April 8 2013

What's crackin fam and friends?

This week was amazing! how sweet was conference? I'm sure i enjoyed it a little bit more than the peeps at home, since it's the only time i really get to sit down and watch live television. :) it was so awesome! so I asked my momma to write some questions for me to answer because if not i usually just ramble on about stuff for days. we are going to try this out and see how we do. I'll add stuff as appropriate!

WHERE DID YOU WATCH GEN CONF?

 We watched it at the stake center! all 5 sessions of it. we had to dress up in our suits, which was different than i'm used too, but i think it helped me pay attention more and i absolutely loved it!

 WHO WERE YOUR TOP 3 FAVS? well surprise surprise, Holland was number 1. "if your testimony is of a little seed, mine is a giant tree, feel free to lean on mine if you are wavering."- haha i butchered that paraphrase but how sweet was the message?! he's so great. Boyd K Packer's in the saturday morning session was awesome too. that was my number 2 "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear!" 

then number 3 was President Monson's talk on missionary work. the 4 components he gave are so valid to being a successful missionary. I know that applying those principles will lift the work for me here in Reno and i'm excited to implement them. :) 1 Search the scriptures diligently. 2. Plan life with purpose! 3. Teach with testimony! 4. Serve the lord with LOVE! so good. also, i loved Elaine Daltons talk. Made me think about my future wife. :)  

WHO DID YOU GET LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK? Grandma and Grandpa sykes and Bonella! dad, nan, hayo.. and i think that's it. then some sweet emails! I love mail. wish y'all would send pics! i've got pics of nan, nate and millie and alfie pinned to the wall but that's it. c'mon peeps!

WHAT SCRIPTURE(S) JUMPED OUT AT YOU? going along with Elder holland's talk about acting on the faith that we do have, i thought of a scripture in Mosiah chapter 4.. verse 10. we build on our faith by moving forward and being true to it. I love that and it has helped me to continue moving forward.

WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR WEEK? me and Elder Castaneda taught these two 20 year old girls the first lesson, the restoration. hah they were so pumped about it! we only brought 1 BOM into the lesson and when we asked them to read and pray to know that it's true they looked at each other and were like k let's go get this book real quick, where can we get it? haha we weren't communicating very well i guess but we told them that they could have the one we brought in and that we would go grab another one from our car and they gave each other a high five and got all stoked like girls do. i hope you all can see that playing out in your head.. i don't know if i did it justice but it was so rad to see how happy people get over learning the gospel! they both accepted the baptism invitation IF they find out that it's true. they are super busy students so we are meeting again with them on wednesday. :) i'll keep y'all posted, but i've got a feeling there's a baptism coming up! :):)

WHAT WAS THE LOW? haha you guys! i woke up today to flippin snow on the ground. are you kidding me!? i've got a couple pics i'm going to attach so you can see. it's been nice here.. we were planning on hitting a bucket of balls today at a local course with some cool members but that's not gonna happen! flip!

HOW IS YOUR LAUNDRY? (YEP I WANNA KNOW~ ARE YOUR SEPARATING COLORS AND WHITES?) laundry is so flippin great. we have a washer and dryer in our house which i'll also include a pic of (it's huge for 4 missionaries) so i usually do laundry a few times a week just in personal time after we come home for the day. of course i seperate colors yo!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO COOK? hahah... nutella toast. i'm getting good at it! hah that's my favorite. also, tons of quesadillas. mom! if you have some super easy and cheap recipes for unprofessional chef missionaries jus let me know! anybody reading this can let me know.. me and elder C are strugglin'! we are serving in the singles ward so we get like 5 dinners a month.. other than that we are on our own!

WHAT DO YOU DRIVE? 2012 Toyota Corolla. Elder C doesn't have an active license so i'm a greenie driving.. everyone is jealous. they shouldn't be though.. the corolla has a lawn mower engine i think.. 0-60 in ten days or so.

HOW WAS YOUR COMPIE THIS WEEK?( scale of 1-10 with 10 being fantastic and why?)

8. we had some random scuffles but other than that it has been good. plus we've gotten a few new investigators so that has lifted some tension between us. we are super similar so it would be like if me and fox were together 24/7 (like it has been before) we are going to find little things that bother us. Charity is the solve all though! i read a talk called beware of pride by ezra taft benson and it changed my life once again. we are doing great as a companionship though. we are super good friends and that's a double edged sword.. we continue to learn together though! 

WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM US? Pics! and keep writing me. getting mail is the best thing ever .

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR FAMILY TO STUDY THIS WEEK? Study the holy ghost! and the role of the Holy ghost in strengthening testimony. I'm still reading the book of mormon with the topic "character of christ" and it's been fantastic but i've already told you all to look into it that way i think. the role of the holy ghost will be the next topic i read the book of mormon cover to cover studying.

i liked the questions! that helped me think of all of the good stuff that happened this week and it took me a lot less time! Missionary work is so great my friends and fam. It is well known that i didn't come out into the mission field to make anyone at home happy and i didn't do it for any self centered reason, but I feel as though with the blessings i've received thus far, This is just as much for me as for the people here. i feel so blessed that i've been given the opportunity to serve a mission. I'm out here for the people of Reno, whom the Lord has chosen me to represent him in working with and for these people. Though i am here to help them, this has been the single greatest blessing of my life. I'm only a little over a month into this and i'm so excited for what the future holds. Thank you to all of you that support me in this! i can't even express the gratitude i feel in my heart. I love you all! I hope you have a fantastic week. :)

-Elder Sykes

week 4~ 23 months to go

hey good people!

another week has come and gone here in Reno. This guy is approaching his 1 month mark on the mission. Can you believe it!? crazy. So one thing i've learned recently that is so weird to me is that this mission is not just a destination. for so long when i was preparing for a mission it seemed like a destination. like i would just get there and then that was the end.. it's kind of hard to explain. but one thing that is hitting me lately is that the time definitely passes. i'm not at all saying the first month has gone by fast.. i've experienced so much it seems like i've been doing this forever. BUT, that being said, the time has passed. That means that there are only 23 more months for me to do the good that i want to do here in Nevada. every single day counts and i need to keep working hard!

So this last week was pretty slow. LIke i've said before we cover a singles ward so it's not super easy to find all the singles and to know where they live and stuff. most of what we do is referrals. we had a hard time contacting our referrals last week.. people weren't home or they weren't answering. We were kinda gassed one day, feeling down on our luck, so i pulled out the area book and started looking at all the peeps from a year ago. i grabbed the phone from Elder Castaneda and started just texting peeps asking them if they were interested in meeting with us again. we got a few visits from that actually and also a couple referrals. we had some great lessons with some less actives and recent converts too. one of our recent converts (he was baptized the saturday before i came into the field) received the priesthood last week! that was awesome. We taught him about temples and the priesthood and how it's used just beforehand, then he received the priesthood and went and did baptisms! this guy has been through some crazy stuff.. he witnessed one of his cousins get murdered in california a few weeks before we started teaching him. he said that we came into his life at the perfect time becuase had he not turned his life towards the gospel he would have gotten involved with the gang stuff that got his cousin. It's amazing to see the blessings the gospel brings to people! who knows where he would be if the missionaries didn't run into him, by direction fro the Lord. that's another great thing about this work. Missionaries are just kids. We are 100% guided by God. This is His work and really all we have to do is be obedient and willing to work. That is so comforting to know!

well.. i think that's all for this week. i still haven't gotten any pics from y'all. oh, another shout out to Momma W! thanks a ton for the packages :) I love you all! thank you as always for the love and support. Grandma sue and Grandpa monte, thanks for your letters and well wishes! Grandma and Grandpa sykes, thanks also to you for your support in the letters! thanks everyone! I Pray you all have a super good week. until next time!

-Elder Sykes