June 5, 2017: Pioneer Children Sang as they Drove and Drove and Drove...

Hello everyone! It was that time of the transfer again, Zone conference! Which means a long 3 hour drive Thursday night to stay with the Elko 4th ward Elders, zone conference all day, and a long 3 hour drive back to ely, I'll include a map so you know just how in the middle of nowhere we are. 

Zone conference was really good! We had some good trainings on how to work with members and other missionary stuff. My favorite part was seeing my former companion, Elder Carpenter, bear his final testimony. I loved being with elder carpenter, he taught me so much and is a very powerful teacher. The group of missionaries that he's going home with is a very solid group. We'll certainly miss them and their contributions to the mission. That being said, missions never really come to an end, we are always on a mission. The defining characteristic of my mission has been how close I have gotten to my Father in heaven. That's what happens while you are on a mission, I've learned to listen better to what He tries to say to me, and probably even more so, to accept and follow what He tells me. It's true that God makes so much more out of our lives than we can when we turn everything over to Him, no complaints, no but's, no " I'll only do it if [this] happens." Hand over your entire soul, everything you are and hope to be, over to the Master. If we do not, we will never amount to anything compared to what we could have been. Keep the commandments simply because they are commandments, and for no other reason. Each prompting we receive from the spirit is a commandment from God, and we should treat it as such. 

Well, there's my 2 cents

Stay righteous Y'all

Zone Conference in Elko

May 29, 2017: 2 for 1

Hello everybody! This week was awesome! Braiden and Bailee were baptized! I'm So happy I was able to see the whole teaching process with them. They're some awesome kids and have strong testimonies. They've been through a lot in life, but it's really good to see the family start to progress. Even though their parents are struggling to quit smoking, it's been a habit of over 20 years for both of them, and they both want to quit so bad. sometimes repentance is a difficult process, sometimes long, but always possible and completely worth it. God doesn't look at how many times we fall down, but only if we keep on getting back up. one of Satan's biggest weapons he has to destroy souls is discouragement, he knows that each one of us is going to sin, and sin a lot, so if he can get us to believe that there is no hope for us he can keep us in his net of falsehoods and misery. He want's more than anything to make us and keep us miserable. If you ever feel down or discouraged, cheer up, and if you don't have a reason, do it Just to spite the devil, he can't stand it when you're happy, so be happy just to make him angry. It's fun to make the devil mad. We have zone conference coming up this week, that means Walmart! Ely is great and all, but things sure are expensive here. But I love it here. This is a fertile and ripe part of the Lord's vineyard. being on my mission I have learned just how important daily study of the Book of Mormon is and what happens when we don't do it. I am more concerned about whether my investigators read the Book of Mormon than if they keep any other commitment. Samuel H. Smith, the first missionary of this dispensation set out with nothing but a knapsack of Book of Mormons he was hoping to sell. He only sold two, but those got into the hands of Brigham Young and Parley P. Pratt, We were both convinced through the power of the spirit that it was true. I know that the Spirit will testify to each person who reads it and asks if it is true. 

I love you all!

 

Stay righteous Y'all!

Braiden and Bailee's baptism

May 22, 2017 What's That doing here?

Hello everyone! I guess you're wondering about the title of the email, it's because of two things, first, the Silver State classic came to town, and so did a ton of really nice cars, including a Lamborghini! That's like a million dollar car here in little old Ely. The owner was a member that was kind enough to let me take a picture in it. That was cool!

The second reason was It also decided to snow again this week, I'm not sure why Ely thinks that May is still winter. But I'm glad it doesn't get too hot here. They've had snow on the 4th of July here before, so who knows what will happen. I know that picture looks the same as the others I've sent, but trust me, It's different... 

We're also Super excited for the Kellys' baptism on Saturday, we'll be teaching their dad the stop smoking program on Tuesday, He won't be far behind. We're going to set him with a baptismal date for the 10th of May. So look forward to that as well! 

Oh well, It's about that time! The single most important thing you can do in this life if to keep close to the Lord. If we do that we don't have to worry about anything bad that may befall us, because we will know that it will all work out in the end. President Hinckley would say that to himself every day, So I think we all ought to say that to ourselves, maybe not every day, but at least whenever we get anxious or stressed or depressed about anything. If we have a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ (and if you don't I advise each of you to get one soon) we can have a firm hope that everything that happens to us will be for our good whether in this life or the next. I know that we don't have to be overcome with the trials in our lives, and that no matter how severe it is, any difficulty we have in life can be overcome though the power of Christ's Atonement. I know that that is true.

Till next week!

Stay righteous Y'all!

Snow

May 15, 2017 4th Time's the Charm

Happy mother's day! I hope you treated your mother good yesterday, you should, because she brought you into this world (or she found you under a rock, one of the two). 

Transfer Calls came, Elder Yost and I are staying together for another 6 weeks. I've never stayed in an area for more than three transfers, and this will be my 4th one here, this is a new record! obviously the Lord has more work for me to do here, and I intend to do it. We certainly have our work cut out for us, things are really starting to pick up now in the 1st ward, We have 2 more with a date for the 27th of this month. Jesse, one of our investigators told us in our lesson that he's made the decision to be baptized! He's not quite as ready as his kids, so they are going to be baptized on the 27th, I can see Jesse getting baptized at least 2 weeks after that. He came to us when he was ready, he said he has been praying about it and he's been feeling that now is the time. Miracles happen when we're faithful, we can expect to see miracles if our faith in them is firm enough in the power of God. 

Stay righteous Y'all!

-Some members wrote a note for us on their wall

May 8, 2017

Hello everyone!

This week has been good. We went on Exchanges with 2nd ward on wednesday, The second ward missionaries also cover a little town called Lund. Lund is a town of about 250 or so and is 80% LDS. They haven't had missionaries stationed there full time for about two years. so the missionaries go down there to work once a week. Whenever the missionaries go down there the members are super excited and help them out however they can. They are Really good to the missionaries, and I was able to go there on exchanges. They treat the missionaries like every ward should, they consider it lucky that the missionaries work there at all. 

We have a new Investigator named Mike. He's a super cool guy and super fun to teach. He was raised Catholic but disagrees with a lot of the stuff they teach. When he explains some of his beliefs we just listen and then show in the Book of Mormon where the things which he talked about are found. When our zone leaders knocked on his door looking for his son, he said among other things he had had a revelation on the atonement. He said that he feels good whenever he reads the Book of Mormon and we were able to testify that that was the Spirit testifying to him that it was true. Being a missionary is so awesome! You get to meet some people who's hearts are just so prepared to receive the gospel, and you can see how much they love and appreciate it once they've found it. 

There are people all around us just like Mike, and we can help them find the gospel through our examples of living it. We need to pray for those people to ask us questions, because we never quite know who's prepared, and then we need to be living the gospel as perfectly as we can, always seeking to become better at it. As we do this, those people will come to us and ask questions, God will place those people in our paths because He knows He can trust them with us. so let's become more trustworthy. Read the scriptures daily, always reading the Book of Mormon as part of our daily study, just like President Monson challenged us to do this last conference, pray fervently to our Father in Heaven often, even praying to know how to pray more sincerely like president Nelson challenged us to do a couple of conferences ago, be a full tithe payer and give a generous fast offering, be fully active in the church, Magnify your calling as best you can, Praying to always magnify it better. If we do these simple things it will show God that He can trust us with these prepared people and place them in our paths. I know that this Gospel is true, I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, I know that Joseph Smith was called as His prophet in these last days, I am grateful for the opportunity which is mine to share this testimony with tose that He places in my path.

Stay righteous Y'all!

Lund

Lund

Look Mom, a seminary! (cemetery)

May 1, 2017

Hello Everyone! It was another fantastic week in Ely. Highlight of the week was Donovan's Baptism. We found Donovan going through a list of unbaptized members, the first time we met him we invited him and his mom to a baptism for one of the other wards, and right after the word "Baptism" left our mouths he shouted "I want to be baptized!"

Yes, Donovan, we can help you with that.

I was blessed to be able to teach him all the lessons, He is certainly a rowdy 10 year old, but he understands what we taught him, I'm excited to see him progress! One Sunday He even went up to our Bishop and asked if he could pass the sacrament... Not quite yet... But soon!

When announcing the baptism yesterday right before the confirmation, our first counselor said "we had half of Panaca here for the baptism!" Which may or may not be true, a lot of Donovan's active member family lives there and they all came up for his Baptism, Including his 98 year old Great-Great- Grandmother. She was funny...

That's about all that happened this week. Remember to read the Book of Mormon every day!

Stay righteous Y'all!!!

A Jail cell door from the original Jail in Ely

A mural outside our apartment

Donovan's baptism

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April 24, 2017

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! The biggest miracle that happened this week was that I didn't get sick until Tuesday night... Turns out I got sick because I took antibiotics a couple months ago when Elder Davis and I had strep throat and it also killed the good bacteria in my gut. So I bought some yogurt today, hopefully that will prevent me from getting sick again. I took it easy Wednesday to fully recover. During that time I was able to read the scriptures a lot, so it wasn't all bad. And you all know how much I've come to love the scriptures while I've been a missionary. We also went to church in Garrison yesterday. It's a decent sized branch, there are a lot of ranchers out there and a couple of service missionaries who work on the Church owned welfare ranch that's out there. There are lots of really good people out there in Garrison. We'll be able to go out there more often now that the stake has called a couple people from Ely to attend the branch out there. we'll hitch a ride with them on Sundays, hopefully we'll be able to go there every week now since the branch meets at 9 and the 1st Ward meets at 1. We'll see. 

I forgot to take pictures again this week, sorry... but we have interviews with president Chesnut this week AND exchanges So I'll have something to send home.

Well I have to go now. One big thing I've learned is that you never want to break any commandment. It is true that keeping the commandments is always easier to deal with than breaking them. Any pleasure we may feel we get from breaking commandments will be enormously outweighed by the blessings we recieve by keeping them.

Stay righteous Y'all!