Two Week update- New Area! and Organizing

Monday, May 9- New Area!

This week was super cool!  It was fun/sad saying goodbye to everyone in Stead, but I know they are in good hands!  We had a fun day after transfers with Elder Bido.  It was a little different, because Elder Pusey and I didn't have much time to talk and get to know each other.  We have had that time now and we are working great together! I think we still need to work on how much each of us is saying during lessons, but we are working on it!  Being in a new area again, after my first transfer, has been kind of uncomfortable.  I don't know the area or the people yet and that is kind of hard to deal with. Something President Johnson said on Saturday about the split really struck me. He said that the Lord isn't so concerned with our comfort but our growth and the growth of others.  It has been great to reflect on that- that although I am not comfortable here, I will grow and I will work hard to learn the area and get to know the area!  I am so excited for what the next weeks have in store!

Monday, May 16- Organizing

We had a good week this week.  We have been working with one of the recent converts here a lot this week, to help her get in a habit of reading and that has been great.  We have had a lot of opportunities to give service to different less active members and others and it has been a great experience to participate in that!  

We had a fireside on Sunday where recent converts go and give their testimonies. We had no one going on Sunday, but we decided to ask everyone last minute and they said yes!  We got to the fireside and only those who we had asked were still able to speak.  Huge miracle!

One thing that stuck out about this week was the length of weekly planning.  We have been working hard to organize our records and the area so we can be more effective.  As we have been working at it, I have been able to know the area more and know who people are and that has been so great!  Elder Pusey and I are working on teaching in unity, to not let either of us dominate the teaching, but to work together!  We are doing great!

Here are a few pictures from the New Area- Sun Valley, NV

 The Rameumptom in Nevada... You can read a simple version of the story here.

Door to the new apartment and a delicious home cooked meal!

 First pair of shoes worn out- 7 months in...

When Mom asks for pictures of 'his face' 

More random pets from Nevada- 

 

Transferred

Weekly service at the Catholic Food Pantry... see picture below

   Well I am getting transferred to Sun Valley, the second biggest trailer park in the world!  This week has been full of obedience, and because of that, miracles.  We have seen a lot of success in finding new investigators daily as we talk to people and show real interest in their lives.  When we have real love for the people, we see miracles and find people who are really interested!  I am so excited for the growth this area is seeing!  It has been interesting this week, being pretty sure I was going to be transferred.  I had to make sure I was always giving my all to the work and to the people.  It is easier to give your all to everyone, knowing you will leave when you have love for the people, when you want them to progress no matter if you are there or not.  It was kind of sad saying good bye to the Reno Zone, there are so many great missionaries here, but I am so excited to go to Sun Valley and serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength! 

Elder Jarnagin and the other LDS missionaries help sort and distribute food at the Catholic Food Panty each week.

Here's a sampling of a few signs encountered while out and about-

Bike Miracles

   This week has been super cool!  At the beginning of the week, Elder Peterson challenged us to use our bikes as much as possible. We have been doing that and we have seen a lot of miracles!  It's amazing what happens when we follow our District Leaders advice!  
   We had a really cool member present lesson this week. We were walking in an area where a member lives and we saw him outside, so we went over to say hi.  Another guy was with him and it turns out he was not a member. We had a great experience teaching and testifying with the member there!
   On Wednesday, we saw an awesome miracle.  We got to an area to go contact some of our investigators and to talk with everyone and the first person we talked to was a new investigator.  We have had a lot of success just talking to everyone we see in the streets.  We have found a lot of potentials and set appointments with them. We just need to turn the potentials into new investigators now! 
   Exchanges were good.  I learned a lot from Elder Peterson and we had a very constructive exchange review which was awesome.  Elder Bido and I are doing great, we are doing better each day! 

Answers to Prayers

 
   This week has been great!  We have seen a lot of miracles!  We have been working with the Razo family to get them reading and that has been great!  They have been reading pretty well.  On Tuesday we went to one of our investigators houses and followed up on his Book of Mormon reading.  We had only told him to read the introduction, but he had already read 13 chapters!  We have had a lot of success when we follow the smallest of promptings. We had a prompting that we should go to Cold Springs, one of our farther areas, to see some less actives that we have never met, and they were outside!  We were able to have great lessons!  We were able to have a lesson with the Chavez family again and it seems that the father is interested again!  We went to Cold Springs again later in the week because we had an appointment over there, that fell through, but we went to another less actives home and she said she had been praying for us to come!  It was such an awesome feeling to know that by following the promptings of the Spirit, we were able to see a prayer answered!  Elder Bido and I are getting along great, we are doing better at working in unity and we are seeing the Spirit touch people more because of it!

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!