Crepes are Delicious

Hi! It turns out my reports of melting snow came a little too soon. We got about 5-6 inches on Saturday and it's been too cold to melt yet. I think it's supposed to get a bit warmer by the middle of the week. We'll see. In any case, they canceled church because of the snow. Elder Sodenkamp and I received permission from the Branch President to take the Sacrament in our apartment, which was nice. Still, we would have rather had church, since we have two newly-baptized members of the church who still have not received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

President and Sister Jones spent a little time with us on Friday to inspect our apartment and have interviews. We passed our inspection! All except for the old rusty bike without wheels sitting on our balcony. We have to get rid of it. I thought it was rather picturesque ...

But, anyhoodles, interviews were great - President Jones has a way of making me feel like a good missionary, a feeling which normally lasts at least 20 minutes before I once again realize that I still have no idea what I'm doing :). President reaffirmed my assumption that I will be transferred the second week of March. I'll be really sad to leave Oscoda because I've really grown to love this branch, but I'm excited for new opportunities and new people. Thankfully, President also said he needs to have me getting some more experience so I'll be ready to train and lead later. Which, I assume means I won't be training or leading next transfer! I don't think I'd mind being a trainer, but I don't really look forward to opportunities in leadership, so it's nice to know I've got a little time before I have to deal with that.

Elder Sodenkamp made crepes for me this week, which I thought I should mention because they were delicious! He taught me to spread jelly on them and roll them (I've only ever had them folded over with fruit in the middle). And I taught him that Nutella is amazing.

And that's the whole barrel of monkeys. Well, actually, I suppose it's not. But, really, all of the monkeys are pretty much the same, so I figure I don't need to tell you about all of them :). The work continues to go forward and I'm doing my best to follow President's and the Lord's counsel to act for myself and not be acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2) by changing what I have power to change (mostly just myself) and letting the Lord worry about the rest.

I love you all,
Elder Cloward

Whoosh!

Super quick email this week!

Sunday was a little disappointing because we didn't have any investigators in church, nor were our newly baptized members able to come for their confirmations so we'll have those next week. Things come up, I guess.

Our car's currently in the body shop, so we're doing LOTS of walking again. At least temperatures are sticking in the 20s. It could definitely be worse.

I did a lot of cleaning yesterday because we're having an apartment inspection this Friday! We also have interviews with President Jones, which I always look forward to.

And pictures:

1 - Mr. Peanut, a cute little dog a member owns.


2 - Yep, I'm in Oscoda! Love the mitt.



3 and 4(the picture up top) - Iargo Springs. Just about the prettiest spot in Michigan.

Love y'all,
Elder Cloward

Snow Is Melting!

Hello family!

I'm excited to announce that the end of winter is finally in sight. Although it's definitely not over, we did get a bit of thawing and melting this weekend with temperatures in the 30s and 40s and it even rained this morning! Hallelujah!

I'm emailing today because we had zone conference yesterday, so they bumped our preparation day over. Zone conference was fantastic; it always does so much to uplift me and get me re-energized for the work. The focus this transfer is on effective teaching and teaching by the Spirit. I definitely have a lot of work to do, but I was really grateful for all the pointers we received. I was asked to do a musical number for zone conference, so I played an arrangement of "An Angel From On High". The Assistants to the President called and asked if I would play something last Friday night. They're always great about giving me lots of notice. In any case, I got permission to look online for music and to spend some time practicing. So it went all right.

The highlight of the week was definitely the baptism on Sunday. Everything went really well. Staci and Courtney, the girls we baptized, had a lot of support from family and branch members. Elder Valentine and his companion, Elder Turner, even made it up from Midland in time for the closing prayer. Staci and Courtney were really excited to have him there, so it was neat. It's been very rewarding to see them progress and learn so quickly. Elder Valentine and I knocked on their door and asked them if they would like to learn what their oldest sister had been taught and accepted on the very first day I served in the Oscoda branch.

I think that's about the long and the short of it. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Valentine's day filled with commercialistic romance and the stench of capitalistic sentimentality. (Speaking of which, thanks for the package!)

Love,
Elder Cloward

Hospitals & Venison

Fig. 2: Our dashing district (last transfer). Row 1 (l to r): Elder Stayner (who lives on Emerson Ave and who is our new district leader!), Elder Moi, Elder Sodenkamp. Row 2: Elder Farley, Elder Fortuna (our old district leader), Elder Darley.

Talofa!

We had a little bit of unusual excitement this week, which I think I will present through a wonderful array of meals/foods. What an exciting lens through which we can view our lives!

Taco Soup: We had a delicious dinner at the Calkins, a now-active family. We'll actually be there again for Jeff's birthday tonight! He received the priesthood last Sunday and had the opportunity to bless the Sacrament for the first time yesterday. We are hoping to invite his nonmember dad to take the lessons. They're one of my favorite families!

Honey: While knocking doors on a country road up in Mikado, we noticed a country honey store. Since Elder Sodenkamp is a little bit obsessed with honey, we stopped in and talked for a while with the kindly proprietor of said store. She gave us a sample of raw honey, which was amazing! (Did you know store-bought honey is pasteurized, which kills the good-for-you enzymes in honey and takes away a lot of the flavor? Pasteurization does nothing for the sanitariness of honey, it merely prevents crystallization). Anyway, she talked us into buying a lot of honey. As in, I'll have to transfer with it for the rest of my mission. At least it's tasty!

Lasagna: We taught two of the three sisters this last Thursday, prefaced by a lasagna dinner provided by our branch mission leader's family. Two will for sure be baptized this Sunday! Elder Sodenkamp and I will each baptize one of them and then we will switch for their confirmations next week. Their older sister told us she does want to be baptized but she's still scared and thinks Sunday is a little too soon. We're crossing our fingers for three baptisms this Sunday, but we're happy to wait until she's ready.

Water: Caused Elder Sodenkamp to vomit explosively! Saturday morning, around 2 he woke up and started vomiting and having awkward bowel movements. These continued all day. So, we went to the ER (50 miles away in Alpena) where he got an IV because he was pretty dehydrated.
Fig. 4: Elder Sodenkamp, gowned and IV'd.

Venison Steak: What I ate for dinner Saturday night! The Averys had given us a couple of frozen venison steaks, so since I had plenty of time while Elder Sodenkamp was laid up, I decided to try it out. I'm personally not much of a steak fan anyway, but I liked the venison at least as much as I've ever liked any beef steak. I didn't notice the "gamey" flavor everyone talks about, but I had marinated it in honey barbecue sauce (made from real raw honey!) for a couple of days.

Baked Spaghetti: Well, Sunday, we went to church (Yay!) but only for Sacrament meeting, since Elder Sodenkamp, although feeling better, didn't want to get everybody sick or over do it. The three sisters were there, and we spoke with them briefly before heading back home to rest. As I still had a lot of time on my hands I read 1 Nephi and made myself a delicious dinner of Baked Spaghetti (WAY better than I thought it would be!), Spicy Nutmeg Carrots (thank you back of the McCormick Nutmeg bottle!), Garlic Toast (thanks Sis. Schwinck!), peaches, and a glass of orange juice. I felt rather healthy and accomplished. :)

Things are well. I love you all, oh, and some photos are attached.

Elder Cloward

Explanation of attached photos:
Fig. 1: Look what Elder Sodenkamp did to our car!

Fig. 3: Lake Huron, Tawas Bay

Tecumseh

For starters, this email may be brief and I'm typing it as quickly as I can because the library has changed their computer system so we're only allowed a half hour now. Murmuring is bad so I'm going to try not to murmur. Maybe.

The highlight of my week was most definitely SUNDAY. Because Sunday was awesome! Why was Sunday awesome? Because we had church! I might normally insert an "of course" after that statement, but seeing as the weather and the forces of evil have been conspiring against all our church-having recently, this is big news! And, of course, to make it all even better, we had two investigators there - the first time this transfer (well, last transfer actually - today's the first day of my fourth "transfer") we had any investigators at church. Two of those with baptismal dates were there (one of the sisters and the soon-to-be-married man) and both seemed to like it.

Elder Sodenkamp and I both had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting and we did pretty well, if I do say so myself. I spoke on my all-time favorite doctrine - that we are the literal spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father - and discussed what this meant for us before this life, what it means for us now, and what it will mean in the eternities. Good stuff.

I don't know if I've mentioned "quality gospel conversations" (QGC's) before - it's an indicator that our Mission President uses to keep track of our work. Elder Sodenkamp and I had a rather poor week with only 21 QGC's. But to make up for it we had 21 QGC's yesterday alone, so we're off to a good start for the week.

We attended a funeral for a branch member on Saturday, which was really nice. I hadn't met her because she's been entirely incapacitated the last few years, but I know many of her children and grandchildren that live in our branch. It was a beautiful service; my favorite part was when all her grandchildren sang "Families Can Be Together Forever". The Spirit was so strong. In the lid of her casket they had a picture of the Washington, D.C. Temple with the caption: "Sealed together for eternity, May 1, 1975". (I don't actually remember the date). It made me sad that I wasn't able to be there for Grandad's funeral, but at least I know I'll see him again.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention transfer calls! Friday was transfer-call day and both of us are staying! I'm glad to keep working with Elder Sodenkamp and in Oscoda. I guess President figured if it wasn't broke he wasn't gonna fix it. Or something like that. Boy, have we got him fooled :P. (Just kidding, mom. I'm a good little missionary :).)

I love you all and I'm happy to report that we're probably pretty close to halfway through winter. Everyone tells us the snow will probably melt at the end of April. Oh goody.

Love,
Elder Cloward

It Just Keeps Snowing!

Hello!

It's been snowy and cold this week, which has sort of limited us in what we've been able to do. Where normally we might have walked from door to door when tracting, we've done a lot more driving around, only getting out to knock when it looks like someone is home or when the Spirit tells us we'd better. In any case, I've set a new mission goal: Come home without getting frostbite once! (So far I've only talked to one missionary who's been frostbitten, mom, so don't flip out or anything.)

We do, however, have some great news this week! Three investigators have set baptismal dates in February! Two of the sisters we've been teaching have decided to be baptized (on February 8) and their older sister is still considering it as well. I may have mentioned that we met a couple last week that we began teaching; we have now taught them twice more and the husband would like to be baptized (on February 14). Transfer calls are coming on Friday and I've got a feeling I won't be staying, so I may not be here for the baptisms, but I would definitely like to be!

The biggest challenge to our missionary work is still the weather. Due to snow and Michigan road commissions being broke (it takes FOREVER for them to get all the roads plowed) church was canceled again this week. We took comfort in the fact that we would definitely have had five investigators there if we'd had church. It's sort of hard to invite people to learn more about a church that doesn't ever have meetings.

Well, I think that's all the news from Michigan. A couple more snow pictures, though! They're both from Greenbush, Michigan, a small town north of Oscoda.

Love you all,
Elder Cloward

Zone Conference Etc.

From and e-mail dated Jan. 12
Hi!

Highlights of this week:

- Zone conference! So far our zone conferences have varied quite a bit in length, but this one took most of the day. President Jones talked at length about our mission-wide goal for 30 baptisms in February and especially the goal that every companionship should have to commit someone to baptism in February. The title of his remarks was "The Price for 30 in February" - referring to the price that we must pay in order to achieve our goals, specifically referring to four key teachings from the Epistle of James. We must 1) Ask in faith (James 1:5-6), 2) Be Doers of the Word (James 1:22), 3) Apply Faith and Works (James 2:17-18), and 4) Better Understand the Power of Christ's Atonement and God's Plan of Salvation (James 5:19-20). Good stuff!

And also, I took a picture with Elder Valentine at Zone Conference, which I've attached.


- 3 new investigators, all of which we found while tracting (which we have been doing an awful lot of lately). It may not be the most creative or exciting way to find those who will receive the restored gospel, but I suppose it can still get the job done. We're having a hard time meeting back up with any of the 5 investigators we've found in the past 2 weeks, so we are hoping at least a few of them have a real interest in learning more about the Restoration.

- It hasn't yet dipped below zero this year! On New Year's Eve it got down to 8 below, but the coldest I've seen in 2009 is 3 degrees! Here's to waiting until next winter to see the negative end again!

I love you all and hope you are doing well,
Elder Cloward