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

Super busy week.

So exciting news from this week. 

1 bye bye missionaires

2 Elder Coronado

3 Service

4 misc

5 more people!

So this week I said goodbye to a lot of good missionaries who I have known for a long time. Elder Lyman. Elder Latham. Elder Williams. Elder Gamble. Elder Hiatt. Elder Ramirez. Elder Werner. And many more. Some of these I've known since my first day in the mission field. That was so weird...

Elder Coronado is a great missionary. I am going to learn a lot from him. A lot in the ways of talking with people. I am still trying to get better at talking with everyone and Elder Coronado is very good at that. He has jumped right in with everything here. We are going to have a killer transfer! We are so pumped!!! 

TONS OF SERVICE THIS WEEK. When we were totaling up our zone stats this morning I just wrote down "A lot" for service. Like we seriously did hours and hours of it. for a food bank, Habitat for Humanity, and moving someone. 

This past week we have been super busy. Spontaneous things have just happened that lead to us finding people to talk to on the streets and being with people in their homes. we have seen miracle after miracle! We are both excited to be here serving together.

We have a new investigator now. She was in the Marina ward. Her name is Lora Wilson. We will be teaching her every week. Her member daughter will be participating in the lessons also, because she moved in 6 doors down from her Mom! So that will be a solid time with that. Chris Hammond is slowly progressing to baptism. He is starting to live the Word of Wisdom again today so that he can be interviewed by President Chesnut in two weeks. He is the one who is on probation. Briawna Sims, the lady who the Stead ward members found, is doing well. She is excited for both our General and Stake conference. 

Great things are happening! 

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

Elder Miner 

The view from Chandler's apartment

Changes!!

How is everyone doing? Life out here in Reno is pretty good! Things are going well. We are seeing good things happen with the work. The weather is pretty nice right now. It's cooling off. Just about sweater weather. So no complaints on my end. 

A couple of cool things have happened this week.

1 Trio life

2 Brianna Sims

3 Air Races

4 Why I Believe

5 New Companion

Let me tell ya, being in a trio is a ton of fun! Especially when that trio can change any given day. It just means there is never a dull or quiet moment either. It is pretty sweet! Like sooo much fun! I have been with the Stead Elders this week for the most part. Elders Werner and White. Now Elder Werner goes home tomorrow and Elder White is training and will be the new district leader in the north valleys, as well as on a bike. 

So last Monday, with the Stead Elders, we taught a lady named Brianna Sims. She went to the church when she was a kid, and also has gone 3 times now. Twice to Stead ward and once to Silver Lake ward. We taught her again on Friday. She is very prepared and had started reading the Book of Mormon before we met her. She has also accepeted a baptismal date of October 14! When we had asked her about who she thought Joseph Smith was her responce was: A Prophet. For a lot of the lesson we were pretty stunned with her understanding of everything. We are excited to keep teaching her!

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of the Reno Air Races, but they are held in my area up here. You probably have heard of the tragedy that happened several years back when a plane crashed just before the grand stands. We have been able to watch planes fly over heard in formations and and doing different tricks all week out here! While teaching Brianna at a park we saw a plane fly straight up spinning until he stalled, and then nose dive until he could pull out and repeat the process. It was pretty dang cool! As a lot of you know, I love planes, so that was a real treat to watch! 

Last night we had the Why I Believe fireside! I really love these things. It was a little odd to be the one to organize and carry it out. We got HUGE coverage for this one though. Every ward got this announced way in advance and we had representatives from every ward in the stake except for one. We had about 87 people in attendence. Normally it's close to 30 people... We had to move from the the Relief Society room to the chapel. But the speakers spoke with power of their conversion. The Holy Ghost testified of their words and bore witness to all who were in attendence. We had some miracles happen because of this. We had taught this man, in the trio, named Storm. He is an older gentleman who knows his bible pretty well. I was able to have a pretty nice chat about it and he gave me righteous envy for some of his knowledge and materials. Now I really want a Geneva bible. But anyway, he doesn't think there is one true religion. He doesn't think the priesthood is nessisary. But a nice man. We invited him to the fireside yesterday. He said he wouldn't be able to make it. But he ended up coming to church to ask when the fireside was. Then he came to the firside. And now, he wants to meet with and get serious with missionaries! The spirit testified to him and he recongized it. A lot of other miracles like that happened as well. It was really strange to sit on the stand and to conduct the meeting. I'm not sure how I feel about doing that. It isn't exactly in my character to do that. But what the Lord asks, I will do. 

So transfers.. There was a lot of changes in he mission this transfer. A lot of missionaries are only staying for one or two transfers in their areas. A lot of people are training too. I got to see all my friends in the mission and where they are, and who they are with. But as for me, I get to stay in Cold Springs and Silver Lake. My new companion is Elder Coronado. He came out one transfer after me. He is a spanish Elder. I think the Lord is trying to tell me to learn Spanish.. He is coming to here from ELY!!!! So I have someone to talk to about ELY. He was a Zone Leader out there. So We will be able to just do the work. No worrying about training or anything. Just two missionaries doing their job. I am excited for it! And another plus, I get to drive! I like driving. But It will be a good transfer. We have good things lined up. General Conference is coming up, and Stake Conference is the week following that. The work never stops. Even when companions go home and move on, this work never stops. 

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

Elder Miner

Elders Miner, White and Werner

Elder Miner, Elder Werner and Elder White

A Mobile Mini!

Trio for days!

So this week has been bonkers with all the driving and just everything going on! 

1. Elder Jensen went home!! (@3:45am)

2. MLC

3. Trio Life

So my companion just had to go home early and leave me in my lonesome. But it is okay. It's working out super good! We are seeing miracles and the Lord is making up the difference. We have to spend time in other areas, so the Lord is providing in mine when we can't be there. I love it! We could have 5 baptisms this transfer if all goes well!

MLC was a ton of fun this time. Lots of good council and advice. A lot about new areas to open. We will be opening about 13 new areas these next two transfers. 9 This one. It was odd to see Elders Lyman and Latham bear their final testimonies in front of the leadership of the mission. They have served well and faithfully. They go home next week. I can't believe it. My two trainers are going home. It just goes to show how old I am I guess. After this transfer I will be the oldest person in the zone. 

But it has been fun to be with these other Elders out here. Elders Werner, White, Austin, and Millett. I have gotten to know all these so much more! I love these Elders and we have a lot of fun together. It is essentially going from appointment to appointment. It makes it super busy. But I have enjoyed it. Different dynamics to work with and to see. It will be fun to keep doing it for another week. 

Sorry this is short, but kinda forgot to write this.

I love all y'all and each y'all

Elder Miner 

The Elder's I've been hanging out with.

Elder Millett and Elder Austin

Elder Jensen Goes Home

So this was my last week with Elder Jensen. And it was a pretty good one!! It felt like we were always laughing at all times!!

Highlights from the week:

1 Hiked a mountain

2 Exchanges in Quincy

3 Sushi

4 2 new investigators

5 Random "Christian" bashers?

The hike last P-day was a lot of fun. It wasn't too hot and it turned out to be a pretty cool thing. Some Elders grumbled about it, but it went well. 

Exchanges in Quincy went pretty good! I was with Elder Horstmann. Saw a lot of trees. Saw a fire. Met with the Quincy Stake President. Helped to wrangle up some cows. Ate a burger that was a 1/4 pound of ground beef mixed with a 1/4 pound of bacon. It was pretty good! Elder Horstmann ate a camel burger. Apparently Camel tastes good?

Elder Jensen and I went into town and got some all you can eat sushi. We ate 11 rolls together. So that was pretty fun to do! Sushi is expensive though... But we spent the whole time talking and laughing and having a good 'ole time. He is a fun companion. I will really miss him a ton

Found two more investigators this week! Part member families are a pretty good source of that! So things are going well. I get to keep the work going by myself for the next two weeks. I will be bouncing between two other sets of Elders up here and going on splits with a lot of members too. So hopefully nothing will slow down or stop! 

And yesterday this crazy thing happened. We were meeting with Chris Hammond and a park by his house sitting on the grass and these two guys pull up and walk up to us with their bibles. One of them has a shirt on for a local church. They ask if we were Mormons and we said yes and Chris said " I'm a Mormon in training". They said that they were here to warn us about the mistakes of man... Chris asked them if they wanted to start with a prayer before we got into "discussing doctrine" and they said no.... They said that we pray to a different God? So Elder Jensen and I looked at each other and quietly mouthed flip to each other. So for the next hour they tried to prove us wrong, but we agreed with just about everything they said, so they got really confused and we got one of them to agree with us on everything. The only thing we didn't agree on is the trinity. It was pretty annoying and I don't understand why people go around trying to do that. We kept saying that we didn't want to argue and contend and the guy was saying that he "has thick skin, so bring out the contentions". We didn't, but we couldn't leave because we didn't want Chris to be alone with them. Instead of shaking out faith, it just gave us a greater desire to do what is right and to speak the truth! Chris didn't understand what they were saying so that was a blessing. And someone from their congregation came halfway through and started backing us up. So afterwords we just kinda laughed it off. The strange things that happen as a missionary...

anyways. What we talk about is true. No one else can take that knowledge away from me. I am excited for these next two weeks and the chance to proclaim the truth with so many different people

I love all y'all and each y'all

Elder Miner 

Beautiful Sunsets

My Son and Grandson

Zone P-day

District Meeting

Cool Sign

The View

Elder Jensen at the airport