Noah on a Mission

Dear family and friends, It's been an interesting week. Before I say anything, if you read nothing else in this email, read this article I'm recommending. I just read it today and it's really great. The article is "The Temple and the Natural Order of Marriage" by Elder Bruce C. Hafen, found in the September 2015 Ensign. It is not just about marriage; it talks about Adam and Eve, temples, and sacrifice. Again, it's really good. I ask all of you to give it a read. I've been thinking about missionary emails. We are supposed to keep our emails positive--refrain from complaining and trashing the area you're in, and I get that and I have no desire to do that--but it has the effect, I think, of making us look pretty good. Better than we are, maybe. I probably come across as some kind of spiritual guru who's on top of things. But really, I have many days sullied by difficulties, some external and many internal. It's really hard sometimes. My compan...

Happy Monday everyone, I'm with a new companion: Elder Smith. He's a great Elder, and we're enjoying ourselves. Even doing things I'm normally not into has generally been pretty enjoyable, like tracting. Knocking on people's doors is not something we do as a first resort, and usually I'm glad for that because it's often so unpleasant on both ends. But Elder Smith makes it fun. He's actually into the whole "finding" thing, and he's really good at it, which I love. It really helps me get into it when my companion is good at it. We've already found a good amount of new people to teach in this short week. Some great potential investigators. Something new I learned about yesterday at church was the Orson F. Whitney vision. Orson F. Whitney was an apostle from 1906 to 1931, and he saw a vision/dream of the Savior's Atonement. It's super cool. The vision as he recorded it can be found in "The Divinity of Jesus Christ...

Transfers are upon us! I'm now halfway done with my time here in Las Vegas. My companion Elder Knowles is leaving my area, but I am staying and getting a new companion, Elder Smith. My scripture for you all today is John 10:15-18. They made this section into a  bible video: https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/the-good-shepherd-and-other-sheep-i-have?lang=eng There's incredible power in Jesus's words here. He gave up his life 100% willingly. He had the power to lay it down, and he had the power to take it again. One thing that was hard recently was losing Kaylene, our new investigator, and her family. Everything started off wonderfully and we thought we had a shot at baptizing them. No such luck. She liked everything up until we started talking about "James Smith". Though she accepted a Book of Mormon, she claimed she wasn't "spiritually in a place where she can read it" right now. She found reasons not to trust us in the mistakes we mad...

I hit my one month mark two days ago, which is crazy. The first transfer ends next week. It's been another solid week. I learned a couple things about the Book of Mormon. For one thing, a story with someone named Aminadi is mentioned with the Lord writing on a wall or something to that effect, but it's mentioned as if the story is in its full form elsewhere in the Book of Mormon when it totally isn't. There's a missing Book of Mormon story somewhere! Another thing is the people of Hagoth, who were Nephites who sailed away from America and never returned. All that's said of them is "we presume they were drowned in the sea", but when visiting New Zealand, President Joseph Fielding Smith said to the Maori people present, "I want you to know that you are the people of Hagoth." Not only that, but prior to the Restoration, Maori wise men prophesied that a "true religion" would someday be revealed unto them. Awesome. Did any of...

Last Monday we had a crazy night for one reason; one of our investigators was sick and we had leftover chicken noodle soup from a ward potluck. The problem was, we seemingly would have to walk it all the way over because we have no car. Elder Knowles felt like that would not be a good use of our evening, however, but still wanted to get the soup to the investigator. The solution? Carry the big pot of soup as we bike. Yep. Elder Knowles rode full-speed carrying a big, heavy pot of soup while biking hands-off the entire way. It was an amazing feat. And we saw the blessings right away: because we did it quickly instead of walking, we found some street contacts who were really excited to talk to us. If we hadn't biked the soup over to the investigator, we never would have run into them. Really cool. It was also the first night I truly felt like representative of Jesus Christ, which a missionary is supposed to be. The family we street contacted that night is pretty cool. W...

This third week went by quickly, and yet each day feels like an age. Though nothing super interesting has happened, I'm learning each day. The most interesting thing was an exchange with Elder Dowse, another two-transfer missionary, my companion Elder Knowles's last companion before me. He's on his second transfer. Where before with Elder Taylor I went to his area and was led around by him, this time the Elder came to my area and I had to lead him. It was nerve-racking to be the one in charge of the day's efforts where normally it's Elder Knowles leading me. Almost everything we set out to do fell through anyway, though. But we got to teach two lessons that went fairly well. Some stuff Elder Knowles has taught me is how missionary work really doesn't stop when you  get home. It's every member's responsibility to welcome every investigator and every new convert into the fold and try to retain them. If converts don't stay members of t...

This second week has been the hardest, but it's looking up already. I had several days wherein it was incredibly difficult for me to comprehend the thought of doing this for two whole entire years. Talking with President Walker has helped me to take it one day at a time. I don't yet know exactly how I'll be feeling at the end of the two transfers in Vegas, but if it all goes as the last few days have gone, I think I'm going to be just fine. We were allowed to watch the funeral of President Monson several days ago, which was a new experience. I remember learning of Gordon B. Hinckley's death nearly a decade ago, but not watching a Prophet's funeral. We're a church led by unmistakably remarkable men. I went on an exchange with Elder Taylor two days ago. He currently serves in an area much nicer than mine, and drives a car where we ride bikes. Changing things up for a day was great, and I learned a lot from him. First, about how the Las ...