Hey Everyone!
How’s it been going this week? I feel like Everton I’ve talked to so far has said that this has been a long week. I can’t believe it’s already Monday though! Crazy how time works. Fun scripture about time is Alma 40:8.
Not going to lie, this week was full of contacts and lessons falling through, so sorry in advance if that is all I say for a day ?.
Monday was pretty much just contacts for pros time. We played chair soccer for most of PDay, so that was fun.
Tuesday, our lessons canceled so we knocked doors that were around their houses. We did have a member dinner that was super awesome though! It was two Sisters in the ward and their guy friend (so we could come over). All three of them are on the army, so we got to hear a bunch of cool stories about their trainings and helicopters and such, and overall twas a good dinner haha.
Wednesday, I honestly can’t remember anything other than Contacts and finding during the day. It was funny for one of them because they started freestyling (rapping) over the phone, and I don’t think this friend of ours was a the way there, but that was super funny. In the evening, we got to be at the church for youth night and got to play some football with the young men.
Thursday, we had weekly planning. That always takes up so much of the day, but it is definitely an important part of the week. Thursday nights the Phenix City ward is having a pickleball sports night, so we got to go to that. That was pretty cool and we got to meet some less Active members who we wouldn’t normally get to see!
Friday, was super crazy! We all woke up early to get ready and then traveled two hours to Macon, Georgia to go to Zone Conference/mission tour. Elder Matthew Holland (Elder Jeffrey Holland’s son) came to our mission and got to talk with us. He had some really cool things that he taught us and there were some really cool insights. One of the big themes I noticed was becoming a more converted disciple of Jesus Christ. Until us as missionaries are converted, we aren’t going to have nearly as much success. I think that it was a really powerful meeting and the spirit was super strong!! 🙂
Saturday, we had another exchange where Elder Chapman and I were in Phenix City 3 (my area). Because we had no miles, we called our peeps we were going to have lessons with, but they all canceled, so we ended up making a bunch of calls and Facebook work so we wouldn’t waste miles. We had dinner at Elder and Sister Lyon’s house who is the senior couple who help with the Military relations. It was a good dinner.
Sunday, we taught Lesson 5 at Fort Benning and both of the soldiers who we taught said that the were wanting to be baptized and accepted that invitation!! So next week they will be interviewed and the next week after that, they will get baptized! :). They are two super awesome soldiers and I am really excited for them!! That was definitely the highlight of Sunday!! ? The rest of the day, we had contacts and reports.
That leaves us to today, where we went to the store and then I cleaned the bathroom haha.
For a spiritual thought today, I want to do it on an analogy that Elder Holland gave to us. It was about being an Escalator Mission vs an Elevator mission. One thing that I’ve noticed before is that one week we find a lot of people and a lot of people come to church and then the next there is like no one, and then randomly there will be spikes. That is what he said an “elevator mission” is. That is compared to an escalator mission where it is a smooth constant improving increase of souls that are found and so on.
As everyone reading this is probably not a missionary, that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but I wanted to relate that to our spiritual growth. How often do we have some weeks where we read the scriptures every day and do great, and then the next week we slack and only read one? Or have a super awesome spiritual experience and then forget about it two days later? One thing that keeps on coming up is improving little by little one step and 1% at a time. Our improvement might not be as fast as we want it to be, but as we do it slow and steady, it is sustainable and ultimately more sturdy and then you are able (in my opinion) to have that steady joy that the gospel brings :).
I just thought that this was a really cool thought and thought I’d share :). My invitation today is to think about how you can help yourself improve your spiritual momentum and keep it going as an Escalator and not an elevator. Jesus Christ will help you as you do this. He wants to see you grow and do even better! If you ever need help, you can always turn to him, and his arm will always be stretched out still. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Hope y’all have a great week!! Love you!
-Elder Claussen
