Greetings from Antarctica!!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful week, and that everyone was warm. Like the title says, it feels like I am in some ice filled world. This past week was the coldest I've ever been. On friday the temperature got down into the negatives and had very strong winds and snow flurries, the wind chill rating was rated at -30 degrees. It was very very very cold. My face hurt. A lot. But the work must go on! So let me fill you in on what we did this past week!

The snow that fell over the course of a day!!

On wednesday night (new years day) we visited an investigator for the Haitian tradition of making "Soup Joumou". Every haitian in the world will make this soup only on January 1st and never again throughout the year. Luckily, the investigator that we visited is an amazing cook, so let me describe this to you. Joumou means squash, so in the soup there was squash, noodles, beef, cows feet (surprisingly good), green collar, potatoes, carrots, onions, and plenty of spices. I thought it was pretty good, she made us all get a bowl that you'd put popcorn in and fill it full of the soup. We all just pounded it, and it was great! Haitian portion sizes, they'll kill you! Haha. 

Dinner @ Se' Angie's house. She is THE BEST!! She's sister Lamy's best friend and she takes good care of us too.

So because of the extreme cold and the blizzard here last week, we were "red dotted" on thursday and most of friday. That basically means that we're not allowed to leave the apartment for any reason and other than that we can play games and sleep. So we took a nap and played some card games, but it got SO BORING just sitting in the apartment. I can't believe how much I love the work, taking 2 days off killed me! But leaving the apartment friday night to visit a member was perhaps the coldest mile I've walked in my life! I'll attach a picture of the snow, we got about 14" in a day. The city basically shut down!

Elder Coulson making french fries and chips for us. Idahoan potato  child!!

Deep Fryin'

Before!!

After!!

So because of the weather, transfers were delayed until saturday. But, let me tell you a bit about my new companion: Elder Davey. Elder Davey is THE MAN. He is so legit, we have nearly everything in common (we're even both have hypoglycemic tendencies, what?) he loves sports, music, and he's down to try just about anything. We went and tried a chinese restaurant the other night, it was really good. About $8 for 2 days worth of food! They serve 5 pound plates of food, no joke! But we're going to get along really well. His creole is fantastic, and he's always helping me out with mine. Leading the area is insane though. Showing him where we're going and who we're seeing, all that kind of stuff. I'm loving it though! We currently have 21 investigators we need to somehow visit every week! I'd much rather be overloaded with work than not have any for sure though. 

So yesterday, I translated in sacrament meeting again. And I got complimented on my translating from one of the guys in the congregation, and I felt really really good. It's crazy that I'm 3.5 months in and I can translate between two languages. Everyone always asks me if I'm been to haiti, and when I tell them I have they flip out. It's a really good contacting tool! Sometimes I forget that I'm a skinny white dude from Utah. Like 99% of the area that I'm in is black or hispanic, so when I see a white dude it throws me for a loop! I LOVE speaking creole. 

I think that's about it for this week! Love you all so much! Pase yon bon ane! 

Elder Halling