Greetings From Chiberia

You may think I'm kidding. Tomorrow is forecast to be - 18 with a windchill down to -50!!! Tomorrow in Siberia it is supposed to be 10 degrees. What is wrong with this picture? We bought Elder Taggart an overcoat and boots Friday after work. Enough of him freezing in a suit coat and me having to stomp the snow down around the whole car because I have boots and he doesn't. That was the only way he could scrape the windows without filling his shoes with 12" of snow. You can't even build a snowman with this worthless stuff. It squeaks when you walk on it but it is dry and powdery snow. Too bad they didn't rate mountains on the Great Plains. They have several man-made ice rinks that are always busy. The man- made sleigh riding hill by us hasn't had much use because of the frigid cold. My thoughts have often turned to our ancestors who crossed the frozen Mississippi River and then camped out on the Other side. We think we suffer going from home to car to heated office. I can't even imagine how cold they must have been wrapped in wool coats and a quilt. They have already cancelled school tomorrow because skin exposed to these temperatures freezes in 10 minutes. We have already received 26" of snow.....11" above average for this time of year. Lucky us. I hope I can remember this next summer as we swelter in the heat and the humidity. Why would anyone live here on purpose?
I finished a quilt for our bed....out of necessity. I pieced the top on our last p-day and put it together and machine quilted it yesterday on p-day. It felt good to do something familiar and it felt super good to sleep under last night.
This week has been "nose-to-the-grind" week for me. We fed 120 missionaries subway sandwiches,chips,sliced oranges,and homemade brownies. I was baking brownies galore the night before. They appreciate homemade. My main project has been straightening our referrals. Since September we have had 100 new missionaries thus creating 50 new areas. Our Pres. And his assistants failed to enter the names of the new areas into the IMOS system with the transfer scenario. I cannot do that....only the Pres. Or his assistants. So I merrily enter and assign hundreds of referrals into a system at fault. With this last transfer I finally figured out the problem and they named all the areas correctly. But since Sept. they have been to the areas I had in the system.....not the 50 new areas. Thus 1,000 past referrals need to be reassigned to make sure they are assigned to the right area and the right missionaries in that area. It is a daunting task.
I had an interesting referral this week from Taiwan. They e-mailed me a name and phone number they found on an old list of referrals. He is a black dancer who was in Chicago....supposedly. I can't assign a referral without an address so I called the phone number. He now lives in Brooklyn, NY, is dancing with a company and is living the dream. He lived in Chicago 2 years ago and Taiwan 4 years ago. When I asked if he would be interested in having the missionaries come and visit, he said, " sure, why not?" I have sent referrals to Ethiopia, Texas, Mexico, Tennessee,new York, and California just this week. We have received them from Hawaii, Utah, Taiwan, and lots here from Chicago. It amazes me that a person can express an interest in the Church and have 2 missionaries on their doorstep within 24 hours in most places of the world.
On the dark side, two missionaries were moved this week because of two murders in that neighborhood. We had a murder right across the street from one of our buildings last week. One of our missionaries was pulled over by police for soliciting. When he assured him he was proselyting and went to pull out his ministerial certificate....it was gone. I ordered him a new one. I do that quite often. I have also ordered 24 new name tags this week for missionaries who have lost them while shoveling snow, pushing cars, or as they take their coats off.
Some Elders don't suffer at all on their missions. Our Elder who received a $72 box full of fresh cornbread his Mom baked for him just got a refrigerated box full of steaks, chicken breasts, hot dogs, and a roast. Long apron strings is all I have to say about that.
Our two December 8 year olds are now baptized members of the Church. We are so proud of Adam and Abigail. Sorry we weren't there in person but we were there in Spirit. We know we are supposed to be here now. Our service matters. Our love for these missionaries matters. We teach occasionally in Gospel Essentials and know we can make a difference in the lives of these new converts and investigators. I'm grateful the Lord's plan is an individual one. We make a difference one individual at a time. Our most recent baptism in our ward goes to the temple weekly to do baptisms. It warms my heart to see this depth of conversion right from the get go. We love you and miss you but time goes by quickly. Share the gospel warmth with someone this week.
Love,
Sister Taggart

Happy New Year from Chicago