January 10, 2022: A series of unfortunate events

 This week was WINDY and passed by SO fast!! I wanted to inform everyone on how productive we were, but I'm not sure what all we did! I do know that we laughed through every second of every day because of how unfortunate our week was.

It all started two Saturdays ago at 8:15pm when the windstorm hit. Yes, the backside of our roof flew off and the windstorm stayed throughout this week. We stayed at the Pace's home for 3 days. On Tuesday, we decided it was time to go home and clean up the debris inside our apartment. So early in the morning, we sneak out and lock their door behind us. We get in our car and IT WOULDN'T START. We realized that it has been three days since we have driven it and the battery froze. Since we locked ourselves out of the house, we decided to tough it out and wait for President Pace to wake up but it was -20 degrees and even our hot hands froze... we decided to humble ourselves and woke him up feeling very embarrassed. He fixed our car as well as made us a 5 course breakfast. What a saint! 

The next day, our battery froze again. You'd think they'd let us plug our car batteries in, but it's "warmer in the valley". President Pace brought our car to his shed, fixed it up, bought us a new battery, and fixed us another meal. They are seriously so kind!! I love them so much. 

Then everyone's power went out AGAIN on Friday night. It was only on our side of town. No running water, no electricity... We survived off of layering up clothes and eating some Oreos to stay warm. 

During church, there was a propane leak during the second hour of our church service!! Everyone had to evacuate. We sat in our car watching people run to their cars. The whole parking lot was a sheet of ice and the wind was blowing children and oldies away. It was pretty hilarious. 

If you feel like your week was full of unfortunate events... remember, God loves you and puts challenges in your way for you to grow stronger. He loves us. He knows what we need to become more like him. I know my "events" this week were little things that were unexpected. It is hard to keep a testimony during hard times! My favorite quote this week was, “I didn’t keep a testimony through those times—the testimony kept me". Because we have a strong testimony doesn’t mean it will always remain that way. We must nourish and strengthen our faith in order for us to feel Jesus Christ's divine strength. I know that by keeping our hearts close to the Savior will protect us and direct us as individuals and for our families. 

We were joking with Jessica Hutchings about chicken nuggets and air fryers last week. We came home one night to find a brand new airfryer and 100 pieces of chicken nuggets on our front porch!! Sister Jessica Hutchings is my bestie and when she did this, I was joyfully reminded of my good friend, Liz Robertson. Charity truly is the pure love of Jesus Christ, even if it is air fried chicken nuggs;)

The only way to find joy in the journey is to...

Choose JOY!

♡Sister Rex

(P.S. If you ever feel like you're missing something in your life, come and check out my church! Come and add more truths to the truths you already treasure:)

Pics:

-shoveling snow drifts with Sister Dungan

-Todd fixes our car, I stand on his generator. (I'm glad I wore leggings!!)

-me wishing I was a box robot @recyclingcenter 

-nuggs&airfryer