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