Richie Tackles Reno: Week 13

December 15, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!!

I freakin love the mission. It is so much fun its incredible. It is also super cold here in Sun Valley!! This past week a cold front came in and froze all of us. Thankfully our heater works now in our house and we stay plenty warm during the nights. We also got some snow yesterday and today, which is fun. The mountains around us are all white. It is so pretty!

So Elder Rivera and I are doing great. He is my "trainer" and so we stay together for the first 12 weeks of my mission, and he basically teaches me the ropes.

"Posterity Picture" - with my "dad" (Elder Rivera)
and my "Grandpa" (Elder Newey)

He considers me his son and I consider him my Dad because that's just how everyone does it in the mission. Its kinda fun cuz everyone has their sons and their dads. This week I got to meet my "grandpa" who is Elder Rivera's "dad,” Elder Newey. He is no longer an Elder…he already finished his mission, but he came back to see everyone. It was fun to meet him.

This week was a little bit slower as far as the lessons went. We didn't have any lessons with our golden investigators, Juan and Laura or Victor, which was a disappointment. Every time we stopped by, they weren't home – and when we called they were busy. But we are still hoping to be able to help them progress more this week. We have been praying like crazy that we can have one baptism in the month of December, and we know the Lord will pull through if we keep working hard.

Sun Valley, NV

We spent two days on our bikes because we didn't have any appointments. So we just ride around in areas we haven't gone yet, and knock on houses that look like they have Hispanics inside of them. Its kinda funny because we have gotten to know how to stereotype the Hispanic houses based upon their cars, yards, and flags flying outside their house. We are usually pretty spot-on and I’d say about 90% of the houses we knock on end up being Hispanic. Our area actually is pretty big. About half of the homes are trailers, and the other half are houses.

Rivera and I with the other
Spanish Elders in Sun Valley

I don't know if you guys have gotten the chance to check out my area on Google Maps, but you should! We have from 7th street north in Sun Valley, and also a small triangle of Sparks that is over the hill from Sun Valley, closer to where we live. Most of our work is right in Sun Valley, but we will often spend some time in the other small area. If you look on the map the other small part is the triangle formed between Los Altos Pkwy, and Sparks Blvd – and everything west of that. It is all part of the Red Hill ward. Most of Sun Valley is the trailers, but the other Spanish elders have the southern half of the valley that has all trailers. We have some trailers and some houses.

So Christmas is 10 days away!! Holy cow!!! I can’t believe it!! Mom – thank you so much for the 12 days of Christmas, we absolutely love opening one each day! It is like the favorite part of our day.

The First Day of Christmas...opening the
package from my mom.

We were going to go to McDonalds this morning for breakfast because there is one halfway between the church for sports and our house, but the other elders left their card at the house so we will go tomorrow. I love sharing the Christmas spirit with everyone, and I love saying the words "Merry Christmas" to everyone we see!! I just love it, it is so much fun. This also means that I will be able to talk to you guys in 10 days!! I am not sure what time, but I will probably face time you guys using Verduzco's iPad. We also have a few other back up plans with iPads, so plan on FaceTiming me. But also – would it work better to just call by phone?? Because I will do whatever works best for you guys. Apparently we will be having a mission party at a church building for like the three zones here in Sparks and Reno, and I am not sure what time that will be going down, but I will know next p-day so I will fill you in. Please let me know what works best for you guys.

We love having a car!! Who needs a truck when you
can use your bike rack to carry tools to the
service projects?!?

We are so blessed to have a car!! I wish we could use it to give rides to people, especially cuz it is so cold outside now. We always see people walking around in the cold, and I wish we could just give them a ride! It would be a great act of service and a perfect chance to talk Jesus Christ with them. Also to be able to pick up investigators for activities and stuff would be awesome. But oh well – we just aren’t allowed to drive other people.

Well guys, you are the best!! I want to leave you with a scripture. It is
1 Timothy 4:12. Read it tonight for family night and talk about how you can be a better example of the believers, which won’t be easy because you guys already are great examples!

But thank you for all of your support and your letters!!

I love you guys!!

Love,
Elder Todd