Getting the Cops Called

Hi Everyone,

How are you all doing? How did your week go? :) It looks like the temple square trip was a ton of fun this last week! And that you all had a great time at Pond Town Christmas. It makes me so happy to know that everyone is doing great back home.

So on Monday night we had empty nester's group with the older couples in the branch and that was a ton of fun. They do it the last Monday of each month, except for last week cuz 2 weeks ago was Thanskgiving, so they didn't want to have it then. We had chili and rolls and really good pasta. We finished up Elder Holland's book that he wrote (I forget the name). Awesome night though!

Lights in the Middlefield Apartment

Tuesday was service day! We went over to the Hartman's and helped set up the Christmas tree, stockings, and the little decor pieces around the house, and it was so much fun. Then we went over to the Hertna house in Chardon and helped stack a cord of wood for them to make it through February for winter. I'm realizing that a lot of people here have wood burning stoves. Next, we went over to Sister Egings house and picked up tree branches around her house and made sure her garbage was out. Her fridge also went out and so all the food was bad. She is a 92 yr old lady who lives alone, so we try and help her out a lot. We got fed by the Flamms for dinner, it was spaghetti and so yummy! Oh yeah, we also watched "Fighting Preacher" at the church while we ate dinner. It is hands down one of the best church movies I've ever seen! You guys should watch it too. It should be out on DVD because it was in theaters when I left. Tuesday night, we set up the Christmas lights in the apt and made it look all festive. It gets pretty dark during the day at the apt, so it is nice to have lights for Christmas.

Wednesday we had district council in Kirtland. I gave a training on receiving personal revelation and why it's important for that. I think it went pretty good and hope that everyone was able to take something from it. I know it is important to receive personal revelation and that we must be continually training our minds to receive it and have it. We must have some meaningful time alone with our Heavenly Father to know what He wants from us and what He needs us to become. We drove up to Perry to the Zone leaders apt and had training visits up there. I went with Elder Rawson, and we went to visit 4 or 5 people that night, and got hot chocolate from one of the less active in the Perry ward, so that was nice of them. We were driving back to the apt at like 8:50 on the freeway from Ashtabula to Perry, which is like a 45 min drive. It was snowing and Rawson was driving. We literally couldn't see the yellow lines so we stayed behind a diesel the whole time and had him guide us to safety. It made me think of the Savior and how He is our guide to safety on the stormy road of life, and how when just like Peter, we start to doubt, he reaches out and pulls us towards Him.

Thursday we drove back to Middlefield and gave Sister Edna Davis a blessing. She is 91 yrs old and not doing well. Her hip has been hurting for about 6 months. She went and had an x-ray and the doctor said she just has too much arthritis that she is going to have to live with it the rest of her life. She wasn't too happy about that . . . I was telling her that my mom went through a similar thing with 2 surgeries on her hip, and that seemed to make Sister Davis more calm and realize she will be okay.

Friday we had a great phone call with Mitch. He is back in Ohio from his month long trip to North Carolina to visit his parents. So we were able to finish up the new member lessons with him, so that is nice that those are now down and we can keep helping him stay strong in the church. Today was a great day too because we finally went down south to the south part of the area and talked to the Amish people! When we first got to that part of the area and I pulled into a parking spot, my nose started bleeding, but I told myself that we were doing this today and so I went and got toilet paper from the bathroom and stuck it in my nose, then proceeded to walk for 45 min to Amish houses looking like I had just been in a fight. We got 3 Amish to answer their doors, 2 of them took the Light the world pass a long card we had for them, one of them said she already had religion. But it was still super fun to do that! We also finished up the new member lessons with Bethany today too! Just need to get with Sarah to finish hers, she is always just so busy with school and work. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Miracle time! We were out walking on Friday night and we currently don't have any investigators to teach, so we went knocking this night, and Elder Stephen's turns to me and says we should go to downtown Middlefield by the square, so we went down there not really knowing where to go, and lo and behold 2 guys come walking towards us. It was Scott and Charlie! Elder Henshaw had met them back in August and we haven't been able to get a hold of them since, and then they found us! Ah we were so happy :). We told them our number and said to call us (they will be out of town and busy the next few days), but man, Heavenly Father works in very mysterious ways.

Saturday was a very adventurous day, just like the title says. We went and tried talking to Carol Bradshaw, she actually just got put on hospice so I don't think she has much longer to live, which is super sad but also good because she won't have to be in pain anymore. We tried stopping by Adam Day's house, but he wasn't home even though he told us he would be ... We called Elder Henshaw and Elder Guzman in Lisbon. That's Elder Stephen's old area and so he had 2 girls who he had taught and they were getting baptized this weekend, so we face-timed them and he got to see them before they were baptized. It was so much fun! We went up to Sister Botorf's house to try and do service, but it ended up not working out because we were supposed to wrap her pipes for winter with heat tape, but her pipes are inside of her floors because she lives in a trailer house, so we couldn't do that. We ran through options of what we could do the rest of the day til dinner, and we decided to go visit some less actives.

So I park down one street in Chardon and we go from 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock knocking on these peoples doors and then went to the Juker house at 6 for dinner. Well, we made it to the Jukers and got the dinner and left there about 6:10, and now it is pitch black outside. We start in the direction of the car and this Geauga County Sheriff drives by us, in the direction where our car is parked, so I was a little freaking out. We get to the car and he gets out and tells us they received a complaint saying there was a car there that shouldn't be (we were in a roundabout by the woods), and asked us where we were from and how we got an Ohio car with Utah licenses (this guy thought we had stolen the car!), he ran our background checks and I turned to Stephen's and told him that if I get a ticket for parking in a public wooded area, I am going to not be a happy camper. The sheriff steps out and says our background checks are clean (well that was good to know :)) and to enjoy the rest of our missions and let us on our way. I was not too happy that the residents of that neighborhood would do that, especially when one of the guys saw us walk out of the car and saw our badges, ah it was a night that's for sure, but all is well! :)

Sunday, we had early morning mtgs at 7:15, church at 9, and then we went back and had lunch at the Hartmans and Mitch came too, so it was fun to catch up with him and visit. We went out with Brother Hartman and Maryana Walter (Bro Walter's adopted daughter), and went to 4 houses in the branch til about 5:30. We got back to the Hartmans and he had said we could watch the Christmas devotional there so we ate dinner there and hung out with them for a few hrs til the devotional started. We all kind of fell asleep for part of it and I felt super bad, so I made my eyes stay awake for the last half. But it was super good and I'm grateful we got to watch it. We also got asked by Brother Walter to speak in sacrament mtg on December 29th. It is 5th Sunday and the branch usually has the missionaries and mission leader speak, so it'll be fun. This will be my 3rd time speaking in this branch, but hey, I'm super grateful for it and it will be a ton of fun!

We have zone conference on Thursday in Kirtland. Elder Whitehead, from Maddie's school, and his comp are picking us up and then we are going to the conference. So it'll be good to finally meet him. Interviews are next week on the 20th, it's crazy how fast this transfer is going.

How are you all doing in school and work? Momma, good luck on your finals the next 2 weeks, I know you will do so great. And good luck in work all of you, Heaveny Father is blessing you and I'm so grateful for it.

My challenge for today is to do Mr. Peery's 10/ 5 rule he does at the high school. When you're within 10 feet of someone, smile at them, and when you're within 5 feet of them, say hi to them. It may seem simple, but I know it is so worth it. It makes people's day when they know someone noticed them, and if you're able to call them by name, they know someone knows them personally. Heavenly Father knows each of us by name and heart, I invite us to know the people around us by name and heart, and do the best we can to fellowship and help them in anyway we can.

I miss all of you so very much. I pray for you all everyday and I'm so excited to hear from all of you this week! Keep being strong, keep being brave, Have courage and Be kind :):) .

I love you ALL Forever and Always,
Elder Dylan :)