Week 43 (Week 26 in Michigan)

 

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 then found the office elders to figure out where in the world we would be staying. Turns out we would need to stay in a hotel for a few days, but that they had an apartment ready for us to move into on Friday. After a long ride and a quick stop at one of the few Chick-Fil-A's in Michigan we finally made it to our hotel, and checked in. We stayed there for about 3 nights, and were a little disappointed that they didn't serve breakfast due to COVID, but managed anyways. 

Finally, on Friday, after getting some lunch, we were getting ready to head down to our "apartment", but first decided to look it up (since we had just barely received the address). The address we were given was a house, and so we were wondering if they gave us the right one or not. Sure enough, it was ours. They gave us a house! A small one, but also a fully furnished one, with pretty much everything we could need (except food). Turns out, this was a refurbished vacation home, but due to COVID, and the winter season, the owners decided to rent it out to us for just over a year. We were amazed the whole day, constantly finding more drawers and cabinets with handy things in them. We even have a Kitchen-Aid! That is not something many missionaries have in there kitchen, I'll tell you that much. But we are so thankful to be out of the hotel and in such a cozy little house. It honestly kind of feels like a piece of home.

Our cozy little house.

On Sunday, we got to meet some of our members at church. We actually have a real church building here in South Haven, unlike in Bad Axe. It's a little smaller than most church buildings, but its certainly big enough for our congregation. I was surprised to have a little less attendance, in person, than we had had in Bad Axe, but Elder Kofford and I are determined to change that.

Speaking of my new companion, Elder Kofford is a great guy! He is from Utah and loves to hunt, fish, hike etc. He's also 6'6" and a really funny guy. His personality actually really reminds me of my first trainer and companion in Florida, Elder Hansen. He's a really cool dude, and I'm excited to work with him here in South Haven.

The town is actually really cool! It's definitely a tourist town, so there are less people around this time of year and many seasonally closed shops. However, there are lots of cool restaurants and shops to check out, and some cool beaches as well. We even found a big public skating rink in the middle of town with a huge pavilion over it. It's pretty cool! 

Downtown South Haven

Cool mural pic!

But all in all, I am super glad to be here in South Haven and very happy to be serving the Lord right here, right now. I love you all and I wish you a blessed week!

~Elder Kasey Lightheart