Friends and family-

     T'was another good week in Renooo!  I am really starting to love this area and the people here so much- its no Ely but let me tell ya, theres a couple spots in our area where at night we can see downtown all lit up and it is soooo pretty!  Never thought i'd enjoy the view of a bunch of casinos but it is beautiful. I'll have to take a picture someday (I'm the worst at taking pictures so sorry).  We started teaching this guy Tris a while ago and then he disappeared off the planet but he came back and now we are teaching him again- he's struggling with seeing the need for the Book of Mormon.  He lovvveess the bible and really wants to strengthen his faith in Jesus Christ and is not super open to the idea of another book..BUT he is slowly softening and the spirit is working on him so high hopes!

     We went on exchanges this last week with the Keystone sisters and I got to go with Sister Landgrave who I trained and it was soo fun!  It's cool to see how both of us have changed since 2 transfers ago and she is seriously such an awesome missionary.  They have downtown Reno in their area and so it was cool to work in that environment- probably one of the best parts of missionary work is getting to meet so many different type of people and hearing their stories.. it has really opened my eyes and helped to realize that I never have any reason to complain! haha.

     One of the things that our mission encourages is blessing contacts- which is basically tracting where we introduce ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and then offer blessings in the form of a prayer on peoples homes!  Honestly I have not really done it much on my mission because I keep making excuses that it won't be effective in our area but really just because I'm scared.. haha so last week I was reading in our practical application guide for preach my gospel and the spirit kept telling me that it is in their for a reason and that I need to get over myself and focus on the people so Sister Beh and I decided that we were going to make it a priority to blessing contact for at least an hour every day to help us gain a testimony of it!  Heavenly Father is so kind and helped us out- we we blessing contacting this house and the lady answered the door and agreed to allow us leave a blessing, after talking to her a little bit to get to know her and what we should include in the prayer, she opened up to us and said that her mother had just passed away and she was really not sure if she would ever see her again.. So sad but the coolest thing ever because after we prayed she was in tears and was so grateful for the comfort that she felt and now we will hopefully be teaching her!! 

     Probably the coolest miracle of the week though was yesterday- we were walking on this street and started talking to this guy, he was pretty quick to let us know that he was not interested but we asked if he knew anyone else who would be and he told us to go visit his neighbor.  So we did and it was first this old guy who answered and said 'oh boy what are you selling' hahah but then when we assured him that we weren't selling him anything (just offering eternal salvation) his wife came up behind him and told us that she was actually looking for a church!! She was super sweet and eager to learn and we are going to start teaching her family this week :) 

     I love this work.  If any of you have any tips on helping someone quit smoking who thinks theres no hope pleeeaaseee let me know :)  Have a wonderful week!!

Love, 

Sister Paul

Friends and family-

     Solid week.  We have been seeing a ton of miracles lately and it way cool to see how much Heavenly Father has been helping us out as we've focused on giving up things. We got to have mini missionaries with us this week which was way fun- I was super excited for it because I remember how much I loved going on a mini mission.  Unfortunately we only got them for one day, but I got this girl named Morgan who is a sophomore and she is wayyy cute.  She reminded me a lot of myself when I was that age.. aka focused on boys and music and a lot of things I haven't though about in a while and so it was cool to see her kinda forget about all of that stuff as we got to work.  We were talking to this guy on the street and at one point I had asked her to share how the gospel has made a difference in her life and she talked about how people always asked her why she's so happy all the time and she realized its from the gospel.  She later told me that she had never really thought about that being the reason before until we were all talking.. the Lord filled her mouth and it strengthened her testimony!  Oh also hahaha so we were doing blessing contacts which is basically tracting and offering a blessing on peoples homes..  We knocked on this guys door and he came out and told us he was atheist and that he had armed guns in his home..  I was like oh goodness of course the one time that happens to me on my mission it is with a mini missionary- hahah she handled it well though and just laughed it off so that was good :)

     We had zone conference this week which rooccckked.  Our zone is seriously so fun right now and  I just love being around other missionaries.  It was all about Teaching repentance and baptizing converts- good stuff!

     Ok so we are teaching this awesome black lady named Donna.  She is so cool but she had not came to church yet and always comes up with a reason why she can't- so this last week we took Sister Chesnut (our mission presidents wife) with us to her lesson on the atonement- it was so powerful and the spirit really helped her to know that she needed to go to church! Soooo she came yesterday and had the best experience!  Our ward was so awesome and like a million people came and introduced themselves to her and she was talking all about how she will definitely be coming next week.  She is committed to be baptized on March 19th!  Side note-  we had our mini missionaries commit her to be baptized and after they did her grandson came in and was like "Gramma we're getting bathmatized!!"  Hahah apparently he's thought that baptism was actually bathmatism for the last 4 months.. so cute lol.  

     I love this work.  It is wonderful and I am grateful for every hard thing that shapes me into what Heavenly Father wants. I hope you all have a wonderful week and let me know if theres anything I can do for any of you! :)

Love,

Sister Paul

1. Cute mini missionaries- Morgan is the best :)

2. Zone conferenncceee- so fun!

Friends and family-

     Life is goooood.  Okay so I want to talk to you about some of the amazing people in this area because they are seriously the best.  So about 2 months ago we started teaching this boy Anthony (pic attached)- he was way cool but it was hard to read him because he's a thinker and didn't say much.. he's YSA age so we had to pass him off to the elders and it ended up being like 3 weeks without us seeing him  until we were finally able to set up a pass off lesson- it was awesome and he committed to being baptized but was hesitant because he still had a lot of doubts.  He continued to meet with the elders and ended up getting baptized like 2 weeks later because he loved it so much and knew it was true EVEN THOUGH his parents kicked him out of his house and are not supporting him in any way.  The YSA ward has helped out a ton with finding him somewhere to say and he's been going out with the elders a lot and wants to go on a mission so bad!  Coolest thing ever.  Also we have been teaching a lot of kids lately which is sooooo fun- they are so innocent and cute and give the most tender prayers and it is amazing.  Its very humbling and really helps me to understand why we are told to become as a child so often in the scriptures!  We are also teaching this boy Tyler who is SO AWESOME but he lives with his girlfriend and we have been scared to bring up the law of chastity but we finally did and he didn't even take it bad!!  Heavenly Father is so helpful as well as the spirit and I am so grateful to not be doing this alone.  

     We got to go to the temple this week and it was the best thing ever!!!  I haven't gone since before my mission and so I was sooooo excited. 

     Ok so good news is that I peed my pants in front of our whole zone so that was really good.  Long story short-  Sister Beh and I were giving a training on adjusting to missionary life and in the book there's this breathing exercise they suggest to do when stressed and so all the missionaries were closing their eyes and I was reading what it said to do and then someone started laughing which led to everyone starting to laugh which led to me realizing I probably should have used the restroom before I got up in front of 20 missionaries which led to Sister Beh and I both standing at the front of the room in puddles and everyone else very amused at the situation.  So yes good first impression for the zone from the STLS and I also peed my pants while street contacting the other but that is a whole different story.. lets just say I am making a special effort now to use the restroom at any time possible and that was probably way tmi..

     Anywwaayyys on the serious side of things my companion and I are really trying to be more worthy vessels of the spirit so we can better help our investigators to progress and to find those who are prepared.  We are doing this "challenge to purify" thing where we made a list of things that poke at the spirit that we are going to fast of for the next 40 days- just as Jesus Christ did.  One of those things I'm doing is only emailing family members for the next 40 days.  So if I don't reply to you please don't get offended!!  I will definitely reply in a couple of weeks and I still love you all- I just need a lot of help from the Lord so we are going to try this out.  I love you all so much!! Seriously so grateful for the emails and support that I receive.. it really really helps. I hope you all have a wonderful week and please let me know if theres anything I can do for any of you!!!

Love,

Sister Paul

P.S. If any of you have experiences with law of chastity/word of wisdom/tithing that you would be willing to share pleeaaasse let me know!  I am trying to gain a better testimony of those things so that I can relate and help people better and so any advice or testimonies would be much appreciated.  :)

Pictures:

1. One of the sisters had to go home for surgery so we were in a trio for a couple days- we had a lesson with a single man and since we were in a trio we had to find 3 other men to come out with us..

6 vs. 1.  It was super fun- anyways, this is Bro. Cancro, Justin, Sister Barker, Sister Beh and flat Ethan.  Thank you sister Jobe for the cute letter and him :)

2.  Anthonnnyyyy!  He's so cool.

3.  Temple day with our new zone!!

to my fav friends and family-

I have about no time to write but I am going to attach some photographs.  CTR. <3

1.  Sergio getting baptized!!! 

2.  My cute companion Sister Beh and snowflakes :)

3.  It snowed so many inches they even had to cancel church!! So crazy.

4.  Sister Wilkins and Sister Underly at MLC- I <3 them soo much and its their last transfer!

XOXO Sister Paul

Friends and family-

     Ayoooo!  So this week was wonderful.  Sergio got baptized who is a boy we started teaching when I first got here- he was introduced by one of his good friends Kyler who was just baptized in November and then Kyler got to baptize him on Saturday!!  So tender.

     This week I gained a testimony of dropping investigators.  So we have been teaching this guy Jeff and he is seriously the sweetest thing ever but he has a strong struggle with Word of Wisdom and we were kind of thinking that he was just meeting with us because he liked the company and the support from the ward.  He reads the Book of Mormon, he goes to church and he always says such wonderful prayers- but he has not been progressing one bit towards baptism.  So after a lot of prayers and hesitancy as I allowed the natural man to take over myself, we finally decided that we really did need to drop him because thats what Heavenly Father wanted at this time. And so yes it was the hardest thing ever- I cried (sisters smh).  I was so so sad that night and he felt so bad and it was just no fun BUT THENNNN a couple days later it was about 8:40 and so we were thinking of how to be effective at that hour until 9 and decided to go visit a potential investigator.  As we were driving we saw Jeff on the side of the road and he waved us over and said that he had gone to McDonalds at the regular time we meet hoping that we might happen to show up (:')) because he really needed to talk to us.  He told us that he wanted to get baptized.  He went home that night and prayed and pondered and decided that it was the best decision for Him and Heavenly Father wanted it.  He has now resulted to drinking hot chocolate and we are working on cutting back little by little on the number of cigarettes he has a day (i made a cute poster calendar :)) So cool because we had straight up told us he didn't see himself getting baptized because he thought it was too hard like a week before.. Not sure why I ever allow myself to doubt Heavenly Father- he always know what is best as hard as it may be in the moment. :)

     Oh!  So transfer calls were yesterday-  I am staying here for another transfer with Sister Beh again. So happy. :) Wowza- thank you so so very much for the love and support I receive.  I feel so warm right now from all the emails I just read- you are all the best ever.  Please let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Paul

Friends and family;

Helloooo!  This week rocked. OK so I am going to tell you about my top 2 experiences of the week. 

1. There's a recent convert family in the world and they are the best people ever.  So let me just tell you a little about Brad, the dads past- he has struggled with addiction a large part of his life.  He got involved in drugs when he was younger- before and after he had his 2 kids.  At one point he had gotten both his kids taken away from him and he was living in someone else's van in their yard.. Pretty rough situation.  At that point in his life he realized he was at pretty much the lowest he could ever be and he decided he needed to pull his life together.  He didn't really know God, but he prayed more than he ever has in his life and felt Heavenly Fathers love so strongly.  From that he was able to get the motivation to start making changes in his life and pulling it together.  He eventually got his kids back, got a job and this last November him and his 2 kids got baptized.  These last 2 weeks we've been a little nervous because they were cancelling a lot of our appointments and the kids had said that they were kinda slacking on scripture study and the desire to go to church.  On Thursday, we finally got to have a lesson with them and found out that the day before Brads dad had fallen and was in a coma- we had a lesson on how we are all children of God and how the Saviors Atonement can help us with anything that we are facing.  The next day his dad passed away and we were expecting them not to be at church yesterday BUT they were and Brad actually gave a talk!  It was the most powerful talk I have ever heard- his topic was Heavenly Father and he poured his heart out about how much the knowledge of his Heavenly Father's awareness helps in any trial or situation and at the end he talked about how a lot of people had offered to speak in his place but he was so grateful for the opportunity and it helped him a lot.  My story right there does not even do the situation justice at all but just know that the power of this gospel is SO strong. OH! Also- his son Kyler (who is 16) is baptizing one of his best friends on Saturday who he had introduced to the church and that we started teaching a little over a month ago.. so cool!

2. Ok so I don't have time to type the whole other story but a less active dad and daughter started taking the lessons this last monday and he gave the most sincere, heartfelt prayer and his daughter who hasn't really ever believed in God quit drinking cold turkey and has received answers to prayers since we met and its just the coolest thing ever so yes more details to come on that but being a missionary is so funn!

Anyways I love being a missionary so much and also we have transfer calls this next week so hopefully I am staying here!! I love you all very very much and I hope all is going well. Have a good week! xoxox

Love, 

Sister Paul

Family and friends;

     Happy Martin Luther King Day!!  I had no idea that was today until this morning when we drove by the school and there was no people there.. lol time is so weird. Ok so I don't recall that I sent an email out last week which I am unsure of why because last week soo good.  Elder Lynn G Robbins of the seventy came and trained at MLC as well as did a mission tour training for our whole mission and it was the best thing ever.  He talked all about how we are agents unto ourselves and we are responsible for whether or not we are going to be happy and make the best out of our lives.  He talked about how we want choice, but not responsibility and how we so easily go to a "not-responsible" list that includes things like blaming others, self justification, excuses, minimizing sins, procrastinating, anger, murmuring, self pity and other things to avoid being responsible for our choices.  He said "The second you go to this list you will lose control over positive outcomes".  My explanation does not do anything he said justice but I seriously loved that so much!  We have been so blessed with the gift of agency and it really is our choice how we are going to live our lives.  Ahhh I love this gospel.
     Ok so cool experience for the week:  We have this investigator and she is the coolest ever.  She has been having knee problems and actually sent her grandson to chase the missionaries down because she had seen them walking around all the time and she wanted what we have.  Since then she's been super busy all the time and its been hard to meet with her consistently and she hasn't been able to come to church because of her knee.  This last week she texted us and said things have been crazy and so she couldn't meet with us for a while (worst thing ever to hear as a missionary), so we were super bummed and a couple days later we were in the are with a member after a lesson had fallen through and I just really felt like we should go see Donna- we pulled the bathroom excuse and she ended up letting us in and saying that she had a little bit of free time.  It turned out that she had been super stressed and depressed lately and it turned out that the member we had brought with us (who is a convert) has or is going through a lot of the same stuff as Donna and she related to her and bore such a strong testimony of how this gospel will help all of her situations.  Yesterday we went by again and she said that she wanted to start meeting with us at a set time every other day and really getting serious.. such a miracle!  This really strengthened my testimony of how much our Heavenly Father truly does know us and how aware He is of us.  We had absolutely no idea that Sister Susslin had gone through some of the same things as her- but Heavenly Father did.  This pretty much saved Donna and she is now progressing towards February 13th to be baptized! so happy. :)
     Oh also another thing Elder Robbins said that I loved- Would the savior ever go around feeling sorry or himself?  No siree and neither should we.  This was a good reminder for me haha we are soooo blessed and can find happiness no matter our situations.  This church is truuuueee :)
     I love you all. very much.

Love,
Sister Paul