May 23 - Letter

Monday - So on Monday we went to Wal-Mart and got food, everytime I go to Wal-Mart it reminds me of home haha. After we got food we went to the Church and ate and looked through books at the church. We threw the football around outside and then came inside and slept in the chapel. It was a nice place to sleep :) After that me and Elder Benson drove back to Bremen and got ready for dinner with 2 non-members. We helped a lady named Mary Grebe with some service and she wanted to make us dinner since we helped her so we went and had dinner with her and her husband Larry. We we're trying to figure out something to teach them, because they didn't necessarily want to learn more about our church, and we didn't want to force trying to teach them at dinner so we both thought we should share the Articles of Faith with them. It was a great spot to start and it opened up into questions about the Book of Mormon that we answered and it was just a great dinner.

Tuesday- On Tuesday we went to Argos, Indiana. The Hindsdales (They're members) live there and we went and did service for them. It's in the country where they live, and while we're standing there talking about what we're going to be doing with Brother Hindsdale, a possum starts walking by. He says "Watch it" and runs inside to grab his gun. He comes outside with a 22 and scope and shoots 5 times and missed everytime but 1 and the 1 time he hit it, it didn't go down, it was just injured and then he went to go hunt it down but counldn't find it. Then we started gardening and helped them plant Tomatoes and beans. After we did service, we grilled hamburgers and had lunch. It was so good. After that me and Elder Benson went to the church and changed into Proselyting clothes. We worked all day, I took a baptismal gift to Ann Listenberger, I gave her picture of the Savior that David drew and a Ctr ring! It was a good day.

Wednesday - Wednesday we were supposed to go to the Temple, we had an appointment set up, but Brother Timm blew out his knee so we couldn't go. Funny story of that day, so we're knocking on doors in Plymouth in a nice neighborhood, we knock on this one door, the person opens it a crack and starts knocking on the door back at us, and then he opens the door and it's a guy that's like 20 years old and there's a dog trying to get through this guy's leg but this guy's trying to hold the Dog back, finally the guy lets the dog go, as we're on his porch and says "Get em Zeke" and the dog runs towards us hahaha but it just jumped up and started playing with us. We started talking to this kid and I was trying to figure out if he was on drugs or somethinf, because he talked really slow and was very relaxed, we then found out later why. He really liked talking to us and this is the reason why he is like that. So he was walking home, on the highway right by his house and a girl was texting and driving and ran off the road and hit him going 55 miles an hour. This guy was in a coma for 2 months and head serious head trauma, and gashes in his head. Luckily she didn't hit him head on, but hit him with the mirror of the side of her car. Her dad was the Emt that saved him. So that happened 4 years ago. We made good friends with this guy, his name is Austin. I have another story about Austin's neighbor, so this lady, probably 50, tried bashing with us. She thinks that you just have to confess the name of Christ and you are saved and she says "By grace we are saved" which is true but after all we can do. She does not believe in works. And so I said "So once someone confessed the name of Christ, they can do whatever they want the rest of their life? "She says "No, they have to live good" and I'm wondering "is that not works?" and then she said "They're filled with the Holy spirit to guide them?" And I said "So they're perfect after that?" and she said "No they will still make mistakes?" and I said "So when they make a mistake, they ask for forgiveness, we call that repentance right?" and she said "Yes" and I said "Is that not a work?" Haha and then I told her "by your definition of saved, I am Saved" haha and then as we we're knocking doors on the other side of her street she came up to us and asked us our first names so that she could pray for us and then she said a prayer with us and prayed for our salvation. I'm wondering why because she believes we just need to Confess the name of Jesus Christ and we're saved. So me and Elder Benson our both saved? Haha it was funny. Austin came back to us as we were knocking more doors and I said "Has your dog ever attacked?" and he's like "I don't know, lets find out, and points to me and says Attack!" It was hilarious. While we were with him, his dad pulled into the driveway and I told him to tell his dad we say Hi when he gets home. Austin says "Why don't you just come with me?" So we went and talked to his dad and had a great conversation with their family. It was a very successful day.

Thursday - Thursday we had Zone Conference! President Cleveland told us a story. So a couple weeks ago him and Sister Cleveland we're finishing up interviews with missionaries, and just finished with transfers and they were just exhausted and they had to go to a Mission President's seminar in Washington DC with Elder Oaks. So they go and have a great 3 days at the Mission Presidents Seminar but President Cleveland is exhausted and he was sitting in the airport in Washington Dc and started getting acute vertigo. He's gotten it before but not in a public place. It comes from dehydration and lack of sleep. Pretty soon the airport is spinning around him and he doesn't know what to do. He's sweating, he took off his tie and said to Sister Cleveland "I don't know if I'm going to make it in this plane" they had 30 minutes until they needed to board the plane and he prayed for 30 minutes straight pleading for help. 30 minutes go by and he still has it pretty bad. Sister Cleveland starts walking him over, taking baby steps, and he just doesn't think he's gonna be able to make it on the plane. He knows he needs to get on the plane, if he doesn't he's gonna be in the hospital for a few days and he needed to be back in Indiana. Out of nowhere he says this hand grabbed his left shoulder, and he turns around and it's President Rogers the mission president from the Ney York New York Uttica mission. President Cleveland says to him "I'm not doing well" and President Rogers says "I know I can tell, but we're gonna get you on the plane" President Rogers was a doctor and carried President Cleveland to board the plane and said "Get this man on the plane, he has acute vertigo and needs to get on now" President Cleveland got on, fell asleep and 2 hours later woke up flying into Indiana just fine. He talked about Angels being around us as we do this work. He also talked about Bishop Davies, the one that was always in our ward and said Bishop Davies talked at the South Bend Stake Center. He talked about how Bishop Davies at one point in his life, mopped the Marriott Center floor, and worked hard his whole life and went from mopping the Marriott Center floor to him now being in the Presiding Bishopric. When we got home from Zone Conference Ben Richhart picked us up and we went to Wings Etc. With him. We had dinner and then he dropped me off at the church for more dinner and then me and Elder Eschler went to Culver because we switched because we had exchanges the next day. 

Friday - Friday me and Elder Eschler woke up and went and worked out at Culver Academy. We did our normal morning routine and then at 10 we went out and stopped by some investigators and did what we call PC which is just handing cards out and talking to people. It's "Personal Contacting" We did that from 10-12 and then had lunch. Me and Elder Eschler then drove to Plymouth. We tracted in a place called Pretty Lake. We talked to a lady that went to the Book of Mormon play and left early because it was so bad. She said our church should try and Boycott the Book of Mormon play. After working all day we went to the Ogilvies and grilled hamburgers and had a good dinner.

Saturday - Saturday me and Elder Benson went to Walkerton to go visit Less Actives. There is 1 Less Active in Walkerton, and we got her re-activated. She went to church 3 weeks in a row which was very good. Later in the day we went to the Ogilvies and did service. We dug up tree roots for them. It was a hot day, I loved it. That night we went and grilled hamburgers with the Reeds, I probably had 6-8 hamburgers :) And there were a ton left, so it was okay I had that many :) Me and Elder Eschler then Personal Contacted people and had a lot of success. We walked around the neighborhoods in Bremen and a couple people were shut off and didn't want to talk to us. 1 guy was loading some boards and wouldn't let us help him when we asked, but we just started talking to him about Notre Dame and how I met Mike Brey the basketball coach and about the Marines and I told him how dad likes the Marines and we made good friends with them and found out a lot of the wifes family is LDS and live Utah and came to the Indianapolis Temple. It was a successful day!

Sunday - Sunday we had a great day at church. Ann Listenberger was confirmed. Elder Eschler, Elder Morgan, Elder Benson all gave talks. The Culver Elders had an investigator at church and she brought a friend with her and her kid. After church we had our 2 hour meeting and then we went back to Bremen and the Culver Elders knocked doors in Bremen and me and Elder Benson handed out cards and invited people to church and then had a lesson with Austin and put him on baptismal date for June 12th. President Cleveland is doing this push where every single person we talk to we give them a card with our church address, time it starts and our phone number and we tell people "We just want you to know you're welcome to our church anytime, we'd love to have you" He says "If 1000 people get a card, and only 15 people come, that's 15 people more then we'd normally have at church." It's been a great week and we're going to have another great week! I love you guys so much!