Elder Nate Claussen

email dated April 3, 2023

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it’s been two weeks since I’ve written!! Things kinda got crazy and well we’ve been busy haha! 

Last week I got transfered to the Freedom Park ward which is in the big city of Atlanta, Georgia! As it is in the big city, for Pday, we went to the Aquarium as a district which was super cool! That is why I didn’t write last week. 

This week, we stayed super, super busy! The city is a very fast paced place which is a Very dramatic change from Dublin, but that is not a bad thing! It makes it more difficult to find people to teach because everyone seems to always be busy, and so with that said, most of our time this past week has been knocking doors and trying to find people to teach. 

The ward here seems super awesome! They are very missionary focused and there seem to be some super awesome members that really want to help out! We do have a few friends that we are teaching and the member support for them is great! 

To save y’all the trouble in reading though the day by day report, this week again, was mostly just finding and talking to as many people as we can!! As a mission we have a goal to testify to 30 people every day, which might sound easy and not a lot of people, but when you start to keep track, it is actually really tough to be able to have that many good gospel conversations with people! It is a good goal though and keeps us working hard and staying motivated!!

For a spiritual thought, I want to highlight two principles from Elder Duncan and Elder Haynie’s talks. Taking the idea that you can look at something as if it is the first time you see it and combine that with the fact that we have a loving and living prophet on the earth is incredible! I know that the council he gave to us yesterday was inspired! The prophet will always give us council that leads us closer to Jesus Christ. As we follow him, he will never lead us astray! As we strive to be Peacemakers and study the life of the Savior, we will grow our faith and be able to see more and more miracles in our daily lives. I know that this is true, and as a missionary, it has been really cool to see how being a peacemaker even in hard times it usually is not the easier way, but you feel the spirit more strong after and that is always worth it :). I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen

I hope that y’all have had a great week! I’d love to hear your conference insights!! 

Love you guys,

Elder Claussen

email from March 20, 2023

Hi everyone!

I hope that you’ve had a good week! I have had a super good week this week, so hopefully I can get everything across in the email. Low key, a lot of the good things this week were those small tender mercies and miracles that the Lord has provided, but looking back, the day’s were low key pretty normal and not much happened. 

I am going to start at Thursday night today because that is pretty much where exciting stuff started happening. Thursday night, we we went three hours up to Fayetteville in preparation for Zone Conference/Mission tour. We spent the night at the moving elder’s apartment with the Cochran Elders, and there were only 4 beds for 5 elders. I volunteered to sleep on the floor, so all I had was a towel as a pillow, my bucees blanket, and a stitch onesie haha! 

Friday, we went to Jonesboro for our mission tour/zone conference. That was super awesome! Elder Bowen from the 70 came and taught our mission about the Abrahamic covenant and Oath and Covenant of the priesthood. That was actually such a spiritual meeting, and I left completely filled with the spirit!! The trainings that President and Sister Farias gave, and the the direction that Elder and Sister Bowen taught us was pretty amazing :). We got back home just in time for one of our friends to get baptized, which was absolutely hype!!

Then on Saturday, we were able to go to the temple with Alberto to do baptisms for the dead, and that was such a cool experience :). I was able to baptize him and then he was able to baptize me, which was cool because he did it in Spanish (as that is his first language). That took the entire day (going to the temple), but that was worth it and such an awesome experience!!

Our friend that got baptized didn;t make it to church on Sunday, so that was unfortunate, so he will probably get confirmed next week. It was still believe it or not still a super awesome day, and we were able to meet a super amazing family at the park and have a super yummy dinner at the Laidlaw’s. 

I don’t really have a formal spiritual thought today, but I do want to remind y’all that God is always watching out for us! He loves you, and he loves me. I wish that I could have more time to write about all of the cool experiences that have happened this week, and firehose you will my entire week, because there has been some cool stuff that is going on in Georgia :). 

I hope that you all have a fantastic week!! Love you guys! -Elder Claussen

email from March 13, 2023

Hey Everyone!

Hope y’all have had a good week! Haven’t had a normal email in a while so hope this one goes well haha.

Last Monday we were able to go up to Gray and had dinner with the district. 

Tuesday, we had Texas Rhodehouse for lunch and then interviews with President Farias! As always, those were super awesome!! I am so grateful for what President Farias does for us missionaries :). Right after those, we started Exchanges with the Gray Elders, so I was able to go to Gray with Elder Jarvis. We didn’t get home till later, but we were able to have a good exchange! We taught one of their friends who got baptized on Saturday. It was a Dad, Mom, and daughter. They were some of the most prepared people that I have ever met!! They had no concerns, and the whole time the Dad was like, “Well that’s how it’s supposed to be, that’s true!” So that was funny.

Wednesday, we unexchanged and then were able to meet some of the members in the Gray ward because it was youth night. There are some pretty funny members there lol. The peeps that we taught on Tuesday had their baptismal interviews and those were good. 

Thursday, we had weekly planning. That is always super stressful, and there is not much else to say about it lol. Imagine just having a ‘monday’ on Thursday and you get the picture. 

Friday, we were actually able to have quite a few lessons planned that all went through! That is alwasy so satisfying when people are home when they say they will be home. We were able to have  a lesson with our friend that is on Date for baptism and we pretty much taught him everything… it was definitely the most principles taught in any lesson that I have ever taught before. Right after, we were able to join the Elder’s Quorum activity which was a low country boil (Pronounced Low Countree Bowl), which essentially is all you can eat sausage, potatoes, and little shimpy dudes.

Saturday, we had a good lesson with a long lost friend, and then the rest of the day was pretty much contacts.

Sunday, day light savings killed me a little bit. Definitely was not ready to get up in the morning lol. I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting and it was a whole 20 minute talk. Long story short, the person talking after me said to make it a 20 minute talk, so I took the challenge and did it haha. It was about Loving one another :).

Which brings me to a spiritual thought for today! Love one another! In my talk I took a missionary approach to it (as I am a missionary right now) and the main things that I talked about is the why we love one another, and how sharing the gospel is probably the best way to show your love for others. The reason we love others is because we Love God. King Benjamin teaches when we are in the service of others we are in the service of God. In the context of loving one another, it really puts into perspective how all good acts for others are also us showing our love to God :). 

There is no greater work than that of the Lord. The Gathering of Israel is happening and I am so lucky to be a part of it! I hope that y’all have a great week! 

-Elder Claussen

email from February 27, 2023

Hey Everyone!

Hope you’ve had a good week this week! It has been a very busy week this week, but it was one of them with a whole lot of meetings!

Monday, we went up to Milledgeville and spent a bunch of time playing pool and that is what we are doing today as well.

Tuesday, we had District Council and finding time. We had dinner at the Seawells and they told us about their neighbor being Russian, which was cool because we have found a bunch of people in our apartment complex that come from Europe. Apparently Dublin is turning into a big melting pot!

Wednesday was the only day that was ‘normal’ without any meetings lol. We had a few good lessons and finding time. There were a bunch of interesting people that we met and talked to, but I suppose that it was a good way to celebrate 15 months lol.

Thursday, we drove up to Macon and had Zone Conference. It went a little late, so we didn’t actually get home till like 7 so that was pretty much the day.

Friday, I went up to Jackson, Georgia and found out that their church is literally in a strip mall! But Elder Boone went up to MLC and I was in Jackson for the day with Elder Allen. That was fun, but we didn’t get home till about 7 again, so that was pretty much all we did on Friday lol.

Saturday, we had a service project at Brother Tippett’s house to clear out some wood. As we are in the south, the natural thing to do with a bunch of extra wood scraps it to burn it, so we made this massive bonfire in their backyard with all of the extra wood. The rest of the day we stayed busy with lessons and finding time.

Sunday, we were able to make it to church and we had two of our friends make it! It was a really good sacrament meeting and Elder Boone gave a good talk and Sunday School we learned all about Testimonies. We had dinner at the Blanco’s house and had some good Lasagne and Salad. For dessert, we had Creme Brulee (IDK how to spell it lol), but it was fancy because Bro Blanco got fire torch and torched the top of it lol. 

Overall, it was a super awesome week and I have learned a lot! For a spiritual thought, I wanted to share a cool thing that I found in the Book of Mosiah in one of my personal studies. In Mosiah Chapter 3, it has some amazing verses all about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I thought that was cool, because out mission president invited us to find scriptures about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and reading these helped to strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ. As you keep reading in this chapter, you will come across verses 12 and 13, which teach us all about prophets! This was also super cool, because I am also always looking for scriptures to teach principles from the Restoration Lesson. I really liked verse 13 a lot at the end because it teaches us that the prophets in the Book of Mormon times helped the people remember Jesus Christ by having them rejoice as though Jesus Christ had already come. This is such a cool concept to me that as they did this, they found even more Joy. Taking it an even deeper step further, we can apply this principle to our lives today. If you look at all of the things that President Nelson is teaching us, he is teaching us how to find truth and discern it for ourselves. 

The question I want to pose today is for everyone to ask themselves what their lives would look like if they acted as if the Savior already came again. As we live diligently striving to be converted disciples of Jesus Christ, would the things we do be the same if Jesus Christ has already come again? Would our priorities be the same, or would we change certain things? I know that as we continue to be diligent we will be able to receive all of the blessings that God has for us. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love you guys! Hope y’all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Claussen  

email from February 20, 2023

Hey everyone!

This was super good week this week, but I am not at a computer to write my email this week, so I’m going to try to keep it shorter today haha. 

Last Monday, we stayed up in Gray because we had district council on Tuesday, and we wanted to save time in the morning instead of driving for an hour, it was less than 10 haha.

Tuesday, we had ZLC in the morning and then district council after lunch. Then we started exchanges. I stayed in the Gray area (yes there is a city in Georgia with the name of a color lol) and I was with Elder Lind. We had a super awesome exchange!

Wednesday, we finished the exchange strong and then went to the chruch to teach Self relia ce, but once again no one showed up lol. Maybe some day peeps will show up ?.

Thursday, we had a good weekly planning session! That was pretty much it.

Friday, we had some good lessons and some good finding! We were able to find new people to teach!!

Saturday didn’t go at all as planned, but we were still able to have some really good lessons with some peeps!!

Sunday, we had two of our friends come to church and then we had a super fun linger longer pot luck, that was pretty fantastic!!

For a spiritual thought today, I want to talk about the Perfect Example of Jesus Christ :). As we follow His example and as we strive to become more like Him, we will be able to find happiness and choose to by happy. There was a talk that we listen to today that reminded me of the power that comes from the Symbolism in the Gospel. It is our choice that we can make to turn to the Savior, because as that relationship increases, we can do all things :).

I hope that y’all have great week!!

-Elder Claussen

email from February 13, 2023

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for not writing last week! It was the end of the transfer, and the whole district except for me got whitewashed, so it was a very busy Monday last week! Needless to say, I am staying in Dublin for at least another 6 weeks, but I got a new companion and his name is Elder Boone. He is from Fresno, California which I have learned is the middle of the middle of California haha. I’m probably only going to write what’s happened this last week, but without further ado let’s get into it!

Last Monday, we had a district P-Day where we hung out at the church and played Settlers of Catan. There were too many of us, so Elder Laver and I were on a team. If we had more time I think that we would have won, but as we couldn’t finish the game, Elder Gerlach ended up having the most points when we had to stop, so the victory went to him.

Tuesday, we were able to do a lot of visits and had a bunch of goodbyes for Elder Law. We had to say up super late because Elder Law had to finish packing lol. 

Wednesday was transfer day and so we woke up extra early and made the two hour trek to Peachtree city for the transfer meeting. We had to get there early because we had to switch out our car because ours didn’t have blind spot lights on the mirrors. (Now, instead of a white equinox, we have a charcoal black one and I think it looks nicer!). It was a good meeting and Elder Boone and I had a good trek all the way back to Dublin. 

Thursday, we had a good weekly planning and started the task of catching up on phone calls. We were able to do some service by raking up a bunch of leaves for a lady that apparently is a member, so that was cool. We are just raking leaves for her and she drops the bomb that she has already been baptized into the church ?. The Lord works in mysterious ways for sure, bringing people to us that are apparently already members hahaha. 

Friday, we were able to continue to catch up on calls, and that was a beautiful thing, because we were just about done with them by the end of the day!! Elder Boone is the district leader, so we had a district leader meeting, and so that was fun to listen to and be in. I think I’ve said it before, but I am excited for the direction that the mission is going :). 

Saturday, we caught up 100% on phone calls, so we were actually able to go out and about again! We were able to reconnect with one of our friends that kind of disappeared because their phone shut off. They still seemed super excited to learn more, but they do still need to make some changes in their life if they want to continue to progress towards baptism. We were able to visit this super cool guy in a nursing home who made a prayer request, and he was super nice! I was just glad that the care facility let us in, because last time this happened, they wouldn’t let us in because of “Covid-19,” but they did let us in and we had a good discussion! Later in the day, we made it all the way up to Wrightsville, which I had never been to, so it was cool to be able to visit some new places in the area that I’ve never been to. The entire day Saturday, it was pouring rain too!! If you looked at the radar map on the weather app, there was a massive storm that covered the entire state of Georgia, and let me tell you, it POURED haha. 

Sunday, we had a good time at church. Then we were invited to have lunch at Sister Smith’s house, and that was super yummy, and then we went and had good studies. We had dinner at the Hayes house all the way in Montrose (which is about a 20-30 min drive north), so that was also super sweet! Before dinner, we went knocking at an apartment complex and we were able to find a new lady who seems super interested in meeting with us! The door approach was that we help people progress towards baptism, and she said that she was baptized, but didn’t know what it really meant, so we told her we would help her to learn what it really means, and she was super down to talk. That was exciting! We have another lesson with her on Saturday, so we are hoping that goes well!

That leaves us to today, where we were able to clean up the apartment a bit and then go to the Danner’s house to help them put some boxes in their attic and have lunch. For lunch, we had some “F1?” Burgers (Super, super, super, super, super, fancy and tasty burgers…. like the best burger meat I’ve ever had before)…the Danner’s are super awesome though!! I think that we are going to go up to Gray later today so that we can stay the night and see their mansion that they live in and be closer for district council, which is tomorrow. 

For a spiritual thought, I have really been focusing on how Jesus Christ is involved in every aspect of our lives. Even when it sucks, and life is beating you down, you can always turn to the Savior, because he knows exactly how to help! One goal that I have this transfer is to really try to help everyone we meet turn to the Savior. Something that was mentioned in the district leader meeting was to avoid bringing up other people as good examples, even if they are good examples because the Savior is the perfect example and we should be turning everyone to Him. This really stood out to me because it is so true! How often do we find ourselves comparing ourselves to other people and not thinking that we are enough. When the focus is on the Savior, we are able to receive His help and guidance in our lives. I say this in the Name of Jesus Christ, amen :).  

Overall, t’was a legit week and I am super hyped for this next transfer!! I hope that everyone has also had a good week, it is my goal to respond to people this transfer, I have not had the chance to do that in a FATT minute ?, so sorry about that! We shall see how that goes this transfer though lol. 

Love you all!

-Elder Claussen

email from January 30, 2023

Hey everyone!

I am going to try to keep it short again this week as it has low key been a mostly somewhat uneventful week and we are having a district P-Day and don’t want to take too long.

The highlight of this week was definitely our lessons we were able to have with one of our friends. As usual, I have forgotten to ask if I can use his name on my email, but he is going to get baptized on Friday, and that is super awesome! He has made some really hard changes in his life, and he is so ready for baptism! He is going to invite his family and his random friends at the gym? Regardless, we are super excited for him!!

I was able to go to Milledgeville again this week on Exchanges, and this time I was with Elder Gerlach. That was super fun! We went to a place that is super far out in their area and found an outdoor chess set, so we played chess outside in the rain while making phone calls ?. (I got completely wrecked because apparently Elder Gerlach is a chess master, but still fun nonetheless)

For a spiritual thought today, I wanted to share one of the questions that Sister Farias sent us about 3 Nephi 16:4. The question she asked was:

“How has the Holy Spirit taught you to know Christ through the Book of Mormon? In this moment, if you haven’t already had a spiritual experience through the Book of Mormon, I invite you to pray with faith, opening your heart to him, and asking for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I know he will speak to your mind and heart something you need to hear. If you’ve had this experience, share it in your journal.”

I really liked this question because it helped me reflect on my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how I have come to know it is true. One thing that I am learning is that in order to gain knowledge in the Book of Mormon, you have to first have a desire. There are so many people we meet who have no desire to even know (some of them it is because their pastor said they wouldn’t go to heaven if they did read it even a little, but that’s not the point haha). However, as soon as you have even the smallest of desires and act upon those desires by reading and praying to know if it is true, you will Recieve an answer by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

I would like to extend Sister Farias’ invitation to y’all though, if you haven’t already, write your testimony about the Book of Mormon in a safe space that you can then look back on it in the future :). The spirit will strengthen your testimony and you will find joy from it, and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Love y’all! Have a good week 🙂 -Elder Claussen

email from January 23, 2023

Hey Everyone!

I’m going to keep this email nice and short :). I hope that everyone has had a great week! 

My Mission President’s Wife invited us at Zone Conference to read one chapter of 3 Nephi each day, and she has some questions she’s given us for each chapter to help us ponder and think about what we are reading. This has actually been a really cool experience for me because a lot of the questions are to apply it to our own lives today.  

As Nephi at the beginning of the Book of Mormon teaches, we should Liken the Scriptures to ourselves and ponder the words in our hearts. There is so much more meaning that can be found from the Scriptures and all we have to do is ask questions! :). I’d like to invite everyone to try to ask questions about what you are reading and the spirit will be able to teach you so much more!!

I also found this quote and really want to share:

“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives… [Jesus Christ] is the source of all joy.” -Russell M. Nelson

I know that these words are inspired by the spirit from our loving prophet that is here on the earth. Just as the ancient prophets that we can read about in the scriptures, we have a living prophet here on the earth. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 🙂 

And there you have it, not one, but TWO spiritual thoughts today. Love you guys!

-Elder Claussen

email from January 16, 2023

Hi everyone!

Hope everyone has had a great week! It has most certainly been super busy here in Dublin! Most of the week has once again been finding and teaching, so spoiler alert, that’s probably going to be most days. 

Last Monday, we pretty much shopped and stayed at the apartment, nothing too, too exciting.

Tuesday, we had finding and then in the eenin, we knocked on this lady’s house and she let us in. Apparently she is super high up in her church, so she had some people she was Fellowshipping into her church, so that was pretty cool to give all of them Book of Mormons and have them say that they are going to read it. 

Wednesday, we found out that one of our Ward’s recent converts didn’t move away, so we were able to have a good lesson and I was able to meet them. 

Thursday, we had weekly planning and some lessons with peeps. 

Friday, we had Zone Conference. That was such an amazing time and there were some really cool things that we were able to learn and review. I am super excited the direction that President Farias is taking the mission! 🙂

Saturday, we pretty much just had finding and lessons, so that was good. 

Sunday, I finally met the Bishop in the ward! The last few weeks he has been sick with Covid, but now he is alive and doing well! We also had some good finding and lessons.

Kinda a boring week on paper, but there were some really good things that happened! 

For a spiritual thought I wanted to talk about Christlike attributes and spiritual gifts. I think it is cool because Jesus Christ is the perfect example, and as such as we try to become more like Him, we can be who Heavenly Father would like us to be :). 

Verse of the week is Mosiah 2:17 because when we serve others, we are only serving God  :).

Hope y’all have a great week! 

-Elder Claussen 

email from January 9, 2023

Hi everyone! 

Hope everyone has had a great week! Second week into the new year, I hope it has been treating everyone well! 

Last Monday, we had a couple lessons that went well. 

Tuesday, it was pretty much the same thing lol. We had a lot of finding time and a few lessons. We went to a place called Pickle Barrell with Sister Smith, and I got a picture next to the sign (because of the pickle in its name!)

Wednesday, we had district council over Zoom. That was a unique experience because we didn’t get to see each other in person. The rest of the day we pretty much just had lessons and finding time. 

Thursday, we had two lessons in the morning and then weekly planning for the rest of the day after that. 

Friday and Saturday were both all finding time. 

And then Sunday, we had Stake Conference. All of the talks were super good!! Even the youth speakers :)!! It was cool because I was able to see a bunch of the members from Warner Robins 2nd Ward (as I’m in the same stake), so that was cool. The General Authority Seventy that was there was Elder Craig. He was actually a really funny guy ?. 

I wish that there was more to this week to share, but it really was mostly just finding peeps; the good stuff :). 

For a spiritual thought today, I wanted to share some thoughts I’ve been thinking about Truth. One things that I have been learning is that truth can be relative depending on what way you look at something. If you take a sphere and on one side there is a square, but the other there is a triangle, depending on which side you look at it, you could say there is a triangle or a square inside of the sphere. The hard part is when one person looks at one side and another looks at another side and not know about the other sides, each person could say which one they saw and have two different answers, but both of them would be true. In this sense, truth can be Relative. 

However, this is one thing that the Prophet has warned us, “Some would have us believe that truth is relative—that each person should determine for himself or herself what is true. Such a belief is but wishful thinking for those who mistakenly think they will not also be accountable to God.” 

Say thee were just those two shapes in that sphere, and then someone came in and said I see a Trapezoid, clearly that would not be truth. So how can we have two truths (“square” or “triangle”) that seem relative, but are in fact absolute truths but we just can’t see the whole picture? President Nelson teaches in this same talk that God is the source of all truth. He can see the big picture, and as such “by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:5). 

To go one step deeper, I wanted to talk also about Eternal Laws. There was a video I saw this week where President Nelson says that he always strives to learn all of the Laws of Heaven. This brings us to Doctrine and Covenants 88 which part of it teaches that everything has a law that it follows. As 3 Nephi 15:9 teaches us, “Behold, I am the law, and the light…” One of the names of the Savior is  in fact ‘the Law’ and so to go back to our sphere with a square and triangle, to tie it altogether, I am going to say that the Godhead is the Sphere that they are contained in. 

So ultimately, while it might appear that truth is relative to some, as our wonderful Prophet has taught, God is the source of all truth. He knows the eternal Laws, and can see the whole picture. He has all truth. So with all that said, I would like to invite everyone to pray to God anytime you would like to learn truth. As James 1:5 teaches, God will give freely and not judge us for asking :). He is truly our Loving Heavenly Father, and He wants you to be happy. I’m sorry if that got a little too deep, but I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.