Nineteen!

 The preparation day at Mackinac Island was a little anticlimactic. It poured all day while we were there and we were soaking wet the whole day with our district. It started to become sunny about an hour and a half before we left. We made the best of it. It was honestly really fun to be with our district walking around so wet. I don't regret visiting Mackinac Island, but I doubt I would go back. 

We started on absolute fire on Tuesday. ⅚ of our lessons happened and we were finding so many people to teach. God was just handing people for us to teach. It was 85 degrees and sunny. The UV was 9! Yeah! 9 in Michigan, let's go! We were outside for a decent amount that day and we were dripping sweat. It just felt so good knowing that I did all in my power to help further God's work. This was the most successful day in the Soo and it could be the most success I have seen on my mission in one day. There is no substitute for work!

Funny story coming from Tuesday. This is another story from our inactive friend named Thomas Downey. We meet with him once or twice a week. He opens the door this time and this 80 year old man was shirtless just chilling. He said,"COME ON IN!" A couple seconds later this guy was like,"Go do the dishes and take out the trash." It wasn't a question or asked if we would, but this homie straight commanded us to. As missionaries we can't decline so we just willingly did it. He's such a funny dude. We literally can't leave because he just talks, you try to control it, but you can't. God loves Thomas Downey.

The long drives are started to take a toll on me. We had to drive 3 hours back to back days, one of them being for the District council and the following day was for interviews with President Heap. We have to fill up so much. We feel bad using so much sacred funds for gas, but that's how it be. 

One of the days this week I attempted to max out on bench press. I hit 195 so easily and then I attempted 200 and I did it solidly, but Elder Fonnesbeck touched it a little so it didn't count. Kind of lit though that I'm still getting stronger. #GymEveryday

My interview with President Heap was fire! Love that man. We had a training on Thursday morning as well. Elder Fonnesbeck and I led a training to the entire mission on making and keeping Covenants. We got to entertain them for about 15 minutes. What made it more stressful was that we presented it 30 minutes before interviews while President and Sister Heap were sitting next to us. No worries though, God got us. 

The success this week is phenomenal. God continues to place precious souls on our path. We have handed out so many copies of The Book of Mormon that were meaningful. So many new people to teach up here in the Soo. A majority of our new friends this week are from this one trailer park that's 5 minutes from our apartment. It is literally goated! We are teaching at least 8 people in this park. 

Good miracle was that our friend Dawn accepted an invitation to be baptized on July 23rd! She was found knocking on the door a little over a month ago. She is amazing. The gospel will change her life. Also cool side note. Our friend Courtney, who Elder Millward and I found door knocking 4 months ago entered the covenant path through baptism two weeks ago! Are you serious?!?!?! Ahh I love her so much. She was a young mom with 5 kiddos. There were so many miracles that occurred when we were teaching her. God is so good. 

My birthday was good! It is just different since I'm not at home so it was a little hard. I made the best of it. Our branch mission leader made us dinner and bought me a couple things which was nice of him. Nothing crazy went down. We are having a laid back day since we need it. It feels like we haven't stopped moving for the past three weeks. This is the week to catch me if you want to reach out. I love you!

Wipe It Off!

 You all heard and watched our amazing video about what went down during our preparation day. I loved it! 10 miles is a breeze. The next day I actually didn't wake up as sore as I thought. I'm actually in shape!

Tuesday was exhausting. The start of the week is always the hardest. I do have to mention one hilarious story that happened at the Salvation Army to Elder Fonnesbeck. The Salvation Army gives out free lunch Monday-Friday and we sometimes go to check it out and say what's up to the homies. This one dude was talking to us and put his food on his chair. As he continued to chat he forgot about his food on his chair and he sat right on his Spaghetti. He turned to Elder Fonnesbeck with a thin napkin and said,"wipe it off." It was so funny, Elder Fonnesbeck barely touched his butt and was like yeah that's not coming off and walked away. It was a really big dude who smelt bad so I don't blame him. That's one for the books. 

This week we had exchanges with the Petoskey elders in Petoskey. Since we are about an hour and a half away from these elders we just both work in the area of Petoskey for the day with different companions. I had the chance to be with Elder Brycen Doman. He's from Washington and he's been out for about 8 months. We had such a great exchange, we were laughing, sweating, and furthering God's work. Elder Doman knows how to cut hair actually good so he faded me up good! It was about 85 degrees and sunny in Petoskey while we were there. It was also about 90 percent humidity and I loved it! I am such a fan of the heat, it feels good. One cool thing about Petoskey is that it is the boujee part of Michigan. The downtown area has literally everything. We went street contacting and it was so fun to just talk to everyone while we were there. I'm excited to serve in a more populated area in the future. 

Nothing crazy went down on Thursday. We did have a funny experience with an inactive named Tom Downey. He is the definition of an UPer. We were there with him for an hour and we couldn't even teach him a gospel principle. He loves to chat. At one point in the lesson this 75 year old man asks us a question in which I reply with the answer. Bro Downey gets all excited and yells,"YOU GOT IT BABES!" Elder Fonnesbeck and I could not keep our cool and we burst out laughing. We get a lot of good laughs being with this member. 

As you know, missions aren't always so happy and fun. On Friday we stopped by an inactive members home named Robert. We got to know him and then he went into how he doesn't believe in the Church. He claimed to feel the Spirit more not in church than anything else. He invited us to look into that… yeah okay. He then went about absolutely slandering the prophet Joseph Smith. You could literally feel the Spirit leave. I paused him mid conversation and told him never to to discredit the prophet Joseph Smith because he is a prophet of God. We had to get out of there because it was hard to maintain charity for this man. We felt so dull and empty when we left his home. It was very depressing and discouraging. Elder Fonnesbeck then put on the conference talk Safety for the Soul by our boy Jeffrey (Holland). This brought the spirit back and we went out street contacting downtown. Moral of the story: Joseph Smith IS and WAS a prophet. I will never deny this eternal truth. 

The morning of Saturday we were asked to basically mow, trim, and clean a whole front and backyard lawn. It was huge. The UV that day was about 8. We both got a little burnt and we were out there for about 3 hours. It was actually really fun though, I enjoyed it. Thr guy who we did service for whipped us up some burgers, brats, and chicken and expected us to eat it all. From tanning, to mowing, to eating, it was all good fun. 

For preparation day we are going to Mackinac Island. The ferry ride over is pretty pricey, but I have to check it out! We are planning on being there all day which will be so fun as a District. T-minus 6 days until my birthday! I love you all, reach out :)) #FindTime4Me

Get In The Arena

 Preparation day was very laid back past lunch. In the morning as you all know we did murph. I did it in 41 minutes and 10 seconds. I'm putting it in here so I remember my time for the future. When I woke up Wednesday morning, two days post murph, it was the roughest day. It hurt to walk up stairs, hurt to lift my hands above my head, and just everything ached. No worries though, we still worked out everyday. For lunch on pday we got some b-dubs together. After we returned home we chilled for the rest of the day and napped up. It was a needed day since we were exhausted by Sunday evening. 

Tuesday President Heap dropped some CHANGE in the mission field. We are no longer doing mission wide meetings on Saturday which is a shock. As well as for people in leadership positions now collect the key indicators (numbers from missionary about their efforts) on pday now. WHATT. This was the biggest shock to everyone. President Heap wants to prioritize Saturday and Sunday as a grind day. We don't sit around and we are out of our apartment preaching the gospel. Miracles will come, but it is just a change no one was expecting.

We had a strange interaction door knocking. We approached this door and her door was already open. Right when we knock she comes up and she says,"Oh no, I'm Wiccan and you better leave before I cast a Hex on you." After doing some thinking about it, we believe it to be she threatened us with a spell she could cast on us. We lowkey wanted to see what would happen if she attempted. You have to love the people in the UP. The nickname for these amazing people are UPERS pronounced "Yoopers," referring to the people who live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Thursday was the day of the zone conference. Since we were about 3 and a half hours away from Mount Pleasant we drove halfway Wednesday night and spent the night in thr Gaylord elders apartment. Zone conference was solid. We got Jimmy John's. We also heard a fire training from our APs which included Elder Tueller who we all know and love. We have to be IN the arena with Christ. The training ended with a video of them playing a Nike LeBron commercial. Locked in. The drive one was a little tough. It was hard to find the motivation to work, but we saw miracles. Found two new precious souls to teach and one of them being Tiffany. We taught her the restoration and the spirit was flowing in this room as we recited the first vision. How could I deny these eternal truths? God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ visited that 14 year old farm boy in 1820. Brother Joseph is a prophet of God!

So there is an inside joke up here in the Soo. One week last transfer Elder Fonnesbeck emailed him this, "The Soo will increase. That is The Lord's will." So that is what we say whenever we are out and about door knocking, finding, or at church. It will increase. We say it so much it just hypes us up. We heard news that three new families are moving up here. One is a set of elderly parents and another is a young family with four kids. All are active! 8 new active people to the branch. That is remarkable. It will increase!

We have had a lot of funny experiences happen up here in the Soo this week. Our inactive ward mission leader named Dustin came to church on Sunday and after being there for 5 minutes, he saw a friend we invited to church and left the building swearing/cursing. He accused this dude of being a pedophile and murderer. No one was phased by this up here in the Soo, it seemed almost casual for the branch president to handle this. Anyway, Elder Fonnesbeck and I both spoke on Sunday and it went really well. My second time not going by a script or preparing a talk. The spirit got me. I trusted and God delivered… I think. 

We have been absolutely grinding this week. With the new change on how we do missionary work on Saturdays and Sundays, we FINISH strong every week. Today we are planning on hiking a waterfall called Tahquamenon falls that is about an hour away. It is about an 8 mile round trip. We don't rest here up in the Soo on preparation days. I don't think I'll be able to chat much, but if I have service I will let yall know :)). I love you all so much! Please reach out #FindTime4Me 

So Many W's

 This was insane. What a week. On preparation day we went golfing and tanned. Nothing crazy. I finished up packing in preparation for transfer day the following morning. It was sad leaving the Charlotte branch, I came to love a lot of people there. It was a hard goodbye to Elder Nelson. Love that Elder so much. 

Tuesday was long and hectic. We arrived in Lansing where the T-van picked us up around 1045. Elder Tueller was whipping it so you already know I got shotgun. It was about an hour and 15 minute drive to Mount Pleasant which was the next stop. There were about 12 missionaries on this van, it was popping. We arrive in Mount Pleasant and I meet my new companion Elder Fonnesbeck. He is such a good Elder. I love him so much. It took a total of three and a half hours to travel to our apartment in Sault Ste Marie. Since we were driving for so long we decided to stop and take a picture at the Mackinac bridge as you may have seen on my profile. Also, since the bridge is 45 minutes from the top of our area we decided to go door knocking before I could even unpack. We did that for about 2 hours. We found 2 new friends to teach, let's go!

When we rolled up to the apartment… this place smelt bad. For the next two hours before I even decided to bring any of my stuff from the car into the house we deep cleaned. We were dripping sweat because we were cleaning so hard. Insane. Elders don't pick up after themselves. I am just being sent from area to area to clean up elders apartments. The following day we had to go to yhe store to stock up for the week since we just threw everything out and I deep cleaned the fridge/freezer. We dropped 150 bucks at Walmart, there goes all the money for the next two weeks. One of the meals we prepared was Enchiladas. Mom sent me the recipe and it did not disappoint. I did burn the Tortillas, but with the creamy Jalapeño it was celestial. So many Ws this week. 

Background on good ole Elder Fonnesbeck. He is one of the funniest people I have ever met. He's from Gilbert like I said. He's an athletic boi, and he's been out for 4 and a half months. He is one of the best elders in the mission though, he is such an amazing teacher. When President told him that I'm coming up there he said,"We have to send the AZ boys up north during the summer because they couldn't handle it." AMEN to that. I am not complaining. Elder Fonnesbeck reminds me a lot of Hanks Wallace. He talks, acts, and looks like him. It's very strange, but funny. 

One thing you got to know about up north is that the sun feels like it never goes down. The sun sets usually around 10pm and rises around 5am. It is crazy. We are about .5 miles from the border of Canada. The weather is still chilly. Some days the highs are around 50 degrees while others are 70 degrees and sunny. It jumps around from sweater weather to tanning. Michigan is built. 

Crazy thing about the church building is that we don't have one. They rent out an office building that has three rooms. To my surprise there are two super nice computers in it though. Serving in the other two areas I have not had computers at the church, but when I come up to an area that doesn't even have a church building they have computers…I am not complaining! There are about 20 people who attend church and we are in charge of blessing and passing the Sacrament. It heavily consists of elderly woman, but it all starts there. 

In the Soo we have gym passes. Every morning we go and grind about a 45 minute workout. On Wednesday we did legs… we did 5 sets of 12 reps and I went up to 235 pounds. It was not the move yall. I could barely move the following day. We don't miss days though, we are always hitting that gym that's 5 minutes from our apartment. There is a full indoor track, basketball court, free weights, and platforms. I am living lavish up here. 

I've never laughed so much in my life than this past week. Elder Fonnesbeck and I literally feed off each other's energy. We cry every night. Elder Fonnesbeck Is a very funny Elder. It gets hard to write in my journals every night because we are laughing so much, but do not fret, I still finish writing everynight. 

The success Elder Fonnesbeck and I have been having is so good. We are finding new people to teach everywhere we go. People are literally approaching us, WHAT. God is so good. 

Today we are attempting to do Murph since we couldn't last week. We have a pull up bar, an indoor track, and everything necessary to do it. I might have already completed it while you are reading this. My body already aches. I love you all so much. This area is so amazing. I am still getting used to the weather, can't believe we are still wearing jackets sometimes. I love you! #FindTime4Me