Photos in Sparks

We put the zombie dude in front of the elders door & put the creepy doll in front of the YSA Sisters door, funniest thing ever

pulling a Zombie dude up a hill

We found this tumbleweed

We put this Zombie Doll in front of Elder's Door

Adventures in 7/11

We found an Ice Cream Truck

Trunk or Treat with Wreck it Ralph and Vanellope

November 4th, 2013

We are trying really hard to set another date with Rylie. We had a lesson with her last night. The spirit was definitely present. We retaught her the Plan of Salvation & she says she knows it's true. Hopefully she will pick a date, & one that is before I leave but we'll see. Shawn didn't go to church this week so we have to push his date back again. Hopefully he comes this next week. We'll keep working on him though. We saw soo many people this week, which was exciting. We are asking everyone for referrals & always trying to find. It turned out well for us this week. We met some really cool people, & taught the most lessons this area has seen in years. Hopefully the work continues to progress. I'm really starting to love the area & the people we are working with. The strength some of these people have is amazing. We have been working with a 24 year old girl named Kayla since last transfer. She got pregnant at 18 with her daughter Lily & fell away from the church. She has recently started coming back with her daughter & is now trying to get her family to come back. Her & her daughter are such pioneers in their family. To see her come back after the way she was treated is amazing. I truly hope to have her as a friend even after my mission. That's only one example of the many people we meet with. It truly strengthens my faith to see them progress like that. Other than that just normal stuff going on, just trying to work hard & convert. 

I cannot believe it is already November. In about a week it will be a year since I got my call to Brazil. When I got my call I never imagined that I would be in Sparks Nevada a year later. Crazy how things turn out. Heavenly Father really does have a plan for each and every one of us, and I am so grateful for the way my life has played out. I'm even more grateful for my mission and the opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to serve here in the Nevada Reno Mission.

October 28th, 2013

Well I've recently realized that I struggle with faith. Faith is probably one of the hardest things for me, but I've been studying about it a lot and trying to practice it. I realized a couple of weeks ago some new things about Faith that I didn't realize before. For example if you pay your tithing a lot of people think that they will always have enough money, that can be true. But it's not about having Faith that you will always have money when you pay your tithing, it's about having Faith in Heavenly Father that if you are obedient & do what he asks of you that he will do with you what he thinks is best. So it's having Faith that everything will work out the way it needs to be. & that has really helped me a lot lately. Understanding that Heavenly Father hasn't let me down yet, so I'm pretty sure that means he never will I just have to let go of the fear. All in all this past week has been way good. We have been working on always finding when we are out. So that means talking to everyone we see or meet & asking everyone for referrals. It has gone so well. We were leaving a members house and this elderly man was washing his four wheeler. We stopped and talked to him, & he was super nice, His name is Bob & he is retired living at home with his wife. Members live next door to him, they have obviously set such a good example because as the conversation died down I asked him if he was interested in learning about our gospel, and he said yes & that we could come back next weekend & teach him and his wife. We were definitely excited about it & look forward to seeing him again. We got a referral for someone named Cassie last week from Mormon.org. Apparently they wanted a Book of Mormon, so we spent all of last week trying to contact them at all different times of the day with no luck. This week we were walking past their house, and there was a car in their drive way. We got way excited & knocked on their door. A man opened the door, and we asked for Cassie. He said that he had moved. We chatted with him for a while, and finally I got up the courage to tell him that Cassie had requested a Book of Mormon and so we were here to drop it off and teach him about the gospel, I then asked if he would be interested in learning about the gospel. He said definitely, and invited us in. We taught him and his girlfriend about the Plan of Salvation and part of the Restoration. It was awesome. We gave both of them a Book of Mormon, and committed them to reading it. They both go to that Burning Man event around here, so they are way into incense and learning about spiritual guides. That also means they are way into drugs and other things that come along with that. I'm hoping that they will still be interested when we visit this week, and that they will eventually convert. They gave us incense to take home so that was cool too:) Anyways, things are really going well & it makes me happy to see the work here progress. We are trying to be exactly obedient which is allowing us to see miracles. Both my companions, Sister Catlett & Sister Arnold, are from North Carolina so we are just having a southern blast around here. Haha. We are going to try to set Rylee with a baptismal date again this week, so wish us luck.

October 7th, 2013

Things are going well here, we set Riley with a date! She gets baptized on the 12th. Hopefully she goes through with it, she's having a hard time right now. Satan is working really hard on her you can tell he really doesn't want her to take this step. Everything will work out though, she is an awesome girl. General conference was amazing, everything they talked about applied to someone in our area. We have a less active member who is considering leaving the church over the whole polygamy thing. She has been struggling with it for a while, and we've been trying to help. Uchtdorf's talk was seriously for her, no doubt in my mind. We also have a less active member we've been working with who has been struggling with depression recently. She has had such a hard time, and life seems to just keeping throwing things at her. When Holland gave his talked, we were sooo happy. Conference talks are never about that subject, but she needed to hear it. So again I swear he gave that talk for her. I loved all the talks though, they were so inspired and gave great advice. It shows how aware Heavenly Father is of each of us. I have such a strong testimony that President Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet and that he as well as all the apostles are called of God & I am so grateful for the opportunity to listen to them give us guidance every six months. 

Collin's Baptism

Progress in Sparks

Sep. 9th

Things are going well here, I am really starting to like the area & I am enjoying my companions. I was really stressed coming in because both my companions have been out less than half the time I have (combined), & they were both double transferred into this area so I was worried about how the work would be. They have done really well though. I'm grateful to have been transferred in, because I think I can really help & show them some things. They both are great missionaries though and truly do have a love for this gospel so I am confident that things will continue to progress and go well. The ward is so awesome. The bishop is seriously the best bishop I have ever had & has one of the strongest testimonies. I'm excited for the work to progress here.

Sep 16^th

All in all things are going pretty well here. I'm definitely enjoying the area, & feel good about the transfer. We have been working hard trying to pick the area up, and this week we got a ton of lessons. The most my companions have ever seen. Which was awesome. We have a baptism this weekend. His name is Collin Ray, he's 16 years old. He is so solid. His parents are Catholic and totally supportive of his decision which makes things easy. He is definitely looking forward to his baptism, & says that he wants to go on a mission. I'm definitely excited for him. We are teaching another girl named Riley. She was baptized at 8 but they never turned in her records so it didn't count. I've never heard of that happening, but I definitely believe that it was a tender mercy because she can now be taught and decide on her own whether or not this is for her. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing her progress.

Sep 30^th

The baptism went well. Collin showed up, and he was soo nervous. He was bright red, and was messing with his jumper the whole time. When he came up out of the water, he seemed so calm and happy. The spirit was definitely strong. His parents were so proud of him, even though they weren't members. His mom was crying the whole time, so I thought that maybe she was upset but we talked with her afterwards and she said that she's just proud of him and that she was crying because he made his first big decision and it was a good one. It's nice to see the support he has. His grandpa is the only member in his family, & so he got to confirm him a member. It turned out extremely well. The next day our investigator Riley gave a talk on repentance. She was so amazing, in her talk she said she was going to get baptized! It was awesome. We had a lesson with her after church in the bishop's office on the doctrine of Christ, it went really well. At the end of it she asked how many lessons there were, we answered and then it was quiet. I felt the prompting to ask her why, and she said because she wants to be baptized. I definitely wasn't expecting her to want to be baptized so soon, since the previous week she didn't seem interested at all but the Lord works in mysterious ways. So I guess she'll be getting baptized soon :) Then on Tuesday we decided to stop by a former investigator's house to see if maybe he was interested. We knocked on his door twice and there was no answer, we were about to walk away & I decided to ring the door bell even though we really didn't think anyone was home. This guy answered the door who wasn't the former investigator, and started talking to us. His name is Shawn. He said that he was interested in learning more about our religion so we set up a time for the following day. We weren't really sure if he was interested really, because he was drinking but the next day we showed up and he was ready to learn. We taught him the entire first lesson, and asked him to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Apparently he's already read it and said that he knows it's true! We were definitely taken off guard. The lesson ended, and we were about to close when I got the prompting to ask him if he would be baptized, I kind of fought the prompting because it wasn't on topic and it's hard asking someone to be baptized during the first lesson, but I did it anyways. I asked him & he said yes! We are meeting with him this week and are planning on setting him with a date, so wish us luck :) This week has been a pretty good one. This past Sunday, yesterday, we got two of our less actives to go back to church, which was so exciting. We also did like a Q&A thing with a girl named Lakin in our ward who is preparing to go on a mission. She is so awesome, and it was way fun telling her all about a mission and role playing how to teach with her. She'll be getting her call soon, so we're excited to see that. All in all I'm really enjoying Sparks, and the work is really picking up.