Week Four

Wednesday, we will have been in Reno for one month, and to tell the truth, we are still waiting and working for our mission to ‘find us’!  The Giguere’s stake president (and a former mission president) told them, “MLS (member leader support) missions are the ultimate in ‘free-lance righteousness’--- you get to go about doing good until you find your true mission, or it finds you.”  That is wonderful advice, and it has given us comfort (as it did the Gigueres) at the beginning of our mission!  We are working to fill our days through service, member visits and teaching one investigator (could just be an older woman who wants someone to talk to—can’t tell yet), but we still have more free time than we would like.  The ward we support is an excellent, strong, small (280 members) ward!  From what we can see, they have very capable leaders, great teachers, and great core of supportive members, so it’s not obvious to see where we can help. 

In the meantime, we are serving wherever we can (Diane says she could get tired of cleaning the church every week, so we are hoping other wards take a turn, too…) and trying to visit the members on our part of the ward list to get to know them and find opportunities to teach.  (I was telling Diane this week that even though we are trying to visit members, it brings back many of my feelings of going door-to-door in Ireland 45 years ago.  It’s fun when you actually get to talk to people, but it’s frustrating knocking on the doors of mostly empty houses!)  As I’ve mentioned before, the ward is fairly affluent, with a several gated communities, and most people work days and/or travel a fair bit in the summer.  We know it will all work itself out, and we will learn our mission, but we do wish it would hurry!


The members we have met with are great, and we do have future appointments with a number of active families and a couple of less-active families, which could lead to some strengthening and teaching opportunities, so things are progressing.  We have also been talking to the brother in our ward who is over the stake single adults about perhaps starting a weekly ‘Come Follow Me’ study session for singles.  We have a good feeling about that, and we hope it comes to fruition!  We also visit ‘our people’ in the hospital several times a week, and have developed a real love and connection with them.  We know that The Lord will bless us as we keep moving forward and doing the best we can.  


On the 4^th of July we went back to Lake Tahoe again and drove the rest of the way around the lake—BEAUTIFUL and crowded on the 4^th.  Then we found that the best fireworks show in town originates on the top of the Nugget casino and hotel buildings which are four blocks from our house, so we sat on our deck and watched the show.  I think it may have been the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen!  (Although the music wasn’t the US Marine band, like in NYC…)  Also, earlier in the day when we were at Lake Tahoe, we stopped by the house we are renting in August 2020 for our family reunion.  Some people were in the driveway, and much to Diane’s embarrassment, I asked them about the house and they gave us a small tour through one floor.  It has nine bedrooms, so it should sleep all of us.  As is often the case, the pictures make it look a little better than it is, but it will be great to be there and spend time with the ‘fam’!

We are happy to be here serving the Lord!  Missions are not vacations, and we know that we will end up loving this mission just as much as we did our first.  My companion continues to be hard to keep up with in every way that is important, and I love her more each day still!  We sometimes get tired, and we sometimes get impatient with our progress, and (I know it’s hard to believe, but) we sometimes even get a little crabby at each other, but ultimately we know we are doing what God wants us to do!!  We are happy to be serving, and want to do it as well as possible.

(Above) Another view from the rear of the Reno Temple towards the city..
(Below) When our GPS first led us to our apartment, we thought this was it.

Luckily, it's not! Ours is behind...