Week 42

 Monday November 22, 2021

Oh my goodness, this week flew by so fast! I literally feel like yesterday I was you all. Anyways, this week was absolutely amazing. I honestly can't remember all that happened but I am going to write a few highlights! 

We had a Zone Conference this week and it was my first time planning and leading Zone Conference! The Zone Leaders have to plan a presentation for the Zone and lead a training. The topic of this transfer was the Doctrine of Christ. Elder Tueller and I and the Sister Training Leaders led a FIRE training. I will admit, I felt completely inadequate leading the conference. I mean, even starting off the Assistants had me conduct the Zone Conference and I had no idea what I was doing haha. I just remember sitting there in my chair as it got closer to it being time to lead the training and just praying in my heart so much that it would all go well. And it did! We started off with a "hype video" of Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon and it was powerful. In preparation for the conference I watched the video like 10 times but when we watched it there, the spirit was the strongest I had ever felt and I started crying as we listened to his testimony. The training was powerful! 

It was so great to be with all the missionaries there. Elder Chytraus ( my MTC companion) is in the Zone with me! It was also Elder Stone's last Zone Conference and we got to say goodbye to Him and it was wonderful. I love both these guys so much!

This week the night before Zone Conference I gave myself a FIRE haircut and I just want to put that out there because it was the best haircut I have given on my mission. I was very proud. 

The weather here is getting so cold. The other night, it was snowing so we decided to go out knocking. We were walking and knocking on doors and laughing and we did not have any success. But we did have one funny story. For the first time ever, I had the door actually slammed in my face. It was hilarious. We call the guy "Firefighter Joe". He opened the door and was super nice and then as soon as I said we were missionaries it is like his face literally changed and he slammed the door in the middle of me talking. Don't worry, we left a card with our number on his car ;). Another funny knocking story was we knocked on this guy's door and he didn't speak English. Or, at least he said so. As we were leaving I swear he spoke perfect English. I was like "Elder Tueller, that guy was lying he spoke good English" and he didn't believe me so now it is the running joke about the guy who lied to us about speaking English. We have a lot of fun Preaching By the Way together! 

Elder Tueller and I saw some miracles in our area this week. On Saturday we were doing Weekly Planning (where we talk about the people we are teaching and plan for the next week). As we went over our area, we realized all our people are not progressing and it was so discouraging. We discussed how we could be better and more diligent. We honestly had no major ideas. There are little things we could improve but we are working really hard and that was even more discouraging haha. So, we decided to do a fast on Sunday that we started Saturday evening. And we saw miracles IMMEDIATELY it was so incredible. That night we went to this guy Fred's house who Elder Kofford and Tueller knocked on before I got here. When we showed up, a Filipino woman opened the door. We were like "um this is definitely not Fred" she invited us in! "Come in! Are you guys Bible Teachers? It is too cold outside, come in!" We were like "say less". We came in and sat down while her two kids were playing Call of Duty on the TV. We talked with all of them and met the whole family. We talked about who God is with their children and gave them a Book of Mormon! The next day, we were expecting them to come and sure enough in walks Fred and his family! The coolest part was that Fred's fiance knows someone in the Ward! It is so wonderful and they really enjoyed church. My heart was so filled with joy during that sacrament meeting and I remember just pleading with God that by some chance, I could help this family come into the fold of God. Not because I want to for myself, but I know without a doubt that they would have so much more unity as a family and so much more joy if they joined the Church of Jesus Christ. It was such a blessing that they came and they said they would come back!!! 

The stars seem to be aligning here in Traverse City. I am so grateful to be serving here at this time. The blessings and miracles that are being outpoured in our area are just crazy. I absolutely love serving with Elder Tueller. We have so much fun together laughing and joking and working! I have a few funny stories to tell before I share a spiritual thought.

Every Sunday night we have a MLC "huddle" (as our Basketball loving mission president calls it) where we read off each of our Zone's numbers for the week. We had to stay on afterwards to talk about a special Thanksgiving devotional our MLC is holding this upcoming week. The different missionaries were spouting off ideas and Elder Tueller and I started joking about doing a rap. Completely jokingly, I decided to share our idea of a rap and the other missionaries actually LIKED IT and so somehow I got us wrapped into doing a rap for our whole mission to see... yikes

We have so much fun together. At Zone Conference, Elder Tueller brought his gold pocket watch he has and we took a funny picture and sent it to Sister Heap so she would post it on the Mission Page. She posted it! We also did a "freestyle rap" for our District on a video call last night and it was so funny. He and I get along really well and a lot of people have commented how we look like brothers haha. 

In Zone Conference, I had to talk about obedience and how it is intertwined with Faith and miracles. I shared a story from President Hinckley when he got a letter that said "Dear Gordon, forget yourself and go to work. Love Father" and the spirit was so strong. I testify that this work we do as missionaries is so important. As I serve God and give him my all, he makes up the rest. This is HIS work. And if any of you reading this have desires to build the kingdom of God by being a missionary, turn to God. He will make up the rest and he will help miracles occur in your life as you try to "see first the Kingdom of God" (Jacob 2: 18-19). 

I love all of you. Have a fabulous Thanksgiving! 

Elder Elliott 

(On P-Day we went bowling with the missionaries in the TC Branch. Elder Tueller and I are very photogenic if you can't tell)