Cole Made the Weather Blog on WCIA!

Cole's letter this week talked about how bitterly cold it has been in Siberia this week. I sent a few paragraphs to Mike Prangley, the weather man on WCIA. He has a blog, and published my email in its entirety! Check out the February 4, 2009 entry. I especially appreciate his note at the end!  (The blog is at http://lotsofbarkandbiteinyourforecast.blogspot.com/)

Mike says,

I look forward to seeing you soon and if you need an uplifting story to help make you feel warmer here is just the one, all the way from SIBERIA!

Hi, Mike,

I thought you might be interested in this. My son, Cole, is doing missionary work in Russia and is currently located on the western edge of Siberia. Here's something he wrote me via email this morning; I've highlighted the weather portions but left some of the other to give you some context.

Needless to say, I am glad we don't get these kinds of temperatures!! (And having a son in Siberia is good impetus to pray!! LOL)

Lynn Isenbarger

West Lafayette

--

I got on a train to Surgut. It was about a 17-hour trip. It was a good opportunity to catch up on some sleep. When we left Tyumen, it was about -8 C. Upon our arrival to Surgut, we discovered a crisp -39 C. It was very interesting to be in that kind of cold. The thing is, our thermometer was showing -32, and the whole time it was off by 7 degrees. We didn't find that out until the day I left, and as you'll see, we made some dumb decisions based off that misinformation.

With our thermometer showing -35, meaning -42, we decided to go contact. We actually had a surprising amount of success. After that, we stopped a man who politely informed Elder Mizin that his "nose was about to fall off." We both were a tiny bit frostbitten, so we decided to return home and eat, and also decided that we wouldn't be doing that again if we could help it.

The next day was very interesting, too, of course. We had a meeting set up in a tiny neighboring town. We had to take a bus an hour outside of Surgut to get there. It was -45 C. When we got off the bus and Elder Mizin pointed to the house we were going to in the distance, my heart sank. It was only about a ten minute walk, but long enough to be colder than I ever thought possible. Especially because it was windy and there weren't any surrounding buildings to break the wind. We got there and the couple had decided they weren't interested anymore.

It was sad, but I left Surgut behind. Going out to the train station was an interesting experience. I was traveling by myself since I was the only one to come back, and seeing the platform at 1:00 am with NO ONE around was an interesting sight. When it gets this cold, the air kind of freezes in a way, it's like there is a fog. It's so cold that you can't see through the air well, or something like that. That and the platform at that time of night was a sight I won't forget.

I spent all day yesterday traveling home. The Palmers picked me up at the train station, and we went back to their apartment and they fed us. It was good.

I also wanted to say that you don't have to worry about the snow/cold stuff. It's been freezing, but I'm back in Tyumen and things are warmer here. Plus, even in the -45, I was able to be okay. It's funny to be constantly praying to be warm though!

Love, 

Cole

Thanks Cole and Lynn. There have been a few complaints about our rough weather to our weather team over the past week. But after reading this I cannot see how anybody would complain. We can all be thankful for today's high near 12. Yes, it could be a lot worse and now we are getting ready for 40s and 50s in the seven day forecast. We look forward to hearing more of your intriguing stories here on the weather blog. Keep in touch, and if we could we would send you some of our warmer weather.