eMailed on February 7, 2022

Hi everyone!

I feel like I say this everything, but what a crazy week! It feels like this week I have learned so much, and it was overall just a really good week :)!

Last Monday was fun because we got a car wash, haircuts, Icecream, and exploring through Americus a bit. We’ve been in Americus for a while transfer, but until last week, we read never explored the town square! There are some pretty fun shops and stuff, and some cool things that were kind of fun to find. Kinda random, but there was this antique store and it had a bunch of old antique things, but then in the back of the store they just had a stand that had a bunch of Dr. Squatch soap! You’d better believe that I did get some of that stuff 😉

That leads us to Tuesday, where we pretty much had a bunch of contacts and a bunch of lessons, pretty good day! At the end of Tuesday night we went up to Columbus for District Council and stayed at the ZL’s Apartment again because it was zone conference on Wednesday! Before district council, we went to panda express, which was yummy, so that was fun.

Wednesday was Zone Conference. While no it was not a whole mission Christmas Party, it was still super good nonetheless! We talked a lot about how we can be better missionaries, and there were some really good things that I learned, that hopefully I can apply to my every day life! We also talked about Facebook and the success that we are seeing from that, and it is crazy! In just the Month of January, the Georgia Atlanta Mission reach over 1,000,000 people!! One Million people is a lot of people ?!!! So that was super cool to see the growth from 500-600 hundred thousand in December to to a whole million in January! 

Thursday, we had Weekly planning, a lesson, and dinner with the Pearces. We Filmed Sister Pearce for a facebook video, and so that was fun and should be posted soon? 😉 But we ate food, and had a nice spiritual thought about faith, and shared a video of the youngest professional soccer player, which was nice.

Friday, we had quite a few lessons, and we also went around Cordele for the day because in our AreaBook, there are a lot of people who say they’re members, so we went by to their houses to see how they are. I’m not sure if we found any of the members because all of them have either moved or passed away, but we did meet a lot of cool people that we’ll hopefully be able to teach! 

Saturday, was super busy! We had a lot of lessons and worked on making posts and editing videos. It was pretty much non-stop contacts and lessons, so we definitely stayed busy and time just flew by!!

Sunday was really nice! We had our friend Malcolm come to church, which was amazing! We set up a lesson for later today, and so hope fully that goes through! We also had a fantastic lesson with Johnnie, and he is also such a cool guy! We taught the Plan of Salvation, and it was a really good lesson! Elder Harmon and I have been working at teaching as a companionship instead of just talking to people individually, and I think that we did a really good job at that! 

Johnnie’s lesson went a little late, but we looked at the schedule and it was such a tender mercy because we got out at exactly the time that we planned to start driving to our next lesson! We tried calling our next lesson to make sure we were still good to come out, because it was a bit farther away than our normal lessons, but he didn’t answer. We both still felt like we should go anyways and make the trek down to his house to see if he was home. When we got there, we saw our friends truck there, so we were excited because that usually meat he was home! As we were praying before the lesson, we had some taps on the window of the car, so that was a little bit strange! We quickly ended the prayer and there was this lady that was just looking at us (it was a little creepy, but what happened next was soooo sweeett!!) We said hi, and then she asked if we were LDS, and so we told her, yeah, we are the Missionaries in the area! She was so happy to see us, and she said she is a recent convert from Kansas (I think it was Kansas?) And she moved here a bit ago, and has recently been trying to find missionaries! 

It was actually a really neat experience because it was a really good reminder that Heavenly Father truly is looking out for each and every one of his Children! It was no coincidence that we were in the literal middle of nowhere, at that time, on a Sunday evening, where we could get this Lady’s phone number because she has been looking for missionaries. If everything didn’t line up just right, then there is no way that it would have happened, except by a miracle from Heavenly Father :).

This week, for my spiritual thought, I think that I’m going to talk about the Gathering of Israel. It might turn into something else, but we shall see! [POST WRITTEN: I did stay on topic mostly lol, but it’s long, so I understand if you skip to the last paragraph;)] President Nelson for the past few years has been teaching a lot about the Gathering of Israel! He says that it is the most important work on the earth today, which is a Very bold statement! Out of everything that is happening right now, the Gathering of the house of Israel is what the Prophet, who has been called by God, is the most important work. But what exactly is the Gathering of Israel? A gathering is where you bring something together, and Israel means to let God Prevail. So in a literal sense, it means we are bringing together people who Let God Prevail. One could also say that it is bringing together the 12 tribes of Israel, which in that literal sense would be having descendants come together from all around the world, which we do see in the Scriptures that this will happen too. 

But why is the Gathering of Israel so important? I have asked myself this question a lot in the last few weeks because as a Missionary, I am helping to gather Israel. My missionary purpose is to help others come unto Christ, which in the first definition, is bringing together Israel, and in the second definition, through our patriarchal blessings, we learn that we are literal descents of those same tribes of Israel, so as a missionary, or in any missionary attempts that anyone makes is helping to gather Israel. But that still doesn’t answer why it is so important. 

From the beginning of the earth, even in the time of the Jaradites (the Book of Ether in the BOM), which happened close to the time after the flood of Noah, God had prepared a land to be choice above all other lands. God made a promise that, “whoso should posses this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them…For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands;” (Ether 2:8,10). Then we see that they prospered in the land,  and did flourish in blessings until they did forget the Lord their God and we know that the Jaradite people had great wars until Coriantumr was the last one to find the descents of Nephi (found in Omni). 

We see this pattern with Nephi thousands of years later, where there was wickedness, and they flee and the Lord directs them to the promised land, in which the Lord tells Nephi the same covenant he made with the Brother of Jared, in that as long as they remember the Lord their God, they shall prosper and shall see His blessings. And if they don’t, then they shall be scattered and lost. Throughout the rest of the Book of Mormon we see this pattern, where as people are righteous and Remember God, and keep their covenants that they’ve made, they prosper and grow. But as they forget their covenants and forget God, they ultimately lead themselves to destruction. Nephi saw all this from reading the Book of Isaiah, and from the Brass Plates (plus other things of course ;)). I would assume this is why he is sorrowful when he says he has seen the fall of his people, because he saw what was going to happen when Columbus did come, and his seed would be wicked, and the Lord would prepare the way for the Restoration. 

In 1 Nephi 13, throughout, it prophesies of Columbus finding the promised land, and the settling of the America that we know today. (Verses 10-13) In verses 16-19, it talks about the revolutionary War, and how we would win because we would remember God and would be “delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations.” In 1 Nephi 22:13-16 it explains how the fall of the Great and Abominable Church (which we learn is everyone who is not on the covenant path) will, “tumble to the dust and great shall be the fall of it” and then it hints towards the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; which in other locations you can find more signs of that! (Fires, plagues *cough* Covid19? *cough*, temples everywhere, etc.)

Needlesstosay, to bring it back to the Gathering of Israel, that is where we are now. We can see that great and abominable church or the world rising up, and all of those prophecies are coming to pass now. Amidst all of this though, it is sooo important for us to remember our God so we can continue to prosper in the land of Promise, and prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! (I want to say that President Oaks had a talk in a recent General Conerence on this??)

So why is the Gathering of Israel so important? It’s because it is bringing others to Jesus Christ, and helping them on their path to get to the Temple and make sacred covenants with God. It is proof that the prophecies in the Book of Mormon And the Bible are coming to pass! It helps to explain the scattering of Israel, and the pattern of the Love that our Heavenly Father has for us in bringing us back! It helps us to see how our Agency is truly a gift from God, and that we can use that Agency to follow Him. It can put into perspective life, and help keep our priorities straight and always putting God First.

I could go on and on with this list, but I would like to close in saying that President Nelson truly is a prophet of God. He knows what we all need to hear at this time today, and he will help us stay on the covenant path and will never lead us astray! The work of the Lord is hastening soo much, and I am so grateful that I can be a part of it! I know that we are truly part of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, and I know that it is so important to remember Him always.

My invitation to everyone this week is to go and read President Nelson’s talk: Let God Prevail (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/46nelson?lang=eng). It just came to mind after I finished writing this, and it fits perfectly :)! I know that as we DO let God Prevail that we WILL see the blessings in our life. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all!

-Elder Claussen