Tule Springs

Hey family,

Well, I'm officially a Vegas missionary! I'm in love with my new area; it's the newest part of Vegas, just about as far north as you can go. The north border of our area is literally the desert, so I'm slowly working my way into inner Vegas; first Logandale, now the Tule Springs area...I'll probably end up at the strip by the end of my mission. Just kidding, no one serves on the strip. Not yet, anyways. We cover two wards, the Silverstone and Shadow Ridge wards, and they're fantastic. We have the pleasure of working with two ward mission leaders that really care about the missionary work in their area, and they're putting us to work for sure. Not a lot went on this past transfer here as far as missionary work goes, so I've inherited kind of a dead area, but things are already picking up. We have a truckload of potentials that we're in the process of checking up on and many are looking pretty promising.

It's been odd to be back in a metropolitan area. I'm not really used to all of these fancy things like, you know, streetlights. Nah, but seriously; it's nice to have a WalMart a couple blocks away. These wards remind me of the ward back home, and there are tons of members who remind me of members back home. We live in a four man apartment with Elders Smith and Nelson and it's been alright so far. I'm not used to central A/C either; that's pretty nice. We're in the process of building this area back up, so we're insanely busy, but I'm loving every minute of it. I'm really looking forward to the remainder of this transfer as well as talking with you guys on Christmas! I don't have many details about that yet, but I think we have a members home that's planning on having us over Christmas morning. I'll have all of the specifics next week (which is Christmas Eve woohoo!).

Love you guys very much,
Jesse

 

View from my balcony back in civilization

 

Transfers!

So we waited for one of the assistants to President Black to call all Saturday morning, just wondering what was going to happen. Our district leader, Elder Jones, who was a zone leader before he dropped to train Elder Kraft, didn't get a call on Thursday like everyone thought he would. Because Jones didn't get a call (to go back to being a Zone Leader), we all thought President was going to keep everything out here pretty much the same, not moving around a lot of people two weeks before Christmas. Well, we got the call and we were wrong; I'm being sent into the Las Vegas valley! I'll be serving in the Tule Springs zone, covering two wards, companions with Elder Craft. It's one of the newest parts of Vegas, pretty far north and west. I'll get you the new mailing address pretty soon (soon meaning if not today, tomorrow) and then you can start sending things there; I should be there a while. I'm excited to finally serve in Las Vegas, sad to be leaving Logandale, and nervous about all that Vegas entails. It'll be an adventure, for sure.

Now to more important stuff: Susie and Chase are going to be baptized on January the 12th! They prayed about a date and both feel strongly about it. It's so awesome to be able to talk with and teach people like them; they've been prepared to receive this message long before I was ever "Elder Dowdle". In our mission, we're allowed to go to the baptisms of our former investigators, so I'll probably be able to come up for their baptism in January, which would be just about too cool! That's what being a missionary is all about, honestly. I love being used as a vessel for the Spirit; if it's done right, WE don't do any teaching. We just facilitate as the Spirit does the rest.

I love you guys and can't wait to skype/talk on the phone on Christmas!
Jesse

December 3rd

Hey guys,

Not too much has gone down between emails. Three of our current investigators showed up at church this weekend, which was pretty great. After sacrament meeting, we walked up to talk with Susie who had shown up even though her husband and son were out hunting. She started talking to us and said "Since I want to be baptized, I went to an 8 year-old's baptism yesterday..." and we were like "Wait, rewind just a bit". It's awesome to have an investigator profess their desire to be baptized unprompted. We have a third lesson with the family tonight so hopefully we can pinpoint a date and get them moving towards it! They're a way cool family and would fit in perfectly in the ward in which they live.
We're also teaching a sixteen year-old kid named Wyatt who just recently moved in to Logandale. We had the second lesson with him last week and Steenstra and I kind of breezed through the Plan of Salvation. Wyatt didn't have any questions and it all felt kind of weird. We were then prompted to talk and bear testimony of prayer, and then the questions started flooding in. At the end of the lesson, Wyatt accepted our invite to close the lesson with a prayer and his prayer was awesome; there's nothing like hearing someones first vocal prayer. The Spirit was there in abundance and it was too cool. Just another testimony that we don't teach a dang thing; the Spirit does everything.

We should be hearing about transfers at the end of this week, so you'll know next Monday. Thanks for all the emails and details, they help a lot!

Love,
Jesse