The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Dear Family & Friends:

7/25 Tuesday
Zone Conference. Zone Conference went pretty well today, but it never goes without a mistake haha. Today we could not get the mics to work. That is always fun. Tonight we had a few minutes before a lesson and so we went and saw a man in the ward named Brother Bos. He was baptized a few years ago and is from Belgium. He was baptized 30 days after stepping foot on the USA. It is way nice because Brother Bos speaks French and so Elder Renel and him had a hoot. Brother Bos has three kids and a wife that aren't members of the church. They have been closed off, but hopefully, with Elder Renel being able to speak their own language, he will be able to connect with them!

7/26 Wednesday
Zone Conference once again! And today was definitely eventful haha. As we sat down for lunch a noticed Elder Renel acting a little weird.  He was eating real slow and was very delayed in his movement but classic Elder Call thought to himself, "that is strange he'll probably be alright" and I went to get things set up for the second half of the zone conference. Well before I knew the entire gym was dead silent and there was President and Sister Soderburg around Elder Renel. I guess Elder Renel tried standing up and went completely white and almost went down but was caught in time. We took him to a couch in the hallway where he fell asleep and was out for like two hours. We loaded him in the car and he spent the rest of the day sleeping until dinner time and then he woke up, so we got back to work and had a great night! They don't know what happened to him but he is doing well now. We saw Ken tonight and he had a rough week. On Sunday his niece (who has bad autism) had to go to the ER because of pneumonia and some other stuff. Then yesterday Ken got his mo-ped stolen.  He has to walk to and from work which takes him like 45 minutes and he doesn't have a ride to church anymore... bummer. Something super exciting is that we got in contact with Dan again after like 2 months! He is great and we will be teaching him tomorrow. As we were walking back to the car tonight, a 20 year old started yelling, 'hey Christian people, hey Christian people."  We started talking with him and he said that he wanted us to go see him on Friday. He is a little awkward and followed us all the way to our car and once we drove off he then continued on his way.

7/27 Thursday
Thankfully nothing eventful happened today at Zone Conference and we can take a little bit of a breath now that it is over. We had been asked by the ward council to start visiting a returning inactive man that served a mission in Europe somewhere. We decided we would give it a shot to invite the less active guy to come fellowship Dan and it was soooo perfect! I was pumped about the lesson because it not only strengthened Dan, but the member as well! We visited the Myers kids tonight and unfortunately the mom said that it was fine if we teach them and that they come to church but they can't be baptized until they show they are ready, so hopefully they will tell their mom all the things they are learning. There is a girl named Mireya that is a good friend of the Myers that always sits in on the lessons and comes to church. Mireya's mom is so ready for the gospel but it is hard to be able to teach her because she is a little closed off. Tonight we offered to do service and we were able to help them and their attitude towards us changed completely and she said, "you know I am going to have to have a discussion with you guys sometime!” Haha it was perfect!

7/28 Friday
Zone Conference is over but we had TNMT meeting. I thought it went well. We had a lesson with Janice and Joseph tonight on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We drew a little sketch:

What a wonderful opportunity it is to partake the sacrament each week to be able to repent and strive to do better and in return have the spirit in our lives to help us throughout the next week until we can partake of the sacrament once again!

7/29 Saturday
Today I was on exchanges with Elder Ebert. Elder Ebert is a super good missionary. He has baptized a ton and should be an assistant haha. We had a super fun time and we had a lot of success. We had a good time!

7/30 Sunday
Ken came to church today, as well as a man named Bob Smith and the Myers came! It was great!

- Elder Call NLVWM

Growth

Dear Family & Friends:

Sorry for the surprise last week.  This last transfer as well as the next one are going to be different and crazy! It is fun to be back with Elder Renel! I had felt for a long time like I wasn't sure if I had grown or changed.  But, being back with a previous companion, I can look back and see a little change!! Haha

7/18 Tuesday
Today, we had a leadership meeting as well as a half trainer meeting. They went well even though it was in a format so Elder Renel and I had to be training the entire time because we had the missionaries split in several groups. Tonight I am super stoked because there is this family that we have tried a lot and the ward council has asked us to visit that family and finally we got them to answer! They are big time lacrosse players and so they are out of town a ton. We are going to have a lesson with them next Tuesday!

7/19 Wednesday
Today was another packed day! We taught Ken tonight and he is doing a lot better than he has been so that is exciting! We gave him a blessing because he was struggling with a few things.

7/20 Thursday
We taught the Myers kids and Janice and found a super solid potential! It was good.

7/21 Friday
We saw Brenda tonight and she was offended by her visiting teacher so it was a little iffy but we got it all squared away! We also taught Ken tonight!

7/22 Saturday
I got challenged to a game of street ball while street contacting, and if y'all want to know Elder Call’s weakness, it is street ball! Thankfully, we walked away with the W! so it was fun! They were talking serious trash haha. We had a couple great lessons and we just had an all-around good day!

Sorry for the weak letter but next week will be better!

- Elder Call NLVWM

On Monday, July 24th, Ben's mom got a phone call from a member of the SV community.  This man had received this picture from his cousin that lives in Las Vegas and was sharing the picture with him, who shared it with me.  

God's Love

Dear Family & Friends:

Things are going well! Here is my week:

7/10 Monday

President Walker, Elder Call, Elder Bird, Sister Walker

Today was a great day. We meet with President this morning and it went a little longer than we were expecting. We have a lot of things happening in the mission this transfer so we started to talk about transfer planning. We are having a hard time deciding who to have train. I got a haircut, played some ball, and played the most competitive game of corn hole in my life and got the W. haha We had the opportunity to be with Janice and Joseph and President Walker! It was a spiritual uplift! I am grateful the Lord has blessed us to be able to work with them.

7/11 Tuesday
Thank heaven for seven eleven to be over haha! We had a busy day today! We did as much as we could for transfers and didn't get as far as we were hoping! There are a lot of things to be taken into consideration for each companionship. Transfer planning is extremely spiritual though! We pray and ask for confirmation on each companionship and we know it is what the Lord wants! President took us to dinner and then we headed out to proselyte at 5:30. We saw Ken tonight and asked him the baptismal questions. His testimony of Joseph Smith is struggling a little bit and so we invited him to read Joseph Smith History and pray about him! We also saw Brenda and Tracy tonight and taught the Plan of Salvation. They kept bringing up some minor concerns and we tied it all back to the big perspective of God’s love! Of course we got a Slurpee.

7/12 Wednesday
We got to actually have a full morning schedule today so we got some exercise, planning AND studying in!! After that we headed to the office for another day of transfer planning. We set a goal to get two more people with a date tonight from 6:00-9:00 pm. We started by seeing the Myers’ and were able to set Anthony and Tristan with a date to be baptized! We then went and saw a lady named April. We knocked on the door and an older black lady answered and started to talk to us. She said that April wasn't there and tried to end our conversation. We then asked if we could have some water and she let us in! We were able to start teaching her but she wasn't really interested and then April got home! April sat down and then her kids came and joined in on the lesson. We had a super awesome lesson and invited them to be baptized and they want to be baptized on the 19th of August! We not only hit our goal tonight we blew it out of the water!! Haha

7/13 Thursday
Today was super awesome. We went over to Joseph's house to give him the baptismal program assignments.  We were talking to him about the entire experience. He told us that he had said a prayer after a spiritual experience he had and asked God to please make a way for him to come back to church. He did not want to push or pressure Janice. Shortly thereafter, we knocked on their door and Joseph said immediately he recognized there was something different with Elder Evanson and I.  He said the reason he let us in was because he knew we were obedient and living the way we should. That is probably the best compliment you could ever get as a missionary. Janice noticed it as well and after we left she felt she needed to take the lessons! They are super awesome!

7/15 Saturday
We had Janice's baptism and it went great! There were a lot of people there to support her. It was probably the most spiritual baptism I have been to, it was wonderful! Tonight we did transfer calls and it all went well.

7/16 Sunday
Janice asked me to confirm her and that was a great privilege! She is now a member of the Church! Also, the Herleans’ from my last area came to church with their grandma who is in the Town Center Ward and they said they will be moving into the ward by next month!! And Nixon the youngest one wants to be baptized now! I was stoked! Haha

7/17 Monday
Said farewell to the missionaries today and it was tough to see this group go home. There were 11 former zone leaders and 3 assistants including Elder Bird and Elder Evanson. I did not want to say goodbye to either one of them, because, they had been great examples to me! I forgot to mention that I got my new companion yesterday and his name is Elder Renel!! Yes, my trainer! He has one transfer left and he has to serve it with me as an assistant, I feel bad for him haha!

I love you all,

- Elder Call NLVWM

God Bless America!!!

Dear Family & Friends:

7/3 Monday
Today was a lot of fun! We played some really good basketball because we had some high schoolers come that were pretty dang good! Elder Bird got taken to church and straight up dunked on! Haha it was dope!

7/4 Tuesday
It was a pretty crazy day! Our zone leaders wanted us to be in by six just so nothing would happen to all of us! We taught a couple of lessons and those went well! It was impossible to not be filled with gratitude today! I am grateful for the opportunity to live in a free country where I am allowed to talk to anyone and share my beliefs. I know that if it weren't for others serving our country I wouldn't be able to serve my Savior! What a powerful thing to ponder! God bless America!!! I was completely blown away with the amount of fireworks tonight. We watched them for a short while and I couldn't believe the amount of booms haha!

7/5 Wednesday
Today we had MLC! It went well. We got a new car today, it is a brown Corolla!  It is pretty nice. We taught Ken, Dylan, and Janice tonight and all of those went well! Janice is excited for her baptism. Ken we are going to have to move it back and Dylan is getting baptized on Saturday!

7/6 Thursday
 We called and made a lot of assignments for Dylan's baptism. We are hoping that there will be a good turnout. We have been teaching a few kids with the last name of Myers. They are great. Their mom isn't interested but she loves having the kids learn. I figure within the next week we will set them with a date.

7/7 Friday
We had the departing temple trip today and it was so awesome! I love being in the temple. There are so many super great missionaries going home it is sad to see them getting to the end but we be all right. Tonight we taught Tracy about the Book of Mormon. It is a little frustrating to teach her because she feels the Spirit but doesn't want to come to church or progress too much.

7/8 Saturday
Haha it was a stressful day! We call Dylan 30 minutes before his baptism and we were like where are you?? He said oh my dad came and we went to the store? What time am I supposed to be there? So right at 3:00, he rolls in and then our ward mission leader is 15 minutes late haha but we got it to all work and had a great service even though it started late. I can't stand it when people are late!!

7/9 Sunday
Let me just say I love confirmations! There is such a power and spirit in the words receive the Holy Ghost!! Dylan is a stud and I am excited for him!

- Elder Call NLVWM

Why Does God Love Us So Much?

Dear Family & Friends:

Here is my past week:

6/26 Monday
Tonight we started the no smoking program with Ken! He is ready and excited to get rid of his habits and addictions! We also saw Brenda and Tracy! Brenda told us that she is addicted to genealogy now and spent 8 hours that day working on it haha! We weren't able to go to the temple last week, so hopefully, we can make it this week!

6/27 Tuesday
Today was a tough day. President called and asked us to go to a missionary’s apartment and tell the missionary to pack his bags because he was getting emergency transferred. He wasn't too happy to say the least but it is the last thing that can be done to try to save this elder. After he packed, he spent the rest of the day with Elder Bird and I and then we dropped him off with a set of missionaries that will be his companions. We pray all goes well for him.

6/28 Wednesday
We had an office staff meeting today and we found out that the elder we were with yesterday will be going home. It was super disappointing. We went and saw Brian and Tracy tonight. It has been long time since we saw them and so it was good to catch up with them. They asked if we could come teach them again!

6/29 Thursday
I was on exchanges today with Elder Goad! We taught a lady from the Philippines and a guy from Iran it was pretty cool. The guy from Iran was super weird.  He loves the Mormon Church more than anything, but he just doesn't want to be baptized haha.

6/30 Friday
Not much for today except we did another emergency transfer shifting.

7/1 Saturday
I was with Elder Heahnel today. We had a great day and taught 5 or 6 lessons. We taught the Myers boys today about the Book of Mormon.  As we taught and testified, I felt the Spirit and I felt my love grow for the many blessings God has given us especially the scriptures! A question I ponder on a lot is, “Why does God loves us so much?” I think about Christ's life and his Atonement, the gospel in our lives, the blessings of the priesthood, the scriptures, our families, the list goes on and on and I am marveled at the list of things God has done to show us his love and there truly isn't a complete answer of why but I am truly grateful that He does!

7/2 Sunday
I awoke in the middle of the night to, "Call, watch out, Elder, Elder Call, watch out!" I was like what the heck is going on, so I say, "What? Elder Bird what are you taking about."
He said, "Someone just got hit by a car" and was then right back to sleep. It was super weird haha. This morning I asked him about it and I guess he was having a dream about it... it was pretty funny.

Ken came to church and is still going strong with no alcohol and no smoking! Janice is doing well, also!

Have a great week!
Love,
- Elder Call NLVWM