Dallin, Nick, and Kyler

8 months today.

I'm freakin' out just a little bit as I look back at the last 8 months, the first third of my mission. Last night I was lying awake in bed staring at the ceiling, thinking about how I spent that first third and if I was happy with it. After close review, I'm really happy with how it's been spent. I can't believe that it's been that long already, and it's even harder to believe that when I'm done training Elder Biggs I'll be out for ten months. It's scaring me how fast time is flying by; every second-hand tick from my watch is another second of my mission down the drain. Lately I've been focusing on making every second count. It's either that or buy a new watch.

So I'm sure those of you on Facebook saw, but Dallin, Nick, and Kyler from the U surprised me at dinner! Turns out Dallins grandparents live in Shadow Ridge ward and when we pulled up to dinner, the three of them passed by in Nicks car. My stomach flipped; it was so surreal seeing the three of them walk up to the car, smiling and laughing. It was like two worlds colliding, but it was so incredibly awesome being able to see them. We reminisced on good times and crazy times and made some plans for summer of 2014. I'm so grateful for friends like them; I love you guys, and I'm grateful I was able to share a little bit of my testimony with you. You'll never know how much your friendships and our memories together mean to me.

Teaching and finding has been going pretty well this week; it's strange how our boundaries have been cut down but the teaching pool has grown. I guess it makes total sense; with a smaller region to proselyte in, we're able to pay more attention and devote more time to teaching those within our area. Hopefully some of these potential investigators will feel the Holy Ghost bear witness to them the truth of the message we share and we'll be able to lead them farther down the path to eternal salvation. I love what I'm doing, and I hope you guys are having as much fun as I am.

Love,
Jesse

Kyler, Jesse, Nick, and Dallin in Las Vegas

Return to Logandale! - for a day

Hey guys!

This week absolutely flew by; I feel like I was in here emailing yesterday. Weeks where we work really hard always seem to pass quickly, and man, did we work hard this week. We had some great experiences contacting earlier this week; found three seperate families that are interested in our message (two from tracting, one from talking on the street) and we're meeting with one at 4:00 today. That's been the kicker, actually; every single person we've found that wants to learn more about our Church can ONLY meet on P-day. I mean, I'm way super grateful to have people to teach (honestly) but we have six other days....I'll stop complaining.

I was able to go back up to Logandale with Elder Steenstra on Saturday to go to a baptism! A kid we had taught named Wyatt was baptised, and it was an awesome service. We got up there a little bit earlier than expected, so we went around and said hi to a lot of the people we missed (unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to get to all of them :(). One of the first stops was at the Guesmans, the family that was baptised up in January that I wasn't able to go see. Visiting with them was the highlight of my week (year). When they told me that they're planning on being sealed together as a family in the Manti, Utah temple, I just about lost it. It's amazing to see a family like this make so much progress and be so happy, and I'm so honored to be used as a vessel for the message and Gospel that's changed their lives, as well as mine.

Our lessons went really well this week; Elder Biggs is a great teacher and surprises me with how much he's learning and how much he already knows. The work is moving forward in our tiny little area of Shadow Ridge ward (3 mile perimeter) and I know it's because of the prayers that we've offered up and the prayers offered in our behalf- thank you.

I hope everything is going just as well down there! I hope the weather is just as nice, too!

Love,

Jesse

New Companion - Elder Biggs

Hey,

So, this has been a pretty full week! My new companion is Elder Biggs, an 18 year old from Huntsville, Alabama. He spent eleven days (11 DAYS!) in the MTC and now he's out in the field. I'm pretty impressed, especially after looking back in my journal and thinking about where I was eleven days on my mission. He wants to work, which is all I really asked for, so this has been a really great and productive week in this area. This is my first round as senior companion and it's really weird to have to initiate planning and finding situations, especially with the calling of trainer. There's some pretty heavy responsibility on my shoulders now, as it's up to me to demonstrate how a fully functioning missionary should act and perform. I find myself often second-guessing and over-analyzing all of my methods and actions, just in case I'm doing something incorrectly. When I'm not stressing over my example, I'm doing missionary work.

On Saturday a member invited us to breakfast with a friend of his that's interested in learning more about our church (THAT is how it's done). His name is Sammie, and he's an awesome guy; we had a great discussion and an even better breakfast. We actually just came from teaching him the Restoration and it was a really awesome lesson. He feels the Spirit and wants to read from the Book of Mormon and learn how he can have a better relationship with God and Jesus Christ. We're going to go over to his place on Thursday and work out with him, so that ought to be pretty fun. The Hills are progressing really well, and they're great people as well. It's such a blessing to be able to share our message with such a wonderful family.

Everything is going well here in Vegas, the weather is amazing and the work is good. Just a couple weeks and it's going to start getting hot, which is a bummer for a lot of people, but I'm actually looking forward to sweating my face off. This is going to be my only full summer in the mission, so I really hope I'm on bike so I can earn the sweat rings in my white shirts.

I hope everything is going well everywhere else!

Love,

Jesse

 

Elder Dowdle & Elder Biggs

 

Traaaaansfers

Well, I got a call on Thursday from President Black, and he asked me if I would like to train a new missionary. Of course, I said I'd love to and I'd do my best. Almost immediately after hanging up, I could feel the responsibility on my shoulders. I'm going to meet my new companion tonight around 5:00, and he's going to be as green as they come; right off of the plane. I'm really excited about it all, and I have a really good feeling about this next transfer. I'm looking forward to tapping into that "greenie fire" that new missionaries carry; they're always excited to work and work hard. I attended a meeting on Friday where they train the trainers, and I think it was then I started to acknowledge the import of these next twelve weeks. I was there with MY trainer, Elder Millar, who will also be training (I'm going to have a brother!), and it got me looking back upon my experience with him. I learned so much from him and am grateful for his example, and I'm almost afraid to think about how influential those first twelve weeks were with him. We grew close and he taught me how to be an effective missionary, never talking down to me or making me feel inadequate; he gave me opportunities to teach and let me make mistakes so I could learn from them. For the next three months, I will have the opportunity to make a similar impact on my new companion. I want it to be as positive and effective as possible, and I'm way pumped for it all.

All of our lessons cancelled on us this week, which is always a bummer. We're probably going to have to move Manny's baptism back a week or two due to the delay in lessons. I have a feeling, though, that these lessons were cancelled/didn't come to fruition so my new companion could have the opportunity to teach them. I have a testimony of "the right missionary at the right time" deal, and I can't wait to see what great things have been waiting for my companion and I as we start this ministry together. I'll be staying in this ward for the next three months, which will make six months in this area, so don't expect to be hearing about moving around any time soon. Thanks for all of the emails and know that I'm praying for you!

Love,

Jesse

Train the Trainers Meeting

Tule Springs Zone

President's Day at Red Rock

Sorry for the delay!

Yesterday was Presidents Day, which I guess is a cool holiday if you happen to be the President of the United States of America, but I happen to be a missionary who has to wait a day to email his family because all of the stinkin' libraries are closed. If I was President, I'd change something about that, methinks.

 

Great, awesome week. We've been doing a ton of teaching and I'm loving it. In one of our wards, there's a seventeen year old kid we're teaching, Manny, who is the epitome of a "golden investigator" of the church. We've been able to teach him three lessons in the past week and a half and his baptism date is set for March 2nd! In our last lesson, we were talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how baptism is essential and a saving ordinance. He then tells us about all of the places he's been reading about baptism in the Book of Mormon and how amazing it makes him feel. We were kind of shell-shocked, especially since some of the verses he had read and highlighted on his own were the ones we were going to share next. Amazing kid; so on-top and soaks up information like a sponge.

 

We then were able to have a lesson with the Hills, and that was great, too. We shared the message of the Restoration and it went really well; she said she had tons of questions but that it all boiled down to one - "What makes your church different from other Christian churches?". In our minds, we were like "what a perfect segue..." and the first lesson covered all of her concerns. Teaching in a three-pack is interesting; you know it's your turn to teach when your two companions have their heads turned towards you (we were laughing pretty hard about that last night). We have another lesson with them this upcoming week on the Plan of Salvation and we're way excited about that.

Yesterday, for P-day, we went as a Zone to Red Rock, a cropping of, well, red rocks outside of the city. It was way fun; I've really missed hiking. The way up was pretty strenuous, as there were no trails, but being on top was way fun. I have some pictures of my friend Elder Houghton and I doing some tai-chi and meditating at the summit, I'll probably send them. Good way to spend a P-day, just wish I could have emailed yesterday as well!

I love you guys, and hope your Presidents Day wasn't as semi-lame as mine!

Jesse

Tai Chi at Red Rock

Elder Houghton and I searching for our inner selves...
Never found them...

Working with the Zone Leaders for two weeks!!

Hey there,

So, Elder Craft flew out at 9:10 on Thursday morning and from then on I've been with my two Zone Leaders, Elder Larson and Elder Woodard (I reflexively typed "Woodlands"). These guys are absolutely great and have made what could have been a very awkward and discouraging time a good one. Larson has four months left and Woodard has six, but both work very hard and I've laughed more in the past five days than I have in the past six months. It's nice to see such a functional balance of humour/fun and missionary work and the Spirit. 

Because they came in and split up our last area, it's been really easy to go back to covering a ward I've already served in (Silverstone). It's only for two weeks, seeing as transfers are February 25th. President told me I'll be back in my old apartment with a new companion, so I'll probably stick around in this area for another three months, which I'd enjoy greatly. This is an awesome part of Vegas and I love the people. I've been able to teach two lessons in the past five days, which is two more than I've taught these past two months! These guys are awesome and I'm continually learning from them; they don't make me feel like less of a missionary due to age or position and they like to work hard, which I'm a pretty big fan of (and they're both Rush fans). 

We have an appointment set up with the Hills, the part member family with the 6 and 3 year old sons, Wednesday at 4:00. This will be our first time meeting with them, and I'm pretty excited. She (the wife) asked us if she could still drink coffee as a Mormon, and we explained the Word of Wisdom (http://www.lds.org/topics/word-of-wisdom?lang=eng for those who are curious) and she said "It's going to be tough, but I can do it", which is encouraging to hear. This has been a very refreshing couple of days, and I'm having more fun than I thought I could have. 

Hope everything is going just as well, if not better, down south!

Love,
Jesse

Me, studying hard

Temple P-Day

Crazy, crazy week.

This week has been weird and, honestly, I'm glad it's coming to an end.
Elder Craft fell on his bike about a year ago on his mission and broke
his left wrist. He underwent surgery here in Vegas and spent a couple
weeks recovering about 6 months ago or so. He's been experiencing pain
a lot lately and so we went to the doctors on Monday to see what's
going on. Really long story short, it's still broken and he has to
undergo another surgery, a more severe operation than last time.
They've decided it would be better if he underwent this surgery in
Seattle so he could recover close to home. Plus, he's been out almost
23 months now, so he's pretty much done anyway. He leaves tomorrow
morning. This is all really soon and sudden, and I'm probably going to
have to three-pack it with my Zone Leaders until transfers, which is
the 25th of February. This means for the next two weeks, I'll be
companion-less and having to bounce between several different wards
until transfers roll around. Pretty crazy stuff...it's been consuming
everything this past week and a half.

Going to the temple today was really neat; I enjoy temple P-days. It
leaves us with a little less time to shop and email and all of that,
but it's way worth it. There's honestly nothing like stepping into the
Lords house. I remember walking into my house on Terraglen in The
Woodlands and feeling like I left the world on the doorstep; my home
was a solitary sanctuary. The temple provides that feeling on a larger
scale, and it's incredibly nice (especially after a weird week like
this one) to walk in and spiritually recharge. Time well spent, for
sure.

I hope everyone is doing alright! Glad to see Oz is still kicking,
even if it is with only half an ear (cracks me up big time).

Love,
Jesse



Desert Fishing in Las Vegas