My Fav Movie Is Speed Racer!

 It has begun. Transfer 10 in the mission field. Beginning of the transfers are so hectic even if you are not being transferred. Tuesday morning we had to trio with Elder Willden aka Chef J Willy for three days before he got to pick up a new missionary he is training. We were slammed with lessons, meetings, and getting things ready for this transfer. I mentioned in a past email that we have two new Sister Training Leaders we are working with and they are nice with it. We have strong leadership in the GR. Big transfer incoming.

Elder Willden is from a small town in Texas and he loves playing poker. Elder Willden trioed with us for three nights, two out of the three nights from 9-10:30pm we ran Texas Holdem. We used crackers and macaroni noodles as chips. I got destroyed the first night, but the second night I out bluffed Elder Willden and took home the title. If any of the boys are reading this, I am still nice with it at poker. 

Thursday was exhausting. It is so hard to get to bed on time when you have more than just your companion staying with you. So many late night shenanigans. We got to bed at like midnight on Wednesday night which didn't help since Thursday was slammed packed. We drove to Lansing in the morning which was around an hour drive. There are 14 new missionaries that just entered the field. It is the same time of year, but last year where I came in. Being around all those trainers/trainees made me want to train again. In the Grand Rapids Zone we only have one new missionary coming, but it's still exciting. We had chick fil a for lunch. I got to see 4 of my companions there since Elders Nelson, Fonnesbeck, Elliott, and Woolsey were there. We drove back and were back in the Grand Valley area around 2:30pm. 

The remainder of our day was spent with Luc Majeski. He is an 18 year old kid who recently got endowed and just submitted his mission papers. He doesn't have many friends and he loves doing the work with us. We had a couple lessons, met with some members, got cursed at in the rain, and Luc decided to buy us chick fil a. We didn't want to ruin it for him and say no because we had it for lunch. Elder Woolsey and I said to each other afterward that we want to go a while without eating Chick fil a since we felt so sick. I have to touch on this to. This whole transfer Elder Woolsey and I love the movie speed racer. We love talking about it. We asked Luc the question,"what is your favorite movie?" His response was the perfect. "My favorite movie is Speed Racer." Elder Woolsey and I screamed at the top of our lunges because we were so amped that, that was his favorite movie. It was a funny moment. 

To conclude Thursday night we ran ball with 15 non members. Every Thursday night one of the members in our ward hosts a pickup game at the stake center and we thought we would try it out. Who knew that huge 40 year old men would school you in ball (sorry dad). I was on the winning team of course, but i didn't contribute much since everyone was way bigger than me. We were there from 8:30-10pm. We left dripping in sweat about ready to hit the floor with how tired we were from that whole day. 

Saturday was special. We had the chance to see two people enter the waters of baptism. At 4 o'clock on Saturday was an 8 year old baptism and it was for the Vaszquez family. They invited SO many people to their kids' baptism, that it had to be moved to the chapel and the chapel was pretty full. All full of nonmembers. Following their baptism they had a ton of refreshments which got us fuels for our baptism at 530 for Alan Beatty. It was a miracle how he got to church. A recent convert named Brian was picking him up. Alan wasn't answering his phone, he just moved out of his house, and we didn't know where he was living. All we knew was that he was living somewhere in the big trailer park he was staying in. Brian went around knocking on doors and talking with people on the street until he FOUND Alan. Our jaws dropped when Brian called us saying he found Alan. Alan was eventually baptized and after he got baptized he mumbled under his breath, "I feel so different." God needed him to be baptized. 

We had a miracle on Sunday night which made the weekly email. We received a referral and contacted the guy named Aaron Britton. We scheduled a restoration lesson and man it was awesome. This man is prepared. He has already read the whole Book of Mormon, understood our doctrine, and he wants to be apart of it. While we were talking, he mentioned that he is going to start calling himself a "mormon" now since he believes everything in our church. We gave him another copy of The Book of Mormon and a lot of extra pamphlets. God continues to prepare the elect. He accoeted the baptismal date for September 17th. The spirit was THICK in the car when we were teaching him about the prophet Joseph Smith. Can't deny the absolute truth. 

Start of the transfer was stressful. Elder Woolsey and I are staying in our groove and popping off. Love you all, please reach out. I'm available all day Monday. 

Bye Bye Elder Tueller

 GOOD MORNING CREW. What a good week it has been so let me tell you about it. It was off to a good start beginning with Tuesday. One thing Elder Woolsey and I are focusing on in the Grand Valley Ward is the youth. We are trying to build good relationships with them to help them potentially prepare for and serve a mission. Tuesday evening there was a youth get together at a members home and we got invited over by the members. There was pizza, soda, and ice cream. I haven't had any of these three items in so long since I have been trying to eat better. Elder Woolsey and I pounded a pizza, a lot of ice cream, and too much soda together. The game we played with all the youth was on the TV through a game called jackbox.tv. It was such a hilarious game that had everyone involved. We had no regrets from coming to this youth party. 

Wednesday we brought along a guess to our usual weekly district council meetings. The stake president's family, The Buckwalter's our in our ward. One of their sons whose name is Adam just got set apart as a missionary last week. Now since he is the same gender and is a missionary, we are now allowed to drive him places. We picked him up Wednesday morning and drove him to our district council which was the Spanish district in our Zone. This was good for Adam since he is speaking Spanish as he departs to Ecuador in the next 2 months. A fun experience I had to write about. 

The evening on Wednesday will be memorable forever. Elder Woolsey and I have not been having the success we would like to see in this area for the past month now. Towards the latter end of our day we were driving around deciding on where to go. We ended up just visiting an inactive member and it turns out that member doesn't live there anymore. As we were leaving we spot a man across the street named Dion. He is a high-school football coach and teacher, has three D1 athlete kids, and would seem from the outside to have a great life. He was the most energetic and happy person I have met in the 13 months I have been a missionary. He opened up to us saying that he had a breakdown about 24 hours ago with his mother since he has been away from The Lord. As we introduced The Book of Mormon into the conversation, he lit up. He was amazed that Jesus Christ visited the Americas (I know Taylor… CRAZY) and he was shook that God still has prophets on the earth today. As we testified boldly of The Book of Mormon, he looked down at the book that I had in my hands and said,"Wowww, that makes me want to have one. Can I touch it?" The spirit testified to him that we are messengers from God to deliver His message. He will be the best person I will teach in my whole mission if he continues to progress. We needed him in our lives to bring us hope and he needed us. God continues to bless his servants. 

Friday was an awesome day. It began with having our apartment inspected. You know me… we passed with flying colors. It is nice that you can deep clean a small apartment in less than one hour. You already know the spirit dwells in its fullness in our apartment. 

Later in the afternoon we met in Lansing. We had a Mission Leadership Council. This was one of the last times where I would see Elder Tueller. We talked a lot about how we can be more effective missionaries and man I need to prioritize more things. We have been focusing a lot on preaching by the way (door knocking) and that pond is so not effective. It just makes me feel the MOST effective. Weird how Satan works. We had some BBQ for lunch and it is always great to hear instructions from President Heap. It took up a big chunk of our day. We also got transfer calls in person that day. After we closed with prayer, President Heap went around the room one by one calling us by name and announcing our transfer calls. Elder Woolsey and I get to run it back one more transfer together at least. This is the first time where I get a companion for two transfers since I trained Elder Hanson in Bay City. We are so excited. Also crazy news was that we are getting two completely new STLs to work with. Jared knows how that goes… 

We have a baptism this coming Saturday for our friend Alan. He is so excited, but he doesn't have a car, which is tough. The members here are willing and he hasn't missed church for the past four weeks. God continues to gather his children, hurrah for Israel!

Love you all so much. I am thankful I am a fulltime missionary. This is my season to preach the gospel, westons season is coming. I'm always available to talk. Reach out to me on messenger. Have an amazing week!

Homeleess Break In

 This week was one for the books. Starting with Tuesday. We had interviews with President Heap and they are always just the best. He is so Christlike when it comes to talking to missionaries one on one. He just knows what to say. We did not get much information on what will happen next transfer for Elder Woolsey and I, but we feel that we will probably run it back one more transfer at least. We need to, I love him. 

Later in the evening, we didn't just have one dinner appointment, but TWO. We never get fed so this was a rare occasion that it happened on the same day. The first one was with a less active family who made us smoked meatloaf. This meatloaf was actually really good. They also actually grew up in Chandler, AZ too. Small world. The kids insisted we played one game with them before we left. We ran a quick game of What Do You Meme : Family Edition. The oldest is 8 years old and she is getting baptized this month. She is so excited, it's precious. We left their home and traveled straight to our next dinner appointment which was Enchilada Casserole. We ate it with the Richmond family and they brought over a recent convert named Brian as well as our friend Alan who is preparing for baptism. This family is amazing. They will do anything to help us missionaries out in any way shape or form. Bro Richmond has been driving someone to church every week for over a year now. Built DIF. They also have a son who recently returned home from his mission who is legendary; as well as a 17 year old who is preparing to serve. They are extremely fun to be around and they are very missionary focused. Double win. 

Wednesday was the day of the zone conference. We got Chick-fil-a catered to us for lunch and we all got chicken sandwiches so that was a big win to start. We had an hour of training by President and Sister Heap. Us zone leaders and the sister training leaders had to follow. We focused on heeding not. It turned out way better than we thought it would. To close the zone conference off we received some fire training from our APs, Elders Tueller and Elliott who you all know and love. It was focused mainly on the "why" in missionary work. Why are we doing this, why do we stay out, and why do we keep going. It was a great time to personally reflect and remember it is because of Him. Him being our Savior. I walked away extremely edified and was grateful for those 5 hours. 

We heard some news from an elder companionship in our Zone that their home was broken into. Here is the back story. They arrived home from zone conference and they noticed something different about it. Some boxes were moved around and they started to hear a couple of strange noises. President Heap instructed them to spend the night at another elders apartment and then in the morning they will go and check it out. They arrived there in the morning and brought along the Grand Rapids missionaries. They all went in joking around and filming it. Elder Reese (one of the Grand Rapid missionaries), decided to go up to the attic with a flashlight and pan it around. To their surprise they saw a homeless man tucked away hiding from them in the attic. After the police came, the homeless man stated that he had been up there for a week. These elders have been living with an extra roommate for A WEEK. It definitely shook them up, but by the following day all was well. 

Elder Woolsey and I discovered something in our apartment that was a score. This apartment used to have sisters that lived here and they left a pack of razors. Elder Woolsey and I made the genius decision to attempt to shave our legs and make them feel smooth. After about an hour of doing past nine on Thursday evening, we accomplished it. Smooth like a baby's bum. No regrets at all. It is now prickly which is tough, but there are always consequences. 

Saturday was super fun. I had the opportunity to be with Elder Luke Tueller again! It was so awesome. Elder Tueller and I were at MSU for the day. It was down pouring rain and not one soul was outside, but we made the best of it. Elder Tueller is one of the humblest leaders in our mission and gives such spirit led invitations to act. It is crazy that he goes home next week. The mission is going to lose a pillar ;((. Love that man. Elder Tueller is probably my favorite person I've met on my mission thus far. 

We saw a lot of success this week. It went by so fast. This coming week is the last week of the transfer. My feeling is that I will stay here with Elder Woolsey, but I guess we will see. We gave MLC for the second time this transfer in person so I am excited for that. Love you all so much, reach out!

Going Through The Motions

On P-day I went off in basketball. This was the first week we decided to play full court 5s. There were about 20 missionaries at the church too and we had no control over it. We played our first game to 21 and I dropped 20/22 of our team's points. I literally was CAM JOHNSON. 

Tuesday was exciting. We went on exchanges in North Muskegon. I was with my MTC companion Elder Jorgensen for the day. We felt impressed to both travel to their area and both focus all our missionary efforts in their area and none in ours for the day. We saw miracles. Elder Jorgensen and I found 5 new people to teach, got the cops called on us by a lady who had malice in her heart, Elder Jorgensen bought me Jimmy John's, and made a basher feel the Spirit of God which witnessed to us The Book of Mormon is true. Being with Elder Jorgenson just showed me how much we both have grown a great amount since we attempted to practice teaching over Zoom in home MTC. God continues to qualify us. 

Wednesday was just going through the motions. No crazy lessons or finding experiences. We are planning out our Zone conference training which is stressful because you just hope and pray it will stick. Our Zone conference is in 2 days, let's go! Elder Woolsey wasn't feeling the best, he started to come down with flu-like symptoms, but this man will not stop working. He's a unit, I love this kid. 

This week not much has happened. It was 90 degrees and pretty humid. Everyone in Michigan was just complaining how hot it was, I personally thought it was awesome. I would rather be dripping sweat than lathered up in coats. AZ bloodstream goes hard  .  

There was an exciting highlight of our week. We got our squirrel friend David trapped in our apartment. I added a 5 minute video of it going crazy in our apartment and then it was safely let out. One of our comp goals was to get it inside and it worked! 

This week was just going through the motions. This upcoming week is packed full of lots of events such as interviews, zone conference, and AP exchanges. Next week's email will be way better. 

I love you all. I'm available with a quick text via messenger. If you are reading this on the blog, know that you are a legend. Keep it real. 

Back 2 Back

 You know the drill overall of what goes down for preparation day. While we were at the store in the morning, Elder Woolsey and I ended up dropping 140 dollars for groceries. Probably the biggest bill I have dropped since I have become a missionary. So worth it. 

We are teaching a girl in her 30s named Alexa. She has been taught by the missionaries for about 4 months now. She used to be a drug abuser, smoker, and alcoholic. For the past 2 months she has been living all of the commandments to prepare herself for baptism. She is now officially preparing for August 20th. This is a testimony to me that God sees everyone's potential and He will make it happen. I love the scripture in 1 Nephi 3:7 that states, "for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save HE shall prepare a way." 

Tuesday Elder Woolsey and I decided to do an arm wrestle past 9. I beat him with my right arm, but it was the most neutral arm wrestle I had in my life. The following day while I was calling mom we decided to face off again, but with the left arm. It was a close battle, but Elder Clouse took the win. I screamed for victory and we get a knock on the door 20 minutes later by the maintenance since someone filed a noise complaint…

Wednesday was a miracle filled. I went on an exchange with Elder Isaac Bunderson. He is 9 weeks out on his mission and currently in training. I took him on an exchange in Grand Valley. During this, we extended a baptismal invitation for Alan to be baptized on August 27th, taught the full restoration on spot to our new friend Domenique, we received a phone call from someone random saying they wanted to learn more, and we had a special lesson with the Hekker family that I will touch on later in this email. Our comp exchange form with one another was so good. Elder Bunderson addressed his concerns and I helped him out all I knew. It was so good for him since he hasn't had the opportunity to teach much in his mission so far. 

The Hekker Family is a young couple with three kids. Jack, the husband, was baptized 4 months ago and quickly fell away. His wife Stacy expressed interest in becoming a member since she saw what the gospel did to Jack and how it affected him once he went inactive. On Wednesday we went over there and taught the second half of the Plan of Salvation with bringing in the importance of temples. Jack's face lit up when we explained how he could be sealed to Stacy. The first thing he asked us was how he could receive the priesthood to baptize Stacy. We did bring in a member around the same age as him and he testified of the blessing of being sealed and invited them to church to sit next to him and his wife. As we left this meeting, my heart was so full for this growing family. They have three kiddos, one who is 11, another is 6, and the last one is 6 months old. They are reading The Book of Mormon as a family everyday and they are reaping the blessings that come from that. 

The following day I had an exchange with Elder Zack Reese. Back to back. He has been out on his mission for about 9 months. He was actually MTC companions with Elder Nelson. We had such a great time together. He is one of those kids where you can just talk and have the best time with him. Throughout the day we got to know each other well and build a good relationship. As we counseled with one another, we were both so vulnerable due to the trust we built and we both set inspired goals to help each other grow. I felt so inadequate in that situation, but it was so amazing to be in. We found a cool young family while we were public contacting in the park. Boldness brings blessings! On our exchange I made Elder Reese some amazing tacos, Enchiladas, and ended with getting him a nerds slush from Sonic. Elder Woolsey was jealous when we met back up since he wanted to be the one to be taken out to sonic. 

Funny story I have to mention. Elder Woolsey and I knocked into a dude named Ron. Ron is an older guy who isn't very religious. He is a Michigander and he was ranting about just everything. He's like,"you can barely go on TV, the internet, the boobtube…" Elder Woolsey and I just broke down laughing. It was so funny, it caught us off guard so much. Overall, he wasn't about it, but it was a solid experience.  

I think it's time to mention my buddy David. David is a squirrel we feed every morning on our porch with peanuts. No doubt, every morning he comes back. We keep feeding him and we are so close to trapping him inside. We almost got him, but he slipped out last time. He was around 3 feet inside, you'll see in the video I added to the Google photos. 

Saturday was actually really fun. We had our ward picnic from 4-7pm. It had an amazing turn out and there was a cornhole. My skills have not left me. That is what I will leave it at. 

I am grateful it is preparation day. The back half of the week definitely dragged on. I am always available to chat. I love you all. Hope you had an amazing week!