Week 8

January 27, 2022

Week 8

Monday, March 29, 2021

WEEK 8

Oh my goodness. Another great week!

This week something I really tried to focus on was something my parents have always taught me. Everything in life is about your attitude. If you decide something is going to suck, it will probably suck. But, if you decide you are going to make things great, they will be great! I definitely needed that advice this week. It was easy to get discouraged this week. In the first couple days, 9 of 10 of our lessons fell through. We had a 90% fail rate which was hard. We also had I think six lessons with our two people on Baptismal Date fall through and they won't meet with us.

BUT like I said before, life is about your attitude! The reason why I am telling you those hard things that happened is because it made the really great and fun things that much better! When we did have a lesson happen, we were really excited about it. This week, we also had a Zone Conference, Mission President interviews, and exchanges with our Zone Leaders!

At the Zone Conference we had this week, one thing stood out to me. How can I be a better missionary? There are so many things I can improve on it can be overwhelming. So, I made a list of things I want to improve on and I am going to tackle them one at a time. It was so fun to get to be with our whole Zone and to be spiritually edified at Zone Conference! Our Mission President, in his closing remarks, expressed how great it was that we were doing so well as a zone. In his own words, he said "The Saginaw and Midland zones are carrying our entire mission right now. They are a light to the rest of the mission". It's never a bad thing to hear a compliment about hard work so I will take it!

For those of you who do not know, exchanges are when you switch companions for a day. Usually, it is with one of your missionary leaders so we did ours with the Zone Leaders. Because of COVID restrictions we cannot do them overnight so we just meet in the morning. During our exchanges, the Zone Leaders needed to attend a baptism in the Mount Pleasant area (I do not know why it has "mount" in the name because Michigan is a very flat state). It was so cool to watch the baptism. Elder Corry and I had to watch it in the car over zoom because only one extra set of missionaries was allowed to attend. But, there is nothing sweeter than watching someone enter the waters of baptism and becoming a member of the Church. Even over zoom, I could feel the spirit strongly and I knew that the man being baptized was following exactly what Heavenly Father wanted him to do. After the baptism, we took fun pictures at the college nearby called Central Michigan University. I will add them below because they are pretty rad if I do say so myself.

I could go on and on about how great the week was but I want to keep it brief.

Funny Moment:

At the baptism, the guy getting baptized was a bigger guy, so none of the baptism clothes fit him. The Elders (one of them who I flew out with) had to get him into one of the Women's gowns to baptize him! It was pretty funny but the guy didn't seem to mind. He just wanted to be baptized!!

Another funny thing this week was that during one of our member lessons, the woman handed the phone to her kids because she was driving (side note, technology is Wonderful for teaching, but sometimes the people are distracted. We have had people cooking, working, or even driving during our lessons. They are completely distracted which is frustrating but you just gotta' laugh about it). So during the entire lesson, we were talking to her kids who kept changing the "filter" on the Video call. It was pretty funny. I will put a picture below.

Spiritual Thought:

This week, I thought a lot about how much Heavenly Father loves us. If you sit down and think about it, His plan for us is so magnificent. There were several times this week where I was overwhelmed with how much He loves us. He gives us challenges, so we can become better. One scripture that helps describe this is in 2 Nephi 2:11 in the Book of Mormon. It says:

"11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad..."

Without trials, we cannot grow. So if you're going through something hard, be grateful! Not only will it help you grow, God will lift you through it if you give Him the chance.

I love all of you! I appreciate your prayers and your support. I love getting your emails! I hope you have a great week

-Elder Elliott