Week 31 (Week 14 in Michigan)

 

Fun nature walk, with my new comp!

A mission thus far has taught me, unlike anything else, how to handle change, and that change can and should be exciting! This week marked the start of a new transfer, and along with it some big changes.

At the start of this week, we drove down to Lansing to pick up my new trainee named Elder Bradford. He's a super cool kid from Portland, Oregon, and is one of the few missionaries originally assigned to Michigan. He actually lived years ago in Eugene, which is pretty cool! Interestingly enough he's got some weird allergies. He is allergic to avocado, carrots and walnuts, and has false allergies to most fruits. Meaning he isn't actually allergic to them, but his brain thinks he is, and causes a reaction. But overall he is a great guy, and I'm sure will grow to be an amazing missionary.

Meeting my new comp!

The day that we picked Elder Bradford up, my old companion, Elder Seeley, told me there was a cheap piano keyboard at the Goodwill in Caro. So on the way we stopped there and picked it up. Honestly, it was a bit of a gamble since it didn't come with a chord, but I decided to buy it anyways. Two days later, I found a chord at Walmart that I thought would work, and it did! The piano worked perfectly, and after some cleanup of the keys, it looked great too. Definitely one of the best (monetary) investments of my mission!

Seeing Elder Christiansen and Elder Huntsman off, both of whom just went home this week, was weird. I had been with Elder Christiansen for the last 3 months, and so it has been weird without him. But already I'm starting to get used to the work with my new comp. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Christiansen.

This week as well we drove down to Sandusky, a little town just on the edge of our area, and gave a Book of Mormon to a nice lady named Stacy. While in the area we decided to call a few people that lived nearby to see if we could do any visits, and boy did we have some weird calls. One older lady had such a deep crackly smoker voice that she was impossible to understand, and another lady said to hold on for a second and then hung up. Another person we called turned out to be an inactive member of our church who no longer wanted to be associated with (in his words) "You people". But overall it was a fun trip, and we actually drove down some rolling hills. Some of the only real hills I've seen in Bad Axe thus far. 

Its definitely been getting colder here in Bad Axe, and we heard that up in the Upper Peninsula that they got a good amount of snow this week. I'm not too excited for the winter, but it'll definitely be cool getting a bunch of snow (no pun intended). Or at least it will be exciting at first... To prepare, Elder Bradford and I decided to buy some nice winter boots  to keep us warm, and to fend off frostbite.

Pictures at the Bad Axe sign!

The other day I was reading in the Book of Mormon, continuing where I had normally been reading, but I wasn't really getting much out of it. Instead I felt prompted to study about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now this is one of the main lessons that we teach as missionaries, and I have studied it many times, but I followed this prompting, and did an in depth study of the 5 principles. Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. Let me tell you, that this study was one of the most profound studies I have had in a while, and reminded me that we can always learn more, even about the simplest of doctrines. There is power in the small and simple things that we do! I always used to think that prayer and scripture study were good, but reaped little reward. Well I certainly reaped little reward because I rarely took the time to do those small and simple things. But I can tell you now that prayer is real, and has definite power. God not only hears your prayers, but will answer you, and help you. And study of the word of God will bless you in ways that you couldn't possibly imagine. 

I love you all! And I pray that you are all staying safe and joyful during these crazy times. Take care! 

A selfie on our nature walk.