Week 13

 Monday, May 3, 2021

WEEK 13

Good Morning everyone!

Honestly, one of my favorite parts of my missionary service is that we are forced to use our time wisely in the mornings. Well, not forced. But we are supposed to and there is so much wisdom in the Lord's request "early to bed, early to rise". I love making my days as productive as possible. 

ANYWAYS it was a wonderful week here in Michigan! Here are some fun things that happened this week!

I got fully vaccinated on Friday! As you can imagine, I feel totally unstoppable now that I have both doses of the vaccine. I was very blessed when I got my second shot. I did not have any side effects! My companion cannot say the same. He was knocked out basically all day Saturday SO I had some free time on my hands. I shined the heck out of my shoes! 

We had some fun at service this week. We had another "food drive" where we drop boxes of food into people's cars. The weather is so bi-polar here it is actually entertaining. It started pouring on us during the food drive so I got soaking wet. But, serving is one of the highlights of missionary service for me! So I was grateful for the opportunity. 

Recently, we witnessed a really cool miracle! A month or so ago, Elder Corry and I were scrolling through our list of ward members and we felt prompted to call this one woman. Neither of us knew who she was but we called and we started having Book of Mormon studies with her. Turns out she is an inactive member who hadn't been to church in 3 years! We kept inviting her to church and she wouldn't come. But last week she came to church for the first time! And she came again this week! It was so cool to witness this miracle of a wonderful woman being reactivated! 

One last great thing that happened was that I got to have a lesson with a guy in our ward who is a Physician's Assistant, which is exactly what I want to become when I return from my mission! We just visited with his family for like an hour and just talked with them! This guy was so nice and loved answering my incessant questions and he gave me some great advice! I tell the ward members this a lot but honestly meeting with members is so relieving. When we meet with other non-members it is great and I love it but we have had some really strange experiences. With members, it is so relaxing to just talk to them and get to know them without worrying about people going to the bathroom in the middle of your lesson. 

Funny Moment: 

My Mom sent me a huge bag of Fry Sauce after I told everyone about my experience at Culver's where they thought I was an idiot. I can't remember if I said this when I relayed the story to you all but my companion and I were talking about this yesterday. I had forgotten that when I asked for Fry Sauce the woman had looked at me like a crazy person and asked "do you mean ketchup?" Um, no I meant Fry Sauce. She thought I had made up some weird word for Ketchup. But anyways this week we went to Culver's again and I came prepared. The dining rooms are closed again here so we went through the drive-thru and when the guy asked if I wanted any sauces I said "No thank you. I brought my own"  Yeah I am kinda a big deal. 

This is not really funny, but more kinda fun. We met with this guy in our ward this week who gave me a soda to try called Vernors! For some reason, everyone in Michigan is absolutely obsessed with Vernors and I honestly thought it was weird. Like the joke is that it is "Michigan's Medicine" I guess. But, this guy gave me one to try and I drank it. I am not a huge soda guy really but it was pretty good. I probably won't drink it again unless someone gives it to me but it was good! And now I can say I tried Vernors. So there ya' go. 

Spiritual Thought:

Yesterday we had a really cool devotional. You may not have seen this movie, but the missionary from the movie "The Other Side of Heaven" spoke to our whole mission! He is about 80 years old now but he looked so young still! It was so cool to hear from him and hear his experiences. One thing he said that really stood out to me was he told us this really cool story of how he had shared his testimony and FIFTY years later this dude came up to him and said "Your testimony you shared that day changed my life." So cool right? So his advice was "Every day, share your testimony to someone. Even if you share your testimony to yourself in your head, or out loud in the mirror. Share it! It will help it grow!" SO I have started trying to share my testimony with everyone I can. Part of my testimony I want to share today comes from Alma 36:24. Alma (the younger) is my absolute favorite person in the Book of Mormon. Mostly because I feel like I can relate to him so much. 

24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto ^arepentance; that I might bring them to ^btaste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be ^cborn of God, and be ^dfilled with the Holy Ghost.

This right here ladies and gentleman, is why I am serving my mission. Because quite literally all I want is for other people in the world to feel what I feel. To be "born of God". I would give literally anything in for all my brothers and sisters here in Michigan -and in the rest of the world- to partake of the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it will bring them so much joy. So, like Alma, I will labor unceasingly to bring others unto Christ so they can feel the same joy and receive the same blessings that I receive. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Elliott, Lansing Michigan