I Would Walk 500 Miles and I Would Walk 500 More...

So this week I'm pretty sure I am the person in the song 500 miles or whatever where he says, "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door."  Yeah I'm pretty sure that's me.  I put some major miles on these shoes this past week.  It was pretty sweet and I got some gnarly blisters from it but hey such is the life of a missionary.  Well anyway I'll give the little play by play of this past week…

So basically Monday was slow and we didn't really do anything besides email and laundry... but after that we met up with some other elders to go on exchanges so I spent Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday morning in Whitehall and Sheridan Montana.  So we go and I get there and we find out that they forgot their phone charger in Whitehall.  So we hop in the car and drive about 45 minutes to their place in Whitehall for a charger and then 45 minutes back.  But the time we get back it's basically time to head into the apartment.  So that's what we did.  Then the next day we wake up do our thing and Elder Whiting is like, "you wanna go to a town we don't go to very often if ever??" And I was like, "heck yeah!" So we did and it was sweet!  Talked to quite a few people and got ourselves out there.  But it was cool.  We saw some sweet train tracks so I had to take a few pictures haha.  

Then we saw this Mexican restaurant that had me in stitches I was laughing so hard!! It's called “Nacho Mamas” and it's so funny if you think about it... or maybe it was just me and I'm easily entertained but it was super funny.  We walked around and then decided to head back to twin bridges and on the way out I saw a Nevada city sign and decided to take a picture in front of it because it's funny too.  But then we got back to twin bridges and walked around and talked to people and tried contacting some investigators and less active members.  So we went to this one house and started talking to this guy and he had this super sweet American flag thing made out of wood and the wood was burned to make the flag.  It was super cool so we talked to him for a bit about that and set up a return appointment with the guy which was awesome.  

Then it was dinner time and we ate with some cool members up there and we had this super good rice and chicken.  But that was awesome then we went and tried going to an appointment that was set up but it fell through.  But one good thing came out of it!!  I saw this little Chihuahua in a cage that was bouncing like crazy!!  I only got like a second of it but basically imagine that over and over again.  It was pretty funny too.  So we tried a few more people and met a guy who was going to a missionary meeting in Dillon... awkward... good thing it wasn't my area haha!!  But then it was pretty late and we decided to stay in Butte for the night before zone conference so we drive up and stay the night with the man the myth and the legend Elder Patterson!!  It was awesome hanging out with him like old times haha.  So we had fun then went to zone conference the next day.  It was awesome!!  

We had some really good training on how to be better and it was super great!!  I saw quite a few missionaries from other areas that I got close to, which is always a party.  So then we had departing testimonies and Elder Patterson got up because he's going home in October.  I'm going to miss that guy!!  But he's going to do good things and I've still got the rest of this transfer!!  But regardless I'll miss the guy.  But yeah then afterward we went and got a prescription for elder C and then went back to Dillon for dinner and we had it with our ward mission leader and it was sweet!  We talked about the work in the area and all that fun stuff!!  Then we went and walked a ton!!  And while we were walking we talked to as many people as we could!!  And we met a new guy who turned into an investigator and it was really awesome!!  I like talking to him a lot.  Then we headed home.  And the next day we met up with the ZLs for exchanges with them so I went with a missionary who came out with me and we had a good time.  He showed me some magic tricks and it was great haha.  We had a lesson with this one guy though... it was so cool you guys!!  The spirit was just overwhelmingly strong there and you could see the kid tear up more than once.  It was so awesome!!  One of the best lessons... he's super prepared.  Then we had dinner and Elder Brown showed the members he could cut a carrot in half with a card...  I held the carrot while he threw the cards...  he missed the carrot the first few times.  Then we went to splits and split off and talked to some really awesome people.  It was sweet!!  And that about sums up our day.

Then the next day we went and did service at this thrift store kind of place.  It was fun.  We did that for about an hour, hour and a half then left and it was about lunch time and Elder Brown wanted to go to Taco Johns so I'm like alright.  BAD IDEA!!!  I'm never eating there again.  I wasn't feeling too good the whole rest of the day.  At least I learned my lesson though right??  So we went and met back up and switched back comps.  So Elder C and I are comps till he goes home this Friday.  So that's fun.  We got back together and then went back to our area after a meeting with the different leadership in the zone.  Then we got back and this is where we did a ton of walking.  We literally walked all day...  I couldn't feel my feet...  but it was sweet!!  So we walked a ton and talked to a ton of people... yup that sums up that day haha.

Then on Saturday we literally walked all day.  Didn't drive once... it was crazy.  We walked around and taught tons of different people.  It was sweet.  We taught a cool guy in a wheelchair and that was awesome.  We also taught a lady who recently had knee surgery or just had something wrong with her knee.  I can't remember haha.  And we also taught this husband and wife who are super into music and talked with them and it was pretty sweet.  Then we had dinner and after dinner we walked to an investigators house and taught him the restoration so that was pretty sweet.  Then we went home.  Lots of walking haha.

Sunday we went to church and had some good meetings. We are working really close with the YSA (young single adults) kids in the ward.  So that's awesome.  After church we visited a member whose a cop.  He's a super cool guy and we ran some ideas past him that could be somewhat bad...  but that's ok because he said he would probably do them at some point haha.  But then we went to a member’s house for a devotional with all the YSA kids where Elder Bednar spoke.  It was super good!!  If you guys didn't have a chance to watch it you should probably check it out.  But that was awesome then a kid started messing with an exercise ball and was jumping on it.  It was crazy.  YSA kids are nuts I swear haha.  It was super fun being back with people my age though.  Then we went and visited Brother Staley for a bit and it was super sweet.  We talked about the temple and about preach my gospel.  It was super awesome.  

Well that's about it for me!! Love y'all!! Take care!!

Love,

Elder Zeller

750 N Montana St

Dillon, MTDillon, MT

"THIS IS MY GRANDSON"

Well this week was pretty top notch 👍 basically we started on Tuesday with housing inspections and that went pretty good.  We did a lot of finding this week because we still didn't have any investigators so had to find our own.  That was pretty fun.  We met a few people who were open to talking with us but nothing further than that so that's kind of a bummer but at least they now know that missionaries aren't scary people haha. 

Then on Wednesday we had our district meeting and learned more about teaching and all that fun stuff.  Then later that night we had dinner with my grandparents or in other words Nana and Papa!!  That was so cool!!  It was weird but it wasn't at the same time if that makes sense haha.  They kept calling me by my first name which was weird because I haven't heard for a long time... it was way awesome!!  I loved seeing them and talking to them.  It kind of touched my heart because everyone my Papa saw he would say, "THIS IS MY GRANDSON!!"  It was just really nice to see how proud he was of me :) I just loved every second of it and I was so thankful that my mission president said that we could do that. After that we had a pretty sweet lesson with a member of the ward.  She's super cool and we talked to her for a bit and shared a video with her.

On Thursday it was Montana’s biggest weekend kick-off!!  It was sweet!!   Basically there was a fair in town as well as a rodeo.  We found out rather quickly that everywhere is literally a ghost town except for the fairgrounds. It was nuts but was way fun!!  We used this opportunity as a good way to get the missionary name out there!!  So we walked around and tried talking to everyone we could!!  It was a ton of fun!!  We basically did that all day.  

Then on Friday we helped some members lay like 12 pallets of sod.  I wore my white service t-shirt and by the time we were done it was brown.  It was a ton of fun!!  I mean I thought it was haha.  Then we went and visited some people with some sisters who were in the mission then went home and were visiting and so we asked if they knew anyone we could start teaching because we still had nothing haha.  So we visited some people with them and because of that we now have some people to teach.  Then we went back to the fair and they had a karaoke thing going and I convinced Elder Christensen to get up there and sing.  So we figured out a good gospel country song that would be appropriate for missionaries to sing and then we got a ton of members who were at the fair to come and see him do it.  So he gets up there and kills it and we still are seeing blessings from that!!  Literally tons of people were coming up to us and asking if he was the one singing and we start talking to them and it was awesome!!   

The next day we bounced from the farmers market to the fair and talked to more and more people.  Hopefully by the end of all this people realize that missionaries aren't scary at all and that we are still normal people.  But we did that for like the whole day.  Then we went to the rodeo for like 20-30 minutes to show off the white shirts and ties again.  We're getting seeds planted and getting things going for future missionaries.  

Sunday we went to the Dillon ward and met even more members. We talked to a recently returned missionary and he's like I've got 5 referrals for you.  And I'm like dang!!  Heck yeah!!  So we did the whole church thing and it was pretty good!!  Sacrament meetings are always a blast!!  Then afterward we went to a member’s house for lunch and then we went to the farmers market again to talk to a member there that we are working with.  So we are there and we finally meet her husband and he is a super cool guy!!  So we helped her take down her booth and then helped another lady there take down her stuff.  We tried sharing the gospel with her but she was pretty content with where she is.  But we still helped her out and shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon with her.  After that some members stopped us and asked if we could help them with their canopy as well.  So we helped them and talked with them for a while.  Then by the time we finished it was time to sync up our area books.  So we did that and then went home.

So that's my week. Kind of a take away from this week is the Lord is aware of everyone and everything that they're going through.  He answers prayers in miraculous ways.  Sometimes you don't see the outcome and other times you do, but the Lord needs us to be able to follow the promptings we receive in order to help others.   Service is a great way of doing that.  Not so much going out and digging holes or cleaning up, but maybe the service you give someone is giving them a smile or compliment when you feel impressed to do so.  The Lord uses us to answer other people's prayers, and prayers are answered every day. Well stay sweet everyone!!

Love,

Elder Zeller

750 N Montana St