Reno YSA

So I will be transferred to the Reno YSA ward. I will be serving with Elder Weglin. 

I saw another Elder do this, and I thought it was cool so I'll do it too

Mission Breakdown:

4.5 months in D'Andrea ward in Sparks

4.5 months in Spring Creek 3rd ward

4.5 months in Ely 2nd and Lund wards

4.5 months in Fallon 3rd and 4th ward

4.5 months in Cold Springs and Silver Lake wards in Reno North

this leaves about 3 months for the Reno YSA ward

As my time here in Cold Springs and Silver lake draws to a close, I feel sad and excited. I am so excited to serve in the Reno YSA ward. But I love the people here. I will come back. I will see the people that live here. I love this place. I have a lot of memories that I will cherish that come from this place, and this time with my companions. I have had 3 companions here! That will be a lot of conversations to remember. I am so grateful that the Lord sent me here. I truly have enjoyed this time, and I've felt that I have grown since coming here. I am not the Elder who left Fallon. I left Fallon tired, slightly defeated, and unsure of what to expect. Now as I leave Reno North for Reno, I feel confident, excited, successful, happier, and with a better understanding of who I am and what I have been called to do. I will take those tools that I have sharpened in the north and bring them to the south ready to go! I'm also excited because down in central Reno it's about 10 degrees warmer! 

I really have loved Elder Coronado. He is someone that will be a friend for life. We had pretty good unity from the moment that we were put together. Our unity in lessons and during street contacts is very good. Elder Autrey brought something special to this mix too. The three of us saw miracles daily. I will miss them a lot. But I am so excited to be with Elder Weglin now! This is kinda weird because we know each other already. When we were at the mission office last night to look at transfers we had joked around before we went inside that I would be his companion. And then we went in, looked at the paper, and there we go! New companion right there and everything! I am so excited for what this next transfer will bring! I am excited for this final area It will be a good one. I am ready to work and hit the ground running. My zone has a lot of people that I have served around before. I am super pumped to see them again!

I've got to say too, we LOVE biking! We have seen miracle after miracle doing it! We went up to Cold Springs this week and biked around for maybe a total of 5 hours? We filled out 2 pages of potentials!!! And they are solid potentials too! We set up return appointments and gave out Books of Mormon! Biking Brings Miracles. I will forever have a testimony of that. I am curious to see how much biking we can do serving in a YSA ward... 

Going to the temple this week too was AWESOME! I love the temple and the spirit it brings! It was good to sit there in that session. I felt as though the eyes of my understanding were opened. I saw the significance of the temple in a new light. I think I am beginning to understand why the general authority's say to go often! 

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

Elder Miner

Briawna Got Baptized!!!!

So i really don't want to write a ton today, I am really tired. 

 But this week was very good! Briawna Sims got baptized and confirmed!!!!!! That was a very special time! So much ward support for her. She spoke at the Why I Believe fireside and spoke straight from the heart and spoke true doctrine Her testimony was powerful!!!! 

We had 3 investigators at church. Lots of less actives. Found a family of 5. 4 of them are non-members. One of the non-member daughters came to church with her member mom. They really enjoyed the spirit that was at the meeting. I'm sure witnessing a confirmation helped a lot with that. The less-active mom was in tears for almost the entire service! 

Exchanges with the Assistants. I was with Elder Tolbert again. He is a good man, and a good example. 

So in other news, because people asked, our mission will be receiving smart phones sometime in march-may of next year. SO LUCKY ME I GET TO AVOID IT! And I am being serious about that too. I don't want the tech. Give me a paperback Book of Mormon, a paper map, and a paper ward list and watch the miracles happen. I am glad that I get to avoid the tech.  

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

Elder Miner

It snowed!

Briawna at her baptism

Ups and Down

This week was good! I went on exchanges with Elder Clark into his area. He is a pretty dang good Elder, and I love him a lot. We had such a good time together. We got to help investigators, and we had a HUGE miracle happen. We were finishing up some training, and we got a call from the Stead Elders asking if we were busy. All we had planned was to try some unknown Less-Actives, so we said no. We ended up going with a member of their ward to visit his sister who had a dying lady in her home. This woman, Teressa, was a member, and we gave her a blessing. Mostly of comfort for what will be coming in the next few days. But afterwords we were talking to the Sister, who told us that she was a less-active herself. She said that she needed to start getting back into the church and that her and her husband needed to get sealed. Her husband isn't a member! So they gave us the go ahead to come on back and begin teaching. And on another note, they are trying to move up to Cold Springs with us! So that was cool that I was able to be there with them at this critical moment. 

We had a few ups and downs this week. We had two investigators drop us. Their main reason was because of medical stuff. But I think that the wife just didn't want to change. She also had questions about Joseph Smith, but we didn't get the opportunity to answer them before they pulled away. 

Briawna Sims baptism was postponed. It will be this Thursday at 7 pm. This has ended up being a good thing, because a TON of people were able to meet her at church yesterday. We are thinking that about half the ward will show up! They really want to come out to support her! Also we have the Why I Believe this Sunday too. We are getting prepped and ready to go for that. 

But speaking of church, we had four investigators there: Chris Hammond, Lora Wilson, Myah Dressback, and Briawna Sims. We also had 9 less-actives there: Sister Cook and kids, Sister Huston and kids, Carlos Castellon, Sister Beach and her daughter, Brother and Sister Shaff, and Brother and Sister Andrews. It was a really good week for church attendance! Tons of people were able to come and feel the Atoning power of the Savior through the Sacrament. And this was spread between both wards too! But mostly into the Silver Lake ward. We are so very excited for Briawna this week. She will do so good in the church. This gospel has already changed her life, and it will continue to do so! 

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

Elder Miner 

Sunset in Susanville

Conferences

So this week was another busy busy busy time! 

1 Zone Conference

2 MLC

3 Exchanges with Elder Anderson

4 Briawna Sims baptismal interview

ZONE CONFERENCE! It was a great time! I got to conduct it again, since we hosted, and it was just as nerve wracking! But lots of great "how-to's"! Lots of good info! We got to give a training, and it seems to have resonated well with the zone. We heard multiple references to it in the days afterwords. It was a great experience and great time! Lots of pictures! Lots of friends seen too! 

MLC was a lot of fun! As of right now, for the month of October we have, as a mission, 46 people set with dates for baptism! And we will be helping with that number! We have never gotten more than 31 baptisms in our mission for any given month since President Chesnut has been here. So this month should be a huge step forward for us! We have caught the vision! We heard some great training's about leadership and how to get the work going in areas through Less-Actives. Saw tons of friends here! 

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Anderson in our area. The three of us, Elder Autrey, Elder Anderson, and I went up to Cold Springs and biked around for most of the day. We talked to every person that we could often turning around to talk to someone we passed. Nothing particularly major happened that day, but it was just a good day. It passed by quickly and let us see the how to's of missionary work. I spent a lot of time working with these two other Elders and teaching/showing them how to do missionary work on a bike, and in English. Elder Anderson said that "this has been the most productive day of my mission". And the reason for that, is that we talked to people. We gave invitations. We spread the truth to all those that would listen to us. And because of that, we were very effective. 

We did meet this man on that exchange named Edward. An old trucker who kindly talked to us about trucking. Once we told him we were LDS, he said "well why didn't you say that earlier!". Of all the religions in the world, that is the only one he likes. The rest of them he says, "cause trouble and wars. But you Mormons take care of each other." He said that of all the church's in the world, he would only ever join ours. But he doesn't believe the Savior actually existed... Small problem right? He asked about the local meeting times and said that he might show up one day. 

 

So Briawna passed her interview with President Perry, 1st counselor in the mission presidency. He invited me into the interview with them just before they started and he asked me some questions. How long I had been teaching her? How did we first meet her? My favorite thing about teaching her? It was a neat and unusual thing to do that! it allowed me to think back on this month or so of us teaching her and remember the different experiences. She has been waiting in our are for 3 years. Just no one ever found her. She is really described as someone "who [is] kept only from the truth because [she] knew not where to find it". That was the coolest thing ever! She will be baptized this weekend! 

Here are some pics to enjoy

I love all y'all and each y'all

Elder Miner

North Reno Zone

Zone Leader Conference

Elder Miner, Elder Coronado and Elder Anderson

Conference

You would not believe what has happened this week. And I don't have 4 hours to tell you all the details, so I will say what I can.

1 WE HAVE A NEW COMPANION

2 Two exchanges

3 GENERAL CONFERENCE

So we now have one of the Puerto Rico missionaries with us! We picked him up on Thursday. Two weeks ago I had no companions, now I have two! This has been a lot of fun and a lot of adjustment for all the members and such. It has been cool. So now I have two spanish speaking companions and I can't speak it still...

This week has been insane. So many miracles have happened. Never a dull moment up in Reno North. Two exchanges A new companion. Good times. Elder Horstmann came to my area with me and we had a good and successful time. Elder Merrill came with Elder Autrey and I later in the week. With both of these exchanges, we saw extreme busyness The busyness was of a good kind though. It all lead to someone growing close to salvation and exaltation. We met with many investigators who have made these changes in their lives to come close unto the Savior. One even told us that she is ready for baptism and that she knows it's true. She has been married to a less-active for 15 years, and is finally ready for this huge step in her life. 

So something from General Conference that really inspired me was President Nelsons charge with the Book of Mormon. It isn't just knowing the book is true. It must become part of us. It should change our soul! it should be a very central part of our lives. Also I loved the phrase coined yesterday "Love without service is like faith without works." I love my companions, but do I really? I love my family, but how do they know? I am going to change the way I love people. I am going to make it more meaningful for myself and all those who are with me. I will change my nature to align myself with God. There were so many insights. I feel as though I have been changed. My life is different now. I am so looking forward to receiving the conference issue of the Ensign so that I can review the talks. I loved Elder Renlund's talk in the priesthood session. His story about the man who had been re-baptized and then went onto have his blessing restored unto him touched the innermost part of my heart. As Elder Renlund shared that only his original baptism, confirmation, priesthood and temple dates would show on his record, the spirit confirmed to me the absoluteness of repentance. Nothing is held back when we truly repent and come unto Christ. Even the worst sins can be overcome through the atoning power of Jesus Christ, and not even a blemish will be left upon us. We truly can become as white as snow. That changed me.

I love all y'all and each y'all

Elder Miner 

Elder Miner, Elder Coronodo, Elder Autry

The Herron kids with the Elders