After going MIA randomly I am back to the blog! Yes I know it has been forever since I have been on here and it has been a little weird being out of the updates on what is going on here in the amazing place of New York!!
So it has been since late January that I have made any updates and a lot has happened since then! But to some it up quick...lots of snow, snow shoveling, driving in the snow and cold cold cold! The good news is that it has been so much fun this winter season being able to serve my fellow New York neighbors!
I have had so many opportunities to be able to get to know people by helping them get their car out of the ice wall that was made by the snow plow going right by their car and making it almost impossible to get out! I have been able to push and shove and use a pick ax on some serious ice helping people get unstuck from the snow as well and let me tell you it is quite the endeavor but way fun!
I love being able to do service! It really is the best thing ever. I am so grateful to be a missionary where that is what I am here to do everyday. It is pretty awesome I must say! :)
Let me share one story with you...
So Elder Hooper and I get a call one day from a member of the church in Rego Park asking if we could help her friend to clean her car off form the snow. It had snowed a couple of days earlier and it hadn't snowed too much and so we figured it would be a five minute max project. So we thought okay sweet! Easy we will get this done super quick! I mean we were becoming quite skilled at this I must say :) So we headed over to where this lady lived and she told us on the phone that she was not home from work yet and that she was in traffic, so we figured, okay we just need to know what car it is and we will get it taken care of right? Wrong!! So she told us what car it was and the license plate number and after an epic search we finally found it! We assumed that it would just be parked in her driveway, yeah well it wasn't. It was one of those cars that got stuck from the snow plow and it wasn't going anywhere any time soon. The problem was is that a few days before the most recent snow it snowed soooo much! But soooo much like a little over a foot but not too bad haha! So we got out of our car and went to work! Bad news was is that the snow after like a day or two turns to straight ice because at night in the city it was getting down below 10 degrees so everything was frozen solid in the morning! Yay! Fun! So we went at it and finished in about 30 to 45 minutes! So not too bad really which was great! The best part was that it was so much fun doing it! I have no idea why but I really love shoveling snow haha. Everyone else from Utah thinks that I am crazy...maybe I am. Or maybe I just haven't had to shovel snow my whole life as well so that could be a reason too! :) But nonetheless I love it!
So after we had taken down that project we called the lady to tell her that we were done and that we were leaving to go, she said to me on the phone, "No! You do not leave! I am coming here in five minute! I be there in five minute! Stay and wait for me!" I began to tell her that we had to leave becaus we had to be at the church for a meeting and we were already late and she just said "No! I be there soon! Stay!" So I figured okay five minutes then haha. Then in the mean time there was a guy who had one of those vans that are like the size of a bus that was suuuuuuuuuuuuuper stuck in the snow, well more like deep ice at this point and he had been going at it trying to get his van out for the whole time that we were there getting our new friends car unstuck. So I said to Elder Hooper " We gotta go and help him, there is no way he is getting out of there." so we went! And man oh man was he stuck, and the worst part was that out shovels were nice but they were just hard plastic and when we went to try to shovel him out using our shovels it was basically like trying to shovel a brick wall....yeah not happening! So by this point the sun is almost down and I can't feel my hands! Sweet! :) And then this guy had a pick ax! Now that is what I am talking about!!! I was so pumped! So I took that and went to town on that ice! Still it was quite the struggle because if you know me I am the scrawniest weakest kid you know and my muscles can't do much, but I was trying! :) So after a good long struggle our friend arrived and went and looked at her car and came back to watch us help this guy with his can. After the van finally was free of the ice trap, which took a lot more effort than I realized, we were pretty tired! :) But it was a good feeling though! And our friend....lets call her Bagda, she said to us "Okay you coming with me now to my house so I make you food and so you can get snow off my driveway" and we told her uhhhh we gotta leave! Then again she said, (she was really persistent haha) "No you coming with me here inside my house so I give you food! [Oh and also she has this accent that I still have no idea where she was from...imagine a mix of Hindu, Russian, and King Julian from Madagascar, and that does it a little justice :)] So then we said okay we will look at your driveway. So we follow her to her house, and I am not even kidding okay maybe a little but she basically had an Olympic size ice rink on her street/driveway/sidewalk and it was like a foot thick! NO JOKE! Haha and the first thing I thought was, there is nooooo way we are going to be able to get this out of here! I began to tell her how our shovels were plastic and would break and there is no way the ice was coming up and then she sadly agreed that it was quite the project. Then for a last persistence she said "Okay now I going with you to Key Food and I buy you chicken! And I go with you in your car." And I was thinking...what?? Where did that come from???? Haha it was soooo funny though! Then we told her that we really had to go and we couldn't stay which made her kinda sad but in the end she was really grateful that we helped her out :)
Experiences like these have helped me to realize that I am so grateful to be on a mission. I get to have the craziest and the funnest things happen in my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am grateful that Heavenly Father can trust Elder Waidmann to run some service errands for Him. I wouldn't have it any other way. I know that as we love and serve others we truly do find ourselves. We create lasting memories and we as the people serving, are so much more blessed than those that we assist and help. I know that this is so true! I am grateful for the Savior! Jesus Christ is the best example of service to us all. He gave His life for each of us. This is true. I know that He loves us so much. He wants us to be happy! Sometimes we need to just relax, take a step back and breathe and look at all we have. We are so blessed just to be living. Life is a gift that is why we live in the present! Keep it real out there everyone and serve it up! :)
The car before!
The car after! :)