Bellevue, Bdubs, and birthdays

Elder Clemdawg's Weekly Email

 Sep 5, 2022, 1:29 PM Subject: Bellevue, bdubs, and birthdays 

 I can't believe a week ago I was still in the mtc!! My first real week as a missionary went great. I'm still getting used to the humidity a little bit but other than that I think I've adjusted pretty well. Everyone down here loves college football so I just try to relate lessons to that and it works most of the time haha.

Monday: we said goodbye to the other elders which was kinda sad and then took two trains and a bus to the airport. The good thing about flying through delta as a missionary is they have like a fast tsa specifically for missionaries it was so nice. I had shake shack for the first time in the airport and it was the best thing I've tasted in weeks. Then I said goodbye to the mountains,got on the plane and flew to Omaha. We greeted by our mission presidents and the AP's. Once we got to the mission office they fed us and then took us to a hotel where we spent the night. 

 Tuesday: was a lot of training meetings. They just kinda set the groundwork for how the cars work. Our mission is cool cause every companionship has a car. I'm not allowed to drive for a few weeks though. Then they took us to the trail center which is just like a pioneer museum. The guy explained what happened to the pioneers and why they needed winters quarters. The temple here is small but soon pretty. 

Then we had dinner at the mission home and went back to the hotel.

Wednesday: they introduced us to our comps and gave us our areas. My comp is elder greenhaulgh and he's from cedar city. I've been assigned the Bellevue area and I've loved every second of it. Everyone is so nice here and if there not interested they still are nice. We went back to our apartment where I met some of the other elders in the zone. There's two elders who live above us. One of them is named elder gines and he loves football so we talk alot of football. After that we headed straight to work. I met some of the members and taught a lesson about the restoration. Wednesday was also elder gines birthday so we got him a cake and celebrated.

Thursday: Thursday was like my first full day in the field and it was longgg. Lots of appointments and street contacting. Also on this day we played these two highschoolers in basketball while we were in our dress clothes. We balled out and beat them by like 20. I also met a member named Carlos. Carlos only got baptized a month ago but you wouldn't be able to tell. His testimony is so strong I thought he was a member his whole life. He's also really funny and feeds us everytime we go over there. Friday: most of missionary work I have found out is just showing love to everyone you Meet. Even if the person happens to vape in your face. You still show love. 

Friday we had a lot of lessons. One of them we went to teach a recent convert and then we met her niece so we taught her too. Then while we were about to leave. Wendy tells us that this guy moving in is lds too. So we go and introduce ourselves and apparently he has wanted to come to church but his records didn't transfer and so he didn't know which church to go to so we gave him our contact info and were meeting with him later this week. I also met brother woods. Brother woods has cancer but his faith has not wavered since the diagnosis. We have to keep lessons short with him though cause he gets really tired. 

 Saturday: was pretty lit. Saturday was my birthday. It kinda sucks being on a mission on your birthday cause everyone who texted me happy birthday I couldn't respond too till today so I felt really bad. The elder took me to bdubs for dinner and it was so good. The Nebraska game just happened to be on so we watched some of that while enjoying some of the best wings ever. After dinner we went to this guy named Ron's house and he had the game on too so we watched the final quarter with him and then shared a message about eternal families and then we played catch with his two kids. 

Sunday: was really rewarding cause I saw some investigators come to church. Sacrament meeting has always been one of my fav things about church because you can just feel the sprit so strongly. It was a nice reminder of why I'm out here. Then one of the elders in my district brought me a cake and it was soo good. I feel so loved out here. Well that's really all that happened this week. Hope life is well back home. Email me and update me on the latest news if you want. 

I love you all and so does God 

 Love elder clemdawg.