Starting Low and Ending High

 This week did not start off so great. So on Monday evening we decided to go knocking. No one answered, people went from on their porch to inside, got cursed at, and it just overall felt pointless. The following day we had 5 lessons planned. 1 o'clock rolls around, the first lesson is canceled, 2 o'clock the second lesson is canceled, 3 o'clock another lesson is canceled. So 3 out of the 5 lessons were canceled rip. Our dinner appointment with Duff was still good though. He made us lasagna and fresh apple pie. We got to take some food home with us as well! Duff is a little hard to work with like I said before he needs to see things in order to know it is true. Also, we do not know how much he will progress because it seems all he wants is friends, and not be taught. 

That night we had one final lesson with Jazzi. Jazzii has been in a little bit of contact with missionaries for a while now. We are in lesson three with her. As we started talking about baptism a tornado warning began to run throughout the city, winds began to pick up, people began to become loud, so if there was a time Satin was working, it was then. After it all got somewhat cooled down we continued to teach. Elder Elliott felt prompted to invite her to be baptized and she said…. YES. She is planning on being baptized on September 5th, LETS GOOOOOOOOO! When we put someone on a date for baptism, we send a video to our zone chat getting hype. I will make sure to attach that video.

Wednesday was an extremely frustrating day for me. One thing I will do throughout my whole mission is be honest with you guys. I began the day Facebook Finding and I was super successful, I talked to about 25 new people throughout the day which was awesome. Towards the end of the day after dinner we were about to head out to knock on some doors. I invited Elder Reynolds to come with us (side note: Reynolds does not like doing anything, he doesn't clean up after himself, he loves to sleep and do nothing, this frustrates me alot). Elder Candland was perfectly fine to come with us to preach by the way. So I was like let's go Reynolds, and he was like no, so me being the person I am I kept asking him. He then later said "you don't have the right to know why I don't want to go"…. This caught me off guard, but whatever. I still love the kid to death, I know he has such great potential as a missionary which is why he frustrates me sometimes.   Elliott and I left the house and began knocking on doors. We knocked for about 2 ½ hours. Not one person was interested. I began to get extremely frustrated. I believe that door knocking is ineffective, and Facebook Finding is what we should be doing because it uses our time more wisely. Elder Elliott is constantly pushing me (which I know I need) and is  persistent on door knocking everyday so I would love some encouragement about door knocking because I dislike it a lot.

On Thursday something pretty funny happened. Elder Elliott was parking the car outside our house and he saw a squirrel. His instant reaction was to try and hit it. He missed the squirrel and instead he nailed the corner of the brick ledge in front of our apartment building. This cracked the whole brick section up to the stairs. It was so funny. It left a dent in the front right bumper of the car, and popped the headlight a little out. He was stressing about reporting it to the Vehicle Coordinator Specialist. In the end, it was all good, he might get his driving privileges taken for a bit, and we might have the car get finesse from us to get fixed. Yikes. So the Bay City Elders could be walking for a while.

Friday was wild. We Facebook found all day and did normal missionary stuff per usual. At night we taught the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom to Jazzii. It was big hype, the spirit was there and it's always dope when someone says they will try and live those two commandments. Afterwards, we decided to go to downtown Bay City to take a photo for my profile picture. Right when we got there, the train thing that we saw in New Zealand that brings drunk people around arrived. So the whole squad of drunk people hopped off and came towards us. One girl flashed us mid photo, haha yikes. We did get some amazing photos with the drunk people. I got beer on my shirt and pants but it was all for good fun. Drunk people are wild. Don't drink kids.

I forgot to mention on preparation day I decided to print off a photo of President Heap. In the mission you will come to know there are a lot of simps. A simp is when a guy will do anything for a girl who he likes to please her. You just know what elders simp, it's mad obvious. As of right now, I have declined over 50 sister missionary requests on Facebook in our mission because I refuse to add them. No simping for Elder Clouse. So instead the joke is that we simp for President Heap. That is why I have a photo of President Heap put over my desk.

On Saturday I got my first covid shot of Moderna. I'm basically immune to everything now. The next morning my arm was dead. I could barely lift it. As of today, my arm isn't horrible, so moving it around in basketball will be good.

Chaos went down Saturday night. I decided it was time to trim up my hair and Elliott had a hair kit. So Elliott cut up his hair, then did mine. It was all good except on my left side it was a bit too short so we tried to fix it. Idk if it made it worse or better lol. While we were doing that, Candland thought it was funny to mess around with a lighter. He got too close to my armpit and he caught my armpit hair on fire. Candland found out that night that deodorant is flammable. No hard feelings, I just slapped some aquaphor on the burn. 

Sunday was Elder Candland's birthday YUHHHHH. We began the day heating up some of the homemade cinnamon rolls mom sent us. Delicious. We had a long day at the church, we were there from 10-3…. All good though. Towards two o'clock the vaccine started to get the best of me. I began to feel extremely tired and had a bad headache. But me being the amazing missionary I am, I took it like a champ. Came home and took some Tylenol (I know I took a pill on my own). I made Candland some chicken and rice for dinner, then later that night I made him a cake. I am the cook, maid, and head of the house basically. This place would low-key be a wreck if I didn't clean it.

Today is Elder Ernest Elliott's birthday. He is the big 1-9. We are celebrating his birthday in Saginaw (about 30 minutes from us) at Olive Garden with 6 other elders. We are like 300 miles over our given mileage for the month, but it's his birthday cmon now. The ZLs came as well. They are actually hype though which is kind of rare. My district and zone are awesome #MidlandZoneBaby

It has been another frustrating week as a missionary. We had probably 18 lessons scheduled this week and we only did about 5. Time and time again this keeps happening. I know that these are just trials being thrown at Elliott and I. We need trials to grow and develop, which is one reason why we are here on this earth. As all of you have trials in your own lives, the best thing you could do is turn towards Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's Atonement. He knows what you are going through. He knows how to help and what you need. Seek this in daily prayer, the small quiet voice of the spirit will speak to you. I testify of that!!!!

I love all of you guys so much. I am praying for each one of you everyday. I got some photos coming through on Facebook! I'll be on messenger all day, shoot me a text;)))

Another Howling Week in the Bay City

 Yoooooo what is going on guys. Another booming week in Bay City Michigan. The last half of my p-day Elliott took me to an outlet mall to cop all my winter clothes. Let's just say that I will be dripping out this winter. I think I spoke on this before, but Elli loves to freeze the room at night so i LIVE in my new north face jackets. On the way home we passed one of the only Sonics they have in Michigan. So of course we stopped and I got a large strawberry nerds slushie. 

This week went by so fast and I began teaching so many people from Facebook Finding. Facebook Finding is basically our door knocking nowadays. We friend as many people as we can, get in touch with them, send a video of what we do, then boom. We either get left on read, receive a huge paragraph on how we suck, some people reply with the answer "sure" (....), but there are some who reply with interest. I found this dude Tyson who is a chiller. He is this light skin 20 year old who lives in Pennsylvania. Tyson has strong faith, he says he's mad spiritual, and he wants to get baptized because he has not before. So basically I told him I know a guy that can help with that haha. We taught him virtually, but we will have to hand him off to the Pennsylvania missionaries;((((. The missionaries I handed them off to are Elder Christensen (YES the kid in my mtc) and his trainer. SMALL FREAKING WORLD. It is crazy how God works. 

Elder Bennett, a general authority, came to speak with us at a super zone conference. Three out of the five zones in Michigan came to the Midland Stake Center to hear him speak. We only had to drive 30 minutes, but others had to drive 3 hours to get there… lol that sucks. Us having the opportunity to have a general authority speak to us is a miracle, you usually only get one every year and this is the second time he has come in 2021. Elder Bennet said some fire things and also he said many things I can not repeat to spread rumors haha. It was from 12:30-4. It was a fatty long zone conference, but it was sick. I SAW JORGY. I gotta take a picture with Elder Jorgenen at the super zone conference. We weren't allowed to linger around due to covid and there was a general authority there which kinda sucked. But it still was cool being able to see Jorgy for the first time in Michigan.

We went on Facebook marketplace on Wednesday and got a free couch. It was mad nasty, but we cleaned it out and bought cool cheap sheets from goodwill. Our living room is just a couch fest, we can host the General Conference this year in our apartment low-key. Another thing about the apartment is that Elder Elliott and I are the only ones who do the dishes and clean. Since I am homies with Elder Candland, I roast him to do the dishes and he does them haha. I love that man. Elder Candland and I mess around too much and sometimes get Elliott annoyed lol.

I hit my month mark, LETS GOOOOOO. We celebrated by going to Buffalo Wild Wings and spending almost half the money we got for these two weeks. Yolo. We get 79 bucks every two weeks in our MSF, so missionaries gotta live off great value and you can only go out a couple times a month. Sometimes I am feeling myself and I use my personal card haha. 

Also, I slowly write my emails throughout the week so they will usually be long, sorry bout it. I'm about to tell you a huge tender mercy. So since I have been in Michigan, I have never gotten a stomach ache. BUT here is the wack part, I have eaten bowls of ice cream, multiple whole pizzas, countless amounts of chocolate, and so much gluten. Every night before bed I eat ice cream and it is not sherbert, it is amazing. Now I actually believe that I have been blessed with not being lactose intolerant and gluten free while I am on my mission. I LOVE THE MISSIONARY MANTLE.

I found this absolute GOAT on Facebook. His name is Duff Zube. He is a grandpa that lives in the boujee part of Bay City. Bay City is mad ghetto, so like a super nice part is an average place in Chandler. Duff received a book of Mormon from a set of missionaries 20 years ago, he read it cover to cover and no one followed up with him, so now we are. Duff loves history. He keeps asking us about historical facts on Jesus Christ coming to America's (Yes Taylor, He came there). We are like boi. You do not need facts to know it happened. You need faith. Anyways, he always makes us Nestle Toll House cookies and they are bussing.  We are expecting him to make a lasagna for the next meeting. This is a huge blessing because we are not allowed to eat with members unless an inactive or nonmember is present…. 

This email is FATTTTT, I am sorry about that, I don't even know if Mom or Dad will make it this far. This transfer Elli and I are making a goal to be more dignified in our language. So when we say frik, crap, dang, dope, shoot, frikin, etc, we have to do 5 push-ups right there. So we have now replaced them with more dignified words such as "blast, drat, jeepers crow, rattling, howling, and inarticulate." It is actually so challenging to use dignified language because we are so used to our everyday slang, but we are trying our best. We are going to be so dignified here in Bay City.

Saturday was a party filled day. Not much missionary work was done because we had a wedding celebration from 2-5 and a farewell ice cream party for a kid named Jefferson from 6-9. At the wedding celebration, they brought out a cornhole. Let's just say that I went off. I hit multiple cycles and nailed at least 2 in the hole everything it was my turn. I honestly felt bad for everyone, but that did not stop me. I went 6-0. At the ice cream party we played Monopoly Deal at the church. They got the newest version and all the cards are so boujee so it threw me off a lil. That did not stop me, I won again. My competitive side has not left me while I am up here in the 989. After the ice cream party was over we got to bring home the leftovers. Now we got 3 gallons of ice cream in our freezer, 6 liters of soda in our fridge, and it was all FREE!!!

On Sunday we had a scheduled baptism for an elderly lady named Barbra. She has been getting taught by the other elders that live with us. So at 10 o'clock they received a phone call from her saying she wasn't about it….yet (hopefully). It was a depressing morning for Elliott and I as well. None of the people we have been teaching came to church. Apparently no one wants to come inherit the kingdoms of glory with us. This past Sunday was the first time I gave an opening prayer in a Sacrament meeting. I passed. I am also planning on speaking within the next month because the ward has like 100-120 active members with 6 missionaries assigned there….I know SIX missionaries. The sisters that are in the ward with us are uhhhh nice.

All the people of Bay City are awesome, but a bit strange. Everyone lives off unemployment, retirement stuff, and the government. If there was a laziest city in Michigan it would be Bay City. I love it here though, I love being on a budget, I love being with all these missionaries, I love spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of things I can work on for being a good missionary and one of those things is being bold. When I was back home I never shared the Gospel, I never expressed the happiness it brought in my life, I never shared it to my friends at school, I never spoke about how I went to sacrament meeting, I never said anything. Looking back on it now I wish I did. Even in the field I struggle. Knocking on doors is so rough for me because people are usually rude and do not care, but when we get one follow up lesson, so much excitement comes. You never know who's lives you will bless with just sharing your testimony. There are so many crazy wicked people in this world that will try and convince you that our church is not true. But one thing I know is that no one can deny your testimony. Your testimony is one of the most powerful things you bring with you everyday.  SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY. BE BOLD. 

I took lots and lots of photos so I will send all the photos in the Facebook Messenger group chat. I am praying for all of you and I love you!!!!!!

I am NEVER Flying Again

 As all of you have heard by now, my trip to Michigan actually was trash. When I first left you guys and headed to my gate to fly out to Chicago, we boarded on time. Then we went out to the runway and chilled for an hour. The pilot was so beta and was scared to take off due to weather in Chicago so we DEPLANED. We deplaned for about an hour, then we boarded up to dip. We finally took off and I was on my way to Lansing. I landed at 2:45 and the fight with 16 other missionaries left at 2:40, so I could not see jorgy AND I was all by myself. I was stressed, I was texting mom and asking people to use their phone and they all said no…. People do not like missionaries in the Chicago Airport. I was starving and I had to wait in a two hour line to get my plane ticket. I got that and headed to grab some knock off Panda stuff. Now onto the fun stuff.

I boarded the plane to Lansing at 9 pm. Turns out that the weather began to pick up. So we sat in our plane for 2 hours because I had another beta pilot. We took off at 11 pm and this plane was tweaking. It was the smallest plane ever, I was terrified. We took off and there was lighting everywhere, turbulence the whole time, and since the windows were open the inside of the plane was lit up due to the amount of lighting around us. Turbulence was so bad that luggage began to fall out. I prayed about 40 times saying if I get off this plane safely I will not fly again. We were 5 min out from landing in Lansing and we TURNED AROUND. The weather was so bad in Lansing that the pilot was forced to. So the way back was even worse. More turbulence, more lightning, more feeling like imma die. We finally landed in Chicago at 1:30 am. Then I met the Schwartzes.

The Schwartzes were an elderly couple that worked in the mission/institute office. They were sent from God no doubt in my mind. They clutched up and got me the same hotel as them and they kinda took me in. When we were driving to our hotel, we taught the taxi driver about our church and we got his number/Addy to send him a BOM. We got to the hotel at 2:45 am and went to bed.

I woke up around 8:45 to Sister Schwartze waking me up to go to IHOP. That was delicious because I have not eaten since the Panda I ate around 5. It was bussing. We taught the manager about what I do and the church, so we got his Addy and phone number to send missionaries. We got to the airport at 11:15 am and we found out Sister Rogers (not the one in the mission office) , an old sister who is friends with the Schwartzes and she was the old mission office lady, is driving 5 hours from Lansing to Chicago to pick us up. So we sat at the airport for 4 hours until 3:30 pm when Sister Roger's got here. Funny side note: I could've gotten on a flight at 1:30 pm, but brother Schwarzte wanted me to drive with them so bad so he said no lol… rip. We now began driving. I wanted to nap and brother Schwarzte would not stop talking so I stayed up to talk to him. He was extremely grateful I did that so I'm glad I did. We got to Lansing at 8 pm… 39 hours later from going into the airport.

The APs, Sister and President Heap, my trainer, the elders I live with, and the Roger's were outside holding up a sign for me. It was hype, I was so excited to be there, they showed me so much love. This is where I met my trainer Elder Elliott. I call him Elli, but he is so awesome. Extremely great example and that kid pushes me so hard. I also live with Elder Candland who lives in Gilbert and Elder Reynolds. Candy (Candland) and I get along very well and he is a lot like Ryker haha. We then traveled 1.5 hours to Bay City, and we got there at 10 pm. LETS GO!!!!! Elder Elli likes to keep the room so cold throughout the day and I hate him for it. Also, I went to the store to buy this SD card for my camera so it goes straight to my Google photos. I have so many! I Love PHOTOS!!!!

I have witnessed many miracles already. We taught a man named Patrick the last three principles of lesson 5 and we are meeting with another girl named Jazii who has a high chance of becoming a member. High hopes for two baptisms coming soon. Patrick also came to church for the first time after being taught for 9 months… that is a miracle. 

Another thing I wanted to touch on how broke missionaries are. You get 79 bucks every 14 days to use for groceries, laundry, and food. It is so lit haha. We need gift cards to place high key. Here is a list I sent to mom: Buffalo Wild Wings, McDonald's, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Sonic, Walmart, Little Caesars !!!!, Subway, Panda Express, Wendy's, Culver's, KFC, and Dairy Queen.  That is for future reference;)))). We do Little Caesars Friday and we call it ''Little Claesars Friday" (yes little CLaesars) and it is so good. I love pizza. 

On my first p-day we went to the midland stake center and I beat 6 foot 4 Elder Elliott 13-11. I am bringing it Boi. I think we are also going bowing later which is hype. I also played a game of 21 with them and I smoked them with threes. Both of them are actually good. I just played better.

Just wanted to say that I love it here and I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I know I am supposed to be serving the Lord and bringing you all blessings. I will be on Facebook messenger all day and I am bad at replying so bare with mel. I am praying for you and I love all you guys. 

                                                     Elder Elliott, my trainer/companion

Lansing Here I Come!

This was the best week of the Home Missionary Training Center ever. I got to fly up to Utah and meet Elder Jorgensen and Elder Moore, aka the two best elders ever. It is so crazy how I met them three weeks ago and now I feel like they know me best. 

We went to Elder Jorgy's church from 12-2. Elder Jorgensen is Elder Jorgy in case you might have been a little confused. It was a fast sunday so me being the missionary I am I had to fast. Growing up we all fasted until 12 pm, and now that I fasted until 4 pm I can say that fasting is will be a challenge during the mission. During the testimony meeting I was watching everyone go up and I just felt like I needed to go for some reason. So I went up there and just shared a short testimony and I just thought that was dope. Slight flex.

I had the chance to meet the Moore family. They are all so awesome, they were all so welcoming, all his siblings and I got along well, Brother and Sister Moore as well were even extra awesome. Sister Moore made us breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday I was there. Brother Moore and I always roasted each other because I would talk crap on how he was probably not good at basketball (we never had the chance to play so I can say I was better). A thing that just is so absurd to me is that Brother Moore is the creator of the ESPN NBA theme song. Like whattttttt. He was showing us his projects and it is so mind boggling on how talented that man is with any instrument. I also got to meet the Jorgensen family and they were so sweet and loving to me. Brother Jorgy smoked Ribs and Tri-tip on Sunday, and Dad you got some competition. Brother Jorgensen did say he doesn't know how to cook a brisket welI, so of course I had to hype up Dr. Clouse saying how amazing he is with the Green Egg. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to meet these two families. 

All of the classes this week went by really fast and the time I was in Utah went by too fast. The whole week we went to VASA before every class. I am a VASA bro now. They did push me a lil too much because we did legs on Monday and I am still sore as I am writing this email. Every class this week was just practicing teaching and reviewing. So we did not really learn anything new. I can say I am ready for the field, but I also am not. I am sad that I wont see my district anymore, but am stoked to meet more dope missionaries in the field. 

On one of the nights we met up with almost our whole district. I got to meet 7 out of the 11 members in our district in person. We went to Classic Skating and missionaries skate free in Utah which is lit. After skating we went to PF Changs to munch on some food and this concluded the night with our district. All of the elders and sisters were super chill and laid back. The running joke in our whole district is that I do not understand anything and I am immature because I am the only one who is 18. But in their heads they are thinking I am the shortest youngest, yet MOST AMAZING missionary ever.

Time for spiritual thought. Elder Moore was sharing the final opening scriptural insight at the beginning of class and he shared a talk from President Monson. It was the talk Dare To Stand Alone. In the concluding parts of it, Monson says," Dare to be a Mormon. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known." This quote is so legendary. You guys should all watch the Gospel video that goes with it because it is so powerful. Standing up for our church in this day and age is needed. Always Always Always make the gospel of Jesus Christ known. 

Going Through The Motions...

Well howdy everyone. I was talking to dad today and I was like Idk how to make another fire email this week because I did not do anything crazy, but here we go. 

The week went by slow and fast. Every other day was exciting. Monday was just a boring class, playing basketball, and going to sleep. On Tuesday I got to go out to eat for mothers birthday, which was pretty epic. On Tuesday we planned my flight out to Utah which was also pretty cool. I am stoked to go up and mix it up because everyday from 11:30-1:30 I sit around, FT some of you guys, and take a quick cat nap (I of course do personal reading too). I am glad I get to see my companion and basically my whole district because who doesn't live in Utah. 

Another highlight of my week is going on my district call at 7pm everyday. I am in charge of it, so I gotta take one for the team and do it. From what I have heard, most of the elders and sisters look forward to talking to each other every night. Elder Jorgensen, Elder Moore, and I are like a lowkey power trio. We have a group chat and we always message each other. I love both of these elders very much. Elder Jorgensen and I message each other on our computers during the meeting while we are bored. I know it is sometimes distracting, but sometimes it is needed for a talkative person like me. When we two are in breakout rooms and during our comp study, we both lose our patients after about an hour so we just chat it up. Us two know each other so well, homie could probably be brooki. I'm just kidding brooklyn, no one could replace you;). 

Funny story happened while I was in Brother Dewberry's class. As a joke I pulled up clash of clans while I was in a breakout room with some of the elders. I didn't play it, I just pulled it up to show my sick base. Brother Dewberry joined in and was like "elder clouse, elder clouse, why is clash of clans showing (lowkey laughing)." I asked him if he ever played and he did lol, so we were all chilling from there. I love bro dewberry, I can joke with him a lot. He said he reminded me of one of his close buddies, so I guess you can say I am in. 

I popped my rib out of place while playing ball with Weston. No worries it was not a huge pop out, just a subtle one. It just was a sharp pain in my back, so mom being the queen that she is, took me to the chiropractor office and had me fixed up. I am back balling up in basketball and playing golf like Tiger Woods. 

Now it is the time that most people skip over except mom and dad. The spiritual thought. Elder Christensen was sharing a verse and his testimony on Wednesday that really stuck out to me. Alma 26:37 starts off with,"Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth." During class I was all jittery because it was a Book of Mormon study/share and people in my district know this is not my favorite part of class. But when Elder Christensen started speaking I stopped and I started to listen more intently. He went to then speak on how God knows each one of us and loves us. This thought he shared was so small, yet so powerful. I can testify to all of you that God loves each and every one of you. He is always listening. Turn to Him. 

Love, Elder Clouse

                                                    Elder Jorgensen and Elder Gray had some near perfect timing.

                                    Here is me in my new lulu lemon shirt. I now officially look like I am a missionary

This is when I was selected to be a "Karen" during a Judge Judy themed lesson. I was in charge of bringing questions about faith to stump the other "jurors" (missionaries) on the stand.