Going Back
In the mission, a transfer is every 6 weeks. It seems so crazy that I am already halfway through this first transfer! Days feel super long, but then, when I am in my bed at night, I always feel like the day flew by.
I got to go on two exchanges this week--meaning I got to work with a different Elder than my companion. The first was on Tuesday with Elder Fuller. He is one of the Elders that I share my apartment with so it was not a huge difference, but it is always weird not being with my companion, Elder Dalton. I am considered 'in training' and technically Elder Dalton is too because he has only been here one transfer ahead of me. He had been serving in the Philippines before Covid though, so he has more missionary experience. We are both new to Reno. Elder Fuller and I got a lot of work done. We had to bike some because the other elders needed the car.
I can't really explain this, but the whole month of October has always felt like a Thursday night to me. It's sort of like how the number 8 is grape flavored. I don't really know how to describe it. October in Reno means that it is cool in the mornings but the temp can still reach up to 85 degrees during the day. Our bedroom is freezing in the morning but we have to have 2 fans running and a window cracked just to fall asleep at night. I think one of our lightbulbs may be a heat lamp.
Like I've said before, we live in a 3 mile area that has nothing but car dealerships. Some are legit dealers straight from the factory like Cadillac or Chevrolet and others are just mom and pop used-car lots. The Chevy dealership has an inflatable monkey with GIANT teeth and sunglasses. I really want to take a picture by it but every time I walk by it's deflated--nothing but it's majestic face in a splat on the ground. One day it's gonna happen though!
The highlight of my week was going to California. Yep that's right, I took a pilgrimage back to my homeland. When LL Cool J said 'I'm going back to Cali,' I really felt that. Ha Ha--really I was only like a mile out of Nevada because I went to Tahoe. Tahoe is on the border of our mission boundaries so they can only put missionaries there that they really trust. It is considered the dream area, and it is Spanish speaking. I was there only on an exchange but it was so sick. The drive was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. When the lake pops up out of the horizon, it looks like the ocean with mountains behind it. When I got there, we went to teach a lesson in Spanish, and I got to teach it. It was good to see those long 6 weeks of CCM online finally pay off. We taught about the plan of salvation and when I asked if he understood everything, he said, "Claro," so yah. My goal for life is to baptize someone in Lake Tahoe. Maybe someday. Either way, it was the 4th time I have been to California this year. It was like getting a taste of my second home. I'm up to 900 friend requests on Facebook. I just stopped accepting them. I only get an hour on FB a day and that would take up most of that time just to accept them. I'll figure something out. A lot of them ask me about the Church of Jesus Christ so that has been way to contact people online. We've even had a few lessons over Facebook. It's definitely not knocking on doors.
General Conference in the mission field is like Christmas but 10 times better. Elder Fuller brought this super nice projector from home and we bought a ton of snacks. This was probably the first General Conference I didn't fall asleep in. It meant so much to me because I felt like the prophet and the apostles brought up missionary work sooooo much. Gary E. Stevenson's talk was probably my favorite because he told a story about a missionary who got to get her endowment at 2am the morning she left on her mission. I felt that same sort of rush to go to the temple before I left. It was so awesome. I pray every night to find people to teach. Last month we only found 1 person. This week we found 3. I don't know where these people come from or how we found them but for a long time I felt like we were running in circles and grasping at straws to stay busy. Now I go to sleep every night thinking about our long schedule the next day and laugh in my head.
The best part of my morning is playing basketball and football in the parks around here. Parks are basically campgrounds for the homeless. The city takes good care of them, but you never see any families there, just lone individuals. It makes me sad, but whenever we play a pickup game we get a whole band of random people cheering for us. Reminds me of high school. Sort of. We finally switched our sleeping situation and now each companionship has their own room. Definitely better.
During General Conference, Russell M. Nelson, our prophet, said to start paying attention to the promises God makes to Israel. That very morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi in Spanish, trying to get through it and I saw a scripture that stuck out to me. 1 Nephi 19:11: "For thus saith the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy unto salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up."
If that is not prophecy I don't know what is.
You can watch his whole talk here, about 18 minutes:
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