A Good Week

This week was a good week! The work is going well and transfers will be next week and I figure I will be transferred bit we will see.

Monday 4/23
We went to see Renee, who was the new investigator we found last week. Her mom answered the door and said that she was not available, but that we could teach her! Her name is Diamond; we taught her and she loves what we teach and has a strong desire to grow closer to Jesus Christ. She asked for a Book of Mormon so that she could read it!

Tuesday 4/24

We went running on Tuesday for exercise and here are some pics.
We had district meeting, as well as, interviews with President. We topped that off by having a lesson with Fernando and his wife Jennifer. Their son was sick and so we stayed in the garage and mostly just talked to them about him.

Wednesday 4/25
We had a good lesson with a man that we met tracting. His name was Charles and we had to refer him off because he was just visiting his girlfriend's house, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him the Restoration of the Gospel. Today, we also had another lesson with Diamond. This lesson was absolutely crazy she was quite distraught because her son had just been arrested for two counts of murder the day before on Tuesday... he is 17 😲 We talked about how we can reach to God in the time of trials.  We ended the night by having a lesson with Mason and his mom. They are less active members that we found a couple weeks ago.

Thursday 4/26
Today we had a lesson with an atheist. Those are always quite difficult but she is open and willing to listen. Other than that not much happened.

Friday 4/27
There are these apartments in our area that I have felt strongly about ever since I've been in this area that there is somebody in there waiting for us. We tracked them several weeks back and nothing much came out about it but today we went back to visit a lady that we had met named Nancy. Nancy let us teach her and so we're able to teach her about the restoration and she said she has been looking for a church. She's an older single lady and is very nice we are looking forward to teaching her more.

Saturday 4/28
Today we went to the ward party and there were several non-members there! We were able to also have a lesson with the kid named Josh. He read out of the Book of Mormon and actually choked up as he read some versus, it was cool to see the Spirit touch his heart. It’s starting to get plenty warm here in Las Vegas this week.  It has pretty much been in the 90s every single day. Let's just say I have to drink lots of water haha.

Sunday 4/29
Tonight was pretty crazy.  We had a lesson with Diamante, who was the former Jehovah Witness for 15 years. After that lesson, we also had a lesson with Dave, who is also a former Jehovah Witness. Some Mexican guys saw us walking down the street and they called us over and had us come eat at their party. It was a Christian group that was celebrating a lady’s birthday. They had a little taco truck thing and cake and lots of singing... At this party, we actually met a less active member, who was baptized in Hawaii about 10 years ago but since has gone all inactive haha. It was pretty crazy and I couldn't understand a thing they were saying haha. At one point they were passing a kiss around the room from couple to couple and they looked at US and we were like never haha. Thankfully they let it skip us. Haha

Here is my failed attempt to make dry ice root beer. The extract was terrible. I might need mom to send me the good stuff.

Testifying

4/16 Monday
Tonight was sooo awesome, but kind of frustrating though! We had a Family Home Evening with Alex and Anna and their family! Elder Rivera brought his ukulele and so we sang “Families Can Be Together Forever” and “I Am a Child of God.”  We also did a few magic tricks for the kids and then taught the Plan of Salvation. Their kids are Matthew (15), David (11), and Jocelyn (5). After we taught the Plan of Salvation, Anna was like, wow, that is absolutely amazing. She then told us about a dream her mother-in-law had about her husband who had passed away. I guess he came to his wife in a dream and was dressed in all white and he told her, “hey, there are three levels and I am in the lower one and told her to continue on.” Like I said, he was dressed in all white except he had a little bit of mud on the bottom of his pants. The Spirit was like crazy strong and she was like yeah they are Catholic and so I guess it is all the same..... My face was like what?!?! Don’t you get it? haha We testified of the Plan of Salvation and then headed on our way. On our way back to the apartment the wind gusts were crazy and it was like funneled down this road and when we took the corner, Elder Rivera actually got blown off his bike haha.

4/17 Tuesday
Tonight was interesting, we went to teach an unbaptized 9-year-old named Ashton. Ashton was ticked that we were there to say the least haha. He was like yelling at us to leave and was super rude the whole time. It was so awkward and so we ended up leaving without really teaching much.

4/18 Wednesday
Today was Zone Conference. It was a super good conference and I learned a lot. We had several trainings on teaching techniques, as well as, using ward council to coordinate missionary efforts. We taught Roxanna today and read out of 2 Nephi chapter 2. It was really good and she enjoyed it.

Zone Conference - Elder Rivera and Elder Call (front row far right)

4/21 Saturday
We had exchanges today. I stayed in the area and we had some cool experiences. We went to see a less active part member family and the dad came out and we started talking to him and he had been baptized a few years back. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to think about a question that ways on his mind. We then asked him to open up to a random page and read the first verse that sticks out to him. He started reading and about halfway through the verse he started laughing, then you could see the Spirit touch him. He said, “wow, that is crazy. It answered it. I can’t believe it.” We testified that the Book of Mormon will answer his questions and he said that he would be asking that book a lot of questions haha.

4/22 Sunday
We got a little bit of a scare tonight. We dropped by Alex and Anna and they were in their garage enjoying a few drinks because it was there anniversary. Alex is kind of a tad drunk and he was like, “Guys, I am going to be honest with you. My parents are Catholic, my wife’s parents are Catholic, we are Catholic.... “ In my mind, I was like, oh no, he is going to drop us. He then continued, “and Anna and I were thinking about you guys and we have a question, “Why don’t Catholics do what you do?” Haha, we were like I don’t know, but what we do is right haha! It was cool and we are starting to see some real progress with them!

The Stronger the Wind, the Stronger the Trees

4/8 Monday
Tonight we had a lesson with Vernon! We were finally able to get in there and sit down with him. We had previously set him with a baptismal date but he didn’t make it on the day and tonight we were able to extend another baptismal invitation for May 17th. It has been pretty cool to see how the Lord has helped him take stumbling blocks from his life so he can learn about and accept the gospel.

4/9 Tuesday
Today was a solid day. We had District Meeting this morning and in the afternoon we had correlation with one of our ward mission leaders. Tonight we contacted a referral that a member gave us. This guy is a retired nuclear physicist at least that is what I think it was... the guy is way awesome and said he is actually about halfway through the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, he is reading it as a historical book instead of with “real intent, having Faith in Christ.” We also were able to get the green light to teach an unbaptized 9-year-old in the ward and so we have our first appointment next Tuesday.

4/10 Wednesday
Today we went on exchanges with the elders we live with. I was with Elder Windham. He is from North Carolina and is a straight genius! He got a 36 on his ACT and wants to go into Astro physics or something like that. It was kind of a trashy day.  We got to teach two of their recent converts in the YSA ward and then spent like 2 hours at the dermatologist because of some skin issues he is having. We exchanged back at dinner time and Elder Rivera and I had a decent night.

4/11 Thursday
Wow it was super windy today and it honestly was super terrible! haha If you opened your mouth you would be chewing on dust. It was pretty miserable, but as President Monson would say, “Good timber does not grow with ease, the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.”

4/13 Saturday
Today we had a lesson with Diamante. He is a former Jehovah Witness. He hates that church and when we street contacted him he wasn’t super interested, but, said he would like to look into the church a little bit. We met with him tonight and he had a notebook out and took a ton of notes haha. It was a super good meeting.

4/14 Sunday
Today was nuts! Today at church they announced that Alex Boyé would be at the stake center tonight performing! We got approval to go and brought Diamante! It was soooo awesome haha. Alex has a great conversion story and is super funny and obliviously a super good singer. His message was about our true identity, as well as, many other things, like the importance of reading the Book of Mormon daily. It was way fun and Diamante enjoyed it.

Diamante, Elder Call, Alex Boye, Elder Rivera

IS IT GETTING GAS?

4/3 Tuesday
Solid day. We taught Gilmore today and it was the usual. He doesn’t remember that he has told us the same stories every time and his teeth are falling out the whole time 😂😂 haha it kills me. We taught about the importance of going to church, praying, and reading. A few weeks back, we contacted a lady that has six kids. She told us to come back but we hadn’t been able to contact her until tonight. She is super awesome and has Mormon friends and accepted a Book of Mormon and loves the strong family aspect of the gospel! We also played some basketball with a part-member family that we have been working with!

4/4 Wednesday
We had a lesson with Lomax today and it went quite well. She told us that she wants to join the church but she doesn’t understand the idea of Priesthood Authority. She feels that she does not have to be baptized again and is quite opposed to the idea. We are praying that she can receive an answer from God regarding that matter.

4/6 Friday
So we had a lesson with a lady named Nahtalya today. She was actually taught by Elder Rivera a while ago, in one of his previous areas because she had walked into their church. Because she didn’t live in that area they passed her off to this area but she never met with missionaries here. We reached out her and set up a lesson for today. It was a decent lesson except it got way off topic and our wonderful member got to talking and talking and talking and talking. She is super awesome but is married to an atheist and has tons of questions herself but slowly and surely she will come along! We did a couple hours of tracting and found a couple people and taught the Gotchys.

4/7 Saturday
It was hot and super windy today haha. It was 91 degrees! We honestly biked like crazy all day and had a couple lessons. Not too much else happened.

4/8 Sunday
Church was great today. Tonight we were riding down a road and we saw one of our investigators out working on his truck. We stopped and started helping him. His truck is a 1990 GMC 1500 haha so it gave me some flashbacks of the ol’ truck back home haha. We were trying to start it and Fernando was like look right here when I turn it over to see if it is getting gas. He turns it over and I was looking and all of a sudden it blew up in my face haha. I jumped like super high and freaked out and Elder Rivera was like oh my gosh haha. It was nuts! Thankfully, it didn’t hurt me at all just gave me a good scare!

Things I KNOW

3/27 Tuesday
Transfers were today and everything went well. We found out that the other elders were going to be moving out of our apartment and it would just be me and my new companion. My new companion has been out for 10 months and is from Maui Hawaii. He is a convert to the church and was baptized at 15. He is super awesome and a great missionary. Tonight was an interesting one haha. It started off by a less active lady trashing on the church and then we saw some success finding a new investigator named Juan. Juan is 17 years old and has many friends that are Mormon. He said he hadn’t thought much about the church, but he wants to check it out. That great contact was then followed with another person bashing the church. We had a decently long discussion with him and we bore some powerful testimonies and said a prayer with him. After that we were able to place a Book of Mormon with a super nice guy named KT. Elder Rivera has a strong testimony and so do I. The second man  we were talking to, told me that he wanted me to go away for a week and just study anti-Mormon stuff on the internet and followed that up with “there is people, the internet, and God if I want to know truth I should go to the source of all truth!” I know God is truly the source of all truth and He has given us the opportunity to know for ourselves the truthfulness of the restored gospel. I know God answers prayers and He has answered mine! I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God; I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I know that my family will be together forever!

Elder Call & Elder Rivera

3/28 Wednesday
Today was a great day! We had some good finding time, as well as, we taught a couple lessons. The first lesson we taught was with Roxanna. It had been awhile since we had seen her and she is still struggling a lot with being a single parent and trying to work and go to school at the same time. The gospel really could help her out, but she is having a hard time seeing that. We also had a lesson with Alex and Anna. This lesson was a little embarrassing. They let us in and said to come eat with them, so we sat down at their table and they gave us some orange juice. Elder Rivera accidentally knocked his glass over and sent orange juice everywhere. We followed that by me just getting a random bloody nose. Haha It was a little rough, but the Spirit was there and they loved what we had to say.

3/29 Thursday
Today we had a special meeting as a zone with President Walker talking about Priesthood Keys and the importance of alignment. It was great. We had a pretty good night. We contacted a less active and she has a 9-year-old son and we want to start teaching him and she said she needed a few days to think about it. Hopefully that works out!

3/30 Friday
This morning, first thing we had a lesson with a girl named Sky. She is in her early twenties and has two kids. We taught the Restoration to her and it was pretty good. We also had a lesson with Dave (Gilmore). Gilmore is quite the guy to teach. Every time we teach him, his dentures keep falling out over and over and then he finally just takes them out, but then he is super hard to understand, haha so he puts them back in and that just goes on repeat. We went tracting for a little while and had some decent success finding a couple potential investigators.

3/31 Saturday and Sunday
General conference was great today! It’s was amazing to hear the prophets and apostles speak. I walked away with a lot of great things. We did not watch it at the Stake Center except for Priesthood Session. All other sessions we watched at member’s homes. I was quite surprised by the changes, but
I am excited for them because I know that they will help both of the wards I serve in.