Hello Friends and Family!
What another crazy week! There was a lot of travel and a lot of meetings (good meetings, but meetings nonetheless)! I have determined that there is always something new to learn, and that the only way that it’s possible to try to start to learn is from the Holy Ghost :). He truly is the teacher in every lesson that we teach! It really is so important to always be in a place that you can feel the Holy Ghost!
To start at last Monday, we kinda did literally nothing! We chilled at the apartment, and then went to the church at 5:00 so Elder Harmon could call home and we could be there for our teaching time. I think that I did a load of laundry, cleaned my bathroom (maybe that was Tuesday though?), and wrote emails! Not much else happened haha! I’ll probably write about today later, because this week has been a weird one!
Tuesday, was fun! We got to do a bunch of in person’s for people that are in Americus. We went to a bunch of people’s houses, but there were only like 3 people that answered! It is still fun to do in person’s though, because it gets us out of the apartment! We also had 2 really good lessons with two of our Gloria’s. I think there are three people named Gloria that we are teaching right now! It is always funny to ask who we are teaching, then have to say which one?
Wednesday was pretty much a day of contacts and lessons. We stayed super busy, and I am not going to lie, I don’t remember much that happened on Wednesday other than contacts, Facebook, and lessons.
Thursday was when things started to get crazy! The morning was good, and we got a lot done, but in the evening, we went to Buena Vista, which is the half way point between Americus and Columbus and started Exchanges. There was a Member in Columbus that got us some Olive Garden. Apparently they are on vacation in Hawaii? So they ordered it, but they got food for 3 people on accident! We had three plates of Chicken Alfredo, Three Salads, and A Huge box of breadsticks! (There were 26 breadsticks in the box!!!) It was very tasty, and I very much enjoyed it haha! After that we went to another member’s house where we filmed one of their kids who had Bible verses for like the whole alphabet. It was very impressive, because they went A-I with a Bible verse memorized with that starting letter!
Friday, was when we had the rest oc exchanges. We had some in person’s we did get to go to a new members house that is moving into a new apartment. Funny story on that is that they used to live in the Americus Area, and so as they were moving, they called us to see who the Elders in Columbus were (because that is where she was moving). I thought it was so funny that the day that she was moving was the day we had exchanges and went to help, so that was a cool tender mercy :). After exchanges, we had district council, and so that was fun.
Saturday, we stayed in Columbus still because we had a training meeting, and so that was super fun to go to. We would have gone back to Americus after that, but Sunday was Stake Conference, so we decided to stay so we could go to that.
Which brings us to Sunday, which was Stake Conference. It was really good, and there were some really cool talks that were given! As my spiritual thought, I’ll probably share some of the message that was given there. But we saw some people from Americus that made it up to Columbus, but I think most of them probably watched it on Zoom.
Finally, that brings us to Today! As we are still in Columbus, my district wanted to do a District PDay, and so we are going to eat at Longhorn ($$$$) and then go back to the church and have a singles day awareness party! ???
And well, I guess that leaves me in Columbus for 5/7 days this week, and it will be at least two times over there next week, so I definitely don’t need to worry about not traveling enough!
For my spiritual thought today, I would like to share one of the themes of stake conference; healing. Healing is not being instantly better, but the process that it takes to be healed. It takes time, and it will always help you to grow closer to the Savior and become more like him. Sometimes healing might seem like a punishment, but Heavenly Father loves us enough to let us learn and figure things out, because we can and will become like him! Just like a parent watching their toddler learn how to walk. If you as a parent help them always, then your baby won’t grow the muscles that are needed to walk on our own. And likewise, as we heal and learn how to walk, Heavenly Father knows everything that we need to succeed! He knows which muscles that we need to develop. 🙂
I don’t think that I’ve seen a baby that has ever given up! They fall down, but they always get back up and try to walk again; Nothing will stop them! Even if we might not know how to do it, Heavenly Father will provide a way for us to do the things he’s commanded us. We might have to look at it from a different angle, and it will most certainly require lots of study and prayer, but as we take our first steps, we cannot give up. As we are healing from the struggles of life, we must push through and never give up! 🙂
It is my hope that I’ve given this topic justice for what we learned on Sunday. It was a really good conference, and I hope that the spirit can teach you what you need to hear right now :).
I think that’s everything for this week though! I hope that everyone’s week gets better than it already is, where ever it might be right now. I will write to y’all next week, and hope y’all have a good one! 🙂
-Elder Claussen
