So Much Driving

Elder Cloward with Elder Taylor

Hi family!

This has been a crazy week. Lots of driving. And the coming week will involve even more.

Tuesday morning, Elder Taylor and I loaded up my stuff and headed down to Lansing. We had to stop in Midland to pick up an extra car that we needed to bring down to the mission office. I drove the other car and followed Elder Taylor down. It was weird to be driving by myself for the first time in almost a year and a half. We had Zone Leader Council in Lansing, at which I gave a little training, my first assignment as a new assistant, and after lunch at Chipotle (yum!) I headed off with my new companions, Elder Jake Packer and Elder Danny Barney.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had transfer meetings with President Jones. It was very interesting to be on that side; President Jones presented his plan for the upcoming transfer and then asked us what we thought about different potential companionships or how the work was going in different areas. We had some added complications to figure out because we rearranged the districts (again) and reworked car distributions. (All district leaders have full-time cars and almost everybody else has a car on a rotating basis). I'm excited for how much I'll learn about church administration and government by working so closely with President Jones.

Wednesday I got to meet Eric, who the elders here started teaching last week. They had set up a lesson with a member, who then invited Eric to join. He loved what was taught. In fact, on Wednesday, we set a baptismal date with him for February 27th. We had another lesson with him Sunday morning and he attended church in the afternoon (the student ward meets from 1-4) and loved it. He's really excited about the restored gospel and loves reading and discussing passages from the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Very cool.

A note on our living situation. We have an apartment at the LDS Living Center, which is officially "on-campus" living at MSU. It's fun to be living in the same building with half of our ward; it makes it very convenient when we need to go with someone to a lesson. There are three other missionary companionships that live in the building, although that will soon be cut down by one. Previously, there have been two companionships working the MSU campus - the assistants plus another set - but since we're currently short on missionaries, it will be just us for the next six weeks.

So, driving. On Friday, I got to watch a fun and exciting (not) safety video on driving the transfer van and its trailer and then took a practice run out to Dewitt and back. I was nervous to be driving something so big, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only curbed the trailer once (and that was in the parking lot on the way out). Friday night we drove up to Cheboygan for a baptism. Elder Packer baptized a man he had taught when serving up in Sault Ste. Marie over a year ago. From Cheboygan, we drove up to Sault Ste. Marie (which is half in Canada) and spent the night with the elders before heading back to Lansing Saturday morning. I was fried by the time we got home. But we taught a bunch of good lessons anyway and that was that.


A couple pictures from crossing the Mackinac Bridge from the UP back to the lower peninsula


At 1:00 today, we'll pull out of Lansing driving the transfer van. I get to drive today from Lansing to Battlecreek to Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids and back to Lansing. Tomorrow we'll drive the same loop again but throw in an additional run up to Mt. Pleasant and back. Wednesday, we've got to drive out to the Flint airport and back twice - the first time to see off the departing elders and sisters and the second time to pick up the arriving missionaries. Thursday, we've got to drive all of the trainers and their new companions back to their areas after doing orientation Wednesday night and Thursday morning. It's going to be a crazy week.

Anyway, I won't bore you with any more particulars. I love you all. The gospel is true. Jesus Christ lives and leads His church.

Love,
Elder Cloward