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
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