Week 35 (Week 18 in Michigan)

 

Zone Conference!

What a week!! Certainly this time of year is amazing, that so many people across the world are showing their gratitude and gathering together with family and friends. I was very impressed hearing President Nelson's message this week, which simply said that gratitude is the best remedy to all the ache and disappointments of this year. Certainly, it has helped me this week to focus on what I have been given, rather than what I have lost. 

This week we had our zone conference, where two zones met together for about 4 hours. It was awesome to see a bunch of missionaries and talk about the work! Elder Stone, 3 other sisters, and I put together a little performance of "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and sang it at conference. Honestly, it turned out really good and I was so grateful to be able to perform. Honestly, it makes me miss musical theater as well as singing in choir. Some of my favorite memories were made singing tunes with my high school barbershop group "The Styrofoam Hats". I miss those days, but sometimes I forget that I can still have fun musical experiences on my mission as well. After the conference, a few of us elders ordered some Costco pizzas and ate together. It was good to see everyone again and have a little fun!

Facebook Fun with the boys!

This week we were also able to help out with a little Food Pantry Giveaway at a school in Caseville. We handed food out to about 330 families for 2 hours where the families drove up with their trunks open and we filled them! It was humbling to see how many people were in need, but also wonderful to help out and serve. Here in Bad Axe, we haven't had a lot of opportunity to do community service, so this was certainly a blessing. Many of the others that were helping joked about how nicely dressed we were. We were instructed we couldn't talk about our religion really, but we could at least tell people who we were and what we do. 

We also met a couple more times with our good friend Alan. He really is a wonderful man who has expressed how much he has enjoyed meeting with us. We left him with a couple of pamphlets to summarize simply what we had discussed over the last few months, and he is contemplating over baptism now. We have loved meeting with him and getting to know him further.

The other night we missed a phone call from a trio of sisters in our zone, and before calling them, Elder Bradford jokingly said "watch them call us to be Facebook first responders". He thought it might be that since the one time the Saginaw elders got a call from those sisters, it was for that very calling. Well, Elder Bradford called it. Now our responsibility is to message anyone who likes or follows our zone page, and to message those that comment on our Facebook ads. Honestly, it's not a lot of work, but it's cool to be a part of some of the behind the scenes online work now.

Not too much else happened this week, and I didn't take too many pictures either, but here's a scripture that stood out to me this week. 1 John 2:6 "He that saith he abideth in him (Jesus Christ) ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked". It's not enough for us to just say that we love Christ, but we must do as he did, and "walk in the light" as He walked. Of course, it's not easy to be exactly like Christ was, for he was and is perfect. But we can try our best day by day to become more like the Master. 

I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

~Elder Kasey Lightheart