November 28, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope all you guys had as good a thanksgiving as I did! On Thursday we were able to have a zone activity so we had a nerf war/capture the flag war. We took a lot of the removable furniture from the church and made fortifications and places of retreat and then split up senior companions vs. junior companions and had a blast! We then had cake for elder Carpenter's birthday which we made that morning. It was a red velvet vanilla marble cake. I think we did a pretty good job. I'll probably eat some of it for lunch today. 

Elder carpenter and I also got matching ties from our moms! I don't think they meant to do that though, but hey! It came in clutch!

Unfortunately Transfer calls came yesterday, and elder carpenter will be transferred to Spring Creek... )': My new companion is going to be elder Denton, I don't know much about him, But I'm super excited!

BIG NEWS!!! We had a Lesson with Clara yesterday during 2nd hour at church. She is SUPER prepared, She has been pushing her mom to go to church for awhile, and then she became friends with a girl in Spanish Springs and asked her if she could come to church with her. AND then she went to a baptism and decided she wanted to get baptized too! isn't that awesome! as members of the church we really do have a light about us, people feel the spirit when they're with us. Be sure to always be that example to others! Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words. The members truly are the best finding technique possible. As we show forth good examples to them, people will be prompted to ask questions, and then we will help them find the greatest joy possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Until next week, Stay righteous Y'all!

P.S. the church is doing a Light the World thing, y'all should check it out! 

https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_FR_25-11-2016_dMIS_fmorg_xLIDyL1-A_

November 21, 2016

Hello Everyone! So Elder Carpenter's birthday is actually on thanksgiving, so y'all should send him something! Other than that, We had 3 lessons set up for friday, and all of them fell through... one of them, their kids were throwing up, another, he was throwing up, and the third one had a baby! So they all had pretty legit reasons for cancelling. We met this one guy on exchanges, Lenn, he grew up going to religious private schools, and through some bad experiences has grown to distrust organized religion, but he's moving to Utah in May. Almost all of his friends are LDS, and he doesn't know too much about the church, and so in order to understand his neighbors better, he invited us over to teach him a little. We had a really awesome lesson in which we dispelled many of his concerns, we invited him to hear the rest of the lessons and he accepted! So we may just be preparing him and his family for future missionaries, especially since he is going to get his son involved in scouting when he get's to Utah. We also got in contact with Larry, a guy who owns a karate dojo and so he is super busy, but he is super prepared and knows everything we teach him is true. Clara does barrel racing which has made her very busy, but her last rodeo was yesterday, so that means she'll have more time to meet with us now.

That's an update of my life this week! I'm sorry I forgot my camera today, so no pictures ):

November 14, 2016

We had Zone conference on Friday! I always love when  zone conference rolls around. We were combined with the sparks west and Quincy zones (I'm in the Sparks East zone) and so I got to see a bunch of missionaries that I haven't seen for awhile. 

We had a really cool experience this week! We felt prompted to visit this one family right after Zone conference, the dad, Joey, is a member, his wife and two daughters are not. because zone conference always goes long, we didn't get there when we planned, but when we got there, the dad had just gotten off one of his jobs and had literally walked into the door 5 minutes before. We had a nice little visit and brought the spirit into their home.  We feel that the wife has a lot of potential, but they are really hard to get in contact with, so it was a huge miracle that we met them at the perfect time. Missionary work is awesome!

We also did service for a food drive, and I made a throne out of the boxes. 

Til next week!

My box throne

November 7, 2016

Hello once again from the glorious land of Sparks! We didn't have much happen this week lesson-wise, but we did a lot of cleaning up of the Red Hawk area book. It's kinda disappointing when people leave the church because someone offended them... but hey, it happens, just don't let it happen to you, ok? Matt 13:21

On a much more positive note, Ed E. blessed the sacrament yesterday! I don't think I told you much about Ed and Dee E. They were the baptism that I stumbled into my first week, so I didn't really help prepare them for baptism, but I'm helping them get used to church life, so far so good! they love it. Ed was ordained a priest last week, and yesterday was his first time blessing the sacrament. they are doing awesome!

It's always intrigued me how Alma uses the same wording in Alma 32, talking about the fruits of a testimony as Christ does, talking about the waters of life in John 4.

• 
  

• John 4:14

  14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water "springing up" into "everlasting" life.

• Alma 32:41

• 41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree "springing up" unto "everlasting" life.

Well, I said it was a pretty slow week. See you next week!

A few weeks ago, we sent Elder Stotts a package, but it got there right after his transfer.  He just got it and he put it to good use.  We included a store bought pizza crust and all the fixings for pizza plus some Halloween candy.

I got the package! it was on a day that I was going on exchanges and they didn't have a dinner appointment, so we had Pizza! I also made one for lunch and had it with Elder Carpenter.

October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween!!!

We went to the temple this week! But elder carpenter wrecked his ankle... But there is a girl who wants to be baptized! AND her mom is good with it! AND our zone leader (he's a solo zl) and his greenie got famous for dressing up as the Book of Mormon and the bible!

So yeah, It's been a pretty good week...

The temple was awesome! We went with the other Sparks zone on Thursday. I'm so happy I'm in a zone that is able to go to the temple! Those 4 months in Fallon were awesome, but I wasn't able to go to the temple, but oh how I longed to go back...

For whatever reason, I had a super strong desire on Sunday to testify to someone about the Book of Mormon (man, I must be a missionary... :) and so I prayed that I would have the opportunity to testify to someone at church about the Book of Mormon. Well it turns out that there was a missionary farewell at church, and during the announcements, NOT EVEN BEFORE CHURCH, the first councilor in the bishopric asked me to bear my testimony... So I got up there and testified of the book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith and challenged everyone there to pray for someone to share a copy with. Guys... God answers prayers!! It's true! Even though I had no expectation of being asked to share my testimony in sacrament meeting, I was still able to testify of the Book of Mormon.

Dang what a rush! Well that's about it!

God be with you 'til we meet again!

My Zone Leader and his companion

October 24, 2016

What's up everybody! First week in sparks and I stumbled into a baptism! So that's a total of 4 baptism just this week! Their names were Ed and Dee E., they had been taking the lessons for 6 years on and off, and they just got baptized on saturday! So, needless to say, this has been an awesome week.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!!

We had one of the members bring their friend to the baptism and feeling the spirit so strong, she decided she wants to be baptized as well!!!!

I love Sparks...

Other than that, my new area is a lot like South Meadows and Foothill, with sort of an upper middle class feel to it. one of the biggest differences is that a couple months ago, the Sparks stake was split, and all the wards were realigned. so both wards are really new with completely different leadership and everything, so both are awesome and excited wards in regard to missionary work. Once again, my Sundays are super long, with Red Hawk meeting at 9 in one building, and then Spanish Springs meets at 1 in another building across town, neither of which are in the east stake... But having gone to church with them, I can say that these wards are super awesome! When the split happened I swear they took the most awesome members in the area and stuck them in these two wards.

Well that's about it! Until next week!

Stay Obedient Y'all!

When I asked if he had received the package we sent the week before transfers, this is the reply he sent:

No, I didn't get it, so I'll probably see it sometime next month... Sparks is awesome! Elder Carpenter and I were both trained by Elder Corry, so that means we're Half brothers! 

Just for future notice, transfers are every 6 weeks on a Tuesday, so six weeks from six days ago will be another transfer, just for future notice that is a hazardous time to send stuff.

As for Christmas? I've been needing a new watch ever since mine lost the thing that holds the flappy thing broke...

It only ever feels like spring here, it gets "chilly" but never cold, not like MN anyway.

Here's some pictures from my week!

Last picture with Elder Sorenson with Mimi and Aniah who were baptized.

First picture with new companion Elder Carpenter? He didn't label it.

Last photo with the Fallon missionaries