Atonement of Jesus Christ

Dear Family & Friends:

6/19 Monday
Today started early and quickly! We headed to the church, right away in the morning, to make sure it was all set up! Mission tour went super smooth and it was super great to learn from Elder Costa! The only p-day time we got this week was from 4:00-6:00 and so we got our shopping done and a couple other things taken care of!

6/20 Tuesday
I had the privilege to conduct today, which was a good time! It was definitely a new experience, because I don't have too much experience with that kind of stuff! Something that we have been discussing the last couple of days at mission tour is the “Enabling Power of the Atonement.” It all comes from a talk by Elder Bednar. We, as members of the church, understand a lot about the “redeeming power of the Atonement,” but not too much about the “enabling power of the Atonement!” The Atonement can not only help us go from bad to good, but also good to better! Tonight we got to go to dinner with President and Elder Costa and his family. President Walker was driving ahead of us with Elder and Sister Costa with him and then Elder Costa’s kids were in the next car and then us! It was straight chaos trying to keep up with them! Our tiwi kept yelling at us to slow down but we needed to keep up. The drive ended by President running over a curb because he went into a wrong turn lane to get to the restaurant and Elder Costa’s kids followed them, but Elder Bird and I decided we would drive a little further just to keep it safe! Haha Dinner was a great time and we got to talk a lot and share the gospel with our waitress!

6/21 Wednesday
Today was exchanges! I was with Elder Paige once again. Today started by doing a couple hours of service pulling weeds out of a backyard! It has been a minute since I was able to work like that, so it was fun to do that! Today we worked hard and we were able to meet with a kid named Graylon. We taught him the restoration and he accepted a baptismal date of July 22! Unfortunately, we will have to pass him off to the Young Single Adults (YSA). It was a great day!

6/22 Thursday
Haha, where to begin? Today was slammed with hints to do and it had an interesting start! We went on two exchanges during the day/evening and are on exchanges again tonight. I had a great experience with the missionary I was with earlier tonight. When Elder Bird and I meet up with this companionship, I could tell right away the missionary I was spending the evening with was not doing good. I sat down with him and he begin his rant of how bad of a missionary he was. I listened for a little while and told him that the Lord had someone out there waiting for us to find.  And after we had found him we would come back and talk! We had a super, super good night and set a man that we street contacted into with a date! This missionaries countenance completely changed and he was a different man in just three hours! It was cool!

The day's adventures. Report is "he is fine."

6/24 Saturday
We meet with Janice today and earlier in the week. We taught the law of chastity and the Word of Wisdom. Janice was telling us that she is struggling big time with coffee! She has to go to Starbucks and get a cup of ice water because she needs the cup to cover her temptations! Haha she is solid!

6/25 Sunday
We were asked to speak in church today and so we did that! I talked about having the faith to find people that are ready for the Gospel! It went well!

- Elder Call NLVWM

Treat money well spent.

Where True Happiness Comes From

Dear Family & Friends:

6/12 Monday
Well, today, I got all my hair chopped off... and got to play some ball and that's about it!

6/13 Tuesday
Wow, that was a nerve racking lesson with Ken tonight. I thought he was going to drop us haha. We started teaching about following a prophet and he was not a fan of there only being one prophet. His idea of a prophet was that anyone who talked about Christ was a prophet. We were able to clear that up a little bit but we still have some work to do there. He said he would pray about it and see what God had to say!

6/14 Wednesday
So, today, I was on exchanges with Elder Tanginoa. He is from Tonga and he is super awesome! We had a great day.  We taught Brenda and Tracy and we were able to set them with a day to go to the temple! It was great! We saw Joseph and Janice tonight and we had a spiritual lesson, setting Janice with a baptismal date of July 15th! We talked about how one day they are going to have children that will be wearing white shirts and ties teaching people! That is the dream. Today we got a call from Dylan and he said he can't be baptized on Saturday 😪. The person he wants to baptize him isn't available on Saturday and so it has to be pushed back for the next little while, because, he leaves for scout camp on Saturday the 24th and doesn't get back until the 1st. Somewhat of a bummer but it will be better for him.

6/15 Thursday
We had a meeting with President and Sister Walker this morning. They fed us breakfast and we discussed the upcoming Mission Tour that we are having on Monday and Tuesday! I am way excited for it. Elder Costa is coming! We will get to have dinner with him on Tuesday night! We meet with Ken this morning as well and showed him the video of President Monson’s talk entitled "Principles and Promises." He loved it! He opened up to us and told us that he thinks God is answering his prayers in unexpected ways! He said that as he has been reading and meeting with us, he hasn't had the strong desires to continue a lot of his addictions! He is great, we are going to be starting the nonsmoking program with him! Tonight we made the long ‘ol, haul out to Pahrump, Nevada, for an emergency exchange! It was a long drive and I am excited to spend a day in Pahrump!

6/16 Friday
Pahrump is an interesting place... I will say that much. It is a mix between like, Hanksville, Utah, Evanston and Kemmerer, Wyoming. haha. Trailer parks and mobile homes all day! At one point we went up to a house and knocked and we hear a man see that it is us and starts cussing super loud at us and then he opens the door and says "Hey guys, what's up? Talk to me!" Haha I was shocked. His house was quite disgusting. He had particle board for his flooring which was saturated with animal you know what. We asked the dude for water and he brought us a couple sodas. As I drank the soda there was a terrible smell and I realized, the can smelled just like inside the house... gross. We also taught a lady that was from Evanston, Wyoming!! It went great and so it was fun to be around people from Wyoming!

6/17 Saturday
Oh boy, we had a rough lesson! We knocked on a less active members house and went in and started to teach the 15-year-old boy about the importance of serving a mission. During the lesson I randomly got a bloody nose. I went to the bathroom and couldn't get it to stop... they had me in a recliner with an ice pack on the head and drinking water. It was a warm one today but I am not going to complain. You all have been asking about the heat. Yes, it's hot but I have decided that I wasn't going to complain about the heat. I think that even if it is a small statement it would be negative and I want to be positive!! The circumstances around us will always change and many times they will be miserable, hard, or sad, but circumstances don't bring happiness, the Gospel of Jesus Christ does.

6/18 Sunday
Haha Good times. We left our car keys (which has our apartment key on it) inside and closed the door to our apartment which locks automatically... We had to call Brother Marshal and get a ride to church! Thankfully, Elder Logan saved the day and had a spare key at the mission office. Janice and Joseph came to church and stayed for two hours which was great and Ken came again! Tonight we set up for mission tour! We are super excited but a little stressed out because we want things to go smoothly!

Happy Father's Day Dad!!

We have been super busy the last couple of days! Sorry for the lack of emails. I love you all! I will write about mission tour next week!

- Elder Call NLVWM

We Need the Gospel in Our Life

Dear Family & Friends:

Traffic to the airport.

So the other day we roll into an apartment complex and we spot a man we are going to go talk to. haha We scoped him from a mile. So we go up to him and start talking to him. It didn't take long to realize the old man was a little crazy haha. Out of the blue he goes, "Where did you come from, Mars??" I said, "Nah, we actually are from Jupiter" and Elder Bird lost it.  He started laughing and trying to hide it and the old guy says, "Oh yeah, that is the one that has more rings right?" The dude totally believed us, I think haha who knows?  Well, keep it real!

6/6 Tuesday
Running and gunning! Today started off with another adventuress drive to the airport! We had eight missionaries coming in today and they all are going to be super good missionaries. One of the sister’s luggage got stolen, so she will have to go shopping and get all new stuff. We said goodbye to Elder Evanson today. He is going to do great things in the Rancho Ward his last six weeks. We let a set of zone leaders use our car to help with transfers and we got it back today and they had made a mess out of it haha. There was stuff stuck in the seats and crumbs all over it was pretty gross. We weren't too happy, but what can you do!

New Missionaries.

6/7 Wednesday
We had MLC (Mission Leaders Conference) today and that went well! Right in the middle of one of our training's, this monstrous cockroach was crawling on the wall behind me. As I was talking I started to notice that eyes were following something behind me and I turned around to see a real big cockroach on the wall behind me... gross. President stomped it after it started running around. At one point it was under Sister Walker’s scriptures. haha She was more disgusted than me hahaha. We had a couple good lessons tonight with Dylan and Brenda! Dylan is stoked to get baptized on the 17th!

6/8 Thursday
We got to go teach Ken today! To be completely honest the lesson was pretty rough at the beginning, but Ken definitely felt the Spirit and he is starting to change! It is amazing to see the gospel change people! We saw Jenny again tonight! We are really struggling getting her to change and really become committed but we did set her to be baptized on the 8th of July. She needs the Gospel in her life super bad. She is headed to San Diego for a few days so we won't be able to see her for a little while.

6/9 Friday
Well today didn't go as well as planned! Most of our lessons fell through and we also ran out of water and so it is going to be a long haul until Monday so we can actually get some water into our bodies! We talked to some nice people and got a return appointment but nothing crazy solid!

6/10 Saturday
We taught a lot today! We started at Joseph and Janice's place and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson! They are awesome! I can't wait for them to progress in the gospel as a family! We then taught Ken, and Brother Warden came and it was a really great lesson! Ken said that he is all in and ready to be baptized! He is definitely excited about the path he is on! He is changing so much! We also met with a lady tonight that right off the bat felt the Spirit because we shared a scripture that touched her big time! It was sweet! She said she would come to church!

6/11 Sunday
Ken came to church and loved it! Also Janice and Joseph came and they liked it! Both talks had amazing stories that were perfect for Ken and Janice! It was great. Dylan came to church and is all set to be baptized on Saturday! It was a great week!

Things are well in Las Vegas! Next week Elder Costa is coming for a mission tour and we get to go to dinner with him.  It will be sweet! I am super excited! Elder Bird and I are getting along well! We already have our halibut trip planned!
Love you all

- Elder Call NLVWM

Brenda & Tracy's baptism

Saying Good-bye to Elder Barton -- See last week's post

We Work Harder

Dear Family & Friends:

Time flies!  It has already been six weeks since last transfer, thus the Tuesday letter.

I would really appreciate some snail mail 😘😘

5/30 Tuesday
Stressful day today for sure! We did transfer planning and we found out that Elder Evanson was going to be dropped and we would be getting Elder Bird. I am little stressed to take the responsibility of training a new AP. We will be getting Elder Bird on Saturday. We met with Dylan and then also Brenda tonight they are doing well and Brenda is ready and super excited for her baptism on Saturday!

5/31 Wednesday
So yesterday we received a referral for a man named Ken. Ken went on Mormon.org looking for addiction help and started to chat with a representative and was referred to us. We met with him today and had a good lesson. It was pretty funny because pretty much everything we said about prophets, the Godhead, and the Book of Mormon he would just say, “Wow, I am going to have to pray long and hard about that one!” Haha at least he is willing to pray! We saw Janice and Joseph tonight and had another spiritual lesson with them!

6/1 Thursday
Satan tries hard, we try harder. Every time someone is getting close to baptism Satan tries to keep them from that. Brenda called us today and told us that Tracy doesn't want to be baptized anymore because she wouldn't be able to be confirmed with Brenda because they live in different wards and their Sacrament Meetings start at the same time. We panicked a little bit but called Tracy and so we have somewhat of a game plan of how we will accommodate both of them. We also had a pretty rough lesson with Dylan and Brandon. We tried the bribery approach and told them we would give them a candy bar if they would read the first two chapters and write down three questions. The only thing it did was make them lie and give them a few more calories. haha Never again.... Tonight we prayed our hearts out for Brenda and Tracy because their baptism is on Saturday!

6/2 Friday
Prayers were answered!!! Tracy talked to her mother, who has been very ill and she was fine that Tracy was getting baptized! Tracy said that it will be fine that she gets confirmed by herself so that was such a blessing! We had a great lesson with a man named Dan. Dan is super awesome he started taking notes while we taught so he would remember and know what he needed to do! It was great!

6/3 Saturday
The baptism went really well! There were 5 non-members there! The problem was there was an auction going on in the gym at the same time and so it got kinda noisy. We picked up Elder Bird today and he is such a good missionary! He is from Klawock, Alaska. He goes home in six weeks though. I am excited to learn from him!

6/5 Sunday
Dylan came to church!! Also, Brenda got confirmed and it was super cool to see her countenance change! Right after her confirmation she got up and was sooo confident and happy! She was shaking people's hand and went up to the mic and thanked everyone! It was so cool! Another really awesome thing was that at Tracy's ward she was confirmed and Brad Wilcox was there and he gave her one of his books and it made her life! Haha Tonight we had the departing dinner for the missionaries going home. It was a lot of fun to be with those great missionaries. The food was way good!

6/6 Monday
We went to the airport to drop off the missionaries. I said adios to Elder Barton. The route to the airport is straight insane! I was a little nervous driving because traffic is super bad towards the center of town. It was like driving threw a cattle drive where the cows won't move out of the way! We meet with Ken and he wants to be baptized on July 17th! He still has a lot to pray about and learn but he is excited for his baptism!

Lots of love,
- Elder Call NLVWM

On Friday night a messages was sent home by a member in one of the wards Ben serves in with this caption:  "Your boys providing service ... or taking home leftovers ... we're not sure! 😉😉