Elder Joseph Barlow - Nevada Reno Mission

This week flew by. We had so many meetings this week it was crazy. We district council on Tuesday, zone conference on Wednesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday, and then the mission conference with Elder Uchtdorf on Saturday. And then I spoke in church on Sunday. Definitely the busiest week of my mission so far but also probably the best.  Thanksgiving was awesome, pretty different from being home but at least this year I could taste the food because last year I had covid over Thanksgiving and couldn't taste anything. We visited 5 families, had a really good dinner, and ate a whole lot of pie. We had another lesson with Will this week and it was the best he's such a good person and literally the ideal person you want to teach.  Elder Uchtdorf was so cool. It was almost as if he had a glow to him, he truly carries the Light of Christ. He was funny and making jokes throughout his talk. His talk was amazing he spoke for about an hour and talked about so many things. One thing I really ...

  Jules got baptized on Tuesday!!! It was so awesome the spirit was so strong. We had to drive like 45 min to get there and there was bad traffic so we barely made it. I'm so happy for her, she was so happy and her family came to support her even though they're all nonmembers which was the best. Elder Weaver did the confirmation and it was so nice, it was his first blessing he's ever given and he's been out for 15 months! But it sounded like he'd given a thousand blessings it couldn't have been better. Her baptism was definitely the highlight of the week. We also helped out Sister Mahoney with her quilting which was way fun so I got to learn a little bit about quilting. I'm thinking about picking up quilting as a hobby after the mish. She said she's gonna make us some small quilts for Christmas which is awesome. Her and Brother Mahoney are the best, they're like having a third set of grandparents out here in Washoe haha.  We had a lesson with this gu...

  This week felt like an eternity. We had transfers on Wednesday so I had to say goodbye to everyone in Sparks that I came to really appreciate and love. I'll see them again tomorrow though because I got permission from president to go back and attend Jules baptism!! I'm so excited for it it'll be sick. Then I met Elder Henline on Wednesday and headed over to Washoe. It's funny Elder Henline is from Sandy and went to Hillcrest lol he lived probably like 10-15 min from me back home. Washoe Valley is pretty cool and we live in a house and it's just me and Elder Henline so it's pretty spacious. Even though it's only like 20 min outside of Reno it's like this small valley that's basically a small old country town. It's got a nice lake and I've seen some wild horses and there's bunnies running around everywhere. I guess there were saints here back in like 1858 and Orson Hyde was here, but when some of them left I guess Orson never received due...

This week was kinda crazy! The beginning of the week consisted of getting Elder Houston ready to leave and then sending him off to Argentina on Thursday. It was sad to see him leave and it's weird to just have me and Elder Weaver now. Then we had some service this week and even helped a family already decorate for Christmas put together their new fireplace haha. Crazy because I'm the type of person who doesn't like to put decorations up until after Thanksgiving haha. On Sunday we had a random guy walk into church, he was wearing jeans and a hoodie and he looked super anxious/nervous. We welcomed him in and we sat by him and then afterwards we talked and exchanged numbers and all that. He's the nicest guy and you can tell he's looking for something and he said he really enjoyed church and could tell there was something different and special. He texted us that night and was grateful and said he wanted to call us later. It's amazing how Heavenly Father helps guide ...

  This week felt really long and just kinda dragged on and sometimes pretty hard. It's weird everything kinda blurs together. We had exchanges this week so I went with the district leader and his comp while my comps went with the AP's. It was pretty sick I had to make dinner for the first time I've been here haha. We made some chicken Alfredo with some garlic bread lol pretty solid meal right there. We went to another high school football game with the family we're teaching to watch their son. It's pretty sweet it reminds me of high school haha and it's weird because I was literally in high school like 5 months ago.  We also had our ward trunk or treats this week. Our Facebook page ran an add for one of them that we didn't know about and they didn't tell us that people had reached out and were coming so we ended up having like 150 nonmembers at our ward trunk or treat haha. It was crazy and they were from all over and not just our area. And of course we ...

    One month in Nevada now it's crazy, it went by really fast but also really slow at the same time. This Tuesday there was an emergency transfer so I had to drive with Elder Driggs 5 and a half hours to Winnemucca and back to pick up his new companion. A long drive and a whole lot of sagebrush to look at lol. I had to teach a phone call lesson by myself on the way and it was really cool. I've started to feel a lot more comfortable teaching and with all of that stuff this week.  Also there are some missionaries and members here that are so freaking good on the piano and my comps and I have been practicing any time we have a chance. I definitely should've stuck with piano lessons. I'm picking it back up though haha relearning a song I already knew and some hymns. I'm not as bad as I thought I would be lol.  Members are amazing here like I said before haha they help so much. You guys should all invite the missionaries in your areas to come over for dinner or somethin...

This week had its up downs for sure so I'll start with the downs. Well literally everyone canceled on us everyday this week except for one lesson. It was tough. So we didn't have much to do, but we did spend a lot of time with the members and families which was awesome. Elder Houston got word he's finally going to Argentina on Nov 4 and Elder weaver is supposed to go to Argentina too but he hasn't got a date yet so he's been really sad/bitter so that's been a little rough. Now the ups haha we did a whole lot of service this week again. We worked at the pumpkin patch, we ripped out some tree trunks and roots at a members house, we cleaned up this lady's backyard and she had like 30 years of so much stuff in her house and backyard it was nuts, and we helped some people move stuff into their house. We went to the high school football game this week with a family we're teaching to watch their son who was baptized like two months ago.  The best part of the we...

This week was a lot of fun. We did a ton of service and I love service. It's the best thing. We cleaned up a sand volleyball court and horse shoe pit at a park. And we spent a ton of time doing service at a pumpkin patch. One of the bishops in our stake has a farm and they do a bunch of Fall and Halloween activities. It's kinda like corn bellies at Thanksgiving point. They have a field of like thousands of pumpkins and we did service there a couple times. And we were throwing them at the cows to feed them and I megged one lol. We also played some baseball with with one of the kids we're teaching and it was pretty fun. We've got a really good teaching pool and a lot of people that are progressing. We put Jules on date to be baptized so pray that that follows through! The other families and people we're teaching are really cool and they're really close I think. We do so much work with the members and it's so awesome. They're so helpful with everything we d...

Crazy I'm finally out in the field. We flew in on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we met our companions and areas and all that stuff. I'm in a trio with the zone leaders and it's so sick. I honestly got so lucky with them and the area Im in. They're names are elder Houston and elder weaver. They've both been out just over a year so they're helping me learn quick. And they're pretty much the same as my friends at home so it's so fun. We're in Sparks Nevada so a little north east of reno. It feels the same as cottonwood heights, Utah haha. Just a little less pretty and a lot more sagebrush around. The members here are amazing, so strong in the gospel and so caring for everyone. They feed us every night and it is the most amazing thing ever. It's been sweet and I'm so grateful for how things worked out this week. Here's a crazy miracle from my very first night on Wednesday. So we're teaching this girl named Jules who is 18 and wants to be ...