Whitewashing and Greenies: The Missionary Color Code

 So thank you for all of the winter stuff, it's really coming in handy. There hasn't been any snow lately (I don't count 5-10 minute flurries), but it has been brutally cold. I'll attach a picture with the temperature from last night. (See that 2 degree mark?) It's currently about three degrees outside, and we've received severe wind chill warnings for the past few days. The boots I have are fantastic, and they must be like the best boots that you can buy, because people from the ward are always telling me things like, "Those are some sweet boots!" so thank you for those!

First off, I've got some big transfer news! I am whitewashing an area in the Naperville 1st Ward (if you don't know what whitewashing is, it's where they take both missionaries out of an area and put in two new missionaries, rather than only swapping out a single companion), because I was called to train a new missionary! I don't know who it is yet, I'll find out tomorrow at transfer meeting, but I'm super excited! This is really crazy though, because this is my 4th transfer, and it will be my 4th companion, 3rd area, and 2nd time whitewashing. I guess I'm just to much for President Fenn to handle, LOL.

The Smith family in St. Charles ward

We had a really good week here in St. Charles! Elder Morgan and I have been working very well together, and he taught some of our best lessons over the last few days. Last night, we were able to put James Minerly on date for baptism on March 7th, and we're working with Barbara to get her on date as well. She is a little hesitant on being baptized, but James has definitely received an answer to his prayers, and is super excited to move forward, so that's great! We weren't able to teach Tim, because he is out of town for the next couple of weeks, but we did email him a list of scriptures to read, because he wanted to learn more about the apostasy. We had a great lesson with Brother Weber on Sunday, where we had to be really bold with him and tell him that if he wants to learn, it's going to take effort on his part, he's going to have to study the scriptures on his own. He told us that the Spirit hit him really hard, and so he'll work on being better at studying.

Also, another cool side note: the Cannon family from Bourbonnais that Elder Olsen and I reactivated has two kids I taught that were put on date to be baptized on March 21, so hopefully I will be able to attend that as well as the baptism for James!

So I'm pretty sure I told you that St. Charles is a pretty wealthy area. Well, last Monday I had my first real experience where I saw money come into play. So a lot of the members of the ward own companies of some kind (some own real-estate agencies, there is a couple that owns a restaurant chain, some own their own health care practices, etc.). There is a member of the ward, his name is Brother Temple, and he's so cool, I love the guy. Brother Temple is the owner of a hearing aid company that has over 200 locations across the country, and his company is worth over $65 million (we learned that from our ward mission leader, because Brother Temple is too humble to say anything about it). They had us over for dinner last Monday, and it was EASILY the nicest house that I have ever been in: it has an entrance room with a curved staircase like you see in the mansions in movies, the house has about 25-30 foot ceilings, it's just incredible. He has a Ferrari, a Porsche, a Range Rover, and at least one other car, and he's pre-ordered next year's Ferrari already! I guess owning a business is the way to do it, because he says he pretty much stays home all day and makes a few phone calls and texts, so maybe I can do that someday!

I love you guys, and I really hope that everything back at home is going well. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you or for anybody else at home.

Much love,

Elder Dallas Anderson

#TheChicagoConverter