Week Ten

Elder Clifford and Elder Petersen meeting each other on transfer day.

Hey everyone!

This week was suuuuper scary to start off. To start off I finished my first transfer. The trio is dead now :( lol Elder Wendel has gone to Saco, Elder Harper is in Lindon Vermont, and I stayed here in Rockland. I got a new companion though! Elder Petersen. We have been working together great, and I can see some good work about to come forth in the coming weeks.

My first baptism is this Saturday. We are baptizing C. So that's real exciting. We are working on his nephew B, and I think he should be ready by the end of the month. It's craaaaaazy to see how the gospel can change lives. C has changed so much and even he's begun to see it. He loves to read the book of Mormon too. So that's great too. We're going to get him to the temple by November 25th. So that's cool.

I'm leading out Rockland too. Who would of thought they'd stick two greenies together and tell one to train. It's gone great though. I'm training Elder Petersen in ways around the area, and he trains me in 12 week. I was so nervous that I wouldn't be able to run the area out, but everything has been fine so far. It's crazy what some good planning can do. As we were taking our 4 hour drive from Manchester to Rockland I got to think. I was really sad that day. I was thinking about home and my friends. It was the first time I'd really been homesick. As I was dramatically looking out the window on that cloudy day, I thought of others that had come before me. I saw how grateful they were that they served a mission, and I looked at how awesome their lives are now. I know it's pretty hard to leave your family and friends for two years, but I know that not only does it bless your life, it blesses all the lives around you. I had a real cool experience too. Once we got back in Rockland we went to a members house for dinner, a family I had been to a few times before already. After a while I noticed that I was happy, and those feelings had gone. I felt at home once I got back in Rockland. It was crazy. Even though my real home is so far, the people here feel like home to me, and I'm thankful for that.

This week was great though. General Conference was pretty good. I thought last conference was better, but the Sunday afternoon session of this conference was amazing. I liked the Brazilian Elder's talk the most. It was nice and simple and I felt like I could relate for some reason!

Anyway, I've been trying to love people more and more recently. It's something I've never been good at, but I think it will be very beneficial out here in the field and for years to come in the future.

Btw you'd think that New England would have a great fall, but honestly it hasn't really started yet. The warmest morning of the year was this past Thursday. The temperature should start dropping soon though. So I should be getting some fall soon. We get technology this week too so that's awesome. Look for me on face book yo. 

Besides that we've been doing a lot of teaching, and finding here in Rockland. I love the area I serve in. It's either old people or old tourists. It's great. Mostly because old people tell really good stories, and stuff like that. Also the entire district is basically changed. I got some pics of my new district leader. I'll send one. I hope everyone has a great week though. 

Week Nine

Hello everyone! This week has been fantastic. This week was REALLY good.

So yes I got to go to Vinalhaven. Yes, I am never going there again. Wow, it was not what I was expecting. It felt like I entered into an anger management class. Good times, but not so good at the same time. lol. I got a shirt though so I don't forget about it.

Transfers are this week and that's exciting. I’m losing Elder Harper and Elder Wendel. I’m leading out Rockland with a new greenie comp. So that will be real interesting. Stressful, but fun.  I’m up for a challenge.  I guess I’ll be doing the first 6 weeks of my twelve weeks now. haha. I skipped them to be on the same level as Elder Harper.

On Monday we went to district meeting, and we said goodbye to each other and got some good pics. So that day was great.

C is progressing really well. We are baptizing him on October 7th. So that is realllllly exciting. My first baptism in the field.  I don't think I’m gonna actually baptize him though. He’s large in stature, like 6 foot 4 375 lbs. So I think we are going to get a man larger to baptize him. Who knows, he might ask me.

We went on exchanges on Thursday, and that was wayyyyy fun. I went with Elder Loffgreen, and learned a little more about his story, and that was great. We also did some great finding at the harbor. That's probably my favorite place in the area. We taught S, and he prayed out loud in front of us asking if he should be baptized or not.  Please pray for him to help him receive that confirmation.

Then on Friday we went to the food pantry, and helped out. They really love us there, and they give us the hooooook ups all the time. This week they gave us like 12 pounds of ground beef, and a rack of ribs. So of course we went and made ribs with the Ellsworth elders. They stayed the night on Friday because we went and exchanged and basically blitzed Rockland on Saturday. That was way cool. While we were out walking in the trailer park we met a woman, and we taught her the entire restoration while she was waiting for her mail. She asked us to come back next week so that will be cool.  I also got this nice guitar from an awesome man named R. He lives with one of our investigators, and we were talking about the church and all of its history. Then we started talking about life. He brought up his guitars. I told him I play the uke, and he told me to grab one of his guitars and to start playing that and we can jam whenever I come over.  I'll be giving back to him when I leave though. Great guy though. I'll get a pic with him whenever I leave Rockland. 

On Sunday we basically went around saying goodbye to everyone with Elder Wendel and Elder Harper. It was weird because I’m staying. I’m just glad that the branch is really cool.

Anyways we went out on the break water today, and I kinda just sat on the rocks and thought about my life. I thought about how I got in the position I’m in. It took me some thinking, but I realized how much I’ve really relied on the Lord and His power.  I actually hate talking to people, but I know that I am able to be on this mission because the Lord will never test you with something you cannot handle. So I know these next few weeks will be rough, but I trust that the Lord will provide a way for me and my companion.

Anyways, have a good rest of the week everyone!!!

Selfies of the week:

Week Eight

All right, this was quite the week!!!

So… immediately after I finished emailing last week, we went home, packed the car and started heading to Manchester. It's a 3 1/2 hour drive, so you already know I was going to be jamming to some spiritual uplifting music. Lucky for me, I was sifting through my music and found Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors soundtrack. We listened to most of it, and then listened to John Bytheway talks the rest of the night. We slept in Manchester for the night, which was all good. I got to go see the boys (my MTC District) the next morning at the follow up training. It was great connecting with some of the elders I hadn’t seen for so long.

(By the way… don’t be too disappointed in me, because I didn’t take many pictures this week. I forgot my camera in the car, and honestly, during the other days I really didn’t think about it. )

After our training experience, we drove back through Vermont, and into Manchester, New Hampshire. The leaves are starting to change like crazy in Vermont.  Idk what it is with where I am, but the leaves are pretty much still green. I have a feeling that will change within the next week or two though. The drive back from Manchester to Camden was really good. We didn’t stop anywhere and just hit it with a straight shot. We got back at around 10:30pm that night. I fell asleep in like 5 seconds. The next day we did a lot of street contacting. I talked to sooo many people!!! We met some fellow LDS members that were on a cruise. That was really cool. We picked up 2 new investigators that afternoon. We also met a guy that is a Lobsterman (this is the name of a lobster fisherman). That’s some rare stuff, but he was so down to learn some more from us.

Fast forward to Friday and we were driving back down to Manchester for a mission conference. Elder Bednar came to visit the mission. It was the strangest weather I think I have ever seen, that day. Rain mixed in with like 100% humidity. The entire mission prayed for the rain to go away, so we could get a pic outside with Elder Bednar.  Just like that, a sun like no other suns came out and took all the clouds away. But, it was soooooo hot. I was dying as we took pics with Elder Bednar. He had a great discussion with us. A lot of what I took from the discussion was that we need to act on spiritual promptings.

After the conference, we went back to the Topsam apartment to spend the night. We were each given ten dollars to buy some food and go restaurant finding. Well, we decided to go to a food court. So did every other missionary in Maine -  lol. The missionaries were everywhere.

On Sunday, we got to go hear Elder Bednar speak again at our stake conference. C and B attended Stake Conference and that was quite the commitment they kept. It took an hour and a half to get there, and we left at 5:30 in the morning. 

Overall, it was a really fun week! A lot of driving though! Tomorrow I will get to go to Vinalhaven (small island of the coast of Maine) and I’m excited for that. Expect some good pictures this next week. 

-Elder Clifford

BTW…The church flooded this last week, but, it’s fine now. There’s a big bug outside our house too. We named him Larry. (see pictures)

The people that he met that were on a cruise texted Elder Clifford's family a picture!!

The church flooded. 

 Larry

Selfies of the week:

The mission was so excited to be able to hear from Elder Bednar!  There are so many of them this picture had to be taken with a drone.  If you are looking for Elder Clifford, your hint is he has a blue suit on.