Don't Judge Others

This week has been pretty great!  We have had some good lessons and seen a lot of progression in some of our investigators.  We have seen some drops.  Miguel and Suyapa, our investigators that have had a baptismal date, dropped us, saying they are fine where they are.  I think something I learned this week was to never judge people. We saw a lot of times where we would talk with everyone, even those who don't seem too interested, but then turned out to be interested.
A spiritual experience this week was stake conference.  Elder Echo Hawk of the seventy came to create a new stake, so now we are in the new Mt. Rose stake.  It was so cool because all of the people were talking about how every part of the process is approved by the prophet and is inspired.  A funny experience was we asked a lady if she knew some Spanish people around, then we asked if we could share a scripture and she basically ran away screaming. 

This photo was texted to us Friday night, from some kind soul in Nevada!  It said, "Here with the best missionaries in the world.  Thank you for sending them on their missions.  We are just so blessed."  Those are words sweet to a parents ears!

Exchanges on Friday were great!  It is always fun to be in an English area.  We saw a lot of miracles.  One of those was when we decided to say a prayer to find someone who needed a message.  We prayed and the first person we talked to said she needed a message!  It has been a great week of progression!

 

 

Conference and Miracles

This week has been so great!  We have seen so many miracles and had the opportunity to watch conference!  (What is General Conference?)  Monday we had a fantastic lesson with the Razo family where we watched The Restoration and then asked them why the message is important.  We then tried to commit the rest of the family to baptism, but they were not ready.  We found out that none of them have really read the Book of Mormon, so we need to help them do that to help them receive an answer.  On Tuesday, we had a great day with set appointments with some potentials.  One of the miracles this week was that so many of our set appointments didn't fall through and we got many new investigators. 
Conference was so great, it seemed like there was an overarching theme that God loves us and he always will love us, no matter what.  I think looking back, one of my regrets is not listening to conference like I should have.  It is such a refresher in my life, I could sit there listening for days.  I really liked one of the talks from priesthood session that talked about always preparing for a temple marriage, no matter how old we are.  I think that is very true that out here in the mission we have a responsibility not only to bring others to Christ, but also to bring ourselves to him!

When I am constantly asking for pictures of 'his face', this is what I end up with!!

I asked why the picture of someone's toilet?  He responded that the picture was of the pamphlet on top of the toilet.  They left it with this family the week before and it had become 'reading material'.  A good sign!

Re-vamped Area

  
   This week has been super interesting!   Last Monday at lunch we were getting ready to leave and some anti Mormons came and sat down. It actually was a great experience because they would try to confound us with questions and we were able to answer them plainly and simply. It was amazing to see that "We would not be confounded before men."

 
   It was super great to get Elder Bido this week, he is a super good example to me, he teaches well and we get along super great. He doesn't know English all too well, so it has been a great experience to be able to learn and speak Spanish more with him and help him with his English!  We have had a slow week, lesson wise, but we have been setting lessons with many people and making sure we are talking to everyone!  We have seen a lot of success working with less actives, trying to resolve their problems and help them use the Atonement in their lives!  We have found that we have a lot of people that we have been meeting with for a year or so that have never progressed, we are trying to find people that truly are prepared and ready to make changes in their lives! 


   (These snow pictures are from today- Monday, March 28, 2016)

Trio Life

This week has been pretty interesting!  It was super sad to see Elder Romney leave on Tuesday, but it has been a blast being in a trio!  I have actually been in a trio with Elder Baker and Shearer who were some of my leaders down in Reno, but now they are my neighbors.  We have seen a lot of miracles all week!  It has been kind of tough getting used to living and teaching with three, but it has been super fun!  I think this week has really helped me to learn how to switch off while teaching.  This weekly planning was especially effective.  Going through the Area book, I realized that we have a lot of investigators that we have been teaching for a long time that have never progressed.  We will be doing a lot of pruning of this part of the vineyard this week to find those people who are prepared for the Gospel!  I am getting a new companion on Tuesday named Elder Bido from the Dominican Republic!  I am so excited to work with Elder Bido, to work hard, to be exactly obedient, and to see a ton of miracles!

Little Triste (Sad)

   This week has been sort of tough.  We have been working with Miguel and Suyapa toward their baptismal date, they have been progressing well, but on Friday they told us they weren't ready.  They also didn't show up to church which was super disappointing.  We have seen a lot of progress in our other investigators though!  Manuel, has been progressing greatly.  We have been teaching him for a long time and we could never share much because he could only meet at 4-4:15.  We found times when he was available and we had the opportunity to share the message of the restoration with him, which was so powerful.  
   

  We went to the doctor for Elder Romney's knee and it turns out he has to go home to get surgery on his ACL.  I'm super sad to have to see Elder Romney leave, but I know this will be the best for him.  This week has been a great chance to forget about my needs and focus on his!

Spanish Growth

  
   This week has been pretty good!   We had family night with the Razo family on Monday which was super great! We challenged them to have family prayer and scripture study and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that they already praying as a family daily!  That was so cool to see that they are progressing on their own!  Tuesday we had a random opportunity to give some service!  It was great to see how happy the people were to receive help!  Thursday was our exchange day, Elder Peterson was with me in our area.  We didn't have much success lesson wise, but it was great to learn and be with Elder Peterson!  We helped out Miguel and Suyapa with some service Saturday and that was great! 
   One thing I have been noticing recently is my Spanish.  In lessons and speaking I still think I struggle, but in my language study when I am reading or listening to someone I can understand as clearly as English and that has been such a blessing.  It is amazing to see the hand of the Lord in our lives when we put in 100% of our effort!

 I think I learned a lot about faith this week. We talk a lot about faith to find and I have seen that in action this week. We go on splits with our zone leaders every Sunday, so I go with one Zone leader and Elder Romney goes with another.  They are in a Spanish area too and whenever we walk around their area there are Spanish speakers everywhere.  It seems almost impossible that there are that many Spanish speakers in one area!  For part of the splits this Sunday the Zone Leaders went to an appointment and Elder Romney and I went street contacting and it seemed like all the Spanish people evaporated.  I realized that I needed to have faith and expect to find people, wherever we are!  When we expect miracles and give it our all, we will see miracles everywhere!

Slow week (short email)

   This week was slow, missionary work wise.  We had very few lessons, mostly because we were in meetings most of the week.  We had Zone Conference this Wednesday and that was super cool.  We learned a lot from the recent missionary broadcast, Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts.  We had the opportunity to prepare a talk for Zone Conference and I noticed as I prepared that all that we do really is bring people closer to repentance and baptism. 

We set our investigators, Miguel and Suyapa, with a baptismal date of March 20th and we will be working closely with them to prepare them for baptism.  

Missionaries at Zone Conference.  Can you spot Elder Jarnagin in this photo?

A classic 'Elder J' face!

Mom is thankful for the mission blog- nevadarenomission.com- where I found these pictures from Zone Conference.