Elder Chalmers: A Week in the Life of a Michigan Missionary

This week didn't have a ton going on, but it was still fun. July 28, 2014

Last Monday was a pretty typical P-Day. We e-mailed then ended up at the mall which sucks, since it's as worldly of a place as there is, but at least we got to play soccer which is always fun. Then we had dinner at the Kepler's. He is our Elder's quorum president. They are both converts, and really cool. Then we knocked doors the rest of the night.

On Tuesday we went down to the Tridge and talked to some peeps, then we took like an hour of our day and made a ton of phone calls to try and set up all our appointments for the week. Then we went over to a less active member's house and played pool with him since Bishop told us to go over there and be his friend, but not to proselyte. After that we knocked doors for a while and then had dinner at the Bowman's house. Bro and Sis Bowman have been the Mission president in Mexico, the Peru MTC president, and the Peru Temple President. They were really cool. After that we went and saw Curt and Patty Cormier and taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was really good. They are super awesome.

On Wednesday it was Arms Day, so things were pretty intense over on 2201 Ashman Street Apt. #2. :) Then we had District Meeting and took District pictures, since it was our last District Meeting of the Transfer. We went to Wendy's for district lunch and almost made it completely around the table because Sister Cox was doing her "Yurps" (when she does her turrets thing) a ton. haha. Then we went to get Hunter Glenn, who is a pretty recent RM, he went to El Salvador. He was coming to teach Brian and then Aaron with us. But when we got to Brian's house, he wasn't there. So we had to take Hunter home, and totally missed out on a couple of sweet member present lessons. We were able to teach Aaron the Restoration still, and it was the hardest lesson ever! We were teaching him in this business building with a nice lobby and there is a restaurant in it and there was music playing in there, it was killing me! The music was all so good: Life in Technicolor, Dog Days are Over, Don't Stop by Foster the People, it was tough for me. Then we studied before going over to Jan and Jon Marcou's house. The Marcou's are etern-i-gators. They have been investigating the church for 14 years, since their daughter joined the church. They always have us over and feed us, then we teach them a lesson. We taught the second half of the Plan of Salvation, it went really, really well. They were saying that the Spirit World and Three Degrees of glory all made sense to them. We told them to look up "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. Because we kept telling them that we are all saved by grace, but our works determine how comfortable we will be in God's presence.

On Thursday we studied, and then helped Sister Reyes help a friend move a washer, it was pretty hard since her ceiling in the basement is only 5 feet tall, but it was all good because Sister Reyes gave us burritos. :) Then we taught Brian the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really good lesson. Our only obstacle with him is getting him to church. We have him on a baptismal date, but he is nervous to come to church and meet a lot of people, and then he also doesn't really want to affiliate with a denomination. But once he really prays about the Book of Mormon, he will come around. :) Then we had a member present lesson planned with Ben but he canceled on us. Then Nick was supposed to meet us at the Tridge, but he shined us. So we finally contacted the referral that Bro. Chris Sanford gave us. She was busy with people over, but we got her info, and she told us to come back. Her name is Tammi Dunham. After that we tried to go to Nick's house, but he wasn't home. So we went to Curt and Patty's. They fed us dinner and then we taught them. They are so nice to us. Then we got a text from Heather, Nick's mom, telling us to come over. So we went over and she told us about how Nick had just gone and gotten gages and that since she is a single mom and working her butt off he is just taking advantage of that. Also that he just puts on a face for us missionaries and acts interested, but really isn't. So we were able to talk to him for a little, and I told him that it's really important to not "give up what you want most, for what you want now." I hope he can figure things out before he hits rock bottom, and he's only 13! That's what's wrong with the world, it's all about instant gratification....

On Friday we studied and then did Weekly Planning. We also got Transfer Calls! which don't really affect me since I'm training, but was still suspenseful. Elder Anderson is going to be Zone Leader in Spring Lake, and now Elder Finlayson is the District Leader and he is going to be training, which means that I'll no longer be the newest missionary out here! :) Then we went and taught Joe. His roommate was watching American Dad while we were trying to teach him, and that show is super bad, and it was really distracting. But we finally got them to turn it off, but it got worse from there, since Joe was falling asleep while we were teaching him, he would start to doze even when he would be talking. hahahah. It was ridiculous though. Then we knocked doors for a while. I was talking about the Philadelphia Eagles as I often do, and Elder Hess got really mad at me about how much I talk about how I like the Eagles and how I don't like the Cowboys. I think it was just because he was tired. But we got over it, it's all good. He's just mad that the Eagles are the best team on the face of the planet. And he did admit that he was a little jealous of my footie pajamas. :). Then we had dinner at sister Nyman's house and knocked some more.

On Saturday after we did studies we went to the Shelter House and helped out for a while, I also found some pretty sweet stuff there. They have everything as a set price, and the longer it is on a shelf, the cheaper it gets, it is really awesome. Then we went to teach Ben with Bro Cannady, but he shined us. That is kind of how our week went, every time we had a member with us, the person wasn't there.... So we went to Blake's house and painted our miniatures and while we were there the entire movie "Planes" played, and it was a pretty good movie. hah. Pretty much a not as good knock off of Cars. We had a hard time getting out of there, but we were able to get out after 3 hours, which may sound like a long time, but with Blake, it's pretty dang good. :) Then we got to teach Ben, turns out he went to the new Hercules movie and forgot. But we got to teach him about tithing. He agrees to everything, but he just can't quit smoking. Then we knocked doors for the rest of the night.

On Sunday we had Church. Sacrament meeting's topic was on Eternal Families, and it was so good. Bro. and Sis. Bowman spoke and they did awesome. Sis Bowman said "Life isn't a fairy tale, but we can all live happily ever after" Then Brother Bowman gave some really good marriage/family advice, which I made sure to take some religious notes on. hah. Then after church we talked with Nick and pretty much just talked with him, as friends. Then we told him how important it is to come to church. He just really needs some good examples in his life, so hopefully we can do that for him. Also on Sunday for like an hour it was pouring rain. It was probably raining harder than I have ever seen, it was crazy! We went home teaching with Hunter Glenn and then had dinner at Sister Wheeler's house with the sisters and Hunter since she is a single woman. There were some really good chimichangas. She is a really, really cool lady, except turns out she is a Cowboys fan, but she told me she would keep me posted. :)

So far today we have shopped, studied, played soccer, and are now e-mailing.

Some really cool scriptures I found this week were D&C 138: 27-60 which talks about how the teaching in the spirit world works. It is really really cool. Also James 4:17 is cool when relating to what SIN really is. It says that if we don't do good when we know that it is good, then it is sin. So it shows just how awesome Jesus really was and still is. Also without Satan, Heavenly Father's plan wouldn't work. So Satan obviously doesn't know Heavenly Father's plan, which is really cool, and so we don't know all of his plan. So I bet Satan feels really dumb about that. hah.

This week didn't have a lot going on, but I still had a good time, and we knocked a lot of doors and worked really hard so I still feel good about it. I love you all like crazy. I still have a ton of work to do out here, but I dream about the day when I get to walk off the airplane and give all of you a huge hug! It's going to be the best day of my life getting to be together again. :)

Love,

Elder Chalmers