yep it snowed.  And I totally forgot to bring my camera.  The district leader had to do a last minute exchange with us to sort out some details.  We didn't have time to pack so I pretty much lived as Elder Gale for a day.  So I can't share pictures this week yet, but next week I should be able to.  The snow did stick to the ground.  It was an interesting day, I don't think I ever saw snow that fell from the sky, it always been on the ground when I see snow.  And then like, towards around 3 the sun came out, and it became a clear day.  By the next day, the snow was pretty much gone.  It was interesting.  
  We've met a few people that has health problems.  Just yesterday I remember seeing Shirley who always had back problems, and now seems to have knee problems.  She relies alot on faith, and she doesn't seem to want any medication or surgery done.  She seems to be pretty strong to me for doing that.

  This week we got to have the assistants with us.  Which was pretty nice, we learned a lot.  I found it interesting that both of their first names are Jacob.  So something that I can toot my own horn is my first name.  Jacob is a really good name.  I just finished reading the book of Jacob.  Chapter 5 is such an awesome visual.  The allegory of the tame and wild olive tree can be applied to our lives. I've been thinking about how I'm working in this Alabama Birmingham "vineyard" and how the Lord has been with us as we have labored.  These past couple weeks have been kind of discouraging.  We havent seemed to find much stuff to do in this area, and how we can help others receive blessings from missionary work.

  President Holzapfel went to a conference talking about the success each mission has received.  They shared some statistics about the number of baptisms.  A neighboring mission next to Alabama showed that after each year they doubled the amount of success in baptisms.  President Holzapfel wanted to know why, so he talked to the leaders there.  He found out that the area wasnt much different from ours, the leaders weren't better teachers, their trainers weren't significant, the only thing that brought them the success was that they said each missionary knew what their purpose was.  The missionaries knew exactly why they were serving a mission, so they exactly obeyed each rule for missionary work even if some of them seem ridiculous.  Something that I started to think about what they mentioned was that the Lord doesn't bless the missionaries with baptisms for their hard work, rather, the Lord blesses the mission with baptisms for the missionaries hard work.  Meaning, if Elder Osiemo would be doing all his best to be a missionary in Tuscaloosa, then their will be a baptism somewhere in Montgomery.  God always seem to be working in mysterious ways, and something that I've been thinking about is that the gospel is mainly about teamwork.

  While I was with Elder Osiemo yesterday, we were biking down a road.  Near a corner of the block, a car sped on through the intersection and the way he was driving he was about to drive right into me.  I had about a second to dodge the car. I couldn't fathom how close it was.  After that happened and my hands shaking, Elder Osiemo said that that was the prayers in the temple asking for safety of us missionaries.  Ive got into apprieciation for all the care for us.

  I still think about my family back home, and how much I want to be with them again as well as my friends.  I still pray for yall.

Elder Miklich