Quilici Ranch

 

One of our investigators has been notoriously hard to track down, but on Monday we finally got to see her in person. Over the phone she sounded like she was a teenager, but she's actually in her thirties. She's got a really bubbly personality and is crazy energetic all of the time. When we found her she was putting up more Halloween decorations for the "tenth time". We started talking about the Book of Mormon and she immediately wanted to start reading it. She asked us after reading, "hey where is Nephi so I can live there?" One thing that was really hard for her to grasp was that the God of Jerusalem and the God of America are the same. It's been kind of fun starting from scratch because she said that there was a time in her life where she was "anti-Christ". She's come a long way, and whenever we text her she just goes insane with the emojis-- it's so funny.

Normally even the idea of District Council Meeting would put me to sleep because I used to hate meetings, but our last one was so awesome. We all had to talk about a Christlike attribute and the one I was assigned was Humility. I used to think humility or meekness was weakness. But meekness is actually having power, but turning to God and trusting his guidance. A great scripture about this topic is in the Book of Mormon, Ether 12:27. Of course Christ is the best example of someone who is meek. He certainly had power, but did the will of His Father. 

Elder Dalton and I, in an effort to stay in shape, have started Insanity. If you aren't familiar with Insanity--that's good because it's painful! It's a series of work-out videos led by Shaun T, and involves a bunch of cardio and power movements. Even when it's freezing in the morning, I still feel the burn. It's a lot of running in place and jumping around so our neighbors got mad at us one day. Now we have to do it outside which gets my hands fully black from the asphalt. Still worth it.

The one guy that we have on date for baptism is progressing really, really well. We have finally made it through the "hard lessons" like tithing and chastity. He has said that changing his lifestyle has brought peace and love into his family's life. I really couldn't describe living the Gospel in any other way. 

Our little area extends from the west side of Reno all the way to a little Ranch Town called Verdi off of Quilici Ranch Road. The drive there was so pretty. There were storm clouds looming overhead so I thought we were going to get some rain, but of course we didn't. We were helping a non-member, Uncle Bob, pick apples and this was the 3rd time we got to pick apples this week. We now have like 40 pounds of apples, and we don't really know what to do with them. He wanted as many apples gone as possible because bears go up to his trees and just completely destroy them looking for apples. He showed us videos and there are like 3 huge bears there every night. Quilici Ranch one of the most beautiful places I've ever been too. 

It's been a good week!