Nacogdoches Weeks 19-20 (Mission Weeks 102-103) Part of the Journey is the End

For the last time, Hey everyone!

My last 2 weeks as a missionary were awesome. I was very busy and I had a great time doing all my missionary things for the last time. I'll report on the past 2 weeks now. If I skip a day it is because nothing important happened and I have 2 weeks to cover haha

Tuesday (3/12/24)

I had district council in Lufkin which was fun. We went to Chick Fil A for lunch afterwards and then I headed back home. I was supposed to go to the Serenity Garden but something came up and I wasn't able to go. That afternoon I went to the Barringtons and did some yard work and they fed me some really good chicken wings afterwards. One of my favorite parts of the mission were member dinners so I loved being over there for dinner. I have definitely missed being fed by the members in Nevada and being in their homes. 

Wednesday-Thursday (3/13-3/14)

It was spring break so we went to Six Flags!! We went during the later afternoon and evening on Wednesday but our main day of being there was supposed to be Thursday. We spent the night and we were all ready to use our VIP entrance to get in 15 minutes before the park opened but the park was CLOSED!!!! They decided to close the park for inclement weather when it wasn't supposed to storm until later that night! We were all pretty bummed but luckily Bailee, Bryce, and I were able to ride the previous night but I did feel bad for Mason though because he didn't get to ride anything and he hasn't been in 13 years.

Friday and Saturday (3/15-3/16)

Both English and Spanish districts had a temple trip day and I went on both of them. I took the Lufkin elders on Friday and the Spanish elders on Saturday. It was an amazing opportunity to go twice in a row with my mission ending and leaving the district once it does end. We went to the Houston temple (which was approved by the mission president even though it was way outside the mission). Both days were awesome.

Sunday (3/17)

I gave a talk in Carthage. Only thing worth mentioning.

Tuesday (3/19/24)

My last district council!!! Wow, that's crazy. I'm so glad I was able to continue on with attending district council and having a group of missionaries to be friends with. That opportunity isn't there for all service missionaries but I was able to make it happen. I have my NRM mission friends and now my TDEM mission friends. To close off the transfer I provided a pizza party!! Homemade and everything. It was great. The friendships you create with those you serve around will always be such a blessing. It reminds me of Alma 17 when the Sons of Mosiah run into Alma again. Their feelings are exactly what I feel for those I served around.

Thursday (3/21/24)

March Madness is here!! I know that has nothing to do with missionary work but dang am I glad that I get to be here for it haha. It was also my last day serving at the Serenity Garden. I had thought that I wouldn't be able to go because of the weather and Mr. Gary never responded to my text but while I was watching the games he finally got back to me and said I could come on over and that he had forgotten to respond that 2pm would work. It was already 3:30 and I was tempted to stay home and watch March Madness but I quickly pushed that thought out and went to serve!! 

Friday (3/22/24)

The final day. All 718 days led to this. My mission release interview with President Newman was much better and more valuable than I thought it would be. I had been reminiscing on the past 2 years for a week or two and being able to talk about it with my stake president was great. Talking with him gave me more hope for my future as well. It was definitely a surreal moment when he released me and a tear may have been shed but that tear was a sign that I had done my job. Despite my many imperfections and trials that came my way, I did it. The tag has now been taken off but the imprint is still ingrained on my life. I have loved holding the mantle of a full time missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I gave my release talk this past Sunday and I think I did a good job on relating my feelings on how I have grown in the past 2 years. I focused on how divine responsibility, if exercised correctly, brings immense blessings, love, and gratitude. This is exactly why missions are so impactful on young members of the church. Being given this divine responsibility of teaching and serving God's children is why we feel so connected to the people of our mission. Why we feel so much gratitude for the work we put in. Why we feel so sad when its over. It's because we have had the sacred responsibility and were given a sliver of what our Heavenly Father feels for us.

Before I end I will let yall know what is next in store for me. I'll be hanging around in Nac until the end of May and then will spend the summer as an FSY Counselor. After that I will head to BYU Idaho in the fall and will be majoring in Recreation and Sports Management. There is a slight possibility that I will transfer over to BYU next year and try to be a student manager for the BYU Basketball program which would help me gain experience for a career in athletics.

Well there you have it. The end of my missionary service. The past 2 years have been incredible. I cannot fully express the amount of joy and love I have felt while serving God's children. From the 20 months in the NRM to the past 4 in the TDEM as a service missionary, I wouldn't change a thing. I cannot wait to look back over all my emails and reminisce about the times of the mission.

Thank you all for everything that y'all did for me while I was serving. To the emails sent and the prayers said on my behalf, I thank you all.

I love yall!!!

Elder Proctor

Nacogdoches Week 18 (Mission Week 101)

Hey everyone!

Like I said in the email I sent a couple of days ago I am going to do a weekly update on the last couple of weeks of the mission so here I am to report on Week 101! Turns out I calculated one week short last week when catching up with my emails so the last email was Week 83-Week 100. It is so crazy to me that I have hit triple digits on the amount of weeks I have been set apart as a missionary.

Here's how the week went.

Monday

I treat Mondays as my pday so I didn't have any service planned for the day. I just worked on writing my catch up email and some other stuff. I was going to go disc golf with the missionaries but it was raining so we couldn't go. We did go play basketball at the church with the Spanish elders though and that was fun.

Tuesday

I had a zone conference in Shreveport and that was really fun. I gave a ride to both the English and Spanish elders so it was all of us packed into the Camry haha. Zone conference was great and the training that was given was helpful to me. It was mainly on lasting conversion even after the mission so that applied to me very well as I am closing out the mission. The main thing we focused on was how the #1 convert you should have on the mission is yourself. I definitely am not perfect and have my own things I still struggle with but I can definitely say that I have been converted more so than I was 2 years ago. I'm glad that I have been able to continue going to zone conferences as a service missionary. That night we had a YSA activity at the Hintzes for a movie night in their theater room. That was fun.

Wednesday

I had my Bookmobile service during the afternoon. Mostly everything was the same besides the fact that I got to be the one driving around Nac this time because the car that we usually take had a dead battery so we had to make adjustments to the plan. I always have moments during this service where I am like "there is no other 21 year old guy chauffeuring old people and himself around being a Bookmobile haha." It was a good day.

 

Thursday

Thursdays are usually my most busy day. In the morning I went to the HOPE Food pantry. There were so many people that day that came through. We did get done until 30 minutes after usual. We ran out of boxes to give out and there were still tons of cars in line which hasn't happened in the 3 months I've been doing it. After that I went straight over to the Serenity Garden and worked on projects there. This is when Mr. Gary and I went out and handed out free eggs for the 1st hour like I mentioned in my previous email. I stayed a bit longer than usual for the day. After that I went home and grabbed dinner and then went to Institute. After institute I headed over to Lufkin for the basketball night they have.

Friday

It was a really chill day. I was supposed to spend 2 hours at the Serenity Garden but when I got over there Mr. Gary said that he needed some rest and that I could be free for the day haha. I didn't have anything else planned for the day so I just made my own stuff to do. That's when I got the rest of my previous email written and some other busy work done.

Saturday

I had my service district devotional in the morning and then I drove over to Tyler for a district activity with the service missionaries in East Texas. We played board games and had pizza. It was fun. I had to leave a bit early though because we were celebrating my parents birthday that night. We went to Jalapeno Tree and then had cake and ice cream at home.

 

Sunday

Church was great as it always is. I had a temple recommendation interview since it has already been 2 years since I first went through the temple. I have grown to love interviews with my priesthood leaders. I always have a better feeling after than I did going in. The rest of the day was restful as all Sundays should be.

Well that's it from this past week. You will only be getting 2 more emails from me. The mission has flown by but hasnt at the same time. Time passes weirdly on the mission haha.

I love yall. Have a great week!

Elder Proctor

Fallon Week 14 and Nacogdoches Weeks 1-17 (Mission Weeks 83-100)

 Hey everyone!!

Man oh man a lot of stuff has happened since I last wrote. I kinda regret not writing emails these past couple months while finishing out as a service missionary at home. Many of yall have asked me to continue on with my emails but I would procrastinate and not do it. I have been meaning to write for weeks now so I'm happy I am finally getting to it. Sorry future me. You live and you learn. Just for some perspective last time I wrote I was around 590 days out. Today is 4 days after my 23rd month mark and my 704th day as a missionary. I only have 14 days left as my release date is March 22nd to coincide with the Dallas Texas East mission transfer schedule. In the end I will have spent 82% of my mission in the Nevada Reno mission and the remaining 18% here at home.

First off I'll update y'all on the condition of my leg aka the culprit of my return home. Lets just say it was a VERY good idea for me to come home. The months of November and December were still very painful and no progress came with my leg. It's probably a good thing it went that way because it would have sucked if my leg magically healed after 1 week of being home. I went to many doctor's visits with the regular doctor and a rheumatologist in Tyler. After an MRI, a month-long trial run of a prednisone taper, and other things I got put on a medication called Sulfasalazine that has seemed to do the trick. It wasn't until January that I finally found relief and as of today I would say it's 95% better. I am able to play basketball, workout, and have no pain while walking. There are some days where there is ever so slight discomfort but I believe that will resolve itself as time passes on. Now that my leg is better I look back to when it was hurting and DANG IT WAS BAD. In the moment I tried to suppress it but looking back I was in pain if not extreme pain every day. All I know is that I would NOT have gotten the care that I needed to reach the point I am at now if I stayed in Nevada. All things happen for a reason.

Now to talk about my life as a service missionary and what I've been up to since I returned home from a proselyting mission. I didn't really know what to expect coming home but it's been fun being able to be around the missionaries here in Nacogdoches. It was good timing that I came home at the same time that the Church integrated the service missions and proselyting mission to be one mission. I go to zone conferences and am involved in all the activities as I was in Nevada which was a change that came right after I got home. I have gotten close with the missionaries here which I am grateful for because without that it definitely would have been harder these last couple of months.

As a service missionary you spend your time doing service in your community and for your stake/ward. The places you go are called your "service opportunities." I have had many service opportunities these past 4 months but the ones I list are the ones that have taken most of my time. They are the Bookmobile program with the Friends of the Nacogdoches Public Library organization, the HOPE Food Pantry of Nacogdoches, the Serenity Garden at the Brown Family Health Center of Nacogdoches, weekly temple work, and service projects for members of the ward.

The Bookmobile program is a program where we take books to local nursing homes and care facilities and the occupants can check out library books without having to go there themselves. In essence we bring the library to them. They do this for 7 care facilities in Nacogdoches. We do half of the facilities one day then the next half the next day. It takes about 4 hours each day to complete. From the outside looking in it might not look very fun but I have grown to enjoy it. All the other volunteers that participate are all elderly and retired so they have enjoyed having me be there to do the heavy lifting and keep them company. I ride in the car with them too so each time I go they always say "Are you enjoying hanging out with us old people or are you sick of us yet." I always say nope I'm fine haha. Even though I get released this month I will continue to help them out until I head off to FSY in May because it's only a couple of days a month and they like me being there with them.

I have enjoyed going to the HOPE food pantry as well. All the missionaries in Nac go each Thursday and help out because it is their busiest day. We prepare the produce boxes from 10:30-11:30, then eat lunch that this one lady brings for all the volunteers, and then load up the boxes for the people in the drive thru from 12 to 1. One of my favorite things on the mission was going to service with the other missionaries in my district so I have been happy that I've been able to continue this here in Nac.

The Serenity Garden has been fun as well. I can thank Sister Cox for helping me get this opportunity aligned. The garden is in the back of a health center and is used to help people relax and settle down. I help out with projects to get the garden ready to host bigger events in the future. The guy who is over it is named Mr. Gary and he is awesome. The first time I went over all I did was level out some ground with a shovel and before I could start he and I just talked for 10-15 minutes and he expressed how grateful he was and how much this garden meant to him and how I was helping him with his pride and passion for the garden. All he wants is to help people feel better and that is very admirable. We also talked about missions and the church. I go there twice a week. Just yesterday I did something that I hadn't done there before and that was we picked up 60 dozen eggs from the food pantry and delivered them to people he knew. That was great.

Being able to go to the temple has been AMAZING. I have loved being able to plan my days around doing work at the temple. On the mission going to the temple was not very common so being able to go almost every week has made me very happy. Some of Bryce's away games were near Houston so I made those days a temple day and then went to Bryce's game afterwards.

I have enjoyed being able to help out in the ward as well. I have helped out many of the ward members with yard work and other things. Whenever I have open time in my week I try to fill it by asking around if anyone needs any help. One time I helped Sister Hodges' aunt and she tried to pay me $200. It was so hard to say no and I had to say no multiple times. She wrote out a check and everything and gave it to Sister Hodges because she was trying to pay her to but Sister Hodges said she wouldn't be cashing it. Service is free as a service missionary!!

I will mention a couple of things that stand out to me the past couple of months that I'd like to have in the records haha.

The biggest thing I am grateful for is that I was able to be here for Bryce's senior season of basketball. I found myself on the mission at times wishing I had not gone to BYUI for a semester because that would've made it to where I could've been home for his basketball season. Well thanks to God's plan I was able to be here for it and let me tell you it was WORTH IT! I returned home the day after his first game and didn't miss a single game and just this past week his season came to an end with an AMAZING playoff run going 3 rounds deep. They probably would've gone further if they didn't run into #1 ranked Lancaster. It was such a fun way to end the last high school basketball season for this line of the Proctor boys. Now we wait 10-15 years for all the kids of us to be playing haha.

Another thing is the holiday season was awesome. Because I was home all of the Proctors were together under one house for all the holidays which probably won't happen again (at least for a while). We had the biggest Christmas ever!! With 11 people that makes for a lot of fun on Christmas morning.

I have been able to go out with the missionaries quite a bit but one experience stands out in particular. To start off I'll say that I have never given as many talks in a couple months time as I have since Ive got home. I think I've given 6 talks now because whenever somewhere in the stake needs a speaker my name is always among the first that come up. Well back in December I spoke in Rusk and the sister missionaries had someone come to church that day. His name is Zayha. Long story short he likes my talk and that led to me driving down to Rusk to go on lessons with the sisters and Zayha. He was all ready for baptism and I was going to be the one baptizing him but the day of the baptism came and he DIDN'T SHOW UP. The baptism was in Nacogdoches too so all the Rusk group drove the 45 mins down and he didn't show up. I felt so bad for Sister Bennett and Haws. It would've been each of their first baptism on the mission and he straight up didn't show up. I guess it is a good thing that he didn't get baptized because we haven't been able to meet with him again so that is really a sign that he would have fallen off the deep end once the sister left Rusk. So even as a service missionary I have experienced the classic highs and lows only a teaching mission brings haha.

Well that's all that I can think of at the moment. I know there have been many other things but they will be only etched in my memory because I failed to keep writing emails about the service mission as I did as a teaching missionary (which I regret). All is well though. I will send out an email these last 2 weeks to update yall on the final weeks of the mission.

Attached are some photos from the past few months. Just as my email writing went away, so did my photo taking haha

Thanks for everything. I love yall!

Elder Proctor

Fallon Week 13 (Mission Week 82)

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great week. The first week of this transfer treated us well. A goal that we have this transfer is to have a member at each of our lessons and we managed to do it! Not only did we do that but we actually had more than 1 or 2 lessons this week haha. This area is a bit harder to find people in so we arent gonna be able to rack that stat but we figured we can rack the stat of members participating in lessons. Doing this has actually helped me have more of a drive to set up lessons with people too. You cant have a member participate in a lesson that isnt real haha.

An update on my leg is that nothing has really changed since last week. Its still giving me pain but not bad enough to not do anything but still bad enough to notice it throughout the day. Its now popping all the time. Popping as in cracking your knocked popping. One advancement is that I remembered the back problems I had in 8th grade and I was prescribed this one medicine and it went away after a week of me taking it. I let the doctor know this and I now have this same medicine and Im hoping it will have the same effect as it did with my back because the symptoms are the same just in different places. Please keep praying for me because if it doesnt go away theres a chance of an early return of Elder Proctor to Texas that I really dont want to make. Heres what we were able to do despite my leg still giving me problems.

Monday

We had a great pday! We did a Halloween party with the district. I made pumpkin pancakes for everyone and they actually turned out a lot better than I thought they would. I would definetly make them again. We also carved pumpkins together which was really fun. That night we had dinner at the Johnsons and that was fun. 

Tuesday

With it being the first day of the new transfer we took the morning to do what we call "Transfer Prep" which is really just taking the morning to clean, plan exchanges, and just relax before another transfer of work. We also had nothing planned for the day because we thought we were gonna have to be apart of transfers but with neither of us leaving we had to find ways to stay busy throuhgout the day. We went over to the LifeCenter even though it wasnt our day to help out because the elders that usually do it on Tuesday werent in town due to transfers so we went ahead and did it. That afternoon they had a Halloween event going on downtown so we checked that out and talked to people there and then had dinner. That night was the final night of "gorilla time" and the haunted house. We had just as much fun as the first two nights. There was a third gorilla there this time and he turned out to be some random 15 year old kid who came through a different night and asked the owners if he could come and be a gorilla and they said yes. We got to know him a bit so that that was nice. The best part of the night was that the Johnsons daughters who werent able to come Saturday night with the rest of the family came this night with their boyfriends and friends. What was funny is that we knew the boyfriends names but they have no clue who we are even without the gorilla costumes on so even they got a little freaked out when we were chanting the boyfriends names haha That was the highlight of the night. Both Halloweens on the mission have come and went!

Wednesday

We had our weekly Preach My Gospel Zoom meeting in the morning and then after we did some proselyting. We then helped out at the LifeCenter and brought along the 3rd ward elders with us. That afternoon we had horse poo service and pretty much the whole district was there and the zone leaders so I got to meet the new additions to Fallon district. That night we finally had another lesson with Allan after a whole transfer of not meeting. We had Brother Christensen there with us. After the lesson Brother Christensen asked us to come to his house and give him a priesthood blessing so we did that and called it a night

Thursday

Sister Ratti (The lady who does our meal calendars) died unexpectedly this past month so we decided we would go the the funeral. She is known to be very good at making sure the missionaries are fed and takes that calling seriously and I can definetly say thats true because I have had a member meal every night while serving in the Carson River ward. Its a good thing we went too because in every speech her passion for making sure the missionaries were fed was mentioned by all the ones who spoke so us being there was kinda like paying tribute for every single missionary that has been blessed with member meals because of her service. I thought that was kinda cool. After the funeral we had service at a less active member farm. We conducted our weekly planning session after that and then had a great dinner with Brother Brice. That evening we went over the Carol F. and Scottys house and checked up on them. That morning we recieved a referal for Carol and she is already a member but occasionally when she wants a visit from the missionaries she just goes online to the church website and uses the link that is meant for nonmembers to have missionaries over but hey we will take it haha. She isnt able to go to church because of her health and then her housemate Scotty is not a member so us being there is productive. We just hung out with them for a bit and then set up weekly scripture reads with them each Sunday.

Friday

That morning we did some graphic creating for the Facebook page and then went to the LifeCenter for the 3rd time this week to volunteer. That afternoon we had a lesson with Liz and then did some proselyting in that neighborhood. Something really cool happened when we were there. So the Anderson family had a son return home from his mission on Friday and we are pretty close with them. We had already seen the airport picture on Facebook and we were proselyting the neighborhood that they live in. I said "That would be crazy if the Andersons pull up with Toby while we are walking" and literally 10 minutes later thats EXACTLY what happened. We were walking down and sure enough we see them in their truck coming back from Reno. They stopped and we talked for a couple seconds and then their daughter who wasnt able to make it to the airport because she is in college in Idaho rolled up while we were talking so we got to see their reunion which was pretty sweet. I was thiniking in my head "5 more months" haha. Anyways that night we went to the youth activity which was capture the flag at the Lattin Farms cornmaze so that was pretty fun. Some of the youth brought some nonmember friends too so that was awesome!

Saturday

In the morning we had service with Debbie and she made us lunch afterwards! I love when people do this. After that we had even more service with the Hutchings. Originally all we were gonna do was unload some heavy bags but it took a total of 15 minutes and we set aside 2 hours to help so we asked if there was anything else we could do and their son had an idea. So they have a ranch and 2 of their cows got loose and joined another herd on the property over and they havent been able to get them and it had been multiple days since they escaped. We were enlisted to help wrangle them back to their property. It was so much fun. First we had to catch the horses and once we did that we straight up had like a pep talk talking about the game plan and stuff it I legit felt like we were heading into battle to fight Thanos. We were running the whole property while the horses were zooming by separating the cows and we finally acccomplished the task. The whole ordeal took about an hour from start to finish. He said he will enlist our help again and I cant wait haha. Anyways after playing cow wrangler we had a lesson with Carol L. and then did some proselyting. That night we had a lesson fall through so we had to fill that time in with other stuff.

Sunday

We had church and then after lunch we did some proselyting and contacting people in one of the areas we can actually walk. Nothing really crazy happened that needs to be reported though other than the fact that it was fast sunday so we were both wanting it to be time for dinner haha. Our dinner was awesome though. It was with Sister Johnston and she invited Brother Emmons over to join us because she is a single lady. Talking to them was really fun and we had a really great spiritual discussion! That night we had our first weekly scripture read with Carol F. and Scotty. We had Matthew ( a youth ) come along with us and it was his first ever time coming out with the missionaries! Scotty is a really funny guy and so random at times. He was telling us some story on how he knows karate and just some random stuff and I kid you not in the middle of him talking he pauses and looks at Matthew straight in the eyes and says "You wouldnt believe the amount of ways I could kill you right now" and then proceeded to keep telling us about the guy he levitated back in the day. If I didnt know Scotty I would be worried but luckily he means no harm and is just an old guy with tall tales haha. Whenever we left Matthew told us that it was so fun and he wants to come back with us next week haha.

Lesson Reviews

Allan

We watched the Tree of Life Book of Mormon video to help Allan visualize the vision and then we discussed the symbolisms associated with each part of the vision. We discussed how baptism is part of walking the strait and narrow path. We talked about how through Christ we can avoid being "drowned" by outside influences and have joy in this life. Brother Christensen did a great job bearing testimony. We scheduled a return appointment for next Wednesday. His roommate at the moment came in at the end and we asked him if he would be interested at all and he said he might join in next time.

Liz

We had a great discussion with Liz reading Isaiah 53:3-9 and Mosiah 3:5-12! We related how both of these passages of scriptures prophesy of Jesus Christ and what He will do during His mortal ministry. We discussed how through Christ we all can be saved including those who didn't have the opportunity to know of Christ in this life. We also talked about prophets and how they help point others to Christ. We will be coming back next Saturday.

Carol L.

As usual it took a while to get started reading and while reading it was a struggle to keep her focused but she actually had some good comments. We read 2 Nephi 4:16-35 and discussed putting our trust in God. Carol had a good comment about how faith is a mustard seed so we told her to read Alma 32 which is about that. She said she actually liked what we read so we told her there are so many more passages of scripture in the Book of Mormon that are good if you just give it a chance. We will came back next Saturday and do what we did today again.

Carol F. and Scotty

We had a great discussion reading 2 Nephi 4 and talking about putting our trust in God. Carol said that she often feels scared that God will judge her for not going to church because of her health but we affirmed to her that God knows all of our circumstances and will judge accordingly. Matthew Bird did a great job contributing!

Thats it for this week! Im hoping this next week brings just as much good things as the last. We have zone conference, some lessons, and a lot of service planned so Ill let yall know how that goes next email!

Thanks for everything! I love yall!

Elder Proctor

Pictures are all from our Zone Chat streaks. If you don't know what Streaks are ask your kid our any young person who knows what Snapchat is haha

Fallon Week 12 (Mission Week 81)

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope yall had a great week this past week. I know I did! 

First off my leg is a little bit better but not completely fine. It's not flaring up as much as it was the past 2 weeks but it definitely still hurts at times. Thursday and Friday my knee was killing me but the rest of the week it was manageable. Thanks for all the prayers coming my way! 

Second thing is we got transfer news! Some of you might of seen on my Facebook page a couple of different towns pop up and might even thought that's where I was going. If this was you I'm not moving I was just updating all the places I have lived on the mission and didnt know it would come across peoples feeds haha. I am staying in Fallon for a 3rd transfer with Elder Takemori! We whitewashed in and were still here. We both thought one of us was gone for sure gone but looks like we get one more together!

Here's how my week went!

Monday

The district played more football for pday but since my leg is still acting up I couldnt really play. The highlight of the day was definitely the movie night at the Wadsworths house. Our mission did a Facebook challenge where you could gain points for the different ways of doing Facebook work and the Top 5 would win the prize of watching a movie at a local leaders house with the district! Well we took it seriously and racked up 30,000 points and won a movie night! We watched A Million Miles Away and it was actually pretty good. It was the first movie I've seen in 18 months so Id probably think anything was great haha

Tuesday

We had the last district council of the transfer in the morning and then did transfer predictions. We actually incorporated the lessons we learned from the movie the night before into our district council so that was cool. After our meeting and lunch I went and got some blood work done because of my leg. They took 8 viles of blood outta my arm which was way more than I thought they would lol. It didnt take very long and because they have a Renown lab here in Fallon we were able to get straight back to work instead of having to drive back to Fallon from Reno. We had service with one of our members neighbor and we did alot of weed pulling. The sisters tagged along with us so it made it go by quicker. After service we headed to the library to do our graphic creating for Facebook. That night we went to a Bible Study put on by one of the people in our Area Book. They all go to a different church here in Fallon so that was good that we got to be in their house and most of the people there were interested in talking about missions.

Wednesday

We did some proselyting in the morning and tried to get into contact with Allan but he wasnt home. We had a few solid lessons with him last transfer but we have not been able to meet with him this whole transfer. We had service at the LifeCenter (senior center) and the more we go the more people are starting to talk to us and enlist our help haha. We have been able to meet a good amount of people there and been able to schedule service with some older folks. We also had our weekly horse poo service with the other missionaries. This week they had all sorts of jobs for us to do. It was actually really windy and cold that day but it was still fun. That night was our Trunk or Treat!! I decorated our trunk and we bought ninja swords like last year and our costumes were "Defenders of Truth." The night was fun even though not as many people came to it as usual. A couple of families were out of town so numbers were abit lower but it was fun nonetheless. I love the holidays!

Thursday

We had service with Suzi in the morning but my knee was hurting pretty bad today so I had to take it easy. Luckily we had 4 other elders there with us so they picked up the slack. We went out to eat at Julios afterwards and then we had our weekly planning session. After that we went over to Debbie (she is a lady that is at the senior center as well as a friend of one of the members) and we did some yardwork. She is really nice and there may be some potential with her for teaching. After that we had dinner and then went to the other wards trunk or treat which was pretty fun. Right after that we were enlisted to help move a washing machine for one of the Lone Tree ward members and then to end of the night we went to the Huntzingers and printed off flyers for our music devotional on Sunday.

Friday

In the morning we had our weekly mission announcements Zoom and then we helped the 4th ward elders with some service. The whole afternoon was spent contacting all of our green dots (people being taught) and handing out flyers for the music devotional. We had a lesson with Liz that went well as well. We were actually able to give a flyer to most of our friends so that was a success. Friday night was probably one of the funnest nights of my mission. So some members of the Sheckler ward do a free haunted house thing every year and need volunteers so they asked the missionaries to help. We said yes and they put us in the gorilla suits and Elder Takemori and I got to be the gorillas that scare people!!!! Best service ever haha. We got into rhythm pretty quickly and the members were saying that we were the best gorillas they ever had haha. It was a small scale thing but many people were talking about the gorillas after on their way out haha. It was so fun.

Saturday

We had our devotional practice in the morning which took up a big chunk of time. That afternoon we helped a lady named Sarah that we met at the LifeCenter move some things from storage to her house. I hate to say it but that house was probably #1 dirtiest Ive seen on the mission. Ive been out for a while now so thats saying something. It was disgusting inside and there was clutter EVERYWHERE. I'm just glad we werent enlisted to help clean it we just had to move a TV and entertainment center. I wouldve sprinted out of there if we had to clean the house. After that we went to the library and created to posts for the upcoming week for Facebook and then we had dinner. That night was once again gorilla time!!! It was just as fun as the night before probably even more fun because there were more people that came and we already had our scare spots and routine down so it was great. Whats even better is the Johnsons came through (who is the less active family that we are really close to) because we texted Sister Johnson last night telling her to come with her family and to not tell them that we were the gorillas so we gave it our all to scare them. They have an unbaptized youth daughter and we got her so good. We made her cry haha. The husband is the least into the church and doesnt really care for missionaries but we even got him laughing so thats good haha. At the end of it Sister Johnson revealed who were were and their daughter was fine haha We have a joking relationship with their family so now we joke about Tensleys newfound fear of gorillas lol. The Dunhams haunted backyard will forever be a fond memory. 

Sunday

We had church in the morning and for the 5th Sunday it was centered around missionary work. The talks were actually really good and then for 2nd hour we talked to the youth. The ward will definetly more pumped about missionary work for a little bit so we are going to use that to our advantage. We got transfer news in the middle of the afternoon which came as a surprise because usually it comes at night. Elder Takemori and I are both staying for a 3rd transfer together. That afternoon we set up two lessons and the headed over to the Johnsons because we thought for sure one of us were gonna be leaving but we were able to share the good news that they will get to have both of us for 6 more weeks haha. That night was the music devotional and it went well. It was a bit choppy because our video presentation didnt work but the Spirit came through and helped. What was awesome was that Suzi came and we did not expect for her to actually come! We usually just do service for her but we are taking that as a sign that we can explore the potential of teaching her and having discussions!

Lesson Reviews

Liz

We read the Lord's Prayer from both Matthew 6 and 3 Nephi 13 to help her recognize that the Bible and the Book of Mormon go hand in hand. She said that it helped. She said that she doesn't know if she wants to do a deep study on the Book of Mormon which is why she prefers read from the Bible. We told her that we can keep it simple and just read a couple of verses when we come so we don't overwhelm her.

That's it for this week! I'm glad that there was no change because we can keep in our routine and keep working. This upcoming week should be good. We have some lessons lined up that I'm hoping to report on next week! 

I love yall! Have a great week!

Elder Proctor

Fallon Week 11 (Mission Week 80)

 Hey guys!

This past week for me has been pretty rough because of my leg. It's been hurting for nearly 3 weeks now and it's really odd. Regardless of this I'm still going out there and doing the work! Please keep me in your prayers that this leg situation can get sorted out soon. Here's how my week went! If you don't read it all I strongly recommend you read what happened on Saturday. Really cool miracle on the day.

Monday

We had fun pday! In the morning we played some football (I didnt play because of my knee now hurting). During the afternoon we went to Lattin Farms and did the corn maze there and went into the kitchen and made some fry bread. That was pretty fun. The rest of the day was chilling with the district and then in the evening we went over to Brother Emmons house and filmed an interview with him for the upcoming music devotional.

Tuesday

We had a great district council and then afterwards we started exchanges with the Yerington elders. Elder Jarvis and I had a good afternoon proselyting and we had a great lesson with Liz. Unfortunately our exchange got cut short because Elder Jarvis forgot his extra insulin in Yerington so we had to drive and end exchanges. We did some Facebook finding to end off the night

Wednesday

My knee was killing me during the night so the day was pretty rough especially because we had a bunch of service planned. We had our weekly Preach My Gospel training in the morning and then we went and helped Val build his shelf in his shed. After that went over to the Life Center and did our thing over there. During the afternoon we had our horse poo service where we clean the horse pen for a couple and other odd jobs at their property. I still dont know why I look forward to this every week but I do haha. I died that evening because my knee was hurting pretty bad and I was feeling sick so we took it easy that evening. Luckily our dinner canceled so that was kinda my sign to call it a night and get some rest.

Thursday

I didnt feel sick anymore today so that was good. In the morning we went over to the quad apartment and did alot of Facebook finding with them to get them to do stuff because they isnt a lot of stuff going on over there. I racked up a lot of points for our Facebook challenge and then we had lunch. We filmed a video with the Hermanas and 4th ward elders for CCIN (teaching english to spanish speakers thing). Once the video is done Ill send a link for it. It was pretty fun. After that we got some ice cream with everyone and then did our weekly planning. Elder Takemori had a baptismal interview to do so we went over to their house and did that. While talking afterwards they mentioned they had a pig that sounds like a baby screaming when you try to catch it so naturally I wanted to try. Ill send the video of it haha. In the evening we were supposed to have volleyball but their was a Trunk or Treat that got in the way. I cant wait for our wards Trunk or Treat this week!

Friday

Oh boy was the night rough. The pain that has been moving around my right leg decided to attack my Achilles and it kept me up most of the night. Also when I was hobbling around during the night to get some Medicine I straight up fainted and fell in my closet. Apparently I fell pretty hard because it woke Elder Takemori up and he rushed to the study room to check on me. Yeah the night was pretty wierd. Fortunately I was able to get some rest and then I woke up feeling a bit better and my Achilles wasnt completely immovable anymore. We went on exchanges with the 3rd ward elders and I went with Elder Prather. We had service at the senior center st the reservation and then a couple of contacts. One of the youth from Winnemucca (Brent) that I got close with was playing football in Fallon so we met up with his family and watched his game. We did a bit more proselyting in the evening and then called it a day.

Saturday

We volunteered at the Spooky 5k Run in the morning where we handed out water at the mile marks. It was lowkey kinda disappointing because no one wanted water at our station so I felt rejected haha. Literally no one would take it and it reminded me off how the Gospel is literally like the water in this scenario because water will feel great for the runners but they dont take up on the offer and thats what I feel as a missionary every day with spreading the Gospel haha the Gospel is literally right there for their grabbing and they choose not to. Well after the 5k run we went over to the Brices and helped them split wood. They fed us lunch afterwards. After that we headed to Reno so I could get my leg checked out because now it has been hurting pretty bad for 3 weeks now. They did Xrays and said its fine orthopedic wise but theres definelty swelling and something medical going on so they ordered a bunch of blood labs for me to do. A really cool and spiritual experience happened in the waiting room though. Itll definitely be something I look back to when my faith is lacking. To make a long story short the waiting room was pretty full and we sit down and the couple in the corner next to us are members so they start talking to us. Elder Takemori gets up to use the restroom and while he is gone the wife straight up starts to have seizure. When Takemori comes back she falls unconscious and isnt moving for a good 5-8 minutes. The husband lets us know that this is common for her but this one is one of the worse ones. He says "Elders can you come give her a blessing?" Keep in mind we are in a full waiting room so we gave a blessing to an unconscious lady in an awkward position against the wall. Then the coolest thing happened. Well we close off the blessing and we sit down and I kid you not the second we sit down she lifts up and says "Oh hi Elders!" and is completely ok and acts like nothing has happened. Elder Takemori and I are just freaking out on the inside because of the miracle that has just taken place and the husband looks to his wife and says "Honey they just gave you a priesthood blessing. You had a seizure." Theres more to the story but thats the gist to it and the more important details but my testimony on priesthood blessings is greatly strengthened now. That evening I got to go to Dayton for a baptism of a kid that I worked with named Krista so that was fun to be there and then after we all went to the Bebouts for a little bit to end of the night.

Sunday

Dang I had the worst night of this whole leg situation. My Achilles was KILLING me. My whole foot was immobilized and if I tried to move it sharp pains would shoot up and the pressure was immense. I had Elder Takemori give me a blessing of comfort and then I was able to finally get some sleep a little bit after that. I didnt go to sleep until 3am and that sleep wasnt even good. It was terrible. We went to church but after that we didnt do anything the whole day because 1. The terrible night I had and 2. Takemori was sick. We did have some lessons planned that day which sucked because the one day we had multiple lessons we literally could not do them and had to reschedule them.

Lesson Reviews

Liz

Our goal for the lesson was to determine if she would be willing to read from the Book of Mormon or not and we got an answer. She would be willing! Her problem is that she doesn't know the Book of Mormon and doesn't understand the references like she does the Bible. We told her how similar things are taught in both books and we would love to go over them with her. Next time we are going to read both accounts of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew as well as in 3 Nephi to establish this connection.

Well that's it from this week. Sorry there was a lack of positivity because of the report of my leg stuff but again please say a prayer for me that I can get back to regular missionary routine teaching lessons and proselyting with no pain!

As always I love yall. Have a great week!

Elder Proctor

Fallon Week 10 (Mission Week 79)

Hey everyone!

I hope the past week went well for yall! I know my week was great. My birthday was on Saturday which made this past week special. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! You can read about how my birthday went later in the email. It crazy that I've already gone through both my mission birthdays. I'll be home before I know it! Here's how my week went.

Monday

It was pday so the day was pretty chill. We played some more football and some outdoor  basketball. My ankle had been giving me problems so I bought a brace to wear. After that went just hung out at the church.

Tuesday

We had a fun district council. Elder Takemori made a general conference jeopardy and that was fun. Elder and Sister Wadsworth attended as well (he is the former stake president and just got called to be in the mission presidency). The hermanas made lunch for everyone after so that was great. We had service with Suzi that afternoon and I got to mow her lawn again!! I love getting to mow peoples lawns haha. We did some other yardwork with her and then got changed back into church clothes. We did some proselyting and as we were headed there there was a ton of traffic and medical/police personel on the main street so it took a while to get through. There was a body bag on the street which surprised us both. Turns out someone was jaywalking and got hit and died. Traffic was bad for a couple of hours because of it. Anyway that night we checked out what the youth were doing (which was a video game night at the church) and decided it wasnt a good use of our time haha.

Wednesday

I was on exchamges with Elder Johnson (ZL) that day so we didnt do any work in our area. We did have a good day in their area though. We handed out a Book of Mormon to a lady at the park which is great. Pretty much the whole day was spent contacting people and proselyting. We did have horse poo service again and thats always fun. It was a pretty good exchange.

Thursday

My ankle was killing me during the night so it was a pretty hard day. I was really tired and my ankle was acting up for some reason. I didnt even sprain it or anything but it hurt so bad. Regardless of this we were able to do a little bit of work. For lunch we went out and did a birthday sushi outing! Fallon actually has an All You Can Eat sushi place so we went! It was great! We also had weekly planning so that took out a big chunk of the day which I was glad for because I didnt have to be on a bad ankle walking. That night no one showed up to volleyball which i was really happy about because my ankle was not ok and I wanted to go to the apartment haha. We did a lot of Facebook finding woth the missionaries instead of doing volleyball.

Friday

Once again my ankle kept me up during the night so it was another day of my ankle hurting. We had exchanges with the 4th ward elders and I went with Elder Paxton. He is a greenie so I kinda had to forget about the ankle pain so we could do work. We went into his area and we proselyted and contacted some people. We had 2 lessons as well. I nearly had to go to the orthopedic express place in Carson towards the end of the day because my ankle was so bad. Unfortunately it closed too soon and we wouldnt make it in time. We stayed in Fallon and went to basketball instead. I didnt play like I usually do but i was able to just hang out in the corner and shoot threes and not move haha. I got a priesthood blessing that night which is always a good thing.

Saturday (My Birthday !!)

So something really cool was that I was expecting my ankle to be killing me the whole night and having to spend part of my birthday driving to Reno to get it checked out but looks like the priesthood bleesing worked (suprise surprise haha). It still hurt a little but not enough to need to go get it checked out. The turn around in one night was incredible! Anyways that morning was the solar eclipse so we all got together as a district in the morning to watch it. We were in the path of totality so that was awesome!! Great birthday gift from God haha. Because we were no longer going to Reno we were able to do some service demolishing some more stuff at the house the Anderson family is flipping. After we did that we had lunch and then we headed to the library to do some graphic creating and I got started on my FSY Counselor application! Hard to believe that I'm already making preparations of life after the mission. After we did that we headed over to Val and help him build a shelf! Hes a cool older guy and hanging out with him and building stuff is a vibe. For dinner we had the Huntzingers signed up which was another gift from Gid because they are the BEST! I let them know it was my birthday and they made it special. We had an entire feast. 2 other sets of missionaries came with us and some other people were there and there was still a lot of food left over. After that we went over to the Johnsons but they werent home but they saw us through their Ring doorbell and called us and told us to go to their parents house who live in 2nd wards area so we did. We crashed their family get together haha. It was so fun and knowing that no other missionaries have gotten this close to them is nice to see. After that we headed over to the 4th wards elders apartment to do Facebook finding with them and the zone leaders but something was off. The 4th ward elders werent there and they were the ones who set up us coming. Takemori asked me if we could go to Maverick and get a drink about 15 minutes after we got there which was kinda off. As we were leaving I said "I guess we will be back in a minute" and the zone leaders said "No we are leaving too" and they followed us out and left. That was wierd haha. Well we go to Maverick and get Takemoris energy drink (which sussed me out even more because he nevers has gotten one at 8:30 at night haha) and then we head home. The whole time is was thinking that they are probably all at our apartment on our back porch but when we get to our street there are no missionary vehicles anywhere and they are really easy to spot. This made me think "Well I guess i was thinking to highly of myself haha." I had been telling all the missionaries that I was gonna have a little get together after the day was over on my birthday and they were all excited to come and even said they were gonna bring gifts but the day of when I texted everyone individually they are all they were busy or sick so I was just planning on taking it for what it was and going to bed haha. Well I go inside and change and while Im changing Elder Takemori asked if I can come outside to help him start the grill and I go out there and everyone was there!!!!!!!! They didnt want me to throw my own party so they threw a surprise one!!!! It was awesome. They brought food and balloons and gifts and it was a blast. I was calling out everyone for their excuses of not being able to come and that was funny. It was an incredible way to end of the last birthday on the mission!!

Sunday

We had church and that went well. Keith came but still doesnt want us to teach him instead he wants to learn on his own. We actually had a good afternoon of proselyting. We managed to set up 2 return contacts which is great. We had a fun dinner and then had a lesson with Carol. We ended off the night with sone Facebook Finding.

Lesson Reviews

Carol

We chatted for a little bit about her current life situation. She trauma dumped alot of stuff on us but we managed to keep it focused on what we were trying to talk to her about. She hasn't read the Book of Mormon like we had asked so we invited her to read it and promised that if she does then her current life situation would be easier to bear and would bless her.

Here's a scripture that I've been thinking about this past week. It is Matthew 28:20 and Isaiah 41:10.

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

These scriptures of been on my mind lately because the impressions I get from them is that Jesus Christ is with me ALWAYS! No matter what time or stage of life youre in he is with you. He is with you in the rough times as well as the good times. I feel like some people (even myself) get the idea that Christ is only with us when we are in need of repentance or needing comfort but NO he is with us ALWAYS. He is by our side 24/7. You know the mission is a good chunk of time. Its a lot of time that allows for a lot of ups and downs. Ill even be honest with yall these past couple months as I approach the start of the end have been a little bit rougher than the first half of the mission. I am still going out there and working and not doing anything much different than the first year but I am not experiencing the same amount of satisfaction and joy that I am used to feeling while doing the same missionary work activities. These scriptures really help because I know that Jesus Christ is by my side and is helping at all times and understands my feelings. Take those feelings that I just said with a grain of salt because I am still doing great over here but just know that there ARE times in the mission when you just have to "Forget  yourself and go to work" (Im talking to all you new missionaries that are reading this rn haha). Dont ever stop doing good for others because you dont feel good yourself. You may miss an oppurtunity to change someones life. That goes for everyone.

I love yall so much! I hope yall have a great week!

Elder Proctor