Wednesday, October 2nd: (didn't have the pictures last week)
Mt Pleasant here we come...again. You can tell when the days and weeks are flying by when it feels like we just had Zone Conference. Transfers and Zone Conference happen every six weeks, but not on the same week. So even though it looks like it, the groups at Zone Conference change somewhat. Its always sad when one of "our" missionaries gets transferred to a zone that isn't attending the conference we go to because there are two different ones held. But, here is the picture of this one with some familiar faces and some we are yet to know...
We are serving in the same District as the Nixon's who arrived a month after we did. So we see them quite often. They are from Holden, Utah and Sister Nixon can go from silly and laughing to serious and crying in a heartbeat. And her emotions are genuine.
Saturday and Sunday, October 5th and 6th:
We love, love General Conference twice a year. So many amazing talks, stories and counsel given by prophets and apostles. It's hard to pick a favorite talk. But, when President Nelson spoke at the end of Conference he announced 17 new temples to be built and one will be in Queen Creek, Arizona! Yay!! The title of his talk is, "The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again." There was something very different this time when he said more than once to prepare for the 2nd Coming of the Savior. He encouraged us to rededicate our lives to the Savior, study His Atonement everyday and prepare. I think we certainly should!
We invite friends and Branch members to join us at the Church building for all sessions. We didn't get more than a couple of people to join us this time in addition to us four missionaries, but that is alright. We hope others watched from home or will watch them from the Gospel Library soon. Its too important to learn from what they say and then apply what they say.
Elder Gibbons, Azevedo, Potter and Haws, and Chris Amundson on Saturday
On Saturday nights, the Zone Leaders invite the missionaries to hop onto a short Zoom meeting at 8 PM to have Zone Prayer, but first they do a "bingo" game with challenges listed for them to complete. The one who gets the most done in an hour wins. This picture shows the Elders at our house "pretending" to be unified as companions.
They actually won the bingo challenge
Monday, October 7, 2024:
We learned late Wednesday night that Elder Potter was going to be transferred...again...because one new Elder was arriving at the mission. We thought we would taking him down the next day to Lansing, but because of General Conference the church travel department wasn't able to get him here until Monday. So we headed to Lansing on that day instead. Boy is it hard to watch these young missionaries come and go.
Elder Potter was going to Manistee once he picked up his companion at the airport with President and Sister Peckham and the Assistant to the Presidents. He was also told he would be the District Leader, the Designated Driver and given one of the new Ford Maverick (trucks--although we are told not to call them trucks for insurance purposes, LOL).
This is a picture of Elder Gibbons with Elder Jenkins.
They have become good buddies as we help them inspect vehicles each zone conference. Elder Jenkins suggested we extend our mission and become the office housing people and stay until he and his wife go home in July. We appreciate the vote of confidence, but not feeling the desire to delay going home.
NOTE: The second day Elder Potter and Elder Brinkerhoff were in Manistee, they hit a deer and did some minor damage to the vehicle. Deer are everywhere here and he isn't the only missionary to do so recently. But the Maverick had 40 whole miles on it.
Wednesday, October 9th:
Every Wednesday is District Council Day, except for the week of transfers. We headed to Petoskey. When we got into the car this is what the windshield looked like.
Wait, what?! Was that ice? Yep. Took this picture after the heat was going for a couple of minutes. Here comes winter...
Our District changed again because our District Leader, Elder Potter left. So they had to add another companionship with us so one could be the District Leader. They had to drive an hour to join us.
Back Row Left to right: Sister Richards (new as well from Oregon), Sister Wehrmeister, Elder Azevedo, Elder Dahl (recently returned to the mission), Elder Senecal (the new DL) and Elder Haws (recently returned to the mission.) Front row: The Nixons and the Gibbons
On the way home we stopped to take a picture just because it was so pretty.
Thursday, October 10th:
The Sister Trainer Leader, Sister Cox, and her companion, Sister Christensen, asked to come and be on exchanges with me. It is so much fun to be out with them. Sister Cox served here in Cheboygan prior to our being here. In fact, she lived in the house we are in with her companion. But she was Emergency Transferred out after only being here for a short time. We visited some of the Branch Members she remembered, did a little bit of service for one.
The best part of the day was that after we knocked on one members door, Sister Cox, asked if we could go knock on a different door. She said she had seen a woman with two little children drive back into the apartment parking lot and enter an apartment. President Peckham had challenged each companionship to find at least one family to bring into the Church during the month of October. He said as he'd been praying and asking what our mission needed, the Spirit prompted that "we need families." So here was Sister Cox on exchanges with me and she was prompted to knock. The woman was very nice, but said she was kinda busy, but being the experienced missionary she was Sister Cox followed up with a question of when would be a good time. I interjected that we were having a free movie night the next evening with free concessions and invited her to come. She actually said she would. The next day when Elder Gibbons and I were at the store buying the concessions, she came up to me at the check out stand with a big smile on her face. I gave her a hug and she talked with here kids in the cart and she said again she was coming. And she did! She only stayed for half of it because her kids got antsy, but she told Elder Gibbons she would be at church on Sunday. Well as it turned out she didn't come because she was moving her family to a larger apartment and she had to work to raise money to do so. But, when the Elders called her Sunday afternoon she said she would be there this coming week. We are praying and hoping she will indeed. She is a sweetheart. Can't wait to see where this goes!
When we were done for the day, we picked up Ashley (who was baptized in August) and we came back to our house and the Elders were here. I had food in the crockpot, but hadn't had time to do anything else. Elder Azevedo had set the table and made a green salad. Love that guy! After eating dinner we all talked with Ashley about doing baptisms for the dead in the Temple. We are hoping she can go this Friday.
About the time the Sisters were going to head back to their home in Gaylord, south about 45 minutes, we learned the Northern Lights were visible from here. Actually they were visible in many places in the US that they normally aren't. First time Elder Gibbons and I have seen them!
This is the view from our entrance of the house to the north
Before going home, the Elders went to Lake Huron about 1 mile north of us and took this cool picture showing the lighthouse and the Northern Lights. Elder Haws brought a very expensive camera and he took this one. He has a videographer business back home.
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