1st week in Reno ya'll

Hello again one and all,

 

Today is my first pday in the field. we cruised on down to the library in downtown reno to email. so i don't have a ton of time, i'm just going to get right into the goods. :) I live in the "reno house." in Northern Reno. me and my trainer  Elder Castaneda live with two other elders there.. they are tongan elders. so tight! so the house is unreal. it's pretty old and it's beat up but there are 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. me and elder C share a bedroom of course because that's a mission rule but we each have our own bathroom. how sweet is that? water pressure is good, the temperature is consistent in the shower (unlike the MTC). It's the best. The work hsa been a little bit slow but this last week was super busy with weird exchanges and stuff. Elder C and I are covering a singles ward, University 2nd ward. our Teaching criteria are people between 18-30 and single.. so tracting and contacting is difficult. we tract apartment buildings by campus but with little luck. most of the work we have been doing has been with less actives and referrals. I LOVE TEACHING! there is nothing better than sitting with an investigator and teaching them about the restoration, or the plan of salvation, and seeing their eyes light up when the spirit testifies to them. I love it. Because of the fact that we are only to teach young single adults we haven't had a ton of luck with tracting but that is to be expected. my first day in the field i had the typical tracting horror story. y'all ready for it? haha it's not that bad but it was like 38 degrees outside last wednesday and there was a gnarly windstorm! sustained winds of probably 50 or more and gusts of like a million! also, this last week was spring break for the university so a ton of students were gone. but anyway, we are tracting in this condo complex. we got into one house with the blessing contact, i'll explain that in a bit if i have time. other than that we were just knocking on doors and getting them slammed in our face, or getting nobody to answer. i was freezing, there was trash blowing around everywhere and garbage cans getting blown all over the street. I would pick them up and try to figure out which can belonged to which house or whatever. it was a lost cause. i'd put a can back and it would blow right over again. the wind was crazy! as we were walking back up the street to our car i watched a garbage can on it's side roll down a driveway and peg a car that was driving by. it was a small road so they didn't really have room to swerve and when they saw it it was a little too late. the guy didn't even stop to look at his car. i don't know if i've ever experienced wind like that.. plus it was freezing cold and we were trying to contact people. perfect first time tracting. hopefully we'll have more luck this week with more students being home. we also have a booth that we open up at the university for contacting people. we hand out pamphlets and talk to them about the gospel while they are walking by. that should be way fun. this last week was also weird because Elder Castaneda is a zone leader.. he's a solo zone leader but he had a couple meetings with other zone leaders so i would get stuck with their new companions. so i don't want to say this elders name because that wouldn't be cool. i'm just going to call him Elder L. so elder L has been out 9 months but he's serving in a place up north and doesn't know my area. (this is friday of last week). so i've been in the field a total of 4 days at this point and he doesn't know the area. it's spring break so we can't do the booth and by this time we had tracted a lot of the apartments around campus, i didn't really know the area. so we are racking our brains trying to figure out what we can do to find people. we had one lesson planned with a recent convert so i brought him with me for that, then we went to lunch. i find out on the way to lunch that it is this kids birthday. so i tell him lunch is my treat and we go to del taco. hah, he said that's his favorite place and i definitely didn't mind. anyway, after he ate his fries there was some ketchup left in the box that his burger came in so he used his thumb to scrape the ketchup out and then he'd lick it off. he had to down like a full tablespoon of ketchup off of his thumb.. i was having a hard time keeping my food down at the sight of this. then we went to walgreens because he wanted to get tabs to mark his scriptures.. we contacted a few people there and handed out some passalong cards.. we'll see what happens with em'. so we go back to the reno house and didn't really draw any conclusions so i just got my scriptures out and started studying. i ended up indexing my whole scriptures to the lessons in preach my gospel. that has already benefited me so much in teaching. but anyways.. as i was studying in the study room he was in there with me.. and this kid was SUCKING HIS THUMB, while reading. i'm not kidding. sucking on his thumb like a sucker. oh my. okay he fell asleep for a minute with his tongue in his mouth and i let him be.. but after about 10 minutes of him sleeping i woke up him. he asked me if i would care if he drew instead of study.. hahah i said no sir, if you're comfortable with that than that is fine. i ended up writing a few letters in that time as well. but then he starts drawing anime cartoon characters. i am laughing to myself right now thinking about this day. at first i was struggling with it but i've grown to really love elder L. he's got the best heart ever and i feel bad for laughing but he's just a dewster. love em'. so we've had some cool experiences teaching a couple investigators and teaching less actives. we got a few of our less actives to come to church yesterday, which was awesome. this week we are going to work our tails off to find some more people to teach! Oh another story about elder L.. this one i'm going to shorten a lot. but on saturday we did this mini mission thing.. we brought some youth from the stake with us to our lessons and stuff. anyway, that went really well. we had two youth with us (me and elder Castaneda that is) and we had them help us out with a few lessons. they had a rad experience and were more stoked than ever to serve missions. but anyway, after we were done working with the youth there was a panel thing where all of the youth had a chance to ask a panel of missionaries questions about the field. elder castaneda was a part of the panel and so was elder L's companion, so we were together again. there was another set of elders kind of close to elder L's area that needed a ride home so i decided to take them since it was dark, we couldn't proselyte anymore. so i took them up there and dropped them off. me and Elder L were together in his area this time only for about an hour. he had been tracting earlier in the day with his mini missionaries and had a few people tell him to come back later so that's what we were doing together at this point. seeing if these people were home. anyway, he directs me to the first house and says.. okay i have a great feeling about this one. will you pray for us elder sykes? haha i was happy to, so i said a prayer and when we get to the door it had a metal screen or like open door.. i don't know how you say that but it was locked so we couldn't knock. and the doorbell was broken too. so elder L i flippin love him.. he is knocking on the frame of the door. hardly making a sound. the lights are off, it doesn't look like anyone is home. he knocks 4 times on the frame of this door. haha i didn't have the heart to tell him i think they can't hear us or they probably would have answered the door already. after like 8 minutes of standing in the freezing cold he pulls out a pass along card and writes his info on it and sticks it in the door. we go to another house, this time we were able to get in. fyi he asked me to offer the prayer before we knocked on the next houses door as well. i was cool with it.. he's funny. anyway, we get talking to this woman and her husband.. more just her though. and she asks about the book of mormon and where it came from. elder L threw basically all the information he knows about the church into a 5 minutes shpeel. this girl was so entirely confused. elder L also offered a blessing of peace and comfort on their home. by the time that we had worn out our welcome i told elder L to leave a book of mormon with her and to leave his information in it. i told her to read the info page of the book of mormon and if she feels inclined to read more to do so and call the number elder L left for her. she was a super nice lady but she was way confused about everything. elder L was like oh yeah, this is elder sykes.. he's from a different area. our "companions" are together right now so we are together for the night. hahah she got this horrified look on her face. i had to tell her it wasn't that type of companion.. we just work in twos. she seemed pretty relieved. we left and he was so nervous.. hah he was having me evaluate him and talk to him and kinda calm him down. i don't know if this is making any sense.. i'm trying to give y'all everything. hah he got into the car and i don't know if it was a nervous thing.. but he stunk it up pretty bad. i had to crack the windows and he's like ..." did i fart?" hahaha. i'm like dude i don't flippin know if you farted.. did you fart? he kills me! anyway.. that's so much information on everything but whatever! i think that's about all for the work this week.  still waiting for pics from y'all! I'm still praying for everyone. I'm loving the mission experience. i had a teacher in the MTC tell me that i wouldn't be able to sleep the first little bit in the field.. i'd probably cry a lot and stuff. hah i'm pleased to announce i still sleep like a narcoleptic and i've yet to cry tears of sadness. :) I love you all! I hope all is well back in the 801 and 480. oh, and Happy Birthday soon Haley Elizabeth Edwards! love you sista. :)

Reno bound!

Hello one and all,

 

    It turns out my branch president is allowing us time to write home before we get to Reno! i'll be calling tomorrow morning around 8 or 9... they ran out of calling cards at the MTC store so i'm going to bring quarters and hope that i get a chance to call the folks! okay so life here is great! i didn't bring any of my study stuff, there were some awesome scriptures i had written down hopefully to inspire some of you at home. thank you so much for the prayers and support! the Lord has not ceased to help me feel all of the love. I hope things are going well at home! i pray and think of you all often!

 

as for my experience here, it's been wonderful. this last week went by so fast. days are long but weeks are short. I've learned so much in my time here. I'm so grateful the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to serve. In the first couple days i was having a difficult time actually putting my faith in him. Not that I didn't believe or have a testimony, i wouldn't be here if that was the case. I've learned that this is HIS work. it's not for the bettering of me as a disciple of Christ. Because it is his work, if i am obedient to the mission rules and follow the promptings of the spirit i will be a great instrument in his hands, bringing many of his children to the knowledge of the gospel. it's a tough balance sometimes, if i mess up in a lesson i come out instantly thinking that i need to work on myself to some degree. it's just such a comfort to know that if i do what God wants me to do, and study diligently, he will take care of the rest. I'm not doing this because I'm good at talking with people. The Lord knows that i want so much to assist in bringing people unto him, My will and diligence are all that i need. that's a great comfort to me.

 

again i wish i had my study materials. there have been so many experiences that i wanted to share with all of you. Last night we had a departure devotional, then a devotional about rocks (literally) then we watched a movie from Elder Bednar. the departure devotional was cool.. we just learned what not to do at the airport and stuff. turns out there have been some elders that get to the airport and buy bad reading material, yell on the plane, putting shame on the church. It's so shocking to me that people could go through this experience so numb! I've already learned so much about myself in the past week and a half, the Lord has helped me to grow and understand. I feel sad for the elders that miss out on the experience he wants us to have. anyway, that was cool. the rocks devotional was rad too. it was about the book of mormon being the keystone, and the D&C being the something else stone.. flip i wish i had my stuff! anyway, it highlights the importance of the DC too.. revelation through modern day prophets just for our benefit. it made me want to study the D&C more. but what i really wanted to share with everybody was the devotional that was taped by Elder Bednar. it was the most incredible and tangible spiritual experience i can remember. before that movie last night my most spiritual experience was sacrament meeting yesterday. so kind of a side note real quick... there are 36 elders and sisters in our zone. every sunday they call on an elder and a sister to give a talk, everybody is instructed to prepare one. one of the sisters in my zone was preparing her talk at the same time i was and it was about faith in Jesus Christ. such a great topic to study. anyway, i just had this feeling like i'm going to get called on for sure. and then i was thinking about what sister was going to get called on, and it was the sister i just mentioned. her name is Sister Call. so in front of our district i was so confident i actually said it. i told everyond that i figured me and sister call would get called on to speak about faith. not thinking much about it i prepared my talk as i was instructed. when i got to sacrament meeting i felt just like i did the way of my farewell. super stoked, but relatively nervous. sure enough, they call sister call up first, then i was next. 36 elders and sisters and it was us two, in the same district. we gave our little shpeels, then one of the sisters gave a musical number.. acapella solo of i need thee every hour. it was incredible. never felt the spirit so strong, until the second counselor in our branch spoke. he lost his grandson to a crazy disease when the grandson was 14. talked about relying on the atonement to heal. there wasn't a dry eye in the room. i just got chills thinking about it. amazing. so that's how the day started off! back to Elder Bednar. His talk was on the character of Christ. he brought up a quote from Neal A. Maxwell and because i don't have my stuff i'll tell you the idea rather than the quote. it was something along the lines of we can't understand the atonement without understanding the character of Christ. i'm running out of time so i'll give you a quick summary. the character of Christ is "turning outward when the natural man in the world would turn in." so when we get offended we get defensive and turn inwards as the "natural man" would do. we feel victimized etc. Elder Bednar shared a story that literally broke my heart in half. He was serving somewhere as a stake president at the time, late one evening he was in the shower (before the cell phone era, as he said) and his wife hollered that he needed to come take an important phone call. the lady on the other end was the relief society president for the stake he was serving in. she informed him there had been an accident involving 3 young girls, 1 of the 3 was pronounced dead on the scene and the other 2 were in very critical condition. the woman asked Stake President Bednar at the time if he would go to the hospital (which was close to the house he was living) to identify the girls. he didn't realize it for a few moments but the woman hew as speaking with was also on the phone with another woman, a phone to each ear. as Elder Bednar was listening to what was going on, he understood quickly that one of the 3 girls involved was the daughter of the relief society president. seconds later, he heard the operator through the other phone tell the relief society president that her daughter was the one who had passed away. This relief society president was a single mother of only one child, her daughter who was now dead. the moment she came to know this, her first words were "president, will you please meet at hospital so that we can inform the other mothers of these girls what is going on." In the moment she learned she lost the only person that meant anything to her in the world, she was equally concerned for the mothers of the girls that were critically injured. i couldn't believe it! turning outward when the rest of the world would turn inward. the day of her daughters funeral one of the women in relief society (not knowing about the situation) called the president to complain that none of the relief society sisters had brought her food yet. she wasn't feeling well so she asked if someone from relief society would take care of her, and when she didn't she called this troubled woman and complained to her. on her way to the funeral home, the relief society president dropped a meal off at this womans house that she had prepared for her after knowing she wasn't feeling well. at the funeral home she spoke with Elder Bednar, saying she was so sorry he had to see her daughter after she had passed away in that brutal condition.. she, worrying about Elder Bednar, requested that she open the casket so that Elder Bednar could remember her daughter for who she was, all cleaned up and ready for burial. this shed a whole new light for me on being a disciple of Christ. this will be my focus for the rest of my mission. Turning outward when the natural man inside would turn inward and be victimized. There is a story in the new testiment about Christ being tempted by satan while he is fasting.. it's in matthew 4 i believe. after Christ had been harassed by Satan for a long time he sent ministering angels, not to himself but if you open up and read the footnote it will again highlight his Character. I love the gospel so much! all i want to do is study and draw nearer to the Lord. I feel so blessed to be here at this time. thank you all for the love and support again. it is well received! I'm sending off a bunch of letters today so hopefully you'll all get them soon. :) Off to reno!

The MTC Week day 7

Hello Errbody!

i've gotten a little bit of mail so thanks to all of you that have written! ( Dad, Nan, Fox, Momma Warburton) i'll include my address at the bottom of this so y'all can dear elder me if you want too. as for me...

the MTC has been very up and down ish for me. my companion is rad. his name is Elder Lewis and he's an 18 yr old son of a banker from a small town in Idaho. we get along seamlessly and our teaching style is the same so it has been awesome so far. the district is pretty cool as well. we have 5 elders going to Reno, 3 Sisters going to Jacksonville Florida, then 1 Elder and 3 Sisters going to MORRISTOWN NEW JERSEY. that's right Don. I've had to tell them all about how much you loved your mission. if you have anything you'd like them to know, let me know and i'll get at them. also, anybody that is considered family can email me. this will be the only email i send while in the mtc because tuesdays are my pdays and i fly to reno a week from today. haha i feel like i just got here but i already have my travel plans. i've been told i will be able to call home when i'm at the airport so around 9 am or so on tuesday the 19th make sure ya'll have your phones by you. also, i may have time to check my email during the week so feel free to email me if we're family with your phone numbers so i can give you a quick shout before i go. one thing that is way cool about being in the MTC at this time is that there are SO many sisters. it's a little bit different when you have to think about your interactions rather than just being natural and kinda flirty. but that's not why i brought that up. i brought it up because they bring such a great spirit with them! it's amazing how much i've learned from the sisters in our district. I'm new at this email thing and i don't have my study journal.. i don't really know what else to tell ya'll.  i'm really loving the work. the only reason i said it's been an up and down experience is because as everybody knows, i'm a little bit older than most missionaries here, and i have had a little bit of a hard time dealing with the younger guys. if you take your focus off of the savior and off of the work just for a fraction of the second, the spirit weakens. we need the spirit in everything we do here and it's so important to be obedient and take the steps (diligent prayer, studying during study time, good conversations, etc. ) to keep the spirit with you. when you experience it at such a heightened level it makes it much easier to realize when it's not there. I'm so grateful for the opportunity i have to serve a mission. this has already been one of the hardest things i've done in my life and i'm not even a full week into it. if anybody wants to know anything specific just ask me. also, my zone leader is the biggest dewey on the entire planet. one of them at least. so since the english speaking missionaries are only here for 12-14 days the branch/zone changes so much. for instance, the old zone leaders got called to be zone leaders the day before my district came into the MTC (which district 65, my district is the newest district here... our branch presidency got called on the sunday before the wednesday that we came in) and they are leaving tomorrow, so they had to call two zone leaders from our district. anyway, one of the two in the companionship drives everybody in the district up the flippin wall. sorry this is very uncensored guys. he was like " oh, you haven't gotten much mail? that sucks so bad. i am writing 3 girls and possibly a 4th one." he's one of those kids that seems like he was homeschooled throughout high school or something. dewey, but i think he means well. he just rubs everyone the wrong way. anyway, the reason i brought that up is because i'd love to hear from everyone! dear elder is super easy and all you need is my name, Elder Joseph Sykes, mailbox 141, NV-RNO departure date is 03/19. you can write me and my companion because we are the only two that are slim on mail. Dad, Fox, Nan, and Momma Warburton.. i wrote you all hand written letters today during laundry so you can expect those shortly. :) I don't know what else to tell ya'll. i do know that my time here has strengthened my testimony so much. this isn't supposed to be for me.. i decided i wanted to serve a mission to bring others closer to Christ. i didn't realize that i have a lot of work to do on myself and that it is completely acceptable. I'm working on being "continuously converted." like i said before.. it's hard. but i have to keep focusing my thoughts on helping other people and doing everything i can to keep the spirit with me. i have a package to go pick up, not sure who it's from but i hope it's good! and i'm out of time. there is a devotional tonight.. usually tuesday night devotionals are general authorities.. there's a good chance it will be an apostle. so cool! we are headed there now. holler at me if you  want to know anything specific, otherwise i'll be shooting hopefully a better email out to you when i get to reno next week. thanks for all the love and prayers! I love you all so much and i want you to know i'm praying for literally all of you.  love love love! God is good. :)

-Elder Stoooz

p.s., if anybody wants to write elder lewis anonymously you can use the same address that i put for me just with Elder Jacob lewis instead of my name. he was in a graduating class of 52 and has gotten less mail than i have. write him!