...so Saturday we weekly planned and then went in our area. Well, it started snowing...one of our appointments was on a hill, so we were driving pretty slowly already because it was really slippery...and the only way to get to this person's house was to go up this hill...so we start driving up the hill and then couldn't get up! We were stuck and had no idea what to do! We were both screaming and laughing at the same time and it was actually pretty funny. The car started sliding backwards a little bit, but we knew we couldn't go down from where we came from because that was a busy road, so Sister Durrant got out of the car and pushed and eventually we finally made it up the hill. Crazy, but hilarious! Sister Durrant's the hulk :) haha anyways, we had to cancel that appointment because we were way too late, and had to get to another appointment on the other side of our area with Carla. We went to our appointment with Carla and had Sister Turner (the RS president) come with us. Basically, Carla doesn't have any money. Not a single penny to her name, so she is moving to Dalton to move in with her boyfriend. She dropped us. It broke my heart. I couldn't hold in the tears. I was devastated. I didn't know what to say to her. I was bawling as I bore my testimony to her and told her that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and Heavenly Father wants her to be a part of it. She was crying as well, and then we parted. She will be moving probably tomorrow so we most likely won't see her ever again. It was a very rough drive home for Sister Durrant and I. It is obviously not Carla's time though. Hopefully she will meet with missionaries in Dalton, but who knows. I love her so much and hope and pray that she will be watched over. Anyways, that was my week! Gotta get going now though! I love you all and hope that you all stay warm!
Sister Ferrara