Stuck In The Mud - 01/12/15 (Glen Carbon, IL)

Dear Family and Friends,

I am having a great time out here in St. Louis! This week was kind of a long one though... There was a day or two that we didn't really get much done because I have been battling this weird head cold! I have been pretty sick, but I have found the rest that I need, sunday I slept most of it off because Church got cancelled due to freezing rain (which didn't happen). I am feeling better today.

We had a really awesome experience this week that I would like to share. Last week we got a phone call from a guy in Highland Illinois who asked us to come over and see him. This man, is actually somewhat of a local celebrity to some people. His name is J.R Potthast, he is not a member, but the church wrote an article about him a few years ago. He is a wood cutter by profession, and the church hired him to cut all of the wood for the Kansas City, Missouri Temple back in 2010. All of the very fine and intricate cuts he did. He worked with the church and worked on the Temple from start to finish. Anyways, we visited him and taught him part of the restoration, and picked him up as our new investigator!

We have been having the hardest time getting our investigators to progress.. Lupie is still dealing with some health issues, and kind of doesn't like my new companion.. Haha! So we are going to work on that this week, and brainstorm ideas to get her to come to church. Stephen and Tanya are still living in a Motel in Granite City, we are going to meet with them this week and teach them lessons without a member there, that way they are less focused on getting their temporal needs met by the church. We have trouble meeting with our other investigators because of their schedule, so we have a lot of work to do this week. We are also trying to work with some less active and part member families! We might start working with a part member family all because of my "background" with the National Guard.. so that is pretty neat.

I think I will end my letter now with a story from Saturday night.. So Saturday we helped one of the Sisters investigators move apartments down in Granite City. Afterwards we went over to the McCay's and they fed us pizza. Anyways, we also had the East St Louis Elders with us to help us do the move. So we leave to go take the other Elders back to their apartment. A little ways into our drive The Gps is taking us through some industrial park just south of Granite, and it takes us down this road, where there is a dead end. But little did we realize at the time we were driving onto a thick sheet of ice. All of the sudden the car broke through the ice and we were stuck.... For over 30 minutes the four of us tried everything to get the car unstuck! The Ice just kept breaking into pieces and underneath the ice was several inches of sticky mud! 

Eventually we got the car out and backed onto a road. Our red Carollla wasn't so red anymore though... It was covered in mud, and so were we... One side of my face was covered in mud, so were my shoes and pants. Luckily because of moving none of us were in shirts and ties... So after we got the car out we took some much needed Victory pictures... about 1 minute later, flashing lights pull up to us.. Not 1 but 2 cop cars roll up on us. One cop gets out and says very angrily "Are you guys having fun tonight?!" Then I was like, ".....No... Not really." Apparently he got a call from somebody saying he saw people out "car surfing" (whatever the heck that is). But we explained to the officer that the gps lead us down the road and that we got our car stuck.. He believed us and the other cop did too, so he put his M16 away. Then they helped us find out way out. 

Then the gps led as wrong again, when it took us right through downtown East St Louis at like 10pm at night. Luckily we were safe! We made it back to Glen Carbon Safe and sound. Luckily not too many people have inquired about our super muddy car, which we will be washing today!

Anyways, That is all I have to report for this week! I love you all! Stay safe and have a good week! My Mail box is always open, so feel free to drop me a letter. In fact let me quote the scriptures...

"Does thou lovest me?" "Ye, Elder thou knowest that I love thee." 

"Then fill my mailbox"

Till next week,

Elder Chase Peterson