Hi Everyone!
What a week, Wowzers! I’m pretty sure this week went from 0 to 100 last Monday, and since then, we have been busy, busy, busy! I hope that y’all have had a good week too!
So, last Monday, we went to get haircuts and as we were just about to leave, we got a referral. I think that I added that to my email last week. I’m going to call him John (not his real name lol). Right as he sent in the referral, we responded, and then immediately after that he responded positively back! We were able to set up an appointment with him later Monday night, so that was super awesome! He shared a little bit about his life, and it is so inspiring! He said he is at a point in his life where he has decided that he wants more structure in helping him come closer to Jesus Christ and he feels that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is where he needs to be. He reached out to multiple churches, but none of them responded to him except for us, so he took that as a sign that we are who he needs. Wow.
Tuesday, we had district council. That was really good, and we learned the importance of using the scriptures when we are teaching. It helps to invite the spirit and it can give us credibility, so that’s good :). You can’t teach anything without the spirit! That is definitely something that I have been learning time and time again!! For the rest of the day, we pretty much did finding activities and not going to lie, did not find very much success. Some people were nice, and others not so nice, but overall, they didn’t seem very interested or open to learning more. We had dinner at the Allen’s house and that was fantastic ?!
Wednesday, we had studies and then Lunch. From 1:15-3:30, we gave a church tour with ‘John’ and he loved it! Huge shoutout to the Borcik’s for taking that kind of time out of their day and helping us with the tour!! It would not have been the same without them. After the church tour, we made some contacts and we reached out to one of our friends who we haven’t heard from in a while. They said that they would come to church, so we were super excited! After we made some contacts we headed over to the Pearson’s/Kroghs, who are always such a delight to see and have dinner with! We had some really cool discussions and conversations with Bro Pearson where he shared some really cool stories from his childhood and mission experience. He found out recently that he has a picture of him in Africa (where he served) in the MTC as one of those blown up ones, so that was super cool!
Thursday, we tried to weekly plan, but literally everything but that seemed to happen haha. We had housing inspections in the morning, so we spent a little bit of time trying to clean up the apartment a little. It wasn’t too bad because we do try to keep it clean throughout the week, but we do like to tidy up a little before inspections. We originally had a lesson with a friend planned at lunch time, but they said that they needed more time and they would tell us when they could meet. That was spooky because usually when people do that, they don’t respond again. This friend did respond back though, so that was good. We ended up eating lunch from 4:00-5:00 at Subway with this friend and we finally got to see them in person! We aren’t sure if they are progressing or being nice at this point, so that was a little sad, but we haven’t lost hope with them yet! Funny thing about this day was right after we both had a foot-long at Subway for ‘lunch’ we went to the Curby’s house for dinner at 5:15. All I can say is it was a miracle because I will stand by the claim that the spirit quickened my digestive system, because I ate so much food at the Curby’s house still ?.
Friday morning we finished up weekly planning, so that was good. We made so many contacts and called so many people and then we decided to visit some less Active members that we didn’t know and follow up with someone we met earlier in the week. Turns out we don’t know these members because they must have moved! One of the people we tried to visit’s house didn’t even exist anymore! In the evening, we did get to go to ‘John’s house and have a super awesome lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and found out he has been reading the Book of Mormon!!
Saturday, we spent so much time making a video for Facebook. We forgot that we needed to create a video post and not just a picture post, so we scrambled to find some good footage from the mission shared Google drive of stock videos so we could put them together. I think that the result of the video turned out really good, so I can’t complain :). It should be posted in the next few weeks, so you’ll be able to see it on the mission facebook page! The rest of the day, we made contacts with peeps and then went to the Ross’s for dinner.
Sunday was absolutely crazy!! Before we even got to the church, ‘John’ AND his son were there and already sitting in a pew, so that was absolutely amazing to see both of them! We had never met his son before, but had heard that he was coming, so that was super awesome that he was able to make it. At the beginning, it seemed like he was super skeptical and only there because his dad told him to be there; however, by the end, he seemed to really have liked church. They are even going to go to a service project that was announced! Our other friend that we called on Wednesday texted us in the morning and we were a little scared because they said that they couldn’t find their car keys. We asked if they needed a ride, and they didn’t respond, so we ended up giving them a call and they said that they were driving to church as we speak because they found their spare key #tendermercies! So they made it to church too!! Sacrament meeting was amazing and second hour was super good as well! We stayed after church to save miles because the Stevensons live right next to the church and we didn’t want to drive home and back, so we stayed at the church and made so many more contacts with people. We had reports, and honestly, the rest of Sunday was pretty much a blur!
My spiritual thought today is the spiritual thought that the Starks shared during housing inspections. I have thought about it a lot, and I really like it :). It is from 2 Nephi 19:12,17,21 and the repeating phrase at the end of each of those verses. “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” I love this phrase so much! We have all been given agency, and with that we have to make so many decisions each and every day. As per the law of Justice, every choice we make has a consequence, whether good or bad. No matter how far we feel we have gone, or how hopeless we feel, “His hand is stretched out still!” There is always hope through Jesus Christ and his Atonement, because it is infinite and will never cease to be so. He knows how we are feeling, and he can help as we turn to him. I know that this is true, as I have seen this time and time again in my life. He will never fail us. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I hope that y’all have such a fantastic week this week! Stay cool in the heat, and don’t forget to read your scriptures 😉 Love you! -Elder Claussen
