7/24/2017
One year down, one
to go! So I figured I might as well hit
this first but one year ago this week I entered the MTC to start my mission. Pretty crazy to think that I'm now on the
downward slope of it all. It feels like
just yesterday I said my goodbyes to everyone and started my journey here in
good ol montucky!! I remembered a quote
this week about goodbyes and everything that comes with goodbyes and it goes
like this,
"Whenever there is a meeting. a parting is sure to
follow. However, that parting need not be forever... whether a parting be
forever or merely a short time... that is up to you."
I've thought about
this quote and reflected it on the past year and everyone I've met so far that
have impacted me. Whether it was in
Cutbank, Browning, Great Falls, Bigfork or here in Corvallis, I've met people
who have helped change me into who I am now and the missionary I am now. Unfortunately as a missionary you eventually
have to say goodbye to the people you've met, that's inevitable, but it doesn't
have to be a goodbye for good. Just like
my family back home, eventually in about a little less than a year now it'll be
time to say goodbye to Montana and see them again. But the beauty of it all is I'll come back to
see all the people I've met. I'll also
get to see some of those missionaries that really were my best friends as I've
served (Shoutout to Kade, Elder Smith and Elder Patterson!). I wouldn't be the person I am today without
all the people I've met. So one year
down and I've learned so much, one year to go with even that much more
learning! You never know what's around
the bend. So happy one year to me and
all the missionaries that came out with me, it's been a good year let's make
the most of this last one and finish out strong!! Alright now for my week!
So Monday was
filled with the normal shenanigans that come with Monday, mainly basketball and
podball. We also had some bowling going
on and an obstacle course bounce house that was a ton of fun! The place we went to did have a pool as well
but we thought that we better not haha. Not
that we would have anyway! (That was for president and sister Wadsworth if
they're reading this...) haha anywho! So
that was a blast! The only bummer from
that day was that we found out that an Elder from our zone has to go home for
surgery on his knee. So that's a bit of
a bummer but I'll be seeing him come back out in no time!! After we finished our hoodrat activities we
went to our dinner and then we had a super awesome lesson with Mitch (one of
our investigators) it was super awesome and I love the guy to death!! He kills me!! But he's super genuine about learning more
about the gospel and eventually getting baptized after he goes through the
proper channels. Then we went home and
crashed in bed.
Tuesday! Tuesday we
did some service in the morning in Stevensville and can you guess what the
service was?? If you guessed bucking hay
then you should give yourself a pat on the back and a thumbs up because you
guessed it!! Haha it wasn't too bad
because it was only like 36 bales of hay. So it took about a half hour, 45 minutes to
finish that up. We got a call from the Elders
there asking us if we could help and they told us that it won't take too long
since it's only like 36 bales of hay and I told them that if 36 turned into 900
I'm gonna kill someone haha but they were right and it was only 36 and the
people we did it for were super appreciative. I don't know their names but I would have
included that because apparently my emails are pretty vague so I'm working on
that haha (shout-out to Jen Gold for calling me out 😅). Then
after that we went and helped the Reynosos with some of their stuff they've got
going on at their new place whether it was painting or if it was sanding some
cabinet doors. But it was super cool
because I got there and Kennedy and Dawson were back from Texas!! That was way exciting!! They went to Texas to sell dish network and
all that and they weren't planning on coming back till like the end of August
but decided to come back a bit early!! So
I was pretty pumped about that. I might
not have fully shown how pumped I was because I mean got to keep that dignity
and decorum as a missionary haha but I was way excited!! Then we went to dinner with the Jessops and
that was super cool!! I'm pretty close to their oldest son Christian and we were
talking for a while then we all started talking and we got a lowdown on Pinesdale
and some of the differences between the group and the church. Pretty interesting stuff!! It would take me awhile to explain it all and
talk about it because there is so much to talk about but it was super
interesting!!
Alright now we're
moving on to Wednesday!! Hopefully
you're still reading this by now haha! I decided to write a longer one to make
up for my shorter one last week. But hey
if you skipped to the pictures (not that there are a ton, I'm working on that
as well) I don't blame you. Anyway, so Wednesday was a crazy day. We start off the day getting up to Stevensville
for our district meeting where we were edified. Then we had cake for Sister
Pettijohns birthday and signed a flag for Elder Hand before he takes off to
Florida. Then we had lunch at this
Italian restaurant there in town. While we
were there, Elder Berrett snagged my iPad and took a selfie so that was pretty
funny. Some super good food there!! Then the district leaders and zone leaders had
a special meeting that me and Elder Hand were excluded from... so we chilled
for a bit while they had that. Then we
had a "lesson" with a guy named Scott Clukey... no it's not
pronounced like you just pronounced it. You
gotta enunciate the U and then you've got it. It sounds like clue-key. And there you go. Now I put lesson in quotation marks because it
wasn't really a lesson haha. We went by
this place called bug out. People from
Corvallis area know what I'm talking about but for those who don't it's
basically a survival store where you can buy tons of survival gear and custom
holsters, the whole nine yards. Anyway
so we normally go and teach him there and it's normally pretty quiet and just
the three of us... plus Brother Lee; but this time I felt like I was stepping
into the twilight zone. There were like
a million people and different people kept coming in and talking to him. So basically by the end we talked about Book
of Mormon reading and if he did what we asked him to and then told him to come
to church on Sunday. Which he did!! Heck yeah!! So that was fun. We then went and picked up an Elders debit
card that he left at the members house on Monday. Don't know why I told you that but I attached
a picture of his card with all the info you need... ok that's a total joke I
didn't do that. Then we went to dinner
at a Mexican restaurant in Hamilton known as "the Mexican restaurant"
so that was pretty good. But after going
to the red iguana Mexican food just isn't the same everywhere you go.
Then we
had a lesson with some recent converts, Fred and Cara Jessop. There are a lot of Jessops in the ward/area
haha. But we had a lesson with them and
it was really awesome!! I always love
going to their home and talking to them because we're all pretty close in age. Cara is a bit younger than me and Fred is a
bit older so we have some good chats and they just have such a desire to do the
very best that they can when it comes to the gospel. They just want to learn so much about it and
it's inspiring honestly.
Then after that
we went to Hamilton for a meeting with a member there and he went over the
entire history of the church and Mormonism as a whole with a lot of the
breakoffs from the church and then specifically the history of polygamy and the
group. It was so cool learning more and
more about them and what makes them tick and all that!! Again I totally would go over it but this
email would just get that much longer! But
all in all I learned so much and my testimony of the gospel just got that much
stronger! After the meeting the other Elders
took a drive up to Missoula because Elder Hand had his flight the next morning.
Early in the morning. So that was a bummer. Said goodbye and told him to keep in touch! Comes back to the quote! Every meeting has a parting; but it doesn't
have to be forever!! I'm excited for him
to come back out and he'll be here before I know it!!
Then Thursday was my one year anniversary of
serving the Lord as a missionary!! Good
times!! I celebrated by planning!! Yaaaaay... (hopefully you read the sarcasm
there... laid it pretty thick...) I absolutely hate planning but you gotta do
what you gotta do... so I said, "to heck with planning! We're gonna
party!!" At least I thought that. But
a voice in my head said, "that's a bad idea..." so I listened to the
voice and took one for the team. And
I've got to give an extra special shout-out to my mom and family. I haven't really said much about this but now
I'm going to, every package they send is a work of art I swear! They go all out in preparing these packages
and man are they cool!! They have stuff
hanging when I open the box and it's crazy awesome so yeah basically I have the
best family ever. After I opened the
package we went to dinner with a recent convert, Jorilyn Williams. She's super funny and I love going to dinner
with her! Then we had a lesson with her
before we left and went to another lesson with Maeci and Rich Thomas. Almost didn't have this lesson. We got a text saying he can't do it tonight. Then we got another saying wait a minute let's
just have the lesson at the church! So
we met them at the church and had a sweet lesson with them!! Rich is going to be able to be rebaptized as
well!! I was so excited to hear that!! Then after we finished up there we decided to
go visit our good friend Mitch at subway. It looked pretty slow and so we decided to pop
by and see how he's doing and he was doing awesome!! The guy couldn't stop smiling!! Then we went home and went to bed.
Then on Friday we went to a funeral for a lady
in our ward who passed away. I didn't
know this lady because she started getting sick before I got there. But from what I could tell she was loved by
everyone she met. And it gave me a
deeper love and appreciation for the plan of salvation and how it's sad to see
someone we love pass on but we can have hope in the fact that we will see them
again after this life. It comes back again
to the fact that parting doesn't have to last forever. We'll see them again. After that we tried visiting some people but
weekends are a bit tough because people aren't home. Not that I blame them. I'd probably be out doing something as well...
but regardless it was a slower day... we had an impromptu dinner with some
members who offered to feed us knowing that we didn't have a dinner which was
appreciated very much!! Then we tried
more people and found more closed doors... so that basically sums up the rest
of the night!! Haha there is joy in the journey and me and Elder Wright would
find that joy!! We have fun with things
haha.
Saturday we had
service in the morning and this time it wasn't bucking hay!! We just had to rake up pine needles... there
were probably about infinity pine needles I swear (haha) but it was fun!! Most of the zone showed up to help out and I
got to climb on a roof to sweep off some needles up there!! Always a good time when you can hop up on a
roof!! So we did that for a while and
didn't finish. She fed us lunch and then
we had to go to some other service. So
we split up and while some Elders went to one place me, Elder Wright and
Bennett went up to Stevensville and went to do service there. It kind of fell
through because by the time we got there they had finished up. So that was a fun little trip!! I always love road trips!! We picked up some stuff in town then went
back to Hamilton and on the way our truck did some super weird stuff... we were
driving and out of nowhere 60 turned into the max our truck could go... that
was super weird... we pulled over and turned off the car, said a prayer and
started her back up and she worked!! The
power of prayer is real ladies and gentlemen!! So we got back to town safe and sound!!
Then we got back to our place showered up
after all the service, had a quick comp study and had dinner. Then we tried visiting the Johnsons. They're a super awesome family that got
referred to us and so we've been teaching them for the past little bit. We stopped by and introduced the new guy since
we missed them the previous week then talked for a bit, set up a better time to
stop by, gave them the material we were going to go over in the next lesson and
said a prayer with them and then invited them to church. They weren't able to make it to church but
I've got high hopes for them and their family!! So after that we went to our place and went to
bed!! But before we went to bed Elder Wright
taught me how to solve a rubix cube!! I
never thought that it would be possible for me to learn how but now I can and I
can solve it in like 2 and a half minutes!! Miracles do happen!!
Sunday we had church from 7:45 all the
way till 4:30... this honestly makes for a long day and most times we don't
have time to eat lunch. But this time me
and Elder Wright were smart and took along some sandwich stuff to have
sandwiches before church started so we weren't dying the rest of the day until
dinner haha. So then after church we
went to dinner with the Golds and both the Golds and the Reynosos were there
and so we had dinner with them and talked for awhile before we had to head to
our next appointment. I freaking love
these two families though. When I'm with
them it almost makes me feel like I'm back home for some reason with all the
family. :) it's awesome :) I really enjoy our visits!! Then after that we went to the Jessops for a
lesson. They're a family investigating
the church. The dad came last week while
he was on duty because it was a slow day so that was pretty freaking awesome!! Not gonna lie!! But we had a good lesson this
week!! We got the kids involved and they
asked about church next week!! So
hopefully we will see them there!!
Anyway so this week
has been pretty good!! As you can tell haha I wrote a novel about it. But all
in all one year down one to go and I'm excited for this next year and
everything that's coming my way! Love
you all!! Take care and remember God
loves you!!
Love,
Elder Zeller
308 E 1st street unit B
Corvallis, MT
59828
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