Email from September 12, 2022
Hey All!
Hope that everyone has had a good week! This week has definitely been super busy and we got a LOT done!
Monday, we had P-Day where we went to Columbus building again and played basketball with all of the elders in our district (there are so many!) Then, for pros time, we went out and found 2 new people! One of the people we found was just walking down the street and he was trying to sell his stuff to get extra cash. We did the thing any missionary should do and said we don’t have cash, but we have a message that will bless and change your life for the good. He seemed super down and we gave him a Book of Mormon. We met him at a McDonalds later in the week, and turns out he is moving to Columbus, so hopefully we will be able to get him in contact with those Missionaries!
Tuesday, we had District Council which was really good. We talked about asking good questions and making sure that the questions we ask are simple and help those we are teaching to learn instead of confuse them. (That is a LOT easier said than done haha). Later that day, we visited a referral and they were kind of funny. At first, they were super skeptical and suspicious of why we where there. They said they remembered making a request to meet with us but didn’t know why they did. We bore testimony about restored truths and his whole demeanor changed. It was cool to see how the spirit works and can help people receive the gospel! Hopefully he keeps having an open heart and we can teach him the restored gospel!
Wednesday, we had a lesson with another one of our friends and found them, and they have gone through some hard situations, but they are troopers and are going to be super cool to teach. That evening, we went to Gloria Street and it was such a cool experience. Every single person we talked to wanted to learn more about the gospel! We now have information for almost every single house in this neighborhood, this street truly was elect!!
Thursday, we had weekly planning. That is pretty much all we had time for that day because we have been finding like crazy and have a lot of peeps to plan for! It was a good planning session though. We were going to have a pickleball game at the church, but that is going to be starting up this next week every Thursdays, so that should be fun!
Friday, we had exchanges. I stayed in our room and Elder Jensen went across the hall to the other room haha. Elder West also moved across the hall to me, and Elder Chapman stayed in his room too. (don’t know if that makes sense, but oh well haha). We had really good exchanges! We did some good Facebook work, and then Elder West got locked out of his Facebook account because we were doing too much missionary work it thought he was a bot. In the Morning, we had a study with Sister Farias, which was actually super cool. I guess something new that President Farias and his wife are doing is having comp studies with all of the missionaries in the mission. We ended up having some really good lessons with some people and found a bunch of new people that we now get to teach! One of the people that we met 100% reminded me of Jeremy, so that was funny and a #tendermercy. His mannerisms and facial expressions were almost identical, and he was a super nice guy!
Saturday, we ended exchanges and had some more good lessons. We are pretty much out of miles with the car, so we parked somewhere and walked a bunch. it was kind of unfortunate, but it started to pour rain, so we got completely soaked. This was the first time that I took a shower in a suit. we went back home, and I had to change because I was just too wet.
Sunday, We got to go to Fort Benning again, and we taught the soldiers the Commandments lesson and I’d say that went pretty good. There were 5 of the soldiers who said that they wanted to be baptized, so I’m not quite sure how that works on base, but that will be super exciting!! Next week will be lesson 5, which is the last lesson that they need before baptism, so that will be fun to learn how to do all of that! Later Sunday evening, we decided to walk to a neighborhood that is like 20 minutes away and we did actually meet some really cool people! Unfortunately for us though, before we even started to go back home, it started pouring rain again, this time even harder and longer than it was on Saturday! Let’s just say that from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet were 100% soaked. So that was a fun adventure. Even this morning, my shoes and pants are still wet, so hopefully I can get them dry before they get damaged haha ?. I’m sure that they will be fine though. (But that was the second time that I took a shower in a suit)
And now today, we went shopping and are now at the Columbus Library, which I think is literally the biggest library I’ve ever been to in my whole life! It is like 4? Stories of just massiveness!! Definitely worth a google search to see pictures of it, because it is actually a really nice building. There are computers here too, so I can actually type haha (hence the longer email).
As for a spiritual thought, I want to share a scripture that I really liked this week. It is 3 Nephi 17:20.
“And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.”
There are some key words that I would like to point out in this verse. “Blessed”, “Faith”, and “Joy”. Because of the faith of the Nephites, they were blessed. In their obedience and faith, they found Joy! Not only did they find joy, but Jesus Christ also found joy!
This points out two true principles. First, as I already mentioned, Obedience to God’s commandments brings blessings and joy. Second, Jesus Christ finds joy as we are obedient as well. As we are trying to be like Jesus, we can then say that as other people are being obedient and having joy, we can have joy too! That is why missionary work has the potential to bring so much joy into our lives. 🙂
That is kind of a round about way of thinking, and kind of a round about way to get to the point of how we can receive true, lasting joy so I hope that it makes sense. We can only receive joy after we know what it is like to not have joy (opposition in all things), so one of the miracles of the gospel is that we can get eternal happiness with our Heavenly Father if we endure this life the best that we can. Happiness with our loved ones forever. Know that the crappy times are not always fun, but it just means you are being prepared for something that much better.
I love you all, and know that God loves you too! I hope that you have a great week, and I will write next week!
-Elder Claussen
