March 18, 2019 No Bread?

This week was awesome because we found a awesome family for Miracle May! It's a family of 6. They are so elect and ready for the gospel. I have really recognized how the Lord prepares people to meet with the missionaries. Heather the mother recently stopped going to church because the pastor left. Her mom also passed away and she kind of gave up on church for a time. We were able to share a simple message about seeking truth and they latched on and wanted to learn more. Awesome Miracle!

So this week was also transfers. I am getting moved down to Fleming Island. It is a island type thing that is on the St. John's river. It should be super fun. My companion is Elder Kesler and it will be awesome. I am super excited. My new address will be 2285 Marsh Hawk Ln # 16-203  Fleming Island, FL 32003!

If you want to send me mail or anything that will be the place to do it at. They are also pinkwashing our area or taking out elders and putting in sisters. So that should be exciting! 

So besides transfers, things have been really good. We got a bunch of good things set up for our area and have a lot to keep doing in rapping everything together. This week in sacrament, we had a very great meeting besides one thing. When I stood up with a young man to break the bread, there wasn't any in the trays. Haha it was super awkward. So I ran to the kitchen and found some on the fridge and they had finished the song by the time I got back. We did get everything blessed and had a great meeting about faith! It was awesome. They talked about how faith is something that is on our part. It isn't something that is given but something we place forth. I am so greatful for faith and for the opertunity I have each day to exercise faith in Christ. I know that our faith in Christ is what will push us through and forward. Something else I am super excited about is general conference in a few weeks. In preparation, I challenge each of you to review last conference and write down questions and things your looking to learn. I know as you do this you will show the lord that you want to prepare to receive revelation and he will give it to you in great abundance! I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Elgaaen

Address: 2285 Marsh Hawk Ln # 16-203  Fleming Island, FL 32003

Bat at Deborah's house

Bowling

disc golf

Disc's I drew on

Jacob stabbed his finger

Jacob Elgaaen

Pizza for pie day

Train blocking the track

Chicken Crack in the crock pot

March 11, 2019 Moving Deborah

This week was a really good one. We found some awesome people and were able to set a baptismal date with Leah. She is progressing super well and is really excited for her baptism. We also had some members go out with us and it was awesome. 

I really liked sacrament meeting this week. The talks were about the blessings of tithing. There was a lot of cool miracles shared about how when we pay our tithing, a way is provided for us. It was cool to hear so many different times in people's lives that they were blessed by paying tithing. One member said, "Me and the Lord can do so much more with 90% of my money then I can do with 100% of my money."

One other thing that I studied this week that a really liked was a quote by President David O. McKay was “We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits; we sow our habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.” I think that pattern is really applicable to life. This past week, I have been thinking about this pattern and applying it in what I do. It really works. Our thoughts really do eventually determine our destiny.

The highlight of my week was helping Deborah move. She really needed us to help her and she told us Friday and wanted it to happen Saturday. We spent time calling up members trying to find someone with a trailer and we couldn't. I kept feeling prompted to call up a certain member. We did and he said he could do it. The spirit is so real! We finished helping her move and that was a big relief on her and us. Great week all in all! I hope yall have a great week and know I love each of you so much! 

Waiting for the Train

Constuction

Elder Bell in a hippo

Sharing the Gospel with a Hippo?

March 4, 2019 The Stew

This week was super interesting! So I went disc golfing again on Monday and had a really good time. I love playing disk golf. It relates to life in a way... So we all have different goals in our lives. One of our eternal goals is to return to Heavenly Father and be happy. This can be represented by getting the Disc into the basket. Sometimes it takes 100 throws and sometimes it takes one. Most of the time as we keep our goal in mind we get closer and closer to our end goal but if we loose our focus, we can end up getting thrown pretty far off course. Sometimes Satan comes along as a wind and if we don't prepare for him or compensate by putting on our spiritual armor, we can get pushed off course. The great thing is that we have unlimited attempts. We can try over and over again and as long as we keep trying we will be able to make it in the basket! Just a random thought.

So on Tuesday, we got a call from Deborah. She told us her stew(toilet) was clogged from a few weeks back and that it was starting to cause her to pass out and have horrible headaches. We randomly had a pipe snake under our bathroom sink so we went over to try and unclog her toilet. Whatever was in there was super stuck. The snake wasn't doing anything. I took a toilet plunger and plunged as fast as I could for 10 minutes strait and the Stew was done! Haha Whatever was stuck finally broke loose. We went by Thursday after our district council and Deborah said she was feeling a lot better but now is sick with the flu. She said she could tell the difference which is good!

On Thursday, we got to help out at the Unity Church of God Pancake 🥞 Dinner. Elder Bell was feeling sick so he mostly just sat in a chair. I got to help them carry food in from their pancake cooker machines which were pretty cool. It was a huge rotating circle grittle with 4 fire strips underneath which would heat it as it went around. We also had a good district Council and one of the missionaries in the district had too much money on her account so she was told by the money coordinator that she could loose it all or by the district lunch so we had lunch on her. It was great!

On Friday, we were doing weekly planning and called a person we hadn't been able to contact and she answered and said we could come teach her right then. We said okay and headed out to teach her. We were able to have a good lesson and commit her to coming to church on Sunday. We did some service and had a great day.

Saturday was a day full of miracles. We found a recent move in family who are members that we had no idea about. We are going to get the records transfered down from our last area and hopefully help them come back to church. We also found Julissa who is so so so elect! She was really excited about the message we shared and was excited to have us come back. We had a great day!

Sunday, we went by Leah and knocked on her door to make sure she was ready for church. She said she was and so we went to Deborah to see if she was ready. She wasn't feeling up to church but we talked with her about the come follow me booklet and read in the scriptures with her. When we got to church Leah was there! It was awesome. We went back to Deborah and taught her some more and mopped her floor because it was nasty! All in all we had an awesome week!

I just want to share my testimony of The Book of Mormon! It is so awesome. I know it is the word of God and it testifies of Jesus Christ. It teaches the plain truths of the Gospel and teaches us how we can be better every day! I love the Book of Mormon and hope all of you will continue to read and study the Book of Mormon each and every day. I know as we do that, the heavens will be open to you and you will receive revelation that will bless your life and guide you in all aspects of your life. I love you all and hope you have the best week yet! 

Coins rolling on their sides

Disc Golf Disc's I painted

Helping at a pancake breakfast

Mopping Deborah's floor

Disc Jacob painted

Helping at pancake breakfast

Disc I painted for Disc Golf

February 25, 2019 Charity

This week was a exciting, fun and odd week. After our preparation day, we stayed down in Waycross because we had zone conference the next morning and it would save us a bunch of miles. We went and saw a lady who gives missionaries names. She was super funny! She is over 70 and is super spry and talked a lot about throwing down on some people if they upset her. It was super fun. She didn't give me a name because she said she would have to think about it because she wanted it to be a memorable name.

We also had quite a few amazing lessons with Deborah. She is so prepared for the Gospel. She has a super open mind and heart and just absorbs everything we teach her. It has been really good working with her and helping her find joy through all her trials. We gave her a blessing last night because she wasn't feeling the best physically and is getting bone shots this next week. Deborah is the best!

We got to talk this week in church and I chose to talk on Charity. I think charity is one of the most important things I have learned on my mission. I can see people for who they have the potential to become and it brings me such joy and I can better help them. We're taught in Moroni that we are nothing without charity and that we need to pray with all diligence for charity. I know as we do that we will be able to be happier. We show our charity and grow our charity by keeping the commandments and serving others. I love to think of all christ went through for each of us. He was spit on, whipped, dispised and rejected and he endured it all with a love and willingness to forgive and continue to love and serve. I encourage all of you to do the same. Strive every day to develop more charity and pure love for God and for your fellow man. I love you all and hope your weeks are amazing! 

Elder Bell Walking

Deborah's Dog

Elder Bell sleeping on the way to Zone Conference

Elder T wearing my sun glasses

My hump day camel

Walking a 5K because my Companion Elder Bell wouldn't run.

February 18, 2019 My tooth got Pulled

This week was an awesome week! So first off, Sister Jewett got baptized! We also continued to teach Deborah and set a date with her which we're both super excited about. She does have a few health challenges but we have faith that she will be able to find the strength and health to make it to church and keep commitments. We tried to use inspired questions with her as we talked about the fulness of the gospel and I feel that it made all the difference.

Sorry for the short letter. I love all of you and hope you have an awesome week. Enjoy the pictures! 

Elder Elgaaen and Bell

February 11,2019 Siri=Satan

We had an amazing week! We saw a ton of miracles as we got out and did our best to not waist 1 minute. One miracle we saw was on Sunday night. We went to try one of our people who was having a party during our set appointment the previous day and went back to see if we could reschedule or have a short lesson. We didn't find her home so we felt like we should try by a former. We went by and knocked on the door. The lady came to the door and saw us and looked down and shook her head. She opened the door and said she was packing and was busy. We didn't have any plans besides finding so we offered to help! Unplanned opportunities are the best. She was very receptive to help and after we started helping, she opened up and said her husband just left her. She was having a very hard time and said she was going to throw in the towel and that we were Heaven sent. We shared a message of peace and comfort with her and promised her that the members of the church in the area would be her family and strength through this hard time as well as shared the Book of Mormon and how peace comes through study and reading. She was so grateful and we were able to call the Bishop and his wife and they said they would stop by today to talk with her and we also set a return appointment and are planning on bringing a member. It was such a miracle! 

This week we had Stake Conference and it was good. There were lots of talks on having hope and faith as well as getting to the Temple. The Stake President was speaking and he said, "God knows all the good you do and all the not so good you may do, but he still beacons you to come Unto him." Right after, someone's phone went off and Siri said, "Sorry, I'm not sure about that!" It was super funny! Haha I wrote in my notes Siri=Satan! It was a very true statement because Satan wants us to think that we can't repent and change. He wants us to feel like we aren't worthy or aren't enough to come Unto Christ. It is such a blessing knowing Siri and Satan are both wrong and that we can Come unto Christ. Another quote that stuck out to me said, "What are you willing to do so that the Savior will stay with you?" I find this very applicable to all aspects of life. We have to come Unto the Savior and do the things we need to do for him to stay with us. His hand is reached out but we have our agency and can choose to take his hand or turn away. It is our choice. 

Well, today I am going to go do some disk golf which should be super fun! I am excited and love being a missionary! I love all of y'all and am grateful for the blessings I have. Have an awesome week! Love ya!

- Elder Elgaaen
285 S. 6th St. Jesop GA 31545 Apt 4

Archer taking pictures on my tablet

Frozen Yogurt 

Elder Jacob Elgaaen

Patrick and Jacob

Pearl sent by Emily my sister

Police Party

February 4, 2019 Pregnant and Scared

This week was amazing! I just want to share testimony of hard work and positivity! So this week we had a lot of good things going for us. We came to Saturday and all of our district wanted to find a lot of people. We had a prayer of faith in the morning and went out and worked super hard. So in the first part of Saturday, we were able to have 2 lessons with our progressing people which was a blessing. We got "pumped up" from the spirit we felt and had super positive attitudes the rest of the day. We worked hard and made sure we listened to promptings of the spirit. Usually night isn't the best time to find people because when it gets dark they all go to bed. We decided on a area we wanted to go into and do some finding. We parked around 1 mile away and decided to walk and exercise faith to find along the way. We felt prompted to knock some specific doors and we were able to find 2 new people all after dark! The spirit loves to dwell in happy places so as we made sure to have a positive outlook, we were able to be in tune with the spirit and see many miracles.

The second part of that night and I guess the more entertaining part was the patterns of the day. So while we were finding, every single person we taught was pregnant. If that isn't weird enough, we scared almost everyone we talked to and it all started in the first area we went to. We were waking up some stairs to try a potential person that expressed interest but we never officially taught. Right as we got to the top of the stairs, a person in the apartment we were going to try opened the door and we scared them. It was a teenage girl and her friends who were preparing for homecoming. She slammed the door and screamed. Her friends were all laughing. It was the same door that the person we were trying to find was at so we knocked again. It was awkward. Later when we were doing some more finding, we knocked on another door. The lady inside didn't hear and we knocked on the wrong door which lead into her kitchen. She went into the kitchen not to answer the door but to get something from the fridge and saw 2 guys in white shirts standing on her porch. We scared her knocked again and ended up teaching her. We tried one of her neighbors and there was another teenage girl! She peaked her head around the corner and right as she did, I looked through the glass on the door and she jumped back behind the wall. Then she proceeded to talk on the phone and tell whoever was on the line that we were staring at her. Haha we ended up just leaving because she was to sacred to answer. We kept working hard and went to another house just to scare another person. The lady ended up being really nice but wasn't interested. We probably scared another 2 or 3 people as well. I guess we're just scary people!

One of the best days this week was Sunday! So we went to church and had a good testimony meeting. Everyone was sharing their testimony of the temple and eternal families and it was really spirit filled. During our Sunday school meeting, a ton of people were getting pulled out by the Branch President. Then he came to us and pulled us out and asked if we could give a blessing to a sick member in the Emergency Room. We said we could so we went to do that. When we returned at the end of Church, everyone was leaving and we were listening in to a conversation of one of our part member families. Sister Jewett has been coming to church for the last 2-3 years and out of the blue said she wanted to get baptized on the 16th. It was such exciting news!

All in all I had one of the best weeks yet! I love being a missionary and serving the Lord. I know that the effort we place forth in all that we do along with our attitude can make all the difference. I know that we have been blessed with the ability to decern right from wrong and can be amazing examples of truth and righteousness as we serve the Lord in all we do. I love each of you and hope your weeks are magnificent! 

Elder Bell