Fallon Week 1 (Mission Week 70)

 Hey everyone!! 

I hope all of yall had a great week. I know I did. A week full of missionary work, zone conference, and cool experiences makes for a great week. We had Elder Alonso of the Seventy come through the mission and that was awesome. Read what happens on Friday for a cool story about him and I. I'm adjusting to Fallon pretty well. The area is by far the smallest area I've ever covered but that's OK. Having so many missionaries in one small town is pretty fun because we see them nearly every day. Anyways here's how my week went. 

Monday

It was my first pday in Fallon and it was pretty fun. In the morning the zone leaders, sisters, and us went fishing. We didn't catch anything but we did catch some really small baby catfish and 2 frogs. We put them in a bottle and took them home haha. All the missionaries in Fallon gathered at the church and we had a pickleball tournament and played basketball. In the evening we went out and contacted a couple of people.

Tuesday

We did not have district council because of Zone Conference being this week. Instead we biked over to someone to help them move in. Something funny is that we had just helped some members move out of the same house and it was members moving in. We got lunch at Azteca with some of the district and then we had to take 2nd wards car and they took our bikes. Sad day. My dream of being in a biking area lasted 4 days. Elder Takemori has some medical stuff the makes it hard to ride a bike so President Saxton switched it. Oh well. After we did that we went out and continued to contact our teaching pool and see who is actually progressing vs people who the missionaries just stop by. Sad to say but not many people are progressing. 

Wednesday

We participated in the first day of Zone Conference via Zoom from 9am to 10:30am. It was good. Elder Alonso of the Seventy was there so I'll tell you more about him when I reach Friday when I went in person. After the Zoom we went out and contacted some people in our area book. After lunch we made the lonely drive to Austin, NV to start exchanges with the Tonopah elders. Highway 50 is dubbed "The Loneliest Road in America" and it definetly is. It is one of the major highways in Nevada because it's the only way to go through the middle of the state but there was NO ONE on it. This is because there is NOTHING in this part of Nevada. It took us 3 hours to do the switch and by the time I got back to Fallon with Elder Arneson it was time for dinner. After dinner we talked with some people and then went to our volleyball night.

Thursday

We had Day 2 of Zone Conference and we joined via Zoom again. Elder Alonso gave an incredible training on having the Savior be the focus of everything. Escpecially invitations. Usually missionaries will say something along the lines of "We invite you to read Chapter 27 of 3Nephi and know it will benefit you" but when doing a Savior invitation Elder Alonso stressed that we find a verse of the Saviors words and have the Savior invite them. So instead you would read a verse about studying God's words then say,"As we just read in this verse Jesus Christ wants you to read 3 Nephi 27. He invites you to experience the blessings of studying His word." I don't know about you but that packs a lot more power than it just coming from me. Also it makes you understand what we are actually doing as missionaries being the messengers of Jesus Christ. Whenever people don't follow invitations it's not ours that they deny. It is literally Jesus Christ that they don't keep a commitment with. Anyways I learned alot. After the Zoom we had service with a lady and some of the missionaries in the district came to. That was pretty fun. After that we had lunch and then ended exchanges. We conducted our weekly planning session and then went to dinner. We had a lesson with Allen and we used the Savior Invitation technique and it worked much better. After the lesson we drove over to Reno to spend the night with Elder Kennedy and Thompson because we had Zone Conference in person early in the morning.

Friday

We got to be at Zone Conference in person which was amazing. Elder Alonso continued to give awesome trainings and President Saxton also gave a really good training. The best part about today was lunch. We started Zone Conference at 8am so by noon it was over. We put our stuff down at a table and then went through the line and I was right next to Elder Alonso in the line and then I saw him sit down at a table by himself. I wasn't gonna miss this chance so I grabbed my stuff and Elder Takemori and I sat with him for lunch. The people at the table was President Saxton, Elder Alonso, a senior couple, and us. I am so glad that we made the choice to switch tables. At first it was pretty awkward because we were really talking and it was President Saxton and the senior couple doing most of the talking but it transitioned into Elder Alonso talking specifically to Elder Takemori and I about missionary work and all of his life experiences and conversion story. It was really cool to be able to get an extra hour of Elder Alonso while all the other missionaries were just hanging out with each other. At one point the missionaries were throwing rice crispy treats to each other and were being a little loud because they were seeing who could eat one the fastest and Elder Alonso used this to teach me about the Spirit. We were talking about receiving promptings and he said "The Spirit is constantly trying to talk to you 24/7 but sometimes we get distracted. As you saw just a couple minutes ago your friends over there were throwing the rice crispies around and they were distracted. The Spirit cannot speak to them right now. They are too distracted. Now what they were doing isn't a bad thing but I am saying that they are distracted so they cannot recieve promptings at that moment. On the other hand the two of you (Takemori and I) are not distracted and we are discussing the Gospel so you are more apt to recieve promptings because you are not distracted." That was really cool to see him use this to teach us about the Spirit and it was really a compliment from a General Authority to me. I had also studied his general conference talks and I liked one in particular alot. It is "Love One Another as He Has Loved Us." I was able to talk to him about his address and gain some more information to the story he shared and the general buildup to giving a general conference talk. Elder Alonso and I actually ended up continuing to talk even while everyone was cleaning up. It was a really cool experience and it's cool to know that I was able to connect with him more than any other missionary there that day just because I has the desire to sit with him. He was actually heading the Quincy Stake conference the next day so I told him that I served there for 6 months and to tell Brother Walmer I said hi haha. Well after Zone Conference we drove home and got back to normal missionary work. 

Saturday

The Bebouts drove to Fallon in the morning to give me my package that I sent to their house because I didn't think I'd leave Dayton so quickly. It was nice to see them. The rest of the day was filled with contacting people. Some went well some did not. We stayed busy all day though so that's good. We had dinner and then we had our first flag football night. It went really well because we have a youth in our ward who is the QB at the high school so he invited a lot of his friends. He even said afterwards that he could tell that everyone enjoyed it and it was alot more fun than everyone thought it was gonna be so they are going to invite more people to come. That's always a good thing whenever you create an environment that people want to come to.

Sunday

I had a cool experience that I'd like to share. Bishop asked Elder Takemori and I to give a short introduction and testimony at the beginning of sacrament meeting and I didn't prepare anything at all because it was supposed to be really short and I knew that I could just wing it haha. My plan was to think of a scripture, share it, bear testimony on it, then close and sit down. While the sacrament was being passed I was thinking on what I would talk about and the thought to bear testimony on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance came to mind so that's what I rolled with. I introduced myself and then read Alma 7: 11-13 and bore testimony and my experience with the Atonement of Jesus Christ, repentance, and the grace of God and then sat down. Elder Takemori followed suit and bore a simple testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and then the 1st speaker who was given a topic got up. This is where the cool part is. She gets up and says the topic that she was giving to speak about which was The Atonement of Jesus Christ and His Grace!!!! I instantly felt the Spirit right then and it was so cool to know that I had no topic or anything but through the Spirit I bore testimony on what the sacrament meeting talks were focused on. Elder Takemori leaned over and whispered "I guess someone is in tune with the Spirit." This was pretty cool because I had just talked with Elder Alonso of the Spirit and stuff so it was cool to see it in action. Anyways the rest of the day went well. We met the Johnsons family while we were out and they have an unbaptized youth so hopefully we can have a good relationship with them so she has the desire to be baptized. They are and awesome family. We made some more contacts in the evening and then that concluded our day!

Lesson Reviews

Allen

We had a great lesson with Allen. We discussed his previous meetings with missionaries and then read from 3 Nephi 27 to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We discussed baptism and he said that he has never been baptized but is at a time in his life where things have slowed down enough to where that could be a possibility. We testified that the Savior is joyful when we follow His Gospel and Jesus Christ is inviting him to follow him and the way we do this is by being baptized. We invited him to read 3 Nephi 11 before our next appointment on Wednesday. We also invited him to come to church!

Thats it for this past week! This next week is full of exchanges and trying to get more people to teach. Thanks for the continued prayers and thoughts coming my way. I love yall!

Have a great week

Elder Proctor