Week 34 (Week 17 in Michigan)

 

Visiting Harbor Beach

The way I start out these blogs always seems to be the same, so let me share the most random thing I can think of that happened this week. One day we came home around 5:00 to our apartment, and it was already starting to get dark, I grabbed the keys from my pocket, but couldn't see which key was ours, since it was so dark. Then the lights (that have a specific time at night to turn on) turned on, and my companion said "and God said, let there be light". I hope you have enjoyed this random thought 😊.

But in all seriousness, this week has been great! Just a little slow, but still fun. We were able to find 2 new friends to each this week, and get this, it was through Facebook. Now maybe that doesn't sound as exciting to you, but I've been in Bad Axe for 4 months and haven't found a single person to teach through Facebook, despite my best efforts. Yet finally that work has paid off! We shall see if these individuals continue to investigate the church further, but nonetheless, I'm so grateful. 

Basketball in the freezing cold!

We also were asked again this week to find ways to do service. One option that we have had for a while now has been to take pictures of headstones at cemeteries and document them on the "Billion Graves" app. However, we already did all the cemeteries within this town. But we decided for at least a day this week to drive out to a few cemeteries in Harbor Beach (about a 25-minute drive) and take pictures of some headstones. And actually, it was quite fun! One particular cemetery had about 30 headstones, all in a cute little grove. At our branch council as well, the members gave us a few more possibilities for service, and Sister Burke said she would reach out to her boss who might have some opportunities for us. So hopefully, we can find some service to do! That would help fill our time for sure.

This week as well, a family in our branch decided to start feeding us weekly, that is they will bring us food since we still can't eat at member's homes, but we are so so grateful. This last Wednesday, when Sister McKinney brought us food, it was divine. Seriously. It was some sort of Cajun chicken pasta, and it was just soooo good. But yeah, we have certainly been blessed food-wise lately. The elders that lived down the street, who just moved, also gave us a bunch of their food that they couldn't take with them, so we are set! 

We also decided to take out the bikes that we have in our apartment for a couple of rides. We never used them before because it's not really necessary for our area, but Elder Bradford and I just wanted to for fun! It's been getting super cold, but we decided to bike anyways. I think we can definitely expect some snow here pretty soon though.
Sunset selfie

I'm also super glad that I bought a piano keyboard! It has been such a fun thing to have on hand, to be able to practice every day. I still have a long ways to go, but I think I am getting a lot better at sight reading and such!! Speaking of music, we have our zone conference tomorrow, and kind of last minute some sisters asked if Elder Stone and I would like to sing in a quartet musical number singing a special arrangement of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". I accepted, and am super excited to perform tomorrow! It really is a beautiful arrangement, one that they sing at the Provo MTC a lot apparently. 

Temple selfie...kind of

To end I'd just like to share an awesome quote that I came across while reading a church book. It says "The task of the disciple of Christ is to deny oneself, to seek the way of the Master, to be willing to forsake the man-made and the material, and to pursue with steadfastness the divine and everlasting". I can promise you all that God has so much more to offer than any other material or man-made thing. It's not always easy to follow the Savior, and it's not supposed to be, but if we do our very best to be like Him, to "love one another as [He] has loved you", then we will be blessed beyond measure.

~Elder Kasey Lightheart

Beach day with the boys (from last week).



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 6

Image
Wow, this week has been crazy!! For those of you who don't know, for the last 6 weeks I have been in training at the missionary training center in Provo, Utah, learning both how to speak Portuguese, and also learning how to teach others, and be an effective missionary. To be honest, it has been a ton of work, and I have been itching to leave for a while this week, that I might be able to go out and truly serve.  However, I am so grateful for all the experiences I have had here.  I have learned so much and have changed greatly.  I can honestly say that I'm not the same person I was when I came here just 6 weeks ago, and that makes me all the more excited to see how the Lord will change and shape me and my life over these next 2 years. This week, as we have been preparing to leave the MTC, it has been fun to hear lots of stories from our teacher, the best teacher EVER, Irmao Childs.  This week Brother Childs brought in tons of journals, notebooks, and plan...
Read more

Week 16 (Coming Home)

Image
This week has been a long and CRAZY week! I am not able to write my usual email this week, due to Sãn Paulo being in somewhat of a lockdown, similar to what you all are experiencing at home. Because of this, the internet cafes are closed, which is where we go to get internet access each Monday. So, my mother asked me for a timeline of events that have led up to the crazy news that we just found out, which is that all missionaries that are not Brazil citizens are being sent to their home country. Everything has happened SO fast, as you can see from the following timeline: Thursday, March 12th - Church announces that church meetings worldwide will be suspended until further notice due to Covid-19 virus. Brazil only had around 75 cases of the virus at that time. Wednesday/Thursday this week (March 18th or 19th) - missionaries were told to avoid coming in contact with the elderly and anyone else who might be more susceptible to illness. Brazil had around 613 cases of the virus a...
Read more

Week 43 (Week 26 in Michigan)

Image
  Me and my new companion, Elder Kofford Hello everyone! This was a big week full of huge changes, and boy has it been an adventure. On Tuesday, I said goodbye to Bad Axe and drove down to Mount Pleasant with Elder Bradford to then get on a van with a bunch of other missionaries. The van was about an hour behind schedule so we were all waiting for a while at the church building. At one point someone found a bat in the church building, just chilling on the wall. we weren't sure at first if it was real or fake, but it turned out to be real. After the hour passed the van pulled up and me and a couple of other elders from my district got in the van and drove down to the mission office in Lansing. I was honestly a little scared since I knew nothing about where we would be living, or how we would get there, but luckily, with some asking around, I figured things out. Last pic with Elder Bradford Transfers! (See if you can spot me.) We got the keys to our Malibu, packed our stuff in, and t...
Read more