January 16, 2017

Hello everyone! My first week in Ely wasn't really spent in Ely. I spent the night in Sun Valley with the sparks zone leaders on Tuesday, and then spent 6 hours on the transfer van headed to Elko, where I got to see elder Carpenter again! I got excited to see him and slipped on the slush... And then Elder Davis and I drove 3 hours down to Ely. AAAANNND then on Saturday we got up early to drive 5 hours to Reno for a mission conference with Elder Christofferson! He was accompanied by Elder Pearson of the seventy and Elder Larkin of the Area seventy. We had a Q+A session with Elder Christofferson and I certainly learned a lot from the experience. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to talk with an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Ely is awesome!  It isn't the biggest town, but people are So much nicer here. They actually want to talk with you! I feel like I'm going to be here a long time. I'm definitely happy about that!

One thing I learned from the meeting with Elder Christofferson is that I need to be grateful more. The Lord is anxious to bless us, and how he want's us to develop an attitude of gratitude! It makes life so much easier! 

Stay warm! Unless you're my parents, then you should stay cool, have fun in Florida!!

January 9, 2017

Hey Guys! First things first, I got transferred to Ely! 

I'm so grateful that I was able to serve in the Spanish Springs and Red Hawk wards, even if it was only for 2 transfers (or 3 months for you normal people). I will be serving in the Ely 1st ward and the Garrison branch. Garrison covers the only part of Utah that is in our mission, so I can say I served my mission in Utah!

I don't know my new companion, elder Davis, But I know he's from Utah, and I'm his second companion, So I'm excited to work with him!

Next, Clara got baptized! And her mom came to it! She's super solid, I'm glad I was able to teach her the lessons. Standing next to her is her Friend who introduced her to the church, Aubrey Borino. Brother Borino baptized her. See how powerful a simple invite to Youth activities can be? That's how it started, Aubrey Invited Clara to the youth activities, which she liked, and then invited her to church! That's all it took!

Third, We get to hear an Apostle on Saturday! D. Todd Christofferson is coming to a mission wide conference this Saturday! So it looks like I'll be making the 6-7 hour drive to Ely 3 times this week.  But I am DEFINITELY not mad about that.

Other than that we almost drowned with how much rain we got! Jk, There was just a lot of puddles everywhere, granted they were really big puddles. Some of the roads were also recommissioned by the rain into rivers. We weren't able to help, but tons of people were sandbagging all day Friday and Saturday. They said that it was going to be a once in 50 year flood, but they had another bad flood just in 2006, so I guess now it's a twice in 10 year flood ;)

I forgot my camera, so I can't show you pictures... sorry...

A little bit about Ely: It's in the mountains, so it gets cold and lots of snow, like Minnesota! Minus the mountains of course. The Ely Zone is in a 3 way tie for the smallest zone in the mission, there are only 8 missionaries and 1 district. I think it's about 2000 people "large" and it has a whole stake, granted it's a small stake. I'm excited! one of the things I miss being here in Sparks was how little snow we had, but I don't have to worry about that anymore!

Stay righteous Y'all!

January 2, 2017

Hello everybody! You'd think that since it was the holidays people would be more willing to talk to us, but nope! People are still going on vacations here. Most of the schools have 3 or more weeks off for winter break. Things have been cooling down here lately too. At least it's not so bad during the day. President Chesnut has told all the missionaries in the mission to go and visit every member in the mission, and share with them this initiative, and I want to share it with you guys:

Get a brand new copy of the Book of Mormon and begin to read it cover to cover. As you read it, have someone in mind of whom you could give it to, and then with them in mind, mark certain scriptures that you think would be beneficial to their conversion. By the time you finish it you will have a personalized Book of Mormon for that person. And then share your testimony with them and give it to them.

Another thing you might want to do is invite your friends to a convert baptism in your area. The church has studies that show that 80% of investigators who attend a baptism will eventually go on to their own. Baptismal services are a fantastic tool for missionary work!

That's how Clara started, she attended the Endemano's baptism, felt the spirit, and afterward told her member friend that she wanted to be baptized as well!

Oh, and by the way that's happening on Saturday!

Till next week!

December 26, 2016

Hello everyone! I hope you had a merry Christmas! I loved seeing my family on Skype. I love this time of year, especially as a missionary! The world seems to be filled with an extra portion of the spirit during this time. While you're throwing away wrapping paper, testing out the new gadgets you got, or boxing up the Christmas decorations for next year, make sure to ponder on the supreme gift that Jesus Christ gave us. I love saying this, but there wouldn't be a Christmas without Easter. I know that Jesus Christ suffered the ultimate price, and in a supreme act of love, He offered to us the ability to improve ourselves until we are able to do as He would. I testify that He is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our exemplar. I'm so grateful I have this opportunity to share this message with the people of northern Nevada.

Stay Righteous Y'all!!!

December 19, 2016

Another great week! We had a Zone Conference/Christmas party on wednesday with all the west side zones (Sparks, Reno, Reno North, Quincy, Fallon, and Carson City) So about 70% of the mission was there, so I got to see a lot of old friends that I had served around before. We hung out at the institute building for the University of Nevada. I didn't lose a single game of Foosball (aren't you proud mom?)

It also snowed! Driving hasn't been too big of an issue, but the roads do get a little icy at night, but it hasn't been anything too bad.

Clara's Baptism has been moved to January 7th, and since she'll be out of town for the next two weeks the last time we have to do her interview is tonight! Elder Hadley is my District leader, he's also in a biking area, so that means we'll have to pick him up and bring him back home, so long miles!

This week ended with a dual sparks stake fireside, "a living Christmas card" as the called it. It was awesome, they had some awesome music and showed video presentations of the Savior's life.

About that, It's Christmastime! I truly love this season. I love how it inspires us to be more kind and loving towards each other. But one thing I've noticed is that rarely that feeling persists very far into the next year. So my invitation to you this week is to try to have that spirit of love and giving in your heart until next Christmas. Think of the gift that God gave us, a chance to become better, become more holy, more Christlike. I can promise you that If you look for little ways to keep the Christmas spirit with you throughout 2017, you will become a Christlike person, a true disciple of Christ. I love you all!

Merry Christmas!!!

December 12, 2016

Hello everyone! We had a lot of success this week. Elder Denton and I are starting to really work well together. We went tracting in the rain on Saturday, it wasn't the most enjoyable experience, but we were able to find a couple new potential investigators and even a part member family that wasn't on our records! I have to admit, I wasn't so excited about tracting at first, but once I bit the bullet I determined that I wasn't going to complain, and that brought miracles! Clara is still going strong, she wasn't able to come to church this week because she was busy, but she's already come like 4 or 5 times, so I'm not worried about her. She is still struggling with understanding what she reads, she reads every day, but we want to help her understand more of what she reads, so every other lesson we'll read with her to help her understand better.

This transfer is going to be awesome, because my district leader is elder Hadley, a.k.a. my MTC companion! This is the 4th transfer we've been in the same zone together, so our exchange is going to be a party! But this week I went on exchanges with his companion Elder Sorochan. He's from Canada, so I definitely had fun with that, Eh? We went on splits with some of the priests in the Red Hawk ward. Talking with them about it yesterday it seemed they really enjoyed it! I hope Elder Sorochan and I were able to get them a little more excited about going on missions through it.

I honestly can't say how much my mission is changing me, and how much I love being a missionary. I get to see so many miracles, and countless tender mercies every day! I love it!

The new Sparks Zone

December 5, 2016

Hello everyone! This week was pretty crazy, with elder Carpenter packing on Monday and then Elder Denton coming from Elko on the transfer van, I was in a temporary companionship with Elder Tolbert who was also waiting for his companion who was coming from Winnemucca. While we were together we taught Clara the plan of salvation. She's super solid, and even got up to bear her testimony yesterday! She’s going to be baptized on January 14th (she has a rodeo workshop thing for two weeks otherwise she'd be baptized this month.) Elder Denton and I had another lesson with her on Friday. While I was with elder Tolbert, we got a care package full of cereal from a member in the ward. When I say care package, think Huge Costco bag full of cereal! We're pretty happy...

A little bit about Elder Denton. He's from Texas, but not Denton, Texas, from a town in east Texas, I don't know how to spell it, but it sounds like Nackidoshus. He's got 11 weeks left! So that means I'm probably going to be his last companion! He’s also a Spanish missionary, so that means I don't have to walk away awkwardly from Hispanic people because I can't speak to them, Elder Denton can handle that!

I hope you guys have a great week! Keep me updated with what's happening out in the real world! I'd love to hear from you!

Stay Righteous Y'all!

P.S. Being righteous includes writing the missionaries... ;)