Week 8

AREA: North Las Vegas (Deer Springs/Waterfall)

COMPANION: Elder Steward

I don't have a whole lot of time so I'll have to make it short. Sorry

This week I have been able to teach a new investigator named Jen Mujick and she's a gardener.  She wants to be baptized soon so we have to teach her 2 to 3 times a week so it should be interesting.  We also gave other lessons to Sara and Kash.  They are still progressing and working towards their dates.  We should be able to get 3 baptisms next month which is awesome.  My companion always says, "if something bad happens it almost always his fault, if something good happens, it's always because of God."  Something like that.  I like that though because it's true.  Everything that happens in our life that's good, it's cause of God.  I see blessings in my life everyday.  

Scriptures I've found I come to enjoy

Moroni 7:46-48

Moroni 7:13, 16-17

John 15:13

2 Nephi 7:10-11

Alma 6:6

Love you guys!

Week 7

AREA: North Las Vegas (Deer Springs/Waterfall)
COMPANION: Elder Steward

Monday-  Today was a typical P-day.  We had dinner with a family and they had a referral for us and she said she'll try to set up a teaching visit for us.  We also contacted a referral we got yesterday and he answered the door and said to come by on Saturday to teach a lesson. 

Tuesday-  Today we had zone meeting and we talked about using appropriate missionary language and setting higher standards.  We set a goal as a zone to try are hardest to get 15 commitment given to non-members each day.  That is a really hard goal because we usually get around 4 or 5 a day.  Later that night we went to a members house for water and the family was crazy big.  They had 11 kids in the range of 8 months to 12 years old, all of them are adopted.  All of them were were very different from each other but they all seemed to get along.  The ten year old from Africa yelled, "mommy, when I grow up I want to go on a mission like them!" So that was cool to hear.  We taught them a short lesson and it was a cool experience.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of all of them.

Wednesday-  Today we went to the DI to do service.  It's a thrift store and we sorted clothing that came in and it's pretty nasty stuff.  You'll come across gross used underwear and socks so not the funnest service.  Later we went to Brother Stevens house (less active old guy with corvette) and we taught him a quick lesson but mostly he showed us all the cool things he makes and his 1975 corvette.  We talked about his life and he said he is getting to weak to take care of his yard so we offered to come over to trim bushes and cut the grass every Wednesday.  He has quite a bit of land so there's a lot to do.  He also said we could help him fix his corvette and motorcycle, so that will be cool.  We also taught Joe Downing today and he's been investigating for 3 years now and he asked a pretty common questions we thought he would know by now.  He asked what's the difference between being baptized in a baptist church and ours.  So we talked a lot about the priesthood. So that was cool to teach him something new.

Thursday-  Today was weekly planning and it went well.  I lead it for the first time so it was interesting.  Then we did a lot of street contacting and tracking with not much luck.  

Friday-  Today we taught Cash and Sara, unfortunately we had to push their baptismal date back a little for both of them.  There wasn't enough time to teach all the lesson because not all the lesson happened that we planned for.  We taught Sara CPR (church, prayer, and read) and it went well I bore my testimony a lot and spirit was strong in the room.  Then Cash we taught law of chastity and he's eleven so we taught it pretty simply.  

Saturday-  Today we had exchanges, and I was with Elder Flores.  He is really into cars and is from Mexico.  He mostly like muscle cars and I'm more of a All Wheel Drive car kind of guy since I'm from Minnesota.  It was a long day of lessons canceling but we had 6 successful street contacts/ door contacts.  We had dinner with a family from Minnesota, around Coon Rapids area.  They were an interesting family.  Then we did some more street contacting.

Sunday-  Today was a good Sabbath day.  I enjoyed the talks in both sacrament meetings.  They were about the articles of faith and the importance of them.  They had a lot of stories that go along with it and it strengthened my testimony on the AofF.  After church we did some street contacting and went to the ward mission leaders house to report our work we have done.  Then we went to dinner at the Stevenson's and they have a exchange student from Spain there and we taught a lesson towards the end on keeping the Sabbath day holy.  Then we played apples to apples while Sister Stevenson mad dessert. Then the day came to an end.

This week I have been able to grow a lot in my teaching and contacting skills, I hope to continue to have a steady growth.

I love this true gospel and I know if I continue to have positive thought and work hard and set goals I will be a successful missionary.  I know the gospel is the only thing that can bring me eternal happiness.  I know nothing else can make me happy forever, not even a car.

Love you guys!

 

Week 6

AREA: North Las Vegas (Deer Springs/Waterfall)
COMPANION: Elder Steward

Monday- Today we played volleyball again.  It was fun to email
everyone and hear from them.  After all the fun we had a Family home
evening with a less active family, it went really well.  We talked
about sincere prayer and it was awesome to see how much lesson seem to
help their family.
Tuesday- Today we had district meeting and we talked about knowledge
and it seemed to help me study more efficiently in the mornings.  The
lesson gave me more of a want to build my knowledge more about our
true gospel.  Later that day we taught a family we found last week,
their name is the McDonald family.  They have three kids and the dad
is a inactive member but the wife is not.  We taught them the
restoration and they all seemed very intrigued while we taught and had
a lot of questions.  It was a great lesson and we set up a return
appointment for next Tuesday because they are a very busy family and
Tuesday are the only day that works for them.
Wednesday-  Today we did a lot of finding with not much luck.  We also
had a lesson with Joe Downing (has been investigating for 3 years
now).  We read out of Alma 32 and it went well.  He was talking about
baptism and seemed interested to be baptized sometime soon.  Which
means maybe 3 months for him.
Thursday- Today at the gym I ran a 6.05 min mile and that's as fast as
the treadmill will let me so from now on I will try to continue to
build on the mile.  Today was weekly plan so it was long but pretty
good.
Friday- Today we taught Cash (11 year old boy) the Ten Commandments
and it went pretty good.  He has a date to be baptized the 24th and
same with are other investigator Sara.  While we were street
contacting tonight there was a dirt biker doing a wheelie down the
street for a long time, so that was cool.  After that another cool
thing happened.  There was a Hummer H1 driving down the road and then
just drove off the road and started going up straight up hills and
going down.  They ended up stopping to talk to us and asked if we
wanted a ride.  My companion said no thanks when I was going to say
yes!  They were members so they were cool.  Unfortunately we didn't
find anyone to talk to for the 2 miles we walked.
Saturday- A lot of finding today, we had a quick lesson with a
semi-active family.  It went pretty good and they all came to church
the next day so that's good.
Sunday-  Today we had 5 hours of church and it was good.  Lunch/dinner
after church was like a family reunion it seemed like.  They invited
all there family to come over and that was good because we got a lot
of referrals from them.  Today was 9/11 and we went with a family to a
flag memorial for each death that happened for 9/11. So a lot of
flags.
I'm so happy for the opportunity to serve for two years in Las Vegas.
It's an awesome place with a lot of nice people.
I just want to share a scripture to express my gratitude to our Savior
Isaiah 53:4-6
Love you guys!

Week 5

AREA: North Las Vegas (Deer Springs/Waterfall)
COMPANION: Elder Steward

Sunday- Today we went to the Deer Springs ward for the whole 3 hours
and then went to the Waterfall ward for the rest of the time.  We
switch off wards each week so we don't favor one ward more than the
other.  I was super tired for some reason it felt like a long day.
Monday- Today was P-day and we just went grocery shopping and
Ross(Marshall's).  Then we go to the church to hang out and write our
emails and play volleyball or basketball.
Tuesday- Today for morning workout ran a 6.27 min mile, in the morning
I am trying to push myself to go faster and faster.  The treadmill
maxes out at 10 mph so the mile I can get is 6.00 so I'm working
towards that.  I have ran a mile every single day since I've been out
in the field, I started at a 8.25 min mile so I've improved.  Today we
had district meeting which was good. It was about diligence and he
quoted my favorite scripture in the lesson (D&C 58:27).  Then we
taught a investigator named George Segala and his family's religion is
the Sydney R. branch off of the Mormon church(The Church of Jesus
Christ). He has a testimony that our church is true but his family
isn't on board to switch churches (his wife).  Now we are just trying
to encourage him to come to church once and see how he feels.  After
that we went to a less actives house and he has a 1975 Corvette.  We
left him with a spiritual thought and asked him if he could read a
chapter of the BOM so hopefully he does.
Wednesday- Today we taught Sara for the third time, she is 16 years
old.  We taught her the plan of salvation.  We asked her to be
baptized and she said yes.  She has been attending seminary because a
young women invited her to come when she was a church on Sunday.  She
is an awesome investigator, she is following up with the commitments
we give her.  We also got a referral from another set of missionaries,
her name is Jen and she has three kids and she said she wants her and
her kids baptized but we haven't been able to contact her yet.
Thursday- Today was weekly planning, we planned out our week for about
3 and a half hours.  We did a pretty good job on staying on task. We
plan for an hour then take a 10 minute break then and so on.  Also
President Walker asked us in the month of September to show our
gratitude towards people by giving them thank you cards.  So he has
asked us to give out 2 thank you cards out a day.
Friday-  Today I had a 6.17 min mile on the treadmill and I was
motivated because I was racing Elder Steward.  Not a whole lot
happened today. It was a lot of finding and there was nobody to find
because everyone was out of town for Labor Day weekend.  I attempted
to ride a unicycle at a members house, it was pretty fun but hard.
Other than that pretty slow day.
Saturday- Today was also a pretty slow day because of the same reason.
So we were knocking doors for a along time today.  We talked a
potential investigator, she didn't seem to interested but she was
happy to invite us in.  She asked if we wanted a beer and we said no
thanks with a grin haha.  We just showed her a video and left with a
prayer and set up a returning appointment.  Then for dinner we had BBQ
chicken sandwiches.  Then the member asked if we wanted to milk a goat
and we were excited to try so we did haha.  We have videos below.
They also had like 6 cars, they were big fans of old Volkswagens.
They had an old vw bug dune buggy and an old jeep.
This week has been pretty busy.  It was a good week.  We had about 5
lessons so it's been fun getting to teach people the gospel.
Scripture I found this week I like.  Moroni 7:13, 16-17
In life try to see how the Holy Spirit guides you.  Whenever you are
making bad decisions that's Satan tempting you.  Recognize when the
devil is tempting you and make a plan to push him away if he does.
Also thank the Lord for blessing us with the Holy Ghost.

Black widows everywhere at night

Drift race teams semi truck

My typical lunch haha. I haven't gained any weight yet. I get fed almost everyday for dinner by members.