Lots of Bikes!

In our mission right now we are pushing biking super hard. It's a really great way to have people

see you! I am really slow on the bike again, so I can't really share a story of biking that produced miracles, but I can share a story of walking that produced some. Elder Vargas and I were on exchanges on Saturday and we walked around for about 2 hours. In that time we handed our multiple pamphlets, several Books of Mormon, and made some solid contacts. We have 2 return appointments and gave two solid referrals to the Spanish Elders up here. I will definitely testify to the blessing of being outside. It's a lot easier to open your mouth to people when your companion dares you to talk to someone haha. 

I really enjoyed the exchanges with Elders Tolbert and Vargas this week. It was pretty cool to go with Elder Tolbert again. He was one of my Zone Leaders in Fallon, and now is one of the assistants. It is pretty cool to see how we have both changed. It was almost refreshing to be in the area with someone who doesn't know it for a couple days. I was able to do things a little differently. We saw some pretty sweet miracles as well! 

With Elder Tolbert, we were able to make contact with Chris Hammond in the Cold Springs ward. He was that investigator that is on probation. He misunderstood us and thought that he had to wait till the end of his probation to be baptized, which is in 5 years. So he had more or less told us to not come by anymore and that he was done. But Elder Tolbert and I were able to make contact and at first he was really upset and told us to meet him at a park in a half hour. Once there he calmed down and stopped swearing as we were with him more and more. We expressed our love for him and told him he wasn't rejected. We explained better the procedure for what to do if you are on probation. He is now back on board and is committed again to following his savior! That was so big. We care so much about him, and so does the ward. They want to see him at church and they want to love him! i got to go by the next day with Elder Vargas and we were able to explain even more to him! It was amazing to see the spirit work upon him in that very moment! 

I love being out here and I can't wait to see what this area will continue to bring! Lots of good times are ahead!! 

I love all y'all and each y'all! 

Elder Miner 

p.s. the eclipse was pretty dang cool!! 

Walking around Reno

Zone Conference and Illness and Chick fil a!

So this week was pretty good! We had some exciting things happen! Some fun stuff that goes on in the life of a missionary.

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday! It was down in Sparks! It was a lot of fun! It was really focused on the spirit and listening to it. Without the spirit we are utterly incapable of doing the thing which we have been called to do. We had to give a training to our zone on how to illustrate that The spirit really really guided us on how to do it. I really want to talk about it because I think it can help anyone! 

So first thing is that you must be obedient. Without that you cannot have the spirit with you.
The next major thing is that you must be in a good environment for the spirit to be around you. "Stand ye in Holy places" and all that.  

Next you must pray and ask God for it to be given you 

The next principle is "revelation comes as thoughts to the mind and feelings to the heart". And also "a thought is revelation until proven otherwise"

If it is a good thing, then it comes from God! 

We did some pretty cool role plays to demonstrate these principles and the missionaries got it! They had the very promises given to them come true in the very moment they had them! Many of them received the revelation they needed, and didn't listen to it. It was a powerful teaching moment to council with them together and to point out and tell them that the thought they had would have solved the problem. It would have answered the concern. Now they recognize that it truly comes as thoughts. As a sentence or a phrase or a question. That was incredible to see with them. 

So zone conference was very good. I love hearing the guidance of President Chesnut. He knows the truth about what we need out here! 

So on a less awesome note, all four of our people that we have on date have fallen through. Even the one from last week. So instead of having a baptism on Saturday, we stayed in all day because this week I got SUPER sick. but now I'm okay!! It has passed. That was seriously an answer to prayer. After fighting whatever that was for 6 days I was getting pretty week and tired. I spent a good amount of time begging God for help and strength. And then yesterday I woke up pretty much fine. That was a huge miracle!

Also a huge miracle: WE HAD CHICKFILA FOR DINNER THIS WEEK

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

Elder Miner 

P.s. Shout out to my parents 24th wedding anniversary!! 24 years, two continents (back and forth), many states, 4 boys, a mission, college x 2, high school x 3, an unholy amount of sports x 4, a Temple cultural celebration, a large variety of callings, and lots and lots of food later (so many trips to Costco) and they are still sticking it out! Not bad for this day and age. I love them and make sure to let them know how amazing they are!!! 

Chick Fil a opens in Reno!

North Reno zone

Hastening

So this week was really special. 

Two main things happened: 

1 Transfers

2 MLC

This transfer sent 13 missionaries home. 13 Elders and Sisters who have served the Lord for 18 months-two years. They have seen miracles. They have seen lives changed. They have been changed. This happening has made me very aware that my companion goes home in 3 weeks. I will be sad to see him go, but this is the best that he has ever been. He understands his purpose AND he lives it! Those 13 missionaries are the middle group for the huge section of our mission going home. This transfer will send another 13 home. 

But transfers aren't about sad things, they are about good stuff too!! we got 26 brand new missionaries!!!! We got to house two of them before they went to Elko the next morning. We threw them into the fire that night as well haha. We had to meet with the Stake President, but we also had a lesson. So we let these two BRAND NEW missionaries teach the lesson by themselves while we were off in meetings. And they did a great job!!!!! Missionaries fresh out of the MTC can do super great things!!! 26 new missionaries!! So much change in the mission!!! I love it!!!!

Also at MLC we got to hear a lot about the work hastening. We had an amazing chance to hear from the mission's FIRST Muslim convert. She is about 24. And she told us of her journey and the things she gave up. The things she risks if she goes back to her home country. But she came to know it's true. And she stood up to her family, her culture, and her history. That was a priviledge to hear about.

President Chesnut then got up and prophesied that there will be many more Muslim converts in this mission. The door is opening, and soon there will be many more. The work is hastening on. Miracles are happening. There is no heart that the gospel cannot soften or change. I love it! 

Speaking of hastening, Chris is going strong with the Word of Wisdom. So things are looking good for his baptism this week! We are so excited!!! 

I love all y'all and each y'all

Elder Miner

North Reno Zone at the temple

Still in Reno

This week was a lot of fun! We saw some miracles, that's for sure! 

Our investigator Chris Hammond is moving forward to his baptismal date of August 19! This week he gave us all of his Coffee and his Coffee maker so that he would no longer be tempted by it. We taught him about Tithing this week, and he told us about how hard it would be. He is barely making any money. Hardly enough to eat on. We bore testimony over and over again about the blessing that will come from paying it. He finally said that he would try it. Yesterday after Church he called us saying that he had grabbed a tithing slip from the building, and was starting to put money into the tithing section! Chris also bore his testimony yesterday! That was HUGE!!! The ward loves him and is reaching out to embrace him a ton! 

Our other major investigator, Mike, is back on track now! He came to church yesterday and has a baptismal date for also August 19th. In our lesson with him this week, we went over the baptismal interview questions with him, and he passed them with flying colors. He is awesome and is so ready for baptism! The work is moving forward in this great area and great mission. Miracles abound where and when we exercise our faith and actually put in the effort. 

I am so excited to be able to stay with Elder Jensen for another 4 weeks. It will go by too fast, but it will be filled with boldness, hard-work, and miracles. I am not the same missionary that came to Reno 6 weeks ago. I am drastically different. I am repenting and doing better. The Lord has allowed us to be together so that we could magnify this office in a unique way. Elder Jensen and I teach well together. We work as a team and we are "bold as a Lion". We see miracles as we communicate and work together. This past week we saw a new height for our teaching. We were working with some less actives and trying to help them to attend church. If we had stepped away and looked in, what were saying would've offended anyone! They would've hated our guts for the words we uttered. But the spirit was there. And we said the things that the spirit put into our hearts. I said the words "unless you attend church and partake of the sacrament, you cannot go to heaven." Now any normal person would not have said that, nor would any normal person listen to that without pulling a gun on us. But what the spirit whispers, we say. We are a peculiar people. We don't say things normal people say. And we are seeing miracles because of these things. That less active came to church this week.  

I love this work that we are engaged in! It is the best work in the world. It is the reason that God does what He does. 

I love all y'all and each y'all

Elder Miner 

Reno

Sunset

Susanville

Elder Miner and Elder Hokanson

Mesa Street

Elder Jensen holding a cat