Elder and Sister Williams' Nevada Reno Mission: Breakin' Rocks in the Hot Sun

Old Church in Ruth, NV

We are heading into our 3rd week in our new ward and time is flying. Our teaching pool is growing. There are still days when we only have a few hours of work but we are seeing more and more days when we are running all day. We like those busy days. Time goes faster and we feel useful. A bad day is when we knock on doors all day and don’t talk to anyone. The really good days are when people are excited to see us and let us in. Those days may not outnumber the bad days but they definitely outweigh them and make our work seem worthwhile.

We just met with a family in Ruth yesterday. They are converts but have gotten out of the habit of coming. We asked them how they found the church and they told us a really great story. They were on their way to the courthouse about 10 years ago to sign divorce papers when they met the missionaries on the street. They stopped to talk and the family told them where they were going. The elders suggested that they meet with them first. The rest is history. They ended up being baptized and stayed together.

It was a good sign that they gathered the whole family together (they have 2 kids and a gecko) when we came in. They have agreed to meet with us regularly and we are looking forward to working with them. We love them already.

Other good news: We invited one of the women we visit from 2^nd ward to attend church on Sunday. She didn’t sound like she would come but the Bishop told us later that she had actually come. Yay! We love those small successes.

We took a short-cut to a lesson and met
these guys. They weren't interested
in hearing our message.

They took their half of the road out of the middle.

People here don't throw anything away and we see lots
of old equipment used as lawn ornaments.

One of our challenges is that Ely, being a small town, everyone knows everyone else and many have been offended by someone (or in some cases, by almost everyone). It amazes us that people will stop attending church because of something someone else did or said. (I may have asked one older gentleman why he was punishing himself for something someone else did.)

Our single adult discussion group is growing slowly and we are working to make it self-sustaining by making sure it is a discussion and not a class. The refreshments may help to get people there. I keep hinting that maybe someone else may want to bring refreshments but no takers yet. I’m keeping a stockpile of cookies in the freezer.

It’s interesting how the Spirit shows us the needs of the area we are in. In Reno we tried to get a similar discussion group off the ground but it just didn’t take off and we ended up forming a Senior Mission Prep Class. We came here thinking we could start a Senior Mission Prep class like the one we had in Reno. That didn’t seem to fit this area so we dropped the idea. We soon saw the need for something single adults. People have told us that they have been looking for a single adult group for a long time. The Lord knows the need more than we do and we just have to be willing to listen to the Spirit.

View from Garnet Hill

Our p-days are sure different here than in Reno or in New York. In New York we didn’t have enough p-days for all the things we wanted to do. In Reno there was always Lake Tahoe. Here there is not a whole lot to do in the winter so we do a lot of relaxing. Today, however, we checked an item off my bucket list. We bought a rock hammer and drove out 10 miles to Garnet Hill. It was 3 miles off the main road and was snowy and muddy. Lots of fun and adventure. We didn’t find any garnets but had a great view of the mine and had the opportunity to help a grandma, her daughter and teenage grandson whose pickup was stuck in the snow. Four of us pushed while grandma tried to back up. We had a little fright at first when she gunned it in drive. But we lived to tell the tale and got them unstuck. Marc & I were feeling pretty buff since we had worked out this morning (haha).