email dated May 23, 2022
Hi guys!
Another week past, another month serving the lord! ? Yesterday (Sunday) was my 6th month mark! That’s so crazy!!! Low key feels like it’s only been like maybe half that?
But anywho, it has been a good week this week. Lots of contacts and lots of people we’ve been able to meet, so that is super awesome!
I think that I mentioned it last week but last Monday, we didn’t have a district Pday because we learned we are encouraged to not have them every week. My guess would be so we can actually get all of our Pday stuff that we need to get done lol. I won’t lie, it was nice to be able to actually rest a bit on Pday haha. We cleaned a bit, went shopping, did laundry, all of the fun stuff that we can’t really do throughout the week!
Tuesday, we had District Council, and so that was super good! After District Council, we also started Exchanges. This time, I went to the Hirum area and was with Elder Dodge! It was a good exchange, we got a bunch of in-persons, calls and studies done, so I’d say that it was successful!
Wednesday, we finished exchanges and then we got to go to the Makin’s house for dinner and had scones and Chile to make some Navajo tacos, and that was super tasty!! ? After that, we went to a member’s house in the macland area to help them move a very large filing cabinet down some stairs into the garage. It was cool, because I am pretty sure that the spirit gave us the strength to move it because it was super heavy, but we didn’t drop it or break anything in the process. So that was super good!
Thursday, we had Weekly planning. That’s always good to figure out what we are going to do for the week. Brother Farrar was out of town because he was at a table tennis tournament (I hope he did well!), so we didn’t get to go to his house. Hopefully this week we can make it, but we have housing inspections right when we usually go, so we shall see what ends up happening! We went to Dinner at the Curby’s house and had a Low Country Boil. I guess it is a southern classic meal where you get newspapers on the table and lay out a bunch of sausages and hot dogs and potatoes and stuff (or just have it in a big pile on a pan) and everyone grabs what they’d like to eat. I thought it was funny we were having the southern classic meal at their house because they are originally from Arizona; but it was still super tasty nonetheless ?.
Friday, we got to visit some less active houses and invite them to church. We did some service for a member where we picked up all of the pine-cones from her lawn. There were a Lot!! We went to a house that we met a couple of weeks ago and invited someome to the relief society activity that is happening on Thursday. We’re hoping that she is able to make it because then we could hopefully start teaching their family!! To end the day, we had an awesome lesson with one of our friends. He still doesn’t feel comfortable coming to church, so we brought up going to lunch with him and a member, so hopefully that ends up happening and working out.
Saturday, we hit it hard. We went to a bunch of people’s houses, and gave out a bunch of Book of Mormons! We sent a referral to Chicago of a guy we found in our areabook that moved over there. We can follow the people that we send, and it looks like the Elders over there did get to contact him already! So that was cool to see :).
Yesterday was normal, but a really good Sunday!! In Sacrament meeting, there were some really good talks about Charity and then second hour a really good lesson about Spiritual Momentum and President Nelson’s talk from general conference. We had reports, which went well! I pretty much just get to sit on the side and listen to all of the amazing things happening in everyone’s areas which is always good! 🙂
Random fun fact of the week: watermelon in the south just seems to be better. Maybe it’s just watermelon season, but man, they have been really good this week!! ?
And for a spiritual thought today, I am going to talk about Journaling! When you think about it, the first few books in the Book of Mormon is essentially just a family journal. When Mormon was abridging the records, in Words of Mormon, he explains how he kind of just found these records that were called the small plates of Nephi and he put it in his Book. I don’t think he had to abridge them as they were already the spiritual matters in their lives. One of the pieces of advice that Elder Christofferson gave us when he came was to write down all of our spiritual impressions and to journal as much as we could. As we do, it shows the Lord that we are taking what he tells us seriously. That it is important enough to write it down so we can remember the things we’ve learned. It is also proven that as we write things down, we are more likely to retain, and well if we forget, we can always look back and see what we learned.
My invitation today is to write down your thoughts sometime this week. It doesn’t have to be long; but take the time to write some of the things that you’ve been doing, things you’ve learned, and how you’ve been feeling. Most importantly, write ways that you have seen God’s hand in your life. In a few years, you’ll be able to look back and see how much you’ve changed, how much you’ve stayed the same. I don’t think that Nephi realized that the words that he wrote would be read by millions all around the world. Maybe he did towards the end, but regardless, now we have his writings, and they are awesome! I know you won’t regret it and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I hope that y’all have a fantastic week!! -Elder Claussen
