Week 39 - It's Summer!

Picture right before we got into a crash
(just kidding...we didn't get into a crash!!)

June 15, 2015 

Hey everyone!!!!

It sounds like all is well back at home, and that everyone is ready for summer!! School got out here in Sparks on Friday, so there is certainly a summer buzz in the air...not to mention it is stinkin’ HOT lately. But there’s no summer or any breaks for missionary work!!! But that's ok, because the work is going great!

Owen and me on his baptism day
 (September 2014)

I want to give a shout-out to my friend Owen Salyer and congratulate him on getting his mission call to Anaheim, California!! That will be great, and I am excited to have more East-Coast support out west here. He will make a great missionary.

So, no more middle-of-the-night prayers this past week – haha.  But we have had fun telling that story at like every dinner appointment...everyone gets a kick out of it!! I think it goes right along with the time Elder Nieves woke us all up at 4 a.m. and started doing dishes. Also the time a long time ago when I went into my parents’ bathroom at 2 a.m. and asked where everyone was, and then walked right into the wall. 

I can't believe that I am saying this, but President Hermansen is going home soon!! He told us that he basically has to move out today, because during the next two weeks, they are coming to deep-clean the house and do some touch-up work.  So most of his stuff is in storage, and they are living out of suitcases for his last 2 weeks.  This past week he started saying his goodbyes to the missionaries here on the west side of the mission.  It was pretty sad, honestly...each missionary got a hug from both President and Sister Hermansen.  Luckily, we will spend all of next week with President as we plan for the next transfer, but that's not the case for the rest of the missionaries.  This week he is traveling east to say goodbye to everyone out there.  Most of the missionaries were in tears as they got their hugs and said goodbye.  It's pretty crazy.

With my son, Elder Short!!

I feel like there is a common theme going on in my life...I have started and "opened" a lot of "new" things. Like back when our ward split in 2010…we stayed in the Goose Creek ward, but  we basically had to start from ground zero within the Young Men’s program. I felt like I kinda started that over, and was a part of the program as it grew to how it is now. Then I opened up a brand new high school (Tuscarora), and was part of the class that really "ruled" the school for 4 years. As part of the new school, I was on the football team and dressed for every Varsity game all 4 years. Now here I am on a mission and I feel like I am starting a new mission, with the new mission president coming. I know there will be lots of changes with the new president, because he won't know any of the previous missionaries that have served here. So once again, I feel like I am starting something new. I am not saying this to boast in myself, but it just seems to be a common theme. It is also not a bad thing, because it’s fun to be a part of something from the beginning and be a part of shaping who and what it becomes. It makes me wonder what other new things I will open or start in the future!

So this week, I have learned that Satan is real. He is all around us, and he is working HARD to stop the Lord's work. I can talk all day about small little examples of how Satan is trying hard to stop people from joining the church. And the fact that Satan is working so hard is just another testimony builder for me that this is the true Church of Christ. No other church faces as much opposition as this church, nor do the members of other churches face as much opposition as the members of our church, so it must be true.  

I got to see Juan and Laura again!

But despite all that, the work is moving forward here. We found 29 new investigators last week, it was crazy!! Most of them aren't necessarily golden, but we found a Filipino family last night that I am really excited about. We are planning to have at least 2 baptisms on June 27th, with one more up in the air.  We also had a great lesson with another couple.  We read a conference talk with them, and during the lesson, the wife started tearing up.  She broke down and was like, “This is exactly what I need. I have missed going to church, I need to start going again.”  So yesterday they came to Stake Conference and loved it. Which by the way, was a great conference!! We had Elder Corbridge, who is a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, as well as Elder Palmer, who is also in one of the Quorums of the Seventy. They gave great talks. Also, Troy, the one who was recently baptized, was asked to come up and share his testimony in front of everyone with NO NOTICE!!!! He was baptized THREE weeks ago, and Elder Corbridge just felt prompted to call him up. He gave a great testimony that was truly from the heart because he had NO preparation at all. I will send a picture of Troy next week, but man he is AWESOME!

Going on splits with one of the
priests from our ward

We are staying super busy – even with 4 of us in one area. The other night we had so many appointments that we went on a 4-way split…each one of us took one of the youth from the ward to go and see all the appointments. It is crazy how busy we are!!  When Elder Freeman and I take over the area, we are certainly going to have our hands full! But it’s good, I have never been so busy before!

We had the chance to go to the temple this past week and do a session, and it was wonderful!! It was a beautiful day, and it was a great experience. I am excited to be able to go more frequently when I get home, because each time I go I learn something new. I am also grateful for two parents who go to the temple, and who have set the example to me from day one of the importance of going to the temple.

Going to the temple!

Lately, our mission has been focusing on Chapter 1 of Preach My Gospel, which is titled "My Purpose". It has really been helpful, because we have been focusing on the "Why" behind all that we do. Obviously as missionaries, we have been focusing on the "Why" in our missionary work, but the same principle can apply to everyone. There is a reason behind all that we do, from brushing our teeth, to going to church regularly. We have been trying to help the other missionaries understand the purpose behind all that we do, because when people understand the "Why," the "What” and the "How" become irrelevant. A great example is why we attend church each week. Do we go just because the Lord wants to bore us to death for 3 hours a week? Or does he ask us to go because we need to renew our covenants with him, and learn and grow? To someone who doesn't understand the "why" of going to church, of course it seems unnecessary and weird. Its like when you pull up to a stoplight and the dude next to you is jamming out and dancing like an antic, if you can't hear their music then it looks ridiculous! But if you hear the music then it all makes sense. (I pulled that from the talk "Music of the Gospel" by Elder Wilford Anderson).

With my man, Verduzco!

For my scripture of the week, I want to use Alma 34:32…”For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the time for men to preform their labors.” In that scripture, Amulek tells us that our purpose for coming here to this life is to prepare to meet God! The "how" and the "what" of accomplishing that purpose includes things such as going to church, paying tithing, reading the scriptures, helping others, and so on. Truly if that is our purpose then we should be able to completely consecrate ourselves and give all we have to prepare to meet God, as well as help others to meet him as well! I know that as we do the basics, such as go to church, read the scriptures, pray, etc, then we will be prepared to meet God. I hope that I can be ready for whenever that day comes!

I love you guys!! Thanks for all that you do. Have a great week and Happy Summer!!!

Love,

Elder Todd

Week 38 - Praying in My Sleep (Literally!)

Breakfast with the four AP's

June 8, 2015

Hey everyone!!

How goes life? It sounds like life is great!! Also sounds like James is a stud at football, pulling in interceptions and touchdown passes, sounds like he will be WAYYY better than I ever was! (which isn't saying much haha). But I can't wait to come back and watch and even coach him, too!

But life here in downtown Sparks is great. The other three Elders and I are having a ton of fun, it will be sad when Twitchell and White leave. The work is going great. We are going to have quite a few baptisms here pretty quick in the next few transfers. We are all staying pretty busy. 

One of the things that I wanted to learn at the beginning of my mission was how to better listen and follow the promptings of the Spirit, and I think I am getting better. A quote that was mentioned at our MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) on Friday was, "A thought is a prompting until proven otherwise." So I really took that to heart, and have been trying to follow all of my thoughts and impressions. The other day Elder White and I left our apartment and we were going to go out and proselyte for an hour before lunch. We didn’t have any appointments, so we were just going to walk around and talk with people. Before we left the thought came to me, "Grab a Spanish pamphlet." But I ignored it, and sure enough, 45 minutes later we ran into a Spanish dude in a park who did not speak a lick of English. Of course, this was like a wake-up call for me because I wish I had that pamphlet! So I am learning the hard way, but I won’t let that happen again!!

We had MLC on Friday, which is always fun to see all of my friends. Most of my missionary friends are Zone Leaders, so it is always a party. President spent two hours showing and discussing with us a portion of the trainings that all the area seventies received in their annual General Authority training. It was 100% focused on How to Build Faith through Sabbath Day Observance at Church and at Home. The Twelve Apostles really feel that we need to focus on that, and so for the first time ever, that is all that they talked about. It was cool to watch portions of it, and discuss it. The Ward Council is going to now decide together on the agenda for Sacrament meeting, like who speaks and what they speak about, and the hymns and so forth, in order to make it a more spiritual experience for all who attend. It didn't necessarily apply directly to us as missionaries, but President told us that he wants us to understand this now so we can teach it to our own families when we have them one day. The world these days does not by any means keep the Sabbath Day holy. In fact, most "Saturday" chores are now done on Sundays, and church often gets put on the back burner. When we do not keep the Sabbath Day holy, we are really breaking another commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." So on that note, my scripture of the week is Isaiah 58: 13-14 "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” I know that as we turn to do the LORD's pleasure on the Sabbath day, and do things to uplift us and praise Him, that we will truly delight ourselves in the Lord, and he will bless us immensely. I know I really appreciated Sundays during football season, because it was the only day that we didn’t have practice…and I could actually rest!! 

Upstairs in my apartment

Last night at 3:48am I rolled out of bed, got on my knees and started praying at the top of my lungs. I woke up my three companions in the process. I was completely asleep, and don’t even recall the event, but I woke them up and as soon as I was done praying, I jumped back into bed and was out cold. Apparently my prayer was something like this: "DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER, THANK YOU FOR THIS DAY. PLEASE BLESS TROY, SEAN, AND MICHAEL. IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, AMEN. I woke up this morning and they were all like, " Bro why did you get up and yell a prayer in the middle of the night?" All my companions woke up and were like "What the heck is he doing?" And so they waited until my prayer was over but then when I dived back into bed they all busted out laughing because they realized I was sound asleep the whole time. I guess it is a sign that my mind is truly on my mission, because I was praying about my investigators, meanwhile at the same time one of my companions was dreaming about walking down the beach with his girlfriend (he admitted it!). I just found that to be really funny. 

Selfies with Isaac!

Troy, who I am sure you will hear more about, is a recent convert. He was baptized three weeks ago, and man – he has the strongest testimony I have ever seen from such a new convert. He is amazing. He is African-American, and he played college football for Mizzou. He is about 50 now, and his sons are playing college football. But he is SO solid. We had another African-American investigator at church named Larry, and it turns out they both went to the same church. So after church, Troy called up Larry and had a THREE AND A HALF HOUR long phone call about the church, and committed him to baptism. Troy then called us and told us to come over.  So Elders Twitchell and Freeman went over and had Larry on speaker phone, and Troy gave Larry the baptismal interview questions!!!! We all couldn't believe it. We are going over to Larry's tomorrow with Troy.  We have been working with Larry for a while, like over a year, but he came to church for the first time yesterday, and then Troy took over from there and did our job for us. When Troy called me and told me about it all, I couldn't believe it!!  We are so excited about Larry. 

We also had three more investigators at church yesterday, Troy's wife, and Michael, and Jessie. Michael is awesome. He has been meeting with the missionaries for over a year as well, and the past two weeks have been his first at church, and that has been his biggest hang-up. So we are hoping that his dam has broken, and we can get him baptized shortly here, too. Jessie is a 12-year old who lives next to our bishop.  He and his Grandma are both investigating the church.  Jessie is going to be baptized on June 27th, but his Grandma isn't quite ready. It is hard for me to get to know all of the people we are working with, because there are 4 of us – so we have to take turns going to each of them.  We all want to go to the progressing ones, so that is the struggle too. But as long as they all progress, it is all good!

Exchanges with Elders Moore and Krey.
I love those guys!!

I got to go back to Cold Springs for a day to be on exchanges with Elders Moore and Krey, and it was so much fun!!! We had lunch with the people with the really messy house, and it was clean!!! I know a lot of people in that area, so it was fun to show them a few people they haven't met yet. They are both a riot, and had me laughing the whole day.

Well, that is all for today!! I love you guys!!! The church is true!!!

Love,

Elder Richman Dawg

Week 37 - Back in Sparks

Saying goodbye to Elder Guttierez

June 1, 2015

Howdy everyone!!!

Our tiny cottage

This week has been great. I am so lucky to spend an entire transfer in a Quad with the 3 best missionaries in the mission. We have a ton of fun together, and I have learned SO much from being with them. Each day I go out with a different one of my companions, either Elder Twitchell, Elder White, or Elder Freeman. Elders Twitchell and White both go home this transfer, so Elder Freeman and I are trying to learn as much as we can while they are here.... and we go and see tons of people. I am serving in the Prater Ward, and the ward is basically Downtown Sparks – it covers Prater Way and the surrounding area, so it is like a long strip. But it is great. The work is literally exploding, and we are super busy, even though there are 4 of us, so two companionships. They have had 11 baptisms already this year, and the ward had a goal set in January for 10....so we changed it to 20. The area hasn't always been the Assistants’ area, it just became the AP's area in January. But the ward is great, we already have a full dinner calender for June and that has never happened before. I am super excited to be here. It is fun to be in a hustle-and-bustle place, too, because Cold Springs was a LOT quieter. We actually live in the ghetto of Sparks, and we had our neighbor's car get lit on fire and heard gun shots the other night...crazy stuff. But no worries, the Lord will protect us.

Saying goodbye to Elder Rivera...
my first companion, my trainer, and my "Dad!"

So Tuesday was transfer day, and we spent all day at the mission office. It was actually a calm day, because the missionaries going home had their departing missionary temple trip a few weeks ago because the temple has been closed the past two weeks for renovations. So all we had to worry about in the morning was picking up the new missionaries and setting up the rooms for the evening. We then got to ride over in the van and pick up the new missionaries as they got off the plane. There were only 5 of them, so SUPER small group. Next transfer we already have 17 scheduled to come, so it will be a different story. But we took them back and had lunch with them, and then they had orientation meetings all day. By that time we have the new Trainers arriving, and we train them on how to train the new missionaries. Then the transfer meeting starts and all the missionaries arrive, which is always a lot of fun. Then everyone leaves and we clean up, and we have dinner with the departing missionaries, which was especially fun because Elders Gutierrez, Dalton, and RIVERA all went home last week :(  Three of my closest friends, but oh well, that's missionary life. But it was a fun day. The next morning we had to update everyone's phones, with the new contacts and stuff, and that took a while. We only update the office missionaries’ phones, and President and Sister Hermansens’ phones, along with our own. But we had to change all the contacts because everyone has a new area and a new address so that took a while. But aside from that, it has been quite a normal week. Our stats have been off the charts because there are basically 2 companionships reporting in a one-companionship area. So we had like 60 lessons this past week.

The other day, Elder Twitchell and I were going to an appointment in an apartment complex, and we had our Bishop with us. We were walking down the hall and this woman opened her door RIGHT as we walked by, because she was taking out her trash. We scared her by accident, and said sorry, but kept on walking. We got about 20 yards down the hall, when she called out to us and asked, "What church are you guys from?" We responded, "well the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!" And she said, "Oh yes – I know, but which one?" We explained and it turns out that she is a member, and has been less active for 10 years. She is 27 now, and is going through a dark time in her life, and is quite lonely. We set up a return appointment and everything, and she was super receptive to us. But that experience confirmed to me that The Lord is leading this work, because it is His. It is not at all a coincidence that she opened her door right as we were directly in front of it. 3 seconds difference, and she probably would've paid no attention to us. I am grateful for experiences like that to remind me that this is HIS work, not Elder Todd's work. 

As we were walking out of the apartment complex, we ran into a man, and we started talking to him, and he immediately said, "No hablo engles..." and so I said, "Esta bien, yo hablo Espanol!" And then his face went white, and he said, "Oh you caught me!! I don't actually speak any Spanish, I was just trying to avoid you guys!" Hahaha and so we thought that was funny, but we talked to him for a little while and he turned out to be a nice guy. Not super interested in the church, but a nice guy. You never know when it will be handy to know a little Espanol!!

I had another cool experience after church yesterday, Elder White and I were carrying a couch from the church building back to the mission office because we borrowed it for our 5th Sunday lesson.  We were standing outside the office waiting for Elder Twitchell to bring the keys over, and this dude walked by…he had tattoos all over him and was walking his dog. Elder White just said "Hello" from a distance as we held the couch, and the man stopped walking, and turned around and started walking towards us. This NEVER happens so we dropped the couch, and started walking towards him. He then explained to us that he was homeless as of yesterday, and all he had was his dog and a few extra dollars. We found out that he was 28, and the YSA ward was about to start in 20 minutes, so we invited him to church, and he told us, "Well, can I bring my dog?" And we were like as long as he's well behaved, then sure! So we introduced him to the YSA Elders, and I texted them last night and said that he is SUPER solid, and they have a lesson set up with him tonight. It was yet another experience for me that strengthened my testimony that the Lord is preparing people. Because if that guy had only said hello back, and then kept walking, we wouldn't have gone up to him, because we were busy and had a couch in our hands, but The Lord whispered to him to come up to us, and who knows where it will go from here. But I also feel like the Lord was telling me through both of these experiences that I need to talk to everyone in my path. And I mean EVERYone. Because we never know who’s ready. 

With Elder VanLeeuwen - a missionary who went
home this transfer.  He was in my zone and was
obsessed with Star Wars!!  Loved it.

Well that's about all the news for this week! I am loving life back here in Sparks. I’m going to the temple next Friday with Juan and Laura, and I am SUPER excited for that, and to see them again. It has been super hot this past week, the car once told us it was 101, but unlike the rest of you – there is NO HUMIDITY!!!! Three cheers for that!!! But this week it is supposed to cool down, so things should be better. 

I want to start leaving you all with a scripture of the week, and today in my personal study I read the talk "Stay by the Tree" by Elder Pearson. Great talk, and I like how he says TWICE that we need to 'Study the Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day!' That's how he puts it. And President Hermansen mentioned to us the other day that the 3 things he tells missionaries to do as they are going home is 1) Have heartfelt prayer twice a day, 2) Regular temple attendance, and 3) study the scriptures EVERY DAY.

So it has been on my mind a lot, that even active members need to be studying the scriptures everyday. And so the scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 32:3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. I know that as we treasure up the scriptures DAILY and feast upon them, the devil will have no power over us and we will grow closer to our God and our Savior. I am so grateful to have a full hour, uninterrupted every day to do that, and I have already made it my goal to keep that studying going after my mission, because Satan is going to only try harder to get me to sway or to doubt after my mission.

Have a great week, everyone!! I love and miss you all!!

Elder Todd