Week 80

Buenos días a todos

This week was a FIRE week over here in Reno! First off, we got an insane amount of snow and it was nuts. Nevada rarely gets snow like this so when it happens the entire county goes nuts. We had roads being shut down, empty roads, and no people plowing or shoveling, being here just makes me grateful for how prepared Utah is for the snow storms they get. It was nice though because we got a lot of service opportunities! You know how it goes.

Well to start off this week we had a great time going out and finding new people to teach! We've been working closer with members and less active members which has been a lot of fun and successful! We have a family that lives in cold springs which is right on the California and Nevada border above Reno, and they're so awesome! We taught an amazing lesson after driving to them in an absolute blizzard, so worth it.

We had an amazing lesson with one of our families we've been teaching. It was about the restoration and man was it powerful! We brought a member with us and he was able to Testify super strongly of his personal conversion and it was just so powerful. The family is so kind and I love it because they all gather around us and listen. It's such an awesome feeling to have that amount of respect and see their desire to love God. Just the other night out of nowhere they called us and asked if we had dinner planned and we obviously said no because we're in a Spanish branch, and they invited us over and we had some Pozole and man was it good. I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!

Holy smokes I've been so grateful for the miracles I've seen through prayer and fasting. I can definitely Testify of how powerful it is now because before my mission I really couldn't. I was able to have such an amazing personal study focused on my fasting and accompanied by prayer it was fantastic. I've learned a lot of the power you can access from such a small sacrifice. I seriously have come to love the things of the gospel which seemed habitual to me before. 

As well, this week I was studying the New Testament really closely and I absolutely loved the Gospel of Luke! The stories and the parables that are in it are spiritually impacting as well as eye opening. I've found such a great appreciation for the Scriptures and what role they play in my life. Before it was like, "oh. A book. Cool." Now for me it's, "Yo, this is God's word through His Prophets!" haha I love it. I hope all of you had a great week and that this next one will be a good one! I hope the snow is done, but here in Reno it doesn't look like it will be anytime soon. God bless! Be safe!

Luke 22:44 - And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground

(When in the most pain that us human minds can't comprehend, He prayed even more! What a simple detail with a profound lesson!)