Clarksville to Cookeville

Visiting the temple

Buenos!

Well, this is transfer week. We got quite the surprise...I'm getting moved! It kind of came as a shock, still trying to process it, but I'm changing areas again. I'll be moving from Clarksville to Cookeville!! It's about an hour and a half east of Nashville, in the very eastern part of the mission.  From what people have told me, it's a medium sized city with a small university. I was also told that there's lots of Hispanics, so hopefully there'll be plenty of work to do. Here's the kick: I'm going to be white-washing. We're going to be replacing the sisters that were there, so neither I nor my new comp will know the area at all. Speaking of which, my new companion will be Elder C! I don't know him super well, I've only seen him around at zone conferences a couple of times, but he seems pretty chill. He is 6'5 though, so we're going to have two tall white guys talking to all the short Hispanics haha. It'll definitely be a challenge white-washing into the area, but I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in Cookeville! Also, Elder W will stay in Clarksville and his new companion will be my former companion, Elder S.
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My last week in Clarksville was pretty slow. We had a rough week. We got straight zeroes. No lessons, no new investigators, no nothing. It was a pretty rough week as far as the work goes. We tried to see lots of people, but everything just kept falling through, and our tracting just wasn't very successful. So yeah, it was pretty slow, but hopefully the area will pick up next transfer.

The highlight of the week though was Friday. We got to go to the Temple! It was awesome. It had been almost 7 months since I'd been able to go, so I was stoked. Some members drove us to Franklin, and we had a session of missionaries and their rides. The Nashville temple is so tiny!! Holy cow! It's still pretty great though. I loved being in the temple again, being able to feel the calm peace of the spirit. Going to the temple is definitely something that I had missed. It truly is the house of the Lord.

For my ponderizer this week is a quote from Kevin W Pearson. "When trials and challenges come our way, we are often told to simply “hang in there.” Let me be clear: to “hang in there” is not a principle of the gospel." As missionaries, we are asked to endure a lot. We endure rejection a lot. If all we are doing is hanging in there, waiting for things to get better, we will never be successful. Elder Pearson explains that to endure means to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. As we turn to the Lord, He will be able to help us bear our burdens, and endure our trials well. I definitely could've endured my setbacks here in Clarksville a little better, but I’m hoping for a fresh start again in Cookeville. Alright, hope y’all have a good one!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

A sister made these awesome bibs for the missionaries

The Samoan family that liked to feed them

The senior couple in Clarksville made breakfast 

for the zone to end the transfer

With the senior couple at the breakfast

Lots of napping this week

Saying goodbye to Clarksville

An Accident That Wasn't an Accident?

Buenos,

We had an OK week here in Clarksville. There wasn't too much that happened this week. The weather has not been our friend this week. This week there was quite a bit of time that we had to stay off the street because of ice. We got a little more snow this week, and it has been way cold. But, it should start warming up again this week. It's weird here because it'll snow one day, then the snow will be there for a day, then it melts the next day, then we get snow again. Yup, it's fun.

This week we met with one of our new investigators, J (yeah, his parents named him after the band, super cool). He speaks English, but he's of Lamanite descent, so we get to teach him for now. We had a good lesson with him, teaching the message of the Restoration. We also met a new investigator, L. We saw him outside his house and decided to go up and talk to him. He was pretty cool; we talked about Jesus for like 20 minutes on his doorstep! It was pretty cool. We're looking forward to meeting with him later this week. We couldn't meet with G this week. We found out her dad is in the hospital, and it's been pretty hard on her, so we are just praying for her family. Honestly, opposition is a real thing. G is just seeking for the truth so hard, and I know Satan is trying so hard to stop her from finding it right now. We are just hoping and praying that everything works out.

This Sunday, church was canceled. The snow wasn't too bad, but the roads were really slick. Thing was, we were in Clarksville 1st ward's sacrament meeting when the canceled church for CV2. So, after Sacrament, they sent first ward home, and we were stuck at the church for a little bit with CV2's ward council people. Then, there was an accident outside the church! This lady slid off the road and her back end slid into the ditch. So, we helped her out, she was fine, just a little shaken up. We called the tow truck, and got her all situated. Here's the crazy thing: the lady that crashed was an inactive member! What? So, we gave her a blessing, which was awesome. Eventually, the tow came and pulled the car out, and we got her sent on her way. I don't think that it was by accident that she crashed in front of the church. Perhaps it was a reminder to her that she needs to come back to the church. Who knows, just kind of a crazy story.

The accident right outside the church

My ponderizer this week is Alma 58:11, "Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him." Not gonna lie, this transfer has been a little rough. We work, but we don't really see the results of our work, and we don't see much success. But, we’ve got to persevere, and work in the Lord's timing. We have to keep at until the Lord speaks peace to us, and gives us his blessings. Alright, hope you have a good week! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Biking in 25 degree weather is no fun

This is where the GPS told them their investigator lived

Pictures from around Clarksville

Opportunities to Serve

At the border

Buenos!

Well, we've had quite the week here! The weather has been really funky here lately. On Tuesday, we were told to stay inside due to a tornado warning. There weren't any tornadoes near us, but we got hit with a ton of rain and lots and lots of wind. It was weird, because the rest of the week it hasn't been too bad, but today we got snow again. It is literally coming down as I write this.

More Snow!

This week we had a ton of opportunities to do service. There was a family on base at Ft Campbell that we helped move. So we got to go on base quite a few times to help out. However, it took us a few days to get everything moved out and cleaned. We worked a lot getting their old place cleaned up to military standard, so that was fun. Then, we also moved another family later in the week. You'd think that helping people move would be easy for a guy that did a year of furniture moving at BYU, but I guess I'm out of shape because after a few days of moving, my forearms are just wrecked.

We still managed to squeeze in a few lessons this week in between all the service. We met with our two main investigators, G, and G. G is super interested in the church and everything, but she and her son both have lots of health problems that make it hard for her to meet with us. We had a real solid lesson with her this week, and we are hoping that we can get her to church this next Sunday. The other G is interesting. It's funny because we always call people "investigators" even though some of them aren't super interested or whatever. But G is actually investigating. The only problem is the sources she's using to get her info. When we met with her this week, she brought out a little sheet of questions to ask us, and it turned into border-line bashing. She had a lot of questions about living prophets, and the Book of Mormon; she thought that we believed in a different Jesus. She felt like she hadn't received an answer yet, and then she told us that she didn't want to waste our time, and she was about to drop us. Elder W was about to let it happen too, but then I butted in. I thought to myself, "I'm not about to lose an investigator because of this online garbage." So, I talked about asking with real intent, and invited her to try reading and praying one more time, and then I gave probably the strongest testimony about Thomas S. Monson that I've ever given, and honestly, the spirit was great. G committed to read and pray some more, so we are just hoping and praying that she receives an answer.

Let's see, the other fun thing from this week was that we had water damage in our apartment! Apparently, one of our pipes is no bueno. Our shower in the bathroom upstairs has been leaking into the kitchen downstairs. We noticed it on Friday, and called our landlord. However, the plumber was out of town this weekend, so they weren't able to get to it at all the last few days. Hopefully he came today, and it will be fixed when we get home.

Hopefully this will be fixed soon!

Alright, my ponderizing scripture this week is John 21:18, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." This week I'm trying to focus more on putting my trust in the Lord, trying to do things His way instead of just doing things my way all the time. His way is better, right? We need to trust in the Lord and turn our will over to Him. Well, hope y’all have another good week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

More pictures from the border

More sleeping pictures

Sunrise over the apartments

Halfway Up Hill

From last week when they had snow

Hola!

Well, we had a pretty good week here in Clarksville. I would just like to begin by mentioning that last Friday I hit my 6 month mark! It's a little crazy to think that I've been out that long. Time has honestly flown by. It's a little crazy to think that I'm 1/4 of the way through my mission. On Friday I was thinking, "Wow, I only have that three more times...huh." Crazy.

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference. We drove up to Hopkinsville, KY (yup, I got to cross the border, whoo!) and had a conference with the Hopkinsville and Paducah zones. It was pretty fun. We had trainings by President/Sister Andersen, the STL's, and the ZL's. We also heard the testimonies of missionaries going home in the next 1-2 transfers. We actually have 3 missionaries in our district who will be going home in about 3 weeks. I really enjoyed President's training about how faith, patience, and diligence are 3 pillars of missionary work. He also talked about how at 211 degrees water is hot, but at 212, it boils. He challenged us to take things up one notch, just one more degree. 

After the Zone Conference, we had the privilege to sing at an event in Elkton. We had been invited to attend a multi-faith Christian choir concert, where they had choirs from around the area come and sing praises to the Lord. So there was a Catholic choir, Methodist, Baptist (I really liked them), and then we sang. Our little missionary choir sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," and "Nearer My God to Thee." It was a pretty fun night, and it was great to see so many people with different opinions and ideas all celebrate their faith in Christ.

The English members are still feeding us real well. I have been so stuffed. I forgot to mention it but last week we had a dinner with this Samoan family, the Ts. Man. They absolutely stuffed us. Don't mess with islanders. They gave us ribs, fried chicken, rice, potatoes, everything. There was so much food! I was already full when Brother T said, "Elder, it is disrespectful in our culture if you don't eat everything." He then proceeded to put a few more ribs on my plate. After I was stuffed, they said, "Ok, hope you have room for desert." Oh my. They gave each of us a giant bowl of ice cream and a plate of lemon cake. I had finished my cake and was almost done with the ice cream when Brother T said, "Elder. I was just kidding. You don't have to eat all that." But, there were only a few more bites left, and I wasn't about to be beaten by the food. So, I finished. Then, I felt awful. To make a long story shorter, I ended up puking in their bathroom. (I still feel bad about that). Yeah, when I woke up the next morning I was still full. Don't mess with the Samoans man.

This week we had exchanges. Our district leader is in a trio right now, so he just decided to come to our area rather than having one of us pack up and go to his. So, for a couple days we got to be in a trio. It was a little weird, especially with tracting and stuff. While on exchanges, we met this cool new investigator. He is a black dude named C. Yup. Totally African-American, talks like he's from the hood, and his name is C. However, we're pretty sure his wife is Hispanic, we just haven't met her yet. C is pretty cool though. He recently moved to Tennessee and is looking for a church, and apparently he's related somehow to a member in Sango. We're hoping things will continue to go well with him.

Church on Sunday was pretty great. We attended just two wards (technically we could go to all four of the Clarksville wards). It was the first time we've had the Sacrament in about 3 weeks, due to the broadcast, and church being canceled last week. You really come to appreciate the Sacrament after not having it in a long time! This week was also my first time translating in Sacrament meeting. When the meeting started, there weren't any Spanish members there, so I thought I was off the hook. However, some hermanas came in right before the Sacrament started, so, we ended up having to translate after all. It was really nerve racking at first, but after a little bit it wasn't too bad. I'm not sure if I could've done it 3 months ago, but I'm definitely grateful for the gift of tongues.

(Man, this seems like a pretty long email). My ponderizer this week is D&C 128:22. "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free." I've been thinking a lot about diligence lately. It's easy to get discouraged and lazy in missionary work, but we need to keep pressing forward! I love how this scripture says that Christ will "enable us to redeem." I know that with the enabling power of the Atonement, anything is possible, and that if we are diligent, he will help us bring to pass this marvelous work and wonder. Alright, hope y'all have a great week! 

Love, 
Elder Mitchell

Deep in thought on the bus

This time he caught Elder W sleeping