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!