Merry Christmas

Elder Child & Elder Jacobsen

Speaking Date

It is confirmed that Chris will be talking on January 20th at 10:50 am in the 16th Ward. That building is just north of 400 North approximately 650 East is the entrance. Please plan on coming over to the house afterward.

Wow Time Flies

Here's the drum roll for my next and last companion...Elder Jacobsen. Elder Jacobsen is serving in the Muskegon zone right now with an elder who's going home on the 13th of December. So, the area is going to be whitewashed. He's a diabetic and was trained by Elder Savage. Last transfer I went with him on an exchange in Muskegon North. I sure enjoyed the day there and really look forward to serving my last transfer with him. I don't think there's any other elder in the mission I'd rather serve my last transfer with than him.

Anyway, today Elder Savage will be packing up his bags. He's worked hard his whole mission, and this week was nothing less. It was a great week, though we had a lot of transfer preparation stuff to do. We got our new 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan and already put over 500 miles on it. Tomorrow we have the Christmas broadcast and Monday our transfer week begins. The next week is ZLC and most of my transfer goes home. Then we have the week of Zone Conferences. Then Christmas week. Then a week 5 New Years. Then Transfer Preparations and home! So that's the transfer...it's going to go by fast!

Note from his mom: Chris' birthday is on the 10th. He flies home on January 16th. We are hoping that he will be able to speak in Church on the 20th but will let you all know when it is for sure. Everyone is invited over to the house after the meeting for lunch. Hope to see you then.

Update 10/30/07

Chris continues to be busy with the Assistants duties. Following are some excerpts from recent letters.

10/8/07
This upcoming weekend we have some exciting things happening. Elder Bednar will be coming for stake conference here in Lansing and he's invited recent converts and investigators (and their missionaries--that means us) to join him in a special meeting in the Relief Society room here at the stake center. We have invited Brother Nicholas Azzam to come, and he should be there. What a neat opportunity to be close to a member of the Twelve! We are both very excited.

10/15/07
Yesterday I shook Elder Bednar's hand and went into a meeting with him and investigators and recent converts in the Relief Society room. This weekend was really amazing. He is probably the best teacher in the world. Period.

He answered some questions from investigators in the special meeting. The final session he rebuked the Stake about missionary work, saying that the missionaries are called to teach. The members are responsible for finding. The missionaries really liked that. To be honest, it has been frustrating for Elder Savage and I. We feel like outsiders in this ward, and it has really never been quite like this in any of our other areas. Elder Bednar said that to pray for the missionaries to find people to teach and for them to find those who are prepared is a faithless prayer. Members ought to pray to find people themselves. Then he talked about prayer and how there's a way to continually pray. In the morning, we pray specifically about what we will accomplish that day, then the action part of prayer begins as we do those things, then we report back to Heavenly Father when we give the closing prayer to our day. What an amazing experience, and I was able to write down some exact quotes and put them in my scriptures and in my Preach My Gospel. We also talked with Sister Bednar for a while in the foyer. She was such a nice person. His son and daughter in law were there with them as well.

We had a great experience Saturday and Sunday with prayer. We prayed that Heavenly Father would let us know what we would do to find a new investigator. It's neat how the first door we talked to someone at on Sunday became a new investigator. She was really excited to talk with us and thought it was the coolest thing in the world to have the records of prophets here. We got more than one investigator yesterday, which was such a blessing because not only have we not had much time to proselyte in our own area, but when we have it seems like no one wants to listen. People have been really funny as we've been door knocking. We are pretty cunning in our questions, but people don't really answer them. No, we didn't ask which church you attend, we asked if we could share with you a copy of the Book of Mormon! ;) You just have to laugh or else you may get down.

10/20/07
Brother Azzam called us up and I talked to him this week. He is leaving to go to Chile on Monday. He'll be baptized down there on the 28th, so that's exciting. So Brother Azzam passed his interview and will be baptized next week. He'll be confirmed two weeks later here in Sacrament meeting. We are excited about that.

We have another very interested investigator we have worked with for just over a week now. I think that she might be our next baptism here. Her name is Mary Lee. It's neat to see how sometimes just when one investigator is taken out of our responsibility, another solid one comes in.
We were going over to her house this week and Elder Savage went to park the car. We didn't see, but in a pile of leaves next to the curb there was a piece of broken off concrete sticking out. The car tire rubbed against it and it slashed the tire. It was an adventure to find and get out the spare tire and get it all changed in our suits. The van is a stow and go van, so the tools were hidden in the wall and the tire was under the van right directly between the driver and front passenger seats. Right in the middle. We were in a lower-class area, so I'm not surprised we got some looks from the locals--two guys in suits changing a tire of a baby blue dodge caravan. ;) The new tire and to have it changed was a total of just over $7--Discount Tires. So that was good, although it took some time to get the whole thing sorted out. Oh, and it was the right front tire--on the same side as the big dent that lady put in it.

10/29/07
That's cool you got the message from Sister Bednar. We talked with her for about ten minutes. It was weird because she only talked to Elder Savage and I and asked for our parents' numbers.

Anyway, we are teaching a really neat family. A husband, wife, an older daughter and two younger kids. They have only one Book of Mormon right now and they're bouncing it among themselves. They have been making changes by themselves without us asking them, like trying to quit smoking and stopping swearing and having family prayer. They are trying to get a car to come to church and it looks like their financial situation is improving. It's neat to see how it hasn't taken much on our part and they seem to be progressing on their own! The wife's name is Mary Lee, and I was the one to talk to her initially on the street in another part of town. It's cool to see the change that has taken place. It would be really cool if the whole family became members. That would be sweet--an entire family! I think it's very likely it will happen.

Well, I have a lot to do. Hope things are going well there at home.

New companion and coming home date

Elder Savage will be my companion for the next couple transfers. His first name is Weston and he's from Bountiful. He graduated from Bountiful High with me. If I remember correctly, he lives in the neighborhood up above the temple. He'll be coming in from Muskegon. I'm excited to serve with him.

This week we'll be doing a lot of preparations and planning for Transfer Week. Transfer Week is one of the busiest weeks of an assistant's life. All the week has to be preplanned down to the minute if we're going to accomplish everything. There's a checklist a mile long of things to do next week. It's an exhausting week.

Monday and Tuesday we do our transfer runs, traveling about 17 or so hours between those two days. I was in charge of travel arrangements this time so I gave all the missionaries their information on when to be at which stake center and when they'll meet their new companion and if they have to stay overnight with the zone leaders if they don't have a companion Monday evening, etc. So it's been busy. We were up until 1 AM on Thursday getting things ready for transfer calls on Friday. You may think why so late and not work on it before? Well, President was making quite a few changes Thurday so it was no use to start the travel plans before then and he actually made some changes Friday morning about ten minutes before the calls begun so we had to adjust our plans at the last minute. The transfer calls lasted from 7 AM to 12:30 in the afternoon--constant calling.

Next week we have the departing testimonies for those elders and the sister who are going home. That's Tuesday (a transfer day). On Wednesday, we get up really early (like 4:30) to drive the departing missionaries to the airport. We make plans and memorize the names, birthplaces, and faces (from pictures) of all the 15 incoming missionaries so we can greet them off the plan that day. We have to help with dinner for the departing missionaries on Tuesday and again on Wednesday for the incoming missionaries. We have an orientation we do for the new missionaries Wednesday. On Thursday, we'll have a meeting with President to match up the trainers and their new missionaries. Then we'll train the new trainers on how to train, if that makes sense. After that, we'll put the new missionaries with their trainers, grab their bedding, and it's another trip all around the state. It's like the Tuesday trip, where we go up to Mt. Pleasant, back to Lansing, and then on to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek. But this time we start at around 2 PM instead of 8 AM, so we'll be getting in late.

Then Friday we have a transfer planning meeting with President and Sister Edwards to decide the transfer theme and district meetings. Oh, and we have to update the zone rosters, as well as car rotations and a whole host of other programs in the office. And we have to prepare for Zone Leader Council the following Monday and Tuesday, where we'll train the new zone leaders and prepare skill trains or discussions, etc.

There's more happening that week, too (We'll be opening up two new areas, so we might have to move some furniture around).

So you get the idea about how life will be this next week. Exhausting, crazy, sad (departing missionaries), and exciting (new missionaries, zone leaders, get to see the missionaries around the mission). All at the same time.

This week I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Buhanan in Battle Creek. It was awesome to see the Schumacher family again and Wendi Nofs. They all had a glow about them. It's true what people say about members--you can tell the difference the gift of the Holy Ghost makes. Especially with Wendi. She looked a lot different, and it wasn't just that she took out her nose and lip and eyebrow piercings, either. She had a renewed look about her.

We also taught one of the people they found door knocking. It was awesome to teach the two (a man and a woman). I asked them, "As you come to find that these things are true, as we have come to know that they are, will you be baptized into this church?" The man responded quickly, "Of course! I would think that God would want me to make that commitment if I'm going to ask Him about it." It was really neat.

I'm sure you got the one about me coming home on the 16th of January for sure. I'll come home with one other missionary from my transfer (MTC group) that day. Even Elder Udall, my MTC companion will be going home a week before. The rest of the transfer will be leaving December 13th. However, as it is turning out, with over 20 missionaries leaving that month, and many of them zone leaders and the next assistant, I will be needed to keep some continuity and to train all those new zone leaders and the next assistant. So it really was important to the mission that I stay. Otherwise it would be like we were kind of white-washing the mission.

Baptisms & Transferred

The Schumacher's baptisms went well. What a day! Elder Prows and I spoke in church and we had Gospel Essentials (finally) since Wendy Nofs and Tracey Newton (James' mother) came to church. I believe that both of them will be baptized eventually. It was so awesome to see them all baptized. It was kind of like being in the temple and doing baptisms for the dead, there were so many (8). I confirmed 3 of them, James, Joshua, and Max, and participated in the others. The Spirit was very strong and I sure enjoyed the experience.

It was great to baptize Aaron Valentine on Saturday. His family is very much against this but he went through with it and will be off to Texas on Wednesday for basic training. He really liked the medallion I gave him. It really leaves them with a physical reminder of their conversion. He was confirmed on Sunday and was given the Priesthood then so he'd have it before he set off for boot camp.

I was really surprised at transfers when President Edwards said I'd be coming into Lansing and that he wanted me to accept a special assignment. I'll be serving with Elder Carlen, my trainer, for his last transfer. We'll be the Assistants together. That actually begins today, since today is transfer day. So today I'm all packed up and I'll be driving a 15 passenger van with a trailer on the back to transfer the missionaries around.

This next week will be full. We have to do transfers, send the old missionaries off on the plane, receive and give an orientation for the new missionaries (there will be 14 this transfer) and their trainers, and on Friday we have transfer planning with President Edwards. That's where we decide the district meeting topics for the mission for each week of this transfer as well as the transfer theme. This transfer zone conference will be different because a General Authority will be coming.

I'm excited to be with Elder Carlen for his last transfer before he goes home and to work more closely with President Edwards. I'm a little nervous as well, but it will be a good experience. I won't get to do as much proselyting as I have been. A lot of office work and administrative tasks as well as twice the number of companion exchanges, since we go on exchanges with all the zone leaders. That is definitely a downer--not as much proselyting in our own area. So there's a lot of mixed feelings toward it. However, as I've told President before, I sent in my papers to do the Lord's work, whatever he wants me to do I'll do it as best I can. I'll do it even when I may have a little growing and stretching to do to fill that assignment.

Elder Child's shoes

After 18 months. In reality these were hammered by the first year but we finally got a picture of them.