Bueanas Dias Weros!

It has been a pretty weeky week!

Dinner with Elder Jarnigan

This week we had some pretty great exchanges with the other Elders. We spent a whole 30 hours with them as we have been trying to help them out with their area as one of the Elders has been sick quite a bit recently. I got a few "aggressive drivings" because they have a pretty nice V6 Altima with Sport Mode so its a little spicy.

Looks like our unofficial roommate Stewart (the mouse) has been at work!

On exchanges with Elder Landrin, we went and saw Johnny, and his front door was all shattered. We asked him what happened and he told us an "intruder" had entered, and Johhny was not having it. He intended on "Pistol whipping his white a**" but since Johnny isn't as spry as he used to be, he just shot at his foot. He missed, and poor Johnny was left with a shattered glass front door and a hole in his porch. Classic Johnny. And of course he pulled out the loaded gun that was used and showed it to us. Fun!

Elder Jarnigan with flyin dug!

Also, check it out! Elder Jarnugin got his Eno hammock recently and we just finished setting it up. GronolaLevel++. It's pretty sick though, especially with the weather warming up. Weekly Planning outside yay!

Great new hammock for enjoying the warmer weather.

One really exciting thing that has been going on recently is that we are quitting smoking with Mike (our Less-Active former drug addict) this week, using the 15 Step LDS Stop Smoking program. If he follows the steps then he should be done with smoking in a week, and he has been smoke-free since Thursday night, so we will see! He is doing great and we are super proud of him. Part of the program is signing a contract and drinking raw grapefruit juice every day. So there's a pic of both of those things happening.

Our work in progress Mike after enjoying some grapefruit juice. All part of his anti-smoking program.

Not much else went on this week. Just workin hard. Have a good one everybuddy!

Nick

General Authorities and Mexican Food!

It was a pretty chron diggity dank week and subsequent Easter.

The whole west side (best side) of the mission got to gather together to listen to a day of trainings by Elder Brent H. Nielson of the 70. He is currently the Director of the Church Missionary Department, and he basically told us to not tract ever! No but seriously he told us that finding through members (referrals and part member families) is by far the best way to do things. Which has been told to us before but hopefully this time it will stick. So don't forget to give your local missionaries some referrals!

Mission Tour with the beauties.

The MTC District!

At the mission tour I also got to see my father (Elder Guzman) and the whole MTC District! They're all doing great in their respective areas.#toomuchsauce. Theeeeen, on Wednesday, we had dinner with an awesome Spanish family that fed us some fetching sweet burritos and tacos. It was the first somewhat authentic Mexican food Elder Jarnagin has had in a while so he was animado (excited). After the awesome food, Hermano Rivera asked for a blessing for his eyes, because he has diabetes and is starting to lose vision in both eyes. I did the anointing (first part of the blessing) and it was in Spanish! Whoa! Then the blessing was given by Elder Jarnagin and it was really powerful. Faith brings miracles!

We have been working hard with Mike, our returning less-active recovering drug-addict bro. We have been having really great lessons with him with his case workers present, so I think somewhere down the line they would be interested in investigating. They always have great questions. And Mike is progressing slowly but surely. He has very high goals of receiving the priesthood and attending the temple, so we are trying to help him quit like everything at once, unfortunately. He is doing great with avoiding the hard stuff but when it comes to smoking, he is still really struggling. But he is weening himself off very slowly! Faith!

On Friday we had a sick coordination meeting with our Ward Mission Leader in South Lake Tahoe. He lives right on the beach so he took us out to the pier. Now that's motivation to find a good career and work hard!

At the beach with Elder Jardin's.

Rich people beach at Tahoe.

Rich people pier at Tahoe.

Things have been going great out here. Our investigator Darrian is going to be getting married and soon after baptized in June, so unfortunately I wont be here for that, but I am super happy for her and her fiancee!

New Easter cards.

Also something funny that just happened this morning. We had to drive Mike to Walmart to help him buy some non-smoking supplies, but we usually can't take anyone in our car unless we are doing missionary work with them.  So we stopped to knock on one door so that it counted as missionary work (even though it's P-day), and the guy actually let us in and now we have a return appointment. This was in a very rich neighborhood where tracting is useful pretty much 1.2 percent of the time. So that was nothing short of a miracle! Mike was pretty confused to say the least lol. Anyway.

Missionary work is very rewarding! 

That's all folks, talk to you next week! Have a swell one.

Blessings for the nude and afflicted!

Had a pretty loco week this week!

Elder Jarnin and I started last week with a little of a boring p-day, as it was transfers so we aren't allowed to hang out with any other missionaries that whole day. But this day should be way more fun! We have a new SLT(Sister Training Leader), a new ZL(Zone Leader), and a new DLB(District Leader Buddy, Like me! - not a real calling btw-) in our zone! Should be fun today to meet all these people!

Stoppin for a visit

On Tuesday Elder Jarninja and I were trying to visit a less active man on the top of a mountain, and then he wasn't home, so we got a little distracted. We ended up climbing up this huge hill so I sledded down it in my "water resistant" pants. Not as resistant as I would have liked.

Elder Jarnagin with a bird's eye view.

Then, later that day, we saw Mike! Mike is a very interesting fellow. He was baptised like a year ago and then got very heavily into drugs. He realized how much they messed him up, so he want's to change, however. We see him literally every day to help him along his path to recovering from his addictions. He has already kicked the big stuff, now we're just trying to help him  quit weed and tobacco. But anyway, on Tuesday night we went over there and he answered the door without a shirt on and we're like, it's fine, it's Mike, he's weird. But then he goes, "Guys I'm having really bad withdrawals and I'm overheating, so I have no clothes on." And I said, "Like down to your skivvys or NO clothes?" and then by a swift opening of the door he confirmed that he really meant NO clothes. So Elder Jardin and I got a face full of Mike, but it's alright, we are troopers. We came in and proceeded to give him some doctrinal comfort, and then he asked me to give him a blessing. So, ladies and gentlemen, at approximately 2030 hours on a Tuesday night in April, I gave a priesthood blessing to a fully naked man in a beach chair in his living room. Gardnerville is fun!

I went on exchanges on Friday with Elder Mills in his area. I didn't realize how much I love all o my investigators until I had to spend a day in someone else's area not teaching my peeps! But it's ok, they kind of all cancelled that day anyway so I didn't really miss out lol.

Some local wildlife.

Some funny stuff happened on the exchanges too. Like we were at some less-actives' house and they gave us this really hot salsa that was really good. Then after that we booked it to our dinner across town. When we got there, we started dinner promptly and after the prayer they apologized because we were having fajitas but they were almost out of salsa. Then Elder Mills goes, "Don't worry, I have some!" and pulls out the recently acquired spicy sauce and places it on the table to the confusion and amazement of the dinner hosts. We all started laughing and I told the hosts to not think he was weird, we just happened to get some from some less-actives and he had just forgotten it was in his pocket. Classic Elder Mills.

On Saturday, we had a church tour with Mike and he really liked it. It was funny because he had all of his Social Workers there to watch him and they were all in awe by the Spirit as we entered the Chapel.  He said he felt all warm inside when he was in there. Spirit++!!

A gift for our little visitor Stewart from Elder J's mom

A cool weird small milagro happened this week, too. Elder Jarganin and I were walking to a less active Spanish family's house and we were like dang we aren't going to have time to walk all the way there to set up this meeting, and then go back to the church in time (we had a meeting with out Ward Mission Leader there).  So we turned around and just decided we would have to come back another time. (It turns out we had missed the turn for their house a long time before that but it's ok, no one has to know). We were walking for about five minutes and we came across a Spanish man, and yes, it was Brother Rivera, the very man we were trying to see! He comes up to E' Jarnagin, and says, "Hola, son Mormones? Quero ser Mormon tambien!" (Are you Mormons, I want to be Mormon too!) Elder Jarnagin doesn't know who he is yet and says with a look of wonder on his face, "En Serio? perfecto!" (Seriously? perfect!) Then Bro Rivera says, "Pero ya soy."(But I already am) Then he figured it out haha. It was pretty great and we set up the appointment and everything!

Not much else went on this week! I am having a great time here in Nevada. Love you all and have a great one!

Adios.

Conferencia General

​​​​Hola Everyone!

Hope you all had a great week and General Conference weekend! Elder Jarnagin and I had a swell one!

Hangin with Elder Leon

We had a pretty sweet lesson with one of our investigators in the forest in South Lake Tahoe. He brought his four ADHD dogs so it was a little hectic but we got settled down and enjoyed a lesson in the beauty of God's Creation. Really could feel the spirit there!

Heading out to the forest with one of our investigators and his dogs.

I found a wiener dog that looks just like my old dog, Ed!

On Wednesday Elder Jarnagin was super excited to get to eat at one of our less-active member's homes, the Rodriguez Family. He was excited because they are from Guadalajara Mexico and he was excited for some "genuine" Mexican cuisine. Much to his chagrin, they had forgotten about out appointment and had to order a pepperoni pizza. I was laughing pretty hard as he sulked over his za'.

More quality time in the beautiful outdoors of Nevada.

We also met a semi recent convert who unfortunately fell back into some bad habits of hard drug abuse, but we are working with him and pretty much talking to him every day and he is already really improving. He is in the process of giving up the hard drugs and he's even trying to quit the smaller stuff like smoking and what not. He reeeally wants to go to the temple so that's his driving factor. Also he keeps having dreams where he sees Jesus's face, so that's probably a good sign!

Service work in the snow.

Friday we dug a motorcycle trailer out of a ten foot pile of snow for a disabled veteran who is one of our progressing investigators! It was actually a lot of fun! His kids are goobers though and kept dumping snow down my shirt!

Then this weekend we watched some General Conference with our recent convert Claud and with some awesome members in our ward, the Millers!

A view from the hills during our hike this week.

Some down time with my fellow missionaries. Note my sweet Texas Forever shirt my mom sent me.

The main thing I took away from Conference this weekend is that I need to work on having more charity towards others. I find I am quick to judge and not be as Christ-like as I should be at all times. So I am working on seeing others as Christ would see them!

Not much else went on this week! Just working hard to bring others unto Christ! Hope everyone has a great week, adios!​​​​

Another great week in el campo (field)!

Buenas dias weras!

We found another investigator in South Lake Tahoe, and yes, he is weird! How did you know? Jeff was the guy that showed up drunk to church a few weeks ago and has been attending regularly since. We went and had a really interesting talk on the snowy beach in Tahoe about his life and what not. He is a very interesting gentleman, but he did seem genuinely interested in our church, so we will see where it goes. We were kind of interrupted in the middle of our talk because apparently we witnessed a very old sailboat sinking in the water nearby. Apparently Jeff had seen that sailboat many times before, and was quite distraught to witness it's passing. We sang "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again" as we saluted the sinking vessel. Not really, Jeff's Catholic, he doesn't know that one.

Spending quality time with Elder Leon

Elder Jarnagin and myself studying scripture

Last week has kind of me just being a klutz. I was frying some salmon and accidentally splashed some hot oil onto my arm, so I have some gnarly burns on my arm. Also I cut my leg getting out of the car last Friday.

Elder Jarnagin lost his card that let's him drive so for a couple days I have been driving. I've only hit like 3 cats so I would say all in all I'm not doing too bad.
Elder Jarnagin and I also deep-cleaned the house last week. Apparently it was motivated by a mouse-sighting by Elder Jarnagin. His name is Stewart. But we haven't seen Stew since then so maybe he booked it after eating all of my peanut butter. The house is looking pretty spiffy right about now though, and it helps relieve the stress a little when there isn't random food from old missionaries everywhere. Cleanliness is next to Jesusliness.

Carson Zone conference with President Chestnut

Another pic from Zone conference

Been having a good time and have been learning lots about the gospel. I am preparing a talk about member missionary work so it’s been an interesting learning process. Also the Spanish is coming along nicely. I don't actually use it super often, but when I do people don't flinch anymore, so that's a good sign I think! #NoMoreMrWhiteGuy

Site of our recent off-roading shortcut

Posing at sunset

Had a pretty fun week this week! We had Zone conference and got to learn a lot from President Chestnut. Also our car was inspected so that was nice. We had to do some off-roading and it was a pretty good time. We literally forded a river because we are trying to save our miles lol. So we cut across another huge off-roading park, and this one included a little stream. Thank goodness for 4x4!

We have been working with a family up in Tahoe and they are doing very well. We will be seeing them and another family this week and we are going to try to set them with baptismal dates.

Not much else been going on. It's not super busy up here right now, we are just trying to find some more investimagators.

I have a joke that I would really like to share.

Que le dijo la wera a la otra wera? Werare joo?

Nos vemos gabachos! Have a great week everyone!​​​​​​

Daylight Savings and a New Typewriter

We had daylight savings time yesterday night. That kinda sucks. Missionaries are finely tuned machines, and one less hour of sleep is really throwing a wrench in the works. But the work goes on.

Still battling the snow in Lake Tahoe

We have been finding like crazy in South Lake Tahoe! We have 3 new investigators there this week. One is named Enrique, and he is a man who has had a rough past and is just trying to do right by God. We have discussed what the BoM is and he is reading it right now. The other 2 are John and Alexis. John is a disabled veteran with Alexis (wife) and 3 youngins. They moved from Salem, Oregon (shout out) about 2 years ago. We just now got the referral for some reason, but it's ok, because we think the time really might have helped soften his heart. He and his wife are very prepared to hear and listen to our message, and we very accepting and understanding of our message of the restoration. They have also committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, so we look forward to continuing to work with them.

In another development, Elder Jarnagin and I have started doing bi-weekly service at a GoodWill-esque thrift store called Fish. Annnd my first day there I found and subsequently bought an electric typewriter. I am currently cleaning and oiling it and I have purchased (via some members with Amazon Prime) some ink ribbon to get her up and running like new. Before you assume I have totally lost my marbles, typewriters are actually quite useful out here for missionaries without iPads:( because we can type much faster than write, and we don't have to worry about handwriting. Also typewriters are cool cuz they make sweet noises and stuff. Elder Jarnagin's handwriting is terrible so he uses his typewriter for just about everything. Including almost all mission-related paperwork. But anyway, I am quite excited to start writing on it. If you get a typewritten letter, it means I love you. If you don't, at least Jesus loves you.

The latest in personal communication devices.

Saturday, I got to attend two baptisms, and those are always fun! Elder Jarnagin and I both spoke at a man named Robby's baptism, and it was a pretty dunk-tastic experience. Robby actually has a little bit of a mental disorder, and is extremely afraid of water. So obviously the actual ordinance of him getting baptised was quite an ordeal. But after we wrestled him under the water, all was well.(just kidding of course ;)) No but it was a great service and we had a great time, and of course learned a lot from preparing our talks.

The same day we also got to attend a baptism for a man named David. He has had a very interesting past, and he actually turned himself into police because he wanted to repent and be baptised so bad, even though he knew he would likely be facing a prison sentence. Miraculously, however, his sentenced was waived and he was given an alternative punishment. Which means he got to be baptised Saturday! God is great! A lot of people had heard his story so there were like 50+ people at his baptism, including us! I've only known David for a short time but he really is an awesome guy and it just goes to show that the gospel changes lives!

Helping out at the local thrift store.

Oh also! We did a really sweet object lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ through making chicken parm! A member took a video of it, so it will probably be in next weeks email. It was awesome!

Nothing really else been goin on. Just the J Squad tearing it up here in Carson Valley and South Lake Tahoe. More like Salt Lake Tahoe by the time we're done with it;). Anyway, hope everyone has a great week and don't forget to spay and neuter your pets.​​

Adios!

Howdy, Howdy, Howdy

Hola!

Last week we were pretty low on our allotted miles for the month, so we biked home from South Carson City back to Gardnerville. It was pretty fun, and I think it was very good to help work off all the food I ate at dinner. Also something pretty weird happened on the ride. We were like half a mile from our house, and right before we rounded a corner, we heard some crazy loud screaming. So we get around the corner and see this lady leaned up against the her door screaming that she's having a heart attack. So we use our phone to call 9-11 and the operator is like, "Chill, that lady just has anxiety, she's fine. We have some people already on the way." We were like uhhhh. So then while we wait for the "people" to show up, we just listen to this lady start screaming about some totally random stuff, having nothing to do with a heart attack lol. She's screaming about her dog, and then her husband who left her, and how she is going to sue the Lutheran church down the street because they didn't call the cops for her. Then eventually a cop and ambulance show up and we started talking with another by-stander who lived nearby who came over because of all the noise. We got his number and he said he might be interested in meeting with us! Cool! Anyway yeah that was a weird night.

Downtown Gardnerville, Nevada, population 5,600

In other news, we found two really great new investigators in South Lake Tahoe. One of them is a very average man, like seriously the most average person you could ever meet. Never really gotten into a religion before, but says he would like to. When we taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon, he acted like it was the most exciting moment of his life, so that's sweet!

The other investigator we met is quite the opposite. We were actually trying to see Johnny, our African American KKK member investigator, but his roommate said he wasn't home, but that we should come in anyway. We go inside and he is listening to sad country music with tears in his eyes. He said he needs help, and that he can't find happiness in his life. He said he has been Pagan all his life, and that it doesn't mean anything. He is a member of a very notorious biker gang, and has been in prison for half of his life. We shared a message of the Plan of Salvation, and by the end of the lesson, he said he already felt happier, and he asked if we had a book that we could give him, because he learns by reading. So naturally we told him we could go get him a Book of Mormon right away. He said, straight faced, "Good, and if you do not, I will find you." We're like, dude, it's literally in our car right over there. He goes, oh ok good. Well hurry up then. South Lake Tahoe is a preettty weird place. But the gospel is for everyone!

Nothing much else happened this week. I though it was going to start warming up here, but we got a foot of snow yesterday :( I miss Texas heat.

Sorry, I don't have many pictures this week because my camera is falling apart, but I should be getting a new one soon, and then I will be posting pictures faster than a 14 year old on instagram with multiple personality disorder.

Hope everyone has a swell weak.

Adios
#drinktahoetap