15 Months???

This week has been good! We have been seeing a lot of less-actives coming back and willing to meet with us! We had more than 3 less actives at church this week! But we really have been seeing miracles as we have gone to the low hanging fruit! I love working out here in Fallon Nevada! 

This Wednesday and Tuesday we are going out on splits with members to go and visit people whom they want to see! They have appointments set up and we are going to go along to meet this people and hopefully begin teaching them! This is the way it should be, Members setting up appointments and bringing us along. We have some with less-actives, and some with non-members. 

So Elder Jackman gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon that is the original style. It is the way that Joseph Smith printed it back in 1830. So I started to read it through. It is really neat because it reads more like a novel vs scripture. So as I have been reading it, my understanding of the events in the Book of Mormon has increased. I now see much of it as complete stories, rather than separate events. For example, In this edition, the first chapter of the first book of Nephi covers all the chapters in the standard edition from one through 6. So it is all one story of everything dealing with getting the plates. And that is how much of the Book is. It is a story. Which I love. I love love love books. So this works with my brain just so much better. I have been marking this copy as well I have been underlining all the references to the Savior! It was so eye-opening to be able to see when the Savior was talked about the most. It was usually in the times of repentance. When they were disobedient, then he wasn't mentioned a lot. So just as righteousness went up in down in a cycle, so did the mention of the savior. From that pattern, I learned this week how important it is to "keep an eye single to the glory of God". If our focus is on the Savior, we won't fall down. Just like Peter on the water, when the Savior beckons him out. So long as he kept his eyes on the Master, he was fine. But once he looked around at all the waves and the storm around him, he started to sink. 

Every time I finish the Book of Mormon, I feel really sad. I love the book, but I really don't like seeing how much they all suffered and fell. They had such height. They had such progress. In all aspects of society. They had masterful sermons on virtually all topics in the gospel. From Benjamin's tower, to the ministry of the Savior himself. From Nephi and Jacob, to Alma and Amulek. And yet, a people with so much, fell so hard. It just makes me really sad. It just means we must learn from their mistakes. To keep the Savior as the center of our lives! And I will strive for the rest of my life to make sure I do that.

I love all y'all and each y'all

Elder Miner

We found a pie in our freezer and we then we ate it

Fallon in a nutshell

Funny sign

Elder Day and I on exchanges

Day 450-somthing

This past week has been great! We have been going around to visit a ton of people! Lots of good things are coming about! Something that I have noticed about when we put in our hardest work, is that referrals start coming in! We start to see a lot more of those come in! We just received two from the 1st ward elders yesterday for people who seem to be ready to hear and accept the gospel. One is for a 16 year old kid, and another is for an older lady. So we are super super excited to see what happens and what will come from those as we contact them! 

We have finished the area ward directory for the 3rd ward. And are about halfway done with 4th ward. We have been busy writing down all the people we know for the different addresses! It has been cool to see just how many members there are on EVERY STREET! ON just about every street, half of the street is members. With the vast majority of them being less-active members! So we are super excited to go and meet them all! 

The Mission Tour on Tuesday was super fantastic!! I loved it!! Absolutly loved it!! So much good stuff came from it!! I loved hearing from Elder Neilson! He has a lot of good insights. I loved what he said about Less-actives. About how we need to go to them. He articulated something that I have felt, but have never been able to express. Virtually every less active on our records are part member families. Very rarely do two members go less-active together. So there are a lot of potential in our less-actives! There are sooooo many people who are ready to hear the gospel. It is just a matter of time before we get there!! 

We also talked about using social media as a tool for getting people to teach and talk. To have the members send out texts or face messages or direct messages to their friends. Something really non-threatening, but super effective! So y'all better do it too!!!!!

We are so excited for what will be coming!!! This is going to be big!

I love all y'all and each y'all!

Elder Miner 

Mission conference

Oreos burn?

Elder Ramirez and Elder Miner

****

So this week has been good! I really like Elder Ramirez! He is a super good Elder. He knows what he is supposed to be doing. And he is a lot of fun. I am excited for what these transfers together will bring! 

We have been going around trying to find new investigators. Trying is the key word there. We have decided to make a directory of our area with all the streets and all the address's. We are going to slowly meet everyone who lives in the two wards. We knock only a few door on each street at a time. So we are excited to see how that goes. We have a ward activity coming up later this month that is specifically for bringing less-actives and non-members to the church. It is a multi-cultural event! But the wards like Elder Ramirez. They are all surprised at how good of english he speaks. But they like him. It is weird. As far as the work goes, we are more of less starting over. We only have a few investigators. The wards trust us, but we really just need people to teach. We need to find. So I am excited for this week to train on finding. Especially since that was the last thing I trained on too.. Elder Ramirez and I have set some goals for the following two transfers. We think we are going to be together for two. But we have a goal of 40 new investigators over the next two transfers. 17 at church. 6 with a date. And 3 who will get baptized. We are going to exceed our goals! 

Funny story:  So we were knocking on this door and we met this super pissed less active member who has been trying to remove her records for 40 years. So we started joking around with her about that. She said that she should just write a "tell all mormon book, and then they'll excomunicate me" So my wonderful companion said "i'll read it" hahaha. Then we invited her to church and she said "it would probably fall down if I stepped into it. On second thought, that is a good idea!" Then my companion said "you won't"...We had a good laugh and then said goodbye and told her to call if she ever needed anything. Good times haha.

We are SUPER excited for mission tour tomorrow!!!! It is going to be super sweet!! we are excited to learn! and we get to drive to sparks!!

Well I love all y'all and each y'all 

Elder Miner 

Transfers

This week has been good! It has really gone by fast!! After last Monday Elder Jackman's stress level dropped a ton! So this week he was super super solid!! It was really good to see that, and it made the work go really well this week. We have a ton of appointments set up this week and I am excited to be with my new companion. Elder Ramiraz is a good guy. I've met him before and he seems to be really cool. He has been out for 18 months now. He goes home the same transfer as Elders Lyman and Latham. I'm excited to still be District Leader out here. Also excited that the Fallon 1st ward elders didn't change. So that will be sweet to be with them both for another one! This next transfer is going to be super awesome!!! 

We had a chance to go on another exchange this week with Elder Tolbert and Elder Day. I was with Elder Day and we were able to fulfill what I believe to be prophesy. In Ely, my first transfer there, he promised me that the exchange we had there would not be our last. And he did not lie. It may have taken almost 3 more transfers, and a different city, but we were able to go on another exchange! It was super good and I love that man. He helps me to learn a lot and it will be good to have both him and Elder Tolbert still as our Zone Leaders! 

But General Conference! Wasn't that great?! It was so good to be able to hear from the Prophets and Apostles. Their words truly are inspiring! I loved the opening talk of conference by President Eyring. Talking about family history! A couple things stuck out to be from that. That family history work is the work of our generation! I loved that! I really feel that when I go home, I need to get more fully engaged in this great work. That was a specific prompting that I received during his talk. 

President Nielsons challenges from his talk were also pretty cool. To mark and study all the references to the savior found in the topical guide! That is pretty cool!!! And to study the Living Christ. Those are some things that I really want to do. I can't say that I've studied the Living Christ really at all. I've probably read it once or twice. 

Elder Hollands was very good as well. I had a lot of thoughts about that. I loved his analogy of the choir. It worked very well to illustrate the point he was making. "Come as your are, but don't play to stay as you are." I Know that I have been changed by my Father in Heaven. He has altered the course of my life soooo much. I am not who I was when I entered the Field. I am a changed person. I don't want to go back to who I once was. 

I am super duper excited for this next transfer!! It will be super good!!! Elder Ramiraz and I will do some good! 

Some cool things that I forgot to mention last week was that we had zone conference!! I love zone conference! We had some good insights into the mission from it. We found out that in our region, the American Southwest region, it takes on average finding 24 new investigators for every one baptism. In our mission though, it takes finding only 10! So that was cool to see that! Our investigators are aware of what we as missionaries are doing. I love this work sooo much!! 

I love all y'all and each y'all!! 

Elder Miner 

1 Elders Tolbert, Jackman, Day and I 

2 Elder Lyman and I (also Sister Chesnut)

3 Elder Ruiz and I