December 9th Letter

Award winning gingerbread house!

baptism of scott porter

Wow, good luck to me as i write this email, cuz there’s SO much to try and get through. I guess i’ll start with how a MASSIVE storm came through Calgary over the weekend. It was the same day as ZLC (zone leader council) The roads were terrible so it looked like we were going to be stranded at the mission home for the night, but they eventually sent the Calgary zl’s home but there was all of the out of city guys still there. Our ward Christmas party was at the chapel that is right by the mission home so we were there and we fed all the missionaries who were stranded. There was a gift exchange, and guess who i exchanged with, the little girl from the Testaments! Mara, the girl with the Monkey. She’s in our singles ward! SO that was exciting. We then made gingerbread houses at the party and ours was WAY good. SO i asked, and me and tompknison got permission to sleep over at the mission home with he other guys. This was fun because some of my favorite guys were there and they are leaving soon! Elder Pehrson and i got to hang out a bunch so that was awesome. And we literally didn’t have anything to sleep in. All we had was our suits. I didn’t want to chill around in that, and i didn’t want to just hang out in my undies, so i searched the mission home and found a big pink bathrobe. It was amazing. another missionary found one, and another one found an old lumberjack looking shirt and tiny basketball shorts. Hopefully i can get the picture soon. It was warm though, i didn’t even need a blanket! Then the next day we had to walk home, only like, 6 blocks, through the blizzard, luckily i was well prepared with a jacket, scarf from Jayni, and earmuffs. I felt like a pioneer, walking through 6-12 inches of snow not knowing where the sidewalk was. It was intense. we made it. Then we went to the church to fill the font up for the baptism of Scott porter. He was baptized by his girlfriend’s dad and it was sweet. he had been taught by Elder Mella mostly so that was fun to see elder mella be able to be there and confirm him. Whenever we taught him i was really impressed at ho9w willing he was to make the big step of baptism and join the church. We were supposed to have stake conference with Elder Hafen from the first quorum of the seventy but because of the weather he couldn't get a flight here. That was sad, but we got to eat the food that was prepared for him! It was some pretty delicious chicken! But wow this week was so jam packed! The weather is staying steadily cold at -20 with wind chills up to -30! Needless to say, its really cold when your boogers freeze, and frost build up on your eyelashes. But its opened up a lot of opportunities to serve as we shovel walks. Its exciting, and i’ve gotten pretty good at it! Well, I'll try and not freeze! Thanks for all your love prayers and mail! i love you all! Elder Crippen P.S.-Life is good