Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 9 (Mission Week 12)

 What's up everyone!!

This week very interesting. Let's just say if you are a missionary or are planning to be a missionary, obey the rules...... we unfortunately walked in on a companionship not obeying the rules and had to let our mission president know. They are going home now. It hurt us to tell because they were our friends but they crossed the line and we made the right decision

Other than it this week was good. We had Zone Conference and got to go to the Temple!! I'll send some pics. The temple is such a good place to be. We got to go right after all the mission president stuff went down so it was such a nice refresh.

Mike

He was a random grey dot and we went to knock his door. We knocked the door and he yelled out "I don't have any money." We then said, "How about Jesus." He yelled out, "Who won the superbowl?" My companion didn't know but I yelled out, " LA Rams." Only then did he open the door. He has met with the missionaries before so he knew what we were doing. While we were talking, the strangest looking dog walked out. I was thinking "That is the weirdest looking dog I have ever seen." Well after a couple of seconds and when it stopped licking my shoe, I realized it was a PIG! No wonder I thought it looked weird. It was very hard to stay focused during the contact because their was a giant pig lacking our shoes and pants and snorting while we were trying to talk. That was definitely the most interesting contact I've had by far.

Leif

He is a youth age kid who is not a member but his mom and he go to church every week. They moved into the Highlands part of our area. The mom says that she has another church in Montana but its only there so they have been coming to our church for years and had a great relationship with the ward in Rightwood, California. Leif is already apart of the young men and fits in well. He went to the high adventure with them and loved it! We went over to their house with 3 young men and had a great lesson with him. We were bold and pretty much said that joining the church and being baptized will further your relationship with Christ as well as he will get to hold the priesthood along with his friends. His mom is not interested in joining because of her Church in Montana but is completely open and supportive of her son potentially being baptized. Really hoping that happens!!!

Liam

He is the son of the family that got baptized right before I got here and we have been teaching him the past couple of weeks getting him ready for baptism. We taught him on Tuesday and he is 80% there. Hopefully we will baptize him within the month!!

This week was pretty slow because of all the meetings and weird stuff going on. We do get fed every day which is really good. Getting to know the members has been very fun. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting that was really good. A couple of members came up and told me that I gave an amazing talk which made me happy. It was about being a member missionary and I just shared my experiences back at home inviting everyone to hangouts and to play basketball and how it help our youth be closer. Also to be passionate about the Gospel. I guess I spoke well enough for everyone to feel the Spirit haha

I love all of yall so much!!! 

Elder Proctor

Pic 1-3: Temple

Pic 4: District activity

Pic 5: The pig (his name is smalls) that was licking our shoes during the contact

I thought this was the ugliest Dog I'd ever seen... 'til I found out it was a PIG!

Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 8 (Mission Week 11)

 Hey guys

Another week gone. This week was pretty good. I wasn't sick this week so it was automatically better than last. The highlight of my week was definitely meeting Brother Nash. He's a well known member by all the missionaries because he loves them so much and takes care of us. He loves taking us to different restaurants and cooking. He's an amazing cook and has an amazing taste. He took my companion and I out to eat at a Thai kitchen called Thai Lotus. It was great. Then next very next day he wanted to have us try a pizza place on the other side of Reno. We already had a dinner appointment but what we did was say yes and have double dinner haha. I didn't eat anything the entire day because I knew we were about to get fed well. That night is probably my favorite of the mission. We got picked up by Brother Nash and went with another set of missionaries to Wild Garlic Pizza. It was awesome. After we ate, he speed up a mountain to show us an incredible view. It was so windy up at the top and the wind blew off my tag. We took some awesome pictures. And then after he looked at the time and insisted we get ice cream even though it was 20 minutes before 9 haha. We went and got ice cream and then the night was over. It was so fun. We showed them the lizard we caught earlier that day and they couldn't believe it. Unlike the other lizard on the roof of our car (which is gone now haha) this one was still alive. We even got a leash on it!!! We kept it as our pet for the day and then let it go. We're hoping Rango 2.0 is still alive and kickin!

We've been focusing on member work this transfer so that's been productive. We've brought members to lessons as well as worked on reactivating members. 

Jocie

I've mentioned her before but she is homeless and we met her through a guy we are trying to teach. We found out she is a member so we've been focused on helping her. She has come to church every week since we have met her so she definitely is trying to change. She texted us after church stated that she felt Christs love for her during church and knows that He is by her side. We are very happy about that

Diego

He believes everything we say and says that the "Mormon" faith is correct but doesn't make any commitments. As soon as we bring up actually getting baptized he claims that it will ruin his marriage and pretends to be tired. We brought a member with us and she just talked to the wife the whole time and got information we had never gotten. Because of this, my companion and I decided to stop going over for a bit so he can realize that he has to get his church on his own and not from us. Well the next day when we went to Thai Lotus with Brother Nash, Diego and his son walked in and said hi. We are trying to decipher what the Spirit wants us to do because of this because the restaurant we were both at is not close to where he lives and we had just not gone over the day before when we planned to.

One thing I am glad about here is that I get to play basketball alot. That has definitely been a blessing. Just please keep praying for me as I do the Lord's work!! I love you guys so much

Elder Proctor

Pics 1-5 and 7: Night with Brother Nash

Pic 6: Kids toy that reminded me of Reid haha

Reminded me of Reid!

Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 7 (Mission Week 10)

 What's up guys!!

Well this last week was not very eventful at all. I was sick from Wednesday to Saturday. All I did was sleep. I'm actually still kinda sick now with a stuffy/runny nose but I'm good enough to work now. It was actually kinda nice to just sleep after one transfer of constant work. I felt bad for my companion because he couldn't leave the house without me. We only left the house twice during that time. He was cool with it though. He is about to hit his year mark so it was a good reset for him as well. I was able to watch all of the Book of Mormon live action videos which are awesome. I loved them. Yall should really go watch them.

Tracy

I did have one thing good this week. Tracy and her daughter, Brittany, have not kept the commitment of reading the Book of Mormon. While my companion was fixing their sprinklers, I was talking to Tracy about missionary work and how I've left my family and all the sacrifices that come from it. I used this to my advantage. I was blunt and told her that the reason I am here is because of that book. I said "Do you really think I'd rather be here than with my family and everyone one I love? I miss my family so freakin much and miss my life back at home. But I am here because of that book which is the Book of Mormon. I am here because of what that book says." That's exactly how I feel to. There is so many other things I could be doing but this work is so important. I hope that gets them to read.

I will leave yall with a spiritual thought. Yesterday in priesthood, we studied Elder Hollands recent conference talk "Fear Not, Believe Only." It is such a good one. It is about how we should always lean on our belief when things go dark. 

He says, "Even as we stay “on the sunny side of the street,” we do run into that fellow from time to time who is determined to find something bleak and dismal about everything. You know his motto: “It is always darkest just before it goes pitch-black.” What a malignant vision, and what a miserable existence! Yes, we might sometimes want to run away from where we are, but we certainly should never run away from who we are—children of the living God who loves us, who is always ready to forgive us, and who will never, ever forsake us. You are His most precious possession. You are His child, to whom He has given prophets and promises, spiritual gifts and revelations, miracles and messages, and angels on both sides of the veil." 

I love how Holland uses such good imagery. Why when we face trials do people seemingly turn away from the light. We have put so much hard work and effort into our beliefs and some turn away from it so easily. Let us be hard in our faith and always turn towards the light which is the Gospel. My favorite principle of the Gospel is that God is our Loving Heavenly Father. I love it so much because it sets up the entire plan and reason why the Gospel is what it is. All is done out of love. I pray that when times get tough, I have the strength to stay on the sunny side of the street instead of wandering over to that one guy who is trying find something negative about everything as Elder Holland says.

I love you guys so much !!!!

Elder Proctor

Here is a picture with some of the best tasting/looking bread I've ever seen

Best Bread Ever!

Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 6 (Mission Week 9)

 Hey family and friends!!!

Well, I've made it through my first transfer! 16 more to go haha. Time is slow but fast but slow at the same time. It's slowly picking up. I'm staying with my trainer, Elder Rhoades, for my second and last trainee transfer. The wards we cover are really good and I like being close to Reno. Our whole district is staying together minus one sister who is leaving. 

We had a really opportunity this week. We went to Reno High School with a youth in the ward and spoke at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) club. We bore our testimonies on how Christ has helped us through our life in sports. I was able to tell my experiences (which is alot) and bear testimonies of how Christ is always with you. It was a really cool experience. It was weird being in a high school again. It reminded me of the memories of my high school experience haha.

Patrick

We met Patrick through inactive member proselyting. He went as a kid and hasn't gone since. We went over last night and read 3 Nephi 9 with him. This chapter is during the darkness after Christ is killed and his voice is heard from the heavens. This chapter is so powerful. We also discussed how the Holy Ghost brings people together even if they aren't physically by each other. I've definitely felt that as I've been away from all my family and friends. We were there for about 45 minutes and after the prayer he was definitely feeling the Spirit. He choked up and said thank you and we left. We're hoping he comes to church.

Joey

He is an upcoming junior is high school that we play basketball with every Thursday. We've had a couple conversations with him and he says that he knows the church is true but struggles with making that commitment. We have been trying to go out for lunch with him and Peter (bishops 16 year old son) but plans have fell through both times because he doesn't have a car. He is awesome though.

Liam 

He is an 8 year old kid of the family that got baptized a week before I got here. The Dawsons are awesome. I had no clue they were converts until I was told. We have been teaching Liam the lessons in a simple kid friendly way which has been fun. They give all the elders nicknames. My companion is Elder swag and I am Elder Dunk. We love him so much and we call him Dr Disaster because he's so full of energy haha

We had a youth named Mason Curtis come with us to a few lessons and that was fun. That evening was crazy. He experienced pretty much every type of person you can meet in one night. We had a old guy who couldn't hear, a Jehovah's witness who was a bit bashy, a lesson that falls through, and we spoke to a same sex couple. I thought it was fun. Mason is a natural missionary too. He did awesome. 

I'm doing good over here. I'm so thankful for all the thoughts and prayers coming my way and I also pray for yalls safety at hkme as well. I do miss home but I know that this is the right thing to be doing and Jesus Christ will and is helping me because I am a missionary. 

I love you all

Elder Proctor

Washoe Valley/Foothill Week 5 (Mission Week 8)

 What's up everyone!!

This past week was pretty good. We went on exchanges with the Zone leaders and that was really fun. Elder Rawlings and I went up to the Highlands part of our area which is up on the mountains. He let me pretty much lead the entire day which was fun. We just hit pretty much every inactive member dot in area book. That went very well. Nearly every person we talked to express that we were the first people to come on their doorstep is years because the Highlands is far away. I felt good about that because I had that idea. I carried that on to Friday and we went to a neighborhood that had a good amount of inactive members. Once again we found 2 people! One was a current homeowner that moved into the house of the member, and the other was an inactive that wants us to come back. I've probably had the most fun missionary work wise during inactive member reactivation.

We met with Jocie after church because she missed church and really needed to go today but didn't wake up in time. She said the last couple of days were awful and she's feeling alone. We felt impressed that we should skip lunch and go talk to her so we did. We just let her spill her thoughts and feeling and let the Spirit talk to her while we listened. She said it helped a ton and we gave her a few suggestions.

Deb

I finally met Deb after being here for nearly a transfer. She's been on vacation and is very close to baptism. We had prepared to teach Lesson 5 but we didn't at all. She had some thoughts and feelings to express about forgiveness and judgment and the world we live in now. She was involved in the Newtown shooting and the Uvalde school shooting set her off. She had so much anger bottled up that we helped her start to overcome. 

I've got a funny story to tell. So on Pday we went a played a round of disc golf and in Nevada there are tons of geckos and lizards all around. Elder Carpenter killed like 3 of them on accident trying to catch them. We kept one of the lizards that tried to catch and taped it on the hood of the car. His name is Rango. Well Rango has been on our car for a week now and we just forget about him. So on Thursday we went to get an oil change and realignment on the truck and did our weekly planning inside the shop. While we were there, all the sudden we hear a whole lot of yelling, laughing, and swearing. Turns out they were about to open the hood but weren't expecting to see a dead lizard named Rango on the hood. They were screaming, "THATS FAKE!" "THE HECK IS THAT??" and "ITS DUCK TAPED TO THE CAR." My companion and I were dying. We had completely forgot that we had a lizard on the hood haha We gave all of them a good scare and made the day interesting. I know that they all went home to their families and told them about these fools that had a lizard taped to their car hahaha

Well that's it for this week. This is the last week of my 1st transfer! Just gotta keep on pushing. I love you all

Elder Proctor

Pic 1 and 3: Rango

Pic 2: We placed a Book of Mormon in a Little Free Library