I'm Back In

 Preparation day you already know we hit the gym twice. First in the morning and then in the afternoon. We also played a best of 7 series in basketball, if you are reading this Elder Fonnesbeck… I am nice with it. I won 4-2. We also went mini golfing with the recent convert Maryea which was fun. I won by one stroke, it was just a full day of winning. I also finished up packing and was ready to go. 

Transfer day was chaotic. I did not stop moving until 10:30pm. We left our apartment at 8:30am since it is a three hour drive to where I was getting picked up for transfers. We arrived around 11:45am and the transfer van was delayed an hour. They finally came and we headed down to Lansing. I rode in an equinox with just Elder Tueller and I which was so good. On the way down, the truck that was pulling all of the luggage broke down and the trailer broke. This delayed everything for four hours. Elder Nelson and I actually were asked by the APs to go help move all the luggage to a different trailer. I finally made it to my area around 7:45pm. We dropped off my stuff and we did not even pack, we went door knocking! Let's go! 

I am currently serving in the Grand Valley Ward. The ward has around 90-100 active members and we meet in the Grand Rapids stake center. The building is so nice, full indoor court, whattt, I haven't seen that in forever. I love serving in wards. This area is absolutely amazing when it comes to missionary work. The areabook is absolutely insane. So many people. When I arrived it caught me off guard because there are so many people in this city. I was so isolated from society, but now I'm back in. 

I didn't think being a zone leader would be much of an adjustment, but man they do more than I thought. Just always worrying about how to help the zone stay accountable to their goals and help them set good goals. It definitely is stretching me and making me the missionary God would like me to be. On Friday we had MLC. It was fun seeing how one of those meetings went. Such a great time to receive revelation through people as well as from the spirit. It is always good to see boys #ElliottNTueller. Also, in the MLC there are a handful of missionaries who flew out with me. Around a third of the MLC came out with me on August 11th. Lots of young missionaries! Future is bright. 

I think I need to talk about my companion. His name is Elder Kaleb Woolsey. He is 9 months out on his mission. He became the ZL in this area last transfer. He is one of the most diligent missionaries in the mission. He is the definition of all in. He is from North Ogden Utah and all you need to know is that I love this man so much. I have been blessed with companions the past three transfers. He has a funky scar on his face because when he was 2 years old he cut open his face. He tells people when they ask that he was bit by a tiger as a joke. He gets it more often than you would think. Some of his friends back home call him Oggy from Wonder, literally so funny. 

Thursday night before we had MLC, we thought it would be a great idea for me to cut Elder Woolseys hair. This absolutely was not the move. I messed up his hair big time. I was extremely confident since I did my hair once as well as Elder Nelson's hair. He has a big bald patch on the right side of his head. I absolutely love Elder Woolsey because he is the most patient Elder ever. I was in tears laughing so hard and he just kept telling himself he liked it and he is okay. Stayed up too late that night.

I have to tell you about our friend Merrijane. She actually found the missionaries, we did not even find her. The elders last week were Facebook finding on a bench outside and she approached them. She is prepared. She has a lot of members in her family and she understands how one needs to be sealed to their family to make it to the highest degree of glory. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she was like,"yeah, can we celebrate my birthday September 10th? Or should we do it around Christmas? Is that too soon?" We reassured her that we can stick to September 10th, but we believe she will be baptized on August 6th. There are about three people on date for baptism in this area. 

Saturday we attempted to finish strong. We planned 11 lessons and only 2/11 happened. Who knew people are so flakey. We were so excited for Saturday, but we just watched the lessons drop one by one. We have no doubt though, it is what needed to happen. Our hope is in Christ and not in appointments. 

Sunday was my companion Elder Woolseys birthday as well as Elder Fonnesbecks. To celebrate we did a birthday live! It is also pretty funny because Elder Woolsey trained Elder Fonnesbeck. As you all know mission birthdays are pretty lame, but I tried to make it the best I could for my boy Elder Woolsey. I love this man. 

Also, I added a picture in Google photos of that guy named Jeremy in the Soo. I said in my last email that I left with him a shirt and two ties. He pulled up to church in the white shirt and tie! He was looking so clean. Make sure you watch out for that picture. I love Jeremy. 

Preparation days here are so fun. There are about 12 missionaries who share the church building so they all pull up for pday to ball. Please reach out and I would love to chat. I love you all!