Fallon Week 11 (Mission Week 80)

 Hey guys!

This past week for me has been pretty rough because of my leg. It's been hurting for nearly 3 weeks now and it's really odd. Regardless of this I'm still going out there and doing the work! Please keep me in your prayers that this leg situation can get sorted out soon. Here's how my week went! If you don't read it all I strongly recommend you read what happened on Saturday. Really cool miracle on the day.

Monday

We had fun pday! In the morning we played some football (I didnt play because of my knee now hurting). During the afternoon we went to Lattin Farms and did the corn maze there and went into the kitchen and made some fry bread. That was pretty fun. The rest of the day was chilling with the district and then in the evening we went over to Brother Emmons house and filmed an interview with him for the upcoming music devotional.

Tuesday

We had a great district council and then afterwards we started exchanges with the Yerington elders. Elder Jarvis and I had a good afternoon proselyting and we had a great lesson with Liz. Unfortunately our exchange got cut short because Elder Jarvis forgot his extra insulin in Yerington so we had to drive and end exchanges. We did some Facebook finding to end off the night

Wednesday

My knee was killing me during the night so the day was pretty rough especially because we had a bunch of service planned. We had our weekly Preach My Gospel training in the morning and then we went and helped Val build his shelf in his shed. After that went over to the Life Center and did our thing over there. During the afternoon we had our horse poo service where we clean the horse pen for a couple and other odd jobs at their property. I still dont know why I look forward to this every week but I do haha. I died that evening because my knee was hurting pretty bad and I was feeling sick so we took it easy that evening. Luckily our dinner canceled so that was kinda my sign to call it a night and get some rest.

Thursday

I didnt feel sick anymore today so that was good. In the morning we went over to the quad apartment and did alot of Facebook finding with them to get them to do stuff because they isnt a lot of stuff going on over there. I racked up a lot of points for our Facebook challenge and then we had lunch. We filmed a video with the Hermanas and 4th ward elders for CCIN (teaching english to spanish speakers thing). Once the video is done Ill send a link for it. It was pretty fun. After that we got some ice cream with everyone and then did our weekly planning. Elder Takemori had a baptismal interview to do so we went over to their house and did that. While talking afterwards they mentioned they had a pig that sounds like a baby screaming when you try to catch it so naturally I wanted to try. Ill send the video of it haha. In the evening we were supposed to have volleyball but their was a Trunk or Treat that got in the way. I cant wait for our wards Trunk or Treat this week!

Friday

Oh boy was the night rough. The pain that has been moving around my right leg decided to attack my Achilles and it kept me up most of the night. Also when I was hobbling around during the night to get some Medicine I straight up fainted and fell in my closet. Apparently I fell pretty hard because it woke Elder Takemori up and he rushed to the study room to check on me. Yeah the night was pretty wierd. Fortunately I was able to get some rest and then I woke up feeling a bit better and my Achilles wasnt completely immovable anymore. We went on exchanges with the 3rd ward elders and I went with Elder Prather. We had service at the senior center st the reservation and then a couple of contacts. One of the youth from Winnemucca (Brent) that I got close with was playing football in Fallon so we met up with his family and watched his game. We did a bit more proselyting in the evening and then called it a day.

Saturday

We volunteered at the Spooky 5k Run in the morning where we handed out water at the mile marks. It was lowkey kinda disappointing because no one wanted water at our station so I felt rejected haha. Literally no one would take it and it reminded me off how the Gospel is literally like the water in this scenario because water will feel great for the runners but they dont take up on the offer and thats what I feel as a missionary every day with spreading the Gospel haha the Gospel is literally right there for their grabbing and they choose not to. Well after the 5k run we went over to the Brices and helped them split wood. They fed us lunch afterwards. After that we headed to Reno so I could get my leg checked out because now it has been hurting pretty bad for 3 weeks now. They did Xrays and said its fine orthopedic wise but theres definelty swelling and something medical going on so they ordered a bunch of blood labs for me to do. A really cool and spiritual experience happened in the waiting room though. Itll definitely be something I look back to when my faith is lacking. To make a long story short the waiting room was pretty full and we sit down and the couple in the corner next to us are members so they start talking to us. Elder Takemori gets up to use the restroom and while he is gone the wife straight up starts to have seizure. When Takemori comes back she falls unconscious and isnt moving for a good 5-8 minutes. The husband lets us know that this is common for her but this one is one of the worse ones. He says "Elders can you come give her a blessing?" Keep in mind we are in a full waiting room so we gave a blessing to an unconscious lady in an awkward position against the wall. Then the coolest thing happened. Well we close off the blessing and we sit down and I kid you not the second we sit down she lifts up and says "Oh hi Elders!" and is completely ok and acts like nothing has happened. Elder Takemori and I are just freaking out on the inside because of the miracle that has just taken place and the husband looks to his wife and says "Honey they just gave you a priesthood blessing. You had a seizure." Theres more to the story but thats the gist to it and the more important details but my testimony on priesthood blessings is greatly strengthened now. That evening I got to go to Dayton for a baptism of a kid that I worked with named Krista so that was fun to be there and then after we all went to the Bebouts for a little bit to end of the night.

Sunday

Dang I had the worst night of this whole leg situation. My Achilles was KILLING me. My whole foot was immobilized and if I tried to move it sharp pains would shoot up and the pressure was immense. I had Elder Takemori give me a blessing of comfort and then I was able to finally get some sleep a little bit after that. I didnt go to sleep until 3am and that sleep wasnt even good. It was terrible. We went to church but after that we didnt do anything the whole day because 1. The terrible night I had and 2. Takemori was sick. We did have some lessons planned that day which sucked because the one day we had multiple lessons we literally could not do them and had to reschedule them.

Lesson Reviews

Liz

Our goal for the lesson was to determine if she would be willing to read from the Book of Mormon or not and we got an answer. She would be willing! Her problem is that she doesn't know the Book of Mormon and doesn't understand the references like she does the Bible. We told her how similar things are taught in both books and we would love to go over them with her. Next time we are going to read both accounts of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew as well as in 3 Nephi to establish this connection.

Well that's it from this week. Sorry there was a lack of positivity because of the report of my leg stuff but again please say a prayer for me that I can get back to regular missionary routine teaching lessons and proselyting with no pain!

As always I love yall. Have a great week!

Elder Proctor

Fallon Week 10 (Mission Week 79)

Hey everyone!

I hope the past week went well for yall! I know my week was great. My birthday was on Saturday which made this past week special. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! You can read about how my birthday went later in the email. It crazy that I've already gone through both my mission birthdays. I'll be home before I know it! Here's how my week went.

Monday

It was pday so the day was pretty chill. We played some more football and some outdoor  basketball. My ankle had been giving me problems so I bought a brace to wear. After that went just hung out at the church.

Tuesday

We had a fun district council. Elder Takemori made a general conference jeopardy and that was fun. Elder and Sister Wadsworth attended as well (he is the former stake president and just got called to be in the mission presidency). The hermanas made lunch for everyone after so that was great. We had service with Suzi that afternoon and I got to mow her lawn again!! I love getting to mow peoples lawns haha. We did some other yardwork with her and then got changed back into church clothes. We did some proselyting and as we were headed there there was a ton of traffic and medical/police personel on the main street so it took a while to get through. There was a body bag on the street which surprised us both. Turns out someone was jaywalking and got hit and died. Traffic was bad for a couple of hours because of it. Anyway that night we checked out what the youth were doing (which was a video game night at the church) and decided it wasnt a good use of our time haha.

Wednesday

I was on exchamges with Elder Johnson (ZL) that day so we didnt do any work in our area. We did have a good day in their area though. We handed out a Book of Mormon to a lady at the park which is great. Pretty much the whole day was spent contacting people and proselyting. We did have horse poo service again and thats always fun. It was a pretty good exchange.

Thursday

My ankle was killing me during the night so it was a pretty hard day. I was really tired and my ankle was acting up for some reason. I didnt even sprain it or anything but it hurt so bad. Regardless of this we were able to do a little bit of work. For lunch we went out and did a birthday sushi outing! Fallon actually has an All You Can Eat sushi place so we went! It was great! We also had weekly planning so that took out a big chunk of the day which I was glad for because I didnt have to be on a bad ankle walking. That night no one showed up to volleyball which i was really happy about because my ankle was not ok and I wanted to go to the apartment haha. We did a lot of Facebook finding woth the missionaries instead of doing volleyball.

Friday

Once again my ankle kept me up during the night so it was another day of my ankle hurting. We had exchanges with the 4th ward elders and I went with Elder Paxton. He is a greenie so I kinda had to forget about the ankle pain so we could do work. We went into his area and we proselyted and contacted some people. We had 2 lessons as well. I nearly had to go to the orthopedic express place in Carson towards the end of the day because my ankle was so bad. Unfortunately it closed too soon and we wouldnt make it in time. We stayed in Fallon and went to basketball instead. I didnt play like I usually do but i was able to just hang out in the corner and shoot threes and not move haha. I got a priesthood blessing that night which is always a good thing.

Saturday (My Birthday !!)

So something really cool was that I was expecting my ankle to be killing me the whole night and having to spend part of my birthday driving to Reno to get it checked out but looks like the priesthood bleesing worked (suprise surprise haha). It still hurt a little but not enough to need to go get it checked out. The turn around in one night was incredible! Anyways that morning was the solar eclipse so we all got together as a district in the morning to watch it. We were in the path of totality so that was awesome!! Great birthday gift from God haha. Because we were no longer going to Reno we were able to do some service demolishing some more stuff at the house the Anderson family is flipping. After we did that we had lunch and then we headed to the library to do some graphic creating and I got started on my FSY Counselor application! Hard to believe that I'm already making preparations of life after the mission. After we did that we headed over to Val and help him build a shelf! Hes a cool older guy and hanging out with him and building stuff is a vibe. For dinner we had the Huntzingers signed up which was another gift from Gid because they are the BEST! I let them know it was my birthday and they made it special. We had an entire feast. 2 other sets of missionaries came with us and some other people were there and there was still a lot of food left over. After that we went over to the Johnsons but they werent home but they saw us through their Ring doorbell and called us and told us to go to their parents house who live in 2nd wards area so we did. We crashed their family get together haha. It was so fun and knowing that no other missionaries have gotten this close to them is nice to see. After that we headed over to the 4th wards elders apartment to do Facebook finding with them and the zone leaders but something was off. The 4th ward elders werent there and they were the ones who set up us coming. Takemori asked me if we could go to Maverick and get a drink about 15 minutes after we got there which was kinda off. As we were leaving I said "I guess we will be back in a minute" and the zone leaders said "No we are leaving too" and they followed us out and left. That was wierd haha. Well we go to Maverick and get Takemoris energy drink (which sussed me out even more because he nevers has gotten one at 8:30 at night haha) and then we head home. The whole time is was thinking that they are probably all at our apartment on our back porch but when we get to our street there are no missionary vehicles anywhere and they are really easy to spot. This made me think "Well I guess i was thinking to highly of myself haha." I had been telling all the missionaries that I was gonna have a little get together after the day was over on my birthday and they were all excited to come and even said they were gonna bring gifts but the day of when I texted everyone individually they are all they were busy or sick so I was just planning on taking it for what it was and going to bed haha. Well I go inside and change and while Im changing Elder Takemori asked if I can come outside to help him start the grill and I go out there and everyone was there!!!!!!!! They didnt want me to throw my own party so they threw a surprise one!!!! It was awesome. They brought food and balloons and gifts and it was a blast. I was calling out everyone for their excuses of not being able to come and that was funny. It was an incredible way to end of the last birthday on the mission!!

Sunday

We had church and that went well. Keith came but still doesnt want us to teach him instead he wants to learn on his own. We actually had a good afternoon of proselyting. We managed to set up 2 return contacts which is great. We had a fun dinner and then had a lesson with Carol. We ended off the night with sone Facebook Finding.

Lesson Reviews

Carol

We chatted for a little bit about her current life situation. She trauma dumped alot of stuff on us but we managed to keep it focused on what we were trying to talk to her about. She hasn't read the Book of Mormon like we had asked so we invited her to read it and promised that if she does then her current life situation would be easier to bear and would bless her.

Here's a scripture that I've been thinking about this past week. It is Matthew 28:20 and Isaiah 41:10.

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

These scriptures of been on my mind lately because the impressions I get from them is that Jesus Christ is with me ALWAYS! No matter what time or stage of life youre in he is with you. He is with you in the rough times as well as the good times. I feel like some people (even myself) get the idea that Christ is only with us when we are in need of repentance or needing comfort but NO he is with us ALWAYS. He is by our side 24/7. You know the mission is a good chunk of time. Its a lot of time that allows for a lot of ups and downs. Ill even be honest with yall these past couple months as I approach the start of the end have been a little bit rougher than the first half of the mission. I am still going out there and working and not doing anything much different than the first year but I am not experiencing the same amount of satisfaction and joy that I am used to feeling while doing the same missionary work activities. These scriptures really help because I know that Jesus Christ is by my side and is helping at all times and understands my feelings. Take those feelings that I just said with a grain of salt because I am still doing great over here but just know that there ARE times in the mission when you just have to "Forget  yourself and go to work" (Im talking to all you new missionaries that are reading this rn haha). Dont ever stop doing good for others because you dont feel good yourself. You may miss an oppurtunity to change someones life. That goes for everyone.

I love yall so much! I hope yall have a great week!

Elder Proctor

Fallon Week 9 (Mission Week 78)

Hey everyone!!

I hit my 18th month mark this past week!!! Holy cow time is moving fast. I have completed my sister mission and now have 6 months to go haha. 4th quarter is where the real stuff happens. I'm down to the wire and I've gotta keep pushing along to secure the win. I'll be home before I know it so I'm gonna strive to make these last 6 months worth while. I had a pretty good week. We are still struggling to have lessons and find people to teach but we have a good amount of service we do. Here's how my week went. 

Monday

For pday we played a ton of football with everyone in Fallon. We played for a good 3 hours so that was really fun. The rest of the day was pretty chill. We had a game night with Granny B that evening. We brought a member with us too but something really wierd happened. Whenever we walked in we were just going about the usual but the member literally would not move from the door. It was like she couldnt walk in. Turns out she is allergic to the smell of POPCORN! Crazy right! Granny B had popped a bunch of popcorn for us to enjoy while playing games but we brought the one person in Fallon that is allergic to the smell of popcorn haha. We made some adjustments a.d just played games on the porch because we couldnt go inside the popcorn house haha. Definitely something i wasnt expecting

Tuesday

We had the first district council of the transfer and it went well. After our meeting we went over and helped Val put together a leave rake machine for service. After that we had interviews with President. Those went well and I am pretty interested to see what happens with me this next transfer. He said that if Im not a District Leader or Zone Leader this next transfer I will be one the next. I guess we will see what happens haha. The rest of the day we contacted some people and printed off some materials for a person we are trying to teach.

Wednesday (My 18 month mark!!!!)

The morning consisted of a mission wide zoom meeting, a lesson that fell through, service at the Life Center, and a doctors appointment for Takemori. After all of that we went to our weekly service shovelling horse poo and cleaning their stable. I actually look forward to this service which is odd to say but its actually pretty fun haha. That night the Sheckler ward youth had a fundraising auction so we went to that. That night we threw a 18th month party for Elders Hovey, McGuire, and I because we all came out together and hit our 18th month marks. 4th quarter now!!

Thursday

We spent the morning proselyting and trying to contact some people but we werent able to get a hold of anyone  oh well. We conducted our weekly planning session and then went out and proselyting on Alcorn Rd. Dinner at the Ludlows was pretty fun and then we had volleyball that night. One of the youth, Lea, came in clutch and had her whole high school volleyball team pull up so that was awesome.

Friday

The morning was super fun. We helped the Anderson with a house they are flipping and we got to demolish some stuff!!! Elder Paxton and I went crazy on an old tub and crushed it to pieces haha. Some of the debris shot back at me though and cut my leg but its a battle scar now haha. It was great. After that we went out and proselyted Mclean Road and contacted some people and had another lesson fall through unfortunately. During the evening we went to the high school volleyball game because they were playing Winnemucca and one of the families I got close to has a non member daughter that plays for them so we went and watched. That was fun. Hopefully the elders in Winnemucca 2nd now will try to get the ball rolling again with them.

Saturday

Theres a couple in our area book that we contacted a while back who are 7th Day Adventists and we got to know them a bit. The husband is the elder of their congregation amd their last name is Proctor so we both go by Elder Proctor haha. Anyways they said the missionaries used to come to the church on Saturdays so we went ahead and went! It was really fun. A lot of the 7th Day Adventists loved seeing us there and remembered the other elders that used to come worship with them and were happy to see the "Mormon Boys" again haha. They had a potluck after which was great. Thats one thing I've loved about being on a mission is bringing faiths together instead of apart. I've also liked getting to know other peoples beliefs because it helps me understand my beliefs more as well. After we got done there we went headed over to the library to make posts for Facebook. After we got done there I made a Facebook video that yall should be seeing come across my page soon haha. We did some proselyting and then had dinner. Its getting dark earlier now so the time after dinner is harder to find things to do but we manage.

Sunday

Church was good and Keith came. I dont know if Ive mentioned him before but he comes to church every week but doesnt want to be taught by us and wants to learn on his own. The Huntzingers are good friends with him so thats a good church support he has. After church and lunch we went to mission prep. Im gonna try to get them to do mission prep more in the way we did it with the Grisels back a couple years ago at home because they might struggle getting people to mission prep if they keep it the way they are doing. After that we had a short lesson with Liz and talked with Granny B. We had dinner with the Andersons which was AWESOME. They are great. After dinner we ended off the night by stopping by the Boyds and chatting with them for a little bit.

Lesson Reviews

Liz

We shared a couple of verses in Matthew but it got cut short because her husband got home from a trip and she wanted to spend time with him. She did say that she doesn't believe in Satan but believes in Jesus Christ so we will address that next time.

This transfer is already halfway over so there's 3 more weeks to get things done before I potentially get moved. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts coming my way!! I truly do appreciate all that yall do. 

I love yall! Have a good week!

Elder Proctor

Fallon Week 8 (Mission Week 77)

Hey guys!

I hope everyone enjoyed conference this past weekend!!!! I loved it. So many great talks and I'm looking forward to going through them all again. One of my favorites was Elder Oaks talk about the 3 Kingdoms of Glory. He did such a great job at explaining the why's and how's of life after death and I feel like we've never had a conference talk completely centered on the 3 Kingdoms so that was pretty cool. Feel free to reply back and tell me about your favorite conference talk! I'd love to hear about it. 

Here's how my week went

Monday

We went to the TJ Maxx that just opened here in Fallon and I got a hoodie and 2 shirts. We went bowling and then the rest of the day was pretty chill. During the evening we went to the powderpuff football game at the high school because a less active family invited us to watch their daughter in it. It was actually pretty entertaining haha

Tuesday

Because of zone conference being this week we didnt have district council so instead we spent the morning out walking. We helped the 3rd ward elders at the LifeCenter because it was there day to clean up and then after that we conducted our weekly planning session because we wouldnt be able to do it on Thursday. In the evening we went to the high school volleyball game because the Johnsons (the less active fam) invited us to watch their daughter play and also they were playing DAYTON! I was able to see some of the people from Dayton too so that was pretty fun. It was probably the most hyped volleyball games ive ever been too haha.

Wednesday

I was on an exchange with Elder Wheatley today. In the morning we walked down Alcorn Rd and knocked and talked to people there. Afterwards it was our day to wash down the tables at the LifeCenter so we went and did that and then we had service with the sisters cleaning up horse poo. It was a pretty chill day and once we ended exchanges Elder Takemori and I drove down to Reno and spent the night with Elder Kennedy and Rosenthal because zone conference was early the next morning.

Thursday

Zone Conference was awesome!!! The Fallon, Reno North, and Reno zones were attending so there were so many missionaries there. Probably the largest zone conference Ive been to in 18 months. It was great to see alot of other missionaries that Ive served around. We had some FaceBook training, trainings by President and Sister Saxton, the APs, and a mental health guy came and talked. After the conference alot of us hung out around the church for a little while longer before heading out. We grabbed some Costa Vida for Elder Kemnedys birthday before heading out back to Fallon. That night we played chair soccer with the kids we usually play volleyball with.

Friday

I went on an exchange with Elder Hovey and we had a great day. We spent the morning proselyting and having lessons. Our lesson with Carol fell through but a lesson with Kate happened. We've been struggling to figure out what to do with her and her family so it was good that we had a productive chat with her. After that we had lunch and then did some service. After service we had a great time proselyting Alcorn Rd again. We had a good chat with Liz. That evening we went to part of the homecoming football game and saw A LOT of people there.

Saturday

CONFERENCE WEEKEND!!!!! Its so crazy that conference is already happened for the 3rd time on the mission. Times a flyin. Conference weekend as a missionary always amazing and this one wasnt any different. In the morning we watched the session at the church with the district and I made pancakes for everyone. Elder Oaks talk was my favorite of the session. We watched the afternoon session with the Browns and they fed us a big lunch. After that we went to the Hallburgs and had a GIANT dinner and we were stuffed. They always invite all their family over and that makes for a lot of food and they pressure you to keep eating haha. After thay we went to the Irvings and watched the evening session. Being 2 hours behind Texas time is weird because all my life conference goes into the the night but here its over by 6:30 and we still have time in the day left. Because we had time we went and did some graphic creating in the Family Search center. We actually got in trouble by the stake FHC lady for being in there though because apparently youre supposed to have staff members in there with you so we just left.

Sunday

We watched the morning session with the Andersons and had breakfast with them. After the morning session we headed over to the Sipherds and had lunch with them and watched the last session with them. They have 4 primary aged boys so it was pretty fun being over there. They also have a son that had a cleft lip and palate so all their kids look up to me because Im like their little brother so thats actually kinda cool. After conference was over we did a bit of walking and then we had dinner with the Rasmussens. They invited two less active families over to eat and it just so happens that one of them was the Johnson family so we were stoked to be able to hang out with them during dinner. 

Lesson Reviews

Kate

We asked her if she has looked at the Book of Mormon timeline but she said that she never got a paper copy so we will print it off and give her one. We discussed the Book of Mormon and where it started. We read part of Ezekial 37 and talked about the stick of Judah and Joseph and how the Book of Mormon and The Bible go hand in hand in testifying of Jesus Christ. We also talked about latter day prophets and invited her to listen to general conference.

Liz

We went over and we talked for a little bit and then we discussed a chapter in Matthew and things we learned from it. We discussed latter day prophets and why we believe they are needed today. We invited her to watch general conference.

That's it for this week! My 18th month mark is this week so thats crazy to think about. My sister mission is done haha. 6 more months! Thanks for all the prayers! Once again feel free to tell me about your favorite thing in conference. I may not reply but know I read and appreciate any reply!

I love yall! Have a great week!

Elder Proctor