Category: News and Updates (Page 3 of 8)

Hey Everyone!

Hope that y’all had a great week this week! I should probably just copy and paste this beginning part because at this point I probably sound like a broken record. But this week was full of finding and I think this week, we have met a couple of people who seem interested! The hardest part is staying in contact and getting a second lesson though, so hopefully this week we can do that! 

Last week, we went to the POW museum in Andersonville, and I think I remember saying last week that it was low key super sad, but still really cool. Later that day, we got to meet one of the people that the Elders before us were teaching and she was super nice. We scheduled another time to stop by, but spoiler alert, it didn’t end up happening because she was feeling sick :/. 

Tuesday, we had district council, which was really good! We had a lesson with this guy we met two weeks ago, and boy oh boy he can TALK!! Lessons with talkers are always difficult because the discussion can go in so many different directions and most of the time most of the ways it goes is off topic to who know what haha! This lesson wasn’t too bad, but it was definitely a struggle to stay on topic, but we did get to teach about prayer. 

Wednesday, we got to go to the Food bank again and help them out. That was super fun! Always a good experience when we get to serve the community in a way that is not normally what people would expect us to do. The rest of the day, we pretty much had contacts, and then in the evening the priests surprised us by saying they want to help us make a facebook video for us. So we went to young men’s activity with them and started making a video with them. It is not done yet, but I’ll most definitely share it when it is done! In the evenings every week, we also help the Spanish Sisters teach English Class. This coming week, I think that we are in charge of teaching, so that’ll be fun.

Thursday, we had weekly planning and then the start of our exchanges. I went to the Macon area, which is right in the middle of the city. It isn’t the biggest city in Georgia, but it is definitely bigger than most of the cities that I’ve been in. We had really good exchanges, and I was with Elder Buckway. He is super awesome and I am glad that we got to work together. It was kind of a crazy night because there were like 4 lessons that were set up all in very different places, but they all kept cancelling right as we got there; so we were traveling from one side of the city to the other and it was pretty hectic, but good nonetheless. 

Friday, we finished our exchanges strong! We did get to have one of the lessons they scheduled go through and it was a super good lesson! We got to introduce the Book of Mormon to this sweet older lady and the spirit was super strong and I have no doubt that she is going to read it!! So that was pretty amazing. After Exchanges, we pretty much just had contacts and then a somewhat combined lesson with the Sisters because one of the people they are teaching asked for a blessing, so we got to teach about those and give her one. That is always a super neat experience :). 

Saturday, we visited a bunch of members. A lot of them ended up being less active (we didn’t know), so it was probably a good thing that we were able to visit them haha. It is always interesting with less active members though, they are either going to be super nice, or not. We definitely had both ends of the spectrum on Saturday haha. Some of them kindly had us in, and others not so much lol. But either way, it was good to be able to get to know the ward a bit better because we are still getting to know everyone. 

Sunday, we had good church services :). There were some really good talks and lessons that we got to learn. We had good reports and a nice dinner with the Neary fam. We set up some lessons for later in the week, so hopefully we’ll be able to have those go through :).

Spiritual thought this week is the new Book of Mormon Videos! If you haven’t had a chance to see them, I actually really enjoy them :). The new ones that are coming out every Friday is 3 Nephi, which is Jesus Christ’s Ministry to the Nephite people! I think it is super cool the way that they have done it, and it helps me to picture kind of what it might have looked like way back in those times. A lot of the emotions that are visible are how I imagined they would be, and well, you should definitely watch them :). 

I hope that y’all have a fantastic week this week!! Don’t forget to smile 🙂 -Elder Claussen

Hi everyone!

What a crazy week! Full of meetings, finding, and some teaching! Can’t believe that it’s already been another week, but here we are again ??.

Last Monday, we went to Bucees and that was quite an experience! Everything I was hoping and expecting lol. The whole place is massive and there were sooo many people! We went finding in the evening and had a good lesson.

Tuesday, we had ZLC, which is where the leadership in the Zone comes together and talks about missionary works. Immediately after that, we went to get food at this Mexican place and then went straight to district council. That was also good. For the rest of the day that we had left, we went finding and knocked a few neighborhoods.

Wednesday, we got to do some service at the food pantry where we took food out to people’s cars, and that reminded me of my old job at Walmart, so that was fun haha. I think we get to go there every week too! The rest of the day was finding until at the end of the day we helped teach English class again. This time there were 3 people who came and they were super awesome!

Thursday, we had a couple of lessons that went super good! And then we had weekly planning and planned out the week. That takes such a long time, and so that is all we really had time for.

Friday was the special one! We had to wake up at 6:00 so we could get ready and leave on time to go to the temple!! ? That was such an awesome experience and I am so grateful for the opportunity to go to the temple!! It really is such a special place; the house of the Lord!! Right after the Temple, we had Zone Conference where where we got to hear from our Mission president and have some really good trainings, so that was fantastic!! Traffic on the way home was crazy, but #tendermercies, the new youth album dropped so we had new songs to listen to in the way home ?.

Saturday, we had like 6 lessons happen! All of them were super good and it was nice to be able to teach a lot and see that our finding efforts are working :). So it was a super busy day, but it was a really good day!

Sunday, church was super awesome and we had good reports and good finding! We had a member dinner and had noodles, so that was really good too!!

That leads us into a spiritual thought kind of from General Conference from the temple point of view. And also some things that I’ve been thinking about from some things I’ve talked about with my fam. In the temple we make covenants and become a Covenant people. President Nelson this last General Conference really emphasized the power that comes with these covenants, and it is how we can find true rest. As we keep the covenants we make with exactness, the Lord is bound to hold up his side of the Covenant.

On the other hand, as we don’t live up to our covenants, we have no promise from the Lord, and we become more susceptible to sin. The Adversary wants to do everything in his power to make us feel trapped and like we can’t go on; but ultimately, that is simply not true! There is always hope!

That got me thinking to just how much power we really do recieve when we make and keep Covenants with the Lord! My invitation for this week is to think about the Covenants you have made or will make and think about what power comes from them :). As the prophet has said, living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way that we will find true rest! I know that the Covenants we make are important, and they have great power that comes when we keep them. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love y’all have a great week! -Elder Claussen

Hey Everyone!

What a crazy week! I am now in Warner Robins, GA and I’m whitewashing again! I don’t have a bunch of time right now, but I’ll try to give a good recap of what’s happened.

Monday, we had my last pday in Phenix City. We went to Columbus and played basketball and volleyball. I also spent a lot of time packing, so that was pretty much my whole PDay haha.

Tuesday, I don’t even remember what we did. I’m pretty sure that we made contacts and I said goodbye to the few people that I met in that transfer. I got some pictures with some peeps and other than that it was a pretty normal day.

Wednesday was transfers! We had to wake up and get ready earlier than normal so we could all make it to the transfer meeting. This is when I found out I was going to Warner Robins and my new comp is Elder Lettich. He is super cool!

Thursday, we had weekly planning. As we are whitewashing, we have the notes from the Elders who were before us, but we don’t know anyone in our area. It was cool to still be able to plan and let the spirit guide our planning. We had a good weekly planning session though, and I’d say that was a success!

Friday, we hit the streets to get to know our new area. Overall, our area is actually not very big, but there are a lot of neighborhoods with a lot of houses, so we definitely still have places to be, so that is good!  We met some cool people, but still didn’t meet any of the friends that the other Elders were teaching.

Saturday was pretty much the same as Friday, we spent the whole day finding and trying to meet as many people as we could. We met this one guy in the morning who said to come back later in the day. We said we will see him at 6:30 and he said that would work. When we actually showed back up at 6:30, he was really impressed and didn’t expect us to actually come back, so now he said we can come over every Saturday and have lessons with him! Definitely pays off to keep our commitments (especially when we expect our friends to keep theirs haha!)

Sunday was really nice! We got to go to church and it was fast and testimony meeting, so it was nice to be able to see so many members talk. It was kind of weird being in a ward with kids again, because there were a lot of noises compared to Fort Benning, but it was still super good! We got to meet quite a few members, and it was overall a good Church services day. 

For a spiritual thought, I’m not going to lie I haven’t really thought of something to share today. Something that Elder Lettich and I have been studying is how the Book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul. This has been a really cool study, because there are so many scriptures that are in the Book of Mormon that answer perfectly a lot of questions that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find in scriptures (some of them can be a stretch, but can be explained and make sense). One of the questions I studied was if God hears and answers our prayers. That one was really cool to study, because it helped me realize that the Book of Mormon even being here is an answer to so many of those prophets who wrote in it back when it was being written. One cool example of this is when Enos is praying and one of the things that he prays for is for his brethren the Lamanites to be able to read the things he is writing. Fast forward a couple thousand years, and now we have the opportunity to read what he wrote!! Overall, it has been a really cool study in the Book of Mormon, and I would 100% recommend and invite you to continue/start reading it ;). 

I love you all and hope that you are having a fantastic week!! -Elder Claussen

Hey everyone!

 Hope this finds everyone doing well! It has been another good week, and there was a lot of good stuff that happened. (The classical missionary email haha. No details ?).

Last Monday, we went to Gloria street, and we had a really good lesson with one of our friends. They are having a harder time with some family things and work, but other than that, they are doing really good! I can’t remember if I shared how we met her already, but it was her grandson that was actually playing down the street a while ago. He saw us and asked who we were. When we told him we teach about Jesus, he immediately said that his grandma sings songs about Jesus all the time. Her grandson then took us to her house and we have been teaching her ever since.

Tuesday, it was pretty much a day of contacts. I can’t really remember anything exciting that happened. We had a lesson with this lady who also had so much happening with her family and it was actually kinda sad to hear, but we did help her find hope in Jesus Christ, so that was cool.

Wednesday, we went to the projects and met a bunch of new people. there was one mom and daughters who were doing a Hot Chip Challenge from Tick Toc, so that was kinda random. 

Thursday, we had weekly planning. Highlight of the day was when we had dinner with Sister Craddock. We had a nice southern meal that was super good!

Friday, we had Lunch at Sister Lowery’s house and had grits for the first time. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t hate them, but I’m not sure what all the hype is about. The egg casorel dish on the other hand, that was to die for. Then in the evening, there was someone that Elder Jensen met on exchanges that texted us asking if we wanted to have dinner with him at this mexican restaurant. Of course we said yes, so we had an awesome dinner with this guy that I had never met before ?.

Saturday, we had General Conference!!!! That was pretty hype. I’m going to talk more about that in just a sec. But Saturday night, we got transfer news, and turns out I am leaving!! Don’t know where I am going yet, but next week I will be in a different area. 

Sunday, Brother Powell got baptized at Fort Benning. We were teaching him since lesson two, so it was cool to see his progression to baptiss!! That was cool :). Then we went back to the apartment and watched general conference  and that was pretty fantastic. For the Sunday Evening Session, we got to go back to Sister Craddock’s house and watch that session with her. Her doggy was my conference buddy andhe sat next to me the whole time :). 

For a spiritual thought, I thought I share one of my take-a-ways from Conference. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if President Nelson told everyone that the Second Coming is going to be in a few years haha. I did love his talk about finding rest and peace in the world. I don’t remember the exact quote, but I think he said something to the extent that we shouldn’t waste our time trying to find joy in things that will never bring joy. life isn’t going to be easy, but through the hard times, we can find so much more joy than if we didn’t go through them. Ultimately, it is so important to remember that everything that we go through, all of our trials as we turn to the Savior, will be for our gain. Our afflictions are but for a moment in the eternal perspective of things. 

Stuff has really been getting crazy in the world, but that has been prophecied haha. So fear not, and continue to grow your faith in Jesus Christ :). 

I love y’all and hope that you have a great week!! -Elder Claussen

Hi all!

I hope that everyone’s had a good week! I’m a broken record, so I have to say it again, this week has flown by!

Monday, we went to Columbus and played volley ball and chair soccer. I’m not exceptionally good at either of those, but we all still had a good time anyways. Monday evening we went back to Gloria Street and that place never fails to disappoint! We have people we’ve met from pretty much every house on that street, and the streets are always alive at night which makes it easy to talk because people are always out.

Tuesday, we had District council and a crap ton of contacts. At the very end of the day, we met this lady who was probably not all the way there, but she started talking to us and literally didn’t stop for 2 hours!! People in the south like to talk, but this lady knew how to TALKKK! Somewhat exhausting, but we barely made it home in time.

Wednesday, we were on the page, so we spent what felt like wayyy to much time on Facebook. It was productive work, but just a long time haha. We got to go to a primary missionary get to know you activity so that was fun :).

Thursday, we had weekly planning and missionary correlation meeting. We were supposed to have pickleball, but Noone showed up ??, so hopefully this week we will have people show so we can play again!

Friday, we had another exchange where I went across the hall to Phenix City 1 with Elder West. We made some super awesome contacts and had some really good lessons. There was one street we went to and met some Jehovah Witnesses and they were actually super nice. They had some good questions and it turned out to be a really cool contact!! They askebdif we wanted something to drink and I said no thank you because I don’t like soda (true statement). They asked if I wanted water, and I said sure. They then came out with a Kia (car brand) cup and said I could keep it because they had a lot of them? ? That was pretty funny to me haha. 

Saturday, we unexchsnged and went to the projects and had some good contacts.

Sunday, we taught the first lesson at Fort Benning and there were 32 new people there and we had a really good lesson there on base.

For a spiritual thought today, I wanted to share a scripture 2 Corinthians 5:7. It was sent to me in a meme yesterday, but I really ended up liking it haha. It says, “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)” First of all, there is a smiley face in the Bible! But it also teaches a very important principle!! Faith is such an important principle and is the first principle in the Gospel of Jesus Christ :).

I hope that everyone has a good week this week! Find opportunities to serve others and also don’t forget to watch General Conference!! It is going to be a good one :).

Love y’all, Elder Claussen

Hey Everyone!

How’s it been going this week? I feel like Everton I’ve talked to so far has said that this has been a long week. I can’t believe it’s already Monday though! Crazy how time works. Fun scripture about time is Alma 40:8.

Not going to lie, this week was full of contacts and lessons falling through, so sorry in advance if that is all I say for a day ?.

Monday was pretty much just contacts for pros time. We played chair soccer for most of PDay, so that was fun. 

Tuesday, our lessons canceled so we knocked doors that were around their houses. We did have a member dinner that was super awesome though! It was two Sisters in the ward and their guy friend (so we could come over). All three of them are on the army, so we got to hear a bunch of cool stories about their trainings and helicopters and such, and overall twas a good dinner haha.

Wednesday, I honestly can’t remember anything other than Contacts and finding during the day. It was funny for one of them because they started freestyling (rapping) over the phone, and I don’t think this friend of ours was a the way there, but that was super funny. In the evening, we got to be at the church for youth night and got to play some football with the young men. 

Thursday, we had weekly planning. That always takes up so much of the day, but it is definitely an important part of the week. Thursday nights the Phenix City ward is having a pickleball sports night, so we got to go to that. That was pretty cool and we got to meet some less Active members who we wouldn’t normally get to see!

Friday, was super crazy! We all woke up early to get ready and then traveled two hours to Macon, Georgia to go to Zone Conference/mission tour. Elder Matthew Holland (Elder Jeffrey Holland’s son) came to our mission and got to talk with us. He had some really cool things that he taught us and there were some really cool insights. One of the big themes I noticed was becoming a more converted disciple of Jesus Christ. Until us as missionaries are converted, we aren’t going to have nearly as much success. I think that it was a really powerful meeting and the spirit was super strong!! 🙂

Saturday, we had another exchange where Elder Chapman and I were in Phenix City 3 (my area). Because we had no miles, we called our peeps we were going to have lessons with, but they all canceled, so we ended up making a bunch of calls and Facebook work so we wouldn’t waste miles. We had dinner at Elder and Sister Lyon’s house who is the senior couple who help with the Military relations. It was a good dinner.

Sunday, we taught Lesson 5 at Fort Benning and both of the soldiers who we taught said that the were wanting to be baptized and accepted that invitation!! So next week they will be interviewed and the next week after that, they will get baptized! :). They are two super awesome soldiers and I am really excited for them!! That was definitely the highlight of Sunday!! ? The rest of the day, we had contacts and reports.

That leaves us to today, where we went to the store and then I cleaned the bathroom haha.

For a spiritual thought today, I want to do it on an analogy that Elder Holland gave to us. It was about being an Escalator Mission vs an Elevator mission. One thing that I’ve noticed before is that one week we find a lot of people and a lot of people come to church and then the next there is like no one, and then randomly there will be spikes. That is what he said an “elevator mission” is. That is compared to an escalator mission where it is a smooth constant improving increase of souls that are found and so on.

As everyone reading this is probably not a missionary, that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but I wanted to relate that to our spiritual growth. How often do we have some weeks where we read the scriptures every day and do great, and then the next week we slack and only read one? Or have a super awesome spiritual experience and then forget about it two days later? One thing that keeps on coming up is improving little by little one step and 1% at a time. Our improvement might not be as fast as we want it to be, but as we do it slow and steady, it is sustainable and ultimately more sturdy and then you are able (in my opinion) to have that steady joy that the gospel brings :).

I just thought that this was a really cool thought and thought I’d share :). My invitation today is to think about how you can help yourself improve your spiritual momentum and keep it going as an Escalator and not an elevator. Jesus Christ will help you as you do this. He wants to see you grow and do even better! If you ever need help, you can always turn to him, and his arm will always be stretched out still. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Hope y’all have a great week!! Love you!

-Elder Claussen

Email from September 12, 2022

Hey All! 

Hope that everyone has had a good week! This week has definitely been super busy and we got a LOT done!

Monday, we had P-Day where we went to Columbus building again and played basketball with all of the elders in our district (there are so many!) Then, for pros time, we went out and found 2 new people! One of the people we found was just walking down the street and he was trying to sell his stuff to get extra cash. We did the thing any missionary should do and said we don’t have cash, but we have a message that will bless and change your life for the good. He seemed super down and we gave him a Book of Mormon. We met him at a McDonalds later in the week, and turns out he is moving to Columbus, so hopefully we will be able to get him in contact with those Missionaries!

Tuesday, we had District Council which was really good. We talked about asking good questions and making sure that the questions we ask are simple and help those we are teaching to learn instead of confuse them. (That is a LOT easier said than done haha). Later that day, we visited a referral and they were kind of funny. At first, they were super skeptical and suspicious of why we where there. They said they remembered making a request to meet with us but didn’t know why they did. We bore testimony about restored truths and his whole demeanor changed. It was cool to see how the spirit works and can help people receive the gospel! Hopefully he keeps having an open heart and we can teach him the restored gospel!

Wednesday, we had a lesson with another one of our friends and found them, and they have gone through some hard situations, but they are troopers and are going to be super cool to teach. That evening, we went to Gloria Street and it was such a cool experience. Every single person we talked to wanted to learn more about the gospel! We now have information for almost every single house in this neighborhood, this street truly was elect!!

Thursday, we had weekly planning. That is pretty much all we had time for that day because we have been finding like crazy and have a lot of peeps to plan for! It was a good planning session though. We were going to have a pickleball game at the church, but that is going to be starting up this next week every Thursdays, so that should be fun!

Friday, we had exchanges. I stayed in our room and Elder Jensen went across the hall to the other room haha. Elder West also moved across the hall to me, and Elder Chapman stayed in his room too. (don’t know if that makes sense, but oh well haha). We had really good exchanges! We did some good Facebook work, and then Elder West got locked out of his Facebook account because we were doing too much missionary work it thought he was a bot. In the Morning, we had a study with Sister Farias, which was actually super cool. I guess something new that President Farias and his wife are doing is having comp studies with all of the missionaries in the mission. We ended up having some really good lessons with some people and found a bunch of new people that we now get to teach! One of the people that we met 100% reminded me of Jeremy, so that was funny and a #tendermercy. His mannerisms and facial expressions were almost identical, and he was a super nice guy! 

Saturday, we ended exchanges and had some more good lessons. We are pretty much out of miles with the car, so we parked somewhere and walked a bunch. it was kind of unfortunate, but it started to pour rain, so we got completely soaked. This was the first time that I took a shower in a suit. we went back home, and I had to change because I was just too wet. 

Sunday, We got to go to Fort Benning again, and we taught the soldiers the Commandments lesson and I’d say that went pretty good. There were 5 of the soldiers who said that they wanted to be baptized, so I’m not quite sure how that works on base, but that will be super exciting!! Next week will be lesson 5, which is the last lesson that they need before baptism, so that will be fun to learn how to do all of that! Later Sunday evening, we decided to walk to a neighborhood that is like 20 minutes away and we did actually meet some really cool people! Unfortunately for us though, before we even started to go back home, it started pouring rain again, this time even harder and longer than it was on Saturday! Let’s just say that from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet were 100% soaked. So that was a fun adventure. Even this morning, my shoes and pants are still wet, so hopefully I can get them dry before they get damaged haha ?. I’m sure that they will be fine though. (But that was the second time that I took a shower in a suit)

And now today, we went shopping and are now at the Columbus Library, which I think is literally the biggest library I’ve ever been to in my whole life! It is like 4? Stories of just massiveness!! Definitely worth a google search to see pictures of it, because it is actually a really nice building. There are computers here too, so I can actually type haha (hence the longer email). 

As for a spiritual thought, I want to share a scripture that I really liked this week. It is 3 Nephi 17:20. 

“And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.” 

There are some key words that I would like to point out in this verse. “Blessed”, “Faith”, and “Joy”. Because of the faith of the Nephites, they were blessed. In their obedience and faith, they found Joy! Not only did they find joy, but Jesus Christ also found joy! 

This points out two true principles. First, as I already mentioned, Obedience to God’s commandments brings blessings and joy. Second, Jesus Christ finds joy as we are obedient as well. As we are trying to be like Jesus, we can then say that as other people are being obedient and having joy, we can have joy too! That is why missionary work has the potential to bring so much joy into our lives. 🙂

That is kind of a round about way of thinking, and kind of a round about way to get to the point of how we can receive true, lasting joy so I hope that it makes sense. We can only receive joy after we know what it is like to not have joy (opposition in all things), so one of the miracles of the gospel is that we can get eternal happiness with our Heavenly Father if we endure this life the best that we can. Happiness with our loved ones forever. Know that the crappy times are not always fun, but it just means you are being prepared for something that much better. 

I love you all, and know that God loves you too! I hope that you have a great week, and I will write next week!

-Elder Claussen

emailed on August 29, 2022

Hi everyone!

What an absolutely crazy week!! As the title suggests, I am in Alabama now still in the Georgia Atlanta mission ?. I’m in the lovely area of Phenix City 3! This wasn’t an area before Wednesday, so we are whutewashing/opening the area. It’s the second time I’m whitewashing into an area, so that’s fun. It is nice because we are splitting Phenix City 1 on half, so we don’t have to start from complete scratch, but  it is still mad chaos lol.

Monday, we had a last district P-Day with the Stilesboro district. We played chair soccer, so that was fun. The rest of PDay was pretty much used for packing though haha.

Tuesday was so crazy! We definitely overbooked ourselves trying to say goodbye to all of our friends and members, so we said goodbye to as many as we could, but ended up having to call the rest.

Wednesday morning was hectic. We had to be out of the apartment by 8:45 so we could make it to a lesson with one of our friends. Let me tell you, it was one of the best lessons that I’ve ever been in so far on the mission! It was actually such a fire lesson!! The spirit was strong, and our friend asked good questions and overall was just fantastic. Immediately after the lesson, we went straight to Peachtree city for transfers!!! That is where I found out I was going to Phenix City! That night, we went out and we found two friends who we have another lesson with on Wednesday. Hopefully, that goes well! It already seems like the people here are a lot more receptive to learning more, so I am excited to see what Elder Jensen and I can do this next transfer!!

Thursday, we didn’t have an areabook in the morning because the system took forever to get us in. We ended up going out for a bit after we got our studies done. Alabama heat hits different though, it is a lot more humid ?. Probably because we are right next to the Chattahoochee, but I feel like it’s fine. Not sure if I mentioned that I am in a 4 Elder apartment now too, so we are also rooming with Elder West and Elder Chapman. We did get our areabook by Thursday evening, so we planned for the rest of the night.

Friday, honestly…I don’t remember what happened ?. I think we were on the page, so we did a bunch of Facebook work, so that was fun. I’m sure we probably went our to explore our new area a bit more haha.

Saturday, we went to a baptism for Sister Lowery who is in the other Phenix City area, and it was a super spirit felt baptism :). It is always a sweet experience being able to go to peeps baptisms :). Then we had studies and went out to find more people. (our areabook is pretty much empty, so we are prolly going to stay on the Finding for a while ??)

Sunday was actually super cool. We got to go to Fort Benning, which is the military base in Columbus. There is a branch there where there are a bunch of soldiers in basic training who get to go to church. The first hour, those who aren’t members get to go to rooms where a bunch of missionaries (us) get to go and teach them! Elder Jensen and I got to teach Lesson 2, so that was super cool! There were 14 privates who now know what the Atonement of Jesus Christ is 🙂 love it!! That was super cool!  After that, we went to the Phenix City building and made it for the last 20 mins of Second Hour. As I am no longer District Monkey (comp to District Leader) we actually had time to find, so we hit the streets and explored the area some more, which was good :).

And that leaves us to today where we cleaned a bit and are now at the Columbus building, which is low key weird because I haven’t been here for 6 months. But, there are a lot of missionaries here, so that’s cool ?.

Spiritual thought today is that Jesus Christ’s Atonement is the plan. Not the back up plan in case we mess up, but the plan so when we mess up, we can repent. It is infinite, and there is great power that comes from it. Don’t be afraid to repent because it might seem scary. We are all going to mess up, but in the end, turning to the Savior and using His Atonement will Always be the right and best thing to do. Something we got to teach the soldiers was that even though the times that are not easy, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He knows exactly how to help you, and as you pray, you can be confident that whatever you are going through is going to ultimately be for your gain in the end. I am grateful to be able to teach these restored truths and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all!! Hope y’all have a great week!!

-Elder Claussen

Email from August 22, 2022

Hi everyone!

What a crazy week. It literally flew by so fast I don’t even know haha. Full disclosure, I only have like 20 minutes to write today, so I will do my best to include everything!

Monday, we ended up having two really long lessons with two of our friends that took the whole time of teaching time. 

Tuesday, we had District council and then exchanges. This time I went to Hiram area with Elder Dodge. Exchanges were super awesome and we got some good work done! We found someone, but turns out later in the follow up appointment (that was after exchanges) they just wanted to bash, haha. The story I heard is “I dabbled in the Book you gave me,” but what she talked about was actually all anti things. But it was still a good exchange nonetheless!!

Wednesday, we unexchanged and went to Burger King to do that. We had coupons so I’d say I got a good deal ?. The rest of the day, we pretty much just went finding with all of the finding options. I’m sure we met a lot of cool cool people, but honestly with this week, we met new people everyday, so I can’t remember which day was which ?.

Thursday, we had weekly planning which was good (as always). Then in the evening we got to go to the youth activities and pop in and say hi to them. That was super cool because it reminded me of the Missionaries back home coming to our activities haha. 

Friday, we did some service outside, but it started pouring buckets of rain out of nowhere!! So we had to rain check that one, literally ??☔☔. The rest of the day because it was rainy we made phone calls and Facebook work. 

Saturday, we did you guess it, more finding!! We also did some service for this lady who somehow got our phone number, and her grass came all the way to our knees!! It was kinda crazy, but the little tiny electric mower she had did surprisingly well. So that was an interesting experience! There was definitely poison ivy/oak, but I think we got away safe without any harm… So that was good! Saturday night we got transfer news, and it turns out I am leaving Stilesboro! I have been here for 6 months, so I was kind of expecting it, but it will be sad to say goodbyes. It will be good to have change though too ?. 

Sunday, was a good day. Good Sacrament meeting. We got to sit in with the youth and had an awesome lesson about repentance and forgiveness. It was overall a good day! We tried to find someone, but the address we had took us to a hotel haha, so we didn’t know which room they were in. We ended up getting a call from them today though, so that was pretty fantastic as we have a lesson with them in like 2 minutes ?.

Spiritual thought today is about Jesus Christ. President Farias invited us to read all of the scriptures in the Topical Guide about Jesus Christ and there are like 60 sub-topics with that? But it has been so cool to see the perfect example of my Savior Jesus Christ, and I have learned so much already, and I haven’t even gotten through the Jesus Christ section! 

I wish I had more time, but I don’t, so I will write next week! I hope y’all have had a great week!! Love you all! 🙂

-Elder Claussen

Email from August 15, 2022

Hey all!

It’s been a good week! We have definitely worked super hard, and this week has flown by. President Farias has put a huge emphasis on finding these last two weeks, and as a mission, we are doing super good! It is really cool to see the miracles that have been happening in the mission, because we believe in miracles!

Monday, our lesson fell through, so we pretty much made a bunch of phone calls. That was pretty much the excitement of Monday haha. We didn’t have a district p-day, and we cleaned and did laundry, but that’s pretty much it. 

Tuesday, we had a Zone Leadership Council (ZLC) and that was super good. The Zone Leaders had some really cool things that they learned from Mission Leader Council (MLC), and some really cool insights that we got to learn from. We have been challenged to find someone new every single day, so that has been the goal! To consider someone officially ‘new’ you have to teach a lesson with them and have a return appointment. We didn’t get that every day, but we did meet new people that did seem interested every day! Every day, there have been really cool experiences where we were in the right place at the right time and got to meet some really cool people.

Wednesday, we had district council in the morning. It was another super good district council! After District council, we went on exchanges, so Elder Suhaka came to Stilesboro for the day, and we crushed it! It was a super good exchange day, where we went to this neighborhood that had massive houses. We’ve never been there before, so we felt like it would be a good place to knock. We went to this house and there was someone who said that they had been praying for more, and then we showed up. Those are always cool moments to know the reason why you are somewhere :).

Thursday, we finished exchanges and went to Chick-fi-la for lunch and unexchanged there. We went to the store for a little bit of store contacting, and then to the Dallas building for interviews with President Farias. Interviews were running super late, so we ended up weekly planning at the church waiting for our interviews. Kind of a random fun fact, but I was the 3rd to last person in the entire mission to have my interview haha! The Macland Sisters were the last ones in the mission, so that’s fun haha. After interviews, we went to the Harris family’s house and had burgers. They were tasty.

Friday, we pretty much just had a bunch of finding. We called some peeps, knocked some doors, and we watched the mission Facebook page. Friday night, we had our first successful lesson with one of our friends who we’ve been teaching for a while now, and so that was super good to be able to teach a solid lesson :). 

Saturday, we decided to visit member’s houses and knock around their neighborhoods. We got to know some members that I didn’t know as well, and we met a lot of super cool people! We had housing inspections at like 4:45, so we went back to the apartment for that and got to see the Allred’s, so that was good! We were kind of out of miles at that point, so we stayed and called a bunch of people to invite them to church. There was one person who said they were out of town this weekend, but next week they would like to come! Hopefully we can follow up and remind them, and they will make it!

Sunday, Sacrament meeting was super good. There was a new family that just moved in named the Sheen family, and they gave some really good talks. We went to the Young Men/Young Woman’s classes for second hour because we wanted to try to hype up the youth about missionary work. That was fun haha! The rest of the day, we had reports and went to dinner at the Bleazard’s house. They are awesome!

That brings us to today! Today, we went to an old Pickett’s Mill battlefield hike with the District. It was super cool! The hike reminded everyone about Utah haha because it was hilly and rocky a little bit. After that, we went to the church and played some games.

For a spiritual thought, this week, we have also been invited to read all of the scriptures in the Topical Guide about Jesus Christ. I’ve decided to just start in the section called “Jesus Christ” and not one of the 50+ subtopics (there’s a lot!). This section gives a summary/overview of the life of Jesus Christ, and it has actually been really cool to read from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John not as a book, but in parallel with all of the books. (for example, read Jesus Getting Baptized in Matthew, then mark, then Luke, etc.). It has been really cool to see the different points of view, and it has helped me make a more accurate timeline of His life. There are some stories that I have read time and time again, but because I am reading it in the (arguably) correct context, it has meant so much more to me to learn about my Savior. To be able to study and learn about Him has helped me to see what I can do better and how I can become a more converted Disciple of Jesus Christ. 

This week has been a super awesome week, and I hope that all is well for everyone back home! I have 100% slacked in writing emails to everyone (once again), so I apologize! Know that I do read all of the emails that I receive from y’all, and I love to hear from everyone!! I hope that everyone has a fire week, and I will write next week!

-Elder Claussen