December 10, 2018

Last district council feat. Zone leaders (left to right Elders Magalei, Tilley, Sheffield, Clark, Wilkins, Berry, Me, Cloward, Wiseman)

Fam, 

My last week and last letter. This time next Monday I will be on the transfer bus headed to Lansing. Tuesday will be interviews and a temple trip, Wednesday will be a flight at some unknown time home (probably in the morning). I will have served as a full time missionary for 714 days. 335 of those days in the Spanish 1 Area, 338 in the Spanish 2 area, and don't forget some time in the CCE. It's been pretty great. 714 days is only 97.8% of a two year mission but we can round up a little. 

Thursday was the highlight of the week. It was my Trade-off with Elder Magalei. It ended with a meeting we set up with the President of the Relief Society and the Elders Quorum. We proposed some ideas for a branch mission plan that will continue to help the branch grow in the following year. Things look very positive for the coming year. 

The same day we had a meal with a member. We brought their ministering family with us and on the way to the home they told us that Grand Rapids did not have a salt budget for icy roads this year. I'm not sure it's true but I would believe it. We normally exit out of our apartment through a near by suburb and you could easily mistake the roads for an ice rink. Road conditions are pretty poor and while there is a plethora of private plows, for business and homes, roads are left almost entirely untouched. 

I spoke in church this last Sunday. Keila Mendez spoke before me and did really well. The sacrament portion of the meeting went pretty quickly and then Keila spoke. Though I did listen my attention was more on how my talk was going to go. As I was deep in thought to my surprise I heard words of testimony. That grabbed my attention quickly realizing that the sacrament portion of the meeting was unusually quick, that she hadn't been talking for that long, and that when someone starts sharing their testimony it normally means the end of their talk. I checked the clock and she had spoken for a little under 10 minutes and was leaving the last 40 minutes for me and the final hymn. It might not seem like that big of a deal but I wouldn't classify myself as a very talented public speaker and my written talk was about 17 minutes long. I think it went well. No one ever complains about ending early haha. 


-eric