Aitkin (July 8-15)

On Monday, We cleaned up our apartment.  It is Transfers this week and we want it to be very clean for the next missionaries here in Brainerd. We were able to have Family Home Evening with a lot of our current people we are teaching. We all shared our testimonies on when and how we found the church to be true. We wanted to show that it takes a leap of faith and diligence on our part many times before we are able to be fully converted. The spirit was really strong and it was definitely a message they all needed to hear. The recent convert that was there, I could tell was definitely touched by the spirit.  She seemed to feel at ease that she was not the only one who may have doubts or questions, but still converted.

Tuesday, we were able to do lots of service! We helped out at the food shelf, and then we taught one of the self referrals we got. She is going to move, and is happy to because she knows that she needs to surround herself with some better people who will help her. She will hopefully be coming to church next week too! 

Wednesday we ended up having a nonmember help us with moving some stuff for a recent concert in the area. We were talking with him before we went over and when we mentioned that we needed to go, he offered to help us! It was pretty sweet to see him come and help us strangers. 

We were able to have a last hurrah with some members in the Brainerd ward and we went to a Chinese buffet place! After that we drove down to Princeton (closer to the cities) and we stayed the night there so we could arrive the next day on time.

Thursday was transfers, and I met my new companion Elder Gardner, who came out with me. We stayed in the cities, because we needed to drive up on Friday with a trailer and it would be 7 hours of driving. I got to spend time with my mission dad Elder Harris again, because we were with the AP's for the day. 

Friday, we drove all day, because we had to pack up the Ashland area apartment and bring all their stuff over to the Aitkin apartment. It doesn't help that Ashland is 4 hours away from the cities, and then 3 hours away from Aitkin. We drove for a long long while that day. The Gadd's who were the senior couple, who helped us, took us out to lunch and dinner which was great, and it made things very easy for us. 

On Saturday, we had a great first day in Aitkin. We were able to help out Grandma Piecek with her yard, and Elder Gardner got to meet her. She fed us lunch as usual and it was really good! We brought the leftovers home and ate them later. After Grandma Piecek, we planned our week, and then we also tracted for a while. To end the day off we ended up teaching a guy named Ray for a an hour and taught the first two lessons.

Anyways love y'all and talk to you next week.