Hello family and friends!
so transfer calls are in once again ( holy cow.. where is the time going!? )
i'm staying in cold springs NV for at least another 6 weeks! i'm way excited too because we've been working hard and have seen the Lord's hand guiding us to people that are ready for the message. Unfortunately my companion and homie for life Elder Padilla is being transferred! he's going to fernley NV to be zone leader over the Fallon zone. he's going to go on exchanges in the ward i served in for 6 months.. the roots of my mission! i'm stoked for him, it's a great place- but i'm super bummed they are splitting us up. we even asked the boss ( President Hermansen ) if he could reconsider the transfer, just because we have a ton of momentum going now. we've been working super hard and have seen the hard work pay off. crossing paths with the people that have been prepared and watching them progress. There are a lot of people that are getting close to baptism here and we're just excited for what is to come. The missionary that's being trasnferred to cold springs to be my companion is Elder Bertagnole- he's been Ohwyhee NV his whole mission serving on an indian reservation in normal clothes. it may be a different ball game that what he's used to but we'll try and get him squared away quick!
Last saturday there was a baptism in the YSA 2nd ward- the ward that i just got trasnferred from. her name is laura, she's the one that i wrote about a while back. she was so prepared and we were completely led by our father in heaven to cross paths with her at the perfect time. Elder Koster and I were contacting less active people on our ward list and cleaning up the roster and we both felt impressed to see a former investigator that neither of us had ever met. just a guy that we saw on our former list in the area book. we stopped by his house to find out that he wasn't there and that it would be hard to catch him. the person who answered the door..? Laura! She lived in a different house about 15 miles north of there, and she came to visit her little sister kind of on a whim. just felt like she needed too. at the time she didn't know why and of course we didn't know why or what was to come of our visit, but it was no coincidence that we crossed paths at the perfect time. In hindsight it's so apparent that the Lord prompted everybody involved to be where we were so that he could accomplish is work! I know that he guides us on a daily basis and i'm grateful for that. Laura's baptism was such a cool experience. it was the first time in my mission that i was there when we found her and i was able to see her get baptized. the whole process from start to finish. so cool! her boyfriend is a recont convert/ shortly thereafter went IA and is now reactivated through all of that. she didn't even know he was a member until she started taking the lessons from us. best thing ever! that was for sure the highlight of the week.
i feel aimless without questions everybody. here's my address for the next six weeks at least- 7350 Silver Lake Rd. aprt 2E Reno NV 89401. write soon! i hope everybody has a great week, i'll talk to you all soon.
Elder Sykes
