Mt. Charleston, new calling, and a flood!

Hey guys, a lot of stuff to cover this week, so be patient with me.

So we'll start with Monday. Monday was great because of our trip to Mt. Charleston; it was SOOOO nice to see some mountains, trees, and snow (snow in Las Vegas, Nevada), I was in heaven. I didn't really realize how much I miss the wilderness until I was standing in the shade of some of the tallest trees I've ever seen. It really made me want to make a trip out to Northern California to check out the redwoods. All I want to do upon returning is travel and explore, I've decided. Not the most effective use for a 21 year olds time (or is it?), but I'm looking forward to it.

All week we've been looking forward to/dreading transfer calls. President Black (our mission president) calls on Wednesdays for leadership calls and then the assistants call on Saturdays with regular transfer calls, letting you know where you're going and who you'll be serving with for the next six weeks. Well, much to our surprise, the phone rang on Wednesday and it was President Black. I answered, thinking he'll call me to be a trainer again, or maybe a district leader. I was not expecting that he'd call me to be a new Zone Leader. Yeah, I'm a Zone Leader now, and I'm really, really nervous. I skipped District Leader and now my new companion and I are in charge of 20 or so other missionaries. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next couple of months; there are only two other ZL's as young as I am, and I have way less experience. I'm excited, but scared. The assistants called on Saturday to let me know where I was going, and I'll be serving in the Lakes Zone with Elder Torgersen, which I'm really excited about. I've heard awesome things about Elder Torgersen; apparently he's a musician and an incredible missionary. I'm looking forward to serving with him. I have to be at transfers early today to pass out planners and welcome everyone into our zone...the responsibilities start today. I'm nervous, like I said before, because of the responsibility of the position and my lack of experience, but I know that it'll be good for me.

 

So I'm all stressing out about being a Zone Leader, and then we come home and find what? Our apartment is flooded. For the SECOND TIME. The washer had broken again and had been running for FOUR HOURS; there were about 4 inches of water everywhere. It got all into the carpets, our bedrooms (nothing is damaged, thank heavens) and ran out the door and down the street. They have to knock down some walls downstairs because of all the damage. They tore up our carpets and we've been spending the night at some other missionaries apartment for the past couple of days. Talk about some added stress! I'll send you guys a video of it, it's pretty funny in retrospect.

 

All in all, a crazy week. The next time we'll get to email will be next Wednesday, so I'll be sure to let you know how the new area/companion/position is going. I love you all!

Jesse 

 

Snow just outside Vegas?

 

Mt. Charleston, NV

 

Happy Mother's Day Momma

What a great weekend!

Being able to Skype (isn't it weird how "skype" is now a verb?) and talk to the three of you was so great; I swear, you look happier and healthier every time we talk. Things are going so good with me gone, I should probably ask for an extension (for the family's sake). I have to tell you, I laughed the hardest yesterday than I have my entire mission so far...my stomach is still a little bit sore. Thanks for being my inspiration and my support. I'm excited to eventually model my own family after the wonderful one I've had the privilege of growing up in.

This week was spent checking on some potentials and trying to help them progress in their desire to know the truth. It's been really neat to come in contact with a lot of people who just honestly wants to know what's out there. I've been thinking a lot about the plan that God has laid out for us, the plan that He's given us to be able to return and live with him, and how so many people need to know this plan. A woman was talking about a funeral she attended (she's Jamaican, so the funeral was, naturally, in Jamaica) and how everybody there was grieving and mourning so intensely; falling on the ground and weeping. She said they wear badges with the persons face on it that says "Gone Forever, but Never Forgotten". It made me so grateful for the knowledge that I have, the knowledge that we WILL get to see those we love when they pass away, that we WILL get to live with our families for the rest of eternity. This life is but a probationary period, and it's so comforting to know that there's something after all of this, something better, something more. I love what I'm doing and I love what I'm teaching. Above all, I love what I know to be true. And I happen to know that this gospel is true.

Today ought to be fun; we're hiking Mt. Charleston today for p-day. I'll have some pictures next week!

I love you guys, thanks for yesterday (and happy mothers day, again!)

Jesse

Happy Birthday Sydney!

Happy Birthday, Sydney!

No, I didn't forget...almost did, though. Let me know when my package gets to you!

We had a couple of really neat experiences this past week. On May 13th, we're going over to Mt. Charleston to hike for a p-day (I'm really excited about it), and we went to go talk to the member who will be giving us a ride. We weren't there for more than ten minutes when his wife comes racing down the stairs; she had gotten a call from another lady in the ward who was on her way home, is pregnant, and started having severe contractions. She said she needed a blessing immediately. The three of us hopped in the members car and met the woman at her house. We (the member, the woman's husband, and the two of us) were able to lay our hands on her head and give her a blessing before she headed to the hospital (a priesthood blessing is a prayer for healing, comfort, or counsel given by a priesthood holder -- someone who has been given the authority to act in the name of God). It was a great instance of being in the right place at the right time.

Fast forward a day and we're showing up at a lesson we had set up earlier in the week. The wife met us outside and explained that her husband was really sick; he had a skin infection on the back of his head and was on bed rest. We offered a blessing, and she said "You know what, I'll ask him". He accepted, and we were able to go upstairs and bless him as well. He was incredibly appreciative and the Spirit was very strong; he invited us back at the same time next week. It's amazing to be able to use the priesthood in so many different ways, and all of them bless and serve others. I'm so grateful for the restoration of the priesthood in these latter days, and I'm so honored to be able to use it as many times as I do. To learn more about the priesthood and priesthood authority (what really separates the Mormons from other faiths), check out http://mormon.org/faq/purpose-of-priesthood.

We're finding people to teach and really loving it; May is already turning out to be an awesome month. I love you all and can't wait to talk to you on Mothers Day!

Love,

Jesse

800 lb. Gun Safe...Fun!!

Hey family,

This week has been a blur; I sit here at the computer and have to look at my planner to see exactly what it is we did all week, we were so busy. That's a good thing, though, and a great feeling. There's nothing like working hard all day and hitting the sack as soon as you get home. We helped a lot of people move this week, and one of the families had this 800 pound gun safe. Elder Biggs and I were the only two people there to help for a while, so we managed to get this hulking safe out of the house and into the trailer. When we got to the new house to unload everything, we found out we need to get it up two flights of stairs into the master bedroom...naturally, we were ecstatic. We're still sore, and that was on Thursday. Other than that, we've been out enjoying the warm weather that's slowly been creepin' on us, knocking doors and talking to people.

After our baptism last Saturday, we realized we don't have anyone who's progressing or anyone to teach, really, so we're back in the finding mode. To help us stay motivated and stay sharp on our teaching skills, we've started to ask the member families in the area to have us over for the missionary discussions. Our hope was that these lessons will touch the hearts of the members and inspire them to do some missionary work. Since we've been doing that, it's been working; the other day a family invited over a friend to come listen to us teach their family. After the lesson, she became a new investigator and accepted our invitation to read from the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. That's exactly how we're hoping these member lessons work. As we continue to teach the members, bringing the Spirit into their home, their desire to share the message of the Restoration with their friends will increase. We've been really busy with appointment after appointment because of these member lessons, but we're loving it and they're some great experiences.

Thanks for the emails and letters; logging on and seeing several unread messages in my inbox every monday is such a great feeling. I hope you guys have a great week!

Love,
Jesse

Shea Hill's baptism

Hey guys!

This has been the best week since being here in this part of Vegas, all because of Shea Hill's baptism this Saturday. It was amazing. Elder Biggs and I got to the church pretty early (about 2.5 hours early) to start setting up chairs/filling up the font. Shea and her husband, Todd, showed up an hour early beaming, so excited and ready for the sacred ordinance she's been preparing for since January. The baptism had a great turnout with some great talks by our ward mission leaders wife and Elder Biggs. When it came time for the baptism, they walked down into the font together and spent a little bit of time looking at each other, smiling. It was a great experience and the spirit was so strong. After she came up out of the water, one of their sons (six year old) goes "Do it again, mom!". Everybody laughed and I've never seen two people look as happy as they did, standing in that font. After the bishop made some remarks, Shea stood up and thanked everyone, bore a beautiful testimony of the truths that she knows with tears in her eyes and sat down. Her husband gave her a present after the service of a painting of the Las Vegas Temple; they're so excited to be sealed together for the rest of eternity next year (to learn more about our beautiful temples and the role they play in our lives, visit http://www.lds.org/church/temples?lang=eng). Definitely the highlight of my six months in this area.

We're back to the drawing board with finding people to teach, but that's all part of missionary work anyways, right? I'm on such a spiritual high right now and absolutely love what I'm doing. There's a lot of work to be done, and I'm so grateful to have a hand in it. Thanks for all the support and I hope your week was as good as mine!

Love,

Jesse

 

Todd & Shea Hill family

 

Chillin' in the desert

Hey!

This has been a pretty great week, mostly because we're preparing for a baptism this coming Saturday! Shea Hill is getting baptized and we couldn't be more excited, and neither could she. We learned yesterday at Church that her husband, who is in the process of being re-activated, can baptize her, which is the coolest thing ever. They're both so happy and it's great to see how much they appreciate the special ordinance that's going to be taking place. I love baptisms; the spirit is always so strong and the symbolism is inspiring. It's such a neat thing to witness the spiritual rebirth of a person, and you can always tell a difference when you talk to them right after the baptism. The teaching pool has been pretty thin lately in our zone, so we're really grateful to have been blessed to teach someone like Shea. They're a great family who have many great things in store; they're already talking about how excited they are to be sealed together for eternity in the Las Vegas Temple next year. I'll have the privilege of attending their sealing next year, too, and that's just about too cool. I love being a missionary so so much.

We've been doing pretty well with finding lately, too. The other day we went up to a couple of people chillin' in their garage and started to talk to them. They said they weren't necessarily interested, but when we offered service, they invited us back to help install some handicap rails for their bathroom. When we came back to help them out, they invited us in and said they wanted to "study" and learn about our religion; they had changed their minds. It's amazing how the Lord can soften the hearts of those we speak to and how a random street contact like speaking to someone in their garage can lead to an impromptu lesson out of nowhere. I'm excited to see where these people go with the information we're teaching them.

In non-spiritual news, I ran my first 5K on Saturday! The ward was doing a fundraiser for a woman who contracted non-smokers lung cancer, and one of our investigators, Sammie, was going, so we decided to show up. I'm not sure that if that was the greatest idea...I'm so sore. Everywhere. But it was a lot of fun; I'm looking forward to getting more into running when I get home. Katie tried to drag me out to do some running when we were up at Utah, but I was a little too wimpy back then. Maybe when I forget how sore I am right now, I'll think about running another 5K or something.

I love you guys and can't wait to talk on Mothers Day!

Jesse

 

Chillin' on a desert couch in Vegas

 

General Conference - Spring 2013

How awesome was General Conference?

I've been looking forward to it for so long now, I'm bummed it's over so fast. For those who don't know what General Conference is, it's a bi-annual event where the modern-day Prophet and Apostles who lead our church address us with messages they feel are important. They range from how to improve family unity to rock-solid testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ (you can check out the remarks that were made by these prophets, seers and revelators at www.lds.org). As per usual, it was awesome. So many incredible things were said and I felt often that they were speaking directly to me.

It's so difficult to pick out some of the ones that really touched me. Among them were Elder Nelson's talk about "catching the wave" of missionary work, Elder Cook's talk about world peace vs. personal peace, ALL of the talks at the priesthood session. President Uchtdorf's talk about light, DEFINITELY Elder Perry's talk about obedience. The little brown book he held up is exactly like the one I have on me at all times, given to me by my grandpa who served in World War II. I often use the section about obedience during spiritual thoughts, and I recently used it in a talk I gave in church a couple Sundays ago. So many general themes were present, like obedience to God's commandments, finding peace in our homes and families, and that we are to be the "light of the world", beacons for a troubled and divided world. I feel so rejuvenated after listening to these inspired men, and I'm so grateful we have living prophets and apostles who recieve revelation for the children of God today. It's so comforting to know that God still speaks to man through his servants, the prophets (Amos 3:7). I know that as we follow the words of His select servants, we cannot go astray.

Shea Hill, one of our investigators, is getting baptized on April 20th! We're so excited and so is she; she's absolutely amazing and has great faith in Christ and His teachings. We have a lesson with her today and then again on Thursday, and we're looking forward to it. The mission is going great and I'm so happy doing what I'm doing. I love you all and encourage anybody who is curious to speak with your local missionaries about this wonderful work, to seek out the truth and see what it is I'm actually doing out here.

Love,
Jesse

p.s. I know the picture of me holding the two AR-15's have nothing to do with General Conference, but it doesn't make it any less cool.

 

Maybe for Christmas 2014?