Week 56 - Another Week in Paradise

October 12, 2015

Hey everyone!!

First of all, Happy Birthday to James today!!! I can't believe that he is turning 9 years old...that is so crazy!! I feel like just yesterday we were at the hospital and brought him home...I remember walking through the halls of Seldens Landing and telling my friends that I had a new brother named "James." Little did I know at the time that he would be a total athlete and be way better at sports than I will ever be. I love you James!!

At the temple with my homies
from the Sparks Zone

So this week was the first week that we haven't had any meetings or anything...and it was lots of fun!! It was definitely a harder/slower week, we had lots of appointments fall through, and we are trying to find new investigators to teach and add to our teaching pool. Because we haven't had a lot of time to just focus on proselyting, many of our people have fizzled away and aren’t interested anymore. But that didn't stop us! We spent lots of time just hitting the pavement, and even doing a little tracting...a.k.a. good ole fashioned missionary work!! 

But despite all of the long afternoons, we have seen many miracles. The other day, someone bought us lunch while we were in line...she was just a college student at BYU-I and was driving through town, and while we were in line she came up and paid for us!  We love when that happens!! We also were able to attend the temple with the Sparks Zone, and that is always a total blast, to go with all of our friends. We filled up the little room in the temple, though, there was not an empty seat in the house for our session! I love going to the temple, I am excited to go with the family again when I get home!

Exchanges with Elder Kidman

One of the highlights of the week was that I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Kidman in the Reno zone. They serve in Spanish in downtown Reno. We had a total blast!! There is a Spanish branch in Reno, and they cover a portion of that. I absolutely love serving in Spanish. We had a funny/crazy day with lots of memories. There is a member of the branch there who has a really cool conversion story that I want to share:

This member's son was about 16 and in high school, and had a friend who was a member of the church. The friend invited the son to come to church, and he loved it. He began to take the missionary lessons and wanted to be baptized. He had to ask his mother for permission, of course, (because he was under 18) and she told him no because at the time she was a devout Catholic and loved her bible and wanted nothing to do with the Mormons. He freaked out of course, but didn't give up hope. He started doing worse in school on purpose, and brought home his report card one day and his mother saw his grades and got upset. He told his mother that he would start doing better in school and bring his grades back up once he was allowed to be baptized. So she finally caved and signed the paper and he was baptized.

With Elder Freeman at the temple

Three years later he wanted to serve a mission. His mother told him no, so the son decided to move to California and live with his Sister, and go to school in California. Three months later, the mother went to California to see her son and daughter, but she found out that her son was no longer in California. She asked her daughter where her son was, and her daughter explained that he had gone on a mission without telling her! She was furious, and refused to speak to her son. A few months later the mother had a dream in which she saw her grandmother (who had passed away many years before) dressed in white coming to her and asking her for something. The mother wasn't sure what was meant from the dream, and so she decided to turn to her bible for the answer. She opened up the bible at random and the first verse she read was 1 Corinthians 15:29, which reads:

"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?"

She then put two and two together, and decided that her grandmother (who was dead) was asking to be baptized. She took this verse from the bible to her catholic priest and asked what it meant. The Priest didn't know, and told her that baptizing the dead was a foolish idea. So she took that verse to another catholic church and got the same response. She then took the verse to many other churches, all of which didn't have an answer. She finally decided to write to her son on a mission and ask him what he thought of the matter. He of course, explained what that verse meant, and that she could be baptized for her grandmother in the dream. The Mother was floored, and began meeting with the missionaries and was baptized a few weeks later. Crazy cool story, huh?! I love that story so much!! 

Anyways, I heard that story while we were on exchanges, and I just can't get it out of my head. But Elder Kidman and I had a really funny/scary experience the night before. When we go on exchanges, we usually begin the night before, and we start our exchange off by planning for the next day together, and who we will see and what we will teach. Elder Kidman and I were sitting in his car while we planned, and while we were sitting in the car outside of their apartment, an investigator of the English elders walked by with her dog. They had spoken with her before, so even though it was late at night we got out and spoke with her. She had her dog on one of those leashes that can extend and retract as the person would like. We were standing there talking to her, and her dog suddenly took off after a black cat. The leash allowed for the dog to take off, while the rope extended....but we all know that all good things must come to an end....so eventually the leash ran out of excess cord, and before any of us could do anything, and before the woman could figure out what was going on, the dog yanked the woman into the air and into a nearby ditch, where she landed face first!! Elder Kidman and I were just shocked at what had happened, and so he ran after the dog, and I jumped into the ditch and asked if she was ok...when I got a grass-muffled response, 'Yes" and she was able to slowly help herself up. Mean while Elder Kidman had come back without the dog, because we didn't want to separate ourselves, and we decided that the lady was more important than the dog. Once we got her on her feet, then we ran off after the dog and tracked that down...the dog's name was Bowser...is that fitting or what?? But anyways, crazy, huh?! She finally was able to head home under her own power. After she left we just busted out laughing, because it wasn't a laughing matter in front of her, but it was an event right out of a comic book!! I will certainly never forget that haha.

Elder Rivera came back to visit!

Elder Rivera came and visited yesterday and today!! He called me randomly on Saturday and asked where I would be, and he met us at the church yesterday. It was so good to see him!! He is doing well. We have emailed back and forth a little bit, but he is at Salt Lake Community College right now. And he brought with him back to visit his girlfriend...who is another sister from our mission, Sister Simmons!! Sister Simmons went home in August, just a few months ago. It was so weird to see both of them, especially holding hands and stuff!! It's also weird because just one year ago we had gotten together and I had just entered the mission field. Crazy stuff!!!

I don't know why this has been on my mind so much, and Mom will be excited to hear this, but I am really excited to come home and play the cello again!! And also pick up the guitar again. And though I will be WAY behind all of my siblings, they can show me the ropes and we can have some Todd Family jam sessions. 

Well, we are excited to have another week to work. We are hoping that as we continue to be diligent that the miracles and fruits will come. I know it will. We had to push Lavanda's baptism back a week...because the building with the baptism font is booked all day!!! So we decided to wait a week. Kind of a bummer, but nobody is in any rush. Teresa is actually not moving, so we are still going to work with her...and her boyfriend is going to move out instead, so maybe we will be able to baptize her! And Jackie is doing well. She is very anxious about coming to church and being judged...she has a lot of tattoos and is nervous about what people will think at church. So we are going to take a few ward members who have tattoos of their own to hopefully ease that stress that it causes her. We are excited for her though!!

The Book of Mormon is true, and we have a prophet on the earth today. Because of those two things, there is nothing to ever worry about, as long as we follow the counsel that both of them give us. I am grateful for both of them.

That is about all for today, but I love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Todd 

Week 55 - General Conference and Transfers!

With my "Son" Elder Short - who I trained,
and my "Grandson" - who Elder Short trained!

October 5, 2015

Hello everyone!!

What a great weekend we had!! It was so cool to watch live the experience of sustaining THREE new apostles of the Lord. Certainly not a thing that happens often. That is so cool that dad was Elder Renlund's assistant executive secretary! And Elder Stevenson is WAY young...he still has a son on a mission!! That is very cool.

I thought all of the talks given were fantastic. I really enjoyed Elder Nelson's talk on women, and Elder Lawrence talk on the Holy Ghost. And Elder Durrant's talk on “ponderizing” was awesome as well! I had a hunch that you guys would jump on that and choose a ponderize scripture of the week...and I am going to join you in whatever scripture you choose! So please let me know what the ponderizing scripture of the week so I can be part of it also. I am so grateful that we have a prophet who leads and guides this church and who is so valiant...he was definitely deteriorating as the talk went on, but he still delivered a great message…keep the commandments! I certainly missed going to priesthood meeting with Dad and Nathan.  Priesthood on the west coast is from 5-7 so it feels a lot different; we get out and still have an evening to proselyte. I am looking forward to attending priesthood with Dad and Nathan again…it is always so much fun to be there with all those guys dressed in white shirts and ties. The church is true; there is no doubt about that.

Welcoming the new missionaries at the airport

Transfers went very smoothly this past week, probably the smoothest they have ever gone. We said goodbye to 9 missionaries, and welcomed 20 into the mission. It was a crazy day, as usual, and my back hurt (as usual) from moving all the luggage, but it was a total blast...as usual. Elder Short is training a new missionary, which means I have a Grandson!!! Haha I attached a picture of my posterity...my father is dead, so its only Elder Short, Elder Labrum, and I left in the family tree. But the posterity tie is still in the mission, so no worries.

On Wednesday, we spent most of the day running around the area dropping off miscellaneous supplies and things needed from the missionaries who transferred...like one set of Elders moved into Sisters’ area, and they called and asked us to bring them 2 desks.  We wondered what the last Sisters had studied on, and we found out that they had been studying on the floor for like the past 4 months! 

On Friday, we had our monthly MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) meeting, which was a total blast, as usual.  I find it quite hard to prepare trainings to give at these meetings, because we have a group of the best missionaries in the mission...and we have to somehow make them better! So it definitely provides me with the opportunity to improve myself, as I prepare to train the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders. I often wish they could train me, which they often do, but we ALWAYS train at MLC, and I wish I could just sit back and learn from them. But oh well, they are always so much fun.

The GREENIES!! (New missionaries)

One of the trainings we received at MLC was from President Perry, who is in the mission presidency. He trained on “loyalty,” and it was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. In our white missionary handbook there is a line that says, "your loyalty is first to the Lord, then to the Mission President, then to other missionaries (including your companion). He talked about that, and what loyalty means, but he also talked about how our loyalty ALWAYS needs to first be to the Lord. Before our family, our friends, or anything else. If He comes first and we are loyal to Him before anyone and anything, then we will be okay. If we are loyal to our companion before the Lord, then that certainly provides room for disaster. The same is true within a family...can you imagine if spouses were loyal to their kids before they are loyal to their spouse? Total disaster! There are many examples of that today in the world. I know that as we put the Lord first in everything we do, things will workout. He will guide our paths in such a way that we will never go wrong. There will still be trials and many hard things in life, but we will be able to eventually overcome those...even if it means waiting until the next life.

I know for me I will always have the Lord at the top of my Loyalty Hierarchy. There is no other way to go. There are TONS of examples in the scriptures of people being loyal to the Lord first. Take Captain Moroni for example, when he is battling the Lamanites. The Lord tells him that he will bless Moroni and his armies as long as they are only fighting to defend themselves. If they start to attack and kill more than is necessary, then the Lord will take away his help. Moroni has Zarahemnah and his people at his mercy in Alma 44. He has them surrounded, and could have easily just killed them and ended the conflict. But doing so, he would give up the Lord's blessing, so instead he put them under a covenant of peace. There are boatloads of other examples of people in the scriptures being loyal to the Lord before anything or anyone else. And there are also examples of people not putting the Lord first...take Laman and Lemuel for example. I am very grateful for the training we received at MLC.

On the missionary work side of things, we have some sad news...Teresa is moving! She is moving into Reno, which we are sad about because we have spent so much time with her and working with her to try and help her progress, but we know that is truly an answer to our prayers because she is moving in with a girlfriend, and will be able to live the law of chastity.  And the people she will be living with do not smoke, so she won't have such a strong temptation anymore. She even admitted it herself, that she will be baptized MUCH sooner once she moves. She is supposed to move this week, so we will have one last pass-off lesson with her, and then let the other Elders in Reno take over. 

Lavanda is doing well. She attended at least 3 sessions of general conference, and listened intently to the messages. We moved her baptism day for October 17th, and she is set on making that day. There seems to be nothing that would hold her back at this point. 

We have begun teaching a new investigator, Jackie. Jackie doesn't come across as someone who is interested in the church at first glance...she is covered in tattoos and drives a motorcycle. But she is very sweet lady. She is probably about 50 or 60, and we originally found her because we had a referral for her grandson. She lives with 5 of her grandsons, ages 18 to 7. We have to really meet them, but we first stopped by and she said that she wasn't interested but that we could come and teach her grandsons, because they needed God in their life. Then we left for zone conferences and got super busy and went about a month without seeing them and we finally stopped by and she said, "I was wondering what happened to you guys! Can you come over sometime when the grandsons aren't home so I can focus on your message?" Her heart had TOTALLY changed. We left her with a pamphlet about the restoration of the gospel and came back the next day with President Chesnut and taught her the Restoration. She loved every bit of it and said, "Wow, you Mormons aren't as bad as everyone makes you out to be! I want to go around and tell everyone that the common conception of Mormons is wrong!" She loved President Chesnut, too haha, and at the end of the lesson asked about baptism and said, "I need to be baptized, my Mom always told me that baptism was very important, but I still need to do it." We gave her a church tour a few days ago, and she loved that, too. We are going over to her house in a few hours to teach her more and we are pumped. I will keep you posted on her progress.

That's all for this week. I am excited to have my first full week of proselyting since about 6 weeks ago!! I know that this is the Lord's kingdom, and His work. I know that anyone who tries it out and follows the Savior's example and accepts his invitation to be baptized by proper Priesthood authority will be blessed. I know it.

I love you guys!! Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Richman Dawg 

P.S. I have located a ZPizza here in Reno...!!! One of these days I am going to have to try it out and see if it’s as good as I remember. 

Week 54 - Transfers Here We Go!

September 28, 2015

Hey guys!!

It sounds like you took care of the snakes, but you’ve moved onto the other critters living in the BBQ.  Dad was right in his letter to me that we should just open our own Zoo in the backyard! We have it all. And Nathan's growing so tall he can step in for the giraffes – haha.

Making transfer calls in the office

So another week of transfer planning in the books! We spent all of last week in the office planning for this next 6 weeks. I can't believe it's already that time again, time is FLYING. It’s crazy…but also exciting! I love transfers; it is always lots of fun. We started out planning by fasting on Tuesday, and our fasting certainly helped because like right off the bat we were able to figure everything out and have all the areas/companionships/cars figured out. But then one of our visa waiters got their visa on Thursday...so we went back to the board and made a bunch of changes. We finalized all the plans and did our final review with President on Friday afternoon, and it seemed like things were ready to rock and roll, until President called us Saturday night and said “Elders I'm not feeling too comfortable with a companionship we have together.  We need to make some changes…lets meet tomorrow at my office after church.” So yesterday we spent a few more hours in the office deciding how best to place the missionaries we have. But we FINALLY got it all figured out just in time to send everything out to the Zone Leaders last night. 

It is an interesting process to plan for the transfer, and there are lots of things to consider. But I've learned that the Lord ALWAYS provides. There have been a few times where we have like one or two missionaries to place, and we are just stumped! But then we pray and the Lord helps us figure out what is the best possible situation. And of course, we couldn’t' do it with out our inspired President, President Chesnut! He is hilarious. As we work with him more and more and get to know each other better, I can see his true personality come out, it is great. He is a ton of fun to work with. 

With Dan...this guy is hilarious!

This week we were at the home of a person who recently joined the church, (his name is Dan), and we were teaching him about the temple, because he has almost been a member a year, and this next month he is going to be able to go through the temple for the first time. But he is a really funny character, and he just randomly in the middle of our lesson said, "Man, I just can't wait for the resurrection. But if you think you've waited in a long line at Wal-mart before...you're in for a surprise!" Haha we got a good laugh out of that. 

Selfie with Isaac

We also had a really funny dinner with an older couple in our ward...they are pretty old and they were just forgetting everything! They couldn't find the rolls that the wife had prepared for us, and her husband found them still in the freezer, frozen solid in a plastic bag! So he stuck them in the microwave in the bag and we had plastic-flavored rolls for dinner...hopefully no serious diseases come from that haha!! And then as we were leaving she gave us a bag of cookies and said, "Here are some cookies that I made just a few days ago!" and Elder Freeman asked, "What kind of cookies are they?" and she said, "I think Chocolate chip!" I opened the bag and took one whiff and realized they were peanut butter, and there was no chocolate in them....and then I said, "I think they are peanut butter!" And her response: "Well maybe, your guess is as good as mine!" We got a kick out of that, too. I love old people, I am just glad that I still have a few years before that is me...!

One thought that has been on my mind the past few weeks comes from the Stake President of the Ely Nevada stake. He attended a portion of our Zone Conference in Ely, and he spoke briefly on the concept of sacrifice. And he made an interesting point that I had never thought of...that everything we do in life we sacrifice.  When we make a bad choice, we sacrifice the blessings that would've come if we hadn't have chosen it. Take the Word of Wisdom for example...if we choose to smoke cigarettes, we are sacrificing our healthy body. The reverse is true, too, when we make a good choice, we have to sacrifice something. Like studying the scriptures regularly....we give up a little bit of our time, but we make that sacrifice because it is worth it, and we know that the blessings that come from regular scripture study FAR out-weigh the things we could get done in the short amount of time. One thing I have learned on my mission is that the "Why" behind the things we do is so important. If we invite someone to come to church, but don't explain WHY it is so important, then they are never going to want to come and get out of bed early and sit in a church for 3 hours. But when we explain the blessings we get in return, anyone is crazy for NOT going to church.

The Lord has promised us that he WILL bless us when we do as he asks...

"I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." - D&C 82:10.

So the decision weighs on us...are we willing to sacrifice the little bit of time in order to receive a huge mountain of blessings? Or are we going to sacrifice the blessings just to get our little bit of time back?  If we "might" go to church, or we “might” pay our tithing, or we "might" keep the commandments, then we "might" receive a blessing. But if we WILL go to church, and we WILL pay our tithing, and we WILL keep the commandments, then we WILL receive a blessing. I know for me and my future family, if we will keep the commandments, and we will be obedient to everything, then I know for a fact that we WILL be blessed...that is the only way to go!  

I have attached two maps of our mission that I think are pretty cool. One shows our mission and is broken down by wards and stakes; the other is just a big overview of our western area. We have one of the biggest missions in the US land-wise...I think it is the 5th biggest as of now. Of course, most of our mission is nothing but sagebrush, but oh well, it's still the best mission in the world!

Well, that's about it until next week. I am excited for transfer day tomorrow, it is always an action-packed day that is lots of fun. Being a missionary is the best calling ever! I am grateful for the time I have.

I love you guys! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Todd 

Week 53 - One Year Down...One to Go!

September 21, 2015

Hello!!

Howdy from Sparks! I hope that all is well back in Virginia, and that all snakes living in our garage have been exterminated for good!  That sure makes for some serious excitement!! Haha but things are great here in Nevada! We finished up our last 4 zone conferences this past week, with Winnemucca, Reno, Sparks, and Reno North, and they were fantastic!! 

First, I just want to give a shout-out to my awesome father, who just had a birthday yesterday!! Happy Birthday, Dad!!! I am very grateful for all that you have done for me and for the great example that you have given me of how to be a great father and a worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holder. I love you Dad!

Also, thanks for the fun one-year package!! I always love a big old box of junk food. Now I’m on the downhill of my mission.  But Elder Freeman told me that everyone runs faster downhill than they do uphill...which stinks because my first year went by super fast and I don’t want it to be over! :(

Sister Chestnut reading the story
about her nephew

I want to talk a little bit more about zone conferences, and what we do at each conference. We have been talking a lot about the Savior, Jesus Christ, with particular focus on Chapter 6 of “Preach My Gospel,” as well as the Atonement in general.  Each Zone Conference is about the same format, but the discussions ended up being completely different. Elder and Sister Zappe (one of the office couples) traveled with us and gave presentations on the mission cars and staying healthy, and they gave the same presentation every time. As part of Elder Zappe's training, he included a hilarious video of Elder Krey beat boxing and singing.  I want to get a copy of it and send it to you guys…maybe next week.

After the Zappe’s part, we had the Zone Leaders train for about 30-45 minutes on the "Attribute Activity" from Chapter 6 of PMG. Then Sister Chesnut read a story about her nephew that was really powerful. The story she read is on jukelohnson.blogspot.com and I recommend that you guys read it.  It is great. (Sister Chesnut's nephew is Kade Winkel in the story.)

Playing 9-Square

After Sister Chesnut’s story, we would go and play 9-sqaure, which is this really fun game that President brought from home.  We took the game to every zone conference and played with all the missionaries. There are pictures on nevadarenomission.com of us playing it.  I think that was a highlight for most of the missionaries. We then ate lunch, provided by the Stake Relief Society from each Zone (which was incredible each conference!) 

Singing at Zone Conference

After lunch, we would go back into the classroom, and President Chesnut would choose 2 or 3 missionaries to give short talks.  (All the missionaries were told beforehand to have a 5-minute talk prepared on one of the Christ-like attributes from Chapter 6.) Then Elder Freeman and I took about an hour and talked about the Atonement…we talked about what the atonement is, how we can apply it in our lives, and how we can help our investigators and others that we work with apply it in their lives as well. Then we would watch the "Because of Him" video from last Easter.

After our part was finished, President Chesnut would speak briefly on the Atonement, which was always super powerful.  And then we finished off each meeting with a testimony meeting, which is easily my favorite part. The Spirit was always so strong! 

Elder Freeman and I giving our presentation 

To give you a little more details about the specifics of the presentation that Elder Freeman and I did every time….we started each training by having one of the missionaries come up to the front and hold a small glass of water out with his or her arm straight. We would all agree that the glass wasn't very heavy, and then we would have someone hold it for like 5-10 minutes, (or until they would start shaking) and then take it away from them. We used this as an object lesson that too often in our lives we hang onto things that we just need to completely hand over to the Lord. Things like past transgressions that we haven't repented of, depression, overcoming the loss of a loved one, homesickness, physical sickness, anything and everything that causes us pain we need to turn over to the Lord. The big theme was Matthew 11:28-30, which is my favorite scripture about the atonement: 

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 

I love this scripture because it is so true. As we take every burden that we carry to the Lord, our burdens will be lightened. I will be forever grateful for the chance that I had to give this training NINE times, because each time the Holy Ghost bore witness to me that Christ lives, and that His Atonement is real. I have no doubt that out of all the missionaries that we trained, it was MY testimony that grew the most. For this I am so grateful. Each conference was wonderful.  We truly have the best missionaries in the world! As a missionary, we get to see a small glimpse of the Savior's love for all of his children, and I certainly know that he loves his missionaries, there is no doubt about that.

Elder Freeman and I with President Chestnut

I have loved spending lots of time with President Chesnut.  He is awesome!! We actually took him to a lesson this morning and he loved it, and so did we! It was a great lesson with a new investigator...she asked us if she could be baptized!!!  We are really excited about her.  Her name is Jackie, so please keep her in your prayers!  But President Chesnut is a great example to me of being obedient and doing whatever the Lord asks. We have 21 new missionaries coming to the mission in next week, and I remember last time we were planning transfers, we got a new missionary assigned to our mission almost every day...and each time Sister Bell, the office secretary, came in and told us, "One more for September!” – we couldn't believe it!  But never once has he complained, or anything, he just goes and does. He knows that being a mission president means spending 110% of his time dedicated to missionaries, and that is exactly what he does. I love it. He just says, "Well, I guess that means that one more ward will be blessed with their own set of missionaries!" He is great at looking for the positive in everything. He is truly a man called of God. I love him so much.

Grace asked me in a recent letter what my favorite memory of my mission has been thus far...and to be honest, that is SO hard. But I think it's a great question, so I'm going to answer it: I think my favorite memory has been working with Juan and Laura. It was so cool to be a part of their whole conversion...from the day we knocked on their door, to the day they were baptized. They hold a special place in my heart, and I love them so much!

Exchanges with Elder Cox in Cold Springs!

I got to go on exchanges in Cold Springs again on Saturday, but this time I was with Elder Cox, and Elder Krey came to sparks with Elder Freeman....and I love Cold Springs!! I really do. It is a great area, with great people in it. It is funny how smells bring back memories, because the second I stepped out of the car in Cold Springs valley and smelled the sagebrush and other things it brought back instant memories. Elder Cox is a stud, too! 

This week we start transfer planning...so in other words time, we’ll be spending lots of time at the office!! But I actually love this part of being an assistant; it is cool to see the Lord's hand in everything. So please pray that our minds will be inspired to know who we need to move and who needs to train a new missionary, and what areas to open, because we will need all the help we can get!!

I love you guys, I really do. I couldn't do it with out you guys!! I have the best family this planet has ever seen!!

His Church is true.

Love,

Elder Todd