February 8, 2016

HEY Y'ALL!!! First things first, stateside missions in wealthier areas teach a lot less than I thought they did. In the MTC they focused a lot on teaching the lessons, but I think that the entire first week I've been here I've taught 2 maybe three lessons. The majority of our time is spent finding, street contacting and knocking on less active's and potential investigators' doors. Although the two lessons we DID teach were awesome! We taught this Methodist couple on Saturday, they were really cool, but  we think they're just taking the lessons to find out more about the church. They're really high up in their church so yeah... but It was a blessing to at least have someone talk to us more than "Hi" or "yeah it's really quite nice out" or “I appreciate you caring about my soul" or "I'm content with my religion." I can't wait until someone throws something at us. That's gonna be really fun!! We're also teaching this girl named Anna, She referred herself on mormon.org so all the elders before had to do was teach her the lessons. Like I said before we do a lot of street contacting. She has a Baptismal date set for the 20th of this month!

Anyway my companion's name is Elder Day, he's from Riverton UT, I asked him if he knew the Kertamuses, unfortunately he did not... He's really cool though. I got my bike the first day I was out here, but I have yet to ride it. There really ARE a lot of members in Reno, Because we have two different wards in our area  the foothill ward and the south meadows ward (one meets at 9, the other at 1... yay... 9 hours of church... yesterday hurt quite a bit...) Our dinner calendar was almost filled for this month by the end of the day yesterday. However, because my companion was training a guy who was just waiting for a visa to Australia, and so he left a week and a half before transfers, my companion was in a trio and so didn't get the dinner calendar passed around last week so I ate a LOT of eggs and burritos.

Overall I'm loving being a missionary!!! I can feel the hand of the Lord guiding me all the time! I also know He has a sense of humor because not only does He help me wake up to my alarm, I always wake up before it goes off. It's like He's saying "Hey! I heard you like to sleep! How about I wake you up at 5? Is that good?" I can tell He's easing me into this whole mission thing, because not only do I have a car, but I'm in an area where almost every day I'm fed by members, AND He's been sending some very awesome people across our path. In the words of my MTC branch president, I love all y'all and each y'all!! I WANT YOU TO SEND LETTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My apt address is 1001 south meadows pkwy Apt. 313, Reno NV

PS... I've determined that literally EVERYONE has a dog here. Elder Day and I like to pretend that whenever there's a dog pawing at the window or barking as we pass by, they're saying "Please save my owner!!!" because you know... all dogs go to heaven, they just want their owners to come with them.