email from November 14, 2022
Hey everyone!
I hope that this week has been absolutely fantastic for y’all! It’s kind of been a crazy week, but I think that I’ve been able to keep my head on straight, so I hope that it doesn’t disappoint!
Monday, we went bowling as a district. It is the first time that I have been bowling on the mission, so it was fun to bowl again. The bowling alley we went to had pretty nice bowling balls, so twas legit. We had a member dinner at the Noel’s house and had some visits and reports. Overall, I’d say it was a successful day!
Tuesday, we had district council in the morning, and then we got in contact with two people we haven’t been able to in a while! Unfortunately, one of them was not ready to make changes in their lives to let God Prevail in their lives, so in missionary lingo; we had to “drop them” and “give them back to the Lord. (meaning we limit contact and don’t contact them as much). We were able to give someone a blessing because they have been feeling sick recently, and that was a cool experience. It is always cool to be able to give blessings :).
Wednesday, we did service at the food pantry again, and there were so many cars this week! There were a lot of people that we were able to help, so I am very grateful for that opportunity to serve :). We had an awesome lesson with one of our friends who is on-date for baptism, and she is super awesome! We taught the entire plan of Salvation, and made it through all of it! Our friend soaked all of the information like a sponge. After that lesson, we went to English class and this week, we were in charge of teaching, so we were able to teach them about words they use at work.
Thursday, we had weekly planning and got through most of it, but we weren’t quite able to finish because we started exchanges. I went to Macon again, but this time I was with Elder Scorsby. On Thursday night, we had a bunch of visits and lessons. Elder Scorsby is a cool missionary, so it was a super hype exchange!
Friday, we were super busy! We had a bunch of more lessons and contacts. It was raining, so it wasn’t super effective to do in person contacts, so we did a bunch of phone calls and set up lessons for later in the week. I hope that they go through, but Friday evening, we unexchanged just in time for me to not miss dinner at the Kimball’s house. That was super good! After dinner, one of our friends flaked after confirming via text message that they were home, so we had Bishop’s son (a priest) join us to just get turned away ?. Not the greatest moment, but I suppose that is missionary work sometimes.
Saturday was super busy! Another one of our friends flaked and didn’t show up to a church tour, but the primary was practicing for their primary program, so that was sweet. It was also then that one of the members asked if we were excited for the missionary fireside. We had not heard about this, so we frantically called the Zone Leaders and found out that next Sunday, we are going to go to the Stake Center and have a full on Singing Missionary Fireside that we are going to do. We will have about an hour to practice, so wish us luck, and pray that the spirit can be felt despite the lack of practice!! Yikes!! That is going to be…interesting…to say the least lol. After that, we had a lesson with two of our friends who are also on Date. We taught the plan of Salvation to them and it was a good lesson. Shoutout to the Harpers for being able to make it to that!! We then helped set up a bonfire activity that the ward had, but ended up leaving so we could go to the baptism of Dom! The newest member of the Warner Robins 1st Ward! (I am in the 2nd ward). Dom is someone that the Sisters have been teaching, and he is a super awesome guy! I am so happy to have been able to go to his baptism :).
Sunday, we had three of our friends make it to church!! It was the primary program, so that was super sweet! One of our friends who is 10 or 11 even went on the stand to be with the primary kids. I was thinking, “Dang she’s brave! She doesn’t even know the songs!” But it was a super good Church Service, so that was super awesome. We had another lesson with our other friend who is on-date (wow, I really should ask them if I can use their name in my emails haha. It would make it so much easier! I’ll have to do that this week). But we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was another fantastic lesson!! Sunday night, we got transfer news, and Elder Lettich and I are both staying and one comp from each of the sisters is leaving.
That leaves us to today where we went to bucees again and then got Chick-fil-A and went disc golfing. The place we went had a bunch of trees and wooded areas, and there was even a wild deer!! So that was cool.
A theme of this week has been the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power that comes from it. Without the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we would all be screwed. We’d have to pay the price of our sins and would never be able to return to Heavenly Father again. We would be lost without any hope. Out of His love for us, His children, God gave us his only Begotten Son, who payed that price, and through Him, we can repent and change. We can and will be forgiven if our sins and we turn to the Savior, and for that I am grateful for. There truly is Hope to be found in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, because it is the way back to our Heavenly Father. My invitation today is to study some of your favorite scriptures or find new ones about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and continue to learn how to apply its power into your life. As you do this, you will find that life is better, and everything will seem to work out :). I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I love you all!! Have a fantastic week!
-Elder Claussen
