Recovering (Jan 16, 2017)

Journal

Mon Jan 9 2017

We finished up P-Day and I realized that I should of taken a nap… Luckily I made it down to Smith Valley. We had a great dinner with the Funks with venison meat in the spaghetti. The Funks were so awesome! Sister Funk had a lot of great questions about if she would have a calling and what we do in temple. It was great because it led right into our lesson with them! She said something that was awesome, she said that she wanted to know what happens in the temple “Because that’s my next goal right?” Right Sister Funk, we were so excited to hear that! We had a wonderful conversation about the temple and they understood and accepted it all really well!

We found this cool flag while serving at the Greenhouse (the thrift store).  We later found it was a shower curtain... It smelled like soap!

Tue Jan 10 2017

At about 6p, we headed over to the Bryant’s house for dinner and a lesson. We got there and in their own words “The house was trashed” So we ended up going to a sports restaurant. It was pretty good and it was fun to catch up because we really haven’t seen them in about a month so we got to ask about their Christmas and New Years. They have been doing good! They wanted to just do the lesson there so we ended up teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ right there. They really really liked it! We set them with the 11th of February as their baptismal date. They were all pretty nervous but we reassured them they would be ready. We gave Isaiah a Book of Mormon and committed him and Aubrey to read it. Sister Bryant had some questions about what she was reading and they all committed to come to church! We are so excited for them to continue to learn and grow!

Wed Jan 11 2017

We did our lesson with Bruce but Sister Cliften was sick so we couldn’t have it there so we did it at the church. I would say that lesson was our miracle today. I focused on really listening to him and I think that helped a lot. We had a great discussion about the prophets and dispensations and we really focused on checking for understanding. Because we did that I think he really understood. I would rather teach half a point a lesson and have them understand it than teach them a full lesson. After the lesson with Bruce Elder Gurr’s headache had increased so we came back so he could rest. I finished the book of Mark so that was pretty cool. Then we went to dinner with the Youngs and they told some cool stories that they had heard about the temple. Then we came back because our two appointments cancelled and Elder Gurr still feels like crap. I’m sooo hoping he feels better tomorrow!

Thu Jan 12 2017

I’ve decided that I hate being cooped up inside. Elder Gurr is feeling like crap again and so I just sit here, reading. I wish we could be out, even if it dropped a couple of inches of snow. Actually, that makes it easier to meet new people by offering service. Anyways, I’m just bored and I feel terrible that Elder Gurr feels terrible. I want him to get better, but I just don’t know what to do. :(

Fri Jan 13 2017

Today has been a lot better! Elder Gurr was feeling better and he pushed himself so we actually stayed out and proselyted most of the day! We did our morning studies and 12 weeks and he seemed as sick as usual but more determined. After that we had lunch and weekly planning, led by him, and he did a great job! One of the things that stuck out from planning was when we were planning the lesson to have with Jim Button. Neither of us really knew what we needed to teach him to help him come to church, we knew he was uncomfortable, but we didn’t know what to teach to help him. I decided that we needed to pray. When we had said the prayer we looked up and we both felt like we needed to do a church tour. It was a strange thought for me because I have always used church tours to help people to come to church for the first time, but we decided to follow the prompting. After planning, we decided to go and visit Jim and invite him to church and to do a church tour with us on Tuesday. At first, he seemed pretty hesitant but then he seemed to get pretty excited about it and that was really cool to see! After that, it seemed like Elder Gurr had hit his limit so we came back to the house and he rested for another 50 minutes of so. We then went to dinner at the Thompson families house. They are a nice Part-Member family that are really nice to us. They had dinner all made and told us we were in a second home there, that was pretty cool. We got to know them better and to understand where they are coming from.

Sat Jan 14 2017

Today was 7 awesome… Out of 5. We had our regular studies and that was pretty good, we did a pretty fun street contacting role play. After Companion and Personal studies we left and tried to visit some potentials around our house and then we came back for a lunch and Elder Gurr rest break. Then we drove up to Reno for the mission wide conference with Elder Christofferson. #MissionHistory. Literally this was the first time in the history of our mission where the whole mission has been in one place. East Side came to the West Side and this is literally the first time that that has happened. It was really cool to see friends from all over that I haven’t seen in half a year. So that in of itself was awesome. The best part of course was the meeting itself. The spirit was so strong in that meeting. We were told to arrive at 1:30, a half-hour before the actual meeting started and so we sung hymns as a mission and that was so cool, the spirit was so strong. Then, Elder Christofferson walks in and the spirit felt even stronger. We all kept standing as we sung the last verse of I know my Redeemer Lives and that was so amazing. We then had the Chestnuts bear their testimonies and that was amazing. After that, Elder Larkin bore powerful testimony of the power of being on God’s side and that was amazing. Elder Pearson then spoke about giving our all on our missions and in doing that we can prove to ourselves what our true capacity is. That was so awesome. After that, Elder Christofferson spoke. He didn’t really have a topic, he answered our questions. It was really amazing, a lot of the questions centered around how do we become as spiritual, or as consecrated, or have faith like him, and what he does to grow it. It was pretty cool because all the things he does to spiritually grow are the simple things the scriptures tell us to do, same as we should be doing. It really was a wonderful thing because what he said was directed directly at us and he was such an example of following the spirit, you could tell that that was what he was doing the whole time. I felt so inspired to always make sure everything I did was devoting myself to the Lord. It was such an awesome experience.

Sun Jan 15 2017

Today was pretty good! Elder Gurr made it thought the whole day! We had a wonderful sacrament meeting, the sacrament, of course, was great, and the talks were great. Brother Darrington spoke about potatoes and how we are all potatoes. True story. All potatoes have differences and different talents that are all needed in the gospel. We went up to the Nish’s and saw them and they were so happy to see us again. When we left we asked if there was anything we could do for them and they said “Come back!” That was touching, knowing that we are wanted back, it is always nice to know. We also saw Brother Rusk and same thing with him, he was happy to see us and expressed that and told us to come back. We then had dinner with the Cliftens and that was great, they were having a slight argument, so they were extra sassy today. That was pretty funny. After that, we came back and had studies and planned and updated records and all that jazz. So yeah! This week has been pretty good and the next will be even better!

Senators & Seals, Funks Baptized!, & Floodito

Senators & Seals-  Dec 19-25 2016

  

Mon Dec 19 2016                 

So I just got this AlphaSmart in the mail (An Alpha Smart is a word processor- think one step above a typewriter, but below a computer. It's the most techy gadget he is currently allowed.). I just finished emailing and we get back and there is a package on the doorstep. I check it out and it is for me...From someone in South Carolina… so I open it, half expecting drugs or a bomb or something and it is the AlphaSmart I asked Mom for for Christmas.. Oops. I decided this year that whatever was wrapped I would save till Christmas day, this is not wrapped so I will start journaling and what not on here. Lol

0.0 I have just done the scariest thing of my life. We are currently cleaning up the apartment and Elder Gurr knows how to cut hair so we did that too. He gave me a pretty sweet haircut, I look kind of like a Marine now! #sweetness! After mine was done and I showered and got ready again, he called me back to do part of the back of his head that he couldn’t see. It was so scary, it wouldn’t be too bad if it were my own head, but doing it to someone else is another story… Now I had to do it again 0.o… It was just as bad this time around…

So we had a super bomb time in Wilson Canyon. We hiked up the first bend and found this super pretty little mini canyon. In the bottom we found this dry riverbed so we started to follow that and we found this unstable rock thing and Elder Gurr was like, we should climb that. There were all sorts of weeds/plants on the way up that were all spiky and the rock face itself was super precarious. We got ⅔ of the way up and we decided to go back down and that was an adventure in of itself, sliding down on our butts. Then we continued down the dry riverbed where we got to Walker River and that was cool, all frozen over and what not. After that, we went back to the car to change and we did that and headed over to the Heller’s house for dinner. That was real good, surprisingly we had the most authentic tacos that I have had in Yerington. We went and saw JC Ward after that and he is doing really well considering that the first time we met him he didn’t have sufficient food for the week. He might be getting some checks soon that will give him a monthly income and that is so good to hear. Now we just need to get him to church! Now the reason this entry is titled Senators and Seals is because in the course of JC Ward telling us some stories, we found out that he had been a Seal and of course, Dean Heller is the senior senator for Nevada.

Tues Dec 20 2016

We are about to start exchanges with Elder Bentti and Elder Soto. I am going with Elder Bentti back down to Yerington. It’s going to be a bomb time. We had District Meetings over in Fallon and that was pretty sweet. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it is our job to help people gain that testimony of it. It was the best one that I have had in a long while in my opinion. Yep, this’ll be a good exchange!

4:35 PM

Yeah… So that exchange lasted for about 10 minutes and then we had to turn around and head back to Fernley. Something went down with one of the elders in the District so Elder Bentti had to take him to the mission office. We had to drive the other two Elders in Fernley to an appointment there and then we rushed back. It has been kind of crazy but we are planning on meeting in Silver Springs tonight to re-start exchanges. Hopefully everything turns out for the best!

Finally Exchanges- We were able to start exchanges and planning. It was a long planning session. We have a really good day ahead of us. We have the Funks and Bruce and Jim Button for lessons tomorrow. As for what we did today, we got back to our area and headed down to Mason for a lesson with the Hunters. They let us in and we were getting ready to read 3 Nephi 11 with them when Brother Hunter got a call from work that they needed him right then. We had to leave then, of course. I have been studying Preach My Gospel chapter 11 a lot recently and so I decided to use what I had learned and right there boldly ask them to come to church. I explained that it would be a special Christmas service in that it is only an hour long. They seemed to really consider coming and that was so exciting to see! We then went up and tried Jim Button but it was already 5:30 and he goes to bed around 6. We are going to try again, of course, and he is always home. We then went to dinner with the Merrill family and that was good, they are a super nice/chill family.

Wed Dec 21 2016

Crrraaazzy Day- So today has been crazy long. Honestly, it has been pretty fun with all the stuff we have had to do. First off, the crazy morning started with Elder Bentti realizing three things: that he had high blood sugar, that his pump had leaked, and that he had no more insulin and that it was all in Fernley. We both showered and got ready and then we drove back up to Fernley to get his Diabetes stuff. When we walked in the look on Elder Soto and Elder Gurr’s was priceless. We grabbed the stuff and then just walked out. Then we got about 15 minutes down the road and realized again that we left the backup stuff there so we turned around and drove back again. We finally got back at 10:30ish and we did our personal and companionship studies. That was all good and then we had some lunch over at Subway™ “Eat Fresh” and that was good except for the fact that everyone was super weirded out by us, but that’s ok. High Schoolers are always weirded out by us because we are “Jesus People” and the workers just seemed angry. We then went over to see Bruce Sanders. We had talked with Cindy Cliften yesterday about meeting with Bruce over at the church but she called and said she had never heard back from Barbara, Bruce’s caretaker/daughter. We went over to Bruce’s house to walk him over to Cindy’s house, but he was all angry with us because he deemed our sweaters useless in the cold. He invited us inside his house for the lesson and that was actually pretty neat, His Son-in-law is a less active so it was good just to be in their home. We read 1 Nephi 10 with him and he liked it a lot. It was an odd day for him because with his Alzheimer's he usually has good and bad days, but today seemed like both. He started out telling stories and what not but when we started reading he seemed really coherent and everything. We committed him to read chapter 11 before church and he seemed pretty gung ho about that. From Bruce’s house we went to Jim Button who we had originally planned on seeing yesterday. He was there and we talked about Jesus the Christ, the book he is going to read next, now that he has read the Standard Works. We were able to talk a bit about church attendance and prayer and how that has blessed his life and how it can continue to do so. It is so amazing to see the change that people make and how they have grown. Jim really has grown so so much since I first met him. After Jim, we got in the car and I asked Elder Bentti what was up because during the lesson he was either angry or upset or sleepy. He said yes, he was super sleepy so we went home and I did language study while he napped. Honestly, it was one of the most fun/productive language studies I have had in awhile. I started to read the Book of Mormon out loud in Spanish and then I realized that probably wasn’t the best idea for the sore throat that I have been developing all week. I read from the Liahona and got some good notes out of that. Then, thinking back to the conversation that Elder Bentti and I had about about different good uses there were for the AlphaSmart he said that sometimes he would just write a talk for his personal study. I decided that was a great idea for my language study. I quickly looked up how to do the different accent marks and away I went, writing a Spanish talk about the Peace of Christ. After language study, we went out to Smith Valley and saw the Smiths. They are doing really good! Both have been reading the Book of Mormon! It was so cool to see what progress they have made in the last month! We then went to the most intense appointment ever. We got to the Funks and had fried tacos which were delicious, of course. They committed very easily and quickly to come to church, wherever they are at, read and pray daily. Sister Funk has still been thinking about baptism a lot and it turns out that they are going down to Las Vegas on the 31st of this year and she wants to get baptized then.. It will be a fun day figuring that out tomorrow. It really has been a good day and I am super tired but we are going to have a super awesome day tomorrow!

Thu Dec 22 2016

Funk Figure Fact- So we were able to start to figure out the whole situation with the Funks. We called President and he said that they could get baptized down in Las Vegas and that is pretty exciting. We also had to text Brother Funk about setting up another lesson for today or tomorrow. We are going over there at 8 tomorrow to teach them a ton. We planned out the rest of the doctrine we need to teach them into three lessons during weekly planning and that was good. It just so happens that what we are going to teach them tomorrow is the biggest chunk that doesn’t go together as well as the other two lessons do, but it’ll be all right. I think they understand that we have a lot to teach in a little bit of time. We did some Weekly Planning in the morning and that was ok. It is definitely necessary of course.

We went out to lunch at El Superior and of course that was delicious. We went over to the Greenhouse and sorted a bunch of stuff. After the Greenhouse, we went over to see Doyle and he is still doing pretty good! We read 3 Nephi 13 and 14 to him and he loves that a lot. It is so great to see how the Book of Mormon can bless people's lives! We went after that to the Nish family’s house to share a thought. I forget if I have talked about them before. He was the oldest active crop duster in the U.S.A. a couple of years ago and now he has heart surgery and all that jazz. We shared Alma 32:41-43 and talked about how it can bless their lives and make them rooted in Christ. They really want the sacrament taken to them and that is a super good sign! Brother Nish gave the closing prayer and that was really cool. He got really choked up as he prayed for our well being and safe and that was super touching. The Spirit was so strong in there and he even got up to say goodbye which he has never done in the past. After leaving there we went to the Bake’s house for a lovely dinner of spaghetti. Eating spaghetti has been kind of weird with Elder Abbot and with Elder Gurr. They both don’t like spaghetti, Elder Gurr likes it more but Elder Abbott would get straight depressed when we had it. It is just weird to me because I love it and I want to be happy when my companion is and sad when he is too. After dinner we came back and did more Weekly Planning and Language Study. It has been a good day!

Fri Dec 23 2016

Funky Funk Lesson- So today was awesome! We had lunch with the Chell family and they took us out to this cheap, super good Mexican restaurant in town. It was really cool to get to know them because they are the only member couple in town that is even close to our age. We had so much food that they sent us home with enough leftovers to have the leftovers for a decently sized dinner! We ate the rest tonight. We did get to have good lesson with the Funks though. We had planned to teach all the commandments to get them super ready for baptism, but they had different questions about Baptism for the Dead and the Holy Ghost so we spent a lot of time talking about that. We talked a lot about following the Prophet and that actually got pretty emotional. I brought up the example of how President Monson announced the Missionary age change and how that had blessed my life. Elder Gurr brought up how he decided to go out at age 19. Josieray asked me how I decided to come out and I told them about my conversion story and that was so close to having me in tears. We followed up on the Word of Wisdom and Sister Funk had had a cup of coffee that morning and that freaked me out a ton. I was freaked out because usually you have to have abstained from the things in the Word of Wisdom for two weeks before baptism. We texted President and told him and luckily he said to go forward with is. So it was a great lesson and we are going back to finish the Commandments on Monday and I am super pumped for that! Also, Sister Funk gave us fancy chocolates and I am thoroughly enjoying those!

Christmas 2K16

The Holiday Entry

So yesterday was pretty crazy. We had a lesson with Eric Soto who is our only Spanish investigator. I was super pumped to teach him because Elder Gurr hasn’t taught in Spanish in the field yet. He was pretty nervous, but it turned out that he wasn’t there and that was pretty disappointing. After that, we went down south of town. Why we did that is because ever since I was with Elder Abbott our goal was to visit every person on the ward list and to have a note by each name. It was a goal that led us to the Funk family so I have high hopes that we will continue to see success with that. We had covered about every part of our area with that method but for some reason we had never visited the people who live south of town. We decided to do that yesterday. We only had success with one family and when I say success I mean we were able to put down the note that they had moved. But I still think it was time well spent because we were doing what we felt prompted to do and if we only were following a prompting and showing the Lord we will follow those when we receive them I think it was time well spent. After that, we went up to dinner at the Hunt’s house. Dinner itself was good, we got to do Christmas Crackers which included a fancy crown that we wore while eating dinner. Afterwards we were able to play some games with them and that was good. The Hunts were one of those families that we saw at church, but didn’t really talk too much but we got to talk with them and get to know them better and that was good. They read the Christmas story as one of their traditions and that was really fun to participate in. After that, we were heading back to the apartment to write in our journals and then go to sleep when we got a call from Elder Bentti saying that he needed his insulin now and that his last bottle was with us from when he grabbed it from Fernley to use while he was here. We ran that up to them and then came back and got gas and by then it was past ten and we just came back and fell asleep. We woke up today and opened Christmas presents and that was fun. I think year by year I appreciate the thought behind the gift more and more and that has really made Christmas more focused on Christ for me. We went to church and that was really special. There was a really special spirit there, like there just was no sort of bad feeling in the church, it was so cool. We went to the Darringtons to Facetime home. I really hadn’t been nervous at all to Facetime, that is, until we were at their house. I couldn’t eat or anything and now I’m not sure why I even was nervous. After some technical difficulties they got me set up and away went my nerves. It almost felt normal to see my family and that was a blessing. It was really cool to be able to talk to them, of course, to see how they have all grown. It helped me see more of how I have grown too, just in how I felt and my reactions to what was going on. Just like I hoped I am changing the areas that need changing and keeping the good parts. Of course, I still have a lot of rough edges that need smoothing, but I think they are coming along. Afterwards we just hung out with the Darringtons and that was cool. One of their sons from Idaho had gotten a drone and it was really cool. After that we had dinner with the Johnson family and that was really good. They gave us a stocking and that was awesome. They were really awesome about following up with people that we have talked about in the past. After that, we came up to Fernley. We had a Devotional where we watched the nativity Bible Videos and then shared our testimonies. Now we are spending the night and we get to email here and shop and go to Fallon for a Zone Activity! Next week is going to be awesome!

DEC 26 2016 - Jan 1 2017

Mon DEC 26 2016

Funks are ready- So today was awesome. We woke up up in Fernley and had a close to regular p-day. We went and emailed after studies and that was a struggle. The emailing itself was fine but the figuring out how to get journal entries off of here was hard. I didn’t even have time to send home pictures because the computers were acting up and I was pretty sad about that. We returned to Yerington after that and had a little dinner in our apartment. Afterwards we went out to Smith Valley to have the last pre-baptism lesson with the Funks. The lesson turned out well! vWe taught Chastity and Tithing and the law of the land and reviewed the baptismal interview questions. They accepted to live everything. It was kind of funny, during chastity Josieray was kind of freaked out and during tithing Sister Funk seemed a bit freaked out. It turned out just fine, we answered their questions and after that they were fine with it all. Ever since they started reading the Book of Mormon daily they have had no problems accepting any commitment we gave them, they even stopped drinking coffee last week so they were excited to receive the Pero we bought for them. They are so ready and they were really prepared to answer the baptismal interview questions! Afterwards we got talking and Brother and Sister Funk thanked us for coming into their lives when we did and if I hadn’t shed all my tears face timing yesterday I would have shed them there. The Spirit was just so strong and I felt their love and appreciation for what we had done. Sister Funk said that the day we showed up they were going through some rough times as a family and that the day we showed up was THE very day that we were needed and when she was ready to accept. It was great to feel and know that I was able to be an instrument in the Lord’s hand and be in the right place and the right time to bless their lives and bring them closer to their Father in Heaven. It has been a great day!

Tue DEC 27 2016

Today has been a good day. We had District Meeting and that was great, we talked about working with our companions in unity and how that can help us. It was pretty good because it touched on some spots I had questions about. When we got home, we had planned to go to the Greenhouse for a bit but they were closed so we just came home and changed and then headed over to Jim Button’s house. We had planned to share some Bible vids with him but I felt prompted to tell him about the Teachings of the Prophets books. He was pretty excited to hear about them. We came back after the lesson and gave him all our extras, six of the books in all and he was so excited to read those! It was another one of those moments in which I felt like I was doing my job! We left and headed to dinner with the Landas. When we got out of the car I noticed that a part of my key chain was missing. After freaking out inside for a bit, I said a little prayer and had an immense feeling of peace during dinner. After dinner, we pulled back up to the house and the first thing I see is my key chain, unharmed on the road. That was a great little blessing for me. We headed back and made some calls to our investigators, just to let them know that they are loved and then we had our language study. It was good, as usual and I can really tell that Elder Gurr’s Spanish is improving, even if he can’t see it yet. We then had daily planning and Elder Gurr did great. He knew what to do and followed the planning guidelines really well. I can see more and more as I stretch him he will come closer and closer to his great potential. It has been a great day and I am excited to see what is in store tomorrow!

Wed DEC 28 2016

It turns out that last night there were a bunch of magnitude 5 earthquakes going on and that was pretty crazy. Pretty crazy that we slept through them. We headed over to teach Bruce Sanders and that was good. It was one of his good days where he was more there. We read 1 Nephi 11 with him and he was pretty confused by what it was talking about. We were able to review the material with him and then he understood it a lot better. We walked over to Doyle Snyder’s house after that and that was pretty good. He let us in and we were able to read with him again. He seems to really enjoy it when we read with him. He is pretty worried about walking to church in the cold but he doesn’t want a ride. I think what we will do different this week is if the thermometer says it is below freezing then we will set up a ride for him. We then waked around a bit more and saw Roger Banta. He is still doing good and it looks like there will be some service opportunities with him in the future. After that, we headed to the church for the Funk’s baptismal interview. It was so exciting to see them take this last step towards the first step. We are so excited for them!

Thu DEC 29 2016

Today has been good. We had good studies in the morning. I really want to get better at studies. I really like that I have been able to get more and more out of the chapters that I read! I just don’t like that I am only able to get through like one chapter of the Book of Mormon, one page of Preach My Gospel, and that’s it. Again, I really liked how much I got out of it. I like the quality, but I want a higher quantity too.

Fri DEC 30 2016

We had a pretty good day despite setbacks.We went over and tried the Nez family and they weren’t there either. We decided to walk around and try to visit people so we did that for about an hour and that was pretty good. No one was out and that was lum. We did have the chance to talk a lot with each other and that is always good. I really like bonding with my companion. We decided that we had better call Susan after that and that took about an hour. It is good to talk to her and just listen because no one listens to her and it helps her feel loved. She expressed her thanks for us and that was really nice. We went over to Mason Valley Residency to see some of the old members. We were able to see Norma Schultz, a really nice older lady who we got to know. She was so happy that we had stopped by!

Sat DEC 31 2016

Today has been pretty good as well but we had no time to be out. We had coordination and that was pretty good. Brother Rowley was pretty excited that the Funks are getting baptized today, as are we. He pointed out that our last two weeks progress records basically had the same names on it. That isn’t all bad to me because the people we have seen in the last two weeks needed to be visited, but he was right in a way. We don’t have enough flow in our area, we need to be more focused on finding, and that was a good gentle reminder that I need to get back in those good habits of always focusing on finding. After that, we walked around and tried to talk to people, but being a holiday, no one was in Yerington. After that, we got to go to this Basque place with the Cliftens a little way outside of town. It was so good and I couldn’t even finish my main course there was so much food. That was good and then we came back to Weekly Plan. We had to be inside today early to plan and stay out of trouble or something. The planning itself was fine, it was a lot faster than usual which was a nice surprise. We took a long time on our companionship inventory. I love companionship inventory because I always feel so close to my companion afterwards. The spirit is always there when we are willing to communicate how we really feel. Good day as usual!

Sun Jan 1 2017

Today was good as well. We had no meetings in the morning so for the first time in a long while we got to actually have personal study on a Sunday. That was pretty sweet. I finished Preach My Gospel again and that was pretty awesome. I am excited to read it again and to go ham with taking notes and getting a ton out of it. We had really good services. We had awesome speakers and for me personally the sacrament was extra special. I just tried to focus on the Savior’s Sacrifice and how I can improve now. It was a pretty great experience for me. Like I said the speakers were great, it was the Allreds and they talked about how to listen to the spirit and how to be receptive to it. Sister Allred used the example of the Wise Men and how they had to be so receptive to do what they did. Brother Allred likened it to Ham Radio and the signals the radios receive. It was really great to hear two very different but great and simple perspectives on how to listen to the spirit. Elder Gurr’s Spanish scriptures are the new ones that they just printed this summer and of course mine are older. There are a lot of words that got changed to better show the meaning of a section so sometimes we have a lot of differing words. There was a ton tonight and it was kind of funny to us because we kept thinking the other was reading wrong. Another Great day!

Floodito! Jan 2 - Jan 8

Mon Jan 2 2017

Today has been pretty good. Proselyting wise, it was pretty short. We had P-Day of course, and that was pretty good. I found a cool sweater at a thrift store and it actually is quite classy. I think it is a bit to un-conservative for the mission because it is not just one color. Idk. Anyways, we emailed and that was pretty good. I thought that having this would make it so i had a lot more time but I really have less than what I did have. That is ok because the quality increases. I just need to figure out something to do while the Neo is typing the whole thing up. After P-Day, we went down to Mason to confirm with the Hunters for our lesson tomorrow. After that we booked it over to the Rowley’s for dinner and that was pretty good. We had spaghetti and pumpkin pie, both things that I think are pretty good but Elder Gurr can’t handle. I felt bad for him because he struggled a bit. Anyways, after that we went out and tried to visit some families east of town. Elder Gurr’s stomach was killing him. We weren’t able to see anyone except Brother Carlgren, who is not even interested in talking to us. We were able to just be friendly and I think he appreciated that. After that we came back and Spanished and that was good too. We both learned a bunch of new words from reading the Book of Mormon. Then we planned. Short, slow, but rewarding day.

Tue Jan 3 2017

Today we had no lessons again and that was pretty sad. We did had something set up with Jim Button and the Hunters but Jim wasn’t back from Silver Springs yet and the Hunters were too tired. They did say that they would give us a call to set up for Sunday, because weekends are better for them. I am pretty hopeful that they will actually call us! District Meeting was awesome too. It was about being the fourth missionary, which basically means the missionary that gives his all to the work and puts the Lord’s will first. I knew that and it was an awesome reminder from my leaders and from the spirit. Something that came to mind was how important it is to have charity for my companion. I need to be making sure his needs are met before my own and it was great to put that into priority in my head. Other than that, we had dinner with the Hibbards at Round Table and that was good, it’s hard to not love a pizza buffet as a 19 year old. We also had some time where we fixed up our records and that was good to prepare the records as of the Lord were to look at them Himself. It has been a very slow day but I feel like I have grown closer to my companion. Elder Gurr has had a terrible headache for the past couple of days and today I focused more on not only being concerned for him but showing it and showing him that I care, In that sense this day has been really good!

Wed Jan 4 2017

Today has been pretty weird. We did our morning stuff like studies and what not. Then we had to go over and get our oil changes but we did get to talk to a couple of Spanish guys and a Less-Active member. That was pretty cool. It was nice to speak Spanish with a native, especially because they were super nice. After that we came back and had lunch. Btw Elder Gurr’s symptoms have persisted and now he has a terrible migraine. He realized when he woke up and his head hurt when he was exposed to light. He’s not a vampire, just a man with a migraine. Anyways, he toughed it out for our lesson with Bruce, which was great by the way. It really was to get him back on track, not only reading with him, but working with him towards the goal of baptism. It was a really good lesson really, we just talked about why he has been coming to church so faithfully for a year. I don’t know if he was all the way there for the whole thing but in the end I think he saw how important baptism really is. He even said himself that it was the gateway, and that was pretty cool. After that, it seemed like Elder Gurr was getting worse so I had him call the Mission Nurse and she said that he should rest up.

Thu Jan 5 2017

This week is slow…. We were inside for studies of course, and then at around ten we got a text from the Zone Leaders saying that President wants us inside until further notice. You see, not only had it rained yesterday, it froze last night and also snowed another 3 inches or so. Yeah. So we weekly planned and ate lunch and we were actually able to finish that up. At around 3 we were still inside doing our to-do list when we got the text that we can leave. After about a half hour of intense ice scraping to our car to make sure it is safe, we headed over to Jim Button’s house and he wasn’t there today. We then went over to Doyle’s, who also wasn’t there. We tried some of the older ladies that lived around there to see if they needed some shoveling done or something. One of them got all concerned because she was worried that she thought she was less active, which she is. She informed us that she was active and seemed a bit freaked out that we stopped by. By that time about an hour had passed and we were beginning to feel pretty unsafe when we got another text saying we should probably head in, and for sure we needed to be in by 6. We had dinner at 6 so we texted dinner to see what they wanted to do. They said to come right then so we did. We had a good stew with the Rempps and that was fun. They told a bunch of stories from their missions together and gave us nutella. That was pretty awesome. After that, we came back and did as much as we still could, do our studies and plan tomorrow like it will be fine. After that we made some planners. Now we are keeping fingers crossed about tomorrow and going to bed! Wish us luck!

Fri Jan 6 2017

Sooo nothing happened today. We didn’t leave the apartment. Elder Gurr has been really sick and so we were inside all day. I did my best to be productive, studying for a couple of hours and cleaning the apartment. We had to cancel dinner so they brought us soup. Sooo yeah, we called some people but other than that, we haven’t really done much. I did get to finish up the Counseling with our Council book and start the Teachings of the Presidents: Gordon B Hinckley and that was pretty awesome. Sooo yeah, I’m 5 hoping Elder Gurr is feeling better tomorrow.

Sat Jan 7 2017

Yet another day inside… Elder Gurr was doing better, we actually did personal and companion studies together! That was awesome after a day of not having it. He decided to give it a go in the morning so we went out and tried to visit Eric Sweeney. By then it was lunch time and he was pooped. He got it together for coordination and after that had to come back and rest. He felt good enough to go to dinner with the Christensens and that was good, except the food hurt his stomach. So we came back and I did my language study and then I cleaned for a bit. I did get to read more of the President Hinckley book and that was really good. I like reading from that because I remember when President Hinckley said some of the things in the book and that is really cool to me. Of course, I may still be stuck inside but we continue to see miracles! Today I decided one productive activity I could do would be to send texts to the numbers in our phone that we didn’t know. From that we got two for sure wrong numbers, one lady who had moved but is willing to meet with the missionaries, and one who said he would come to church tomorrow! ¡Qué Milagro! Also he was Spanish so that’s why I said what a miracle in Spanish. So not much was done proselyting wise, but I am hopeful for the future, especially because Elder Gurr said his goal for tomorrow is to go the whole day! I am pretty excited for that!

Sun Jan 8 2017

Sooo Elder Gurr is getting better.. Slowly but surely. He made it through church and dinner but other than that we were at home so he could rest. I think it is amazing that although we aren’t outside all the time because Elder Gurr needs to rest, we still see miracles daily. Today in Ward Council we announced the Book of Mormon initiative and that was well received. We started today with the Rowleys and they were really excited to start! I’m excited that that went so well and I am excited to see the progress of the work of the whole mission as members take this step!
Also, it flooded in the valley. That was intense.

Don't drink the water in Yerington or eat the icicles!