Dayton Week 4 (Mission Week 67)

 Hello again everyone!!

Time is going by so fast. I've already been in Dayton for a month now. This transfer is flying by. There is truth behind the saying of how each transfer gets quicker and quicker. Here's how my week went

Thursday

We had a regular pday. Nothing too much special happened. In the evening we went over to the Allison's and they were having a barbecue with some friends. They had us try a bunch of really hot hot sauces. I survived 3 of them but I died on the 4th one. It was called Insanity and that's where I chose to stop. I probably could've done the last one called Kaboom but I didn't feel like it haha

Friday

We had service with the Uhtofs in the morning. I fixed their printer the last time we were over there but they said it wasn't working again. I get in there and click one button and it worked again. Sister Uhtof gasps and looks at me straight in the eye and says "You're a hero!!" That cracked me up because all I did was push one button and they were acting like I found the cure for cancer. After I "fixed" the printer we did some yard work. That afternoon we did alot of proselyting. We contacted a lady named Little Red and she was a character. We helped her break into her own car because she locked her keys in there. We are really hoping it was actually her car lol. After all the contacting and dinner we had our first game with the Alpine team in the church league. We played Denali (which is the team we got kicked off of because they had too many people). The games I played on Denali weren't my best games and I jokingly told everyone that they better hope I don't play the way I usually do because they might lose if I do. They all laughed it off because Denali is the 2nd best team in the league and the team we joined is the worst. Well let's say the Denali guys had to play defense very well the whole game haha. I scored 45 points on them and it was a tight game the whole time. Alpine would've lost by 50 before we joined their team but we hung in there the whole game. At the end I got pretty tired so they pulled ahead and won the game but everyone was going crazy because I played so good. I had people coming up to me after the game saying how fun it was to watch and then they found out I was a missionary and that blew them away even more haha. It was awesome.

Saturday

I woke up pretty sore because I played 45 minutes of real basketball the night before but it wasn't bad. It just reminded me off high school haha. That morning we drove to Brother Kennedys house to check if there was water rolling down his window because he was quite concerned that he saw it on his security camera while he is on vacation. We called him and told him nothing was wrong but he got flustered because we didn't go the day before when he had originally called and told us he's glad the roof didn't collapse because we waited so long. I was like ummmm I'm pretty sure you would've seen that if it happened haha. He is quite paranoid. We then went to the Bebouts and helped them with the flooring on their house. After that we went to Moundhouse and contacted a bunch of people there. After our time in Moundhouse we had another church league game. I didn't think I could beat my performance from the night before but I did. We were playing a team that isnt as good as Denali so I wasn't as tired after the game. I had 52 points!!! Once again everyone was hyped whenever I was playing and it was a nailbiter game. There was 15 seconds left and we were down by 6 so everyone thought the game was over but I came down and hit 2 threes to tie the game. It's literally me vs the other team haha. At the end of the game the guy who is over the league yelled out to me that I had 52 points and everyone thought that was crazy. They dont keep stats but he tallied up my points because he wanted to see how much I could get haha. It's been a good missionary opportunity leaving the Denali team because now I can play the way I usually do and I'm able to talk to so many more people that aren't members. After the game we spent the rest of the evening contacting some people in Area Book.

Sunday

We had our church meetings in the morning which was fun. The Petersons son returned home from his mission in California and he gave a good homecoming talk. We spent the afternoon street contacting around neighborhoods and then we had dinner. There was a stake priesthood meeting in Carson City that evening that we went to and that went well.

Monday

We weekly planned in the morning and then went over to the Bebouts for a barbecue. Elder Mokuahi is in the Tongan ward in Reno and had a Tongan family feeding them that night and since he started out his mission in Dayton and is about to go home the Bebouts planned this with him to have a barbecue for lunch. Two other elders that served in Dayton came down so we had a fun time. After that we helped the Mavitys move in Virginia City. That night we drove to Carson City to start exchanges with the ZLs. 

Tuesday

I had a great exchange with Elder Evans. We spent the day proselyting and we had a couple of lessons that went well. One cool thing was that at dinner one of the kids had a friend over and while talking he said that his favorite part of the summer so far was when his Grandpa gave him his paycheck for working for him in Texas. I asked him where in Texas and he said some random town and I told him I don't know where it is so we look at the map together. We find it and then he asked where I was from so I scrolled over to Nacogdoches and he goes "NO WAY I've been there before that's where my grandparents live." I instantly got so excited and hyped up that he knew where Nac is. Not only that but he told me that he is actually going to Nacogdoches this next week for a couple of weeks to work for his grandpa!!!! We then start talking about Nacogdoches and he goes there every summer and has even been the Splash Kingdom and there's a big chance that I was working while he was there haha. That was super cool. After the dinner we went to the backyard and then started throwing knives which was fun. Our dinner was definitely the highlight of the day.

Wednesday

We had out first zone conference with President Saxton. It was great. Some missionaries dont like zone conference but I love it. President Saxton is big into sports and even played college baseball so he runs the mission like a coach which is awesome. His training was about being 1% better each day which is what we talk about in sports all the time. Everyone in the mission is pretty stoked to have President Saxton as our mission president. Zone Conference took up the whole day because we had interviews as well after it ended so we didn't get back to Dayton until dinner time. We went to the youth activities that night and then walked the church neighborhood for the last hour of the day. We were able to help these people out in their yard and we talked to then for a solid 40 minutes about God and the Gospel while we weeded the lawn. That was a great blessing of diligence because we really could've just went home after mutual but we decided to stay out the last 45 minutes of the day.

Lesson Reviews

Unfortunately we didn't have any lessons. All of the people we are teaching are either out of town or being difficult...... hopefully this next week is better. Please pray for us to be able to find more people to teach. We have been out proselyting in the heat alot but no one is outside because of the heat or the people we talk to aren't interested. Hopefully I'll be able to report some lesson reviews next week.

I love yall!!! Have a great week

Elder Proctor

Dayton Week 3 (Mission Week 66)

 Whats up everyone!!

This past week was awesome!!!!! I had a highlight of my mission happen to me on Tuesday. If you don't want to read the whole email thats fine but please read who I ran into on Tuesday and you'll see why I believe it to be a highlight of the mission. Here's how my week went.

Thursday

We tried out a disc golf course in Carson City and it was designed pretty well. Even though it was designed well I still don't like playing on rocky hills, sand, and sagebrush. Definitely miss Quincy disc golf haha. We had two of the youth play with us too. We spent 3 hours washing our truck because some prior missionaries liked to go off roading and mudding in it so it was CAKED with mud. We ran it through a car wash and then went to a self service wash and pressure washed all the mud from the undercarriage off. Globs the size of softballs were coming off. Luckily we won't ever have to do that again but it took a good chunk of our time. That evening we started exchanges with the Elder Rice (DL).

Friday

I was on exchanges with Elder Rice all day. We had a pretty good day. We had a couple of lessons but the evening was the highlight of the night. I had a difficult decision to make. We could either end exchanges early so I could play in our church league basketball game OR I could go with Elder Rice to Lake Tahoe for a YSA activity since ehe covers YSA. After some debate I chose to go to Tahoe haha. That was pretty fun. It kinda sucked that the YSA could get in the water and we had to hang out and watch them and throw the football around but it was still fun. Then a surprise came. Elder Rice got a phone call from one of the YSA from his previous YSA area and asked if we wanted to go get something to eat with BROTHER NASH!!! Not all the missionaries know Brother Nash but he loves taking the missionaries to get food at very tasty restaurants and you only know him if you've served in his area or your companion knows him. I gained my connection through Elder Rhoades and I hadn't seen him in a year so I was so excited to see him again!!! They came and picked us up from Tahoe and then we got some food. It was great!

Saturday

We helped the Bebouts in the morning with some service and then we had lunch with them after. They are awesome!!! We assisted with giving a priesthood blessing after that and then the rest of the afternoon was spent contacting people. Nothing too special happened. That evening we had another church league basketball game and we won! We actually got kicked off the Dayton team because there are too many people on it and we got moved to team Alpine because they only had 4 people show up. That'll be interesting. Our first game with Alpine is actually against the Dayton team so that'll be fun haha

Sunday

We had ward council in the morning and then we had church. Nothing too special happened at church but it is always super fun! Church as a missionary is super fun because you just get to hang out with members for 2 hours and hope that some friends come to church as well. The afternoon was spent contacting and proselyting around. Once again nothing too special happened. After dinner we had a lesson with Kevin and then we headed to the Beboits to do Come Follow Me with them.

Monday

We played basketball in the morning with the youth and some of their friends. That was really fun. The youth are excited to bring their nonmember friends to come play because I am good at basketball so they want to have their friends play me haha. If it gets us to find people then I'll take it lol. We spent the afternoon weekly planning and then we went out and proselyted for a little bit before dinner.  After dinner we went over to the Allison's and went on a walk with them and then chatted with them and their neighbors.

Tuesday

We had district council in the morning and that went well. We ate lunch at Chipotle with Elder White and Kohlhase and then headed back to Dayton. We had planned to go up to Virginia City but we were debating if we were still gonna go or not because the Mavitys hadn't responded yet and that's really the reason why we're were gonna go. I still wanted to go up to Virginia City so we decided to go up there and see what happens. Oh my gosh I am so happy we made this decision and you'll read why. So we head up there and we have this random guy named Vaughn in our area book and he lives pretty far out. We were wondering if his address is even in our area so we decided to check it out. It took us like 30 minutes to find it and it is just outside our area. We spent some time in the VC Highlands haha which is apart of my baby area lol. Anyways we leave a note on his trailer and head back to Virginia City. We park and we get out and start walking by the shops on the main street when we see a guy walk out of a store that caught my attention. Elder Horner says hi and we keep walking but I instantly stop walking because the guy looked extremely familiar. Almost as if I've watched countless hours of him in Marvel movies. The guy is just looking for someone or some place and keep in mind theres not many people around at this moment and we are in Virginia City which only has a couple hundred people that live there. Elder Horner and I are just standing in the middle of the walkway with ideas running through our mind and I say, "Is that Jeremy Renner??" "I swear thats Hawkeye." It takes a good minute of just observing him to finally go up and asked if he's Jeremy Renner and it turns out it was!!!!!!!!!! I FREAKIN MET HAWKEYE!!!!!!!!! What are the chances that I would meet Jeremy Renner in Virginia City which is literally an old mining town turned tourist attraction on top of the Nevada mountains. Theres NOTHING up here and thats where I met him. The whole interaction is a complete blur because I am in total awe on the whole situation. If you know me then you know how big of a Marvel fan I am so I literally was like a deer in headlights when I got the confirmation that it was Hawkeye. I asked to take a picture and ask what he's doing up in VC and he said he's just riding side-by-sides up here with some family friends. I am still in shock that I met an avenger. I'll remember this for my whole life. The craziest and most surreal thing about the whole situation is that he is straight up just a regular guy  thats why it took so long to just go up to him because I guess I was expecting to feel the stardom oozing out of him but no. I legit thought it was just a look a like because of how basic the situation and area was and what he was doing Anyways moral of the story is that I met Jeremy Renner aka Hawkeye!! The rest of the day was great too. Immediately after Hawkeye we went into Kashmirs store and he's an Indian guy who loves the missionaries. He told us to sit on a couch behind all the clothes and gave us some water. That was a funny sight for people to see. Two missionaries just drinking water on a couch behind all the Indian attire in a random Indian store. You'd only be able to see us if you walk farther back in the store which made it funny to see people's reaction when they saw us. After that we went to check on the Mavitys since they hadn't responded to our texts and we caught them just in time to help them move some things things that was good. Overall the decision to still go to Virginia City despite our plans falling through is a decision I will never regret haha. We had a fun dinner with the Soderborgs and then went to see I we could talk to this random member dot and when we knocked on the door his wife Irma answered and said that they were currently having a Bible Study and invited us to join. The 3 ladies that were there were so happy to tell us what they learned this week and that was a pleasant surprise. Today was definitely the most interesting day of the mission because of the many non routine events that happened. Also did I mention I met Jeremy Renner haha

Wednesday

We went over to the Bebouts for breakfast and then we helped out with some yard work.. That was fun. After that we spent the afternoon contacting people. We had a lesson with Shawn and then helped the Higgins move some stuff out of their storage unit. Our dinner with the Jones family was fun because they like Marvel too so we were able to geek out together about how we met Hawkeye the day before haha. Still crazy that that happened to me. After dinner we went over to Brother Ware, the ward chorister, and practiced the choir number for 2 Sundays from now. He gets very into his calling and it fun to be around him haha. He tried to help me sing but there are some things that should just be left alone and that is my singing voice. I will just sing the melody and let the other make it sound good haha.

Lesson Reviews

Kevin

We went over and got to know him. We discussed his previous discussions with the missionaries and how they went. He said that they would do Bible Studies and talk about their beliefs. This time we we discussed our eternal destinations and exaltation. We talked about our purpose for life and the premortal existence. He asked where is that found in the Bible and we pulled out some sources but he just denied our sources saying that's not what they mean.... we bore testimony and then left

Shawn

We discussed how the Book of Mormon is the word of God just as the Bible once again and he asked for some examples of doctrine that isn't in the Bible but is in the Book of Mormon. We pulled our 2 Nephi 2 and discussed the Fall of Adam and Eve and our restored doctrine on this event. We talked about how it was necessary for our eternal progression and if they never fell then there wouldn't be a need for a Savior. He said he agreed with this and we told him that this is not found in the Bible to this depth and he was surprised. We gave a couple of other examples and he said that he will continue to ponder on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon

This upcoming week should be fun. I have 2 church league basketball games, a barbecue at the Bebouts, and my first zone conference with President Saxton! I'll report on those next week. 

I love yall! Have a great week!!

Elder Proctor

Dayton Week 2 (Mission Week 65)

Happy late Independence Day everyone!!! I hope yall had a great time celebrating. I know I did. What a privilege it is to live in the country where the Gospel was Restored. God Bless America!! Here's how my week went. 

Thursday

It was my first pday in Dayton. We gathered with some of the elders in our zone and played basketball at the stake center. That was fun. The mom of a kid we are teaching wanted us to get a couch for her so we did. We really aren't supposed to use our vehicle's for that but they had already confirmed to help before I got here so we did it. That was pretty annoying. Escpecially because it was a pday and she ordering us around. We drove back to Dayton and dropped off the couch. In the evening we went over to the Allison's and talked with them. They aren't really progressing but they love us stopping by.

Friday

In the morning we did a lot of walking contacting member dots and grey dots. That took took the whole morning. A very annoying thing that happened was that the mom that we got the couch for texted us saying that she didn't want the couch anymore and told us to take it back. She didn't ask but told us. I was pretty annoyed. Especially because when we came to drop off the couch last night she had the same truck that we do and she claimed to not have a truck ..... we got that all settled out because we helped her move some things and then we took the couch back to Carson later that night. Never doing that again. The whole day was spent walking and contacting people. After dinner we had a stake basketball game. That was fun. It's 90% non members but it's the church that runs it so it's a really good thing for us to do. My shot was off and I didn't make a single 3. I did still score 16 points though but I was quite disappointed in my shooting haha. A cool thing was that a guy that came to Quincy basketball night was there. That was a surprise.

Saturday

We helped the Bebouts with some yard work in the morning and then had lunch with them. After that we went back to the apartment complex because Robert (the maintenance guy) wanted to do a cookout for us and the kids in the apartment complex. That took FOREVER. Don't ask me why it took 3 hours for 12 hotdogs to be ready to eat haha. Anyways it's a good thing that we didnt have any confirmed appointments that day. We had dinner with the Fowlers and then did a youth lesson with their daughter after. That night we had basketball night with the youth. None of their friends showed up but it will pick up after a while. They were going pretty crazy because of my skills haha. They said that I lost pigmentation in my skin because they thought only black guys were as good as I am  they were cracking me up

Sunday

We had church in the morning and we were expecting 5 people to be there but only 1 showed up which was Krista. We are happy that she came though. She's a 9 year old and she's developed some friendships in the ward which is good. Church was fun and then we went back to the apartment to do our studies. After that we headed up to Virginia City to do some contacting up there and for dinner. We spent the evening contacting people and then headed to the Bebouts because they wanted to teach me a card game!

Monday

We recieved a referal in the morning but it turned out to be a DO NOT CONTACT person in area book. It's Brother Kennedys neighbor and he has a lot to say about this person. Because if this we went and chatted with Brother Kennedy. We were there for a while and I was struggling to stay awake as he told us stories from his life. After that we conducted out weekly planning session. We went to dinner and then played basketball with some of the youth and their friends. We were supposed to go on a walk with the Allison's but they never got back to us. 

Tuesday (4th of July!!!! )

INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!! I have decided that the 4th of July is in my top 3 of holidays. I get so hyped for the 4th. It was pretty much pday 2.0. President Saxton told us to just be out in the community as much as possible and go to parades, social gatherings, and show the world who you are. First off in the morning we had district council. We did that and then we headed back to Dayton to get ready for the rest of the day. So I heard last year while I was in Washoe Valley that Virginia City is the place to be for the 4th of July so I was pretty hyped to test that statement. It did not disappoint. Virginia City is a torusit town that consist of one street and a population of around 900. Doesn't sound too appealing. But there were a couple thousand people that were there and the whole town was booming. The six elders all went up there for the afternoon but we left to go back to Dayton for dinner with the Harkers. The Harkers had invited us to go with them to Virginia City for the evening festivities and fireworks a couple days prior so we were even more excited for that. So after dinner we rode with the Harkers back up to Virginia City (which is about 15 minutes up the mountain). There were even more people there than in the afternoon. It was SOOO fun. Plus there's were a lot of members that came up to and we all set up a place to watch the fireworks together. A funny thing that happened was that we were walking with the youth, kids, and a couple of adults from the ward to an ice cream shop that they work at and while we were walking we got stopped by a couple of drunk girls and they started hitting on us pretty much  they were probably 24-28 years old and there were asking all sorts of questions about the church and stereotypes they have heard. As time went on there were more girls that showed up so it was Elder Horner and I and 8 girls in the middle of the street. Plus because there are soooo many people walking everyone could see the two guys in ties talking with these 8 girls haha. They were saying all sorts of stuff and they tried giving us hugs but we gave an awkward handshake when they went in for the hug haha. Anyways after that we just vibed in front of the ice cream shop with everyone watching everything going on and listening to the band that was playing. It was so fun. President Saxton gave us permission that if we were with members we could stay out as long as the fireworks were going on so we got to stay for the whole time!! It was so much fun. Definitely a 4th of July to remember.

Wednesday

In the morning we did some walking and contacting in this one neighborhood. After that we had a lesson with Phillip. During the afternoon we had alot of finding time so that what we did. We had a lesson that fell through with Uriah so we did some more contacting. We had a fun night because we went to the youth activity and they had a barbecue and played water balloon volleyball and capture the flag. That was really fun.

Lesson Reviews

Shawn

He cancelled service for this morning but we chatted about praying and reading the Book of Mormon. He still has the question on why he needs the Book of Mormon if it's like another Bible. We've taught this so many times. We explained the importance of it and why we need it. He said he will keep praying and reading.

Phillip

Great lesson! We talked about all the steps for baptism and what he will need to do to be baptized. We had an awesome discussion about agency and why he wants to be baptized. He said that the other times he has been baptized he didnt feel like he chose to do it but this time he is doing it for himself. We brought Blake with us and he shared his testimony about the Book of Mormon. Phil wants to be baptized in the next monthish to give him time to heal. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and will send him the talk for elders quorum so he can participate this Sunday.

I hit my 15 month mark of the mission this past week as well. I remember last 4th of July I was hyped to hit my 3 month mark and we had the multi zone barbecue with President Dunn. That was a year ago now and its so surreal. I vividly remember telling myself last 4th of July, "Dang in one year I'll be at my 15 month mark. That's a long time from now. I wonder what I will be doing at that time." Welp here we are haha. He's to the last 9 months of the mission. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts coming my way.

I love yall! Have a great week!

Elder Proctor