The Snow is FINALLY Melting

Hi everyone - tomorrow and Friday Steve and I will be in Fargo, for a quick meeting with the other CES missionaries from our area. We'll be meeting people that we have only heard on conference calls. Everyone says it's a fun get together. We are driving with another couple who come from Rapid City SD. We'll be back by Friday night. Just wanted you to know that our cell phone will be turned off most of the time, and I don't think we are taking our computer for this short trip.

There are things I see or use every day that remind me of each of you. Katie made that wonderful calendar from your pictures. In March there is the picture of Andrew at the 4th of July celebration at Nana's park, many of us on top of Colt's mountain, Addie-Laurel-Hauna at Adele's shower (what a picture of 3 beautiful girls!) and a picture of Madison and Kaylee. I carry my scriptures in the bag that Kayla gave me, eat the granola that Addie made, listen go the Go Gear that Layna and Max loaded for me, and soon will be using the Web Cam that Kirk and Tristin got. There are so many things that keep me saying "thank you" over and over in my mind. We never feel far away from the family.

It's not that warm here, but still warm enough to melt some of the snow. I feel like Noah, getting excited to see the dry land appear! The gutters are running with water wherever we look, and the snow is disappearing off the lawns. We had a heater plug put in the engine after last week's -20 degree weather. Hopefully we won't need them again until next winter.

I told you I didn't see any plug-ins?? When the snow melted, there were plug-ins outside our very apartment house about every 10 feet. I'll have to take a picture to show you what these look like. As the snow melts, the Christmas decorations are appearing. A big pile of snow in someone's yard turned out to be a full size Santa on a sleigh. Rudolph and the elves aren't looking very good after 4 months of ice and cold. There is water from the melting snow, and then it freezes at night, so there is always lots of ice in the morning, but soon Steve and I will be able to walk outside in the mornings.

Last weekend we went to the McLaughlin (South Dakota) branch, on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, with a congregation of native americans, whites, and even a man from Yugoslavia. We met a 90 year old woman who comes from Tremonton and is a cousin to a man who was one of Dad's good friends in Elwood. Always a small world. I am going to the reservation Saturday to give a talk for their Relief Society celebration. There aren't many people, but I feel there is a lot for us to learn from them.

Elder and Sister Harris