Week 46 MIRACLE TRANSFER
December 20,2021
Oh my goodness, time is so strange. It feels like last week was a lifetime ago, and yet it flew by so quickly. Missions are the greatest thing ever! This week we had transfers, exchanges, a zone conference and some mission experiences I will remember for the rest of my life.
Well like I mentioned we had transfers. I made Elder Tueller and I some chocolate chip pancakes one last time on Tuesday Morning. I make chocolate chip pancakes every P-Day but we wanted them one last time. Then, we drove to Mount Pleasant for transfers! It was so sad saying goodbye. Last transfer was one of the most fun transfers of my mission. I will miss Elder Tueller and the District we were in. He is swapping places with Elder Anderson, my new companion! At the transfer-van I also got to see Elder Clouse and some other missionary friends and it was so fun.
We loaded Elder Anderson's stuff into the truck and made the two hour drive back to Traverse City. It was such a great opportunity to get to know Elder Anderson better. He is such a good missionary and we had a cool conversation on the way up North talking about our expectations and what we are going to do this transfer. We both want to do missionary work the same and we have the same desires. It was so good. He is 22 and has a really cool story of how he is still on the mission. He has gone home twice because of medical things and Covid and he has the strongest desire to serve God. He is also one of the most bold missionaries I have ever met and everyday I learn something new with him. He is the perfect companion for me and we are going to get some stuff done here in Traverse City.
When I say Elder Anderson is bold, I mean it. In Preach My Gospel it tells us to talk with everyone and he truly does that. We have done a lot of Preaching By the Way together and man he just extends invitations left and right it is so crazy. On exchanges we went to Target to get a White Elephant Gift for Zone Conference and he just casually invited someone to church we passed by. I was blown away. We knocked on a door and the woman was busy and clearly frustrated that we were there. Elder Anderson said "okay, we will come back tomorrow". Now, I am trying to be more bold like he is. I would never have said half the things he says but he does it! And you better believe we came back the next day (She was NOT interested).
This week has been absolutely wild. So many big things going on in one week! Transfers, Zone Conference and Exchanges are usually not all in the same week. We went on Exchanges with some Elders serving in an area called Manistee and I took my good friend Elder Wells! Elder Wells truly inspires me and it was so fun going out with him. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings (his favorite) and had some good times finding new people to teach. It was awesome!
We had a Multi-zone Conference this week in Mount Pleasant. We had the Elders we went on exchanges with stay the night with us and then drive us to Mount Pleasant so we could save miles haha. The Zone Conference was so great! (And we didn't have to do anything for it!) There were a bunch of songs sung and such for Christmas and president Heap gave some inspiring advice that was truly powerful. He knows how to bring and speak by the spirit. We had a White Elephant Gift Exchange as a zone afterwards and it was so fun. All the Zone Members brought some presents and people fought over them haha. Some Sisters bought two shirts that said "I love Sister" with their names on it. Two of the Elders stole it and it was so fun. We were all laughing and having a good time.
I have some crazy stories we had Preaching By the Way this week that are all in my journal. But I just want to share this one. We went out to this place in our area called Interlochen (30 min away) and went knocking. There was one house where the driveway curved all the way into the woods and it was very creepy. But, we decided to go knock it anyway. When we got to the door we heard really weird music blaring inside and we thought (based on the Buddha statues at the doorstep) that they were meditating. Suddenly, after ringing the door-bell the garage opened and a bare-foot woman called us to come inside. As soon as we went in it felt so weird. Something was just off the Spirit was gone. We talked with the woman and her husband named Gary who was not too glad that we had been invited inside. Turns out the loud music was the movie "The Quiet Place" being played on full-blast which only made the whole thing even creepier. We asked if there was anyone else living there and the woman started to say her husband and someone else and Gary stopped her and said "No it is just us". I don't know how to explain it other than it was just so weird. As we left the house both Elder Anderson and I had this overwhelming dark feeling about the place. Elder Anderson said "Elder, there is something not right going on there". As we knocked on the surrounding doors we would look back at the house and it would just feel so evil again. We ended up walking back before we left and praying for the home that if there were evil spirits there that they would depart. It was unreal. The Lord protects us!
As a mission we are doing a special goal. We want every companionship to baptize someone during these next 6 weeks in an effort to finish 2021 strong and start 2022 strong. That means that each Zone has to make some goals to help every companionship Baptize. The goals we made was that every companionship has a "Companionship Inventory" to talk about the upcoming transfer and how they are going to see miracles in their area based upon their faith. Elder Anderson and I had one and I just want to say that it was truly powerful. We had a very spiritual experience as we talked and prayed together about the goals we were to make. During our inventory, we prayed to ask the Lord for some specific direction and after we prayed, Elder Anderson and I got up and knew exactly what goals to make. With tears in his eyes, my companion wrote down the baptismal goal we had, and the goals we had each week to accomplish them. We expect to baptize 3 people this transfer, on the 8th, the 15th and the 22nd of January. I am not sure how we are going to do it to be completely honest with you. We don't even have anyone with a specific date for Baptism on any of those days. But these next 5 weeks we are going to go forward and give the Lord everything we've got so he can work His miracles. When these miracles happen, it won't be anything Elder Anderson or I did. It will be the Lord working through us as we give it all to God. Our scriptures this transfer are Alma 57:21 and Alma 36:17. We are going to give it all to Him and I have faith we are going to see miracles. We already have!
There are so many things I could write and this email is already so long. I would be surprised if you read this far. I love you all, Christmas is going to be so great!
Love,
Elder Elliott
