November

 

This week FLEW by. I honestly got the days mixed up soooo many times. Other missionaries always told me that time would move by really fast, and I had never really felt that until now. This week I did a little creative budgeting. Every 2 weeks we get about 30 dollars for groceries. I normally buy pretty basic stuff for cheap like eggs, almond milk, cereal etc. Well this week I had to sacrifice all of those things because I needed one really important, yet really expensive thing. Protein powder. Don't get me wrong I still had enough, but let's just say it was a lot of oatmeal and leftovers this week to suffice. The important thing now is that I can get swol. It's tough though because those morning insanity workouts take a lot out of me. The only thing that gets me through the morning is Shaun T and his inspiring voice. Last week was recovery week which meant this week we went HARD. There is a video named "cardio power and plyometric force." You literally cannot beat that name. 

This week's district council was about being BOLD. This is something that's really important when extending invitations and stuff. The cool thing about being a missionary is you have the authority to promise blessings as a result of people fulfilling their end of the deal. I overheard a missionary in a lesson say, "so can we, like, um..... extend an invitation?" I was so disappointed. You gotta be bold! That's how Jesus Christ was. Being bold is something that I was never super good at before my mission. I never felt comfortable just asking for something. I always felt like I needed to do something in return. The good thing I have something in return. And it's better than anything I could make on my own. But yeah, being bold is super important.

Each week we do a zoom call with the whole mission. It's kind of like a "pre-zone conference." The whole mentality of President Dunn lately is "short and powerful" messages. That's what he does for us so that we can share those short and powerful (and more frequent) messages with everyone else. Anyway, someone got absolutely wrecked in the mission chat because Zone Conference was changed to all online instead of just half online and one elder dropped a "new guidelines?" in the chat. Everyone reacted to it with a thumbs down and then President Dunn gave this super long talk about how Covid-19 was getting better and vaccines are on the way and that I'm gonna be in Paraguay eating chipas pretty soon (haha jk but idk). The point was, we were not going back into quarantine and we never will be again (hopefully). That is until Covid-20 happens. But yeah that was a huge surprise because sooooo many rumors were going around because cases in Nevada skyrocketed.

I left the Summit Ridge apartment last Thursday. The move had been pushed back soooooo many times, and I was kind of sad when it finally happened. We had crashed with Elder Briggs and Elder Carl (20 mins outside of our area) for about 2 weeks but we definitetly got along with them really well. Elder Briggs served in Chile for about a month until he was sent home and got what he said "the big sad." He was just super happy to be back out on the mission, no matter where it is. People don't realize but most missionaries in the U.S. are re-assigned and not only did they serve in other countries, but they also had to come home. Like for a long time. I really lucked out because I was early enough to leave by the end of summer and late enough to miss quarantine. Sure, I didn't go to CCM or Paraguay but I'll tell you one thing, if I came home I would just die to go back. So it's settled, I'm never coming home. Before we left Summit Ridge I signed Elder Carl's transfer journal which isn't a transfer journal at all, its a toilet seat. I thought it would be pretty funny if I drew a picture of a toilet on the toilet seat as my signature.

We moved into our new apartment which is SUPER nice just because it's new. Missionary apartments are usually filled with useless junk and leftovers from other missionaries. Luckily, that's not the case for us. As first timers in this apartment, we get to make the rules and set the tone. The sad thing is I have to go back to paying for laundry which is even more expensive now. 

Our Mission has a lot of goals. One goal that was made during MLC was that each companionship has a baptism by Christmas. It's a high goal but it's definitely achievable. The amount of miracles I've seen on my mission thus far is just insane and I cannot even name them all. Every night at 9:45pm the entire mission kneels in prayer in unity to ask for help achieving this goal. We ask specifically to find those willing to "let God prevail" just as Russell M. Nelson revealed was the interpretation of the word"Israel." I encourage anyone who is willing to join us at 9:45pm to do so. There are many people out there who are kept from the truth simply because they know not where to find it. We want to change that.