Clay's Minnesota Mission

  This is an old car that Clay found while he was out doing some service.  Clay and Elder Sheffer.  Elder Sheffer is from Arizona.  He is in Clay's district and Clay has really gotten to like this young man.  Just when you think Clay's mission can't get any stricter due to Covid, it does.  Clay said that a missionary in Minnesota got exposed to someone that tested positive.  The mission president put everyone on a 2 week quarantine.   Transfers are in 2 weeks so they want to try and contain it and make sure the missionaries can't make the problem worse during transfers. Last week Clay was telling us that he was hoping to get transferred this next round but he was singing a different tune this week.  I loved what he said about it this time.  He said, I don't think I want to get transferred this time.  I asked why.  He said he would like to be in the same area where he knew people for the Holidays but he is also hoping that ...

The week was better because Clay got to stay busy.  Minnesota was in the 70's all week so the missionaries were able to lots of service outside.   But because of the election this week, they had a curfew of 5:00pm everyday, so that was a little hard.  They don't want the Missionaries playing football or basketball on their P-Days right now because they are contact sports and it's too dangerous because of covid.  Below is a picture of the boys playing some kick-ball.  I'm glad they got to get out and at least do something.  This next week will be hard because Clay and his companion will be without transportation for the entire week because they car will be in the shop.  (someone backed into them in the parking lot) Clay said they were going to try to borrow some other missionaries bikes.   Clay asked that I send him some workouts that he can do while being in his apartment without much equipment.  Clearly he is getting a little stir ...

A little more football for  P-day on Week 14 I really don't know what this jersey is all about.  I see in the picture above that Clay's is wearing the white home made one.  Not sure why.    Apparently Clay lost a bet.  Being in Minnesota he is becoming a pretty big Vikings fan.  He said that you kind of have to, they have Viking Spirit everywhere and he said their jersey's are cheap. LOL.  He is still a 49ers fan but also a Vikings fan now as well.  I guess he bet that the Vikings would win Green Bay but it looks like he was wrong so he had to completely shave one of his legs.  I'm sure he enjoyed it because he gave him something to do.   Clay seemed kind of down the last time we talked to him (week 15)  Covid seems to be spiking everywhere.  So the Mission president sent out new restrictions.  They are no longer allowed to play football or any other contact sports on their P-Day anymore.  They also don...

Well he finally made it to the Temple for the first time after 3 weeks of home MTC and 13 weeks out in the Mission Field.  He said he enjoyed it and that he was there with 14 other Missionaries.  Only 4 of them had never been through before.   I must admit, the entire day I felt sad and guilty that I wasn't there with him.  But had to keep reminding myself that we both agreed that us not coming would be best for both of us.  I hope that we will be able to attend the temple again sooner, rather than later.   This whole covid thing is just making things so different.  Clay said the Temple was SO TINY.  They have a stake center next to the temple that dwarfs the Temple.   I think it's neat he gets to experience the temple in a different location other than Utah.  I almost thought Clay was just as excited about this Chicken restaurant as he was about going through the temple  The Stake president took them here to eat afte...

 Welp...Transfers are today and Clay has officially been out for 12 weeks so he is done with Training.  He really wanted to get transferred because he said he would like to change things up. Also, he is the only area where church still hasn't started due to Covid.  They were suppose to start last week, but there was a spike so they pushed it out for a couple more weeks.  Well, he didn't get transferred.  He is staying in his area along with his newer companion for at least 6 more weeks.  His training companion will be leaving.  I'm sure Clay is pretty sad about that because he got along with him really good.  So now he will be the senior companion.  He said this week he did get a chance to meet with a lot more members.  They spent a lot of time doing service (raking leaves) and they did several member lessons as well.  Clay remains super positive and happy.  He will get to go through the temple next Monday.  Feeling kind o...

Just doing General Conference in good ol' Gunnell Style fashion.  Clay stocked everyone up with tons of junk food.  He had a ton left over that will feed them for weeks.  They got to watch conference with several other missionaries at the local church together.   Clay is always up for a challenge and likes to get as many other people involved as possible. In the picture above shows how many missionaries he got involved in this one. This challenged involved eating a whole raw habanero pepper. (side note: Clay can handle spicy more than anyone else I know) He said it wasn't that bad, I'm not sure the others felt the same.    A beautiful Minnesota Sun-set