A Cold, Snowy Lesson

Well, the inevitable happened.  I’ve experienced my first big Wyoming snow storm.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a snow hater… It’s beautiful and I love building snowmen, getting in a decent snowball fight, and sledding; but I am NOT a fan of the cold and I dread driving in the snow. 

     I’ve had this not-so-secret hope that while I’m in Casper, the winter will be incredibly mild and we would only get little snow flurries… but after a foot of fell last night, I realized that’s not going to happen.

    And although I am not a fan of all this snow and the cold, I am so grateful for a little reminder it brought to me today.   You see, because this storm was so early in the fall and the trees haven’t yet lost their leaves; a lot of trees crumbled under the pressure--- taking the power lines with them.  So besides it being freezing and slippery outside, a lot of the city is without power.

     I hadn’t realized the degree of the situation (my apartment had power and seeing how I’m working at the hospital… we had power too) until a few hours into work.  You see, around 10 I began getting calls and texts and they’ve continued throughout the day.  While the wording has changed a bit from person to person, the message is the same.  Knowing that I live alone and my closest family is 300 miles away; several members of my ward family have reached out to check on me and make sure I’m safe and warm.  And before knowing I had power; many offered me a warm place to spend the night.  With each call and text, my heart was touched, and I was again reminded of the beauty of the gospel.

     The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a church that believes in reaching out and helping each other, and today I was reminded of this.  While I am safe and warm (don’t worry mom)…. Things could have easily been different.  And it is so comforting to know, that if I ran into trouble I have an army of people waiting to help.  So, although I’m not a fan of this cold, wet weather and I’ll be spending my entire weekend holed up in my apartment (there’s a restriction on driving right now); I am grateful for the reminder that came from the falling snow.  Even with my closest family hundreds of miles away, I am not alone--- I have an entire ward family here in Casper that I belong to--- and I am so grateful for them!