Servers Down

Hi family,

I'm just sending a quick note to tell you I'm alive and well. I think the church's server must have gone down or something because as soon as I got done reading your emails this morning, the computers in the library couldn't connect to any church websites anymore (although they connected to others just fine). I guess I'll tell you all about my week next week.

Love you!
Elder Cloward

Won't You Tell Me How to Get, How to Get to...

Hello Family,

This weekly email is brought to you by the letter 'T'. T is a great letter because you use it to say things like "truck", "tentacle", and "take that tortoise to the top of Timpanogos". For me this week, T means ...

Trade-offs. I guess I'd better be getting used to a lot of these. I spent Wednesday over in Caro (my first time venturing into the thumb of the mitt). I spent the day with Elder Thomson of Layton, Utah, who is getting ready to go home in a couple of weeks. The highlight of that trade-off was definitely teaching a new investigator named Victor; he's a well-studied Christian, so it was a lot of fun to teach from the scriptures and have him showing us cross-references. The next day I brought Elder Hoffman back to Bay City (he's currently being trained in Bad Axe, also in the thumb) and showed him a grand old time. I really like being around the brand-new missionaries; they're almost always excited and positive, which are pretty much basically the best attributes ever. :)

Thermometer. That is, the thermometer to the water heater on the baptismal font. We filled it Saturday morning for Adam Samyn's baptism. Everything went really well and he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. I love their family.

Towels. It's raining today. So a towel is an allusion to the wetness ...

Toast. What my use of alliteration seems to be making this email. I can't think of other things that start with T.

Testimony. I've got one. I know Jesus is the Christ and this is His work.

Ta-ta. What I'm saying to you all until next week. I love you all and hope things continue to go well.

Elder Cloward

Zone Conference et ectera

Hi family!

This week was pretty good. Elder Smith spent the first few days of it pretty sick, which was boring (such a selfish perspective, I know), but he's feeling dapper now and the work goes on.

The highlight of our week was probably Friday's zone conference - certainly the most stressful I've had so far, largely because I was responsible for a little more of it. Our zone meeting (before the conference, which actually includes both the Traverse City and Midland zones) went pretty well. We focused on having the faith to reach the "standard of excellence" President Jones has set for the mission and discussed how each of Elder Pearson's "Destructive D's" given in last April's General Conference influence us as missionaries.

This was also a musical week for me. I threw together a musical number for zone conference - I accompanied three elders who sang "If You Could Hie to Kolob" quite nicely. Also, it just so happens that Sister Julie Schindler of the Bay City Ward is from Salt Lake City and knows Miss Tate's sister very well. Anyway, they did some chatting and Sister Schindler's husband, the ward choir director, decided it would be a good idea for me to sing a solo for Sacrament meeting. So I sang a verse of "Home Can Be a Heav'n on Earth" when the choir performed it yesterday. It went pretty well, but I'm hoping not so well that they ask for any repeats.

We're looking forward to a baptism this Saturday, which should go really well. Hopefully we'll be able to get a few of the people we're teaching there. We've still been focusing on finding new people to teach and teaching 20 lessons a week. We talked with Bro. Savage, the high councilor assigned to the Bay City Ward, about his involvement in reaching those goals and I'm excited for the work he'll help us and the ward mission leader to do. We've been teaching lessons to a lot more active and less-active member families in order to follow Elder Perry's counsel. I feel, as President Jones has expressed, that Elder Perry's program will revolutionize the work done in the Michigan Lansing Mission.
All in all, things are going well.

I can't believe Jeff is home. I can't believe I've been out this long. I can't belive how little time I have left and how much I'd like to accomplish in that time. I thank God it's not on my shoulders alone. Philippians 4:13 all the way :). (I purposefully didn't type it out so you'll have to look it up if you don't know it. It'll be good for you.)

Love you all,
Elder Cloward

Bay City Adventures

From an e-mail dated Sept. 8, 2009

The Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth

Hi family,

I'm writing today because the libraries were closed yesterday for the holiday. Hopefully I'll be able to write you a proper email this week. Our email time was very brief last week because we spent most of our preparation day down in Frankenmuth, a German-by-heritage tourist trap south of Saginaw. It was pretty fun; I'll attach a picture or two.

Let's see; I don't think I've really told you much at all about the new area. Bay City is a small city (I think there's something like 30,000 people here) on the Saginaw River, about 5-10 miles removed from Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. The congregation here is a small ward, just a little bigger than the Hart Branch. I've met some fantastic church members here who are all very willing to help out the missionaries. We're teaching quite a few people. One boy, Adam, who is the eleven-year-old son of a less-active member family, will be baptized on the 19th. Another family, the Williams, made up of a now-active mom, an excommunicated-but-working-toward-reinstatement dad, and three unbaptized children, is working toward baptism. They're really fun and progressing really well.

The zone leader-business is all right. We have to go pick up some keys tomorrow from some elders who've been feeling rebellious and going over their allotted miles. That aspect of leadership is not so fun. Last Tuesday, though, we had Zone Leader Council with President and Sister Jones and the Assistants and it was fun to be able to sit in on that meeting. ZLC in two months will be attended by Elder Pieper of the Seventy, who will be doing a mission tour. That will definitely be fun to get to sit in on. What has been most different about serving here in Bay City is having a companion who has been out longer, which I haven't had since November of last year. In a lot of ways it's really nice because Elder Smith is a great teacher and has been helping me a lot to improve my skills as a missionary. He's been great helping me adjust to the challenges that have come with my new assignment. I hope everything is well with all of you. Love you lots!

Love you!

Elder Cloward

Attached Pictures:#7 - My last district.
Front row: Me and Elder Schuler, who didn't get that we were doing a serious picture. Back row: Elder Law, Elder Weaver, Elder Andersen, Elder Egan.
#8 - Way cool bumper sticker.


#12 - Me and Elder Weaver with Denny, one of our investigators.

#15 - My posterity shirt (now in Elder Weaver's possession) passed down through trainers since 2005

#18 - Elder Smith is great! He makes me tortillas!