Working Hard

6/19 Tuesday
Today was transfers and Elder Waters (one of the elders that we live with) got transferred. Elder Bickham will be training, so he is staying with us for today and tomorrow. Tonight, we had a lesson with a man in Elder Bickham’s area named Joe. He is a super awesome guy and has taken the missionary discussions for years. We had a spiritually uplifting lesson talking about receiving answers from God.

6/20 Wednesday
We picked up the new missionary today and his name is Elder Daum. He is from Minnesota and he is a complete genius. He got like a 35 on his ACT and is big into reading and chemistry. He seems like he will be a good missionary. Tonight we finally taught Aubrey again. She has had a lot happen the last week and a half. We retaught the Plan of Salvation and talked to her about her baptism. She has lost some progress and so she isn’t ready to be baptized yet and so we are going to have to push her date back again... She is still super solid and wants to be baptized!

6/21 Thursday
We taught Chris and Cipriana tonight about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how living the gospel will help them receive blessings from God such as an eternal family. It was super cool because during the lesson Cipriana turned to Chris and was like, “Do you want to be with me FOREVER?” And there was a lengthy pause and then Chris says, “I can’t imagine not being with you forever.” We invited them to be baptized and they said that they both absolutely love the church and it is what they are looking for, but they don’t feel they know enough. Chris had read all of 1 Nephi and all of 2 Nephi! He is on fire!

6/22 Friday
Today, we went to teach Ralph but he wasn’t feeling good and so we ended up teaching Lalli. Lalli is his girlfriend. She is super awesome and has a strong desire to do what is right. She works on Sundays but wants to come to church, so we will be praying for that! Tonight we taught the Davis family and they will be going to church on Sunday with their grandparents

6/23 Saturday
Not much happened besides Elder Rabago got bit by a dog Haha. It was hilarious. It drew a little blood but nothing crazy!

6/24 Sunday
Today was Stake Conference and the Bovill’s came. It was a good conference and talked a lot about the temple and so tomorrow we have a ton of questions to answer! Haha.

Just working hard and getting my money’s worth, as President Walker would say. I love missionary work.

Love,
Elder Call

The Power of a Testimony

Dear Family & Friends:

6/12 Tuesday
Today was crazy! We tracted some this afternoon and it was pretty slow going. Tonight we taught the Estrada family. We had invited them to church but they had bailed on us. It was a really good visit tonight though, because they were very open to us. They pretty much said, hey we want to convert and begin in this journey, but we need a little bit more guidance along this path! They asked us about our conversion stories and why we do what we do, so we were able to share our testimonies with them. After the lesson, we were driving down the main road in our area and as we approached an intersection there was a car that didn’t see us and pulled out in front of us. Elder Rabago slammed on the brakes and then realized he wasn’t going to stop in time so he turned the wheel and we luckily were able to turn out of it and miss the car. It was crazy.

6/13 Wednesday
Tonight we had another lesson with the Estrada family. We read about Lehi’s dream and applied it to today’s world and their life, it went great! We also taught Chris and Cipriana tonight. The Weilands, (their fellowshippers) were out of town this week, so it was just us and them. Tonight was the lesson where we got the question, “so are all other church’s wrong and yours is right?” It was a little iffy at times in the lesson but it turned out good in the end!

6/14 Thursday
This morning we did our weekly planning session. After that we started knocking and just got baked in the sun haha. We taught this guy the restoration, but he wasn’t interested the entire time, so that was a little awkward. Tonight we went out with one of our bishops and knocked some part member doors and some good success came from that.

6/15 Friday
This morning we had a lesson with Ralph. Ralph is from Nicaragua and has a brother that is a member of the church. He is good guy and has desires to change and do good but he has a hard time actually falling through with the commitments we extend. Ralph and his family just got a German Shepherd puppy and it pretty funny to hear Ralph talk about it because it stresses him out like crazy. This afternoon the second door we knocked on was a guy named Lamont. Lamont had gotten in a car wreck two months ago and was almost killed. We started teaching about the Plan of Salvation and he was super interested. He was like man a light-bulb just went off and this is why God still has me here! We are going to teach him on Tuesday!

6/17 Sunday

Friends of Elder Call on Trek

Today we had 2 people at church. It wasn’t the best but next week we will have a bunch hopefully! It was Father’s Day today and I am very grateful for my dad and the lessons he taught me and the example he is. Tonight we got transfer calls.... Elder Rabago and I are staying together!!!!!!! We are soooooo stoked. We were super worried that we were going to split up but definitely a blessing from the Lord haha! We were doing a little victory dance in the street! Got to give a shout out to Aunt Dani this week for meeting a bunch of ward members! Yes, those people all live in the ward where I serve! They are super awesome! There were a ton of people that came to me and were like we met your aunt we met your aunt haha! (Side note:  Aunt Danielle Call and cousin Emi, went to Martin’s Cove with their ward.  While there, they met a group from Las Vegas.  Dani asked them if they knew Elder Call.  Dani told me (mom), “The whole group went crazy like he was a famous person! He is serving in their ward. It was awesome!  These 3 (in the picture) came over to talk to me more….Every one adores your boy!)

6/18 Monday
Today was super awesome! We had a lesson with Chris and Cipriana tonight. The other day we had taught them about the gospel and things didn’t go super well, so tonight we focused on the importance of gaining a testimony of Joseph Smith and understanding the necessity of that testimony. We watched the
Restoration film and had a testimony meeting and wow the Spirit was strong! I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I know it. I know that through him the gospel was restored. I love in Helaman chapter 7 verse 29, which states:
29 Behold now, I do not say that these things shall be, of myself, because it is not of myself that I know these things; but behold, I know that these things are true because the Lord God has made them known unto me, therefore I testify that they shall be.
I know that God answers prayers.

Love,
Elder Call

Update

 Well this last week was a great week.  Here is an update on our investigators.

Chris and Cipriana
We taught them twice this last week. Both lessons went very well. Chris is done with First Nephi and Cipriana is through the first 14 chapters. On Sunday they didn't end up coming to church because they are shopping around for churches. It was good though because they absolutely hated the other church so that Is another tally in our favor! Chris said that he is really enjoying this journey that they have been on. On Sunday we had dinner at their house (it was super awesome), but anyway, their 18-year-old daughter was super standoffish; she listened in to our lesson from the other room and by the end she was super nice to us and talking with is. haha

Aubrey
She is as great as always! We moved her date to the 30th because of stake conference and the lessons are going well!

Estrada family:
We had an awesome lesson with them this week. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and invited them to come to church.  They said they were all in and that they were looking forward to it. On Saturday, we ended up getting a text from them and they said they weren't quite ready to make the step to come to church. It was kind of a bummer but we are going to continue working with them!

Davis family:
We didn't see them this week because they were out of town. The members that live right next door to them though told us that they posted a picture of our drawing of the Plan of Salvation on Instagram! It was pretty cool to hear some of our investigators sharing the gospel!

Hernandez/Reed family
On Friday we talked to one of the daughters, Jaden. She told us that she has been reading out of the Book of Mormon and enjoys it! We're excited for their family to continue to accept the gospel.

Reminder:  Next week is transfers—No letter until Tuesday.

South Diamond Zone
Best zone in the mission.

 

Awesome

This week was super awesome. On Friday, I went on and change with Elder Law. Elder Couch was in our apartment for the night, as well, because he was on night changes. It definitely has been awhile since we were companions in the MTC, but we still get along super well. That night I fell asleep on the couch at like 9:45 and woke up right before 10:30, so I could go brush my teeth. I started brushing my teeth and all of a sudden my mouth went on fire. I guess Elder Couch decided that he wanted to play a prank on me and put ghost pepper that had dried pieces of it in my toothbrush. The next morning, I woke up with sores on my tongue. I haven't come up with something to get him back yet, but it will happen. Elder Law and I were able to teach four lessons on Friday night. They were solid lessons and we are starting to get lots of investigators here in this area. Saturday was definitely a rough day for Elder Robago and I. At the end of the night we just laughed it and told ourselves that we took a loss. Honestly, we probably lost worse than the Golden Nights did... So we hear haha.  The Lord blessed us on Sunday though, we had five investigators come to church and we are able to start teaching the Weiland friends that came to church last week. They are very intelligent, so it's fun to teach them. We taught the Restoration and they definitely see how it could have happened. They need to rely on the Spirit now so they can receive that witness. We also taught Aubrey again Sunday night. She is doing very, very well.  This last week, Aubrey came to Zone Conference to help us with a training. We were going to have her show up at 12:50, but she ended up going to the wrong church building, so she was a few minutes late and Elder Rabago and I had to go into scramble mode. It all worked out in the end and it was great. It was a solid week. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Love,
Elder Call

Sporting "Glasses."  People seem to let us in more, They think I am smart.

Happy Memorial Day!

Super

Hey Family and Friends:

This week was a super awesome week.  I thought I would something a little bit different and just record myself talking about the week for a little bit.

So earlier this week or late last week, there was some records in our Area Book about a part member family that did not have too much information about them.  Missionaries had tried them for a while and we ended up going by on Friday or Saturday and met these two awesome kids and they are like, one is 12 and one is 15.  Their names are Jayden and Ashton. They started talking to us and they were like way cool. They had no idea that their mother was actually a member of the church and they told us to come back by when their parents were home.  We went by on Monday and met the dad and he said, “Hey, my wife is not home, but come back by tomorrow.”  So on Tuesday, we were able to teach them and really feel the Spirit with them.  We were actually able to teach them again on Friday.  They weren’t able to come to church this week, because they had some visits from step-parents and things like that, but they are planning on coming next week. So we are super excited about them. They are a way awesome family and they definitely need the gospel.

We were also able to teach Aubrey a couple of times this week.  She has set a baptismal date of June 23rd.  She was not able to come to church this week, because one of her kids actually got sick, but her husband is getting a little bit more interested in the Gospel, so we are really hoping and praying that the Spirit continues to work on him so we can teach all of them.  Aubrey is actually going to be coming to a Zone Conference this upcoming week to help Elder Rabago and me with our training there.  She is super awesome for doing that and we are super excited for that.

We were able to teach another part-member family this week (the Davis Family). Brother Davis grew up a member of the church, the youngest of nine or ten brothers, I think.  So, he fell away from the church but still has a pretty strong testimony and we were able to teach them on Friday night. Afterward, we got a pretty good compliment from his wife, who is not a member of the church, by telling us that the message that we shared, we taught the Plan of Salvation, was the best missionary discussion they had ever had, so that was pretty cool.

Elder Bickham, Elder Rabago, Elder Call

We got to go to the temple this week and we were able to ride in a Tesla. It is a super nice car. You probably have not seen them in Wyoming.  They are all electric kind of sports cars, so that was fun.

We were also able to teach Aubrey in a member’s home on Sunday night and after that we were able to teach a man named Rocky.  Rocky is a super, super, cool guy. He is a little up on some Satan lettuce, aka, marijuana and probably would have been a cough syrup. But he is a super cool guy and he enjoyed the lesson on the Restoration.  His family definitely needs the gospel, but we will see what we can do to help them progress. He also owns his own little studio and they record rap music and he has a ton of tattoos.  He is a good guy and has desires to do good. So we are going to keep trying to help them out.

For the most part those are the main things that happened this week.  We taught a couple of other lessons but nothing too crazy.  At church on Sunday, we were able to have five investigators there and so that was super exciting and super awesome.

Love you all!  Hope you have a great rest of your week.  Talk to you later!

Bye, (Elder Call)

Tender Mercy Stories

Here are a couple stories from this week.

Ralph:
We taught Ralph this week the about the Restoration. He has been taught by missionaries for a little while now and has a hard time keeping commitments. We helped him understand the importance of keeping the simple commitments such as coming to church, praying and reading. We set him with the baptismal date of June 16. He promised us he would come to church but sure enough he didn’t come...

Matthew:
So on Saturday night, Elder Rabago and I were knocking some doors and a door opened and guess who answered, Matthew Heimark!! I freaked out haha it was crazy. So you all probably don’t remember, but I met Matthew probably 16 months ago golfing and at Rhodes Ranch and then knocked on his parents’ door 8 months later in a different area in town and became super good friends with his parents and him. So I guess in January, he moved out from his parents’ house and moved into this house here in the south part of Las Vegas and I just so happened to knock on his door! Talk about a crazy miracle. I feel God is trying to tell him something haha … maybe that he should get baptized!

Aubrey:
She is as awesome and solid as it gets for an investigator. She went to the Relief Society activity and a baptism on Saturday and church on Sunday. She purchased ties and bow ties for her boys haha. Her husband still isn’t too sure about it all, but she is all in! The baptism we took her to was super cringy.  We showed up like twenty minutes before it was to start and there was one person there. Right before the baptism began, the grandma answered her phone and was talking super loud haha. The Spirit was still there.

Russell:
We had a great lesson with Russell on Sunday and taught him the Plan of Salvation. We drew it with chalk on his driveway and his dad loved it. We are praying, as we teach Russell the lessons, his parents will feel the Spirit and become interested! Haha we asked his dad if he wanted us to wash the chalk off, but he said we could leave it and so there is a big Plan of Salvation drawn out on their driveway!

This week after the baptism Aubrey went to, we sat down and read 1 Nephi 1. I love the last bit of that chapter “But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.”

I truly felt that the Lord was blessing us with tender mercies this week and I know that God is aware of us and He loves us! I know that as we acknowledge Him and show gratitude towards Him, He will continue to bless us and direct us!

Love,
Elder Call

Flight Plans

Flight Plans for Ben to come home came today in an e-mail, which read:

If there are any changes between now and August 1St, I will send the updated itinerary.

 Sister Rands
Nevada Las Vegas West Mission
702-522-4110

From: USMissions
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2018 10:16 AM
To: Nevada Las Vegas West Mission <2010577@ldschurch.org>
Subject: Return Travel: CALL/BENJAMIN DEE 01AUG2018 LAS SLC


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 Your trip

Booking ref:

U2U95Z

Check My Trip

Issued date:

15 May 2018

Baggage Info

Traveler

Benjamin Dee Call (576806-R)

Robert Jonah Deal (582267-R)

Emalee Obray Estrada (606342-R)

Landan Michael Knowles (581615-R)

Austin Alexander Linton (586798-R)

Travis Scott Nielsen (564480-R)

Kayla Makenzie Rose (601793-R)


Wednesday 01 August 2018



Delta Air Lines DL 1483

Departure

01 August 10:38 AM

Las Vegas, (Mccarran International) (+)

Terminal: 1



Arrival

01 August 01:05 PM

Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake City Intl) (+)

Terminal: 2 - Terminal Unit 2

Check-in

Duration

01:27 (Non stop)

Distance

368 Miles

Booking status

Confirmed

Class

Economy (T)

Baggage allowance

2 Piece(s) for Benjamin Dee Call


Seat

27C (No smoking seat) confirmed for Benjamin Dee Call


Equipment

BOEING 737-900

Ticket details

E-ticket DL 006-7113287143 for Benjamin Dee Call



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