Jumping Beef

Pretty shweet semana! 

We finally have a baptism this week! On Wednesday our investigator (who is 9) is getting baptised! We are excited because his taking the lessons has helped strengthen his less-active/part member family! They are doing family home evening now and making a real effort to get out to church.

We committed our other investigator with a baptismal date, Ruben, to live the Word of Wisdom, and he was super down! He gave us his coffee and we dumped it, I think that's the 3rd coffee canister I have dumped on my mission, lol. He also tried to give us his really expensive alcohol but we told him we couldn't really take it, so he dumped it out on the ground! It's crazy how much people can change when they start on the right path.

Dumping a member's coffee stash

We taught another family recently, and as we were teaching them they told us that they came to the conclusion that they need to be baptised! The only problem is that they both work on Sundays, so we are working on that now. Also! We used our bikes this week! It has been a while, but it was fun. We might have to use them a bit more often, as we are starting to run short on miles for our car. It's a great time to bike. Pretty much 90's every day! (Eww)

After a day of biking in the heat.

Had some awesome food at a Peruvian members house called Lomo Saltado(Jumping Beef), it was really good, and then I made the mistake of dumping about a pound of Peruvian hot sauce on it and I proceeded to die. Probably the hottest thing I have ever had. But it was still really good so I got seconds.

Learning a lot about diligence and patience this week. When you try your hardest to get someone to make commitments and they say they are going to and then they flake out, it sucks! It makes me realize how much Heavenly Father want's us to make correct decisions and how happy he is when we do! 

Cool Harley seen in our area.

Not much else this week, Hope everyone has a good one! 

Sorry these pictures are bad, there's really not much to take pictures of in Sparks. gonna keep looking for stuff tho!

Feliz Dia De Los Padres!

Lot's of great stuff went down this week! Still reflecting back on our great trip to the Temple in Reno.

A snapshot from our recent Temple visit.

We went to a place called Texas Meltz here in Reno on Monday, it was lit. All of their sandwiches are named after cities in Texas! I was going to get the Plano (cold deli sandwich, also where I'm from), but I was in the mood for a melt, so I snagged the Austin Melt. It tasted just as liberal as it sounds! No but it was really good.

New sandwich place down the road from our apartment. The Texas city names of the sandwiches make me homesick.

Speaking of food, I have had some great Latin foods recently. I have recently had posole, arepas, carne asada, tres leches, microwave burritos, and tons of other sick authentic morreno cuisine. This diet is really hard to keep up when we get fed like crazy. Like seriously we were given about 8 pounds of tres leches cake on Friday. :/rip

But we were working really hard this week and happened to talk to alot of non-hispanic people on the street, so we ended up giving a total of 6 referrals to the English speaking Sisters in our area, and they found a couple investigators from them I believe! #theyOweUs

Pic from last weeks temple trip. It was really windy up there so I apologize for whatever the heck my hair is doing.

We recently taught a less active named Sergio about temples and told his that his time had come to start preparing for the temple, and he was like wuuuuuuuuut. But he's super pumped, and his non-member wife may be getting baptised soon! Also we were able to find 3 new investigators this week, so we were happy. Now we just need to get some of our investigators back on track so we can see them progress.

Also, I gave a talk in church this Sunday about the relationship between Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as father and son. First all-Spanish talk, yay!

But everything has been great in Sparks! Happy Father's day to everyone!

Sorry for lack of pics. not much to take pictures of in Sparks unfortunately! 

Picnics, Sickness, and Temples!

Had a wonderful week this week!

Elder Gurr and myself getting ready to head out.

P-day we had an awesome picnic as a zone where we were able to play frisbee and sand volleyball. Of course I brought my a-game to volleyball, but unfortunately I was bringing so much heat that I burnt me feet (bars). No but actually the sand was so hot that I got like heat blisters so RIP my feet. Thanks everyone for paying your tithing so we get to drive a car!

A view of Reno and the mountains from Sparks.

Then the next day I unfortunately caught a missionary bug and got pretty sick. Complete with projectile vomiting! It had been a while! And I feel bad but it was obviously super contagious, because then Elder Gurr got it the next day, then my companion Elder Gonzalez got it the day after that. But luckily it's a short lasted sickness so I was able to work later that day!

Attending a Temple visit with one of my Gardnerville members as she received her endowments.

Elder Gonzalez and I at the Temple with fellow missionaries.

The Reno Temple.

THEN!!!! One of my old less actives that I was teaching in Gardnerville went to the Reno Temple to receive her endowments, and I received permission to go with her and another missionary that taught her, and it was sick! She had an incredible experience and thanked me profusely for helping her get there. It was a wonderful reminder to me that I am out here doing the Lord's work, bring happiness and peace to all who need it. I love this work! Speaking of, we set another investigator with a baptismal date this week. His name is Carlos, and he is a roommate of a recent convert. Before our lesson had even started in which we had planned to set him with a date, he asked what all he needed to do to be baptised! So that was easy! But of course there must be opposition in all things, and this week it manifested itself in that Victor and Zulma will have to put off their baptism for a little bit until we get some things figured out. But Zulma apparently had an amazing dream recently in which there was a tree that was unfortunately not growing. She was watering it and trying to help it in any way she could but nothing was working. Then, she said, we (the missionaries) came in and watered the tree, and it began to grow. She said that she believes that we are feeding her the truth so she can grow her faith. Sounds a lot like Alma 32 huh?! So they are prepared and will be baptised soon.

The Sparks Zone.

I was on exchanges with my District Leader Elder Torres on Friday, and we had a crazy cool miracle. We were just routinely visiting a former investigator, and she answers the door and they swear they both recognize each other from somewhere. Eventually Elder Torres realize that she was literally the first investigator he had ever had, and met her like his second day in the mission. She had moved from Reno (where he taught her) to Sparks like a year ago and we happened to decide to go visit her that very day. Miracles!

Nothing else really. I bought a jump rope Monday and have been using it pretty much daily along with some other band/body weight exercises. Gotta get my swole back somehow.

#DileAdiosAmiLonja

Que transitas por tus venitas gueras?

Everything is going great here in Espars! The work is really taking off. We found five more investigators this week! And it's great because they are all in families. It's so great to see these families increasing their faith in Christ so much. Speaking of, we have a double baptism scheduled for this weekend, a mother and son, Victor y Zulma! We are super excited for them, and they are so ready! We miiiight actually have to move it to next week purely for logistical reasons, but they are going to be baptised very soon regardless.

Los Elders.

Yesterday was fast Sunday, and it was a good way to kick start our diet. We bought about 10 pounds of chicken and 5 pounds of rice, and we pretty much cooked it all the other night and froze it, so now whenever we need a quick lunch, we can throw those in the microwave and have a good healthy cheap almuerzo. Hopefully I don't get too tired of chicken and rice tho.

All of our foods.

On Tuesday night, we were pranking some other Elders who live near us by making their bike rack lean over slightly(#prankd), and all the sudden a little Mexican flies in through my car window as I was driving away, then after all the dust settled I realized it was my papi Elder Guzman! He is those Elders' Zone Leader and they were on exchanges, so we got to talk and stuff for a while. Fun!

Guzmancito

There is this area in our area that missionaries haven't visited for a long time because it looks like it's all industrial stuff, so there would be no houses there. Well Elder Gonzalez and I felt inspired to drive around it (since we had some extra miles), and we found a super neat-o little trailer park! And as far as trailer parks go, this one was super cool and nice, especially for a trailer park that it full of Hispanics. Since this whole area has like zero potential investigators or former investigators or even members on record, we kind of just started from ground zero and tracted/street contacted a bunch of people yesterday! We didn't even get like a fifth of the way through because we kept having awesome conversations with tons of people! We have like 3 return appointments next week for that area now, yay!

We visited some members on Thursday, and they had these freaking perrecitos (babby dugs) that were sooo adorable, like 2 weeks old or something! We tried to get a picture, but apparently whenever Elder Gonzalez gets a camera in his hand, he loses half of his brain cells, because in all the pictures it just looks like I'm holding a little black turd or something because it's so blurry.

Count the cats.

My Spanish is improving quickly and It's really exciting. Elder Gonzalez and I are setting apart certain times to only talk to each other in Spanish, and it helps a lot. As well, I made a little goofy mistake the other day at dinner. So I was reading a scripture and it said "Por tanto ..." which means like, "And behold," or, "Therefore," but I said "Por tonto," which means basically, "Because you/they are stupid." So the Argentinian family there got a good laugh out of that. But it is improving poco a poco. And I got some compliments when I bore my testimony yesterday. Maybe its just pity for the new gabacho, pero me vale.

Not much else is goin on other than the work here is amazing and I love paisanos.
#OralePues, DiosTeBendiga

Sparks is Blowin Up!

Sparks is Blowin' Up!

Hola everycuerpo! Elder Gonzalez and I have had a really great week in Espars! First off I am 20 years old now and that is really weird to say. But yeah! Also, we set 3 investigators with baptismal dates this week and I am super pumped!

Some final pics from Tahoe before making the move to Sparks.

Victor y Zulma is a son/mother and are super pineapples. Elder Gonzalez has probably written about them before, but basically Victor (22) has a really close friend who recently served his mission, so when Victor saw some missionaries walking around on the street, he just went straight up to them and told them he wanted to take the lessons! Zulma is his mother, and as well is just trying to find the truth. She has been baptised 3 times in different religions, though, so she really wants to make sure that this is true before she does it again. We recently decided to do a church tour with them, as they had been super close to choosing a baptismal date. We figured the Spirit in the chapel would be the tipping point, and we were right! Unfortunately, we were on exchanges, so the duty fell on Elder Torres and Elder Gonzalez to ask the question for them to be baptised; the 10th of June. But they did it with confidence and Victor said of course, and Zulma said yes, if she receives an answer. So we will keep at it and help her to fully know. So we are mega excited to see how they progress.

My new work area in the Sparks apartment.

Yesterday was my first time having an all Spanish church session. It was great! We had a couple investigators there, so we got to accompany them to everything and help explain what was going on, since, for one of them, it was his first time ever at church with us! It is incredible how much my Spanish has been improving. Like seriously it has boosted my testimony so much of the gift of tongues (being able to speak and understand languages extra well through the help of the Spirit), as whenever I am in a serious lesson situation where the Spirit is in abundance, my Spanish doubly increases. It’s great, and we are doing more and more in Spanish every day to remain able to receive those blessings. Also, it has been a lot of fun meeting all of the new people in this ward, and getting used to all the new faces.

Group shot from the Zone Conference in Sparks. 

My new companion Elder Gonzalez and me at Zone Conference.

Last Wednesday, we had Zone Conference, where the whole zone got to meet together and have some trainings by President Chesnut, the assistants, and some other people. It was lots of fun, and it's always great getting to see President and Sister Chesnut. This next District Meeting (Tuesday), I am going to be giving a short training on boldness, so I have been studying (and practicing) for that! Samuel The Lamanite is an inspiration to us all.

A quick bite to eat with Elder Torres and Elder Gurr. That's Elder Gonzalez and me in the foreground.

We also had some awesome exchanges with Elder Torres (my new District Leader who I knew pretty well back in the Carson Zone) and Elder Gurr. I was with Elder Gurr, which is crazy, because I hadn't spent that much time with him since the MTC. It was great to get to catch up on everything since then and see how we have both grown so much as missionaries since then. Also to see how much I've grown in the lonjas (rolls).

Speaking of, I am ending my anti-diet and starting my real diet this week. I am actually mega excited because this past week I forced myself to eat like a pig and it disgusted me (which was the plan), so now I am super excited to start running in the morning and eating much better. #16MonthsToSexy

Anyway, hope everyone had a good one. Nos vemos!

Woah! Esparssss!

Happy My Birthday from Sparks (esparrss)!

As you can see I got transferred to the Rama Vista in Sparks, NV! This place is pretty lit!

It's a 100% Spanish area, and It's been kind of a trial by fire situation with my espanól. It's getting better really fast though, and I am starting to understand more and more. The area is very small, but very busy. It is probably a tenth of the size of my last area, but has probably 5x the work. Mostly because there are tons of huge apartment complexes that are chock full of Hispanics.

Sunset view of Sparks and Reno

This week has been pretty busy. This area had about 50 "investigators" total, many of which my companion had never even met or heard of. So we "dropped" (gave time) to all but around 12. This way we can focus our efforts and help lead these prepared people to baptism.

We have one kid named Hector who is going to be baptised in June, and two really solid investigators named Victor y Zulma who are sooo close to deciding on a baptismal date. Also, we found 5 new investigators this week, so I am mega pumped. We teach so much here compared to my last area. Like we have usually around 3-5 lessons a day, which is a lot for Nevada!

Downtown Sparks, NV

Really loving this place, and my new companion, Elder Gonzalez is cool too! He's from Argentina and Utah, and he is fully fluent in both languages. He's a really good teacher and wants to work hard, so that's what we are going to do.

We do some cool service here, a lot of it is with an old-folks home called More To Life. Which is funny because if you say that fast it sounds like Mortal-Life, which would be a pretty dark name for a retirement home. We also do some stuff for Habitat For Humanity, so that's chido. I don't have Elder Jarninja's AlphaSmart to write out all of my emails, so sorry this ones a little short. Also I goofed, I didn't bring my camera with me today so no personal pics today. Next week tho I promise!

View of Sparks Marina lake, a 77-acre lake in near me.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I'll be honest only like a few people wished me happy birthday so you should all feel guilty. But have a great week everyone!

Feliz Dia De La Madre!

Hope all of you current and future mothers had a great Mother's Day! It was great to get to see my family again, and they've grown so much! Must be something in the water.

Darrian, Adam, Steph, and Beau! The South Lake fam. 

Beau and Steph's dugs! Kaloni (Colonoscopy) and Piper (Daiper)

Anyway, I'm getting transferred! I will be in the Vista Branch in the Sparks Zone in Sparks, Nevada! I will be with one Elder Gonzalez, who is a native Spanish speaker from Argentina, in a FULL Spanish area! Yay, Spanish will get to improve at a much faster rate!

The Miller fam! gueros chidos.

The crew at Blue Dog (overpriced Californian pizza).

We cover a pretty small actual physical area, but apparently it's all apartment complexes just lleno de Mexicans. So I should be busy! Also, since I am in Sparks, I will get to go the temple next transfer, LIT.

I am super excited to get to serve in this new area, but I will miss this one a ton. I was born here! And I will always love it as my first area. But I will be entrusting it to the loving but slightly chubby arms of my dear companion Elder Jarnagin, and as well Elder Hamilton Abbot, my district mate from the MTC! I trust these two servants of the Lord to take care of this beloved part of His vineyard, and I think they can do it!

The Ence fam! Sister Ence makes a mean shepherd's pie.

Another typewriter I have acquired. I might have a problem.

I know great things await me in my next area, and I am very excited for those things. The Lord always looks out for us, and I can testify of that. Anyway, I am off to pack and spend an awesome P-day hiking around South Lake Tahoe, so I hope everyone has a great week.

Adios gueros!