Mom,
Yes, we have snow now. It's probably going to be a while before it goes away too. Last Thursday, it started to get cloudy. Friday it started snowing. It was snowing pretty good. Every transfer, we have a deep cleaning day. Luckily we had the four-hour cleaning during the day on Friday. After that, we had just a couple set appointments, and we went out to work. Surprisingly, it wasn't too cold. There was a little bit of a wind, but nothing too bad. It was tolerable. When I woke up on Saturday morning, we had about 8 inches of snow. Friday and half of Saturday was a strictly no driving time for all mission-vehicles. Good thing we're walking. Most of the other missionaries around the mission just stayed inside for the snow storm on Friday. I heard that the roads were absolutely terrible. When we were walking on Friday night, I heard sirens constantly. Which is just a little more sirens than normal. 

I told you two weeks ago that we're going to get a visit from an Apostle and a Seventy on February 16. Sorry, it's actually March 16 that they're going to come visit. Today, President Jeppson told us that Elder D. Todd Christopherson and Elder Tadd Callister from the Presidency of the Seventy are going to come. That's going to be so exciting! I can't wait. I thought at first that it was going to be sooner than I thought, but that's okay. I can wait another month.

This week we helped a family in the ward move. They moved from the other Elders' area to our area. We have certain rules in the mission that we usually can't visit with members who don't live in our area. We can visit the Bishop whenever we want and only members on special occasions. So this family, the Castro family, lived just outside our area, now lives in the middle of our area. The mom is super nice and always wants to fix us food. We all love her Mexicans tacos, and she'll fix other stuff too, which is all amazing. Alan is her only son here in the United States. Alan has 3 other siblings still in Mexico. I don't know much about why they have moved, but we could tell that they've been sad this past week as we've helped them move. They're a very wonderful family. Alan is one of the strongest youth that I've seen. He's not really youth anymore because he's 20, but he's still very, very strong in the Gospel. He told me a story when his mom read some anti-Mormon stuff and started getting to her. She started to say stuff like the Book of Mormon can't be true. Then Alan told her to stop saying that, and then he told her that he knew that the Book of Mormon is true and that he would die for it. He's an excellent example for all the youth in the ward. Speaking of which, I've told some people, including Alan, to add me on Facebook. Could you add those people for me? Maybe you could list the names of those people who have added me so I can tell you who to accept just in case somebody weird that I don't know is trying to add me. 

I can't wait to see what color the fireplace is going to be. I had no idea that you hated that color so bad. That's funny! You'll have to send me pictures of it when it's done.
That's so cool to hear about the gun class! Are there more classes than that or was it just that one 4-hour setting? I can't wait until we all go shooting! I really want to collect guns. I think they're so much fun. So much power in your hands. Very dangerous!! But fun.. It's fun to bring things like bottles of water and little stuff like that with you to destroy. I've heard of people bringing their old TVs to shoot. That's a little over the top, so I don't think I'd ever do that. 

Unfortunately, I haven't been very good at exercising lately. I'm making a work-out plan for the morning. It's really hard to work-out at 6:30 in the morning. I can't wait until my exercise is going on a morning hike! Until then, I'm going to do what I can. I think I'm getting a lot better at waking up in the morning. However, I still think the only reason I get out of bed is because it's obedient. I think if I were at home, I'd still be waking up later. Hopefully I can break that habit.

I'll be looking forward to that package then. I finally got around to sending my camera. I sent it off this morning.

Q of the W:

1.  Have you helped the victims of Hurricane Sandy lately or is that pretty much done?

That's pretty much over. I still hear that people are without power and sad stuff like that, but as missionaries, we're back onto a regular schedule.

2.  Who was your favorite seminary teacher at PG?

That's really hard. I'd have to pick a couple. Oh man, I don't know if I can remember the names exactly. Brother Taggart one that I remember. There's another one that I remember from Senior year early morning. Don't remember his name exactly. But Brother Taggart was a lot of fun.

3.  Do the members in your area talk about or hate/love President Obama?

When I was in Plainfield, they talked about him a little more. That's when the elections were. A lot of members liked him because he was ''pro-Hispanic''. I did talk to a couple members who said that they've done a lot of research and they know that Romney would be better. I can't recall hearing anything about President Obama from Union City so far.

Love you mom! Talk to you soon. I'm at 11 months left now..-Justin

PS: I do remember Sister Dicou! She was way cool. That's so cool to hear that Stephanie knows her. We did talk a lot. That's cool to hear that Stephanie knows her.