email from November 21, 2022
Hi everyone!
It’s been a busy week! Still don’t know how time works because if I’m not mistaken, 1 year ago today I got set apart and tomorrow will be 1 year since I started the MTC. That feels like so long ago, also only like a month or two. Either way, I am excited for this next week!
Monday, it was the last P-Day of the transfer and so we decided to go to Bucees again because that was the first P-Day, and so what better way to end the transfer than with another trip to the bathroom kingdom! Then we also had a nice lesson with one of our friends.
Tuesday, we had district council and car inspections. I am happy to say that we all passed them haha! We pretty much knocked on some doors and met some really cool people. There were people that were home, so it was good to be able to talk and find more people :).
Wednesday, we helped out at the food pantry and helped 157 families! That is a record since the time that I have been helping out!! There were so many cars!! We had dinner at the Tatton’s house, and it was super tasty, we had noodles with Bacon and other various things, and it did not disappoint! We had an awesome lesson with our friend who is getting baptized on Saturday, and she is so ready!!
Thursday, we kind of had weekly planning, but we ended up having a bunch of lessons that went super good! We got most of weekly planning done, so I’d say it was a successful day!
Friday was a pretty normal day in the mission life. We had a District Leader training because Elder Lettich is the district leader and dinner at the Porters House. We had some super yummy Panamanian (Panama) food and it was super tasty! I can now say that I have eaten Yucca (and fried Yucca).
Saturday, we had some more lessons with some peeps and they all went super good. Dinner at the Hatt’s house was great, we had Lasagna (my favorite!) :). I’d say that it was a successful day overall!
Sunday was probably the highlight of the week! We had all of our friends who are on date make it to church and also another one of our friends who we have been working with make it too! Elder Lettich and I gave talks on gratitude in Sacrament meeting, and they went really well. After Church, we ate lunch, and then went to Macon to be a part of the Missionary Choir devotional thingy. It was actually a super cool experience! Even though we only had about an hour to practice, we ended up doing a really good job! There was a recent convert that was able to get up and bear his testimony and life story and that was super neat! The spirit was super strong, and it was super cool.
I feel like this week we got a lot of good stuff done, but might not be the most exciting things to write about lol. We did have a lot of lessons though so that was super awesome :).
For a spiritual thought, I would like to talk about Gratitude! This is what my talk in Sacrament meeting was, and it helped to remind me of the power of having gratitude. Being able to shift your focus on things you are grateful for can be difficult sometimes, especially when life seems to be beating you down; but as you show gratitude, it is so much easier to be happy! I invite everyone, especially this week with Thanksgiving to find ways to show your gratitude to others. Also say prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving to make sure that you let Heavenly Father know what you are grateful for. As you do this, you will find that you are a happier human being :). I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I hope that y’all have a great week! Stay blessed!
-Elder Claussen
