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

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