Beautiful Bigfork and a Trip Back in Time

Monday!

So today was filled with normal preparation day activities.  It was the last preparation day before transfers so everyone came in to play games and hang out.  It's a bummer saying goodbye to everyone but I'll see them later on I'm sure!!  Even if it's at UVU!!  But anyway after games and everything we took off and went to Pizza Hut for dinner because we were like, "let's eat Pizza Hut buffet!!"  So we show up and guess what?!?  The buffet is over!!  So we still ate there, it just wasn't the buffet which wasn't too bad.  Anyway, after we had dinner we went back to the apartment to pack.  So that was weird because I actually had to pack everything... so I started to pack tonight but I’ll have to finish up tomorrow!!

Tuesday!!

Today was a sad day.  I said goodbye to the Simmons family 

and man am I going to miss them!!  They are like a family away from family.  They are the best and I loved getting to know them and serve around them!!  After that I finished up with my packing.  Then later that night we went over to say goodbye to Brother Bailey.  

Man alive this past transfer I've gotten to know Brother Bailey so well.  He's such an amazing guy and he loves the missionaries and the work that they do.  He's the best and I'm going to miss him a whole lot.  But don't worry, I'll be going back sometime to see everyone!!  I have just loved Great Falls and all the people here!!

Wednesday!!

Alright so today was transfer day... so what do we do?  We wake up at 6 in the morning to have one last zone games bright and early and it was so much fun!!  All these missionaries I've met are so amazing and I'm so glad that I was able to meet them.  After the games we hurried and got ready so that we could make it to transfers on time!  We get there and hang out for a bit, we move our stuff for the people who are leaving and say some more goodbyes, and then we headed out!!  Man was today a long day of driving!!  We drove 2 hours to Helena, and then we drove 4 hours to Kalispell.  That made one long day of driving!!  It's all good though because I got to drive with a rather newer missionary and we were able to talk a lot and I got to know him pretty good and he's an awesome guy!!  We had a few hours so we got to know each other pretty good!!  

Then later on when we finally got to Kalispell I met up with the man, the myth, the legend... Elder Anderson himself!!  Haha!  I'm so pumped to serve with him!!  We've been talking since we were in the MTC together about this very moment and now here it is!!  So we met up and caught up from what has been going on since we got out into the missions field and then guess where we went to for dinner??  That’s right people WE WENT TO CHICK-FIL-A!!!!!!!!!!  I just about cried!! 😭😭😭 it was sooooo good!!  I've missed this place so much!!  Naturally I got a picture 😅 after that we drove out to our place and I unpacked all my stuff and learned the rules of the house... fun stuff!!

Thursday!!

Man alive… Bigfork is absolutely beautiful!! 😍 There are trees everywhere and the lake is right there... it's unbelievable.  When I think of Montana I definitely picture something like Bigfork 😍 soooo we had to take a few pictures 😅 and Elder Anderson knows the spots to take beautiful pictures. 

Once we were done we went over to an investigators house to drop off some pamphlets for them to read.  Then after that we got a call from a member asking if we could clean his chimney because it was clogged up and smoking up his whole house.  So we get there and holy crap!!  There was smoke everywhere!!  So we cleaned out the chimney and we were on his roof... I’m not totally sure but I think that's against the rules but sometimes ignorance is bliss 😅 we also realized that his furnace had a ton of ashes just packed in, so we cleaned out his furnace as well so that he could use it better and it would get clogged as easy.  I have to admit that it's hot cleaning a furnace!!  I was cleaning it and just dripping with sweat 😅 not joke, I probably could have drenched the fire and put it completely out with all the sweat I had 😅 but it was good to help this guy out because he's pretty old so he probably wouldn't have been able to do it on his own.  After that we had lunch, and went through the area book.  I got all caught up on the investigators and members and the whole shebang and then we went to a lesson with one of our investigators and it was pretty good!!  We talked about the plan of salvation and it was awesome!!

Friday!!

Today we found another place to take pictures 😅 lol.  I can tell that there is going to be a lot of pictures from this area because it’s so beautiful.  

Anyway, we were driving around contacting a lot of people when we almost hit a deer!!  There are tons of them up here!!  It's crazy!!  So luckily we didn't hit it!!  After that we went to lunch with Brother Nelson!! Now this is where things get pretty interesting… when my dad served his mission he served with an Elder Nelson... who just so happened to be from Bigfork Montana!!!  The best part is his dad still lives here. So I got to meet his dad!!  Crazy stuff!!  It was really cool to go to lunch with him and meet him!!  After that we went around and contacted a few other people, and then we went to dinner. Right after that we had an appointment and so we went over to one of our investigators houses and talked for a while.  I introduced myself and then we showed a quick video because it was getting kind of late.

Saturday!

Alright so today we went and got some wood for the furnace guy so that he can heat his house.  Then after that we went and helped a lady move some stuff out of her apartment and into a storage unit.  After that we went to go help another lady move some stuff but she didn’t need our help at the moment and she said she would need our help on Tuesday.  So we realized at this point that we hadn't had any lunch 😅 so we went over to our apartment where I realized I was missing my wallet.  I thought that I might have dropped it when we were taking pictures so we went back to the place we took pictures and looked, but unfortunately we couldn't find it 😅 soooo we went back to the apartment and I think the spirit was like, "You're an idiot Elder Zeller... you forgot to look one other place..." so I checked my suit pocket and there it was!!  Needless to say, I felt like an idiot 😅 After that adventure, I showered again because I was not smelling like my old spice self 😅 I was smelling more like a stinky guy 😅.  Once I was cleaned up it was about dinner time so we ate and then went and talked to a few less active members.  It was a great day.

Sunday!!

Man today was awesome!!  We were a bit late for church since we totally forgot about daylight savings!!!  Once we realized what time it actually was we had to be there in like 20 minutes.  So we bust it to get there super-fast annnd I forgot the phone 😅 so we raced back and grabbed the phone; then shot back to church.  So yes the missionaries were late by like a few minutes... how pathetic 😅.  It was super cool though because they had a returned missionary giving his homecoming talk today!!  How cool is that?!?  Especially as a missionary!!  I was like, "that's going to be me and you Elder Anderson!! 😁" I'm such a goof 😅 but it was super awesome!!  We had something like 4 investigators at church, so that alone was a blessing!!  The rest of the meetings were good and I really like this ward and all the members here seem awesome!! 

After church we went over to our ward mission leader’s house for lunch so we could talk about our lessons we had that day and plan for them.  So that was good.  Then we went to our lessons and it was so awesome teaching with Elder Anderson and Brother Tanner!!  The spirit was so strong and we were able to testify of truth and I could tell that the spirit was definitely touching them.  After that lesson we went over to our dinner and that was pretty sweet.  I got to know more members and that's always a plus!!  

Then we had to hurry over to our other lesson with one of our investigators and this lesson was awesome.  We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We taught with the spirit and bore testimony to him.  We used the scriptures and it was just so awesome.  After we were done with the teaching part we asked if he had any questions and he says that he doesn't necessarily have a question.  But he turns to the section on repentance and tells us how he was reading the pamphlet and how he got to this section and it just jumped off the page at him and as he was telling us this he started to cry.  It was such an amazing moment to feel the spirit and to know that the spirit is telling him that through Christ all things are possible.  It was just such an amazing experience to be a part of and as he's telling us this our ward mission leader starts crying, another member we had with us gets teary eyed and I even got a bit teary eyed and the spirit there was just so incredible.  The spirit testifies to everyone and it can touch everyone.  It's been so amazing to just see the difference the gospel can make in someone's life when they let it!!

I love this gospel so much and I love being a missionary and bringing other closer to our savior.  I just love it so freaking much!!

Love,

Elder Zeller

P.O 1883

Bigfork, Montana

59911

From Great Falls to Bigfork... my Journey Continues!

Monday!!  So today was filled with the normal preparation day stuff, mainly shopping and playing games and that fun stuff!!  After all that we went around to a few people’s houses and talked with them for a bit.  But there really wasn't anything super noteworthy that happened today 😅

Tuesday!  So today we woke up and did our thing and we got a call from the other zone leaders asking if we could pick them up for a few hours while their windshield got replaced.  So we did and after we picked them up we had that meeting where my companion goes to talk to the zone leaders and I'm left all alone.  Well this time I wasn't!!  So that was fun!!  After that we all went out to lunch and then dropped them back off at their car because it was done.  We went back to our area and talked to quite a few people and we tried contacting a few former investigators.  It's pretty interesting because a lot of our former investigators have moved so when we knock on the door it's a great way to meet new people and hopefully bring the light of Christ into their lives.  I've been seeing a lot of that the past few weeks where we will go and contact someone who used to meet with missionaries, and then they were dropped for whatever reason, and it turns out they moved but the person who moved in might be ready to hear our message.  Pretty cool stuff and it's interesting how the Lord works.

Wednesday!  So today was district meeting and this was the first one where everyone made it on time!!  Woohoo!!  But it's also the last district meeting togetherL.  So that was kind of sad because there is going to be some change coming and our district is stellar so it'll be a bummer but it's all good!!  We had a few discussions and I was able to bear my testimony there and it was pretty interesting because I had no clue what to bear my testimony on but I had faith that the spirit would help me in what I needed to say.  I felt like the spirit was like, “bear your testimony on this”.  So I got up and bore my testimony on following spiritual promptings and just following the spirit in general because you have no idea why the spirit prompted you to do something!  You just need to have faith that whatever it is, it's guided by God.  

District meeting was awesome, to say the least, and we totally felt the strong spirit there.  We took some pictures with the district and we also got some goofy ones so that's fun 😅.  Afterwards, a ton of us missionaries went to Cafe Rio for lunch and brought it back to the church to eat.  It was good stuff.  Then after our zone leaders asked if we would be willing to go and give a blessing to a lady at the hospital who isn't doing too well... she's most likely not going to make it, which was super sad.  We went over and found her room and her family wasn't there so we gave them a call asking if they wanted to be there for the blessing.  They said that they did so we waited for them and when they got there we first said a prayer together then we offered to give her a blessing, which we did.  Then afterward we stood there with them and we felt prompted to ask them if they wanted a blessing of comfort; which they did.  So we gave them each a blessing of comfort.  The spirit was so unbelievably strong in that room.  I could feel the Lord working through us to help this family in this time of great pain.  There's power that comes with the priesthood, and it's an amazing power.  It is the power of God.  The rest of the day was spent trying to contact more less actives and former investigators because we have a whole lot of those!!

Thursday!  Sadly not much happened today.  We had a lesson with Brian (recent convert in the Portage Ward) where we went over the Plan of Salvation with him again and it was really awesome!!  His understanding of the Plan of Salvation is so awesome!!  I always love talking about this!  It is the plan for eternal happiness which gives us the opportunity to be with our families forever!!  Talking to people about it gives them so much hope.  I just love talking about it!!

Friday!!  So today we had a doctrinal discussion from one of the members in another ward.  He gets into some really deep doctrine stuff so I won't go into detail but needless to say my mind was blown!!  Pretty cool stuff.  We had to leave a bit early though because the sisters needed help with a baptismal interview for one of their investigators.  After all was said and done with the interview we were talking about who she wanted to baptize her and she asked Elder Blum!!  How cool is that?!?  The interview must have gone really well!! :)  so he's going to do that next Wednesday!!  Hopefully everything pans out!! :)  It was way cool!!  Then after that we met up with all the missionaries from the doctrinal discussion and had Cafe Rio... again... so that was good very tasty!!  We then went and contacted some people and went home for the night.

Saturday!!  So today we got a call from the zone leaders asking if we would be able to do end of transfer interviews... that was something different because I hadn't ever done that with any of my other zone leaders but it was pretty good!!  We were able to talk about the past transfer and what I think I've done well and how I can improve.  I'm excited for this upcoming transfer to apply some of those things!!  After we got done with that we went out for some frozen yogurt :) I haven't had frozen yogurt since high school!! (Haha that's weird to say...) but it was some good stuff!!  We then came back and had some lunch... funny story but while we were eating (which we only get like 30 minutes to eat) some missionaries from another church came and tracted into us 😂  it was super funny that missionaries got tracted into by other missionaries.  He came to the door and started talking to us at like a million miles an hour and it just was super salesman like 😅 like it wasn't lead by the spirit at all... it was a pretty interesting experience!!  We then went on the hunt for some more less actives or some former investigators who would be willing to listen to us again 😅 after doing that for a few hours we went to dinner with the D family, and man are they funny 😂 like he honestly kills me all the time 😂 it was a really great dinner :)  After dinner, we got our driving record in for February because someone forgot... I did... I forgot to get it in... my bad... but hey better late than never!! :D  Annnd that was our day!!

Sunday!!  So today was fast and testimony meeting and I almost forgot it was Fast Sunday with it being transfer Sunday and everything!!  Good thing my companion reminded me!! :) anyway, it was really cool because all the testimonies were based on families and I'm just so thankful for mine!!  They have always and will always be there for me and they are just the absolute greatest!!  I love them so much!!  After sacrament meeting we went to our various classes and that was really fun!!  I was a little distracted because I was anticipating the transfer call.  And after church at about 3 we got a call from the zone leaders with our transfer news!!  So my news is I'm getting transferred!!  I'm going to the Kalispell zone to serve in the Bigfork area!!  I'm super excited for quite a few reasons, 1) it's said to be one of the prettiest areas in the mission 2) my new companion came out with me and we have been talking since the MTC about being companions!! And 3) I'm 29 minutes away from the only Chick-Fil-A in the mission 😍😍😍  How amazing is that?!? I love Chick-Fil-A so much 😭😭 so I'm pretty happy with my transfer news :) Of course I am sad to leave Great Falls and the Roe River ward though because I've met some really awesome people while out here (Simmons family I'm talking to you!! 😂 #twizzlersforlife) but I'm glad to know that the friendships I've made are going to last :)  It's been so amazing serving here!!  But alas all good things must come to an end 😢 but hey, that just means I'll meet more people!!  I'm super excited!! :)

After all that we went and tried an investigator we’ve had.  We had to give her that last chance before I got transferred and we decided to move on.  But she didn't pull through.  She was there and we knew it (which was sad), but she just didn't answer.  So we went to dinner at our ward mission leader’s house and had a little correlation meeting with him.  Then went over to the Overlook’s ward mission leader’s place for ice cream as a last hurrah as missionaries in the Great Falls area :) It's a bummer seeing everyone go but it's all good because I'll see them again!! (Basically, it looks like everyone is going to school at UVU 😅) but that was my day and my week!!

I love it out here and I love the people of Great Falls!! They are the best and they will definitely hold a special place in my heart :) love you all!! :)

Love,
Elder Zeller
2425 6th Ave. S

Great Falls, MT 59405

New address on Wednesday this week:

300 Chapman Lane,

Bigfork, MT 59911