February 1, 2016 Never thought 35 degrees would be short sleeve weather.

The weather up here is so bipolar.  We have had almost no snow fall, and now it is all melting away because it has been in the high 30's into the 40's all week.  Normally, January is the coldest month of the year and filled with the most snow.  But not this January!  Pretty sweet!  It's been super nice weather, and I am loving it.  I never thought that 35 degrees would be short sleeve weather, but it sure is up here!  I don't expect it to last too much longer, but it'll be nice while it lasts.

Speaking in Ft. Yates was great!  I enjoyed it, although it didn't feel like a reservation.  It was much nicer than the ones I've been on in the past.  It just felt like an old town that isn't as well kept as it could be.  They have a Branch there, and it's practically the same as in Poplar.  The building is almost the same, there were 17 people there, and everyone left after Sacrament meeting.

Our days in Bismarck are actually pretty similar to our days in my other areas, the only difference is that we have to drive in a city, which is still weird to me.  3 lanes is far too many!  As a Zone Leader I'm still a regular missionary, except for a couple things.  Once a month my comp and I are to prepare a training for the Zone that lasts about an hour.  At the beginning of every month we are in charge of divvying out miles to the zone (Every month missionaries that drive a car are given a certain amount of miles that they can drive per month, and we try to stay in that mileage limitation as best we can.).  Anytime someone has a question about what they can or can't do, or if they need to be given permission to call someone outside their district, they call us and ask us for permission, and stuff like that.  We are also asked to do stuff for the mission office a lot.  But that's about it for our duties.  Pretty much normal missionary life with a couple things added on to teach us leadership skills.  

This week, Elder Riding was sick, so it has been interesting to say the least.  We still tried running around seeing people, but we didn't want to spread his germs, so we had to call it quits a few times.  But, he's all better now, so we're back to hittin' the pavement!

I don't have any exciting stories for this week mostly because of the sickness issue and we had a few errands we had to run for the mission office.  Next week will bring many more stories though!  It's gonna be a good one, I can feel it!

Love you all, hope all continues to be great, hope you are staying warm!

Elder Carter V

Trying to get a picture with Taz....