Craziness!

On Wednesday we started our day out on Central Michigan University proselyting.  It was a ton of fun.  College kids are so much fun to talk to and they will very rarely get after you.  CMU also has a Book of Mormon that is a third print meaning the 3rd batch of Books of Mormon they printed.  We took a look at it it was really cool.  The layout was completely different but the text was still the exact same!  It took a picture of the story of Ammon and King Lamoni if you would like to compare.

On Thursday we drove down to Lansing and we sat through a couple of training meetings and then we finally got to meet our new companions!  I am training Elder Eccles.  He is from Highland, Utah and he is a stud!  After we had some more training we went out on MSU campus and proselyted.  We managed to hand out two copies of the Book of Mormon and get two different people's phone numbers.  After that, we made the long trek back to Bay City and the GPS took us a super wacky route through the country, but we made it home and we taught Marcel.  The lesson went super well.  We were even able to invite his wife to join in on the lesson.

Pictures
-Elder Eccles and I
-The super old Book of Mormon
-Me and a member in Mt Pleasant

Transfer Calls

On Monday we drove to Bad Axe [MI] in a crazy snowstorm.  When we got to Bad Axe they had a foot and a half of snow because of lake effect.  It was the worst snowstorm I have ever driven in.  It took 2 and a half hours to make an hour-long drive.  I was so wasted by the time I got there.  We went to Bad Axe because we needed to do a baptismal interview and trade-offs.  The baptism ended up happening and I went with Elder Jeffery.  Fun fact about Bad Axe, they don't have a baptismal font so they do [baptisms] in a swimming pool in the winter and in the great lakes during the summer.

On Thursday night we got a call from president Brennan and I am training this transfer and Elder Daines is headed to Cheboygan which is way up north.  Because I'm training I am in Mt Pleasant waiting for my trainee to get here from the MTC.

pictures
-Lots of snow
-Me with a sword
-Me and Elder Daines

Bay City week 2!

When we were at church on Sunday we saw someone we didn't recognize so we went up and introduced ourselves.  His name was Steve.  He is living with a member and the member invited him to church so he decided to come!  After talking with him he agreed for us to come over and answer some questions.  I didn't think we would be able to share the restoration, but we were able to.  It was a super spiritual lesson and he seemed to really enjoy it.  Enough so that he said we could come back!  He's a super cool guy he was telling us about this giant RC helicopter he built and flew it was really exciting to hear about. 

We had 3 trade offs and zone conference all in one week.  Long story short I was super tired by the end of the week.  We had an awesome Zone conference we learned about the new handbook that is coming out.  President Brennan gave a great analogy between tithing and taxes and how with tithing we round up while with taxes we find out the least amount we have to pay.  The moral of the story is the new hand book is like tithing.  It should make us want to do more because we want to serve the Lord. 

Besides that I am still waiting for the Bay City area Book on my phone.  On trade offs we literally knocked for 8 hours straight because we had nothing else to do.  For those of you who don't know the area book is were we keep track of all of our records for the people we are teaching.  Without it it makes being a missionary really hard.

pictures
-Elder Pearson and I
-Elder Hekking and I
-Elder Davis and I
-Snow in November

Emergency Transfer, Bay City, and Elder Ballard!

I am out of Holt believe it or not.  Tuesday evening we were at a member's having dinner and my phone rang.  Usually I don't look at my phone when we're at an appointment, but for some reason I did and it was President Brennan.  I stepped aside and answered it and long story short he said "I need you in Bay city tomorrow do you think you can be ready?"  I got this call at 6:30 and I needed to be at the institute in Lansing at 8 A.M. the next day.  I said goodbye to a couple of members packed my stuff then we drove to the institute and we drove up to Bay City.  My new companion is Elder Daines.  He is from New York so he's not your typical Utah boy!  Bay city is really cool.  We are 10 minutes from Lake Huron.  We drive over a draw bridge every day.  Bay city is also one of the most successful areas in the mission and I'm really excited for that! 

On Saturday we trekked the 2 hour drive down to Ann Arbor to hear Elder Ballard speak.  It was a super fun car ride.  Elder Anderson Carpooled down with us so me and him were able to reminisce about the good old days in Holt.  Elder Ballard didn't announce anything new or exciting he just gave us a training on missionary work.  He told us it is vitally important to build relationships with the ward council members and to talk to everyone.  The best part about it all was that we got to shake his hand!  I definitely felt the spirit as I shook his hand it was a very powerful experience that I will never forget! 

Last p-day after we emailed we went bowling with Zac for Elder Richey's birthday!  It was a lot of fun.  Zac showed us how to spin the ball so you could say I'm a semi professional bowler now!  After bowling we had dinner at the Fareroes.  he is the same one who always takes us out disk golfing.

I would tell you who are teaching here in Bay City, but I still haven't met any of them.  so I'll let you know next week.

pictures
-Fall leaves
-Right before the Emergency transfer
-The Saginaw river
-Elder Daines and me

Lots of Rain!

This week We had some good stuff happen.  We picked up this really cool guy by the name of C.J.  We found him one night walking into our apartment complex and I asked about his shirt and we got to talking and pretty quick he asked what we did.  So we explained and pretty quick we had a return appointment!  When we met with him he had a bunch of questions about the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph smith!  We were able to answer his questions and the spirit was supper strong! We are going back to meet with him tomorrow! 

Last Monday we went to Tremmel's and he wasn't home and he lives way in the heck out their so we did some good old country knocking.  Long story short, we found this massive bull frog sitting in the middle of the road!  It was kinda fun to country knock again.  It's probably been like 8 months since I've done that.  Far from effective but every once in a while its kinda fun to try out.