February 24

The snow's finally starting to go away! Elder Davis and I went for a 20 min jog, 3 times in the past week. There's still ice out here and there. And sometimes my foot falls into a puddle. It feels good to finally start jogging again, even though my body isn't used to it & gets soar pretty easily.

Monday I bought ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, I made them the night we got back to our apartment. I forgot one of the grocery  bags in the other Elders car, so I tried making them without brown sugar. I used a little honey to see if that would work. It did, they turned out just fine.

A lady just moved into the ward, and we painted the inside of her house.It needed it pretty bad. There were all sorts of drawing all over the walls, and pink painted walls in one room.

Elder Davis & I accidentally knocked on a street that when down into the other Elders area. It wasn't too bad, at least now they have someone to teach that's already heard the Restoration.

Thursday we had zone training. We heard from President Hess & his assistants. It's always good to hear from him, I always learn so much. Sister Hess talked about how sarcasm is a form of corrupt communication, and can offend others. The whole meeting was great.

We got the car after the meeting. And on the way home we realized we didn't have a gps or a map. My memory wasn't as good as I thought. We had to stop a gas-station & ask for directions to Saginaw. We actually weren't too far off.

We just had another baptism, this was for a guy who left the church & is back now. It went well, one of the members is a lawyer & he gave the talk on baptism, I liked it.

Sunday we had dinner with some members. The dad is a hockey player, and weighs 260 lb. He's ripped! He served his mission in Argentina, they're a cool family.

We picked up some new investigators. They're going through a lot. The people we taught at the house were a couple in their 50's and their 25 year old daughter. They loved the message of the restoration. We're excited to teach them again.

My favorite part of my mission is when our hard work pays off, & we get to talk to awesome people that are willing to talk to us.

The hardest past is trying to remember everyone in the area. All the members, the inactive members, all the potential investigators, and so on. Remembering to meet with all of them is difficult.

It's been good the part week. I hope the week treated you all well too.

Love,

Elder Candland

P.S.

My clothes keep me warm unless it's below -5°. The only thing I need is warm gloves, my fingers get cold easily.

I want a shorter coat. The one I have is nice, especially during the winter, I just don't like how long it is.

P.P.S. I talked to the #1 MMA fighter in Michigan. He's hilarious! & also super toned.

February 17

Yes, Elder White & Elder Palmer (my previous companion) got transferred. Now we have Elder Marley (fresh out of the MTC) and my new companion Elder Davis.

Elder Davis is 5'7 & Elder Marley is 6'5. It's pretty comical :)

We've had snow on the ground ever since the end of 2013. It hasn't left since. They say this is the worst winter they've had in Michigan.

Speaking of which, I forgot to mention; when Elder Palmer was still here there was a day it was snowing, and we were driving on the freeway. The plows hadn't come through yet so most of the freeway was covered. While driving around a corner on a ramp, we saw a car that slipped & was facing the railing. So we slowed down, and were able to move around it. I guess some people in Saginaw don't know anything about driving in snow.

After I picked Elder Davis from transfers we were able to meet a few people, (Investigators & less actives) And I was able to navigate without a jps. I just had a map.

Since Elder Marley is, what we call, a greenie, some members fed us a "greenie dinner" of hawaiian haystacks.  Although it tasted just fine, it was gross. We have pictures of how green it was. They used so much green dye.

We found some 25 year-old guy who was pretty awesome. Unfortunately his mom is opposed to the idea of him becoming a Mormon so he told us we couldn't meet anymore.

However we did get a new investigator this week. We've met with him a couple times, and he gave us a call to tell us he was sick & couldn't meet with us. Most people don't bother giving us a call, so I'm sure he'll make some great progress. He's even reading the book of Mormon!

There was another person who gave us a call. We met her out in front of her house. I think she's a college student. She told us she wasn't interested, and had almost attempted suicide. We bore our testimony that sometimes things happen that don't appear to benefit us, but that sometimes we are brought down so that we can be made strong. She still wasn't very interested so we left her with our number. And not much later she called to make sure it wasn't a hotline or anything. Elder Davis & I pray for her.

The ward had an activity this Saturday to help an older lady more out of her house, and we were invited to come. It always feels good to help others. What's also nice is that she's moved into our apartment complex, so we get to see her more often.

And this Sunday we had an eagle court of honor for 2 young men. There was a lot of non-members that showed up. It went well, I'm glad we went.

Things are going great here, I hope everyone else is doing well. I'll talk to you later!

Love,

Elder Candland

February 10

Elder Palmer is leaving. So is Elder White, district-leader Rhodes' companion. He will be getting a companion fresh out of the MTC, which will be good, because he's a great missionary.

My new companion will be Elder Davis. He was serving in Cadillac, & he's been out for a little over a year. I hear he's a good Elder. It'll be exciting to show him around Saginaw.

Other Big news is that Jennifer Cottenham got baptized Saturday! She has been waiting a while to become a member, and now she's happy to finally be a part of the ward officially.

During the baptismal service Jennifer the whole time kept telling me how nervous she was. I got a little nervous too because she asked me to give a talk on baptism. I had only a short time to prepare the talk, so it was alright. Jennifer told me it was awesome, "I knew I picked the right person" she said.

To our surprise# we had another snowy day this wed. We decided to shovel people's driveways again. We helped a less-active, his friend, an 3 investigators, & some random guy. It helps when we have the other 2 Elders with us. That random guy we saw was spinning his tires trying to get his car into his driveway. Some people think that if they keep their foot on the gas long enough, they'll  somehow gain traction. Anyway, we helped shovel him out, & he was able to barely make his car up his driveway.

That same day we were driving down a road when Elder Rhodes told me to pull over. There was a man who fell in front of his house. When we got closer we could tell that he was probably in his late 50's. There was a puddle of bloody snow at the bottom of his door-steps. He had very slowly crawled out towards the sidewalk. We tried talking to him but he wouldn't respond to anything we said. We decided to call 911. They told us they'd get someone down there. His eye was swollen so bad it pressed up against his glasses. His jeans & gloves were wet & cold. The paramedics got him on a stretcher & drove him to the hospital. He started talking to them, and tried to tell him to leave him at his doorstep His leg was broken. He couldn't think strait, we're sure he had a pretty severe concussion. We were happy we could save someones live though.

This week we went back to the hood. There was a couple of crazy people we met. Sometimes we get people who like to preach to us. One guy was talking to Elder Palmer, he said he was Muslim, and came from Africa. Elder Palmer said, "That's cool, I wouldn't guessed you were from Africa." "What do I look like to you?" "uh, I..." "What do I look like to you!?" "You look African-American." "Thank you." & closed the door before we could say another word.

Then we met some guy in his 80's on the doorstep who invited us in and then practically gave his lives story while talking about what he thought about Gods nature. He's so confused. We ended up staying with him for half hour before we had to cut him off & tell him we had to go. We were 25 minutes late to our dinner appointment.

That night, & the night after we had biscuits & gravy. Elder Palmer's favorite.

We had a lot of people show up for Jennifer's confirmation Sunday, it was great to see a lot of less active members show up that sacrament meeting.

It's good to hear from you I hope you all have a great week

Love,

Elder Candland

February 3

So Elder Palmer has been here in Saginaw for 6 transfers now, so we're expecting him to leave in a week. And also we're having 13 new missionaries come in from the MTC, so maybe I'll start training?

This Tues it was super cold. We got a call that we should stay indoors. Elder Palmer & I spent time working out & playing board games. I bought ingredients last pday to make deviled eggs since we still had plenty of eggs from when we got all those groceries, so I made deviled eggs that day too.

There's an investigator who has been investigating the church for about a year, her kids are even baptized. The only problem is she had an ex who committed a felony & she put it on her records, so she needed first presidency approval, & it came through this past week & she passed her interview! she's getting baptized on the 8th!

Elder Palmer & I got the other Ford Fusion on Wed, so we're able to dive places that are too far for us to walk. This week we went to the ghetto part of Saginaw, The Woods. (The street names all end with wood, like parkwood, & robinwood) The people there are humble. They're more than happy to talk about Christ. So we found a list of people who said we could come back & talk with them. I'm not sure how committed most of them will be, but I'm sure we'll at least find a few that are after talking with them.

This Fri we had even more snow. We got a call from one of the less active members who said she could use some help shoveling out her driveway. So with our help it went from a 2 hr task, to 30 mins. After that Elder Palmer got an Idea to go shovel other peoples driveways. So we ended up shoveling a couple other members driveways, one of them was an older lady who the members said would be a good person to help.

After that we had dinner at another less active who fed us; biscuits & gravy, banana pancakes, baked eggs, bacon, potatoes, & hot chocolate. We were so full. She also called no leftovers, which was a joke, although we did make a lot of progress. We bought home leftovers after we visited with them.

Elder Palmer & I came to the conclusion that we miss having our parents make us home made food, cuz fast food gets old really fast. Another reason why it's awesome having members who make meals for us just about every night.

Congratulations Shaini! You're finished with the MTC, now you get to do some real work. It is a little hard the fist couple weeks settling into the area, but by the time you get to know the ward you'll feel more comfortable.

Too bad Rylee had a hard time with soccer. Reminds me of when I had bad days of competing, especially with hurdles. I had some meets where I just was out of it.

I hope you all have a great week

1.Emailing -  I also got a hair cut this week

 

2. Deviled eggs: half of these eggs came from the other Elders

 

3. 35 lb Turkey: a member has a pet turkey he keeps in his house. The turkey is a year old, & it's massive!

 

4. water treatment facility

 

5. ghetto

Love,

Elder Candland

January 27

Monday we drove Frankenmuth again for elder Rhodes so he could see the worlds largest Christmas store. We had fun. We got to go through a hall of mirrors. It was a lot of fun. We took videos, and got lost several times. We also had fun looking around at all the shops.

We gave a blessing to a less active convert who had thoughts of suicide and almost killed herself. Immediately when we started the blessing she wept. A few days later we met with her and she has told us that the blessing has helped. She's been feeling better and she got a job the day after the blessing. Hopefully we can get her to church. She says she has some anxiety with that.

 We had interviews with President Hess this week. He put a lot of emphasis on using a study journal. He said "I don't know about you, but I don't remember much when all I do is just read." Study journals help a lot when it comes to that. They also help develop good study habits.

We had lunch at a members home who is disabled. He used to be the foot massage therapist for the Red Wings, but he had a stroke so now he's limited with his movement and speech, he also has no control of his left arm. He made us a pretty good meal, he also loves giving missionaries free foot messages, so I got one.

While we were knocking Wednesday  we met a lady at the door who was actually listening to us. It was cold outside so I asked if we could come in so we didn't let all the hot air out. So she let us in and asked us what we believed, so we taught her the restoration in 15 minutes as best we could. She told us she wasn't happy with her last church, so she's looking into her fathers church (who's Muslim). She told us she wants a church that's good to raise her children in. In our minds we thought, "Perfect! come to our church!" Hopefully we get to meet her sometime soon.

Thursday we didn't have much luck finding, and the wind was some of the coldest I've felt. We did have some excitement though. One person we talked to at the door told us we're a cult when he found out who we were. We tried telling him that we aren't, but he wouldn't take our word for it and became even more impatient and again told us to get off his porch.

While we were walking down the sidewalk, we noticed someone got their front tires stuck in the snow, and their back tires were spinning out on the street. We were able to help shove his car out, tough it took a lot of effort. I pressed my legs against a tree while my hands were pressed against the car. The guy thanked us and barreled down the road. The back end of the car swerved back and forth across the ice. Elder Palmer & I chuckled.

We continued walking, and we saw another person driving who needed help pushing their car. This time the person ran out of gas, and couldn't make it up a short incline to pull up into the gas station. There were a couple people already trying to get it up, but it just wasn't making it. We were able to help move the car and we got it up the gas pump.

I've had some tamale's out here, but I wasn't too impressed. I'm excited to try Dad's tamale's, I'm sure they'd be much better!

Thrift shops are awesome. I'm planning to do some shopping there when I'm a poor college student &/or parent. 

 It's great to hear from you I hope you all have a great week!

1. Frozen River

2. Hall of Mirrors

3. Frankenmuth

4. Poorly Parked

Love,

Elder Candland

 

January 20

So we had a couple of awesome finding miracles.

Finding miracle #1: on trade offs, the Elders knocked into this lady, & they introduced themselves and she said "Come on in." As it turns out she's a less active member who a few weeks ago prayed that if missionaries came to her door she would start coming back to church. We were able to help her daughter move in with her, who's also a member, and we've had dinner at their house now a couple of times. They definitely show that they're willing to make some changes in their lives and they love the missionaries.

 

Finding miracle #2: This was also on trade offs, Elder White & I were contacting a potential investigator, who lives in a duplex. We knocked on his door and there was no answer. Not realizing it was a duplex I knocked on the other door and someone actually answered it. She was a young mother who lives in not the best of conditions. And she told us on the door that she wants to make some changes in her life and wants to understand her purpose some more. We were able to step inside and talk to her some more about what we teach and set a time we could come back and teach her. As we drove up to the house I had some impressions, and I felt that God had directed us to her.

This week was also Elder Whites Birthday so I made him a garbanzo bean cookie pie. He loved it, as well as the members we visited that evening.

We went finding in a nice neighborhood. It was kinda like a private neighborhood. Elder Palmer & I knocked on some big houses. One of the houses had the Jetson's doorbell! Elder Palmer got so excited.

We also had Zone meeting this week. I got to see Elder Older & Elder Louis, my Ithica companions. We were happy to see each other.

A couple in the ward gave us groceries after we had dinner at there place. Right afterward we met a member at Kroger who bought us groceries for breakfast. Us & the Saginaw2 Elder got TONS of groceries. We are so grateful for the members of this ward & all they do to help us. Now we don't have to go grocery shopping today!

 

 

 We met another crazy guy while we're out knocking on a narrow road. He was a drunkard. He had a bad case of the jabber-jaws. He asked us both "How old are you? How old are you? Me, I'm 53 years old." 3 minutes later he asked us the same question! We saw a car coming so Elder Palmer & I stepped out of the way. The guy said "Watch this, not gonna move. Not even scared." The person driving gave him the finger and barreled past him. After awhile we told him we needed to get going. Another car stopped in front of him, he gestured the lady to keep going. As we left he told us he was going to die tomorrow. Last time we saw him was the next day, he was walking through a playground :)

 

2 other little things I thought I would mention. A trash can rolled out on the road while we were driving, so I drove around it. I looked in my rear-view mirror & noticed the car behind us had to stop. Elder Palmer and I thought that was funny.

 

And as we walked up to a door we heard this audio player saying "You are trespassing." over & over. So we walked off the poor man's porch before he told us to get off himself.

Hermana Shaini Candland It's good to hear you're getting along with your district. The Elders in our district were goofballs too :) I like that you gave your toppings to your companion, that's a great way to show her you care about her. Elder Badnar I always thought gave great talks on missionary work, I'm jealous that you got to hear him speak to all the current missionaries at the MTC, I think that's pretty cool :)

 

An abandoned factory in the hood...

Our sweet ride...

I hope you guys have a great week and enjoy the slightly longer days.

Love,

Elder Candland

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

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