Winnemucca Week 4 (Mission Week 25)

 Hey guys! Hows it going? 

This last week was awesome. We did a lot of stuff and got to travel because of Zone Conference. We also put Jaxon on date! He will be getting baptized on October 8!! Let's go!!!!! Here's how my week went.

Monday

We drove to Battle Mountain because Zone Conference is in Elko. We spent our Pday there with some other Elders and all spent the night there at the BM elders apartment.

Tuesday

We drove the rest of the way to Elko for Zone Conference! I love Zone Conference because I always get a motivation boost and it's fun seeing all my missionary friends. It took up the entire day. One because it went wayyy longer than it should have. It should end at 3 but didn't end until 4:30. Then we drove all the way back to Winnemucca which is a 2 hour drive. I was pretty tired by the end of the day.

Wednesday

I did the worst service I've ever had to do. A lady needed something done outdoors but it was raining so when we got there she said we can just do her dishes. It was awful!!! The house was so dirty and the dishes were stacked up and had mold growing 🤮 I get that some people can do some things but this was way out of hand. I'll send some pics. On the other hand, we had a good first contact with a referral named Robert. We also had a scripture read with the recent converts Tracy and Stacy.

Thursday

We helped Brother Southwick mow his lawn. He's an old man that is so pure and wholesome. He walks around so slow and talks nonstop. He's so funny because of how wholesome he is. He reminds me of the wise old video game characters that you have to wait to catch up to you haha. He and his wife also fed us lunch afterwards. We did our weekly planning session as well as did some door knocking on inactive members in hopes to find new people to teach. We ended the night with basketball!!

Friday

We had interviews with President Dunn. Those went really well. I'm interested to see what happens this upcoming transfer. After interviews, we spent the time until dinner just walking this big neighborhood trying to find people and contacting inactive members. We got into contact with a few but none were interested but one. We gave a brief Restoration overview and gave them a pamphlet and we are going back Tuesday. We also had a lesson with Jaxon and Cade where we put Jaxon on date.

Saturday

There were a couple of baptisms we attended in the morning. After those we helped someone pack up a Uhaul. The sad thing is that they had nothing packed and we put 4 boxes in the Uhaul in the space of 1 hour 😐 Please don't ask for help moving if you aren't ready to move haha. We had a good contact with an inactive member.

Sunday

We went to church. We had ward council and were able to express the need for help finding people to teach. Sister Hatch gave us a good list of people to contact and check up on which we will spend this week doing. That pretty much what we did the remainder of the day was those people. We set up service with one of them!

Lesson Reviews

Robert

He lives far out and it took us a while to find his address. When we did we knocked a couple of times but no one was there. He pulled up right as we were walking to leave. We were able to introduce ourselves and get to know him. We also read Alma 7:11-13 with him. We invited him to read the rest of the chapter and he said he would! We gave him a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment.

Jaxon Walker and Cade Hartung

I love going over here because the Hartungs have little kids and they all sit in on the lesson. Cade is going to be baptized the same day as Jaxon and their family are the ones who referred us to teach Jaxon. The lesson went well and we put him on date!

Well that's how my week went. I'm hoping all of you have a great week. Remember we have General Conference this weekend!!!!! So excited! I invite all of you to go into Conference with a question in mind and I promise that it will be answered through the Holy Ghost. What a great opportunity we have to listen to modern day prophets and apostles. Don't take advantage of it!

I love you all

Elder Proctor

Winnemucca Week 3 (Mission Week 24)

 Hey guys!

Another week gone by. This week was pretty lowkey. My companion and another elder were sick for 2 days so we were stuck in the apartment for 2 days straight. It was alright and nice to get a rest but I was ready to get back to work. I'm glad all the covid mess is pretty much over. I don't know how Covid missionaries did it. Here's my weekly recap!

Monday

We had a zone breakfast, went bowling, and played basketball! 

Tuesday

This is when we got sick so we were in the apartment all day. It was my companion, another set of elders who were sick, and I that just hung out at the apartment. We had to cancel our lesson with Jaxon and Cade unfortunately.

Wednesday

Same thing as Tuesday :( I did make everyone breakfast though! That was fun. I made a big French toast and omelets breakfast.

Thursday

Another day inside. We were feeling better but Thursday is our long weekly planning session from 1pm-4pm so we weren't out much this day either. We did play basketball in the evening with a lot of people which was fun.

Friday

We did service for a less active recent convert. We helped her clean up her yard and read Mosiah 2 with her. She also needed to change an alternator in her old car so my companion offered to help. He worked on cars at home so he used his skills to further the work! He changed it quickly and Sherrie was so happy. After we did that,, the Senior missionaries in Winnemucca were asking for help at the food bank so we went and helped giving out food to people! We gave a priesthood blessing to someone in the hospital. The rest of the day consisted of finding and trying to find lost members.

Saturday

We continued to help the Lewis family build a chicken coop. We actually finished it also! I'll send a pic. We were there for a while because we did service and they also fed us lunch. We did some more contacting and trying to find people to teach or reactivate. We heard about a music festival in town and we went on an adventure trying to find it. We eventually found it and it was so awkward because apparently you had to have a ticket but we just drove in and the people looked at us really weird. We planned to walk around but we just turned around and left haha.

Sunday

We had out church meetings. We also did more contacting and trying to find new people to teach. We knocked this one girls house and she told us she used to be a member but doesn't agree with some of our beliefs. She let us know what they were and we bore our testimonies that all of them are true. Although the contact was a bit irritating, it was a nice reminder that I do believe what I am preaching. When someone tells you that you are wrong about something you are passionate about it ignites a fire in you that you have to put out before you make someone even more against the church haha.

Sorry for the lack of lesson reviews. Because of our couple of days sick, our lessons got canceled. Just know that I'm trying my best!!

I love all of you so much. Thanks for the prayers! I'm about 2 weeks away from my 6 month mark. Almost half a year on the mission. Time is going by! Have a great week.

Elder Proctor

Winnemucca Week 2 (Mission Week 23)

 Hey guys!

Late email again sorry

This week was pretty fun. Elder Larsen and I are getting along well. The Zone is also really fun and we see each other all the time. We also had some good contacts. Here's the weekly recap

Monday

Just pday and did laundry, shopped, ate lunch at a members house with the other elder, and hung out at the church

Tuesday

We had district council. We helped someone move. We had an irritating contact with someone who pretty much was saying that the prophet needs to apologize to them directly because he encouraged people to get vaccinated. We also had a good lesson with Jaxon and Cade

Wednesday

We helped someone put a trampoline in a hole. We walked for 2 1/2 hours making contact with inactive members and other people who have had contact with missionaries in the past. We read scriptures with some recent converts (Tracy and Stacy)

Thursday

We did alot of walking again and also had our weekly planning session. We also played basketball at the church with some people. 

Friday

We did more walling and had some contacts with less actives and non members. We also helped Brother Hartung hang up sheetrock in his basement. My construction skills are lacking haha

Saturday

We went on exchanges and I went with Elder Troop. We had service in the morning and they fed us breakfast. Their area is really big so we just made our way up north through out the day. By the end of it, it was an hours drive back home from dinner haha. We also got fed every meal of the day so that was cool. We had a good lesson with one of their investigators named Bonnie.

Sunday

We went to church. We also did some more proselyting. Elder Larsen also had two really good moments where he was prompted to knock a door and it turned out well both times!!!

Lesson Review

Jaxon and Cade

They are primary aged so we have to simplify the lessons. We taught them the commandments and it went really well. We made it into a game so it got them into the lesson more than usual. They both like video games so I made a analogy between cheat codes and the Word of Wisdom haha They are both hoping to be baptized on October 8!

Bonnie

She is an older lady that Elder Troop and Webb are teaching. She is GOLDEN. She pretty much accepts everything we tell her. We discussed the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. I love teaching because as you teach you're on testimony grows. The whole time we were talking I was in my head just thinking, "Yeah this is true."

I have a funny story to tell. We were at the Spanish elders apartment and I stuck my finger under the hot water from the water dispenser and we had an idea. We thought that it would be so cool if instead of water you had hot chocolate coming out of the jug and it was instantly hot because the dispenser would heat it up. We all looked at each other and thought it was the greatest idea we had ever heard. So we go to our apartment and see a ton of hot chocolate mix so we put our idea into motion. Later thar night after all work has ceased, we begun the process. I'll keep the story short but our idea became a reality in just a few hours. What started as a simple idea turned into instead gratification of hot chocolate. I will send pictures haha

I love all of you so much and I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers coming my way!!! Have a great week!

Elder Proctor

Winnemucca Week 1 (Mission Week 22)

 Hey guys!!

Well I've made it to Winnemucca. It's definitely different here than in Reno but I'm ok with the change. The work here is different than what I was doing in Washoe Valley but I'm learning how to adapt. Here's my weekly recap!

Monday

We went bowling for our Pday activity. Also did some packing and I had a traiming meeting because I am a trainer.

Tuesday

We went and played pickleball for the last time with our non member friends. We also hit a couple of houses to see if the people in them have moved or not. The rest of the day was spent packing and saying goodbyes to investigators and members :(

Wednesday

Transfer day! We got up bright and early so we could get to a church building in Reno by 7am. I said bye to Elder McGuire and left. A really cool thing is that I got to drove the transfer van!! I love driving and it was so nice to be the driver for a road trip that was longer than 20 minutes haha. I drove the 15 passenger van to Fernley, Fallon, and then to Winnemucca where we picked up/dropped off the missionaries going to each of these places. I got to Winnemucca around noon and unloaded my stuff. It was pretty weird to be in a different place where I didn't know anyone again. I meet my new companion, Elder Larsen. He's a great missionary and training him is gonna be a blast. The rest of the day was spent unpacking and getting settled in.

Thursday

First real day in Winnemucca! We did service with some other Elders for one of their investigators. We also had our weekly planning session. I had to clean up their planning board because it was really outdated and messy. I like things to be organized and clean. It makes the work better. We had dinner with the Smiths. Then after we went and checked on a guy named Jordan. I'll talk about him in the lesson review.

Friday

We had breakfast with Jordan, Jeff, and two other Elders at the Griddle. It was so good. We did service for the Southwicks building a fence and ate lunch with them. It's nice to gradually begin to know the people here. We also had dinner with the Hartung family and after we had to move 28 pads of sheetrock into their basement. Not fun at all. It was so hard and you had to perfectly go down to stairs or else it wouldn't fit. They were heavy too. Also we were in church clothes haha

Saturday

We helped clean the church and we hit some contacts with people who have had previous contact with the missionaries. We also walked around the fair in the evening talking to people about the Gospel. It was fun. We also watched the rodeo with some recent converts and one of our members was riding a saddle bronc in the rodeo!!

Sunday

I went to the Winnemucca 2nd Ward for the first time. The ward is different than my previous ward but I will adapt. There's alot of work to be done here so I'm up to the task.

Lesson Reviews

Jordan

He is a inactive member struggling with addiction. He lost his job because of his addiction and doesn't really have a plan moving forward. We went over there to talk with him and out of the blue his former boss, Jeff, drove up to check on him. Jeff is a great guy and was giving Jordan the TOUGHEST love I've ever seen. It's a good thing we were there to lighten the mood haha. Jeff was so thankful that we were there and cared about Jordan. We talked for a while on the Gospel and trying to get Jordan to see that he needs to turn his life around. We planned to get breakfast the following morning with Jeff and Jordan.

The cool thing about it all is that Jeff just had the feeling to come check on Jordan and it happened that we had the same thing. The Holy Ghost is awesome. Always follow promptings!!

That's about it from this past week. The work here is scarce but I'm up to the task of building it up. Unfortunately the ward isn't too focused on missionary work and it might be just us trying to grow the work here. There is a reason why I am here and I'm going to do my best I know!

I love yall so much! Have a great week!

Elder Proctor

Finally got some pictures for yall haha

Pic 1: Goodbye Krum family

Pic 2: Goodbye Dawson family