August 25

This week I finally got to have a chat with the new President. He's fun. While I was waiting to be interviewed I look out in the hall and see him tackle an Elder. It's I lot different from what I'm used to, but it's pretty amusing. We had a good talk. He asked me the basic questions of, how long I've been out, about my family, why I came out, & so on.

Unfortunately Interviews went longer than any of us anticipated. He interviewed 2 districts, & the district I'm in has to be the largest district I've been in ( 5 Elders, & 8 Sisters). This is also his first time, so it's no surprise.

I did get to see Elder Marley while I was there. He was so excited to see me, as soon as he saw I was there he jumped out of his seat and gave me a big hug. This is first time he's worked outside of Saginaw. We had a good long talk.

After that we had trade offs. We pretty much door knocked, & spent the rest of the evening at their new ward mission leaders home. He got set apart while we were there. During correlation I tried to make myself useful & pitch in every now & then, but there really wasn't much I could say about the area since I'm not serving there.

However I did make myself useful at a single sister's home. We mowed her lawn & trimmed the edges.

One night when we had dinner, the family showed us a video of their son who is 2 months into his mission in England. I guess in his mission he can send a video mail home each month. He seems like a good Elder with a good sense of humor.

Great news, someone we're teaching is ready for baptism & has accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 6th! He came to church yesterday, he just needs to come again next week! The lesson we had with him went so well. We had a member come, & he had some great input, & created a friendship with him. We're so excited for him, he's the best. He takes notes during our visits & remembers a lot of stuff we taught.

Next Sunday I'll be teaching gospel principles. I'm teaching tithing. I got an idea for a visual from another missionary that I want to use in this lesson. You give the person 10 pieces of candy & then ask "Since I've given you 10 pieces, is it alright if I have 1?" And when they give you one you dump the whole bag of candy on them & explain that that's like how tithing is. I haven't told anybody I'm doing this yet, I want to keep it secret. :)

One more thing, if you want missionaries to be super full after dinner feed them tons of watermelon.

Ok, that's probably enough. I'll talk to you next week. :)

Love,
Elder Candland

August 18

Trade offs went well. I got to know Elder Sinsel & Elder Thomas who came off the plane with me. They're both a couple of goofy elders. We walked all day, we did not have a car or bikes. It's been a while since I've walked that long. We got back a bit early so that night in the apartment Elder Thomas asked me to take part in making a slender video. (Shaini or Lars will know what that is)

We taught a new Investigator this week. She is looking for a job & a good place to start would be at church where there are people can help her with that. We didn't see her come, but she does show some interest.

We had a funeral for a man who is the son of a lady in the ward. They were living together so for her it was a big loss for her. She seems to be taking it well, we still plan to visit her during the week.

Ward conference was yesterday. I got to see our stake presidency. They seem great, the president, from what he said, seems like a great guy. We also had a potluck afterward. I'm trying to eat healthier so I had tons of the veggie dishes and no desserts.

Though that the night before an old lady in the ward took us out to eat at a Louisiana style restaurant. It wasn't super health-conscious, but I really enjoyed it. I got barbecue chicken with white bbq sauce & hush puppies.

Things are going by pretty slowly, not much more excitement. We're already 1/2 way through the transfer, wont be long before Elder Kofoed leaves.

I forgot my camera cord again. Sorry.

You have a wonderful week, I'll talk to you later.

Love,
Elder Candland

August 11

I'm getting used to being in Owosso.

Michigan has a lot of city blocks that have been around since the early 1900's. Some of them have been converted to shopping outlets. Today Elder Kofoed and I went to one of those shopping places, which is now a shoe store. It wasn't anything special, just a little fun to look at. Honestly though, I had more fun shopping at a thrift store today.

Elder Kofoed hates it when I bring up how much time he has before he goes home. I just mentioned how fast this month is already going by. He pressed his lips together and just stared at me.

This week has been as average as any other week. Did some service, visited less actives, taught some people, and knocked some doors.

We did do service for a lady who has a son on a mission, who has a visa waiting to go to Brasil. She asked me if there's any advice I had for her son. I mentioned that Adam went to Brasil. I didn't have much to tell her, but you can let me know if you can think of anything.

Tonight we're going on trade offs with the district leader. I'm going to Williamston, it's close by Lansing. I'm excited to work there. They companionship is a Trio so I'm excited to get to be in a trio again for a little bit.

Sorry I have not taken pictures for a while. I should have something next week though. We want to get some companionship pictures in some cool spot here.
Also I forgot my camera cord, so sorry this is all you're getting this week.

I hope you enjoy this next week.
Love ya!

Elder Candland

August 4

I'm liking Owosso, it's a bit bigger than Cadillac, which I like.

There was an Elder who just finished his two years in MI, and had his parents come pick him up. They drove around the places he served. I got to see him at our ward mission leaders home while we were there. Then we saw them again at another member's home that evening. I didn't know him very well, I just saw him at a few meetings, but it was cool to see him with his parents.

The Bishop here is a boss. He had one evening he took us to do some rounds visiting people. He did the same thing after church, and he also gave us a ride to a service project this Saturday. There's a reason why he's President Hess' favorite Bishop.

The service project was re-roofing a home that needed it bad. Elder Kofoed helped out on the roof while I helped clean up the debris that they threw down.

Our ward mission leader is also a great guy. Today he went around with us to do our shopping since we don't have a car today. He'll also be feeding us Lasagna tonight.

A couple days ago one of the members locked her keys in her car, so we helped her brake into her car with a wire hanger. (Elder Kofoed did most of the work, he must some experience :)

One of the family's I met asked me to draw them a picture of a car as soon as I told that I like drawing. They were impressed with my work so then they asked if I could draw them a compiled picture of a few of the family members with their grandmother who passed away. I'm still working on it. Right now I mostly just have the outlines, I've done a lot of erasing, I'd hate to make any mistakes.

I have not gone to the temple yet. I wont be able to go until someone I know gets baptized and goes to the Detroit temple.

I don't have any pictures of Owosso yet, so you'll just have to make do with some pictures of my last week in Cadillac.
There was a recent convert that we played disc golf with, so 2 of the pictures are from that.

I'm doing well, Elder Kofoed and I are getting along pretty well. The apartment is spacious compared to the one in Cadillac, so that's really nice. (Plus the members feed us more than once or twice a week.)

It's good to hear that you all had fun this past week, I hope you get to keep enjoying this last little bit of summer.
Love,
Elder Candland


New Address:
1115 North Chipman Street apt.#11
Owossow, Michigan 48867

Cadillac

Elder Mitchell

Bro. Baker

July 28

Don't have a lot of time.

Elder Mitchel got transferred to Jacson MI, and guess what, I got called to Owossow! They're replacing us with Sister Missionaries! I did not expect that.

So far Owossow's great. My new companion is Elder Kofed. This will be his last transfer in the mission, so I will be killing him off out in MI. He's a good missionary. Wants to do the right thing, & be obedient. I'm excited to keep working with him.

I think that's about all I got to say for now. But it's so crazy that Adam's being married!

I'll pray for aunt Amy, hope everything goes well with her.

Love you, talk to you later.

-Elder Candland

July 21

Nothin much happened this week.

The other set of Elders here got sick. One has Pneumonia and the other has bronchitis. Their week was spent in the apartment, napping & staring at the ceiling. Not fun, fortunately no one else got sick.

We got to go visit Frankfort this week again! we talked to people on the streets there. We met some high-school graduates out on the main road that has all the shops. One of them took a picture with us, then was started talking with them. They were nice, we had a good talk with them. The one kid we talked to the most told us he's pretty much living on the streets, so next time we're around we can talk.

We also knocked on some apartments up there too. We knocked on one apt. door & some lady said "Come in." So we said, "It's Missionaries from the church." She again said to come in, so we opened the door. The lady is lying on a couch while feeding her newborn. We both moved our eyes up at the ceiling and told her who we were. Then she sat up and adjusted her strap. While we were talking with her we noticed she had like 6 kids, who couldn't have been more than 4 years old running around her. It was just weird.

Speaking of unusual tracting experiences, yesterday we were about to walk towards a house, when some guy walked outside and asked us, "Do you guys drink beer?" We said "No." Then he gestured and said, "Keep moving then." He had a beer can in his hand, so that's probably why our conversation was short.

We did teach someone on the doorstep that evening, and got to set a return appointment, so that made our day better.

We visited an inactive member this week. He's in his 20's and is a member of a band. Despite the fact that he dresses like a punk, we have some good conversations with him. His house is what you'd expect from any rock loving hippy. The furniture he got off the streets, the walls were stained, his place was cluttered, and the sink is out of function. They are moving, so that's good for them.

I did take a few more pictures in Frankfort. The 3rd one you can see the lake stretch over the sail of that white boat. I thought it was a giant wave at first. It's pretty incredible.

Hope you're next week wont be so hectic. Sounds like your trip to DC was good though.

I keep you in my prayers, and it sounds like you're all doing well.

Love,

Elder Candland

July 14

Friday we got to meet our new mission President. He told us he isn't here to replace President Hess. I miss him, but from meeting President Jacobsen seems like a good leader in this mission. Also he told us that the First presidency really wants us to use shoulder bags as soon as we can.There's not a lot of good places out here to shop for one of those, but I'll keep my eyes out.

After that we were fed an awesome meal that one of the senior couples made for us. We had sandwiches on home-made buns, with truffle brownies for desert.

On the way back one of the major roads was going under serious construction. It kinda screwed up some of our plans to see one of the less actives that week. The whole road was gone at one point. Here's a picture of one of the buses here in Cadillac.

We did a lot of service this week.

We help cut up a tree that had been taken down in a less active members yard. That was fun, in the process I ripped a pair of my shorts, so I bought a pair from TJ max with my home card. They're a nice, durable pair.

We also helped two families move into the area. One of them had a few hundred banana boxes full of stuff, and probably like another 50 bins full of more stuff. We fit everything into the trailer home. It was crazy.

This sunday I gave a talk on missionary work. I'm getting more comfortable talking in front of people. (Maybe because the congregation is small here :) I pretty much talked about how members have a responsibility to share the gospel too. The concluding speaker was a returned missionary (Not from the Cadillac Branch). He talked about how the work is hastening. It worked out well, he talked about pretty much everything I didn't talk about.

We're going to be playing Frisbee golf with a recent convert today. It's something we've been doing every Pday.

Sounds like you had a great week. I'll talk to you again later.

Love,

Elder Candlnad

1. Cadilac Bus