I always get confused on what week it is. I cant ever remember which one I left off on. Oh well, Im gonna guess 26. Doesnt make too much of a difference if its 25 or 26 right? Anyways.. wow almost March already! I cant believe we're starting the final week in February right now. Unreal. Also its the second to last week of this transfer already. So that is.. pretty crazy.
This past week was ok. Not a whole lot happened as far as the work goes, we're still essentially at a stand still. None of our investigators want to progress as much as we try to get them too. So that is kind of depressing. We havent been fortunate enough to find any new ones yet either. So this area is pretty tough. And of course the whole biking thing is really hard too. That hill is killer... every day I dread having to go up and down that hill all day. We're hoping they have some mercy and give us a car or something next transfer cause they clearly dont care too much to move us any closer to our area, so we're stuck having to bike really far just to get there every day. Sigh.. so its pretty rough.. rough life. Sorry we try not to complain but.. cant help it.
We did however have a really good zone conference on Thursday, it was a mission tour with Elder Spencer Jones of the Seventy. It was amazing, he spoke with such power and conviction.. loved it. He mainly focused on talking about making sure we are out there actively finding and working. He related it to "having our line in the water" like fishing. We can be out of the house all day but if our line isnt in the water we arent really fishing. Then on extending commitments and things, and it was just incredible. He really broke down how to commit someone to certain things and how to ask effective questions and stuff. It really helped a lot.
So that was a big boost. But Im still kinda having a hard time right now. I havent been getting any good sleep in a while now, so Im always way exhausted all day. It makes biking really brutal. Half of the reason is cause my companion, Elder Mabeza, is a snorer. Most of you know how light of a sleeper I am.. which really sucks.. so I went and got some earplugs but they really dont help at all. I can still hear him pretty much perfectly. Along with that I just cant get tired. I am just restless all the time and I toss and turn all night. Last night I was still wide awake when I turned over to look at the clock to see what time it was cause I still hadnt fallen asleep and it was like 2 o clock. Sigh.. its been really annoying. So hopefully some things change real soon.
Elder Mabeza and I are still getting along really great though, so Im happy with the companionship, so it has nothing to do with that. Hes a good guy. He does have some problems with English though, I dont know he talks a lot when we are teaching or contacting and just some of the things he says kinda dont make sense. Like people will tell him something, I dont know about how they are busy at a certain time or working on a certain day then he'll ask a question that what said person just related would answer. So its kinda annoying and I have to take charge a lot of the time. Im trying to help him out with that cause I dont think he understands that he does a lot of things like that. But its fun overall.
Well thats about all for now, hope you guys all have a good week.. and hopefully things pick up here too!!
Love
Elder Lowder
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Feb 15, 2010 - week 21
Hey again all!
So another week gone, and February is already midway through!! Unreal! Doesnt seem like it should almost be march already, its beginning to look like spring here in Nevada. Which is fantastic!! I found out I didnt really miss the rain at all out here. Perhaps I would, but not when I have to walk/bike in it. I definitely miss the green, but not what provides the green.
Anyways, this past week was pretty good, although it continues to be slow. This area is really really tough. I dont know if they realized it would be so slow when they decide to split it just before I got here. It is quite slow. This week now though is looking like its going to be picking up which is exciting. I hope everything holds, we found a lot of less actives that said we could come back and whatnot, so we got a lot of lessons scheduled this week.
As for last week, I really dont even remember what happened haha it was kind of a blur. Like I seriously would have to look in my journal or planner to remember what we did. Ummm lets see.. they did decide to (on Saturday) move 2 of the 6 missionaries out of our place finally, but unfortunately it wasnt us. They decided to move the ones with a room and a car out instead of the ones sleeping on the floor with bikes that live 5+ miles away from there area. Though Im not complaining lol... It is nice though, now we have a room and beds, so we're happy. We are still anxiously awaiting a move out call though so we can be close to our area. It would be really nice.
So just skimmed through the planner and I couldnt find anything interesting to note that happened, so I guess it was just a really normal week. Nothing big or different happened so it was kinda just "meh." Things are tough though in this area, we're really struggling to find some new people to teach and baptize. The investigators we do have are continuing to not progress which stinks, so we may be dropping some of them soon and just trying to recycle the teaching pool and focus more on just finding new people. We've tried a couple things hoping they would work but still nothin.
P-day was way fun yesterday, we got together with the zone and played tackle football and kickball. It was really fun, and luckily no one got hurt haha. My comp and I, Andersen and Jensen (our previous roomates that just moved out) arrived first to the park and some guys that just happened to be at the park already asked us if we wanted to play. So we started off just playing with them then when the rest of the zone got there we played missionaries vs the other guys. We uhh pretty much destroyed em haha. It was pretty fun, who knows maybe some of em will start investigating cause they realize we are normal people too!!
Well hope yall have a good week this week, continuing praying for the missionary effort and for your own missionary experiences!! Im expecting my family members to be those "awesome members that actually care about missionary work and help out the missionaries" that the missionaries always talk about!! :)))
Love
Elder Lowder
So another week gone, and February is already midway through!! Unreal! Doesnt seem like it should almost be march already, its beginning to look like spring here in Nevada. Which is fantastic!! I found out I didnt really miss the rain at all out here. Perhaps I would, but not when I have to walk/bike in it. I definitely miss the green, but not what provides the green.
Anyways, this past week was pretty good, although it continues to be slow. This area is really really tough. I dont know if they realized it would be so slow when they decide to split it just before I got here. It is quite slow. This week now though is looking like its going to be picking up which is exciting. I hope everything holds, we found a lot of less actives that said we could come back and whatnot, so we got a lot of lessons scheduled this week.
As for last week, I really dont even remember what happened haha it was kind of a blur. Like I seriously would have to look in my journal or planner to remember what we did. Ummm lets see.. they did decide to (on Saturday) move 2 of the 6 missionaries out of our place finally, but unfortunately it wasnt us. They decided to move the ones with a room and a car out instead of the ones sleeping on the floor with bikes that live 5+ miles away from there area. Though Im not complaining lol... It is nice though, now we have a room and beds, so we're happy. We are still anxiously awaiting a move out call though so we can be close to our area. It would be really nice.
So just skimmed through the planner and I couldnt find anything interesting to note that happened, so I guess it was just a really normal week. Nothing big or different happened so it was kinda just "meh." Things are tough though in this area, we're really struggling to find some new people to teach and baptize. The investigators we do have are continuing to not progress which stinks, so we may be dropping some of them soon and just trying to recycle the teaching pool and focus more on just finding new people. We've tried a couple things hoping they would work but still nothin.
P-day was way fun yesterday, we got together with the zone and played tackle football and kickball. It was really fun, and luckily no one got hurt haha. My comp and I, Andersen and Jensen (our previous roomates that just moved out) arrived first to the park and some guys that just happened to be at the park already asked us if we wanted to play. So we started off just playing with them then when the rest of the zone got there we played missionaries vs the other guys. We uhh pretty much destroyed em haha. It was pretty fun, who knows maybe some of em will start investigating cause they realize we are normal people too!!
Well hope yall have a good week this week, continuing praying for the missionary effort and for your own missionary experiences!! Im expecting my family members to be those "awesome members that actually care about missionary work and help out the missionaries" that the missionaries always talk about!! :)))
Love
Elder Lowder
Feb 8, 2010 - week 20
Hey all! Sorry I wasnt to write a letter last week, I ran out of time. The new library we use in Vegas has waaaay faster computers, but a lot more people so we have to wait a really long time and then only get an hour. So it kinda sucks. Its all good though.
So things are going really well here in Vegas. Im liking it a lot. The living situation isnt the best, the couch has gotten really old after 2 weeks straight, but living with them is a blast. We have fun. Only having one car between the six of us sucks too, like we get rides sometimes and all six of us go and we have to pack into the car. Its no bueno. Worth it though for being in a car instead of biking.
Anyways, this past week was fairly slow and uneventful. Wednesday was Temple day, so I got to go to the Vegas Temple. So now Ive been in both temples in the mission! I like the Vegas temple a lot more, its really cool. The session was incredibly hard though, I thought for sure I wasnt going to make it. Reason being, the previous night whatever we ate at dinner didnt sit well with me. I didnt get any sleep that night and got up around 5:30 and just threw up all over the place. It was terrible. I hadnt thrown up in a long time so I forgot how terrible it really is. So the rest of the day I was super tired and drained and I felt horrible. It very well may have been the worst day of my entire life. I didnt eat for like 24 hours after that. So it wasnt good. We stayed in the rest of the day after doing shopping and stuff after the temple, and the following day I stayed down as well.
So the remainder of the week I felt a lot better and we got some work done. We had a few good lessons this week, and we searched out a former investigator and had a lesson with him. It went very well and its looking pretty promising. He really liked the lesson about the restoration and things and made some really good comments. It was good, he wanted us to come back the following week. Hes a way cool guy, I guess he used to play basketball with some missionaries in the past, so Im gonna see if we can get that going again too. But yeah, in the lesson the spirit was way strong, especially when we were talking about prophets and stuff and he said it all just makes perfect sense. And hes right, it does. He has a brother that joined the church not too long ago and he is really successful and Rich (the former investigator) sees that. Also he had foster parents growing up and they were members. He talked about how both his brother and foster parents were always really happy and he could just tell there was something too it. We pointed that out and told him that happiness and strength in the family comes from the gospel. We were really pleased with the lesson, and I think hes ready.
Other than that, there isnt much to report. Oh! Super Bowl Sunday!!!! After church we went to do some visits (our ward meets at 10 till 1) and no one answered. Obviously they were all busy prepping for the super bowl or at families places and stuff. So we went to an investigators place to visit and they too were getting ready. It wasnt on yet when we got there, but it was gonna start in about an hour. They had the pre start stuff going on so we saw a bit of that then headed to our dinner. They had it on too. So we got to have a bunch of goodies and wings and stuff and then watched the Super Bowl with em. It was a blast. I think just about everyone in the mission got to watch it lol, cause everyone was. So that was fun.
Well thats about all to report for this week, I hope everyone had a good Super Bowl Sunday! We all think that it should be a non proselyting day cause no one wants to talk to us on that day lol. Probably wont happen though : /. ANyways, talk to ya next week!!
Love
Elder Lowder
So things are going really well here in Vegas. Im liking it a lot. The living situation isnt the best, the couch has gotten really old after 2 weeks straight, but living with them is a blast. We have fun. Only having one car between the six of us sucks too, like we get rides sometimes and all six of us go and we have to pack into the car. Its no bueno. Worth it though for being in a car instead of biking.
Anyways, this past week was fairly slow and uneventful. Wednesday was Temple day, so I got to go to the Vegas Temple. So now Ive been in both temples in the mission! I like the Vegas temple a lot more, its really cool. The session was incredibly hard though, I thought for sure I wasnt going to make it. Reason being, the previous night whatever we ate at dinner didnt sit well with me. I didnt get any sleep that night and got up around 5:30 and just threw up all over the place. It was terrible. I hadnt thrown up in a long time so I forgot how terrible it really is. So the rest of the day I was super tired and drained and I felt horrible. It very well may have been the worst day of my entire life. I didnt eat for like 24 hours after that. So it wasnt good. We stayed in the rest of the day after doing shopping and stuff after the temple, and the following day I stayed down as well.
So the remainder of the week I felt a lot better and we got some work done. We had a few good lessons this week, and we searched out a former investigator and had a lesson with him. It went very well and its looking pretty promising. He really liked the lesson about the restoration and things and made some really good comments. It was good, he wanted us to come back the following week. Hes a way cool guy, I guess he used to play basketball with some missionaries in the past, so Im gonna see if we can get that going again too. But yeah, in the lesson the spirit was way strong, especially when we were talking about prophets and stuff and he said it all just makes perfect sense. And hes right, it does. He has a brother that joined the church not too long ago and he is really successful and Rich (the former investigator) sees that. Also he had foster parents growing up and they were members. He talked about how both his brother and foster parents were always really happy and he could just tell there was something too it. We pointed that out and told him that happiness and strength in the family comes from the gospel. We were really pleased with the lesson, and I think hes ready.
Other than that, there isnt much to report. Oh! Super Bowl Sunday!!!! After church we went to do some visits (our ward meets at 10 till 1) and no one answered. Obviously they were all busy prepping for the super bowl or at families places and stuff. So we went to an investigators place to visit and they too were getting ready. It wasnt on yet when we got there, but it was gonna start in about an hour. They had the pre start stuff going on so we saw a bit of that then headed to our dinner. They had it on too. So we got to have a bunch of goodies and wings and stuff and then watched the Super Bowl with em. It was a blast. I think just about everyone in the mission got to watch it lol, cause everyone was. So that was fun.
Well thats about all to report for this week, I hope everyone had a good Super Bowl Sunday! We all think that it should be a non proselyting day cause no one wants to talk to us on that day lol. Probably wont happen though : /. ANyways, talk to ya next week!!
Love
Elder Lowder
Feb 1, 2010 - week 19
Yeah it actually is a lot warmer here than Yerington. Naturally though. Im in the south now, no longer north. So its nice. Soon it wont be nice though, having to bike in 90 to 100 degree weather. Ugh. Itl be ok though, maybe Ill get to go back up north to Reno or something for the Summer. Thats my hope.
Vegas is actually a loooot like Phoenix. Like it feels like Im just back in Phoenix to be honest. So my area, just picture our old neighborhood and that area and thats what my area looks like for the most part. Lots of identical stucco houses and whatnot. So I like it a lot actually. Currently we live in the basement of a members home, he's actually the Mission Vehicle coordinater for our mission, Elder Elseworth. Its a lot better in terms of not having to worry about being watched and not getting any privacy from the members cause we dont ever see them. So its nice :). The ward is pretty good, its a lot more normal and I like it. A lot more younger families instead of just tons of old retired people. So thats nice too. Havent met too many people yet though. My comp, name is Elder Mabeza, he went to Hawaii for a year before he came out going to BYU there, hes around my height, he speaks pretty much perfect English, he was a convert at 12 years old with his parents, annnnd thats about it I guess. All I can think of at this point. The work is really slow in our area actually. Since the area was split we lost about 75% of the teaching pool. The majority of the work was in the other ward, so they got all the work and the car :(. Its very depressing. So we are going to have our work cut out for us. But its ok. We are going to have to do a lot of tracting and finding for a while here.
Yeah I brought a copy of my patriarchal blessing, thanks though! And I took some pictures, but not as much as I wouldve liked. Cause I didnt know I was getting transfered till Saturday night and on sunday we were parked so I wasnt able to go get pictures with like hardly anyone. Oh well, hopefully that wont happen in the rest of my areas. Ill send 2 sd cards home soon too.
Umm yeah I was hoping you guys could send that and also I was wondering if it would be possible for you to send my Diablo tennis racquet. Theres people here that like to play and I really want my racquet. If its too expensive I guess dont worry about it, but that would be great if you could send those 2 things :). The Diablo I want is the red smaller one, not the orange one.
Since Im on bike we dont really get to go to the store often, and yeah, so itd be easier if you could do that. I think the strings are broken on my diablo, so I can prob just find a place to string it here if you guys didnt want to do that.
Lol I have a blog now?? Holy cow thats wierd. Hm. Cool I guess!
Ok well, hope all is well there, have a great week!!
Love
E Lowder
Vegas is actually a loooot like Phoenix. Like it feels like Im just back in Phoenix to be honest. So my area, just picture our old neighborhood and that area and thats what my area looks like for the most part. Lots of identical stucco houses and whatnot. So I like it a lot actually. Currently we live in the basement of a members home, he's actually the Mission Vehicle coordinater for our mission, Elder Elseworth. Its a lot better in terms of not having to worry about being watched and not getting any privacy from the members cause we dont ever see them. So its nice :). The ward is pretty good, its a lot more normal and I like it. A lot more younger families instead of just tons of old retired people. So thats nice too. Havent met too many people yet though. My comp, name is Elder Mabeza, he went to Hawaii for a year before he came out going to BYU there, hes around my height, he speaks pretty much perfect English, he was a convert at 12 years old with his parents, annnnd thats about it I guess. All I can think of at this point. The work is really slow in our area actually. Since the area was split we lost about 75% of the teaching pool. The majority of the work was in the other ward, so they got all the work and the car :(. Its very depressing. So we are going to have our work cut out for us. But its ok. We are going to have to do a lot of tracting and finding for a while here.
Yeah I brought a copy of my patriarchal blessing, thanks though! And I took some pictures, but not as much as I wouldve liked. Cause I didnt know I was getting transfered till Saturday night and on sunday we were parked so I wasnt able to go get pictures with like hardly anyone. Oh well, hopefully that wont happen in the rest of my areas. Ill send 2 sd cards home soon too.
Umm yeah I was hoping you guys could send that and also I was wondering if it would be possible for you to send my Diablo tennis racquet. Theres people here that like to play and I really want my racquet. If its too expensive I guess dont worry about it, but that would be great if you could send those 2 things :). The Diablo I want is the red smaller one, not the orange one.
Since Im on bike we dont really get to go to the store often, and yeah, so itd be easier if you could do that. I think the strings are broken on my diablo, so I can prob just find a place to string it here if you guys didnt want to do that.
Lol I have a blog now?? Holy cow thats wierd. Hm. Cool I guess!
Ok well, hope all is well there, have a great week!!
Love
E Lowder
Jan 28, 2010 - week 18
Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. I cant believe that transfer is done already though. Been out for three transfers now and I am startin up the fourth one now. Pretty crazy, time does indeed fly.
So that was my final week in Yerington. I just assumed I would follow suit with "the norm" within the mission on leaving after three transers. That is exactly what happened. Ill start with some minor things at the beginning of the week though.
So the week went by pretty normal, we did a fair amount of teaching and it was very good. We actually found a new family we were trying to start teaching, his name is Robert. He works at Scolaris too, like Melissa. We tracted into him, and he says he had been taught by missionaries a bit when he lived in California, but not as much as he wouldve liked because he had to move. So we is a very promising potential, and Im hoping they can continue to teach him.
The remainder of the week was pretty normal, we had the usual appointments and things, and it went well. The stake presidency came down and went on splits with the bishopric and they put a list of people together to visit, mainly consisting of less actives. That was way good for those people. We went around and visited the ones thatg they did and they all really enjoyed it. The majority of them actually showed up to church the following Sunday, so we were really happy with that.
On Saturday we had a lesson with Dale Rosaschi which normally took place Tuesday evenings, but the Bradshaws (Ward Missionaries) decided to put together a little dinner/lesson thing at their place instead so we did that.
It was a really good time, and we had a good lesson with all of them. The Lindseys were also there, the other ward missionaries. And finally.. Dale showed up to church!! He hadnt come yet since we had been teaching him, so we were really excited. Only 2 more times and he can be baptized. That was a good way to go out, having him show up for the final Sunday.
When we got home Saturday night we got our transfer calls. Elder Dunkley was to stay in Yerington, and I was going to be heading down to Vegas! I am now in Central Las Vegas, and my new companion is Elder Mabeza. He is from Malasyia. He's a way cool guy, we're gettin along really great. I was a little worried at first, that he wouldnt be able to speak very good English, but he's got almost perfect English. I guess they teach it in their High Schools over there, plus he went to Hawaii for about a year before he came out. So i was greatful for that. I actually found out I would be leaving around 4pm on Saturday, they just didnt have the specifics for me, like which Vegas zone (there are 5 different zones here in Vegas) and who my companion would be.
So it was pretty tough leaving Yerington. I dont miss the place at all to be honest, but I really miss the people. There were some things I wouldve liked to see happen before leaving, since I worked with those people for quite a while and they were getting close, but I was ready for a change of pace.
Things are going to be good here in Vegas, I can feel it. Theres sooooo many people here, so its gonna be good. Hopefully I can continue to progress the work here in Vegas!
All in all it was a good week, and Im excited to be here in Vegas. It was a long trip down, but I enjoyed it. This time I was in a car instead of the transfer van, so I was glad. I came down with one of the Elders that was in my district, Elder Nemeth. He went home yesterday, it was his last transfer.
He was a good guy, gonna miss him. Also rode down with a couple other people. The bus makes a bunch of stops along the way, for gassing up, bathroom, lunch, etc. We decided not to wait for oall of em, and we just cruised on down the whole way. So we got back pretty early. It was a fun time.
Well, thats all for now, hope you all have a good week!
~Elder Lowder
So that was my final week in Yerington. I just assumed I would follow suit with "the norm" within the mission on leaving after three transers. That is exactly what happened. Ill start with some minor things at the beginning of the week though.
So the week went by pretty normal, we did a fair amount of teaching and it was very good. We actually found a new family we were trying to start teaching, his name is Robert. He works at Scolaris too, like Melissa. We tracted into him, and he says he had been taught by missionaries a bit when he lived in California, but not as much as he wouldve liked because he had to move. So we is a very promising potential, and Im hoping they can continue to teach him.
The remainder of the week was pretty normal, we had the usual appointments and things, and it went well. The stake presidency came down and went on splits with the bishopric and they put a list of people together to visit, mainly consisting of less actives. That was way good for those people. We went around and visited the ones thatg they did and they all really enjoyed it. The majority of them actually showed up to church the following Sunday, so we were really happy with that.
On Saturday we had a lesson with Dale Rosaschi which normally took place Tuesday evenings, but the Bradshaws (Ward Missionaries) decided to put together a little dinner/lesson thing at their place instead so we did that.
It was a really good time, and we had a good lesson with all of them. The Lindseys were also there, the other ward missionaries. And finally.. Dale showed up to church!! He hadnt come yet since we had been teaching him, so we were really excited. Only 2 more times and he can be baptized. That was a good way to go out, having him show up for the final Sunday.
When we got home Saturday night we got our transfer calls. Elder Dunkley was to stay in Yerington, and I was going to be heading down to Vegas! I am now in Central Las Vegas, and my new companion is Elder Mabeza. He is from Malasyia. He's a way cool guy, we're gettin along really great. I was a little worried at first, that he wouldnt be able to speak very good English, but he's got almost perfect English. I guess they teach it in their High Schools over there, plus he went to Hawaii for about a year before he came out. So i was greatful for that. I actually found out I would be leaving around 4pm on Saturday, they just didnt have the specifics for me, like which Vegas zone (there are 5 different zones here in Vegas) and who my companion would be.
So it was pretty tough leaving Yerington. I dont miss the place at all to be honest, but I really miss the people. There were some things I wouldve liked to see happen before leaving, since I worked with those people for quite a while and they were getting close, but I was ready for a change of pace.
Things are going to be good here in Vegas, I can feel it. Theres sooooo many people here, so its gonna be good. Hopefully I can continue to progress the work here in Vegas!
All in all it was a good week, and Im excited to be here in Vegas. It was a long trip down, but I enjoyed it. This time I was in a car instead of the transfer van, so I was glad. I came down with one of the Elders that was in my district, Elder Nemeth. He went home yesterday, it was his last transfer.
He was a good guy, gonna miss him. Also rode down with a couple other people. The bus makes a bunch of stops along the way, for gassing up, bathroom, lunch, etc. We decided not to wait for oall of em, and we just cruised on down the whole way. So we got back pretty early. It was a fun time.
Well, thats all for now, hope you all have a good week!
~Elder Lowder
Jan 18, 2010 - week 17
Hey all. Hope everyone is doing very well. Didnt get to email on Monday this week due to MLK, so the library was closed. Instead we are doin it today, Wednesday. Which is alright. Next week it may be the same Im not quite sure how its going to be working out. I may be getting transfered and it will be happening either Monday or Tuesday. I'll find out this weekend, on Saturday the 23rd.
So this last week was pretty good. We got a lot of teaching in which was exciting. No new investigators yet unfortunately, we havent found anyone new in a while. Mostly because we've been busy enough to not have to tract at all, but at the same times the members in this ward arent doing anything to help us find. Which happens to be the most effective way hands down to find new people. Thats why the general authorities have put so much emphasis on member missionary work. It really is super important. Buuut its ok, we're still teaching a lot. The thing is though, a lot of the investigators we currently have are seeming to be more long term investigators, they arent "ready" to commit to much. So we're tryin to get em to budge a bit.
Hopefully something will happen soon.
Yesterday we had zone conference in Reno, so that was really good. Only the second time I actually got to be in a city so far! It was actually really wierd. After being in a really tiny town for 18 weeks the city is way different. Everything is so wide open and underdeveloped here in Yerington.
It was pretty fun. I love the city, dont ever plan on living in a small town. The conference was really good though, and I had the opportunity of seeing 2 of the elders from my mtc district. So that was fun. The topic of the conference was planning and preparing. They talked a lot about the recent devestations that hit Haiti. Gave a lot of pretty scary facts about whats going on over there. 80-90% of the buildings turned to rubble... thats pretty bad. Its unfortunate that anyone has to live in such an impoverished place. But naturally the LDS are some of the first on the scene to provide aid. They also told us that not even one of the LDS church buildings were damaged, they all still stand firm and are now converted into medical facilities and others are housing the Hatians that are now homeless. 80-90% of the buildings and not one of our church buildings were damaged... Thats amazing. Another testimony that the church is true. Also none of the missionaries that were serving in Haiti lost their lives. Thats pretty amazing too. Just like when Hurricane Catrina hit New Orleans. I heard that because of our Prophets and apostles and thanks to revelation, they pulled the missionaries out of New Orleans before the Hurricane even hit. Sorry all of that is just amazing to me.
Well overall it was a great week. I love this area and there are still things I would like to see happen but at the same time I am ready for some change. So whatever happens this weekend, I will be content.
Hope you all have a good week, and keep praying for those in Haiti.
Love
Elder Lowder
So this last week was pretty good. We got a lot of teaching in which was exciting. No new investigators yet unfortunately, we havent found anyone new in a while. Mostly because we've been busy enough to not have to tract at all, but at the same times the members in this ward arent doing anything to help us find. Which happens to be the most effective way hands down to find new people. Thats why the general authorities have put so much emphasis on member missionary work. It really is super important. Buuut its ok, we're still teaching a lot. The thing is though, a lot of the investigators we currently have are seeming to be more long term investigators, they arent "ready" to commit to much. So we're tryin to get em to budge a bit.
Hopefully something will happen soon.
Yesterday we had zone conference in Reno, so that was really good. Only the second time I actually got to be in a city so far! It was actually really wierd. After being in a really tiny town for 18 weeks the city is way different. Everything is so wide open and underdeveloped here in Yerington.
It was pretty fun. I love the city, dont ever plan on living in a small town. The conference was really good though, and I had the opportunity of seeing 2 of the elders from my mtc district. So that was fun. The topic of the conference was planning and preparing. They talked a lot about the recent devestations that hit Haiti. Gave a lot of pretty scary facts about whats going on over there. 80-90% of the buildings turned to rubble... thats pretty bad. Its unfortunate that anyone has to live in such an impoverished place. But naturally the LDS are some of the first on the scene to provide aid. They also told us that not even one of the LDS church buildings were damaged, they all still stand firm and are now converted into medical facilities and others are housing the Hatians that are now homeless. 80-90% of the buildings and not one of our church buildings were damaged... Thats amazing. Another testimony that the church is true. Also none of the missionaries that were serving in Haiti lost their lives. Thats pretty amazing too. Just like when Hurricane Catrina hit New Orleans. I heard that because of our Prophets and apostles and thanks to revelation, they pulled the missionaries out of New Orleans before the Hurricane even hit. Sorry all of that is just amazing to me.
Well overall it was a great week. I love this area and there are still things I would like to see happen but at the same time I am ready for some change. So whatever happens this weekend, I will be content.
Hope you all have a good week, and keep praying for those in Haiti.
Love
Elder Lowder
Jan 11, 2010 - week 16
Hey all! Another week has come and gone. That phrase is gonna get real old real quick. I should probably find a new one.. Anyways..
Good week overall. We got into a lot more homes and taught a lot more this week. Things were so much faster than the previous week. I am pretty glad the holidays are over. Dont get me wrong, I love the holidays. But they make it tough to work haha. I cant believe I am saying that.. But yeah.
So last Monday we went up to Fallon again with the Cliftens and some others and played Walleyball and Racquet ball again. It was way fun.
Tuesday we had district meeting and finally got out to Sweetwater again in the evening. We hadnt got to go out there in like 4 weeks or somethin like that due to the weather, and then the holidays and things. So that was really good. We have pretty much finished up the lessons with him, but he cant get baptized yet because hes gotta come to church 3 times before. Hes golden, and hes ready though, (This is Dale Rosaschi by the way) and his wife and son are active, its just his ranch keeps him so busy and he lives an hour away from the chapel, so it makes it way hard. He has come a couple times previously, but since we've been teaching him he hasnt. Hopefully soon though.
Thursday we taught Melissa again, we did the second lesson, the Plan of Salvation. It was a very good lesson, the spirit was very strong. She loves every bit of it, and having Cindy there was great. Cindy has helped us out a lot with here and other investigators too. A lot of times when we do member presents, the member doesnt really have much input unfortunately, but Cindy actually jumps in and relates stuff and its really good. She has been picking up Melissa for church the last two weeks too. So Melissa is doin really well.
Saturday we had a lesson with a fairly recent convert who was going to be giving his son the priesthood in church the following day. That was really good. We explained what the priesthood was, the different auxiluries within the priesthood and just whatever else came up. Then how to perform the actual ordination and whatnot. Then in the evening we baked a ton of cookies that we were planning to take to our investigators to hopefully give them some incentive to come out to church. That was really fun. We actually got one that we didnt really expect to come! His name is Jeremy House. He has been being taught by missionaries for like 4 years or something, and he hadnt come to church once since we've been here and maybe 3 times in his whole life. But he came!! We were so surprised. It was awesome.
unfortunately he had to run after sacrament meeting, but hey. He came right?
Anyways, it was a good week overall. Not much exciting things to share I guess. But yeah, wow I cant believe this is week 5 of the transfer already.
2 more weeks, and then who knows whats gonna happen. I may be leaving this area, we get calls on the 23. Pretty crazy.
Anyways, have a good week all!
Love
~Elder Lowder
Good week overall. We got into a lot more homes and taught a lot more this week. Things were so much faster than the previous week. I am pretty glad the holidays are over. Dont get me wrong, I love the holidays. But they make it tough to work haha. I cant believe I am saying that.. But yeah.
So last Monday we went up to Fallon again with the Cliftens and some others and played Walleyball and Racquet ball again. It was way fun.
Tuesday we had district meeting and finally got out to Sweetwater again in the evening. We hadnt got to go out there in like 4 weeks or somethin like that due to the weather, and then the holidays and things. So that was really good. We have pretty much finished up the lessons with him, but he cant get baptized yet because hes gotta come to church 3 times before. Hes golden, and hes ready though, (This is Dale Rosaschi by the way) and his wife and son are active, its just his ranch keeps him so busy and he lives an hour away from the chapel, so it makes it way hard. He has come a couple times previously, but since we've been teaching him he hasnt. Hopefully soon though.
Thursday we taught Melissa again, we did the second lesson, the Plan of Salvation. It was a very good lesson, the spirit was very strong. She loves every bit of it, and having Cindy there was great. Cindy has helped us out a lot with here and other investigators too. A lot of times when we do member presents, the member doesnt really have much input unfortunately, but Cindy actually jumps in and relates stuff and its really good. She has been picking up Melissa for church the last two weeks too. So Melissa is doin really well.
Saturday we had a lesson with a fairly recent convert who was going to be giving his son the priesthood in church the following day. That was really good. We explained what the priesthood was, the different auxiluries within the priesthood and just whatever else came up. Then how to perform the actual ordination and whatnot. Then in the evening we baked a ton of cookies that we were planning to take to our investigators to hopefully give them some incentive to come out to church. That was really fun. We actually got one that we didnt really expect to come! His name is Jeremy House. He has been being taught by missionaries for like 4 years or something, and he hadnt come to church once since we've been here and maybe 3 times in his whole life. But he came!! We were so surprised. It was awesome.
unfortunately he had to run after sacrament meeting, but hey. He came right?
Anyways, it was a good week overall. Not much exciting things to share I guess. But yeah, wow I cant believe this is week 5 of the transfer already.
2 more weeks, and then who knows whats gonna happen. I may be leaving this area, we get calls on the 23. Pretty crazy.
Anyways, have a good week all!
Love
~Elder Lowder
Jan 4, 2010 - week 15
Happy New Year! Hello 2010.. wow. Unreal. Where did 2009 go? It just vanished. pretty much.
Well we had a pretty good New years down here, but as far as missionary work goes it was a slow week. SO many people were gone for vacation and whatnot.
We did however get our investigator Mellisa (who we tracted into) set with a date. Her baptism is set for January 23. So we're way excited for that.
As far as the holidays went, we were to stop proselyting by 6 o clock, so we did that and went to the Cliftens and played board and card games. That was really fun. We got in around 1 o clock in the morning so we were pretty beat. We slept in till about 10 New Years morning (its a non proselyting
day) and then headed to Fallon to play Basketball and stuff with our zone.
That was really fun too.
Really that was basically all that happened this week, other than that its been slow. Just doin inactive visits and whatnot. Hopefully this week will be a lot more eventful concerning the work.
Well as always, love you guys! Have a great week.
~Elder Lowder
Well we had a pretty good New years down here, but as far as missionary work goes it was a slow week. SO many people were gone for vacation and whatnot.
We did however get our investigator Mellisa (who we tracted into) set with a date. Her baptism is set for January 23. So we're way excited for that.
As far as the holidays went, we were to stop proselyting by 6 o clock, so we did that and went to the Cliftens and played board and card games. That was really fun. We got in around 1 o clock in the morning so we were pretty beat. We slept in till about 10 New Years morning (its a non proselyting
day) and then headed to Fallon to play Basketball and stuff with our zone.
That was really fun too.
Really that was basically all that happened this week, other than that its been slow. Just doin inactive visits and whatnot. Hopefully this week will be a lot more eventful concerning the work.
Well as always, love you guys! Have a great week.
~Elder Lowder
Dec 28, 2009 - week 14
Hey all, hope you had a great Christmas! I cant believe it came and went already, i swear I was just sitting at home for Christmas last year.. Crazy.
Hope you all got what you wanted and had some good fun! I sure did.
The week prior to Christmas was pretty good, we didnt get a whole lot of teaching in, but it was alright. Well Monday and Tuesday didnt. Monday was p-day and we just hung out with the Cliftens as usual :). Theyre the best. I dont know if Ive mentioned it before but on Wednesdays and Saturdays we play Volleyball in the evenings with some members and inactives and a couple nonmembers. So thats really fun. One of the members (Kaylene Hunt) who is the young womens pres I think, comes. Shes good friends with Cindy. So one night we played with them (this was when Fergie was still my comp) and no one else was able to make it that night so it was Fergie and I and Cindy and Kaylene. So we played 2 on 2 and we were stomping em at the beginning and then ended up choking or something and they unfortunately won. Sad day.
Anyways, so Kaylene ended up going undefeated and I kinda somehow lost every game. Fergie doesnt really try so that stunk. So anyways, for Christmas I made her a shirt with iron ons on Cindy's comp. It says on the front in small letters on the top From the biggest winner (Elder Lowder) to the...
then I put the biggest loser tv show logo on it. With a little volleyball under it. Then on the back of the shirt it has her name on it. Its the coolest shirt ever. But yeah I did end up actually losing the whole time so its ironic. But I like to play it off like we killed em and it pushes her buttons. Its fun. But she loved the shirt, thought it was hillarious.
So Christmas was way fun, I got to call home and talk to the family which is always good. In the morning we went to the Bishops and they had a bunch of presents for us which was nice. Got battleship, break the ice, a Gordon B Hinkley book (Way to Be!), and a stocking full of stuff. Over all I think we got like 5 stockings full from different members. We are spoiled. The rest of the day we just played games with the Cliftens and ate a lot of junk food. It was a good day.
Also I just wanted to throw a shout out to everyone, thank you sooo much for all the packages and letters. I was really surprised, and really appreciated it. Thank you very much.
Parents if you could thank the ward, the Rigby's in particular for sending me the poster and letters and things. That was very nice.
Well overall it was a great week, not too hard being away from home on Christmas because I got tons of things from people to make it easier. Thanks again.
Love you all,
Elder Lowder
Hope you all got what you wanted and had some good fun! I sure did.
The week prior to Christmas was pretty good, we didnt get a whole lot of teaching in, but it was alright. Well Monday and Tuesday didnt. Monday was p-day and we just hung out with the Cliftens as usual :). Theyre the best. I dont know if Ive mentioned it before but on Wednesdays and Saturdays we play Volleyball in the evenings with some members and inactives and a couple nonmembers. So thats really fun. One of the members (Kaylene Hunt) who is the young womens pres I think, comes. Shes good friends with Cindy. So one night we played with them (this was when Fergie was still my comp) and no one else was able to make it that night so it was Fergie and I and Cindy and Kaylene. So we played 2 on 2 and we were stomping em at the beginning and then ended up choking or something and they unfortunately won. Sad day.
Anyways, so Kaylene ended up going undefeated and I kinda somehow lost every game. Fergie doesnt really try so that stunk. So anyways, for Christmas I made her a shirt with iron ons on Cindy's comp. It says on the front in small letters on the top From the biggest winner (Elder Lowder) to the...
then I put the biggest loser tv show logo on it. With a little volleyball under it. Then on the back of the shirt it has her name on it. Its the coolest shirt ever. But yeah I did end up actually losing the whole time so its ironic. But I like to play it off like we killed em and it pushes her buttons. Its fun. But she loved the shirt, thought it was hillarious.
So Christmas was way fun, I got to call home and talk to the family which is always good. In the morning we went to the Bishops and they had a bunch of presents for us which was nice. Got battleship, break the ice, a Gordon B Hinkley book (Way to Be!), and a stocking full of stuff. Over all I think we got like 5 stockings full from different members. We are spoiled. The rest of the day we just played games with the Cliftens and ate a lot of junk food. It was a good day.
Also I just wanted to throw a shout out to everyone, thank you sooo much for all the packages and letters. I was really surprised, and really appreciated it. Thank you very much.
Parents if you could thank the ward, the Rigby's in particular for sending me the poster and letters and things. That was very nice.
Well overall it was a great week, not too hard being away from home on Christmas because I got tons of things from people to make it easier. Thanks again.
Love you all,
Elder Lowder
Dec 21, 2009 - week 13
Well.. Christmas is here already. I could swear I was just at home with my family opening presents in 2008. I hope everyone is having a fantastic Christmas season. Its going to be 2010 before we know it. That is unreal.
So this last week was a really good one. We had transfers on Tuesday and we had Bro Bentley (Ward Mission Leader) take us to Fallon to drop off Fergie (Elder Ferguson) and pick up Elder Dunkley. Elder Dunkley is my new companion, he's from Ogden Utah and was last serving in Las Vegas. We have been doing really well so far, we get along great.
Tuesday evening we had dinner with Cindy and her family and that was about all we had time for after getting home and him unpacking and whatnot. The remainder of the week we have just been visiting a lot of the members and less actives. A couple of our lessons did fall through, but that was alright. We did still have some really good ones. None of our investigators are really progressing at this point, but we do have one with a date in mid January. So mostly this week was just visiting people and dropping a spiritual thought on the way out. All in all it was a good week.
The members here are great though, they make us family. Cindy in particular, I dont know if there will a member near as awesome as she has anywhere else.
She asked what some of our traditions were that we have with our families back home. I couldnt really remember any particular traditions per se, but I do remember whenever we were in Phoenix for christmas we would always decorate cookies with Lori. So guess what? Yesterday we got to make and decorate sugar cookies! I was pretty happy. We had a blast. I even made a custom cookie of the US Open symbol which was pretty sweet.
Well that was about it for this last week, pretty quiet as far as new updates with the work, but it was a really fun week. Next week I have a story I want to share but I only have 3 minutes left and thats definitely not enough time to type it out :(. Next week! Its a good one though.
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!!
~Elder Lowder
Dec 14, 2009 - week 12
Hey all, update 14 incoming. This transfer is coming to a close, we got our calls 2 days ago. Transfers take place this Tuesday. I will be staying in Yerington for another transfer, and my companion (Ferguson) is going to be going Zone leader in Carson City. Basically that means hes going to be over all the missionaries that are in that zone along with his new companion. He then reports to the Assistants who report to the President of the mission.
Thats how that works. :) So im pretty excited, it is sad to lose Ferguson, he was a good comp, but change is always good. Stretches ya a little bit.
So this last week was pretty good, we've got a couple new people in our teaching pool since it has slowed down a bit with all the people we have been baptizing. Pretty crazy story, for those of you who are familiar with tracting youll understand this, tracting is pretty much the most ineffective form of missionary work there is. 9 houses out of 10.. wait more like 999 houses out of 1000 they either wont be home or they wont want to talk to you. And that 1 person that does (FYI tracting is knocking on doors..) actually talk to you generally wont be interested in the message they will mearly talk with you. So anyhow, we were tracting one day and as we were doing so we noticed a girl, that we had seen a lot because she works at the local grocery store, going into her house which was on the intersecting street. So not even on the street we were tracting. We didnt think much of it and kept on going but after a few more houses we thought we would go talk to her. So we did so and she of course wasnt interested. We left her with a pass along card with out number on it and left. About a 2 and a half weeks later we get a call from a missionary in the Referral Center in the MTC and he leaves us with some information for a referral he had been chatting with on Mormon.org which they do in the referral center. Lo and behold.. it was the girl we had tracted into. When we talked to her then she had said she didnt really believe in God anymore and she used to attend a Baptist church but hadnt going in some 5 years or so. After we talked with her she felt bad for blowing us off pretty much and was going to call us but it turned out that her friend had thrown away her pass along card. So she had remembered the website and decided to check it out and see what it was all about. She then went on to chat with a missionary in the referral center and then he referred her back to us again. We had our first lesson with her last Thursday and it went very well. Pretty crazy huh? That is a really rare occurence at least in this mission, so we are really excited for it.
As for the rest of the week, it was pretty slow. Ive been sick with some virus for the past 2 and a half weeks, and am still getting over it. We only stayed in for like half of one day, cause it wasnt a horrible sickness, just some sore throat stuff and I was plugged up a little. All I got now is a bit of a cough but it isnt too bad. Ferguson came down with it like 4 days ago, so we stayed in part of another day and hes still got it pretty bad. I guess its been going all around town, a lot of people have been coming down with it and the only cure is rest really. Doctors have said to other people that have gone in that there isnt anything they can do about it, so we're doing a little bit of that. We did however have a baptism in Hawthorne on Saturday, so that was good.
I hope everyone continues to do well, and stay warm! :)
Love as always,
~Elder Lowder
Thats how that works. :) So im pretty excited, it is sad to lose Ferguson, he was a good comp, but change is always good. Stretches ya a little bit.
So this last week was pretty good, we've got a couple new people in our teaching pool since it has slowed down a bit with all the people we have been baptizing. Pretty crazy story, for those of you who are familiar with tracting youll understand this, tracting is pretty much the most ineffective form of missionary work there is. 9 houses out of 10.. wait more like 999 houses out of 1000 they either wont be home or they wont want to talk to you. And that 1 person that does (FYI tracting is knocking on doors..) actually talk to you generally wont be interested in the message they will mearly talk with you. So anyhow, we were tracting one day and as we were doing so we noticed a girl, that we had seen a lot because she works at the local grocery store, going into her house which was on the intersecting street. So not even on the street we were tracting. We didnt think much of it and kept on going but after a few more houses we thought we would go talk to her. So we did so and she of course wasnt interested. We left her with a pass along card with out number on it and left. About a 2 and a half weeks later we get a call from a missionary in the Referral Center in the MTC and he leaves us with some information for a referral he had been chatting with on Mormon.org which they do in the referral center. Lo and behold.. it was the girl we had tracted into. When we talked to her then she had said she didnt really believe in God anymore and she used to attend a Baptist church but hadnt going in some 5 years or so. After we talked with her she felt bad for blowing us off pretty much and was going to call us but it turned out that her friend had thrown away her pass along card. So she had remembered the website and decided to check it out and see what it was all about. She then went on to chat with a missionary in the referral center and then he referred her back to us again. We had our first lesson with her last Thursday and it went very well. Pretty crazy huh? That is a really rare occurence at least in this mission, so we are really excited for it.
As for the rest of the week, it was pretty slow. Ive been sick with some virus for the past 2 and a half weeks, and am still getting over it. We only stayed in for like half of one day, cause it wasnt a horrible sickness, just some sore throat stuff and I was plugged up a little. All I got now is a bit of a cough but it isnt too bad. Ferguson came down with it like 4 days ago, so we stayed in part of another day and hes still got it pretty bad. I guess its been going all around town, a lot of people have been coming down with it and the only cure is rest really. Doctors have said to other people that have gone in that there isnt anything they can do about it, so we're doing a little bit of that. We did however have a baptism in Hawthorne on Saturday, so that was good.
I hope everyone continues to do well, and stay warm! :)
Love as always,
~Elder Lowder
Dec 7, 2009 - week 11
Happy Holidays all! Another week going and I cannot believe it is already December. New Years will be here before we know it! Unreal!
Well this past week was pretty good, a lot quieter than the previous couple weeks. On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference, I guess it was the Christmas edition. They called it Christmas Blessing. It was really good. We had some good trainings by the assistants and the mission presidency. Then we had a good lunch followed by a little white elephant gift exchange type thing. I went and got a $1 yoyo from the store to put in lol. I didnt see who got it though. I ended up getting this 8 in one screwdriver thing. So that might actually be kinda useful haha. Then we watched a movie called Mission Christmas or something like that. It was pretty good. After that we ended with a testimony meeting with all the Missionaries that will be going home on the 15th, the end of this transfer. It was reeeeeally good, everyone was just draining tears like crazy, the spirit was so strong there. It made me really realize how much everyone loves their mission. Its going to be tough when Im at that point. Good thing I still got plenty of time!
Transfers are coming up here really quick, I cant believe its the end of another transfer. 2 down only 15 to go! Its going to go by so fast. We get the call to find out whether we go or stay on the 12, so this coming Saturday. I really love the area a lot, Im very comfortable with the members here and we get a lot of member help too. So Im not sure. I kinda want a change of pace and I really dont want to live with members anymore.. so for that I want to go but then with everything thats happening and with the people here I want to stay. Ill be content with whatever happens I guess.
So early last week it snowed here again and we still had some of it left on the sides of the roads and a tiny bit in the yards. Which is unusual for Yerington. This morning we woke up and there was like 6 inches on the ground and it was still snowing. We couldnt believe it. I guess me and Fergy brought the snow since we're both from up north! The Allreds (the members we live with) said they have never seen it snow like this since they have lived here. Which had been like 10 years or somethin like that. So its pretty crazy out here right now, Im glad its p-day so we dont have to go out in it lol.
As far as our investigators go, we got a baptism in Hawthorne scheduled for this Saturday, so hopefully that will hold. Its always a stressful time when we have a baptism upcoming, cause we never know whats going to happen. We also picked up this new investigator, Mike Papajesk. It is a reeeeeally long story on him, so ill try to cut it down. Basically its a very sketchy situation. Hes with this girl that used to live here way back when named Don. She used to be with a guy named Owen Barton who is still in the hospital because he was poisoned. And she is on charges for doing it we think. And shes pretty much a scam artist who goes around all inocent and gets people to trust her then cons you. So we're trying to stay on our toes and use wise judgement around her. We will not go to her house, and we only teach him in the church building. We havent really had to deal with her much, but basically the only reason they came back is for money. They are having issues and have exhausted all other resources so thats pretty much it. Who knows what will end up happening we'll see. Also we got a date for another investigator for the 16th of January. The spirit was so strong when we set him with a date and his wife has been waiting for it for like 20 years. She is an active member. The struggle is getting him to church. They live in Sweetwater, about an hour drive away from the church. PLus he is always busy on his farm so its a big commitment to come.
Well as Christmas is upon us I hope we can all strive to be good examples and share the true meaning of Christmas with our neighbours. More and more the society is pushing out Jesus from Christmas and replacing him with a fat man in a red suit, all for the purpose of personal gain. Let us always strive to keep our minds and hearts focused on the Savior and what he did for us this Christmas season. Love you guys, hope you have a great Christmas! Ill catch you next week!
~Elder Lowder
Well this past week was pretty good, a lot quieter than the previous couple weeks. On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference, I guess it was the Christmas edition. They called it Christmas Blessing. It was really good. We had some good trainings by the assistants and the mission presidency. Then we had a good lunch followed by a little white elephant gift exchange type thing. I went and got a $1 yoyo from the store to put in lol. I didnt see who got it though. I ended up getting this 8 in one screwdriver thing. So that might actually be kinda useful haha. Then we watched a movie called Mission Christmas or something like that. It was pretty good. After that we ended with a testimony meeting with all the Missionaries that will be going home on the 15th, the end of this transfer. It was reeeeeally good, everyone was just draining tears like crazy, the spirit was so strong there. It made me really realize how much everyone loves their mission. Its going to be tough when Im at that point. Good thing I still got plenty of time!
Transfers are coming up here really quick, I cant believe its the end of another transfer. 2 down only 15 to go! Its going to go by so fast. We get the call to find out whether we go or stay on the 12, so this coming Saturday. I really love the area a lot, Im very comfortable with the members here and we get a lot of member help too. So Im not sure. I kinda want a change of pace and I really dont want to live with members anymore.. so for that I want to go but then with everything thats happening and with the people here I want to stay. Ill be content with whatever happens I guess.
So early last week it snowed here again and we still had some of it left on the sides of the roads and a tiny bit in the yards. Which is unusual for Yerington. This morning we woke up and there was like 6 inches on the ground and it was still snowing. We couldnt believe it. I guess me and Fergy brought the snow since we're both from up north! The Allreds (the members we live with) said they have never seen it snow like this since they have lived here. Which had been like 10 years or somethin like that. So its pretty crazy out here right now, Im glad its p-day so we dont have to go out in it lol.
As far as our investigators go, we got a baptism in Hawthorne scheduled for this Saturday, so hopefully that will hold. Its always a stressful time when we have a baptism upcoming, cause we never know whats going to happen. We also picked up this new investigator, Mike Papajesk. It is a reeeeeally long story on him, so ill try to cut it down. Basically its a very sketchy situation. Hes with this girl that used to live here way back when named Don. She used to be with a guy named Owen Barton who is still in the hospital because he was poisoned. And she is on charges for doing it we think. And shes pretty much a scam artist who goes around all inocent and gets people to trust her then cons you. So we're trying to stay on our toes and use wise judgement around her. We will not go to her house, and we only teach him in the church building. We havent really had to deal with her much, but basically the only reason they came back is for money. They are having issues and have exhausted all other resources so thats pretty much it. Who knows what will end up happening we'll see. Also we got a date for another investigator for the 16th of January. The spirit was so strong when we set him with a date and his wife has been waiting for it for like 20 years. She is an active member. The struggle is getting him to church. They live in Sweetwater, about an hour drive away from the church. PLus he is always busy on his farm so its a big commitment to come.
Well as Christmas is upon us I hope we can all strive to be good examples and share the true meaning of Christmas with our neighbours. More and more the society is pushing out Jesus from Christmas and replacing him with a fat man in a red suit, all for the purpose of personal gain. Let us always strive to keep our minds and hearts focused on the Savior and what he did for us this Christmas season. Love you guys, hope you have a great Christmas! Ill catch you next week!
~Elder Lowder
Nov 30, 2009 - week 10
This past week was a whole lot quieter than last week. Which was nice considering all that went on last week haha. It was pretty intense.
Our thanksgiving was of course really good, but its just not nearly the same not being with you guys. I miss going to Hymas' and playing card games and all of that. Being on a mission really sheds light on the importance of family and how much all that means to me. I miss you guys so much... BUT!
This is way important and I love being out here too. But I definitely cant wait to get back to you guys. Its going to be awesome though, Ill get back right in time for the holiday season! Woohoo. Anyways.. So Thanksgiving day we got to go to Fallon the night before and stay with the Zone Leaders. Just about our whole zone stayed in that one apartment. It was fun. Yeah we got to go to Reno and had a Turkey Bowl there with all the northern zone missionaries. It was a lot of fun. Then we spent the rest of the day afterwards with the Cliftens (member family out here) and that was a lot of fun.
Oh guess what!? Youre never gonna believe this. One of the greenies that came out a transfer after me and is in our zone is a Tongan. (Spelling?) Polynesian anyways, and the night before the turkey bowl we all went to the zls house and stayed there, and we went to the church gym and practiced soem passing and stuff for the tournament, then he taught us the Haka! Or is it Hakka? Whatever it is, the one where its like... Kamate Kamate Kaora Kaora!
That one. It was sweet. And our zone did it to intimidate them before we played haha. It was sweet.
As far as the work goes, our teaching pool is getting a bit smaller now, so we need more referrals! We have a few potentials, but most of the people we were teaching have been baptized! We are still working with the recent converts, teaching the new member lessons, so its going well. We set 2 more people with a date this last week, but its not till January. So who knows.
Transfers are coming up on the 15th of December, so we shall see what happens!
Anyways, thanks for being so awesome. Love you
~Jordan
-------------------
Letter to others besides family:
Wow another week gone already. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I sure did. Other than that this past week has been pretty quiet.
So Thanksgiving day we got to go to Fallon the night before and stay with the Zone Leaders. Just about our whole zone stayed in that one apartment. It was a fun. We got a Polynesian elder from Tonga in our zone this last transfer and he taught us the Haka the night before to intimidate everyone before the Tournament. So the day of Thanksgiving we drove to Reno and had the Turkey Bowl! It was way fun. Afterwards we went to a members place and had dinner and spent the rest of the day there. We of course ate too much. But it was worth it.
As far as the work goes, our teaching pool is getting a bit smaller now, so we need more referrals! We have a few potentials, but most of the people we were teaching have been baptized! We are still working with the recent converts, teaching the new member lessons, so its going well. We set 2 more people with a date this last week, but its not till January. So who knows. Transfers are coming up on the 15th of December, so we shall see what happens!
Hope you all have a great week!
~Elder Lowder
Our thanksgiving was of course really good, but its just not nearly the same not being with you guys. I miss going to Hymas' and playing card games and all of that. Being on a mission really sheds light on the importance of family and how much all that means to me. I miss you guys so much... BUT!
This is way important and I love being out here too. But I definitely cant wait to get back to you guys. Its going to be awesome though, Ill get back right in time for the holiday season! Woohoo. Anyways.. So Thanksgiving day we got to go to Fallon the night before and stay with the Zone Leaders. Just about our whole zone stayed in that one apartment. It was fun. Yeah we got to go to Reno and had a Turkey Bowl there with all the northern zone missionaries. It was a lot of fun. Then we spent the rest of the day afterwards with the Cliftens (member family out here) and that was a lot of fun.
Oh guess what!? Youre never gonna believe this. One of the greenies that came out a transfer after me and is in our zone is a Tongan. (Spelling?) Polynesian anyways, and the night before the turkey bowl we all went to the zls house and stayed there, and we went to the church gym and practiced soem passing and stuff for the tournament, then he taught us the Haka! Or is it Hakka? Whatever it is, the one where its like... Kamate Kamate Kaora Kaora!
That one. It was sweet. And our zone did it to intimidate them before we played haha. It was sweet.
As far as the work goes, our teaching pool is getting a bit smaller now, so we need more referrals! We have a few potentials, but most of the people we were teaching have been baptized! We are still working with the recent converts, teaching the new member lessons, so its going well. We set 2 more people with a date this last week, but its not till January. So who knows.
Transfers are coming up on the 15th of December, so we shall see what happens!
Anyways, thanks for being so awesome. Love you
~Jordan
-------------------
Letter to others besides family:
Wow another week gone already. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I sure did. Other than that this past week has been pretty quiet.
So Thanksgiving day we got to go to Fallon the night before and stay with the Zone Leaders. Just about our whole zone stayed in that one apartment. It was a fun. We got a Polynesian elder from Tonga in our zone this last transfer and he taught us the Haka the night before to intimidate everyone before the Tournament. So the day of Thanksgiving we drove to Reno and had the Turkey Bowl! It was way fun. Afterwards we went to a members place and had dinner and spent the rest of the day there. We of course ate too much. But it was worth it.
As far as the work goes, our teaching pool is getting a bit smaller now, so we need more referrals! We have a few potentials, but most of the people we were teaching have been baptized! We are still working with the recent converts, teaching the new member lessons, so its going well. We set 2 more people with a date this last week, but its not till January. So who knows. Transfers are coming up on the 15th of December, so we shall see what happens!
Hope you all have a great week!
~Elder Lowder
Nov 23, 2009 - week 9
Whoa week 10. What happened? I swear I just got here and its already almost December. Time definitely does fly when you are busy all the time.
So this past week has been absolutely insane. How do I start. Well we had splits with the zone leaders on Tuesday into Wednesday, and that was pretty fun. Getting to see other missionaries is always fun, being banished out here in Yerington. We finished the lessons with the 3 kids that we were teaching (ages 9-10) and so the ZLs came up for the interviews. Everything went well, but one of the kids (Desaray) was saying that she wasnt going to be baptized because she didnt know if she could keep the word of wisdom.
Keep in mind this is a 9 year old girl. She was saying that when shes older shes going to want to drink tea and cofee. At first we were like whaaat!? We figure it was just because she has an older sister who does all that and isnt a member. We finally found out that she was just scared and doesnt like doing anything in front of people. So we finally told her everything would be ok and this and that and she decided to do it. So that was good. Then the night before the baptism we get a call from the other girl (Kimmy) and she said she wasnt gonna do it because she wanted to wait for her mom. Long story short on that is that if she waited for her mom it wasnt going to happen. Her parents are split up and her mom went crazy and so that wouldnt have happened. Finally the morning of though we got there and everything worked out, and they all did it. It was a great baptism.
So this past Friday was an interesting day. We woke up and had our studies and we could just here the wind going crazy outside. It was super windy.
Normally that is our Hawthorne day and we got calls saying the roads were closed to Hawthorne because it was too windy, semis and things were getting tipped over it was so bad. So we decided to go to the Cliftens and make our baptismal programs and get that outta the way. A little later we get a call from brother Allred who was in Carson. (We live with the Allreds fyi.) He says, "Elders could you run back to the house and check on it and make sure Sister Allred is ok? The house is on fire." We were like WHAT?? So we rush back out of town to the house and the road is barricaded off from both sides and the Sherriff wouldnt let us through. We kept tellin him hey our house is right there can we go make sure Linda (Sister Allred) is ok? And prepare to evacuate? He kept saying no, there is a cop already going around telling people to prepare. He was just yellin at us tellin us no in that jerky cop way. So we were like forget you! And went back a little and down an ally and hopped like 6 fences and went through backyards to get to our place. We got in finally and there were piles of leaves around the house on fire and some of the trees were too. We were sure the place was gonna go up in flames. We ran into the house and started ripping our stuff out of the closets and putting them into our bags. Sister Allred was trying to get some stuff together too. We realized there wasnt enough time and a fireman came in and said guys you dont need to quite yet but be ready to evacuate. So we closed the door and just got out Journals, scriptures, and camera and that was it.
Kissed the rest of the stuff goodbye. A man came in and said guys Linda is leavin its about time you get out of here. So we said ok and shut the door to gather things together and then all of a sudden a different fireman busts in and starts swearin at us and tellin us to get out now. He grabbed Ferguson by the collar and threw him outside onto the gravel, then did the same to me. We were like dude calm down. He starts swearin at us again sayin if we go back anywhere near here we would be arrested. We were like uhh this is the first time we were told to actually evac.. cool your jets. And then we left. had no idea what was gonna happen. The wind was so bad all it did was feed the flames and kick them around. It was bad. Longer story than this already long story short.. Everything was eventually ok, the house just got really smokey. So it smells bad.. but they were eventually able to get the fire out that evening. All it really took out was the majority of their fence and some of the trees. So thank goodness.
Moral of both stories are that the power of prayer is real. In both situations we prayed so hard for everything to be ok and to work out. In the end, everything did.
2 Nephi 32:9 ----> Moroni 7:26.
Love you all!
~Elder Lowder
So this past week has been absolutely insane. How do I start. Well we had splits with the zone leaders on Tuesday into Wednesday, and that was pretty fun. Getting to see other missionaries is always fun, being banished out here in Yerington. We finished the lessons with the 3 kids that we were teaching (ages 9-10) and so the ZLs came up for the interviews. Everything went well, but one of the kids (Desaray) was saying that she wasnt going to be baptized because she didnt know if she could keep the word of wisdom.
Keep in mind this is a 9 year old girl. She was saying that when shes older shes going to want to drink tea and cofee. At first we were like whaaat!? We figure it was just because she has an older sister who does all that and isnt a member. We finally found out that she was just scared and doesnt like doing anything in front of people. So we finally told her everything would be ok and this and that and she decided to do it. So that was good. Then the night before the baptism we get a call from the other girl (Kimmy) and she said she wasnt gonna do it because she wanted to wait for her mom. Long story short on that is that if she waited for her mom it wasnt going to happen. Her parents are split up and her mom went crazy and so that wouldnt have happened. Finally the morning of though we got there and everything worked out, and they all did it. It was a great baptism.
So this past Friday was an interesting day. We woke up and had our studies and we could just here the wind going crazy outside. It was super windy.
Normally that is our Hawthorne day and we got calls saying the roads were closed to Hawthorne because it was too windy, semis and things were getting tipped over it was so bad. So we decided to go to the Cliftens and make our baptismal programs and get that outta the way. A little later we get a call from brother Allred who was in Carson. (We live with the Allreds fyi.) He says, "Elders could you run back to the house and check on it and make sure Sister Allred is ok? The house is on fire." We were like WHAT?? So we rush back out of town to the house and the road is barricaded off from both sides and the Sherriff wouldnt let us through. We kept tellin him hey our house is right there can we go make sure Linda (Sister Allred) is ok? And prepare to evacuate? He kept saying no, there is a cop already going around telling people to prepare. He was just yellin at us tellin us no in that jerky cop way. So we were like forget you! And went back a little and down an ally and hopped like 6 fences and went through backyards to get to our place. We got in finally and there were piles of leaves around the house on fire and some of the trees were too. We were sure the place was gonna go up in flames. We ran into the house and started ripping our stuff out of the closets and putting them into our bags. Sister Allred was trying to get some stuff together too. We realized there wasnt enough time and a fireman came in and said guys you dont need to quite yet but be ready to evacuate. So we closed the door and just got out Journals, scriptures, and camera and that was it.
Kissed the rest of the stuff goodbye. A man came in and said guys Linda is leavin its about time you get out of here. So we said ok and shut the door to gather things together and then all of a sudden a different fireman busts in and starts swearin at us and tellin us to get out now. He grabbed Ferguson by the collar and threw him outside onto the gravel, then did the same to me. We were like dude calm down. He starts swearin at us again sayin if we go back anywhere near here we would be arrested. We were like uhh this is the first time we were told to actually evac.. cool your jets. And then we left. had no idea what was gonna happen. The wind was so bad all it did was feed the flames and kick them around. It was bad. Longer story than this already long story short.. Everything was eventually ok, the house just got really smokey. So it smells bad.. but they were eventually able to get the fire out that evening. All it really took out was the majority of their fence and some of the trees. So thank goodness.
Moral of both stories are that the power of prayer is real. In both situations we prayed so hard for everything to be ok and to work out. In the end, everything did.
2 Nephi 32:9 ----> Moroni 7:26.
Love you all!
~Elder Lowder
Nov 16, 2009- week 8
Hey everyone. Another week already? Wow. Its week 3 in transfer 2 already.
Crazy. Where did October go? And its already half way through November.
Dang. Things sure are flyin by, and this week is going to go even faster than last week did. Time does fly when youre having fun!
So this past week was pretty good, we had our P-day on Wednesday rather than on Monday, so a week and a half with no pday was kinda brutal, but it went quick. Wednesday we got to drive down to Reno for our temple day, and seeing all the northern missionaries was a blast. Our session was way packed but its always good. We had our awesome ward mission leader drive us in and we went out to lunch after.
We are still teaching quite a few people, our recent converts included. We picked up 2 more solid families last week, and have a lesson with one of em today actually. We got 3 more people set with a date for this coming Saturday, so hopefully that follows through. They are just some 9 and 10 year old kids we have been teaching that just kinda fell through the cracks.
Unfortunately nothing really funny happened last week that I can remember..
But it has been super cold the last couple of days.. I remember that. Just about the whole mission got parked for today (Monday) and yesterday. For going over miles. We didnt go over very many but there is new office staff in so they are always really strict to start out to get brownie points with the president. So we have been absolutely freezing our butts off having to walk everywhere. Its like 5 miles walking just to get in and out of town. So its been pretty fun. Who'da thought id have to bust out my scarf, gloves, and beenie in Nevada? Not me. Buuuut whatevs, its all good. We're still pressing forward and counting our blessings.. trying not to complain. :) Thanks again everyone for all the love and support.
Till next week..
~Elder Lowder
From Jordan's Mission President:
With the holiday season at our doorstep, we assume that you may be planning to send mail and packages to your missionaries who are here in the field. If you will follow the suggestions offered, you will help us in the office immensely during this busy time of the year. Also you will have the best assurance that your mailings will get to their desired destination in time.
a. Mail early. Plan to shop and ship in a timely manner.
b. Letter mail should continue to come to the mission office (address
above). We faithfully turn the mail around in 24 hours.
c. Packages (UPS, USPS, or FedEx) should be sent DIRECTLY to your
missionary. These should be sent before December 15, 2009 as transfers will occur on that day. We will ask your missionary to e-mail you their addresses on Monday, November 16th. We will also ask them to e-mail their
new after December 15th. If you have not sent a package to arrive before
December 15th, please wait for the new e-mail from your Missionary.
d. Please pass this information along to your extended family.
e. After January 1st, please resume sending everything to the mission
office.
f. Direct any questions to the Sister Morgan.
Elder Lowder's address is: 221 hwy 208 Yerington, NV 89447
Crazy. Where did October go? And its already half way through November.
Dang. Things sure are flyin by, and this week is going to go even faster than last week did. Time does fly when youre having fun!
So this past week was pretty good, we had our P-day on Wednesday rather than on Monday, so a week and a half with no pday was kinda brutal, but it went quick. Wednesday we got to drive down to Reno for our temple day, and seeing all the northern missionaries was a blast. Our session was way packed but its always good. We had our awesome ward mission leader drive us in and we went out to lunch after.
We are still teaching quite a few people, our recent converts included. We picked up 2 more solid families last week, and have a lesson with one of em today actually. We got 3 more people set with a date for this coming Saturday, so hopefully that follows through. They are just some 9 and 10 year old kids we have been teaching that just kinda fell through the cracks.
Unfortunately nothing really funny happened last week that I can remember..
But it has been super cold the last couple of days.. I remember that. Just about the whole mission got parked for today (Monday) and yesterday. For going over miles. We didnt go over very many but there is new office staff in so they are always really strict to start out to get brownie points with the president. So we have been absolutely freezing our butts off having to walk everywhere. Its like 5 miles walking just to get in and out of town. So its been pretty fun. Who'da thought id have to bust out my scarf, gloves, and beenie in Nevada? Not me. Buuuut whatevs, its all good. We're still pressing forward and counting our blessings.. trying not to complain. :) Thanks again everyone for all the love and support.
Till next week..
~Elder Lowder
From Jordan's Mission President:
With the holiday season at our doorstep, we assume that you may be planning to send mail and packages to your missionaries who are here in the field. If you will follow the suggestions offered, you will help us in the office immensely during this busy time of the year. Also you will have the best assurance that your mailings will get to their desired destination in time.
a. Mail early. Plan to shop and ship in a timely manner.
b. Letter mail should continue to come to the mission office (address
above). We faithfully turn the mail around in 24 hours.
c. Packages (UPS, USPS, or FedEx) should be sent DIRECTLY to your
missionary. These should be sent before December 15, 2009 as transfers will occur on that day. We will ask your missionary to e-mail you their addresses on Monday, November 16th. We will also ask them to e-mail their
new after December 15th. If you have not sent a package to arrive before
December 15th, please wait for the new e-mail from your Missionary.
d. Please pass this information along to your extended family.
e. After January 1st, please resume sending everything to the mission
office.
f. Direct any questions to the Sister Morgan.
Elder Lowder's address is: 221 hwy 208 Yerington, NV 89447
Letter from Brother Lindsey
From: David Lindsey [mailto:davidlindsey22@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:16 AM
To: jofergus@teius.net; dmlowder@comcast.net
Subject: Elders Ferguson and Lowder
Special greetings to the families of Elder Ferguson and Elder Lowder. I took a picture of them recently for our ward bulletin and thought that you may enjoy receiving it also.
Elders Ferguson and Lowder are a blessing to our ward. They have a good spirit with them and relate well with each other and with the people in the Yerington area. I have been with them to visit inactive and part-member, families and they are received very well. Our ward has about 640 members, but only about 140 of them attend regularly, so we have excellent opportunities to share the gospel. We visited Ken and Tanya Jackson the 2nd day that they were here and had a warm welcome. Ken is not a member and Tanya is a life-long member that has not been attending church. They were married in August by our Bishop Darrington. They have a 3 year old son, Zachary that had been healed miraculously twice after receiving priesthood blessings last year. Ken will be baptized this Friday - He has attended church for the last month. On our first visit, it was clear that the Jacksons had time and were receptive to being taught. Elder Ferguson did a nice job of teaching them a discussion and in including Elder Lowder and myself in the discussion. I was impressed with the confidence and humble spirit of Elder Lowder in teaching a few points and in bearing his testimony (I think that this was his 3rd day in the mission field.). Also after we visited families that had not been to church in decades, I would ask each of them of their impressions of the family and the potential to teach them in the near future. Both Elder Lowder and Elder Ferguson were perceptive and had been prompted by the Holy Ghost about when and how they could work with each family.
My wife and I have been in this area about 6 months. We have full confidence in Elders Ferguson and Lowder to meet and teach friends and family of our members.
Thank you for teaching and loving your sons so well, and for supporting them as they serve in this mission and our ward. You can rejoice in their obedience and faithful service. They are in good health and doing a great work.
Your brother in Christ,
David Lindsey
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:16 AM
To: jofergus@teius.net; dmlowder@comcast.net
Subject: Elders Ferguson and Lowder
Special greetings to the families of Elder Ferguson and Elder Lowder. I took a picture of them recently for our ward bulletin and thought that you may enjoy receiving it also.
Elders Ferguson and Lowder are a blessing to our ward. They have a good spirit with them and relate well with each other and with the people in the Yerington area. I have been with them to visit inactive and part-member, families and they are received very well. Our ward has about 640 members, but only about 140 of them attend regularly, so we have excellent opportunities to share the gospel. We visited Ken and Tanya Jackson the 2nd day that they were here and had a warm welcome. Ken is not a member and Tanya is a life-long member that has not been attending church. They were married in August by our Bishop Darrington. They have a 3 year old son, Zachary that had been healed miraculously twice after receiving priesthood blessings last year. Ken will be baptized this Friday - He has attended church for the last month. On our first visit, it was clear that the Jacksons had time and were receptive to being taught. Elder Ferguson did a nice job of teaching them a discussion and in including Elder Lowder and myself in the discussion. I was impressed with the confidence and humble spirit of Elder Lowder in teaching a few points and in bearing his testimony (I think that this was his 3rd day in the mission field.). Also after we visited families that had not been to church in decades, I would ask each of them of their impressions of the family and the potential to teach them in the near future. Both Elder Lowder and Elder Ferguson were perceptive and had been prompted by the Holy Ghost about when and how they could work with each family.
My wife and I have been in this area about 6 months. We have full confidence in Elders Ferguson and Lowder to meet and teach friends and family of our members.
Thank you for teaching and loving your sons so well, and for supporting them as they serve in this mission and our ward. You can rejoice in their obedience and faithful service. They are in good health and doing a great work.
Your brother in Christ,
David Lindsey
Nov 9, 2009 - week 7
Another week, and we're already well into this next transfer. This last week was way good, we had a lot of good things happen.
First off, last week was fast Sunday and we have been struggling with this one family that we have been teaching. Their kid, Gavin, was the main one we went to teach, but his soon to be Step Dad, David, sat in on the lessons.
His mom, Kathy, is a member (inactive). So they are planning to be married in 8 months or so in May and that is way too long. And like two or so weeks ago David just randomely said that he couldnt believe he was going to be a mormon cause I guess when he was younger his mom and was way against the church and still is, and he used to bash mormons and stuff. And now he wants to be baptized. We hadnt commited or asked him at all before. When we first met with him he was atheist and against everything and now hes had a 180 degree change. Anyway that was some background. Now we fasted for them mainly, among some other things, and for help to get them to move their wedding day up. Cause David cant be baptized till they are married, and 8 months is way too long. Thats 8 months of Satan working on them to tear them apart. So then a couple days later Fergy got a letter from his dad with a talk from the President of the Relief Society and it was perfect. 100% answered our prayer. We used it in our last lesson with them and reeeeeally got them thinking and considering moving it. Kathy even said maybe February.
Shes the most stubborn, and David wouldnt mind moving their date at all.
Whats annoying is shes the member and doesnt want to move it. She even still wants to get tatoos and all this other stuff.. when we keep telling her that she shouldnt. Frustrating.. but we are making good progress.
So this last weekend was really good. We had a baptism on friday and saturday. Fridays was Ken Jackson, a guy we have been teaching for a while.
With him it was pretty cool too he had been waiting for like 3 months for us to come and praying and then we show up and answer his prayers. The baptism went really well, I had to talk on the Holy Ghost. I still dont like giving talks, but it went well I guess. Saturday was Gavins and I talked on the Holy Ghost for his too. We had a member in the church baptize Ken, it was a member that was a convert and came from the same faith that Ken did, which was baptist. We had Gavins grandfather baptize him. On Sunday I confirmed Ken which was really cool. I was so nervous haha, but it was a great experience. Hes such a solid guy, its just his wife.. who is a member but she has been inactive since she was like 14. Shes gonna be tough but we're trying to get her to come back. She says she wants too but has every excuse in the book each sunday.
Anyways, good week last week and this week we get to go to the temple in Reno on Wednesday. So we're excited for that. We are also hoping to set 3 more people with baptism dates this week, so we'll see what happens.
Hope you all have a great week, Ill check in next week!
~Elder Lowder
First off, last week was fast Sunday and we have been struggling with this one family that we have been teaching. Their kid, Gavin, was the main one we went to teach, but his soon to be Step Dad, David, sat in on the lessons.
His mom, Kathy, is a member (inactive). So they are planning to be married in 8 months or so in May and that is way too long. And like two or so weeks ago David just randomely said that he couldnt believe he was going to be a mormon cause I guess when he was younger his mom and was way against the church and still is, and he used to bash mormons and stuff. And now he wants to be baptized. We hadnt commited or asked him at all before. When we first met with him he was atheist and against everything and now hes had a 180 degree change. Anyway that was some background. Now we fasted for them mainly, among some other things, and for help to get them to move their wedding day up. Cause David cant be baptized till they are married, and 8 months is way too long. Thats 8 months of Satan working on them to tear them apart. So then a couple days later Fergy got a letter from his dad with a talk from the President of the Relief Society and it was perfect. 100% answered our prayer. We used it in our last lesson with them and reeeeeally got them thinking and considering moving it. Kathy even said maybe February.
Shes the most stubborn, and David wouldnt mind moving their date at all.
Whats annoying is shes the member and doesnt want to move it. She even still wants to get tatoos and all this other stuff.. when we keep telling her that she shouldnt. Frustrating.. but we are making good progress.
So this last weekend was really good. We had a baptism on friday and saturday. Fridays was Ken Jackson, a guy we have been teaching for a while.
With him it was pretty cool too he had been waiting for like 3 months for us to come and praying and then we show up and answer his prayers. The baptism went really well, I had to talk on the Holy Ghost. I still dont like giving talks, but it went well I guess. Saturday was Gavins and I talked on the Holy Ghost for his too. We had a member in the church baptize Ken, it was a member that was a convert and came from the same faith that Ken did, which was baptist. We had Gavins grandfather baptize him. On Sunday I confirmed Ken which was really cool. I was so nervous haha, but it was a great experience. Hes such a solid guy, its just his wife.. who is a member but she has been inactive since she was like 14. Shes gonna be tough but we're trying to get her to come back. She says she wants too but has every excuse in the book each sunday.
Anyways, good week last week and this week we get to go to the temple in Reno on Wednesday. So we're excited for that. We are also hoping to set 3 more people with baptism dates this week, so we'll see what happens.
Hope you all have a great week, Ill check in next week!
~Elder Lowder
Oct 29, 2009 - week 6
Hey all, first day of transfer 2 out of 17. That first transfer went by way fast. FYI, one transfer is 6 weeks and transfers are when they move missionaries around the mission. So this time Fergy and I are both staying in Yerington. We both were about 95% sure we were cause generally when you are getting trained you stay for 2 transfers. So I was glad. Plus we get along great so thats another bonus.
So this past week was good we had fun. We are still teaching all the same people, havent found anyone new in a bit but thats ok. I got to do my first Zone Leader splits this last week which was fun. Some more good tracting stories too.. first off we had a classic missionary story happen. We were tracting and we go into this little gate into a yard and this dog walks up behind us and is looking all innocent so we were like whatever and went and knocked on the door. The dog sprints to the gate, gets his nose in there and rips it open. We were like.. oh no. We ran after them and were praying the people werent home because im sure we looked like idiots.. so we chase after the dog and he just ran. I sprinted after him and went around a corner and finally caught him. So i dragged him back by the chain and right when I got to the gate he jumped and got out of his collar. Ferguson caught him by the neck fat and we finally got him back in. Hopefully no one was watching out of there window..
Another story, we went to dinner with this somewhat less active guy named Dave Hudson. Hes kinda crazy to say the least. We dont think hes completely there. He just has some crazy ideas about uhh.. things. Anyway, so he took us out to dinner at this mexican restaurant and he is just going on and on with all these stories that hes got which are hillarious, a lot of them are too bad to share.. but Fergy and I the entire time were just looking at each other like.. what the crap is this guy doing we're missionaries.. and hes telling us all these crazy and mostly bad stories. It was really funny though. So Fergy has this card called the awqward card that we pass whenever something realy awqward happens. The people have no idea what it means so whenever they do something like that whoever has the card pulls it out and says "oh woops I think this is yours." or something like that and puts it in the others front shirt pocket. Its awesome. Anyways, so we could have had like 15 awqward card passes during that dinner. One of the things he said that I can share.. lol.. was how he was in the marines and stuff. Just randomely hes looking around and hes like "So one of the things in the marines we learned.. was how to make everything a deadly weapon. Everything in this place is a deadly weapon for me." He picks up a cup and hes like "I can strangle anyone with this." Puts it down and Fergy and I look at eachother and try to contain ourselves from busting up laughing. Then he picks up a tortilla chip and we just couldnt hold it in anymore we start busting up laughing. He goes "and I could slit someones juggular vein with this." (basically slit your throat) Oh man it was too much. So I start picking things and asking him how he could with anything. Like straws and hot sauce bottles and stuff. Oh man it was so funny. That guy cracks us up.
Anyways dont worry we were completely safe hes not dangerous or anything anymore. Hes just a goon.
Anyways sorry this email might be kinda long. But I had to share some funny stories. So we have 2 baptisms this weekend, Ken Jackson and Gavin Burrows.
And a lot more to come! Its been going good, till next week!
~Elder Lowder
So this past week was good we had fun. We are still teaching all the same people, havent found anyone new in a bit but thats ok. I got to do my first Zone Leader splits this last week which was fun. Some more good tracting stories too.. first off we had a classic missionary story happen. We were tracting and we go into this little gate into a yard and this dog walks up behind us and is looking all innocent so we were like whatever and went and knocked on the door. The dog sprints to the gate, gets his nose in there and rips it open. We were like.. oh no. We ran after them and were praying the people werent home because im sure we looked like idiots.. so we chase after the dog and he just ran. I sprinted after him and went around a corner and finally caught him. So i dragged him back by the chain and right when I got to the gate he jumped and got out of his collar. Ferguson caught him by the neck fat and we finally got him back in. Hopefully no one was watching out of there window..
Another story, we went to dinner with this somewhat less active guy named Dave Hudson. Hes kinda crazy to say the least. We dont think hes completely there. He just has some crazy ideas about uhh.. things. Anyway, so he took us out to dinner at this mexican restaurant and he is just going on and on with all these stories that hes got which are hillarious, a lot of them are too bad to share.. but Fergy and I the entire time were just looking at each other like.. what the crap is this guy doing we're missionaries.. and hes telling us all these crazy and mostly bad stories. It was really funny though. So Fergy has this card called the awqward card that we pass whenever something realy awqward happens. The people have no idea what it means so whenever they do something like that whoever has the card pulls it out and says "oh woops I think this is yours." or something like that and puts it in the others front shirt pocket. Its awesome. Anyways, so we could have had like 15 awqward card passes during that dinner. One of the things he said that I can share.. lol.. was how he was in the marines and stuff. Just randomely hes looking around and hes like "So one of the things in the marines we learned.. was how to make everything a deadly weapon. Everything in this place is a deadly weapon for me." He picks up a cup and hes like "I can strangle anyone with this." Puts it down and Fergy and I look at eachother and try to contain ourselves from busting up laughing. Then he picks up a tortilla chip and we just couldnt hold it in anymore we start busting up laughing. He goes "and I could slit someones juggular vein with this." (basically slit your throat) Oh man it was too much. So I start picking things and asking him how he could with anything. Like straws and hot sauce bottles and stuff. Oh man it was so funny. That guy cracks us up.
Anyways dont worry we were completely safe hes not dangerous or anything anymore. Hes just a goon.
Anyways sorry this email might be kinda long. But I had to share some funny stories. So we have 2 baptisms this weekend, Ken Jackson and Gavin Burrows.
And a lot more to come! Its been going good, till next week!
~Elder Lowder
Oct 26, 2009 - week 5
Week 5 in the field already.. wow this transfer is already over almost! I am about 95% sure Ill be staying in Yerington since training is usually 2 transfers long. So 6 more weeks of training! Im glad though I love Yerington the people are so cool. Im looking forward to vegas though so I can have p-days with other missionaries to play some bball or football. Thatll be fun. Anyways...
Had a good week this last week, our investigators are continuing to progress very well. We have 2 dates set and within the next tranfer or two we should have 8 more baptisms. That is our goal with the investigators and part members that we currently have. So 10 upcoming more or less. Ken, which is our main focus as of right now, has been to church the last couple weeks. He is really solid. He loved the meetings these last two weeks and he was practically bearing testimony in gospel essentials yesterday. It was awesome. Gospel essentials has been really good for me too, the lessons have been on the millenium and whatnot, which I love studying. Good stuff.
The other day Ferguson and I were doing our studies in the morning as usual and all of a sudden we hear brother Allred yell "Lindaaaaa" (these are the members we are staying with) so we run out and there is a thick black haze down the hall and into the kitchen/family room and it smell like burnt plastic way bad. Turns out sister Allred (Linda) was boiling out the grease out of the pan they used for breakfast and she left the plastic spatula in there and went and laid down. The spatula was just a puddle by this point and it was smoldering. Brother Allred is such a goon hes so funny just to look at. We love him :).
Another funny story, we were tracting and this Mexican guy was riding his bike and I stopped him to talk to him. He could hardly understand english but we were offering him a book of mormon and we were like hey we have a spanish one in out car follow us. Hes like OK! So we turn around and start walking to our car. We look back and he just rode off. We were like uhh.. so we ran to our car and chased him down. We gave him the book :).
Well this past week has been really good! Apparently the last missionaries were kinda morons so we've been working really hard to build member trust here and we have done a really good job of it i think. The members didnt used to do much for us at the beginning but now they are working really hard and well with us. Its awesome.
Till next week..
~Elder Lowder
Had a good week this last week, our investigators are continuing to progress very well. We have 2 dates set and within the next tranfer or two we should have 8 more baptisms. That is our goal with the investigators and part members that we currently have. So 10 upcoming more or less. Ken, which is our main focus as of right now, has been to church the last couple weeks. He is really solid. He loved the meetings these last two weeks and he was practically bearing testimony in gospel essentials yesterday. It was awesome. Gospel essentials has been really good for me too, the lessons have been on the millenium and whatnot, which I love studying. Good stuff.
The other day Ferguson and I were doing our studies in the morning as usual and all of a sudden we hear brother Allred yell "Lindaaaaa" (these are the members we are staying with) so we run out and there is a thick black haze down the hall and into the kitchen/family room and it smell like burnt plastic way bad. Turns out sister Allred (Linda) was boiling out the grease out of the pan they used for breakfast and she left the plastic spatula in there and went and laid down. The spatula was just a puddle by this point and it was smoldering. Brother Allred is such a goon hes so funny just to look at. We love him :).
Another funny story, we were tracting and this Mexican guy was riding his bike and I stopped him to talk to him. He could hardly understand english but we were offering him a book of mormon and we were like hey we have a spanish one in out car follow us. Hes like OK! So we turn around and start walking to our car. We look back and he just rode off. We were like uhh.. so we ran to our car and chased him down. We gave him the book :).
Well this past week has been really good! Apparently the last missionaries were kinda morons so we've been working really hard to build member trust here and we have done a really good job of it i think. The members didnt used to do much for us at the beginning but now they are working really hard and well with us. Its awesome.
Till next week..
~Elder Lowder
Oct 19, 2009 - week 4
Hey all, another good week. We got a lot done, for this being such a small town in the middle of no where we sure are busy. We taught like 12 lessons this week, which for a place like this is way good. All of out investigators are continuing to do very well. We tracted into a family that attends the Vinyard church, which I think is a church that is only here in Yerington.
Its a Christian denomenation. It was way suprising that they let us in too, apparently the Vinyard is one of the churchs that bashes mormons and preaches anti stuff. I never saw the point to that... why do some churches bash others? Useless in my opinion. Anyways, we have 2 people set with dates, both at the beginning of November. We had our best investigator, Ken, at church yesterday and he had a great time. It was a great Sunday for him to start at, the talks were awesome and the gospel principles class went really well. I learned a lot in it too haha. It was about like the second coming and the millenium and stuff. The other guy with a date is a 9 year old named Gavin. Hes out in Hawthorne, we go there every Friday. We'll probably have around 5 more baptisms within the next transfer. This first transfer ends in like 2 weeks, so next will be a busy one.
Ahhh yeah, life is good. I still think about home and everything alllll the time, but im havin a blast out here at the same time. Mission life is sweet, its kinda wierd having everyone tend to every need they think we might have, we are bombarded with stuff all the time. Just the other day we went to these old members house to visit, the Rempps, and we shared a thought and were about to leave after a bit and they went in the back and came out with bags of toilet paper and cold medicine and gatorades and food and a bunch more stuff. It was funny. He also gave us both 20 bucks. We feel bad going there cause they always give us stuff.
Anyways.. Ill try to answer some of those questions you guys had.
About my trainer more, his name is Elder Ferguson, hes from Alberta Canada, in a little town called Cardston above the Montana border. Hes a little shorter than me, but more stocky. He used to do freestyle motocross back home, and he snowboarded a bit too. We get along great. Hes way laid back, but at the same time hes a very hard worker. He has taught me alot, and I love the good example that he is. He doesnt just give up or have us go in early, we endure to the end of the day.
Mom, thanks for your testimony on Joseph Smith. I have grown to love and respect him a lot more out here than I ever did. I believed in him and everything, but that was about as far as it went. I love and respect him so much more he is amazing. I cant wait to find out what hes like and what he was like before this life. There was a little thing in the church history or something like that on him talking to Brigham Young where he said "If you knew who I was before this life you would kill me for blasphemy." Or something along those lines. I dont think that is a direct quote but it was something like that. Makes me really wonder haha. But yeah hes the coolest.
Hope you like your new calling!
Taylor, thanks for emailing me this week! Hmm those kind of people are tough, all I can say is just show her what she has. In alma in the book of mormon it talks about how everything denotes that there is a God and its so true. How could all of this just fall into place? The earth with all the planets in line giving gravity, the earths rotation making day and night so perfect, its orbit providing seasons so perfect.. chance? I dont think so.
All the different types of animals, technology where it is today, people?
You think all of this came from a single celled organism? I dont think so.
Ask the parents to help you with any variations on that but she cant deny all of that. Theres just no way. Then ask the missionaries for a Finding Faith in Christ dvd and watch it with her. I think your friend probably only doesnt believe in got because of her parents, but whatevs. What has God done for her she asks? Given her life, a family, good health, good friends.. the list is endless. Taylor thanks for being the best sister ever, sorry for every being a bad brother to you I was an idiot. Youre the best!
Anyways, I love you guys your the best family I could ever ask for!
Anyways, have a good week all! Love you guys, ~Elder Lowder
Its a Christian denomenation. It was way suprising that they let us in too, apparently the Vinyard is one of the churchs that bashes mormons and preaches anti stuff. I never saw the point to that... why do some churches bash others? Useless in my opinion. Anyways, we have 2 people set with dates, both at the beginning of November. We had our best investigator, Ken, at church yesterday and he had a great time. It was a great Sunday for him to start at, the talks were awesome and the gospel principles class went really well. I learned a lot in it too haha. It was about like the second coming and the millenium and stuff. The other guy with a date is a 9 year old named Gavin. Hes out in Hawthorne, we go there every Friday. We'll probably have around 5 more baptisms within the next transfer. This first transfer ends in like 2 weeks, so next will be a busy one.
Ahhh yeah, life is good. I still think about home and everything alllll the time, but im havin a blast out here at the same time. Mission life is sweet, its kinda wierd having everyone tend to every need they think we might have, we are bombarded with stuff all the time. Just the other day we went to these old members house to visit, the Rempps, and we shared a thought and were about to leave after a bit and they went in the back and came out with bags of toilet paper and cold medicine and gatorades and food and a bunch more stuff. It was funny. He also gave us both 20 bucks. We feel bad going there cause they always give us stuff.
Anyways.. Ill try to answer some of those questions you guys had.
About my trainer more, his name is Elder Ferguson, hes from Alberta Canada, in a little town called Cardston above the Montana border. Hes a little shorter than me, but more stocky. He used to do freestyle motocross back home, and he snowboarded a bit too. We get along great. Hes way laid back, but at the same time hes a very hard worker. He has taught me alot, and I love the good example that he is. He doesnt just give up or have us go in early, we endure to the end of the day.
Mom, thanks for your testimony on Joseph Smith. I have grown to love and respect him a lot more out here than I ever did. I believed in him and everything, but that was about as far as it went. I love and respect him so much more he is amazing. I cant wait to find out what hes like and what he was like before this life. There was a little thing in the church history or something like that on him talking to Brigham Young where he said "If you knew who I was before this life you would kill me for blasphemy." Or something along those lines. I dont think that is a direct quote but it was something like that. Makes me really wonder haha. But yeah hes the coolest.
Hope you like your new calling!
Taylor, thanks for emailing me this week! Hmm those kind of people are tough, all I can say is just show her what she has. In alma in the book of mormon it talks about how everything denotes that there is a God and its so true. How could all of this just fall into place? The earth with all the planets in line giving gravity, the earths rotation making day and night so perfect, its orbit providing seasons so perfect.. chance? I dont think so.
All the different types of animals, technology where it is today, people?
You think all of this came from a single celled organism? I dont think so.
Ask the parents to help you with any variations on that but she cant deny all of that. Theres just no way. Then ask the missionaries for a Finding Faith in Christ dvd and watch it with her. I think your friend probably only doesnt believe in got because of her parents, but whatevs. What has God done for her she asks? Given her life, a family, good health, good friends.. the list is endless. Taylor thanks for being the best sister ever, sorry for every being a bad brother to you I was an idiot. Youre the best!
Anyways, I love you guys your the best family I could ever ask for!
Anyways, have a good week all! Love you guys, ~Elder Lowder
Oct 12, 2009 - week 3
Hey all, 3rd P-day in the field, exciting stuff. Time is so weird out here. Some days it feels like are dragging on.. but weeks go by pretty fast. Its already the 4th week of the transfer, and each transfer is 6 weeks with 17 transfers total. A transfer is when we get moved around areas, although we may be in an area for up to 3 or 4 transfers depending.
I am really starting to enjoy Yerington. We got to go to church for the second time since it was conference last Sunday. Its the best way to get to meet members since they are all gathered there. There are a lot of awesome members here, we get fed pretty well. Not as well as I will when I go to Vegas, but pretty often considering its a small town. We usually have 4 or so scheduled dinner appointments a week and if we dont have one we go to Cindys and she feeds us. Cindy is the awesome lady that I talked about that happens to also cause the most problems for us haha. Thats how it works though I guess, opposition in all things.
This past week we did pretty well, 4 investigators attended church and we have one set with a baptism date. We are hoping for around 4 more to have set with dates to be baptized. Those 4 are all 9 and 10 year old children with inactive parents. We are hoping that the kids will set the example and get the parents going again. For a small town like this we are sure pretty busy so thats good.
Some times things are pretty frustrating, especially when you run into the people that dont care or done believe at all. You just want to slap them across the face and somehow get them to realize how important these things are. So many people dont care for and dont see how important the gospel or religion in general is. I dont see how they can not believe.. what would be the point of life? To live and die and then nothing? Those people are so afraid of the future and dont realize that they dont have to be if they would just listen. I didnt really pay much attention probably less than a year ago and didnt care too much for it.. but being out here for the short time I have thus far has really opened my eyes.. I just want to be able to tell everyone and get everyone to listen. Theres so much more to life that so many people have no idea about and its awesome. The gospel is the coolest, most exciting/interesting thing there is and I love learning about it. The mission is also the best thing ever because you learn so much in just 2 years that it would take people who arent set apart and whatnot like 40 years to learn. Everybody should take part in this great work, though it may be difficult, it is the most rewarding experience ever. No one ever said it would be easy, they said it would be worth it.
~Elder Lowder
I am really starting to enjoy Yerington. We got to go to church for the second time since it was conference last Sunday. Its the best way to get to meet members since they are all gathered there. There are a lot of awesome members here, we get fed pretty well. Not as well as I will when I go to Vegas, but pretty often considering its a small town. We usually have 4 or so scheduled dinner appointments a week and if we dont have one we go to Cindys and she feeds us. Cindy is the awesome lady that I talked about that happens to also cause the most problems for us haha. Thats how it works though I guess, opposition in all things.
This past week we did pretty well, 4 investigators attended church and we have one set with a baptism date. We are hoping for around 4 more to have set with dates to be baptized. Those 4 are all 9 and 10 year old children with inactive parents. We are hoping that the kids will set the example and get the parents going again. For a small town like this we are sure pretty busy so thats good.
Some times things are pretty frustrating, especially when you run into the people that dont care or done believe at all. You just want to slap them across the face and somehow get them to realize how important these things are. So many people dont care for and dont see how important the gospel or religion in general is. I dont see how they can not believe.. what would be the point of life? To live and die and then nothing? Those people are so afraid of the future and dont realize that they dont have to be if they would just listen. I didnt really pay much attention probably less than a year ago and didnt care too much for it.. but being out here for the short time I have thus far has really opened my eyes.. I just want to be able to tell everyone and get everyone to listen. Theres so much more to life that so many people have no idea about and its awesome. The gospel is the coolest, most exciting/interesting thing there is and I love learning about it. The mission is also the best thing ever because you learn so much in just 2 years that it would take people who arent set apart and whatnot like 40 years to learn. Everybody should take part in this great work, though it may be difficult, it is the most rewarding experience ever. No one ever said it would be easy, they said it would be worth it.
~Elder Lowder
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Week 2
Hey all! Another week here in the field has come and gone, and it picked up pretty quick this week. Feels like I was writing an email for last week just yesterday. We are about halfway done with this transfer already, but Im pretty sure I will be here at least one more transfer if not more. I do like it here in Yerington, but I think I will like the city just as much if not more. I dont know, Im not too big on the small town thing. So this week we had a Zone Meeting in Fallon and that was nice, getting to see all the other missionaries. Dont get me wrong I love Elder Ferguson, but its nice to get to do things in a group, ya know? We went a little early and hung out at the zone leaders place for a little bit and they have a sweet apartment.. makes me a little jealous. Its not too bad living with members, but it would be wayyy better to not haha.
So we currently have like 8 progressing investigators, 4 of which are kids.
The kids all want to be baptized but the thing is we are a little hesitant because we want to get the parents reactivated so the kids dont just get baptized and not go to church ever. We are pretty optimistic about that though and are hoping to have it taken care of soon. The other investigators are progressing well, one of them we go visit every Friday cause he is out in Hawthorne. His name is David. The first lesson we had with him he wasnt too sure about any of it he had a ton of questions and his own beliefs he threw at us. I think he was just trying to stump us but we had an answer for everything and told him to pray about what we talked about and everything.
We went back this last Friday and he was a lot more receptive and interested. His son Gavin was our main reason for going out there but we are hoping to reactivate Gavins mom and get David interested in the Gospel too.
Our other main investigator is Ken and he is super receptive and just really wants to get through the lessons and get baptized. Hes doing well.
So yeah everything is going well, the main thing I dont like about the small town thing is there seems to be a lot moroe drama here than back home in a big ward. Our like main asset is this member named Cindy. She is super awesome and helps us out all the time and we have dinner there a lot. She seems to know everyone and has tons of refferals and things for us but she is also a big problem for us. The thing is within the ward there are a lot of rumors going around about her and she is really sensative and gets her feelings hurt easy. So a lot of times she just calls us and has us come over and stuff and she like tells us all these stories and starts crying and stuff and its like what the heck.. its like we're having to do all this missionary work and at the same time we are being therapists. We have to be careful because a lot of missionaries have gotten in trouble because of false accusations with her so we are on our toes. A lot of this probably isnt making much sense without the details but whatevs.
Yeah we got to go to all of conference and it was great. I think its just because Im on a mission now but I appreciate and like it so much more now.
Jeffrey R. Holland is the best I dont know how he wasnt just translated to the celestial kingdom right then and there. It was amazing. I wish the Prophet would have spoke more, I didnt feel like he gave us enough.
Priesthood was great too.
Thats pretty much it for this week, thanks for all the support and emails, keep me posted too!
So we currently have like 8 progressing investigators, 4 of which are kids.
The kids all want to be baptized but the thing is we are a little hesitant because we want to get the parents reactivated so the kids dont just get baptized and not go to church ever. We are pretty optimistic about that though and are hoping to have it taken care of soon. The other investigators are progressing well, one of them we go visit every Friday cause he is out in Hawthorne. His name is David. The first lesson we had with him he wasnt too sure about any of it he had a ton of questions and his own beliefs he threw at us. I think he was just trying to stump us but we had an answer for everything and told him to pray about what we talked about and everything.
We went back this last Friday and he was a lot more receptive and interested. His son Gavin was our main reason for going out there but we are hoping to reactivate Gavins mom and get David interested in the Gospel too.
Our other main investigator is Ken and he is super receptive and just really wants to get through the lessons and get baptized. Hes doing well.
So yeah everything is going well, the main thing I dont like about the small town thing is there seems to be a lot moroe drama here than back home in a big ward. Our like main asset is this member named Cindy. She is super awesome and helps us out all the time and we have dinner there a lot. She seems to know everyone and has tons of refferals and things for us but she is also a big problem for us. The thing is within the ward there are a lot of rumors going around about her and she is really sensative and gets her feelings hurt easy. So a lot of times she just calls us and has us come over and stuff and she like tells us all these stories and starts crying and stuff and its like what the heck.. its like we're having to do all this missionary work and at the same time we are being therapists. We have to be careful because a lot of missionaries have gotten in trouble because of false accusations with her so we are on our toes. A lot of this probably isnt making much sense without the details but whatevs.
Yeah we got to go to all of conference and it was great. I think its just because Im on a mission now but I appreciate and like it so much more now.
Jeffrey R. Holland is the best I dont know how he wasnt just translated to the celestial kingdom right then and there. It was amazing. I wish the Prophet would have spoke more, I didnt feel like he gave us enough.
Priesthood was great too.
Thats pretty much it for this week, thanks for all the support and emails, keep me posted too!
Mission Field
Hey everyone, sorry I didnt get to write last week, Tuesday was my mtc pday so I didnt get one last week, so theres that. Out here in the field my pday is Mondays, which is kinda nice having it right after Sunday.
So my last week in the mtc was a blast, I really loved the MTC. Including the food Chris, yes I did love it and I miss that a lot. I miss the mtc in general, I loved my district and I dont get to see them anymore cause we are all so far away from each other. The dream team (Me, ELder Snow and ELder
Deloach) finished strong, we played thirteen games in the last couple days and didnt lose any. It was in basketball so you know, and you can only do three on three or less. So we did and we dominated :). Ya the last couple days have been rough in the field cause for some reason I have felt really trunky and a little depressed, if im not thinking about home and missing home and all of you I just think about the mtc and i miss being there with everyone. It sucks haha. Oh well Ill get over it soon hopefully.
So guess where my first area is? A little podunk town in the middle of no where called Yerington Nevada. Its a little east of Carson City and about an hour away from everything. I havent grown to love it yet. Its not terrible, but I kinda wanted to stay in vegas cause it reminds me of arizona and I wouldve liked it. We are staying in a members home, the Allreds, they are nice. Its cool there tho cause my companion and I both got our own queen size bed haha. And a really nice bathroom too. My trainers name is Elder Ferguson, hes cool I like him. We get along really well. So now they are giving each companionship a phone so we got one of those and we got a car too.
So its a pretty humbling experience to be in Yerington, cause it has been closed for about a year. The mission president (being called and set apart with the keys and revelation over this mission) felt inspired to open the area back up, so my first area is one that my companion and I have to open up. He called us and talked to us for a bit when we got here and told us that, and that he trusts and has faith in us that we can make great things happen here. So who knows, so far its been going really well we have been really busy. And day after day we get tons of refferals from people. We've taught like 10 lessons already to people out here and they have all gone well. Theres a lot of nice and receptive people to teach. Also the ward mission leader and ward missionaries are really dedicated and hard working people. We have a feeling that things are going to explode here in Yerington. We are most likely going to have at least 3 baptisms this month, and i wouldnt be suprised if we had a few more than that. Its awesome :D.
And yeah my trainer said that its insane how much work we are getting in a small town like this, its pretty exciting.
About the pictures, sorry its taking so long I will be mailing them home soon.
Hmm what else.... Tell the animals I miss them. Only a little though. Ugh thinking of hooooome i miss it so much.
Well thats about all for today, until next week!
Love,
~Elder Lowder
So my last week in the mtc was a blast, I really loved the MTC. Including the food Chris, yes I did love it and I miss that a lot. I miss the mtc in general, I loved my district and I dont get to see them anymore cause we are all so far away from each other. The dream team (Me, ELder Snow and ELder
Deloach) finished strong, we played thirteen games in the last couple days and didnt lose any. It was in basketball so you know, and you can only do three on three or less. So we did and we dominated :). Ya the last couple days have been rough in the field cause for some reason I have felt really trunky and a little depressed, if im not thinking about home and missing home and all of you I just think about the mtc and i miss being there with everyone. It sucks haha. Oh well Ill get over it soon hopefully.
So guess where my first area is? A little podunk town in the middle of no where called Yerington Nevada. Its a little east of Carson City and about an hour away from everything. I havent grown to love it yet. Its not terrible, but I kinda wanted to stay in vegas cause it reminds me of arizona and I wouldve liked it. We are staying in a members home, the Allreds, they are nice. Its cool there tho cause my companion and I both got our own queen size bed haha. And a really nice bathroom too. My trainers name is Elder Ferguson, hes cool I like him. We get along really well. So now they are giving each companionship a phone so we got one of those and we got a car too.
So its a pretty humbling experience to be in Yerington, cause it has been closed for about a year. The mission president (being called and set apart with the keys and revelation over this mission) felt inspired to open the area back up, so my first area is one that my companion and I have to open up. He called us and talked to us for a bit when we got here and told us that, and that he trusts and has faith in us that we can make great things happen here. So who knows, so far its been going really well we have been really busy. And day after day we get tons of refferals from people. We've taught like 10 lessons already to people out here and they have all gone well. Theres a lot of nice and receptive people to teach. Also the ward mission leader and ward missionaries are really dedicated and hard working people. We have a feeling that things are going to explode here in Yerington. We are most likely going to have at least 3 baptisms this month, and i wouldnt be suprised if we had a few more than that. Its awesome :D.
And yeah my trainer said that its insane how much work we are getting in a small town like this, its pretty exciting.
About the pictures, sorry its taking so long I will be mailing them home soon.
Hmm what else.... Tell the animals I miss them. Only a little though. Ugh thinking of hooooome i miss it so much.
Well thats about all for today, until next week!
Love,
~Elder Lowder
Final week at the MTC
Hey everyone! Thanks for all the emails, love hearing from the outside world. We are so confined here, haha its kind of wierd. Anyways, things are going super well! We're all having a blast here, I love it. But for sure I cant wait to be out in the field, im so looking forward to living in an apartment, I hate the dormitory style living. Ya mom, everyone in my district minus 4 are going to Las vegas west with me, we got our flight itinerary and we leave the 21 at like 8 in the morning. The 4 that arent going with us in my district are going to our home mission! Kennewick Washington! Crazy huh? So watch for Elders Koolhoven, Deloach, and sisters Larsen and Tolman.
Anyways, loving all the studying and practice teaching and everything that we do I am learning so much. We had a teaching appointment yesterday and Elder Lloyd and I rocked it, it was so fun. We had these 3 old guys, and they were so touched it was fantastic. We also (on Sunday) had this really great fireside and after we watched Testaments. Such a good movie, literally EVERYONE was in tears at the end. Who wouldnt be though after seeing all those people torchering Jesus, but then when he comes back down and heals everyone.. aggh thats a tear jerker. Next sunday we are going to watch the Joseph Smith movie. Lookin forward to that.
Lets see... yeah so all in all Im doing really well! Minus the fact that one of our awesome teachers, Sister Harper, quit yesterday :( She has been searching for what she needs to do in life a lot lately and I guess she felt prompted by Heavenly father to quite everything and then he will lead her.
So she dropped her masters degree program again (3rd time..) quite her job as a elementary school teacher, and left us allllll yesterday. Pretty crazy huh? I have faith that she will be ok tho, shes so awesome. We still have the amazing Brother Dixon though. Hes the best, he is a spiritual giant and is super funny at the same time. He teaches us a lot.
Oh and I did get the Dearelder, it was late but thats ok. Havent gotten a package yet tho, hopefully I will soon.
Well, love you guys.. till next week!
Elder Jordan Lowder
Anyways, loving all the studying and practice teaching and everything that we do I am learning so much. We had a teaching appointment yesterday and Elder Lloyd and I rocked it, it was so fun. We had these 3 old guys, and they were so touched it was fantastic. We also (on Sunday) had this really great fireside and after we watched Testaments. Such a good movie, literally EVERYONE was in tears at the end. Who wouldnt be though after seeing all those people torchering Jesus, but then when he comes back down and heals everyone.. aggh thats a tear jerker. Next sunday we are going to watch the Joseph Smith movie. Lookin forward to that.
Lets see... yeah so all in all Im doing really well! Minus the fact that one of our awesome teachers, Sister Harper, quit yesterday :( She has been searching for what she needs to do in life a lot lately and I guess she felt prompted by Heavenly father to quite everything and then he will lead her.
So she dropped her masters degree program again (3rd time..) quite her job as a elementary school teacher, and left us allllll yesterday. Pretty crazy huh? I have faith that she will be ok tho, shes so awesome. We still have the amazing Brother Dixon though. Hes the best, he is a spiritual giant and is super funny at the same time. He teaches us a lot.
Oh and I did get the Dearelder, it was late but thats ok. Havent gotten a package yet tho, hopefully I will soon.
Well, love you guys.. till next week!
Elder Jordan Lowder
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