Week 22

 Monday, July 5, 2021

WEEK 22

Good Morning everyone!

It was the 4th of July this week! I hope everyone had a cool Independence Day! It was a great week here in the great city of Bay City. This week we had transfers and it was pretty busy. We didn't have a ton of lessons, but we did have a few really exciting things happen this week. 

I found this dude on Facebook and he had a cool service opportunity this week. He is not a member, but he was so grateful we were able to help. He is a contractor and was basically fixing this lady's house for free. So, we went over there and knocked out all the landscaping for him. He posted us on Facebook and he was so glad we came to help. Next week we are going to help him use sledgehammers and destroy the broken concrete for this lady in Bay City who needs help. I am so excited because I love doing service!!! It is my absolute favorite. 

My companion Elder Kofford and I have a really cool (and scary) opportunity. Our mission is a forerunner in how we do member lessons. We call them 2-1-2's. We got a call from the AP's a few days ago and our mission has been asked by the Area 70 member Elder Benent, who was asked by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to ask us to be an example of how we do member lessons. Our Mission President has asked 10 companionships throughout the mission to record ourselves doing a member lesson over zoom. For some reason, we've been asked to do this with the wonderful members of the Bay City ward. It is kind of scary because these recordings will be reviewed by Elder Cook of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles and a bunch of other people in the mission headquarters in Salt Lake City. These recordings will be used to train other missionaries how member lessons are supposed to go. Can you see why I am scared?? I just got here! HAHA

For the 4th of July, we had a blast. Bay City goes way too hard on Independence Day. They have three days of fireworks preceding The 4th. They are insane! I will add some pictures below. This member of our ward always has a huge party and invites everyone to their house. I LOVE homemade food now-adays, and Sister Martinez makes some bomb food. They are such a great family. The streets were packed with people walking by. Like, I don't think you understand. They were PACKED. People were camping out like a week in advance for this firework show. Apparently, they are the best fireworks on this side of the Rockies (I don't know about that but they were pretty sweet).  

Funny Moments: 

At the end of last transfer (last week), the guy going home somehow got one of the few trucks we have in the mission. He was supposed to drive it down to the headquarters of our mission in Lansing but he decided to mess with the guys serving in the mission office. So, he decided to leave it with us in Bay City. We got a call from the Vehicle Coordinator in the mission office (he basically just watches over all the vehicles in our mission). He was livid haha oops. 

We were in a trio for a little bit because one guy in our District went home. So, we drove to pick up the new guy and we are all living in an apartment together. It is definitely a blast being with these four dudes in an apartment. I feel bad for them though because we only have one bedroom. They both are sleeping in our living room on the floor. It is kind of a funny scene. We don't have an extra closet, so they are hanging their stuff on lamps and laying it across makeshift tables haha  it is pretty great.

This week we weren't able to buy any food on P-Day because our money didn't reset in time. Soooo we literally ate pizza for five days straight. For all of our meals. It was insane . Not very healthy but luckily we were blessed to be fed and we didn't starve. And we are going to get some more food today don't worry.

We found a way to get onto the roof of our apartment to watch the fireworks. It was like a mission impossible scene. It is a hatch in the roof that we had to climb into and we were boosting each other up into the hatch haha. We were handing the chairs up to the people on the roof and then we dragged the last guy to the roof. We even tied a strap to the hatch to make it look closed while we were up there. It was a really funny scene haha. But the fireworks were insane! We got 7-11 and enjoyed the show. It was so fun!

I love you all! Have a good week!

-Elder Elliott