August 29, 2016

Hello everyone! This has been a rough week. It started out well enough. We had a good district meeting on Tuesday, and we were able to teach this semi-active family who have two 8 year old granddaughters who are getting ready for baptism this next month. Our bishop told us to go teach them the lessons to help them prepare for it. We've got only one more lesson to go! The don't count as convert baptisms since they've been blessed. 

So far so good.

But then the next morning I woke up at 4am with a fever of 102.6, so we called the mission nurse in the morning, she said to take it easy, take fluids, and use ibuprofen. I was thinking this was going to be a one day thing and then everything will get back to normal. So I did what she said and tried to rest. Well, day two wasn't any better. Once again we stayed cooped up all day because my temperature wouldn't go below 101. but then, Friday morning around midnight, I woke up feeling like I just popped out of the toaster. We took my temperature and found that I had a fever of 104.4. We drove down the the emergency room where they helped me out a bit and did some tests to see what was wrong with me. (we actually woke up one of the members of the stake presidency who was the CEO of the hospital because we didn't know where it was and our zone leaders weren't waking up to our calls)  They determined that it was some kind of virus and so I couldn't do anything but treat the symptoms and sleep it off.

And so, poor Elder Sorenson had to stay cooped up all week with his dying companion. He was so bored he drew out a piano and started practicing on it... (see first picture below) 

I love my companion... (:

Also the stake presidency was reorganized yesterday, our bishop is the new stake president, so we'll need a new one soon... If I had a nickel for every time I lost my bishop to the stake presidency, I would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice right? Especially since I've only had 2 stake conferences on my mission. Watch out Dad...

Lizzy Spoke at the why I believe fireside! She said that ever since she was baptized she has been happier than she ever has been in her life! This is true! The gospel is true! It WILL make you happier than you have ever been in your life, and when you embrace it more fully, you will see the joy of the gospel touch every part of your life!

Due to Physical difficulties with elder Stotts' brain this is basically everything that happened this week. I learned that being sick on your mission stinks, especially when it goes for more than one day. Don't get sick on your mission... Stay healthy, stay active in the church, stay in school... STAY RIGHTEOUS Y'ALL!

August 22, 2016

Forget the black widow, check out this monster I found on the side of our house while I was cleaning off spiderwebs today! We named him Aragog...

This guy was HUGE! If I held him in my palm, his legs would spill over the sides of my hand. The belly was about the size of a 50 euro cent piece, or a little smaller than a quarter. Does anyone know what kind of spider this is? if so, could you tell me? It looks nasty...

We had Zone conference this week! My favorite thing I learned about was the rule of 7. The basic premise is that it takes people about 7 solid positive experiences with the church before they are baptized. The assistants trained us on how we can get that number closer to 7 with everyone we meet, one contact at a time. It really changed my perspective on talking with everyone. Before I was talking with everyone, trying to find 7's, I was trying to find those people who are prepared, now I'm looking to also help prepare people in addition to looking for those "Pineapples" as they called them.

This is also super applicable to just members too! Whenever you invite a friend to a church sponsored party or picnic or whatever, it's helping them to be more prepared to receive the gospel. Inviting people to church seems a lot easier now, doesn't it?

Let me know how your own personal missionary efforts are going! write me!:

4730 Shurz highway

Fallon, NV 89406

Stay righteous y'all!

Thank you for sending me a camera that takes really nice pictures!

HI DEF Spider pictures!

Zone Conference!

-The Fallon zone! (and the Assistants: Elder Woolsey and Elder Krey)

Aragog had a friend...Yes, we named her Shelob, Elder Sorenson and I are both nerds (:Here's a picture of the two of them together!

August 15, 2016

What's up everyone? Nevada is still Nevada, a hot, dry desert and because of that I've decided I want to live someplace cold for my adult years, like Alaska or Montana or

We've been working really hard on finding new people to teach. Every day we try to spend at least an hour street contacting downtown, we haven't seen much success directly from that, we're talking to more and more people as time goes on. But there's only so much street contacting you can do in the little corner of downtown we have in our area though. We've been watching the 1984 talk by M. Russell Ballard "Write Down a Date" with the families of the ward council, and then inviting them as a family to write down a date that they will find someone to take the missionary lessons by, and then fast, pray, and always be on the lookout for opportunities that will surely come to them. We have had 2 families do this that were able to find someone for us to teach.

Here is the talk. Watch it!: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1984/10/write-down-a-date?lang=eng

I encourage all y'all to do it as well! If we do our part, we will be able to find someone for the missionaries to teach.

Stay righteous Y'all!

We have really good sunsets here.

We have George Foreman, so we made burgers :)

-I saw a black widow!

August 8, 2016

What's up everyone? If you ever thought your state was the wild west and your state wasn't Nevada, I'm happy to say that you were wrong. We have the sunsets to prove it. (:

And also a llama...

This week was awesome. Elder Sorenson has type 1 diabetes, so he trained me on how to save his life if he ever starts seizing during the night. Let's hope that never happens...

I FINALLY saw Randy with a shirt on, he's kinda like David in that regard. We decided that we will get the entire elder's quorum (or as many as we can get) to have a big service project to get him settled. This will let him get to know more guys from the ward and HOPEFULLY get him comfortable enough to go to church. His prior experience with any church was people who lived a different life at church than at home, they would party and do drugs and then come to church like nothing has happened. That made him lose his faith in churches as a whole.

For my personal study I have started to reread the Book of Mormon but with trying to understand how I can become a more powerful priesthood holder. If you remember elder Bednar's way of studying the Book of Mormon, that's what I'm trying to do. Through doing that, I have found that studying the Book of Mormon Invites the spirit much more than merely reading it. I have had ideas come into my mind when I read a specific verse that I never thought of before, even if I had read that verse 20 time before. Don't get me wrong, reading the Book of Mormon is awesome, you can learn so much from it. But when you study it, the Spirit can tell you what YOU need to do and the revelation is so much clearer. Now I understand why the Prophets and Apostles never say "Read the book of Mormon" rather "Study the book of Mormon"

Stay Righteous Y'all!!!

August 1, 2016

Hello Everyone! Elder Winsor went the way of all the missionaries and returned home triumphant. My new companion, Elder Sorenson, and I are doing awesome, even though this last week was a lot of getting used to the area and learning it since he's brand new to the area and I've only been here 6 weeks. I definitely learned the area more this week than any other so far. Funny how in both of my areas, my first companion leaves me after 6 weeks and all of a sudden I'm the one that knows the area best...

Elder Sorenson's a stud! He's always super calm and collected, I don't think it's possible for him to get angry! Not that I'm going to test the limits or anything... 

Elder Stotts and Elder Sorenson

We were able to meet with Chris, an investigator whom I had met, but never taught. He has Cerebral palsy, so he can't use his left side very well at all. This was the main subject of our lesson, he was upset at God for not only letting him be born with it, but also letting it get worse. We taught him that the book of Mormon was a Book of answers. And lo and behold he flipped open to the story of Limhi and his people. They were going through a severe challenge just like he was, He was able to learn that he was to be patient in his trials, just like they were (eventually). 

Miracles like this happen all day every day as a missionary. I encourage all who are thinking about going to go. It will be the most difficult 18 months to 2 years of your life, but you will learn more during those 18 months or 2 years than your entire life up to that point. I've only been out about 6 months, but I've already seen that happen to me. I love all of you, I know that Jesus Christ Lives, He is very involved in this work. If you have any questions about how to be a better member missionary: Ask the Missionaries! They can help you!

Stay righteous Y'all!!

More Sunset Pictures!

July 25, 2016

Hello Everyone!! Another week gone by, and it was Awesome! Most important first, LIZZY GOT BAPTIZED!!!And all went well! 

We had a lesson on skype with her the night before when we taught her about temples and eternal marriage, I have never been in a more spiritual lesson on my mission as of yet. The Spirit was so strong, I know how important the temple is and how much God wants us to be worthy to always be able to attend it, and always have those blessings available to us.

Transfers came! Elder Winsor is heading home tomorrow, It's been fun serving around him, I was able to learn a lot from his experiences. My new companion will be Elder Sorenson, which is really funny because half the people in the ward are named Sorenson (farming community remember?) That'll be interesting.

I also started cooking a little more, I think I'm doing alright. I made Olibollen (dutch for Oil Ball) for a Family home evening with a recent convert family, I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and I made Snickerdoodles for a zone lunch we had, celebrating the opening of little Caesars. Oh well, beats Ramen...

Biscuits and gravy

Oliebolen

Yum

If I could name all the miracles that happen while you're a missionary it would be way to long for a simple email. Here's one. We were going to see this potential, they weren't available at the time and so they told us to come back later, when we did, they had gone out to dinner, Funny how that works out... but when we knocked on the door, we met someone who had met Mormons before and loved how nice they were. She was actually interested! So an apparent sluff off, turned into a really cool miracle. It was the same house that the dog tied me up at.

That's all for this week folks! Stay righteous y'all!

This dog thought he was funny and tied me up...

We also went milking today!

July 18, 2016

Aloha peoples! 

Another week in the paradise of Fallon, NV! If you recall I said that we cover the Fallon 6th ward, the Hawthorne ward, and the Gabbs Branch. I've told you a little bit about Hawthorne, and everything else has been about Fallon, yesterday I had the opportunity to see Gabbs. We usually hitch a ride from the high councilors when they go down there, so I spoke in sacrament meeting and it wasn't even hard! (of course Gabbs has only 16 active people in the branch and only 12 were there so that kinda kills the mood. But whatever.) 

Gabbs branch HQ

Gabbs is a teeny weeny town of 162 people, and the only reason it exists is the small magnesite mine (whatever magnesite is, I asked, they said it's in everything, so I still don't know...) On the way down we passed by one of Fallon's many curiosities, Sand mountain, We don't know why it's there, or how it got there, It's just, there. It's a hot spot for 4-wheelers and other atv's. 

While I was in Gabbs, Elder Winsor went to Hawthorne and taught Lizzy, Who CURRENTLY has a baptismal date set for Friday, so I'll let you know if that works out, her Grandma is still mad about it though. President told Elder Winsor that he needed a baptism before he goes home (which is in 9 days! But he's STILL not trunky!) and so it'll work out. Courtney is struggling being a single mom, she get's pretty bad anxiety too, so she's missed some of our meetings due to her recovering from dealing with her 15 month old all night. We're getting a little worried, but this has happened before.

Little Caesar's opened today! I'm so happy... We don't have any good cheap restaurants, and Y'all know how much I love Little Caesar's.

Until next week! Gerritt, my bro in new Caledonia, told me that I forgot to say this last week, so in honor of him, Stay righteous Y'all!

Ghetto Chimney, I see you there swamp cooler...

What else did you expect?