Home (in Reno) for the Holidays

 

Early into this transfer President Dunn called asking to speak with me, and he gave me some interesting news. It turns out there was some problem with my flight so instead of being in South America, I am still in Reno. Normally I would be pretty bummed, but I'm a little relieved just because I really don't know what else to feel. I never really knew how to feel about the whole thing in the first place. My Spanish is terrible, I have no idea what it's like in Paraguay, I would have to learn a brand new area, not to mention a brand new mission. To be honest it's kind of nice just to sort of chill in a familiar place for the Holidays. It sort of feels like home just because it feels like I've been here for a while. Other than that, this transfer has been nothing like last transfer. They really changed up the District and moved like half of the Zone out. Since everyone thought I was going to be leaving Dec. 18, they kept me in the same area but put me in a trio with Elder Nance and Elder Perreria. Elder Nance is a super diligent missionary. He's really funny in his own dorky way, but still pretty chill. On the other hand Elder Perreria is almost 2 months away from home and was reassigned from Africa. He has a ton of experience but spent most of his time in this mission on the east side. Apparently the east side of this mission is like an entirely different world. It seems a lot less strict, has really nice missionary apartments, has an extremely different landscape, also it's super cold. It would have been cool to go there. Who knows, at this rate I will end up there. Anyway, Elder Nance is like the mom of the group and Elder Perreria and I are like the epitome of the "my last two brain cells" meme. We get a lot of work done though.The thing is though, we are always super busy with a ton of stuff. Usually when I feel busy, time goes by really fast. However, the days lately have been going by really slowly. One of the first few days last week, we helped this guy move and I sort of got a hammer stuck in the wall. It wasn't really my fault, the guy was just like "Yo, try to remove this screwed in ladder holder," and I was like, "Okay!" But all he gave me was a hammer. I actually made some pretty good progress but then when removing the second screw, the hammer sorta melted into the wall. It was pretty sweet. He was cool about it though. Then another elder tried and the hammer broke. Needless to say, I am pretty sure the screwed in thing is still there. 

Elder Perreria Does a roadkill pic of the week in his weekly videos and this week's pic was a lemon that we found here on the side of the road. It wasn't very fancy but hey it was some roadkill so that's pretty dope.

Lately what we have been doing is a ton of street contacting in downtown Reno. To me it's kind of like a nastier version of Vegas, but there is definitely a sort of beauty to it. Especially at night with all of the signs lit up and all of the crazy people walking around. As dirty as the city is on the outside, the buildings look actually really beautiful on the inside. Not that I can really go in because they are sort of off limits to missionaries.

I met someone that I never thought I would meet as a missionary. His name is Brother Hutchens. We went over to the Hutchen's house a few weeks ago for dinner. I thought it was going to be a regular, run-of-the-mill member dinner/lesson but boy, was I wrong. We were there for 4 HOURS and 30 minutes. In Elder Perreria's words, "I don't know why he's not an apostle but I'm glad he's not so we can talk to him." It was one of the most fire doctrine discussions I have ever had in my entire life. I tried to keep up and hold my own but like an hour in I was just fazed. I was learning things I had never even dreamed of. Things I never even thought of. Then they dropped like $45 on each of us buying us Patagonia scarves. One of the coolest gift I got. Looking at some of the fits I can throw together now is honesty pretty stunning. 

We all went home that night spiritually and physically filled. We asked him if he was willing to teach an investigator with us. It turned out to be exactly what we needed. This particular investigator, for lack of better words, is looking more to be understood than to understand. One thing I have learned from Brother Hutchens is that the fundamental truths of the gospel are imbedded in every soul in this universe. Things such as a belief in a higher power and what the body is truly made of (mind, body, and spirit) are beliefs that people just have to be reminded of. The investigator, let's just call him Vic, has had extremely spiritual experiences throughout his life. He believes that it took being paralyzed from the waist down to lead him to God but the fact that he is at least willing to let us into his home is something. I used to dread meeting with Vic and having to realize over and over again how little I really knew about the gospel. I used to "know it all" though. Not too long ago.

Christmas was definitely a good day but nothing like my old Christmases. I remember being sooo excited and the day would go by so fast. Even up until I was a senior in High School I would just get really giddy whenever Christmas vacation came around. There are no vacations as a missionary. Sure you could argue that my one exchange to Tahoe was basically a vacation, but Christmas is about all you get. You still wake up at 6:30am. You still put on the same nametag (except I actually sleep in my nametag, idk why it's just something I do). It was really fun though. I got some more garments (woohoo) some UCHS merch, a pocket knife, like 50 pairs of socks, and like a gazillion ties. Ties are like the prison equivalent of cigarettes so it's good that I have some more currency on my hands. We got to go to the Lyman's for dinner. They are one of the best families in the ward. They have a few kids close to missionary age, so we just sorta hung out and got to play some card games with them. I also wrecked the sisters in our zone at Catan (sorry Sister Brown/Gardner). You're next PJ :) "Sometimes you have to build up to build out."

After the Lyman's we got a call from another member in the ward. They needed a blessing because their cat just died and it was REALLY hard on them. You may think it sounds ridiculous, but I was holding back tears after she told us the story. I also was really anxious because I realized right then that yeah, Christmas was fun, but it was over. I woke up the next morning really depressed because it was over. I got that same feeling in my stomach I would get after leaving a family reunion. It just hurt. But then I think, next Christmas I will have 6 months left. I can do that right? Well, I just put all of our decorations in a box this morning and Elder P and I were really tempted to throw the tree over the balcony. But the Elder that bought the tree told us no, so we ended up just giving it to him.

It snowed this morning. And now it is beginning to melt.