Happy Fourth of July 🇺🇸

 Hello Family and Friends,

Last Fourth of July, we were trying to adjust to the Eastern Time Zone and being new mission leaders, and we fell asleep before fireworks. What duds! Wanting to do a little better this year but realizing that the holiday fell on a Sunday, we found out where the best fireworks in Lansing could be found. Turns out they are on sale at Costco and just about every store and gas station. But if you don’t want to set them off yourself, you go to Jackson Field to see the Lansing Lugnuts play ball. They are the Single-A minor league baseball team in town, and for almost nothing you can sit right behind home plate and cheer, “Go Nuts!” I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned Date Night, but every Friday night, the missionaries try to remember not to call us unless one of the following conditions are met:

1. Lost a companion

2. In the hospital

3. In jail

For our most recent date night, we saw the Lugnuts beat the Dayton Dragons 10-3, ate all the ballpark food we could handle, and watched a pretty great fireworks show. We hope your Fourth of July was celebrated with as much gusto. One of my jobs is to make sure that Elmer relaxes once in awhile. If it were up to him, we would go, go, go! Now you understand why I am in charge of creating the schedule and keeping the calendar. 😅

Our mission was greatly blessed in June. We are looking forward to great things ahead. It’s nice to see everyone back at church. We are still working our way through the mission to attend all the wards, branches, and groups. Today we went to the Hastings Ward. We met a young man named Sam Johnson, whose mission leaders were Brent and Klaudette Hillier, our cousins! He told us that in the 20 years he’s lived in the Hastings Ward, we are the first mission leaders from Lansing that he’s ever seen visit his ward. At this rate, we will be back in a year, but we hope it is sooner!

Right now, we are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission in preparation for October’s General Conference. We are studying charity and finding all the instances, examples, and references to the pure love of Christ as we read along. Everyone got a brand new, never-before-marked copy of the Book of Mormon. You are welcome to join us. Let me know if you want the reading schedule shared with you (it’s a Google sheet). We began on July 1, so you have plenty of time to catch up.

We love you all!

Amy & Elmer

Go Lansing Lugnuts!

Nice evening at Jackson Field in downtown Lansing

Just down the street from the ballpark is the beautiful Michigan Capitol

Elmer and I are lifelong Suns fans. They haven’t made it easy. We haven’t watched a game all year, and now they are going to the NBA Finals. I’m not saying we had anything to do with it, but after over 10 years of not even going to the playoffs, we go on a mission, and suddenly our team is in the finals?! 🤩

Sister Echols and Sister Winkel of Caro

Sister Williams and Sister Porter of Harrison

Zuster Kirchner and Zuster Vassar of Holland (yes, they speak Dutch)

Elder B. Hall, Elder McAllister, and Elder J. Hall of Owosso - when you are lucky enough to get two trainers both named Hall.

Sister Hill and Sister Mosher of Bay City

Sister Moss and Sister N. Hansen of Cadillac

Elder Larsen, Elder Hanks, and Elder M. Mecham of Coldwater. Wait for it, this is not a trio!

Sister Nance and Sister Gardner of St. Joseph

Elder Bradford, Elder Buxton, and Elder Campbell of Gaylord

Sister Hawea and Sister Bennett of Sturgis

Sister Stewart and Sister Richins of Jackson

Elder Chilcote and Elder Stoner of Saginaw

Sister Woolley and Sister Stephenson of Holt

Elder Squire and Elder Bennion of Grand Rapids

Elder Petty and Elder Sargent of Paw Paw

Hermana Black and Hermana Santos (who just found out she is a Spanish-speaking missionary) of Grandville

Sister Sampson and Sister Evans of Meridian

Sister Roskelley and Sister Paulsen of South Haven

Elder Jones and Elder J. Leavitt of Benton Harbor

Zuster Davis and Zuster Jolley of Midland (yes, they speak Dutch too)

A midnight run to the airport to get our last new Dutch-speaking missionary, Elder Gray!

I call these elders The Breakfast Club. I think they got about 4 hours of sleep. Elder Mecham’s mission language is Portuguese, Elder Hanks’ is Dutch, Elder Larsen’s is Spanish, and Elder Gray’s is Dutch. Can’t wait to hear about language studies in Coldwater!

Elder Larsen and Elder Gray