Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 4 (Mission Week 7)

 Hey everyone!!!

First off, Lake Tahoe is awesome!!! We went with our zone and it is so beautiful. We went on a hike up to Monkey Rock (the rock legit looks like a monkey hence the name haha) and spent an hour or so just hanging out up in the mountain overlooking Tahoe. It was so fun. God's creation is so beautiful. I'll send some pictures. I cannot wait to go back after the mission with my family and actually do a vacation in Tahoe.

We had a ward campout this weekend and it was so fun!! We were there the whole evening spending time with the ward and having fun. They were trying to get us to stay overnight and we even got permission to but we decided to go back home and sleep and then come back the next morning. In the morning, we launched bottle rockets. It was so cool. A couple of them launched nearly 300 feet in the air!!! It was nice to see all the ward together and us just being able to be ourselves and better my relationship with everyone. 

As missionary work goes we have been slowly reactivating a lady named Jocie. We met her through an investigator named Tom and he and his wife let Jocie live with them because she is homeless at the moment. We went to go see Tom but met Jocie instead. As we were talking, we come to find out that she is a member and has been through the temple and everything. Her knowledge of the Gospel is definitely there and she even said that this church is the most correct church on earth. She just had some bad experiences with some people in a old ward and just stopped going. We invited her to come back to church and she has come the past 2 weeks!! Tom came last week but didn't today because of work. We had a lesson with Jocie to keep her spiritual momentum going and we read Alma 26 with her. She said that she started her day pretty bad but after talking to us she felt so much better. That made me feel good. She also talks to Tom and she says he is very interested in the Church but gets nervous around people and doesn't feel worthy to be there. We are hoping to meet with her and Tom later this week to help him with that.

Also I just want to say, THE PLAN OF SALVATION IS REAL!!!! My entire week pretty much consisted of teaching the plan of salvation and my testimony of it has grown tremendously. A little back story is we are teaching this girl named Liz but when we went to her house her boyfriend was outside and said she had just gotten home from a doctor's appointment and was sleeping. His name is Jeff. We ended up talking to him instead. We just let the Spirit guide the conversation and we eventually got into the Creation and plan of salvation. We spoke to him about the afterlife and where we go when we die and all that good stuff. After we got done talking with him my companion and I thought it went well but didn't think anything else of it. Well the next day my companion received some bad news about his uncle and wasn't sure if he was gonna live or not. Thursday was rough because of that but it was crazy how we had just taught the Plan of Salvation the day before and that gave him so much comfort. Then on Saturday we taught this lady named Melinda whose husband died in January. We taught the Plan of Salvation again. I testified that the people we love other the other side are truly still alive but just not in a body. I felt a confirmation when I said that. We left and felt so good. The story doesn't end there though. So today we get a text from Liz saying that we can't come over because it turns out that Jeff's older brother died and they are flying to South Dakota. My companion and I just stopped and looked at each other. We had just taught Jeff he Plan of Salvation and where we go when we die 3 days before. We were trying to remember if he mentioned that his brother was gonna die or not and we came to the conclusion that he didn't. We taught him that purely out of Spirit led discussion with no knowledge on what was about to happen 3 days later. WOW!! That is crazy how that was the only time we had ever talked to Jeff and little did he know that 3 days later it was exactly what his oldest brother was going to go through. I hope that Jeff remembers that and the Spirit will bring our conversation to the front of his mind. I can testify that the Plan of Salvation is the true plan of God and everything in it is out of true love from our Heavenly Father. My favorite principle is that God is our Loving Heavenly Father. I love it so much because everything about this earth and the plan is purely out of love.

One cool thing is that we play basketball every Thursday night and I have done a great job at inviting members and non members to come play. The first week I was here we only had 8 people and a couple days ago we had 21!! It was crazy. I'm slowly but surely getting known as one of the best basketball players on the mission as well haha. There is this one other guy that missionaries talk about being the best missionary ball player so I guess him and I will just have to battle it out haha

I love all of y'all so so much and am sending blessings your way. Talk to ya next week!!

Elder Proctor

Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 3 (Mission Week 6)

Hey everyone!

This past week has been good. It's going to be a shorter email today because we have a zone Pday and we are going to Lake Tahoe!! Missionaries haven't been allowed to go to Tahoe for a long time but President Dunn is letting zones go now as a trial run. It is funny that there are missionaries that have been here for nearly 2 years and have never been but I am getting to go within 1 month haha

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. That went well. I spoke about how with faith in the Lord, I can have hope in the future. We also had a linger longer after church which was fun.

We had a good contact this week. 

Ty J.

He is really into dirt bikes and is the manager for his son who races and another really good private tier racer. My companion raced dirt bikes before the mission so he had a special connection with him that other missionaries couldn't offer. Because of this, he invited us over for dinner. He invited his pro racer friend and his wife to the dinner as well. That dinner was so much fun. We stay a little too long but we taught soooo many principles that came up naturally in conversation. We talked about the sacrifices of a mission and why we are out here. Talked about obedience and Spirit of the Law vs Letter of the Law. Mentioned just a few but there were many more. He wants to have a game night with us now too. He is tested my comp because he wants us to go ride dirt bikes with him but we aren't allowed.

I went on exchanges this week with Elder Carpenter my district leader. We biked the whole day which I thought was fun. I've always liked riding my bike so I was happy that I got to do that on Wednesday. We even play basketball at an apartment complex with some teenagers. We also had Zone conference which was fun.

I'm started to having a bit more fun and getting into the groove more. As long as I stay out of the apartment I'm good. I love being outside. I finally got to go disc golf for the first time out here. That was very fun. I've gotten to play basketball quite a bit and I'm so happy about that. The youth were quite impressed with how good I was and were arguing with each other because I was doing too good hahaha they said I play like Luka (I was soooo happy when I saw that the Mavericks killed the Sun's in Game 7!!! Mavs onto Western Conference Finals LETS GOO!!!!)

Thats about all I have time for this week. I love all of you so much and I'm still sooo thankful for the prayers and thoughts coming my way!!

Elder Proctor

Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 2 (Mission Week 5)

 Hey everyone!!

Just want to let all you know that the replies I get back from yall really is helping me get through this adjusting to missionary life stage I'm going through. Thanks a lot.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers. Especially my own. I know every child will say this but I truly have the best mom. I am so grateful for everything she has done for me. I am also thankful for all the mother figures I have had in the Nac ward. Yall have made an impact on my life and I truly love all of you. Mother's Day on the mission is hard. You go to church and the whole theme is about being with family and mothers. As a missionary you kind of feel lonely in that because your mom and family is not with you at the moment. It makes you think of home. That's about the only extreme wave of homesickness I got this week.

This week was better than last week. The homesickness has slowly gone down and the week picked up speed a little bit.  I still have a long way to go but I know that if I put my trust in Christ then I will get to the point that I want to be at. That is such a good principle to live by. If you aren't haven't fun in the moment and it is hard but you know you are doing the right thing, Christ will be by your side and help you become a better you than you ever thought you could be.

We had a few good contacts this week. We talked with a member, Brother Shults, about his mission and we got some advice from him that we decided to implement. He said be bold and the people who are ready will accept what you are saying. It gave me some more confidence.

Friend 1

We weren't knocking for her but we ended up only talking to her. We ended up discussing 9 principles of different lessons with her naturally in our conversation. She had said that as a Catholic you can't take Communion (sacrament) if you haven't gone through a long process to be worthy to take it. You have to cross your arms when it's offered to you. She said she took it twice but felt extremely guilty because she hasn't gone through the process. I decided to be bold and tell her how I felt about that. I told her that in our church, everyone is worthy of the sacrament. Everyone partakes of it if wanted. Little kids all the way up to old men. I promised her that if she came to church and partook of the sacrament then she would feel no guilt and will feel peace. The Spirit was strong on this contact.

Friend 2

We were riding around the park on our bikes and decided to go talk with her. She was babysitting a young boy named Felix. What is funny is that while my companion was talking to Emily, I was watching Felix and playing around with him on the playground so she could focus on what my comp had to say haha She was super nice and friendly. We asked if we could talk about religion sometime and she said sure. She also asked who we were so we told her about us.

Friend 3

We stopped by his house and it was my first time meeting him. He had taken a homeless woman in and is helping her find a job. We mentioned that the church has programs like self reliance stuff that can help people find jobs. He practically invited himself to church. He asked what time does church start and we were like ummm 9am!! On Sunday he tried riding his bike to the church but he couldn't find it. He called the bishops office when he got home and just by coincidence we were in the office with the young men. He said that he went home and had already changed because he couldn't find it and it started to snow :(

He will come next week though!!

One fun thing that I did this week was drive all the way down a mountain on a dirt road. It was kinda sketch but not to the point where I thought I was gonna die haha. There were a couple of cars that were absolutely crushed down the ravines and hills. Must've slipped of the path years ago. Glad it wasn't my companion and I. We drive a 2021 Toyota Tacoma so we had a good vehicle for the task haha

I leave yall of with a spiritual thought. My favorite chapter of the Book of Mormon at the moment is Alma 26. I love Verse 16. Go read it and come back haha. I love how it is about how we cannot rejoice in the Lord enough. There is never a point that we should feel like we should stop rejoicing in the Lord's name. We will praise God forever.

Well I love all of yall and can't wait to tell you all more experiences. I'll be sending blessings your way and I truly appreciate all of the prayers and thoughts that are coming my way!

Elder Proctor

Pic 4 and Video: The path we took to get down the mountain. There is a highway down but we saw a path and went down haha

Pic 3: One of our members have a cat breeding business so they have a cat farm in there basement. We did service for them, ate, and played with cats

Pic 2: We went to a members home and I totally forgot that I had my crocs on instead of my regular shoes. I felt so stupid haha

Pic 1: The Reno Nevada temple. I did a session with my zone there and and I love the temple. It is definitely one of the smallest temples but it is still a House of the Lord.

Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 1 (Mission Week 4)

 What's up everyone!!

I made it to Reno. The second we walked out of the plane I knew I was in Nevada. The whole airport was full of casino games and slot machines. We were greeted by the mission president and his wife and the APs. The first evening and next day was pretty boring because they were FULL of meetings. Because it was transfer day, I was overwhelmed with all these missionaries that knew each other but I didn't. That's when it hit me that this was real. I was thinking what have I done haha

Elder Rhoades (companion) and I left and went to our area. I'm in the Washoe Valley/Foothill area. We live in a house! A member loans his house to the missionaries because he lives in Elko (which is on the other side of the state) so we have the house to ourselves. That is pretty cool and we are lucky to have that. I have a queen size bed!

We did service for this one lady in her backyard. We were cleaning up and I really didn't know what I was doing it for but she was telling us to do stuff and we did it. There were these wooden planks on the ground and when we moved them thousands of carpenter ants flooded out. It was crazy. We were sweeping them up and put them in a bucket. After the ants, we moved some concrete blocks and a HUGE black widow was there. There was actually two of them but one of them was giant. I'll include some pictures.

I've already had a few missionary experiences. What I think I'm gonna do in my emails is write the name and then give the experiences. I'll try it out.

Ralph - He is my first funny experience. We saw his wife struggling to put an instrument in her car while walking around and helped her. After she left we continued talking to her husband Ralph. The conversation was going well until he went into why he is Atheist. He doesn't believe in God because he claims to have seen UFOs streaking across the sky in Hawaii. Ever since then he hasn't believe in God. Elder Rhoades and I just went along with it because we knew we're weren't gonna be able to teach him haha

We're not really teaching anyone right now that is worth mentioning. But we have been talking to some people and contacting but none have really been actual lessons. There are a few promising people that I will mention maybe in later emails. 

It has been a pretty rough week. I've been dealing with homesickness and feeling depressed. It's just Satan's way of making you feel bad for being out here. He does not want me to be here which is why I'm feeling so bad. I'm making progress though and am doing things that are making it better. Just asking for prayers while I adjust. I know that this is the right thing to be doing and I just need to power through and I know I will. Time will get to be going fast soon and I'm looking forward to that.

I love you all so much and am thinking of yall daily. Stay safe back at home. I'd love to hear back from some of yall!

Elder Proctor

Pic 1: We went to a member dinner and I saw the very first cat I've ever seen on a leash. The thing DID NOT want to be on a leash. Their reasoning was that the other cat got lost so this one gets a leash haha I was cracking up

Pic 2: Gas is HIGH here. $5 a gallon is absolutely crazy. A guy we talked to said it $7 in California. It is crazy. I'm just glad it's not my money I'm spending when getting gas

Pic 3: The giant black widow spider. I was thinking of Scarlett Johannson haha it needs to be in Avengers 5

Pic 4: There is so beautiful scenery up here. Too bad we aren't allowed to go to Lake Tahoe. I will definitely visit after my mission and have a couple of lake days.

Pic 5: My amazing MTC district. I miss those guys. So glad we are all cool with each other and can't wait to see them after our missions.

Pic 6: Another lake Pic