Hi everyone!
Hope that I catch everyone at a good time and that this week has treated y’all well. Honestly, this week has been pretty “normal” in the sense of missionary life, but there were still some cool things that have happened!
Last Monday was the last pday before transfers, so we all went to play sand volleyball at a park in Villa Rica, so that was fun. In the evening, we had a lesson planned, but it fell through because our friend was super busy as they just got back from vacation. We rescheduled and did end up getting to have their lesson later in the week, so that is super exciting!
Tuesday, we had district council and signed flight journals. That’s always a sad district Council when you have some people leaving, but it is super exciting to realize that we’ll see each other again in the future lol. We had our last official new member lesson with Sister Carillo, who has been able to go to the temple to do baptisms now!! We’ll probably still go over to read and help, but all of the new member lessons are done! There was a blood drive, so we peeked our heads in and said hi to the members who were helping with that, but then we ran away so the red cross couldn’t take our blood haha. The rest of the day we did visits and tried to find people to teach.
Wednesday, was transfer day, but since both Elder Fausett and I stayed in Stilesboro, that pretty much had no effect on us. So the entire day we spent finding trying to find people to teach. On Wednesday, right when we planned on going for in-persons, there was the biggest storm I’ve ever been in; there was sooooo much rain!! In a blink of an eye, there was so much rain falling from the sky! That was fun to drive in. I went about 10-15 miles under the speed limit most of the time?
Thursday morning, we had a service project with Elder and Sister Stark, who are a senior couple in our district. Their house decided to flood and so we went to help them move a bunch of boxes out of the flooded area, so that was fun. The rest of the day was weekly planning, and let me tell you, by the end of it my brain was completely fried, I could not think straight. There was a cool miracle that we had though! In daily planning we had a lesson that we both knew wouldn’t happen at the church (as our friend said that it probably wouldn’t happen), but we still felt prompted to be at the church anyways. Long story short, there was a member from another ward who reached out to us and asked us to give her mom who wasn’t a member of the church, a blessing. We got her address, and you’ll never believe that her mom literally lived 3 minutes from the church!! We got to go over to her mom’s house and give her a blessing, and that was a super neat experience. Her mom was very unresponsive, but the spirit was super strong and I am so grateful for that opportunity!!
Friday, we had to finish our weekly planning, and that definitely took longer than we wanted. A lesson finally went through with our friend, and it was a really good lesson. They have been super busy and really stressed out, and they seemed to really appreciate us being able to talk about Jesus Christ :). The lesson didn’t go according to our plan, but it definitely went according to the Spirits plan :). It was also Elder Fausett’s Birthday on Friday, definitely don’t want to leave that out!!
Saturday, we helped a new family in the ward move in to their new apartment. Funny story is that they live in the same apartment complex as us! So we helped them move in and so that was good. The rest of the day we spent trying to find people to teach.
Sunday was super good. In Sacrament meeting, Elder Fausett gave a talk, so that was cool. The rest of Sunday, we had reports and dinner at the Williamson’s house. The Williamson’s are funny ??, so it is always good to go there for dinner!!
And that leaves us to today! This morning, I did some laundry and swept/vacuumed the floor. We got haircuts, and then we went back to the apartment and I took a nice solid nap. Don’t know how long it was, but it was very much needed!! Exciting part about today so far is we actually got a referral!!! They already responded and we set up a time to talk with them at 6:30 today. They seemed super excited, so I hope that our lesson goes well tonight!!
For a spiritual thought, I’d like to share another thing from The Book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon. Today it is going to be Chapter 6 verse 7, where all of the Nephite by this time have turned away from God. The Lamanites are attacking them and this verse explains kind of how they are feeling. It says, “and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to recieve them.” Ultimately they were pretty terrified.
This got me thinking about other examples of the Nephite preparing for battle. There are so many different accounts where they do turn to God and they are prepared and not afraid. One of my favorite accounts is Alma 56:47-48, “Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.” Such courage these Young men demonstrate because they have learned about God and the plan that He has for us.
I know as we turn to the Lord, there is no need to fear! All good things come from God and as we turn to Him, he will give us the strength that we need to fight the battles that we have in our lives. Whether it is something big or small, it doesn’t matter; the Savior will always be by your side. I sa these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Hope y’all have a fantastic week!
-Elder Claussen
