The Holy Ghost Saved My Pants

Tuesday was one for the books. My first real transfer day on the mission. This means I had to say goodbye to Candland.  I love that man and he made our apartment one to remember. We left for Mount Pleasant to drop off Candland. We got B-dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) again for the third time this week. Good thing I got blessed with gift cards thanks to Jen Dog and Becky. Around 12 o'clock the transfer van pulled up to the church to pick up the missionaries leaving and drop off the missionaries coming. There were a handful of missionaries there because the whole Midland and Traverse City Zone was there. It's always good to meet new elders, not sisters because I ain't no simp. We met the new missionary replacing Candland. His name is Elder Eccles. He was trained in Bay City and now he is dying off in Bay City, what a way to go out. He seems like a nice guy and we will all get along in our apartment. We then headed back home to Bay City to get back to that mission grind. 

It's time to talk about Uriah Mueller. Uriah is a man I found off Facebook and I can't even describe to you how elect this man is. He was in Bay City homeless, but now he is currently in Arkansas due to escaping the government or something. We have done a couple video calls with him already and we met him four days ago. During the restoration lesson, he began to speak about Melchizedek in the Old Testament. We're like bruv we got something to tell you. Talked to that man about the priesthood. We then contacted missionaries in his area to get him a Book of Mormon ASAP. He received a book of Mormon on Tuesday at 3 o'clock. When we met with him at 6 o'clock he had already read the introduction, all of the testimonies, and the first three chapters of Nephi. This man is elect. The elders that dropped off the BOM told us that when he received the book he said, "I haven't even read this book, but I already know it's true." Legendary. The Arkansas elders are going to dunk him in no time. I love Uriah so much and we only met him a week ago. It's going to be a depressing day when we have to pass him off.  

This transfer I'm low-key the senior comp. I'm just playing, but I now am the designated driver as well as the person with the SIM card. Having the SIM card is rough because you are in charge of calling and texting everyone. It blows, but it is good practice for me. It definitely is smart to have me do this because most elders don't even know how to use the SIM card because they have always been Junior Companion. Elder Clouse and Elder Elliott are built different. 

Wednesday was exhausting. We had seven lessons planned throughout the day and 6 of them happened. Yessssirrrrr. Also, it dropped below 50 during the day so the sweaters were brought out. Hey Alexa, play Sweater Weather. It has been raining almost everyday this past week, I have never seen a place have such dramatic weather changes in such a short amount of time. If there was a most bipolar state, it might be Michigan. The weather is getting colder and I am not ready.  

More clothes are entering my closet. A member in our ward has a neighbor whose husband recently passed away. She asked if there was anyone that would want her husband's suits and trench coat. The member (Sister Waibel) said that the missionaries for our church might want them. We stopped by and literally grabbed everything she had because she told us to take it. I will probably not use any of the suits, but I am going to use a trench coat. Elder Clouse in the Mafia pulling up.

Thursday was a day from heaven I kid you not. This was such a miracle filled day. Starting with the first. Jazzii, the girl we put on date for baptism reached out to us after not being in contact with us for over three weeks. MIRACLE. Our next miracle was with Patrick. Patrick's baptism was coming up and he was concerned with a lot of things. He reached out to us and we immediately came over to his apartment to clear up his concerns. MIRACLE. So glad he has decided to enter the covenant path. This one might not count as a miracle, but it is a tender mercy. This one is about the trench coat Sister Waibel's neighbor gave to us. Not a miracle, but TENDER MERCY. We came home and miracles were still coming. We had the chance to video call Uriah the homeless dude from Arkansas. It was a sad, but exciting lesson. He no longer will be meeting with us, but will now have the chance to be taught in person. We handed him off to the elders in Russellville, Arkansas. Uriah is so ready to take on baptism, you can see the fire in his eyes. It was a MIRACLE how I found him on Facebook a week ago.  Another tender mercy was that Seth sent me a hardcover copy of the book Saints and it arrived safely to my apartment. TENDER MERCY. The final miracle was on Facebook. A man named Nick hit me up out of the blue. It turns out Elder Elliott has been trying to get in contact with this man for over two months. It was insane how HE reached out to me. MIRACLE. It is so amazing how I can see the Lord's hand in my life. As I have said in every previous email, I love this work!!!

I spoke on Uriah earlier in this email, but on Thursday we had to hand him off.  We took a photo with him and the other elders over video call (it's a lil janky), but it works. I will miss that man because he ate up everything we taught him. We gave him chapters to read in the Book of Mormon and within an hour he would text us saying how much he liked it. He has had a lot of trails in his life and he texted us yesterday saying, "The Book of Mormom will no doubt save my life." Imagine how happy us elders were when we heard that man say that. I love Uriah. 

Mom was kind enough to send me two packages sent from home, a night light, and a Tillys bag. I am so blessed. I love you mom. I felt like a boy on Christmas morning with all the stuff I got. We got that pumpkin spice scent thing as well and now our apartment smells BOUJEE. 

Patrick got DUNKED. On Saturday we held the baptism at 2 o'clock. Patrick was so ready for baptism, he has been being taught since February. We did take pictures, but Patrick does not want them posted on social media so the ones I send with him in it don't post them anywhere. You can post the ones he isn't in. I had the opportunity to do the laying on the hands (giving the Holy Ghost). I have only really given two priesthood blessings, so I was a little anxious. But I put trust in the Lord and all went well. 

After the baptism I got my second dose of the vaccine. I was wiped on Sunday. I basically had a fever, but that don't stop Elder Clouse from grinding. And of course we still woke up and cleaned. Our house was the most disgusting it has ever been before. The other elders apparently don't know how to pick up after themselves. Anyways, I got the Moderna vaccine, if I die at least I followed the prophet. 

The quote of the week

"Just don't." -Elder Elliott

This quote is a funny one rather than an inspirational one. We are currently running our ward mission page because we were assigned to do so. The responsibilities for that are we have to message back and forth with people who message the missionary ads. We had a person reach out to us to help him with some addictions. He began texting us rather frequently, but as servants of the Lord we have to be friendly and kind. He talked about how he continues to fall into temptation. When Elder Elliott read this to me he looked up and he said,"How do people fall into temptation? Just Don't." It was so funny because he honestly meant it. Ah Elder Elliott.

Now to why I named my email how The Holy Ghost saved my Pants. It all goes back to the beginning of Saturday. We decided to fast until after the baptism so my stomach was not having it. Right after the baptism was complete we ate some sandwiches then headed to get my second dose of the vaccine. My stomach was chilling by now. We then headed over to Brother Rase's house to go do some service for his inactive mother. Afterwards we decided to share a spiritual thought. We entered the home and it hit me. The Rumblies. I thought, "what am I going to do?" I then said a prayer in my heart that it would go away until after the lesson concluded. It immediately went away. We drove 30 minutes home. I kid you not, right when I entered our bedroom I had to run to the bathroom because it was Pierre dogging hardcore (sorry for the TMI). This was how the Holy Ghost saved my Pants. This actually strengthened my testimony of the Holy Ghost. The Godhead works in mysterious ways

This week I don't have a specific spiritual thought. I have been reading the President Nelson book,"Insights." I have read more than half the book in three days. Everyday from 7-8:15am I just read that book. Our prophet is literally called of God. I am so excited for the General Conference next week to hear from President Russel M. Nelson and the apostles. It is kind of weird because the final session of the General Conference ends at 10 pm here… WACK. No insight this week so just get AMPED for next weekend!!!

I love you all so much. You all know the drill, hit me up on Facebook and find time for me:)))

Can I Take A Nap Now?

 I know I already sent you the photos about going to the Christmas store, but I never wrote about it. On P-day the sisters wanted to go to Frankenmuth (a tourist town) with us and they didn't know the whole zone went to Frankenmuth last week so we told them we would go with them. We drove out about 30 minutes to this place and Frankenmuth is the home to the World's Biggest Chrismas Store. It was extremely hype. I have never seen so many Christmas trees and lights. This kind of made me so excited for Christmas. I get to see a white Christmas this year. LETS GOOOOOOOOO??????!!! I am not excited for how cold it will be this year. Since it was such a cold summer, they are expecting a very cold winter. I am not prepared. I am already wearing my gloves during personal study because it is so freezing. I'm going to be so ready for Provo.

Tuesday was the Zone Conference for this transfer.  It was so cool! Three out of the five zones in our mission came up to a place called Grayling. This was about 90 min north of Bay City. There were probably about 100 of us missionaries gathered together while we heard our mission leaders speak. After their closing remarks they fed us lunch! They fed all of us Jimmy John sandwiches with a fat amount of snacks. I thought that concluded everything, but then we gathered everyone and started hiking. We hiked about a 3.5 mile trail and it was so fun. I began getting to know a lot of missionaries serving in Michigan. We took a lot of pictures afterwards before we had to depart. 

The driving coordinator Elder Paul had to talk to Elder Elliott after the Zone Conference. So there's this thing in our car called the Tiwi system. It tells us if we are driving too fast, if we don't have our seat belt on, if we are being too aggressive, etc. When you get into your car you have to scan your Tiwi card so you know who is driving. Elder Elliott has been driving very poorly and getting yelled at by the Tiwi system in our car. Elder Elliott's driving report that was sent to the driving coordinator was yellow, which is extremely rare. This just means he better be super careful driving or else he will get his driving privileges taken away. Elder Paul handed me my Tiwi card which now gave me access to drive a mission vehicle. Since Elder Elliott has not been the best driver, Elder Paul has made me the designated driver in the companionship. Now I get to whip Emerald the Equinox.

This week for Elder Elliott and I was rough. You could tell there has been some contention between us two. During companionship study we decided to do a companionship inventory. Basically just talking about the problems that we need to work on In order to have better unity. This was extremely needed because Elliott and I have been really distant from each other recently. He told me some things that I have never known or thought about which showed me another perspective about him. Just another reason why we need to be mindful and respectful of everyone because we do not know what they are going through. 

The week flew by. On Friday we went to play basketball outside with one of our friends we are teaching. His name is Austin, he is so dope. He has been coming to church for like 3 months now and he hasn't wanted to meet with missionaries because everything is so new. Now we just began teaching him once a week. Slowly but surely. Anyways, we went out to hoop on Friday morning and I was about to win, buttttt someone came up to our court and started talking to us. I stepped aside and snagged his number/Addy so us missionaries could stop by. Sometimes you gotta sacrifice an easy W to preach the word of God.

We had the privilege to go mow someone's lawn this week. We thought it was going to be a small rinky dinky Bay City lawn. We pull up and there is a backyard, side yard, and front yard that needs to be mowed. Elliott and I cranked it out in about 2 hours. Also, there was a crazy amount of bees around us because there was a beehive in her shed so that was scary. Elliot and I are pretty scared of bees so we were running around the lot throughout the time we were there because the bees were flying around us. These service hours might have sparked my interest in mowing lawns. The nice lines and how satisfying it is when you finish it is amazing. I think we should ask Miguel for our push lawn mower back.

Another week in Bay City and we have been blessed immensely! Some of our friends are progressing and we keep finding new friends to teach. You will come to know that we have changed the word "investigators" to "friends," recently, I don't know why but it definitely was for the better. We stopped by an inactive member whose name was Sister Ramos. She invited us in and we began talking with her and her boyfriend about the church. Her boyfriend is now meeting with us missionaries and she referred us to another person. This person's name was Lorna. Lorna is an elderly lady who wants to come closer to God. She is progressing slowly, but she is! Sister Ramos, an inactive member, referred us to her boyfriend AND a new friend. Baptisms are coming next transfer, I find so much joy in this work! 

Right after I finished typing out the paragraph above we left for a lesson. Friday night at 6:45. We went into a lesson with Patrick. Missionaries have been meeting with Patrick for more than 6 months. Elder Elliott talked for the majority of the lesson. This was not because I didn't know what to say or how to teach, but my thoughts felt constrained by the spirit so I couldn't say anything. Elder Elliott later extended an invitation to "take a leap of faith" and be baptized by proper authority. He thought about it for 20 seconds as we sat in silence. He then opened his mouth and said how about next Saturday. The amount of joy that filled my heart is undescribable. I could've gone into tears of happiness. The love I have for our friends is endless, I am not out here to just have our church get bigger, but to bring joy and happiness into people's lives. The very first Saturday of the next transfer one of our friends enter into the covenant path. LETS GOOOOOOO. After every person we put on date we make a video to send it in our zone chat. I will make sure I add the video we made for putting Patrick on date.

Saturday was rough. Since the peak of our week was Friday we got hit with a lot of stuff that made us sad. Lots of lessons were being canceled, Patrick was texting us about concerns due to the baptism, and we received our transfer calls. Elder Elliott and I are staying together, but there Is a change for the other elders. Elder Candland is leaving up north and Elder Reynolds is staying. The new elder replacing Candland is definitely not someone we preferred. I thought they were both going to get wiped out and we would have a fresh start. Elder Elliott and I are pretty frustrated with all of it. This new elder will probably not help the Elder Reynolds situation and most likely encourage disobedience ._. I know this is like this for a reason. Right now I have a poor attitude about the whole situation, but I know it will change. 

Sunday was definitely a day that ended the week with a bang. We woke up and deep cleaned. Last week we sprayed the oven cleaner in the oven and forgot about it, then turned on the oven. It made our house so smokey and it reeked. So currently our oven still smells wack even though I cleaned it out again. Three of our friends made it to the Sacrament meeting this week! That was hype. This transfer we met and began teaching 11 new friends! That is so awesome and I am excited for what this next transfer holds.I have never been more exhausted than I have this past week. Grind. Another bonus about this transfer was how good we began eating towards the end. I snapped a photo and we are eating stuff mom could eat when she is cutting weight (I know crazy). We ate chicken, rice, broccoli, chicken Alfredo, rolls, mixed veggies, and I can go on and on about how nice of a cook I am. I still cook and clean everything so I am the "Magic Elder." Pray that I stay patient with all the elders since they make a mess where I clean.  

Quote of the week:

"Listen to the voice of the Lord instead of the voice of the world"

This quote was said by Sister Bednar In the Face to Face event held on Sunday the 12th, but Elli and I didn't watch it until the 15th. Sister Bednar do be spitting straight bars though. How I can apply this in my life is being an obedient missionary. There are a handful of missionaries who look down upon other missionaries who are obedient. This is exactly what Satan wants. He wants contention. He wants anger. He wants to stir up righteousness. The missionaries that do this are acting as the voice of the world. They are being an instrument in Satan's hand. The mission's standards, safeguards, and other key tools to stay obedient is the voice of the Lord. Standing up for obedience is extremely challenging because some of your closest friends in the mission look down on you. I can testify that being exactly obedient in your own life like the stripling warriors, will bring to pass many miracles. I know you guys don't have rules like how I have in the field, but the commandments are "rules" we need to follow. Not that you might follow, or maybe follow, or "it depends" follow, but EXACTLY follow. As you listen to the voice of the Lord rather than the world, you will be blessed immensely.

I love each and every one of you so much! I am praying for you. There are mad photos this week. Hit me up on Facebook. You all kind of don't text me throughout the day so #FindTime4Me

The Rise of Bay City

 We had a tornado warning on Tuesday. This is pretty normal to us now because this is the third or fourth time it has gone off since I have been here. We live across the street from the fire department where the sirens go off for the tornado warning so it wrecks your eardrums. Right when we heard it go off, we ran to go up to the roof. We did a little parkour to get up there and we got it. We are definitely not supposed to be up there, but I gotta live life. Elliott, Candland, and I watched the "tornado" come closer. A tornado did not come through Bay City, but there were some near us. When we climbed down we were being extremely loud and I thought we were going to get caught. We made it back into the apartment. As we were looking out the window it started to pick up wind speeds and rain. We had to go back outside. This time we decided to just go downstairs which was the best idea we could ever have. As we were heading downstairs, the resident manager was near the hatch to go up to the roof. She asks us "have you seen this latch down?" We were like "uhhh I don't think so." She later goes on to say, "Someone might have heard people up there!" We could've made an honest decision, but we decided to stick with our gut. We said "that is so weird, I think we heard people up there too!" I know we lied, but it was for the sake of keeping the missionaries on the good side of the manager. We got outside and it was hailing. Hailing in September. Are you kidding me? I'm going to die in the winter. Being the smart missionaries we are, we raced around the whole building because who doesn't love running in the rain.

Well after many weeks of not having stomach problems, God decided to humble me. Tuesday we decided to make an Olive Garden meal from the crockpot. It was a bust. There was so much cheese in it and I thought I would be chilling. I was so set and stone that I am lactose free for these next two years, but I'm not. We were out knocking some doors we felt prompted to and then it hit me. The rumblies. We stopped preaching by the way and headed home. I thought I was not going to make it, but I did. It was like the California incident in Mission lol. We are about to run out of toilet paper and we forgot to buy some on Pday so I guess it's time to finesse the churches. 

Wednesday was Zone Leader exchanges, it was hype. I had the chance to go with Elder Hunter who is a stud. He has been out for about 21 months and is the best. Since he was the first person to take me on an exchange he is known as my missionary Godfather. I went with him to the area he lives, which is in Saginaw. Saginaw is literally the promised land. The first door we knocked on this black dude let us in and we taught the full restoration on the spot. The man's name was Chevion and all he was wearing was a towel, which was funny. Elder Hunter and I had really good companionship unity which is rare. I know I won't be comps with him though since he goes home soon I was talking to him about transfer calls (which is basically a time where you figure out where you're moving, if you're staying, or who your new companion is). I know I am staying in Bay City for at least another transfer since I am being trained. The other boys in our apartment are going to get white washed (where both of them are swept out and two elders come in) which is rare. Big change is coming to Bay City and I know it ain't me lol. The speculation is that I might be in Bay City for at least 6 months, then dipsky out then, but only time will tell. Hunter and I taught another lesson that day and it was the Plan Of Salvation. I lead the lesson and it was fire. This was my first full Plan of Salvation lesson which was definitely pretty epic. This brought us to about 8 o'clock so it was time to almost head home. Elliott and the other Zone Leader drove out to Saginaw to pick me up and to drop the ZL off. Saginaw gets blessed with so much food from the members so Elder Hunter let me raid the pantry and take like four full grocery bags, bless the manz heart. We got home at 10:32…. I know I'm a bad missionary. If you are driving past 10:30 it will send a notification to President Heap, so Heap definitely got one from us. Overall an amazing day in Saginaw and now I'm back to my stomping grounds in Bay City.

Thursday was a weirdly special day for Elder Clouse. Everything In the morning was the same until it hit the early afternoon. During our lunch break we finished up eating and Elliott went to take a nap. Elliott was feeling a little under the weather so he needed to rest. I laid in my bed and I was about to take a quick nap because I was low-key exhausted from the service we just did. Right when I closed my eyes I felt prompted to continue to Facebook find. After I was on Facebook for about an hour we had a lesson. Following the lesson we decided to preach by the way. The urge and boldness I had for this work at that time was shocking. I broke out of my shell which was so weird. I began talking to everyone I could see. This was a turning point for preaching by the way for me. Now I look forward to getting out and about. I look forward to going door to door. A complete 180 from last week's email. Missionary work is flipping awesome. We set up so many lessons on Thursday with new people, big things are coming to Bay City! This week during weekly planning Elliott and I set out a plan we will execute throughout the rest of this transfer and the next one. Meal prepping. We might go broke, but going broke is better than getting fat. If any of you have cheap meals with high protein and gainz let me know. On Friday I made stir fry for the whole apartment. It was smelling a little dank at first, but it started to work out. It literally ended pretty fire even though we bought some knock off stuff that mom told me not to buy. Save ya monies. Living on a budget has taught me lots of things and one of them is that great value is not in fact great value. It might be considered good value sometimes, but overall average value.

Bay City is finally starting to pick up. Elliott and I are finding constantly. This week alone we began teaching four new people, that is cracked. This next week we are scheduled to at least pick up three more. Seven people in two weeks is nuts. Baptisms are coming next transfer. I'm going to become LeBron James with all these dunks imma be getting. Seeing all this success just brings so much happiness. This is just making me more determined to keep pushing forward. Miracles are coming to Bay City!

Word on the street is that big change is coming to Bay City. After calls with President Heap and going on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, Elliott and I have a solid idea about what is going to happen. As missionaries you try and predict what will happen when you get transfer calls. From rumors going around, we heard that the other elders are going to be white washed. White wash is just when two completely new elders come into an area and wipe out the old elders. This is typically really rare, but I think Heap knows that Bay City could be the most successful area. Him white washing the other set of elders here would actually be solid. Two sets of elders who are determined to work would be hype. Next email we will know what is going to happen to them.

Sunday morning was a cleaning day… Elliott and I made it spotless last Sunday, but in two days our kitchen was disgusting. The other elders do not pick up after themselves and it's rather frustrating. Today we had to tackle the bathroom. Mom spoiled us with a clean bathroom daily and so living with other people who do not clean is extremely eye opening. I almost puked on how nasty our bathroom was. I do not understand how hair could go everywhere. I was doing push-ups in our living room and there's just hair that comes up on your hands, it isn't hair from your head… Anyways I'm cleaning constantly just to keep the apartment somewhat up to par.

Mom sent me a package this week which was a highlight. She sent me a Bose speaker and some flannel sheets. The speaker was really good to have because I have been using Elder Candlands. I downloaded some mutual albums and other solid missionary music last week. Every night we play hymns while we journal so the speaker was needed! Thank you mom. Some songs we downloaded are other missionary meme songs that are world known in the mission field. One of my favorites is a song called Dear John. It is mad catchy and the song could hypothetically be my life haha. It talks about dating a girl in high-school, then she goes to BYU, then he gets dear johned on the mission. The elders mess with me about it a lot whenever it gets played and it's so funny, but it is just an upbeat fire song.

I've decided I think I will begin doing a quote of the week. This week was by Elder Candand: 

"Luke you do so many mom things," (as I threw the eggshells I just used cooking into the sink).

I am going to share a light spiritual thought in this week's email. I'm going to be using the scripture on my plaque even though Weston thinks it is basic. Philippians 4:13 

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"

Such a simple verse with the most alpha information. I saw this week that if I put my trust in God, miracles will come. Dad emailed me about how miracles will not come without effort. We have to put ourselves in positions to strengthen ourselves. We have to turn towards Christ and God during these times. YOU can do all things through Christ. We are nothing without Christ, we are particles of dust compared to him. Everything we have is because of him. Turn towards him because he knows what you need, my guy. He knows how to strengthen you. He knows what to do. He knows how to do it. We have to know that we are nothing without Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. Elliott likes to tell people,"Humble yourselves before God has to humble you." I know I struggle with being humble, but as you become meek unto the Lord, he will strengthen you.

I love you guys. I am always praying for you.

The Way Life Goes..

 Grab a snack, sit back, and relax

The remainder of my p day was so amazing. We got to go eat with some of the elders and zone leaders in our zone. We all went to Olive Garden for Elliotts 19th birthday. YESSSSIRRRRR. His grandma was nice enough to send a $100 gift card to Olive Garden to pay for himself and three other elders. I got blessed by my trainer. We were there for about 2 hours and you already know we got the chicken Alfredo. It was bussing. Right after we had to zoom home because we had a meeting in person with a girl named Margie at 6:30. The lesson went amazing. She is so elect, we can see her in white already. In case you guys are wondering, that means we can see her in baptismal clothes because we dunk her in all white. She was so intrigued about temples and life after death. So of course we sent her the most clutch temple video the church made. She said she would be interested about baptism, but she needs to learn more first. One thing you might catch on is that from 6-9 pm on pdays is grind time. I will not be texting that much because you are supposed to be doing missionary work, but you know how that goes with some people lol. I had this mindset that everyone would be super good missionaries in the field. That quickly shattered the first full day I was here…

Here's something I needed to write about because it is kinda funny yet depressing. I mentioned about two weeks ago that I have been in contact with a kid named Tyson that we were going to hand off to the Pennsylvania elders. Turns out he was just gay for me. Sadly this happens a lot to elders during Facebook Finding. I was a little depressed because I thought Tyson was elect, but instead he was just mad sus for me. It is all good though because I will continue to be diligent in my finding and not be let down when stuff like this happens. It's frustrating, but it's also funny because people are mad suspicious. 

On Tuesday we went over to Sister Andrews home for a visit. Sister Andrews Is an elderly lady in our ward who is a legend. Her husband just recently passed away five months ago, but she has taken it like a queen. When we asked her about it, this was her reply, "I know where we are going, we are going to the Celestial Kingdom!" I love her confidence in that. She also was kind enough to hand over all her husband's old suits to us. We went into her basement and tried all of them on. Each of the elders took a suit because they fit good enough so we could go tailor them. This week we went to get those suits altered to fit us on Wednesday and they were done on Friday. It was about 20 dollars to get them fixed up. They are really baggy on me still, but it mixes up my outfits throughout the mish! I finesse a nice brown striped one that has three buttons on the coat. I'm the next best grandpa in town. Grandpa Dale watch out!

One thing I also got to mention is that we love to cook up some goodies at home. We are cooking at least twice a day because we don't get fed by members and we are too broke to go out to eat. I am trying to master the Creamy Jalapeño. Elder Candland and I invested in the ingredients for it. The first attempt was a complete fail. We added way too much milk and it was depressing because we only bought enough for one batch. One week later we decided to do it again. Candy and I invested yet again. This time we NAILED it. I am becoming more like mom everyday. I did not have the chance to make stir fry this week, but hopefully we will next week. PSA: this is mainly for Weston, but do not take mom's cooking for granted. Right now I would even take crockpot meals because I miss food I don't have to make. I took mom's food for granted and I'm sorry about that mom. I will cherish it when I get home in 22 ½ months. I found out my coming home date. Set your calendars for July 23rd 2023!!!!!!! A full two year mission is ahead of me.

On Wednesday there was a high and there were some lows. We had three member lessons scheduled for Wednesday. As the day went on the first one canceled, then the second, and who would've guessed the third one did as well. As Lil Uzi Vert would say, that's "The Way Life Goes." It was another full day of just finding, sitting in our apartment and us going out to knock. I am working on how to fix my attitude about preaching by the way. I will master it before I get home. As we were knocking on some doors in our Area Book we decided to stop at this yard sale. We copped a Ripstik for 8 bucks. You hear that, eight bucks. That could be the high for the whole week! We probably won't use it much, but it was for the memories.

One of the nights this week I decided to sit down with Elder Reynolds and just talk about his life. Before I had this discussion with him I viewed him poorly, I was not a good example of loving one another. Reynolds doesn't like to be around us and other people. When we go into a room he leaves immediately. So I decided to chat with him and get to know him. Sometimes people need to just talk about themselves and Reynolds has not done that in awhile. He was into video games and when we began talking about them, he just lit up. I really have never seen that man be so intrigued and happy about a subject ever. I learned a lot about who he is, his background, why he is here, and what are his motives. This has made me rethink everything about him. I never viewed him how Christ would view him. He has struggled with things that none of us knew about. Rumors are always constantly being spread about him due to his actions in the mission field. What I took out of this is that we need to view everyone how Christ would. Christ has given everyone different gifts. Christ knows what people are going through, you however do not know. This wasn't meant to be a spiritual thought lol. I still have a ways to go in this email, sorry not sorry.

Had my first interview with President Heap…virtually. It was cool finally being able to talk with him one on one. I never had the opportunity to meet with him once we got into the mission field because you know the story. I believe next transfer we are meeting in person so I hope that is the case. I asked him some questions, which made me think of questions that I wanted to ask all of you guys. If I don't get a reply from you about this then I know you don't read my email…

How can I have better faith in door knocking?

How can I be a better example to other missionaries?

Am I communicating well with you all on pdays?

Do I still look good in photos I am sending home?

How is life at home without me?

You do not need to answer all of them. I was just curious if you had some input because being a great missionary is sometimes not easy for me at least. If you are struggling to answer one of these, that's just sad. I will appreciate any replies from these questions if you got this far on my email :)

When I was Facebook Finding this week, I messaged a mother probably about the age of 40. She was chatting with me and I sent the video of us talking about what missionaries do. She saw I was the same age as her son and she asked me if I knew him. I said I don't think so, but she said,"yes you do." I was like how??? Then she went on to say that her child had a famous vine that has millions of streams. She told me to look up, "the Crack kid" on YouTube. But of course me being the cultured man I am, I knew who that was. The crack kid was a younger boy on vine who would scream when he would get hit in the face by a basketball. I know society is amazing. I then compared pictures on her Facebook of her son to the video of the Crack kid and it was him. The Crack Kid grew up in Bay City, Michigan. So the moral of the story is that I know the Crack Kids mom and mothers will brag about their children in any way even if he is known as the Crack Kid.

Every night in the mission field is definitely the highlight of my day. Elder Candland and I mess around either wrestling, making a dessert, or just throwing a soccer ball at each other. Elder Elliott I think gets frustrated a bit when we do this. On Wednesday night he wanted to do areabook calling from the church building which was a little strange because it was already 8:15 pm. When we got to the church we had to drive all the way back home anyway because we forgot the list of people to call. I think Elliott attempted to do this to get me away from Candland so I do not mess around before 9 o'clock hits. When we are grinding for 12 hours, I think it's normal that I begin to lose my urge to do missionary work at night. I know Elder Elliott is trying to push me to be the best missionary I can be so I can't be annoyed at him.

I thought my face was gonna be chill since it has not been humid, but it has been breaking out. I am always washing my face and putting all the stuff on at night (Yes mom I used witch hazel) and it's rough. Hopefully my face gets used to it because I can't be fat and ugly when I get home. 

Sunday was long. I had to fast and you know how that goes, but it was my first fast and testimony meeting which was dope. When Elliott and I woke up we decided to start cleaning. Our apartment was so nasty, I hated it. So at 6:30 am we cleaned the whole apartment. I was not a fan when mom came in my room at 6 am vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom on a Saturday morning waking the kids up so I know how the elders living with us felt (I am grateful for it though mom). We deep cleaned the oven, stove, mopped the kitchen floor, vacuumed the whole house, and made this apartment look immaculate. I wore my newly "tailored" suit to church to impress Sister Andrews and she loved it. I decided to go up and bare my testimony about families. Seeing me bare my testimony in her husband's old suit put her in tears. It really touched me just because something so simple brought an immense amount of happiness to someone else. It was also kind of funny because Brother Andrews was an extremely spiritual man and was Bishop for a handful of years, so everyone wanted to shake my hand because they miss shaking Brother Andrew's hand haha! 

The other elders that live with us had a baptism on Sunday. It was for an elderly woman named Barbara, her being baptized is a miracle because it took her two baptismal dates to get dunked. She got cold feet a bit. This was an answer to our prayers! Also, update on Jazzii (who is on date for baptism), she told us she wanted to stop meeting with us for a bit because she would like to explore other churches. Hopefully she isn't just a spirit world referral and she decides to enter into her first covenant with God soon. Hey Alexa play the feels playlist This made us stumble, but missions aren't easy so you already know we got right back up. 

We didn't break our fast until 5 pm on Sunday, I am nuts. We had a meeting that ran long so we did not truly eat until 5:30. During our lessons I finally am beginning to be more confident and Elliott is letting me lead the lessons. I love this work!!! Candland was kind enough to make us dinner while we were gone. I prepped everything, but him cooking the meat was mad clutch. It was literally the best grilled chicken I have ever had. 

This week I feel like sharing about charity and prayer. In Moroni 7:47 it speaks on what charity is:

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Charity is the pure love of Christ. As a missionary I need to increase my ability to be charitable and serve one another. In the next verse it says:

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God… 

If you begin to become more Christ-like and charitable your prayers will change. Pray unto the father with ALL the energy of heart. Sometimes praying feels like a chore. It is not. Prayer is a testimony builder. Talking with our Father in heaven is not a chore, it's a blessing. We have all been blessed with growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, let's not take it for granted. Pray with all your heart. Pray out of the love you have for Christ. Pray that you may be filled with charity for other people. Pray and express gratitude for what our Heavenly Father has done for us. Heavenly Father has blessed me in the most beautiful family unit I could have asked for. I have two parents who love each other and are examples to us. I have four amazing siblings that continue to help me grow. I have awesome friends. I have been blessed to be around outstanding missionaries in the mtc and in the field. We all have been blessed with the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is all thanks to our Father in Heaven. Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you. Pray to Him like you have never prayed before!

I love you guys! I continue to pray for all of you daily. You know the drill by now, pictures are on messenger, and hit me up because no one talks to me much throughout the day:)))