A month of posts in one...

Mom got behind... so here are Elder Jarnagin's last month of updates-

Oct 3, 2016- Elder Jarnagin wrote an email for the blog, but for some reason it didn't send and he couldn't find it again.  Here are his pictures from that week-



Boldly (Oct 10, 2016)
This week has been pretty good as well, it has been a bit slower lesson wise, nonetheless the work continues! Tuesday we had a lesson with Nacho and that was good.  It is kind of sad though because he seems to be losing interest in the message.  It is always hard when someone feels that way, that they are fine the way they are and don't want to change anymore.  We had exchanges on Wednesday.  It was kind of hard being there, but I did my best to be positive and love everyone around me and we saw some success!  We had a really awesome lesson with a returning less active on Thursday, Sister Baker.  She has been through a lot of rough times, but is fighting to return to full activity.  We brought some members with us, who we weren't sure would be the best fit.  Luckily, they were great, the couple we brought just showed so much love for Sister Baker which allowed them to be really bold in asking what problems she had and how they can help!  It was a testimony builder to me that when we have real, Christlike love for people, we can be bold with them and they will know that it comes out of love!  Other than that we saw a car crash happen right in front of us and that was pretty spooky.  It has been a great week and we will keep working to make it even better!

Onion Fields

Less Actives! (Oct 17, 2016)
This week has been good, we have seen a lot of success with our less actives! They have been progressing and coming to church! Some specifics were a lesson with a less active named brother Co. He has been less active for a while but this is his third week coming to church! We taught him a lesson on the importance of prayer out of the Book of Mormon. We brought his home teacher and that was super awesome, his home teacher was able to apply the message to him really well! Something I realized this week is how important it is to use our talents and to constantly hone them. This week we tried to find more but it seemed no one was out and when they were they seemed busy or would quickly walk away. It seems like since finding is different here I am a little out of touch. This week we had the chance to set up service with a non profit organization. It was cool to see how much good we can do even just by offering help. It seems like we are always offering to help or serve and no one says yes. It is really rewarding when they accept and we are able to help them improve their lives! PS this is a pic of Elder Stienberg, he is in my district

A family of recent converts had just gotten back from a deer hunt, so we took a picture with it.

Joy in the Work! (Oct 24, 2016)
This week has been interesting. I don't think too much out of the ordinary happened but in every situation I was more happy! I think that I am finding more and more joy in every aspect of the work! We had a surprise lesson with the Sanford family last Monday. We stopped by just to set up an appointment and they let us inside! We had a great time talking about their reading and how that is helping and changing them! All this week we were super excited to be a part of thier progression. Then Brother Sanford called us this morning saying he doesn't want us coming over for a while. We aren't too concerned because this has happened before where he decides to investigate on his own, but it is sad that he doesn't want our help. We had a tough day where it seemed like everything fell through, we ended up walking to try to talk with people and trying to set up appointments. It was tough but because we did that we were able to meet Stan. Stan is the son of a less active member in our ward, he has talked to missionaries before and is decently interested in the gospel. He respects the church for the good that we do. We decided to set an expectation of us showing up every other day because most of our investigators have the expectation the we come by every week. We showed up that Tuesday and then that Thursday and had a good lesson about the restoration and the Book of Mormon! I think my favorite part of this week was our church meetings. Not only was it great to participate in the sacrament but 3 less active members came that had never come before! It was so great to see them there! Some things we have been studying is how to work with members. We have really reached the conclusion that if we want to have success, that will come through the members. We have been trying to show them that we are here for them and I think that is beginning to pay off! 

I was shocked... it was a pole!

The building where the Shurz Branch meets

This dog LOVES sticks!

Chili! (October 31, 2016)

This week has been pretty good, we haven't taught as many lessons as we would have liked but we are doing all we can to invite others to come unto Christ! On Monday Brother Sanford, one of our investigators called us and said he needs time to think and make sure he was doing this for him. That was kind of sad because we probably won't be able to help him progress now but we know he will see in the near future the importance of the restored Gospel in his life!  We were able to meet with Jim Button on Tuesday and that was great!  He has been reading though the standard works and had just started the book of Job.  We decided to read that with him and the lesson turned out very well! I  think the coolest part for me was to see how his knowledge of the scriptures has advanced, it is not old, hard to understand words to him now, he understands it much better!  

On Thursday we had a chili cook off with the ward and that was awesome!  We had been sure to invite people to it in the days leading up to it and out of ten recent convert/less active families, eight showed up!  It was great to see them there, especially because we weren't able to invite some of them so that meant the ward did a great job of reaching out as well!  It was so great to see!  Friday we were studying inspired questions during Companionship Study and we had a lesson with Brother Jackson later that day when we could apply what we learned!  We used questions that were able to open up brother Jackson to help him see the importance of reading the Book of Mormon with his family!  On Saturday we were able to go to Smith Valley and see the Funks again!  They are back in town and we hopefully will be teaching them this week! 

These awesome Elders MADE matching ties last week on their P-day!

Funky!

     

Practicing his 'old man' skills with the largest book he's ever seen.  ;)

This week definitely had some highs and lows.  We have had a lot of appointments cancel.  It happens sometimes, but it is still a bit sad when it happens.  We did see some success with a returning less active, Brother Co, this week!  We had two visits with him where we read chapters from the book of Ether.  For one lesson we brought his home teacher who bore a powerful testimony that it is possible to keep all the commandments. Brother Co ended up coming to church this week!  
   We had a wonderful day Wednesday!  We didn't have a dinner that day, so we called up a less active part member family out in Smith Valley who is always willing to feed us.  We spent the evening out there trying to contact people from the ward list we didn't know.  We found a lot of people who weren't interested in coming back, but we did find the Funk family.  We talked to Sister Funk before dinner and she invited us in, but Brother Funk wasn't there so we asked if we could come back at 7.  We returned and talked to the whole family.  We found out that Brother Funk was the only member, but the rest of the family was interested!  Sister Funk especially said she needed religion in her life again!  We are so excited to go back and see them this week!!  Other that that the week was pretty normal!

A little Thrift Shopping...

Elder Abbott with a thrift store beauty!

Swimming anyone???

Night biking...

Elder Jarnagin said this was the 'Lake of Doom'-

A side note from Mom

It's an amazing experience to watch your children grow and mature!  When they make discoveries on their own, they are so powerful.  This small exchange left me feeling proud and honored of the man Elder (Brayden) Jarnagin is becoming-

Question from Dad-

I have a different question for you, and need your input.  I’m struggling with how to help youth with technology.  Devices are great for so many things.  Many of us wonder if they can also be an inhibitor for communication or social skills.  We feel many youth are too used to communicating through a screen, and not with their mouths, in a face-to-face environment.  I’ve also been studying the impacts of lack of devices on newly-called missionaries.  Many have anxiety because they aren’t used to being without their devices. 

Elder Jarnagin's response-
As for technology, I think nothing will really stop misuse of technology (bad sites, too much, lack of real communication, etc) except diligence.  I say that because I have been studying it for a training we are giving in Zone conference tomorrow.  Diligence for me is a good balance of good things. We have time to plan and to teach here, both are needed, but we need diligence to use them and our time effectively.  All of it starts with desire.  If we desire to good we will do it.  Honestly, it was different to adjust to life without a device for me too, to take all those connections and rip them all out is hard.  I think as I have come to value the influence and the connection of the Spirit, the desires to have connections to a device have stopped for me.  I think maybe youth don't fully understand the Spirit or how valuable it and human interaction is.  When they understand that, naturally I think their desires will change for the better! 

Miracles! from Sept 19

   This week has been pretty miraculous!   Monday we had a full day, all three hours of proselyting were filled and none of our lessons fell through!   We started to teach Nacho English.  We met with the Sanford family and they are awesome!  They love to read the Book of Mormon as a couple and are really progressing!  Going up to Fallon two times this week was an interesting experience!  Elder Abbott and I got to have some bonding car rides which was cool!  
   On Wednesday, we met the Redman family, a part member less active family, that had just lost a very close friend.  We were able to be there for them and teach a little bit about the afterlife which seemed to help them a lot! We were also able to meet with Leslie, a recent convert three times this week!  We covered the first three lessons to see what she knows and she sure knows her stuff! We also met with the Sanford family on Thursday again.  Brother Sanford had read the tithing pamphlet we left him and didn't agree with some parts, but during the lesson we were able to use the scriptures and follow the Spirit in order to help him understand the principle!  It was a great lesson! 
   Exchanges with Elder Bentti were fun too!  Elder Bentti is our district leader.  We served around each other in the beginning of my mission.  It was great to see him again and see how he has changed!  I also learned a lot from him about teaching in uncomfortable situations!  We were teaching a man who got off topic a lot with stories, but Elder Bentti was able to follow the Spirit and bring the lesson back. 
   We saw a lot of miracles! Two that stick out are- we went to visit our investigator with a date and he wasn't there, but his son was!  We had a good conversation and he had a ton of questions about us and our religion!  We look forward to following up with him!  We also were trying to visit an investigator that day who wasn't home. As we went to get into the car, someone flagged us down, introduced himself as Brother Shepard, a less active that wants to meet with us and come back to church! So awesome! 

Polar Bear Bentti- when he wasn't feeling good.

Poor dog with a huge lump!

Obsidian (or burned) brownies (blackies)

Weirdest Thrift store find ever!

Nachos! from Sept 12

Elder Jarnagin said, "Don't worry Mom, I already got my hair cut!"  With his Zone in Sparks before getting transferred.

   This week has been pretty miraculous!  We have not had as much time as we wanted to go out and talk to people as we would have liked, because Elder Abbott wasn't feeling to well at the beginning of the week and we spent a ton of time going through weekly planning.  I am quickly coming to learn and understand the area better!  I see why it is important to have a Spanish Elder down here!  There are a lot of Hispanic folks down here.  It is interesting how they are much quicker to say not interested than those in Sparks.  It is kind of nice because we spend less time teaching not interested people. 
   We have taught Nacho this week. He is so awesome, he is a hard working man that is lonely because all of his family is in Mexico and he spends 6 months here and 6 months there. He has been very kind to us and very receptive to the message and now we are going to teach him the Gospel and English! 
   Other than that, we have been able to get in with a lot of different less active families, including one that we didn't know were less actives. There are a lot of teaching situations that are different here, people with different backgrounds and lives. We have seen a lot of significant miracles this week the most surprising to me was a street contact we had the other day. We said hi to a lady and she seemed in a rush so we asked her if she knew anyone that needed a message of prayer. She turned around and commented on how important prayer is. She asked us what church we were from and as I said the churches name she said "Mormons?!"  She then proceeded to say how she wanted to come and try our church because our focus on the family was important to her and she wanted to stop smoking.  She seemed super excited when we left!

Elder Abbott, who has only been out on his mission 6 weeks.  Elder Jarnagin's new companion.

Deep Thoughts... with Elder Abbott

Shrimpy, the water dispenser...

Eight! and I got Transferred! (Again!)

Sorry everyone for the delay... two weeks of posts here-

Eight!  (Monday, August 29th)
   This week has been miraculous!!  We had 8 investigators show up to church and 1 returning less active came for the first time!  We had a great lesson on Monday with one of our newer investigators, Maria, about the plan of salvation. At the end, we committed her to read the Book of Mormon and she said that of course she was going to read it because she had already felt peace while she read it!  On Tuesday, we had a great lesson where we got dropped.  Getting dropped is always kind of sad, but this man, Hector, said that he was ok in his religion but he would read the Book of Mormon with his wife!  Even when people don't accept the message it is good to know we touched someones life. 

   
I think this zone conference on Friday was awesome!  After zone conference we felt super pumped to teach the restoration simply and smoothly and we have seen miracles from that.  We have been able to work in unity more and follow the spirit better!  Our two investigators with a baptismal date, Maria and Eric, are progressing a lot!  We had a lesson with them about baptism and they are understanding why it is important more and more!      

We also had a temple tour with Daniel our recent convert!  We had set up another member to give us a ride, but it fell through so we ended up going with him!  It was really fun, we were able to get to know him better and to feel the beautiful spirit of the temple!  On Sunday everyone came to church and came for all three hours!  Our members did a better job of getting to know them!  This week was awesome!














I got Transferred! (Again!) (Monday, Sept 5th)
   Soooo, I got transferred again.  I have had to pack my stuff to move for the last three transfers.  So far I have served completely in the Reno/Sparks area and now I am leaving to a little town called Yerington, south of Carson City.  It will be a big change for a lot of reasons.  For one, it is an english speaking area.  Two, I am finishing training a missionary.  Three, no Walmart :O  I will be with Elder Abbott.  I know I'm supposed to go to Yerington and that it will be awesome to learn and grow some more! 
   This week has been pretty good!  We had a great week teaching and working in unity.  We had a lot of lessons where the spirit was really strong!  We had one lesson with a returning member family.  The daughter had come to church one week before and the mom was scared to come to a church because she wasn't sure what she believed in.  We taught the plan of salvation and talked a lot about testimony.  I think what made that lesson so great was that we transitioned well and relied a lot more on the scriptures!  
   Other than that, we have had a lot a service.  We helped a less active family move their stuff to a storage unit and that was good.  We also shoveled three truck loads of stone into our investigators yard for 5 hours.  That was pretty intense.  The biggest miracle of this week, I think,

A kind member texted us this picture Monday night- Elder Jarnagin's final night in Reno

On splits this week!

was that although not many came to church, we did have 3 investigators there who have never attended church!