February 17

Hi family!
Boy, this week has been a crazy one. First off, I would just like to
say mom, that I miss your cooking at home.

Also, here is my new mailing address: 9721 Grove Crest Ln Charlotte,  NC 28262

Ok so I think I jinxed myself by thinking we wouldn't really get any
snow in North Carolina. Literally the day after I said so, it snowed
for a day while I was still in Hickory. And now this week it snowed
for two days! We are talking a good 6 inches at least in Charlotte
here where it definitely doesn't snow or so they say. The crazy thing
is the temperature the day previous and after, got up in the high 50's
felt like spring. Basically, people here really aren't prepared for it
and the whole city just shuts down and everyone stays home. We were
stuck inside for 2 days and ventured out on foot for a couple hours,
just long enough to swing by some less active members who live down
the street from us. Most everyone live too far for foot so we tried to
skype some of our appointments which was nice to be able to do from
our apartment. It was super fun to watch all these college kids in our
complex try to make snowmen and grab anything they could try to sled
on. A lot of them are from across the ocean like India and the Middle
East area so this was magical for them and even the natives to NC
haven't received snow like this in at least 10 years. We saw a couple
of guys driving a remote control hummer around in donuts and they said
better than wrecking an actual car- smart choice. Apparently snow days
are party days here for the college kids- everyone walks out of Food
Lion with a case of beer instead of actual necessities. :P Whatever,
hot chocolate will taste better.
The snow was fun but we were finally excited to get back out and
working but I got sick over the weekend. I was doing so great this
winter and then out of nowhere I got a sore throat, stomach bug, and
possibly a cold all within this week! No bueno, but I am working on
getting better and I will get a blessing from the elders today. At
least it isn't the crazy flu that has been going around NC.
Well, our current progressing investigator has a goal to quit smoking this week and
working on a divorce so that he can marry his girlfriend who is a
member and be baptized. We are just praying that the divorce can go
through within the month or less so we won't have to push his baptism
date back more.
We also got a referral, and she likes the Book of Mormon. She
has a lot of challenges but he most current is a strange anxiety over
churches in general. Not sure what exactly that is all about yet but
if you could pray that we will be able to help her come to church.

So my mission is doing a study of the Christ-like attributes in chp 6
of Preach My Gospel up until Easter. Staring this week with Faith in
Christ we will study each attribute and try to live it as well. I
would like to invite all of you to join as well and we can share what
we have learned and our experiences with each other.

Well, that is my crazy life for you so far. Wish I had more to report
on as far as teaching pool goes but it is kind of small right now and
I am just trying to learn names and faces of investigators and members
just as fast as I can!

I love you!
Sister Amelia Rust