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

The (not so) Great Falls in the Winter... and loving every minute of it!!!

Monday!

So for some reason as of late my p-days have been super busy!!  Like I don't even know why they get so busy.  I do everything I've always been doing only now it seems like I hardly have anytime.  It's confusing... anyway, so we did our shopping and whatnot and got the things that we needed.  Then we played games!!  Normal p-day type stuff.  After that we had a lesson buuuuuut it got cancelled like 10 minutes before hand.  Oh well such is the life of a missionary and there isn't much we can do about it. We tried contacting some people and we weren't able to talk to many people but no worries!!

Tuesday!

So today we woke up and did our thing, then we went to ZLC (which is that meeting where I can't be there so I just practice my basketball skills).  Might I just say that I've played more basketball on my mission than in my whole life combined, and as a result I've become quite the "baller" as the kids say 😂 anyway, so that was fun.  Then after the meeting we went to Dairy Queen and we talked with a few people there. There was actually this one lady who we went up and talked to and she told us about how she doesn't have anywhere to stay or anything and she was just super stressed and sad.  So we shared some scriptures and our testimony on keeping the commandments and that God blesses us for that.  So I hope that she was able to feel something and that she goes to church like she said she would.  After that we started our exchanges with the zone leaders!  So Elder Porter and I got together and shot over to their area while they were in ours.  It was kind of funny but I forgot my iPad in the other car so I didn't have it with me for like the whole day almost and it was actually kind of nice I'm not going to lie 😅.  It was super neat just being able to teach out of the Book of Mormon exclusively because that's all I had, that and my testimony.  So that's what I relied on!  It was a really good day.  We had a lesson with one of their investigators who Satan is working on pretty hard so we were able to answer a lot of her questions on different things.  We had a few lessons fall through but we made up for it by following the spirit and looking for those people who were sent by God.  Like we were in the area for this lady they had contacted awhile back and so we decided to stop by.  Well she didn't answer but we didn't feel like leaving right then was a great idea, so we went and started knocking on doors until we felt spiritually satisfied.  Well we knocked a few doors with no answer, but then we knock on this one door… I've been able to find out that on my mission is I can talk to random people pretty easily about just about anything, but transitioning to the gospel is a bit tougher. So I'm still learning how to do that.  Anyway, so we knock on his door and he was a bit standoffish at first but I noticed he was playing a video game that I had played a little bit of in the "before time".  Anyway so I pointed it out and started to talk to him about that then he really started talking to us and opening up to us and he started talking about Dragon Ball Z and I was just sitting there like, "come on man you're making this too easy for me 😂".  So we talked about that for a while then after Elder Porter was able to bring up the gospel and talk about missionaries and what we do and so we were able to talk to him a little bit about that and he seemed pretty open to meeting with the missionaries so that was a huge miracle!  It was a really awesome exchange and it was really cool to meet a lot of people from the Overlook area.  I learned a lot and I learned how to better myself as a missionary.  So after a few more people we headed back to the apartment and we got there and talked to their ward mission leader (who is easily one of the coolest guys ever btw) and he gave us some really good advice for after the mission and finding and choosing a career that fits us.  Then he told us a few stories from when he was a police officer.  It was super cool talking to him :) then we went to bed and that was it.

Wednesday!!

Alright so today started out with games and we created a variation of four square.  Instead of four squares we use six.  So we played six square and man can that game get intense!!  It was super fun though!!  After that Elder Porter and I went to their apartment to get ready for district meeting and do our studies.  It was pretty cool because we got ready and all that and spent like an hour just talking about life and missionary work and how we can both improve as missionaries.  He's a way solid missionary.  He's really good at something I struggle with and that's understanding that there are certain times and places to be funny and have fun but also times to work.  So I was able to receive instruction as to how I can do better at that.  But yeah so we talked for a while and I did my studies and I had a really great study session!!  It was super awesome!!!  I was reading in Alma chapter 11 and Zeezrom is trying to get Amulek deny the gospel.  So he tries bribing him with a ton of money.  Like it was a lot of money from what I understood and Zeezrom is like, "hey Amulek, do you see all this silver??  It's a lot right??  Well I'll tell you what, if you deny that there's a God then all this is yours."  Well Amulek is a righteous guy and he sees right through Zeezrom and his cunning.  So this is Amuleks response to Zeezrom and it's found in chapter 11 verse 23:

"O thou child of hell, why tempt ye me? Knowest thou that the righteous yieldeth to no such temptations?"

First thing I like about this is he calls him a child 😂 like he's basically saying this is childish to think that silver and riches is going to get me to deny God.  Then my favorite part of Amuleks response is the fact that he says that the righteous won't yield to temptations like that.  I read that and I was like wow, he threw it all back into Zeezrom’s face and said I don't want your money because I know that there is a God and that because I'm righteous he will bless me.  Then a little bit later on in the chapter he calls out Zeezrom saying that he wasn't even going to give him the money if he had denied the existence of a God.  It's just an awesome chapter.  

After our studies Elder Porter and I got ready to leave for district meeting.  See there was one fatal error in our planning... we thought that the meeting was at 10:30... well we were kind of wrong... 😅 it actually was at 10.  So at about 10:20 we got a call from the sisters asking where the heck we were and it was at that moment we realized that we screwed up 😅 oh well though right?!?  You live and you learn and now I know that district meeting is at 10 not 10:30 😅.  So we had district meeting and that was all good and fun.  Then afterward we went to Arby's for lunch and man I haven't been to that place since I was in Utah!!  Like I think the last time I was there was in high school when we went for lunch 😂 so that was a blast from the past.  After that we switched back and went to the doctors for Elder Blum’s ear because it has been bugging him for the past little bit and he was cleared to go to the doctors to get it checked out.  So we were there for quite a while and then after that we went to pick up his prescription and because of the insurance missionaries have it takes like 10X as long so we were stuck there for a while as well.  Once it was done it was time for dinner.  So we went to dinner and finished out our day!!  It's been a pretty eventful day!!

Thursday!

Today was pretty good.  It was a bit of a slower day but it was really cool because later in the day we had splits and I was able to go and help the guy I went with, with some home-teaching.  So we went to this older ladies house and shared a message with her. She was super nice and loved the company :)  it did my heart good to be able to go and brighten up her day :) After that my split’s companion and I went to try a less active we had talked to awhile back but he didn't answer which was a bummer.  But it was pretty close to 8 which was when we decided we would be back at, so went back and waited for the other two in the parking lot and talked for a while about the area and the ward.  Then we started talking about missions and he served in Saõ Paulo (shout out to you Tav) but I'm pretty sure I spelled it right.  I know that there is one of those squiggly things somewhere in it so I just guessed.  But he told me a few stories which were really cool and I was actually able to tell some of my own!! :D  How nuts is that!?! I can tell mission stories!!  Anyway it was super cool.  I love splits because I'm able to get to know the members of the ward better and so that's pretty nice to be able to form those relationships.

Friday!

Alright so this morning I woke up and it was like 5:50 and I was thinking, "why the crap are you up so early elder!! We still have like a half hour!!!"  Then I got a text from the sisters at about 6:15 asking where we were and I was like why are the sisters asking where we are this early in the morning??  Then it hit me... today is Friday... we have games every Wednesday and Friday morning... CRAP!!!  So I jumped out of bed and threw on all my clothes and was out the door because we were late!!  So that was pretty funny 😂 anyway so we did that and it was pretty fun.  Then we got a call at like 11 from the other zone leaders asking us if we could pick them up at about noon because their car was getting its windshield replaced.  So we were like yeah sure we can do that.  Anyway, so we're getting ready to do that when we get another call at pretty close to noon from them saying that there was a mix-up and their windshield was sent to Billings.  So they were like let's just go to lunch.  So we went and got some pizza and took it back to their place and ate pizza for lunch.  Then we started talking and we started talking about “The Great Falls”.  Like the actual water fall and we were like we are only going to be in Great Falls like one time in our lives so we need to see The Great Falls.  Plus we both didn't have anything planned for the next little bit so we drove out the actual Great Falls!!  And well I didn't realize but waterfalls are only really good during certain seasons... winter is not one of those seasons... so we got there and it was alright but kind of a disappointment... then Elder Potter and I looked at some rocks and decided to climb this rock hill and get a picture of The Great Falls from the top of it and that was pretty cool. 

But what we didn't realize is that the hill we climbed was littered full of these super sharp rocks and super loose dirt so Elder Potter starts heading back down and he just slides for like 10 feet.  I thought he was going to die or something.  It looked like he was going to start falling like in the movie Hot Rod when he falls down the hill for like 10 minutes.  But he didn't thank goodness!! He did rip his pants though... so that was a bummer.  But it's all good because we got some pretty good pictures. 

Anyway so after that we went back down and headed back home and we went to our dinner appointment and had dinner on base.  It was awesome and we had breakfast for dinner!!! 😍🤤 it was soooooo good!!  I love breakfast for dinner.  Then afterward we tried visiting some less active members and former investigators.

Saturday!

Well today was a pretty mello day 😅 not much going on.  What happened was we just did a lot of finding then we had dinner at a member’s house and it was way funny because the kids were like naming off every transformer ever and I was like... woah... it was pretty funny 😂 then afterward we tried contacting some more people but it didn't turn out.  After doing that for a few hours and being told, "I'm not interested" a bunch, we decided to head on home.  So that was a fun time :)

Sunday!

So we started off the day doing the usual stuff and then we got a call from our zone leaders asking if we would be able to go to the hospital in town and give a lady a blessing in there.  So we said we would after we got done with church.  We went to church and we were in charge of teaching the gospel principles class and I think it went pretty well.  At least I hope it was good 😅.  Then we went into our priesthood meeting and talked about the word of wisdom and the plan of salvation.  It was super cool to be able to see the ties between the two from a different perspective.  After that, church ended and we had ward council... fuuuuun stuff 😅 that lasted quite a while but it's all good!!  Sacrifices for the work to progress!!  After we hurried home, changed out of our suits and into some clothes that can be washed easier because that's what we do 😅 and then we ate some lunch really quick and hurried over to the hospital to give the lady a blessing.  We got there and it was super cool to meet her.  We gave her the blessing and we talked a little bit after and we told her that we hope she gets better and she said, "I will now thanks to you."  It was so awesome to see her faith in the blessing from the Lord.  After that we went over to our dinner and she gave us a pizza so we had pizza for dinner.  Then we went out and did some more finding hoping that more people would be around on Sunday.  Some of them were and some weren't, which was alright😅.  After that we went and did our laundry and that's been my week!!  A lot of really cool experiences and blessings that I've been able to see this week and I've been able to meet a lot of super cool people :)

I love it out here a lot and I love my mission and I'm excited to see my growth over the next two years :) I love you all and I'll catch ya next week!! :)


Love,
Elder Zeller
2425 6th Ave. S Great Falls MT 59405

"Stuff" on the Horse Trailer Floor and so Much More

Hey all so I'm going to do something a bit different this week.  Instead of me trying to compose all my thoughts from the whole week I'm going to write a little bit each day about what happened as the week goes and email it on Monday. That way it'll be fresh in my mind!  So we'll see how this goes!

Alright so Monday!  Not too much happened. It’s our preparation day which is super nice!! It is very much needed to just let loose and the extra couple hours in the morning helps add time to be together with other missionaries :) I forgot to put this in the last email but on Sunday night we slept over at the other zone leaders apartment because we just kinda wanted to 😅 anyway so that was a blast! In the morning we helped them with some service that they had.  It was pretty fun.  We unloaded a horse trailer into a storage unit. The only downside to this was that when they first loaded the horse trailer they didn't really shovel it out first because all the "stuff" on the floor (it was poop if you didn't catch my drift) was frozen. But thanks to this warm weather we've been having it softened right up and me being the lucky guy I was got to be the one inside the trailer unloading it... it was fun 😅 but yeah so we did that in the morning then we went and did normal preparation day stuff like shopping and getting ready for the upcoming week.  It was kinda funny but since we had a sleepover I put my mattress in the back of their truck and slept on that in their apartment; well they had somewhere to be pretty quick after p-day so we had to just ditch my mattress at their place for a night.  I wasn’t worried because I knew I’d just snag it sometime.  But all in all good day!

Alright so Tuesday!  Fun stuff!  So we woke up in the morning and we're doing our normal missionary thing when we get a call from the sisters in our district.  We answer the phone and start talking and they're like "hey would you guys be able to come with us to a lesson at 10 this morning?!?"

"... umm you mean in like ten minutes???"
"Yeah! Can you make it?!?"
"..."
"..."
"... yeah sure we can make it." 😅
So that was a pretty impromptu lesson.  Because he's a single guy in the sisters area they can't meet with him unless we come as well but it was super awesome because we were able to teach him about baptism and the covenants made there and we were able to confirm that he's going to get baptized on Saturday!  It's been super cool because even though he isn't our investigator we loved being able to see him commit to be baptized and now to follow through on Saturday is just so awesome! 

After the lesson we went to Zone Leader Conference (ZLC), which is a meeting between the zone leaders and the district leaders... well I'm not either of those but my companion is the district leader sooooo I come along but I'm not welcomed in the club 😢 so basically I just sit around in the church and study or shoot some hoops 😂 well while I'm in the middle of "ballin up" with myself I get a call from the other zone leaders asking if we'll be home anytime soon so that they can drop off my mattress.  I told them that I'm in the middle of ZLC but that the door was unlocked so they could just throw it in that first room.  That was the last I thought of it.  After ZLC we go home for lunch and I walk in and I see my mattress and I'm like, "sweet they actually brought it!"  Then I started paying attention to the apartment and all around the apartment the other Missionaries had placed the valentine cards (you know since it was Valentine's Day) all over our apartment in random places that we would find at random times.  Like I'll give you a few examples… they put some in our hot chocolate powder, they put some in our light fixture, they put some around the shower head they put some in random pockets of my clothes and they put some in the sheets of Elder Blum’s mattress.  And those are just a few!!  They said they had a stack about 5 inches tall of them and we haven't found nearly that much.  Basically it was the funniest thing ever 😂 a perfect way to start off my day :) anyway after that we went out and tried contacting a lot of people and not a lot of people were home because it was Valentine's Day and the people that were home just kind of slammed the door in our face.  No biggy though!  Such is the life of a missionary 😂 it was a good day though :)

Wednesday!! Today was a really awesome and a really spiritually charging day! We had zone conference and so from about 9-3 we had meetings and the whole time I was just getting spiritual promptings and impressions as to how I can become a better missionary and a better person in general and also a lot of new ideas of how to find new investigators.  I always enjoy listening to President and Sister Wadsworth.  They just are able to say things that I know I need to hear and also I'm sure that others need to hear as well!!  And the spirit they bring is just awesome!  I just learned a whole lot, it was really nice.  

After that we were able to go and teach the investigator in Portage again and that was really good we taught him some of the last principles he needs in order to get baptized.  He's so ready to make that commitment.  Apparently he's been working with the missionaries for upwards of 5 years or so and being a part of this step that he's making towards eternal progression is such an honor and I thank the Lord every day for the opportunities and blessings He gives me.  After that lesson we went and picked up our dinner where we had an appointment with because she wasn't feeling too good so we really hope she gets feeling better.  

We had dinner then we decided to listen to what the Wadsworths and Apostles have said and try working with people who are in our age range so we went to mutual and started to get to know a lot of the youth in the ward and that was really awesome. They're having a combined mutual in March so we are encouraging them to invite friends of theirs who might not be members or members who don't necessarily come to church a whole lot.  We hope that they do that so that we can do our thing and try and bring others closer to the gospel :) it's been a really awesome day filled with so much promptings and spiritual impressions I feel like I'm going to explode.  I'm excited to start using what I've learned in my missionary work :)

Thursday!!  Oh man what a day!!  Started off really awesome!!  We had interviews with President and that was awesome.  We were able to talk about things I need to do that would help me be a better missionary and ways that I can grow myself and it was just so awesome!!  I appreciate President and his wife so much!  They receive so much revelation for what their missionaries need I just love being able to spend time with them whenever I can!  So we went from that to lunch which was good.  

We had lunch with our zone leaders at Dairy Queen so that was pretty good. Then after that me and Elder Blum got haircuts because my hair was getting a bit too long!  I just don't like when my hair gets long.  So I was sick and tired of it so I got it cut short so I hope that it'll stay this short for a while but I never know with my hair 😅 

After that we did some planning since it was our planning day and then we went to a lesson with the sisters with their investigator whose getting baptized on Saturday.  They finished up teaching him the last things he needed before he's baptized so now all that needs to happen is an interview (which will happen tomorrow) and then the actual baptism and he's golden!  So that was good then we had splits and there was some communication errors (on our part) where we had told the wrong time so the appointment we set up wasn't able to happen and it was just such a bummer because I was really looking forward to meeting with the people we had set up time with and I just feel really bad about the whole thing.  But we ended up meeting with one of our investigators on the base and that was good.  We were able to talk with her about the Bookof Mormon and the restoration a bit and we hopefully will be able to find a way back onto the base for our next appointment with her! So that was nice!  Lots of cool things happened today!  Lots of miracles.

Friday!!  Today was super awesome!!  We started out the day by playing some games for exercise!  So that was fun and a super great way to start the day!  After that we went over to do a baptismal interview with the sisters investigator and guess what... he passed!!  So all things are a go for tomorrow and I couldn't be happier!!  After all was said and done and we had gone over everything with him we went over to help the other zone leaders with some service that they had lined up.  So we shuttled off that direction and helped them for a while.  It's pretty interesting how many people are moving at this time.  Like honestly, we've helped at least three different people within the past two weeks move.  After that we went over to Salvation Army to see if they could use some volunteer service from their friendly neighborhood missionaries and they said that they would love to!!  So we are going to head back tomorrow and talk with a lady to get that all set up.

After that we went to dinner at like my new favorite restaurant.  It's called the Roadhouse Diner and man alive, they have some good burgers... like the first time I went, I got the PB & J burger... I know it sounds nasty but it was actually pretty good!!  But this go around I wanted to try other things and the Spicy burger caught my eye and man was that thing tasty!  So that was good!!  

Then after that we saw that the other zone does this missionary game night thing where missionaries and youth get together and play games.  So it's like a perfect opportunity for the youth to invite their friends who may or may not be members.  So we wanted to get that started in our zone but we wanted to see what they do for it so we went and did that and it was a lot of fun and I'm way excited to get that started over in our zone!!  But yeah today was super good and I couldn't be more stoked for the baptism tomorrow!!  It will be so awesome and the spirit felt at a baptism is such a special one.

Saturday!!  Man today was so solid!!  We woke up and went to the baptism and it was super awesome to see him get baptized.  The spirit was super strong there.  Then after that we went to a lunch that a family had put together for him after his baptism.  That was pretty cool because we were able to meet some of the members from the Portage ward.  After that Elder Blum asks if we can stop by Walmart and the other Stake Center because he needed to get some things and he left his missionary clip at the Stake Center.  So that's what we did and after we couldn't find his tag we decided to just leave... buuuuut the other zone leaders apartment was right there, so being the 19 year old that I am I decided that we should see if we could get into their apartment somehow, so we try for a bit and we get let in!  So we go into their apartment and prank them a bit nothing too bad just had some fun 😂 then we go on our way and start trying to contact people and go to some lessons we had set up.  We went over to our first "lesson" we more or less were just seeing if she was feeling better so we could teach her.  We go and knock on her door start talking and she says that she just got started eating lunch... which was a little weird... seeing as how it was 3:30.  Oh well we set up a return appointment for Sunday at 4:30 so hopefully that works out.

Then after that we go and contact this less active and man was he an interesting guy 😅 he basically told us that he got baptized because he was told he couldn't do it so he felt challenged.  But he was a way cool guy.  He talked to us about not getting married and not going to college so that was fun 😅 we were there for about an hour and a half to two hours.  Then we went to another lesson we had set up with a new investigator we found trying to contact someone else, but that fell through so we decided to go head home and have dinner... I walk in our apartment and my first thought was, "oh no..." the other zone leaders had put cups full of water all throughout our apartment 😅 it was so funny I was dying laughing 😂 so we cleaned that up, declared prank war with them and set up rules so that things don't get out of hand.  Then we started brainstorming as to how we should get them back... after that we went and contacted some people but no one answered.

Sunday!!  So today we got up did our morning thing then went to church.  It was pretty good!!  The talks in Sacrament meeting were all about missionary work and getting the members involved so that was awesome!!  Then it was kind of funny but I was looking around and our ward mission leader was gone and our assistant ward mission leader was gone as well. So I legit thought that Elder Blum and I were going to have to wing the lesson in gospel principles!!  But it turned out they got a sub so it worked out!!  Then we went to priesthood and had a lesson on the pioneers and their faith and how we are different pioneers now.  It was pretty cool!!  Then after church we had a ton of lessons... which all fell through 😅 like I kind of understand because we set up these lessons like a week ago, but the one we set up yesterday I was like that’s a bummer!!  We literally talked yesterday!!  Oh well we were able to meet some other people and it was super cool.  The Lord works in mysterious ways so maybe we needed to be in the neighborhood for someone.  I'm not sure.  

We had a bit of time before our dinner so we were like, "let's go try and find the Great Falls." So we went looking for them and we found the Rainbow Falls but not the Great Falls.  At first I thought it was the Great Falls and I was severely underwhelmed... 😅 but it was all good!!  Then we took off to our dinner and ate with a family where her brother who got off a mission about 8 months ago was living with them.  So that was super cool to be able to talk to him about his mission!!  Then after that he asked if we wanted to go help him with his horses.  We didn't have anything planned after that so we were like, "sure why not!!"  So that was fun!  Then we went and did our laundry and went to bed.  

This week I've been a witness of right place right time.  We may think that because we have an appointment with someone that we need to be with them, then when the appointment falls through we get bummed out, but someone there needs you.  The Lord put you there at that time for a reason.  We just had to find the reason!! I love you all take care!!

Love,
Elder Zeller
2425 6th Ave. S Great Falls MT 59405

Roman God to My Doppelganger

This picture will make sense as you read further:)

Hey all!!
This week has been pretty good!  There were quite a few interesting experiences throughout the week!!

It all started on Wednesday, we had our district meeting and I forgot my iPad so I had to mooch off my companion The Whole time.  But it wasn't too bad.  For some reason the words “selfless service” stuck out to me during the meeting.  Maybe it was the Holy Ghost telling me that I need to work on it some more.  It has just made me think a lot about that and the blessings that come from selfless service, and not thinking about yourself but always thinking about others.  I don't know, just something that has been on my mind ever since.

Then later that night we contacted some referrals and they are super awesome!!  They are really into their church which is totally fine, but they have been on missions in their church and they have some super cool stories from doing that.  We are going back like this Wednesday so that'll be super fun!!  

The bed that was "tied down"

Then the next day we got a call from the sister missionaries in our district asking if we would be willing and able to help a less active lady move.  So we did and they weren't really prepared to actually get moving.  But we helped them as best we could.  They put things into the bed of the truck and tied it down while we were driving to the storage unit and when we got back it looked super sketchy... like it scared me and I thought it was just going to fly off.  But it didn't so that was good!  

Then later that day we went over to a ladies house in the Overlook Ward.  Her sister died on her birthday so that kinda sucked and we were there to help cheer her up because she absolutely loves the missionaries.  But it was pretty funny while we were there we were talking and she told me that I look like a Roman God... not gonna lie that's a first 😅.  It was super funny and that's just who this lady is.

Alright then on Friday we went out and contacted a bunch of old investigators who dropped us or we dropped them.  Anyway we went to this one guys house and we were talking and everything was completely normal... then like out of left field he starts telling us to never marry a red head and like he goes on for like 30 minutes about why he hates red heads and how he regrets marrying one and so he told us not to marry one and I was just sitting there like, "what the?? How did I get into this situation?? How did this even come up?" It was super bizarre and at the time it was like super awkward but now looking back it was so freaking funny 😂.

Then on Saturday a bunch of missionaries were able to judge this speech and debate thing and it was pretty fun for the first little bit.  But I was watching all these kids go up and do their thing and talk about a lot of stuff.  And to be honest… I had no clue what the heck they were saying 😂.  So I just kinda winged it and judged them on if they could talk fluidly and if they used big words 😅 but these kids are going places!!  They are dang smart!!  It was crazy!  At their age I wasn't doing anything like that at all!!  It was way cool!!  

Sunday was really cool as well!!  We had a lesson on staying happy and optimistic and it definitely was something I needed to hear and I learned a whole lot from it!  It's just so important to have a happy attitude especially as a missionary!!  You never know when the adversary will attack and having that kind of attitude can really help!  

Elder Potter (my doppelganger)

Alright and today I've been realizing just how similar me and one of the zone leaders in the other stake is... it is actually super creepy.  Like me and him did the same stuff, drove the same car and have the same thought process.  And like all day we will talk about something and then the other person will have done that same thing... it’s super weird!!  But it's all good because we are super close and he's like a brother to me!!  Anyway that was my week!  

Loving it out here!! Wish you all the best!!

Love,
Elder Zeller
2425 6th Ave. S Great Falls MT 59405