Entry Eight: No Chumps Allowed

March 10, 2025

Entry Eight: No Chumps Allowed

3/10/25

Good morning everyone! It’s been a while since my last P-Day, but I am now out in the field! The past week or so has been a bit long, but I seriously have loved every second of it. There’s so much good I can barely remember any worries I had going in.

The last couple of days I had in the MTC were bittersweet in the fact that our district was having those final moments, which were awesome, but I am going to miss them all a lot (shoutout to District 10-A fr). Luckily, we all were able to exchange emails.

Flying wasn’t nearly as bad as I remember, which is shocking since we were on United Airlines (my number one opp). We had a layover in the Chicago O’Hare airport, which felt like a museum walking through. Also, TSA confiscated my shaving razors for whatever reasons, so that’s been fun.

At the Chicago airport, we had two major events. First off, we ran into the Walkers by random chance, who are a senior couple who literally finished their mission in Winter’s Quarters that day (they still had the tags on), and were delayed on their flight to New York. They were so happy to meet us all and even bought us lunch at McDonalds, which was incredibly nice of them. We also had our first contact as missionaries (or at least a small part of our travel group of like 10), and this was with a man named Thomas. He felt inspired to walk up to us because he saw this “light that was in our eyes.” It was a really cool conversation and it just confirmed to me that this is in fact the Lord’s work, we have the restored truth, and that the light of Christ dwells in God’s children.

It felt incredibly triumphant to touchdown at the Knoxville airport. Unfortunately, the Barlows couldn’t make it to the airport because of traffic, but the APs were able to get us to the mission home where we had introductions. Elder Mickelson and I ended up staying in a hotel room together for our first night. The next day, we were at the Farragut Stake Center for some quick trainings, and then we were basically plopped into downtown Knoxville to learn how to find people. The trio I was in with Elder Phillips and Elder Bowen ended up giving out three Books of Mormon in about 30 minutes. Something I’ve noticed over the past days I’ve been out here is that people are very ready to hear the message of the restored gospel, which brings me much hope in my missionary efforts. I am so very excited to meet so many amazing people over the next 2 years!

I just wanna mention this, but unfortunately Sister Brizzee (who is one of the new missionaries alongside me) lost her dad as we were travelling, so just keep her and her family in your prayers.

We received our first assignments. What was really cool is that the Barlows announced all the Elders before Elder Mickelson and I, and so they made us guess, and we must’ve just been on the same wavelength because we guessed correctly! I am now with Elder Driggs, and we are in the Forest City, North Carolina area!

Now in the MTC I was regarded as incredibly smart (I guess I might be idk) because of my knowledge of the scriptures. However, Elder Driggs is way more impressive than I am at that, so it’s honestly a perfect pair right here. Also I find it funny that when he learned he was training he prayed to not receive a chump as his greenie. He was very excited when I started referencing scriptures during post transfer lunch. 😂

OK I feel like this is getting a little long so just a few quick things:

An elder who I went to high school with is not only in this mission, but my district as well! He also guessed I was gonna be with Elder Driggs, so shoutout to Elder Beer for that one.

We had a baptism literally my first week here! I didn’t get to teach him all that much, but Hayden is honestly just such an elect soul and we’re all very proud of him.

We’ve had an abnormally high amount of finds this week. Elder Driggs has told me several times that this week has not been normal, but I am all for it; it’s just been wonderful so far!

Spiritual Thought: So on top of everything, I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting back in the MTC, and I was incredibly nervous going in as I’ve never accompanied like that before. However, I was reminded of this verse going in to sacrament meeting that sunday: “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13) As I remembered my Savior I learned that I truly can do all things through Him. Nothing is impossible. It was really cool to feel so much peace as I played, and It honestly felt like sometimes Christ was there beside me moving my fingers for me. By the way, I wasn’t perfect, but everyone said they didn’t notice like any mistakes, which is a win in our book. I’d like to invite you all to just look back in your life and look for the Lord’s hand and how He has been able to help you along the way.

Ooooooh k that is it for this week! I love you all so much, if you’d like, feel free to send an email, and I’ll catch ya on the flipside (as I reread this I’m now realizing I’ll never be cool enough to say that 😣)

Common sense isn’t common action.

Farewell again,

Elder Clayton

Photos!