Crazy Stuff

Tons of crazy stuff this week. All sorts of shenanigans (or Chelan-igans as it were) have occurred so I guess I'll start with Monday. 

So Monday after we last talked our district (comprising of us, the sisters, and 4 elders up in the middle of nowhere) decided to go bowling. Apparently I'm worse than I remember. Granted Wii Bowling doesn't do much but still. It’s all the same game right? 

Tuesday went nuts. We provided service that morning at a local food bank run by the local Lutheran (we think its Lutheran?) minister and helped distribute food and such. My job was turning on a giant conveyor belt to move boxes up and down stairs. Very hard manual labor. Afterwards we went to a place called Manson Growers and saw even bigger conveyor belts distributing even more food. But this was just apples. Manson Growers is a cooperative up here that collects the fruit from smaller individual growers and then cleans, packs, and distributes all their food for them. The manager is a member [of the LDS church] and so he gave us a tour since a lot of our investigators work there or somewhere like it. It was a pretty cool tour. They even gave us a lollipop at the end. What more can you ask for? And then the day went bad. My companion was having issues with his leg and so Tuesday we found out that he had to go home to resolve said issues. The rest of the day ended up being normal transfer stuff like packing, visiting people one last time, all that good stuff. 

Wednesday was bitter-sweet. We got up at 5:00 AM to leave by 5:45 for a zone conference in Ephrata. The zone conference itself was really cool. Learned a lot. I accompanied yet another group for yet another musical number (I think there is a hidden network that lets leaders know who plays piano). And then after the conference is when I met my new companion who had come up with a stake president that morning. He is from Price, Utah and actually was in the Mexico MTC with me (we didn't know each other but he was there the same time). So now they've got two greenies running around Chelan and Manson pretending they know what they're doing. Always fun. After the conference we drove another 2 and a half hours back to Chelan... in our new Subaru! It is a nice car. Actually has some get up and go to it. I'm just glad it has cruise control to keep me at the speed limit. 

Okay I guess that’s only three days but still a pretty hectic week. But all good stuff. I'm super excited for this next half transfer and then hopefully the following transfer. Should be great. 

And now for the quote I am going to substitute a local legend (this is actually a true story believe it or not). 

So a family from Montana was driving along the road between Chelan and Manson (it’s got a cliff on one side and then lake on the other). At the same time another family at the top of the cliff was trying to corral a cow on the top of said cliff. But the cow not being a terribly smart animal kept running (galloping? whatever it is that cows do) straight off the cliff.... onto the minivan of the visiting family. Luckily no one was hurt (except the cow) but it definitely freaked out the family. Don't think they ever came back. 

And now to quote my High School government teacher (I guess you get a quote after all!) “That’s all for today folks.” See you next week!

Elder Kupferer

Another Week of Tracting

Well turns out that when you get doubled in, you do a LOT of tracting. As such, I don't have as many interesting stories for you all this week. But I did learn something new this week: it can precipitate slush. Not snow, not rain, but slush. It’s weird stuff. Makes driving a pain though. I've stopped counting the number of times we have gotten stuck thus far. Makes it easier. But our appeals have gone through! We get a Subaru Legacy Wednesday when we go to a meeting in Ephrata (another zone conference!) so hopefully that puts a stop to that. 

Also yesterday in Spanish Group Sacrament meeting, I accompanied one of the Hermanas (sister missionaries) and a member yesterday on the piano, with a grand total of 2 hours to prepare for it. I am now very thankful for all the sight reading I did in High School. So band kids, listen up: sight reading actually matters. So enjoy it. 

Other than that the only other interesting part of this week was Taco Tuesday at Cafe Rio in Wenatchee after a zone training meeting. It was nice having a little taste of home again. 

And with that, this week's quote comes in 2 parts. Pre snow storm the sign said: 

"In case it snows, we have sleds."

A few days and one snow storm later:

"It did snow. We have sleds."

Stay awesome everyone! Until next week!

Elder Kupferer

Snow!

Well, it’s definitely gotten a bit colder up here in the past week. On Wednesday, we were out knocking doors (because when you get doubled in that's all you really can do) it was a nice, brisk 12 degrees outside. Definitely made it interesting trying to talk with people when your mouth is frozen. But it’s finally paying off! Last night we got 4-5 inches of snow... and counting! Always makes it entertaining driving (more like sliding) around and up hills that you're not sure if you're gonna make it or not. Have had to push our car out of snow we have gotten in the past few days. Never boring. Maybe they will finally give us an AWD. Here's hoping.

So a lot of the times on P-Day (Mondays - the day we have to go shopping, relax, write cheesy blog posts, etc) we end up playing Basketball with other missionaries in our zone for a good portion of the day. After 4 months of that, I thought I had become half-way decent. Not good by any means but respectable. Then when I got to Chelan, a member has a group of guys he plays Basketball with at the local high school gym in the early morning, so he invited us and we accepted (because Basketball beats push-ups any day) and let me tell you…I have once again assured myself that I do indeed, suck at Basketball. But now I am playing with more people that actually know what they're doing so the rate of improvement should go up, hopefully soon. 

So I am convinced that one of the Gifts of the Spirit that missionaries get is the 'gift of expounding the scriptures.' Let me tell you why. Wednesday night we had dinner with the 1st counselor in the Bishopric and his family, and he asked if it would be okay if my comp and I split up so one could go to English ward and the other Spanish branch (they meet at the same time in different rooms) because he needed someone to give a talk. We said that shouldn't be a problem and then I (in my INFINITE wisdom) said jokingly "Well I'm the new piano player in the Spanish group so I don't think I'd be able to sorry." And he comes back with "Perfect! Cause we needed a speaker in the Spanish branch." That was a nice humiliating defeat. But back to my original point... we didn't have much time to prepare the talks so I turned a quote, two ideas I wanted to say, and four scriptures into an 11 minute talk. The only explanation I can think of is the gift of expounding the scriptures. Gotta love being a missionary. 

So that's pretty much everything new and exciting with me for the past week. But I will say this - we have to drive down to Wenatchee tomorrow for a zone meeting (again with the meetings!) BUT... there's a Cafe Rio down there! AND it’s Taco Tuesday! I can't even begin to describe the excitement. It makes driving an hour down the mountain for a 3 hour meeting totally worth it. 

And here's some awesome news. There's another witty sign up here! It’s outside of a variety store and so here is the quote from one side today:

"Warning 4 Days until Valentines"

And with that I bid thee all farewell until next week. Stay classy America!

Elder Kupferer

Lake Chelan!

Wow. This has been one heck of a week. I don't even know where to begin. I guess let’s start with Wednesday. 

Wednesday was transfer day. We met at a building in Kennewick at 1 and were on the road to Yakima by 1:30. From there I drove (with other missionaries of course) to a place called Quincy and then East Wenatchee. At every stop since it was a huge caravan we unloaded the trailers with all the luggage (at EVERY stop) and waited for everyone to get there from various places then load into our respective vehicles and onto the next stop. We got to East Wenatchee around 7:30 PM and from there I got to drive to Chelan. Since we got doubled in (we are two new missionaries to the area) they gave us the keys to a Corolla (not fun driving in the snow), an address, 6 Spanish Book of Mormons, some pamphlets, a dvd player and the training DVDs, and sent us on our way. After an hour and a half of driving through snow on a nice windy mountain road we finally got the address which thankfully was the right members. We unpacked and then went to bed. 

So now a little bit about the area. First of all, Lake Chelan is unbelievable. I'll try and get a picture next week because I forgot the SD converter but it’s gorgeous. Mountains and snow everywhere, the lake is stunning, all the vineyards and orchards, all the million dollar homes. It’s Amazing. There are three cities in this area, Manson (the north-ish end; the lake is 9 miles long so there’s only development for part of it) Chelan (the main city) and then Chelan Falls which is about 10 miles down the freeway. Since its a tourist town (or will be once it gets above freezing...) Chelan is a little bit more urban than Benton City but it's still pretty similar; there’s a little downtown area (that reminds me a lot of Orange at the Circle) and then a main road along the river to get to the rest of the homes up the side of the mountain. Google Earth it to see what I'm talking about. 

So the members here are just as amazing and generous as Benton City. When we arrived on Wednesday, the only food we had was some chocolate muffins from Costco the members we are staying with got us, tons of Hot Chocolate mix (my comp LOVES hot chocolate) and some See's Candies I brought with me. We were meeting with the Hermanas (sister missionaries) that were already in the area to try and get situated with who we were teaching and what not and we talked about how we didn't have much food and a member overheard so a few hours later he shows up at our doorstop with ridiculous amounts of food to survive us until P-Day (the only day we have to go shopping.) It was unbelievable. And that’s only the beginning. The members are just so supportive of us and the missionary work I could spend all day talking about it. 

The ward here is a little bit like Benton City; there’s the main ward and then the Spanish group. Thankfully it’s a little bit bigger than the Spanish group in BC so we can meet by ourselves and have Sacrament Meeting in Spanish for them. But guess what. Up until Wednesday, they didn't have a pianist. Yet again, my mom was right. So now for the next 6 to 12 weeks I get to play all the hymns for the meetings. Now I just need a piano to practice on at home.....

Anyways that’s the major stuff for this week. Since we are still running around like chickens with our heads cut off at the moment, hopefully this next week we will start to settle into the groove of things and I'll have more interesting things to write you all. No major quote this week but I'll still use the latest one I remember from the truck in Benton City. 

"Go Hawks."  'Nuff said. 

Later y'all!

Elder Kupferer