We had the chance to go over to the Snowbergers for preparation day which was just phenomenal. Sister Snowberger made us her go to fried chicken, so yummy. I then got beat by Brother Snowberger in billiards since he's nice with it. In the morning of preparation day, Elder Madsen got me to go thrift shopping and we saw no success, but it did make him happy.
It has been full of success and we are continuing to have multiple lessons everyday. Wednesday we had exchanges with the Marshall elders. I was with Elder Damion Laudie. He is from Haramon, Utah and came out in the mission field the same time as Elder Madsen so he is fresh. He reminds me a lot of Magnus. Elder Laudie is a gym rat and is pretty chill about everything. Doesn't care what is going on as long as it is good. He also forgets a lot of things. We were eating dinner and he decided to have a bowl of cereal. He finishes off the cereal and then puts the empty box of cereal back on the shelf. Later I asked him why he did that and Elder Laudie claims that he forgot to throw it away. Besides the point, our day went extremely well. Elder Laudie experienced his first lesson in the mission field and experienced four additional lessons that day. He came willing to change and become a better missionary so he absorbed all he could. We set very meaningful and effective goals.
We had a zone conference this week in Lansing. One of the pros of this was that I got to see Elder Reese AND Elder Woolsey. This was the first time I saw Elder Reese since I left Grand Rapids two months back. The Zone Conference was kept to the four hour mark and we only had a 35 minute lunch… bruh. It was spiritually draining which is a good thing, but Elder Madsen and I did not take much from it. It was mediocre.
One person I would like to touch on is our friend Brian Fox. I found him over Facebook and we have been meeting with him for a couple of weeks. He has had a pretty rough upbringing which has led him to fall into some bad substance habits. He used to be extremely closed off when we first met with him, but as we have met with him consistently and he began keeping commitments there was a change. The Savior began to change him and we were able to see more visibly his divine potential. Brian does not even realize it yet, but the Atonement of Jesus Christ is working in his life. This again brought to my attention that this is a gospel of change. We invite all to ponder the message of the restoration and to come unto Christ.
Alright, this is funny. We were eating our delicious pot roast with potatoes and carrots for dinner on Friday night. As I'm drinking my chocolate milk (fairlife) don't you worry. We received a video call from David Bell. He accidentally called and was in the process of canceling our lesson for later that night. I then said,"are you available for 20 minutes right now?" He agreed and I told him to hold on as I chugged my chocolate milk in front of him. We sat down, opened with prayer, and got to know him. Turns out he has met with missionaries in the past, quit drugs, broke up with his girlfriend, knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and wants to get baptized by Bishop Rowley. We invited him to be baptized and set a specific date. While this was happening, it was all so casual which made it so funny. As we finish the night on Friday, our earliest appointment we can make with someone is next Thursday afternoon because we have no free appointment times. Battle Creek does not stop.
We finished the week with a crowded Sunday. We haven't had the chance to comp study for the past two days due to lessons occurring. We got the chance to see seven of our friends at church! Seven! I haven't seen that many since I was serving in Bay City.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of change. Let's hear one of the Big B Brethren drop doctrine,"The gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan by which we can become what children of God are supposed to become. This spotless and perfected state will result from a steady succession of covenants, ordinances, and actions, an accumulation of right choices, and from continuing repentance." *close quote*
Can't say it better than that. This is the gospel of becoming. I can say that I have changed immensely throughout these past 18 months. Can we talk about how awesome that is? Jesus is the answer :))
Love,
Elder Clouse
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