Week 12

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

Monday-  Today was a normal P-day besides the fact we found a new
investigator named Nick.  We taught a lesson outside his door because
his house is crazy.  He is taking care of 8 dogs and they all bark
like crazy.  Other than that it was a normal P-day.
Tuesday- Today we had Zone training meeting  and it was about having
using members to help you do missionary work.  Invite members to help
teach lessons and we role played how to do so.  Both our lessons fell
through, one with Jen and one with Sara.  We finished visiting less
active members for a list of people we had.  None were to interested
in coming back.  One of them was blind and obese so his life sounds
pretty depressing.  He got some disease that spread and made a lot of
his not work which is what made him blind.  Today we found out the
rule changed for music so now we can listen to EFY and other spiritual
songs.  We used to only listen to MOTAB.
Wednesday-  Today did service for Brother Stevens and we tore out a
lot of big weeds.  Also we had a lesson with Nick and taught the plan
of Salvation.  But after the lesson we realized he is a single adult
so we will have to refer them to the YSA Ward missionaries.
Thursday-  Today we taught Joe Downing and taught about what come
after baptism and it was really interesting to him.  He has been
taught for 3 years by missionaries and he didn't know anything we were
talking about.  Callings, temple marriage/ baptism for the dead, and
service.  It was a good lesson to show what he can do after baptism.
Other than that it was an average day.
Friday-  We were on exchanges today and I was with Elder Flores.  We
met a lady today named Christine and she is very knowledgeable with
the Bible.  We taught her for about an hour and a half on her porch
and it was mostly of her talking.  Good day overall.  We also went to
a car show for 30 mins and talked to some people there about the
gospel/cars.  It was a fun day.
Saturday-  Today me and Elder Steward made a contract with the Lord
today to get a new family to teach and another investigator by the end
of the transfer.  On our part we will knock 10 doors a day and have
more meaningful and productive studies and work with members in our
teaching visits.  It really helped us through out the day to stay
positive. We had another lesson with Christine and we found out she is
sexist towards women.  She thinks women shouldn't be able to speak in
church because in the Bible somewhere in 1 Corinthians it talks about
that.
Sunday-  Today we had a good lesson in church about gratitude and
about not complaining and I can see it is really important to do so.
For dinner a family gave us papa murphy's pizza and it was BBQ chicken
pizza and I thought they stopped making that but it was good.  Overall
good Sabbath day.
I know that having the spirit is the most important thing to have as a
missionary.  Without the spirit nothing goes how you want it too.
Being exactly obedient is so important and I have seen it my life as a
missionary.  Also complaining is a terrible thing to do as a
missionary.  I can see the difference in the day if we complain vs
not.  So I'm life don't complain and you'll be happier.
Also I found a scripture I really like I'd like to share.
2 Nephi 31:13

Week 11

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

Monday-  Today was a pretty tiring P-day, tomorrow I hope to be more
alert tomorrow.  We were going to have a lesson with Mike and Maria
but they weren't home.  The rest of the evening was street contacting.
Tuesday-  Today we had district meeting and it was probably the
highlight of my day. We were on bike today and we biked 7 miles in the
afternoon to go to a lesson and they canceled 15mins before the
lesson.  It was above 90 degrees so that was kind of annoying we biked
all the way there for nothing lol.  Then we tried to go to our next to
lessons and they both fell through.  For dinner we ate at the
Crossman's again, the people with the goats we milked.  Then on the
way to our other ward boundaries to go try to see less active members
I got a flat on our bike so we walked it for about 2 miles to find a
member with a patch.  We ended up trading bikes with a member so I
could get home.  We ended up trading back a day later.  Rough day
today.
Wednesday- Today we went to do service for Brother Stevens again but ended
up just having a conversation with him and his friend.  Talked about
how they were inactive and how we can change that but they weren't to
interested in changing.  So we ended up talk about politics and cop
stories they have.  Then later that day we had a lesson with Joe
Downing about enduring to the end.  It was good we set him with some
goals and how to keep progressing.  That's about all that happened
today worth mentioning.
Thursday-  Today we had weekly planning and I was leading but we
only got half way done since we had a lesson in the middle of it with
Sara and it was about following the prophet and keeping the
commandments.  She is still progressing and has a baptismal date set
for October 29th.  Also we later in the night had a scorpion and black
widow spider fight. It wasn't that exciting as it sounded but it was
cool. Video attached at the bottom.
Friday-  Today Elder Cornish was coming for a conference. He is in the
70 and he spoke in conference recently.  He is a very funny and good
man.  He had a lot of good words to say on how we should be in unity
with the ward.  Also how we as missionaries should be more organized
and more prepared for lessons and ward council meetings.  Then we
ended the day with tracting after dinner.  Good day!  I took a lot of
notes.
Saturday- Today was an interesting Saturday. We checked on Joe Downing
to see how he was doing.  Just checking on his goals and have a quick
spiritual thought.  He is reading his scriptures everyday and said he
is really trying to go slow so he can understand everything.  We also
went to see a less active family, the Perry's.  The reason why they
are not active is because there daughter is fighting with her mom
about going to church.  The daughter is 15 and claims she is
Egyptianist but she knows nothing about the religion she claims she is.
Elder Steward new a little bit about her religion so he started
talking about what she believes and she knows nothing.  Then we taught
them a quick lesson of good and evil then asked if we can teach the
daughter the missionary lessons and the mother got excited.  But then
the daughter totally broke her moms heart and says thanks but no.  It
was pretty sad.  Then we had a dinner afterward with and really loud
and obnoxious family.  sister Robb works at a place where you study
dead bodies and she talks about cutting legs off and eyes.  Let's just
say she talks about dead bodies like me talking about cars, it's
pretty weird.  They were super hard to talk to, the whole meal we
pretty much just listen to them talk.  It was an interesting day today
overall.
Sunday-  Today was good, nothing to interesting happened today.  We
had the primary program today in church.  It was pretty funny to
watch.  Dinner was interesting, we had dinner with a family with 3
teenage boys and they were all extremely quiet.  Then we had  a lesson
with Brother Brewster which was good.
Love this gospel and love you guys.

Week 10

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

Sorry for the last two emails, they were pretty short.  The first
short one was because of transfers and I stayed in the same area.  The
second email was because we were shopping for too long and had barely
any time to type emails.  And we are only supposed to write emails for
an hour every pday.  Sorry I'll work on having more detailed emails.
Monday-  Today was a good P-day.  We went shopping and went to a
restaurant called Canes and it has chicken strips and they taste
really good. And then we wrote emails and played volleyball for a
little bit.  After our dinner we had a family home evening planned
with the Van Buskirk family.  They are a cool family, they are really
into dirt biking, snowboarding, long boarding, cars, ect., a lot of
things I enjoy.  They also had a unicycle which I tried but wasn't the
best at.  Anyway they are a cool family but the older brothers, 18 and
20, are inactive and don't seem interested in the church.  The dad is
a little inactive and the mom is active.  Then they have a daughter
that's 16 and son that 12.  So we taught them a lesson and it was
about good vs. evil. I planned the lesson and I put a lot of thought
into it.  I showed them a video called the Hope of God's Light.  The
video seemed to thought the father and daughter. I also shared Mosiah 7:13, 16-19 and then bore my testimony of how nothing else in the
world can make you happier than being close to God and being dedicated
to this true gospel.  Good day.
Tuesday- Today we were on bike again because every Tuesday we go on
bike to conserve miles. It was a good day, we were able to meet with
Jen Mujick today and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. We also
had district meeting andElder Flores taught about recognizing and
using the spirit as a missionary. Also while we were biking there was
a guy who threw fire crackers out his window at us and they exploded
while riding past them, it was pretty funny and a surprise. Other than
that it was a pretty basic day.
Wednesday-  Today we did service for Brother Stevens again. He's an
old guy with a big property who can't take care of it very well.  So
we helped him pick pomegranates and we picked a whole wheel barrel
full also we trimmed a tree of his.  We taught Joe again and we showed
a General Conference talk to him, it was by Elder Wilford W. Anderson,
called the Music of the Gospel.  Really good talk, I would recommend
watching it.  It talks about how we should go through the motions.
Thursday-  Today we had weekly planning but had 3 lessons planned for
today.  Instead we only ended up having one lesson because the others
canceled.  We just taught Sara the lesson was about the law of
tithing.  It was good, we also had a lesson with the Bulluck family
and they are returning to activity.  We taught about the 12 tribes and
it was cool to see them hungry to learn.  I need to study that more
myself cause not all of it makes sense to me yet.
Friday-  Today we were able to finish off weekly planning and teach a
lesson to Kash about teaching, learning, and service.  Tomorrow we are
goi g on exchanges and I'm with Elder Talani.  He is a cool guy, it
sound likes he likes to have fun(not use his time wisely).  We have
two lessons planned for tomorrow so it should be a good day.
Saturday- Today was an interesting exchange, I was with Elder Talani
and he is cool but doesn't follow all the rules but he's an okay guy.
He was hard to keep him on track in companion study, he would always
get off topic and he wanted to to nap for an hour and he did while I
polished my shoes and read General Conference talks. We taught two
lessons but neither were the ones planned for the day.  One was on the
street with a family, there name was Maria and Mike and we taught them
for about 15 minutes about the restoration.  It was good, I'm pretty
sure they felt the spirit and I did strongly.  We set up a time on
Monday to come back.  We also taught a guy named Gamelel and we have
run into him before and we just stopped by to see if he was home.  We
ended up trying to teach him but it was more of him trying to argue
with us that we are full of crap.  He would ask questions that we new
the answer to but he would give us any time to answer them.  It was
pretty frustrating but a good experience, we had him pray at the end
because he didn't want us to pray because he says we believe in a
different Jesus which is so dumb that he thinks that.  Then we ended
are exchange and went to bed.
Sunday- Today was fast Sunday, it was a good Sunday but nothing too
big happened.  It was just a very spiritual sacrament meeting, I was
able to bless the bread.  We didn't have any of our investigators at
church today so that was a bummer.  Then it was more meeting later in
the day, not much else after that, just street contacting and trying
to knock on less active doors.
This week I have really focused on being more confident in myself and
don't be so self critical and it has really helped me be in a better
mood.  I know that if we are less negative in our lives and we are
happier every day.  So look for the blessings and miracles in your day
and you'll be better off.

GTR in our apartment complex, really weird to see that. It was a bit of a surprise.

Good scripture, Moroni 7: 13, 16-19

Liking my new uglyish tie.

Two ties I got from a trade.

 

Bored during weekly planning. Stupid humor.

Week 9

AREA: North Las Vegas (Deer Springs/Waterfall)

COMPANION: Elder Steward

This week has been good. The highlight of my week was definitely
General Conference. My favorite talks were probably Peter F. Meurs and
Henry B Eyring and they talked about the Sabbath day and Sacrament.
Those talks I will be using in my family home evening lesson I have
today. I felt strongly prompted to share parts of their talks in the
lesson plan. Other than Conference I felt like this week was good. We
were able to teach 3 lessons  and 2 member present lessons. We have
three baptismal dates scheduled for this month and it's a blessing to
have people to teach and watching people change their ways for the
Lord. I will continue striving forward and remind myself everyday why
I am here. I love it out here, it's the happiest I've been in my life.
I have really enjoyed going through gospel library and watching the
Mormon messages. One that stood out the most was the Hope of Gods
Light.  I really like how he describes how happy he is with the gospel
in his life and the difference between having it vs. not having it.
Also it shows how miracles happen everyday.  I felt the spirit strong
watching the video, I invite all to watch it.
Love you guys and miss you all.

P-day dress code, not actually, my companion had an old shirt he ripped up and he gave the collar to me so I did this. 😂

new tie I got from a trade.

Long day on bike, we ran out of miles for the month for our car.

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!