Taylor Patterson - Reno, NV Mission

Hey Everyone!!! This week was super cool, we had a baptism on Saturday and it was amazing to see the glow on Amy's face afterwards. Her whole family came which was awesome because you could tell they felt the spirit enter into their hearts as she was baptized. It was the first time I have baptized someone that was not standing as a proxy for an ancestor and it was very touching. We also had some really good lessons with some members of the church that have decided to not go to church anymore. We are working with 5 of them and 1 of them actually came to Amy's baptism and it was super cool to see him there! Elko is a town where lots of people will join the church in a different state and then move here and not return to activity. But it is really cool to see the spirit enter into their hearts when they begin to read the scriptures and pray again as they meet with us. My bike has been broken this past week so we have been walking everywhere and it is very tiring but go...

Hey Friends!!! Hope everyone's week was great and that y'all all had a great Valentine's!!  So transfer calls came and went and I am staying in Elko to finish Elder Lasalosi's training!! So I will be in Elko for 6 months after this next transfer, which is exciting because there is so much to be done here!!! This Saturday we will have a baptism for someone we are teaching named Amy, she is so awesome and so ready to be baptized. So we are very much looking forward to that!!! We also are finding more elect people, we are not finding as many people to teach as last transfer, but that is only because we are focusing on areas where we know the elect can be found. On Saturday we had some pretty cool lessons! One of them was with this part member family that reads the Book of Mormon every night with their kids. They had so many good questions and we are hoping the dad continues to stay interested.  We also had this lesson with this new married couple, and the hus...

Hey friends!! This week was pretty fun, it was just a normal week but it flew by!!  Funny story we were at this motel and someone was like stupid drunk. He went to sit down in the lobby area and slammed his head against the wall and put a hole in the wall. Then he started cussing this dude out and the dude he was cussing out got so mad and drug him out of the lobby and just stood on top of him until the cops came. It was super sad but it was definitely interesting. We also are teaching this 12 year old Amy and it is going super well! She is awesome and keeps commitments, we are hoping to schedule a baptismal date this week!!! We have been tracting so much this week in areas we aren't teaching people. And we have seen so many miracles coming from it!! We also got this referral from Hawaii's visitor center because someone contacted them for missionaries to come teach the husband of the family!! So we are looking forward to that. My spiritual message is from...

Hey Everyone!! I finally got to go back outside and talk to people this week!! It felt so good to not have to stay inside with the virus I had. I hope everyone's week was awesome! Everyone out here in Elko is sad because the 49ers lost in the Super Bowl and it is super funny. I cant believe I have already been out 7 months it felt like yesterday that I left to come on my mission, time seriously flies. This week my companion and I worked super hard to try and catch back up on the work in our area. Our legs have been super sore from biking at least 10 miles a day. We found a lot of people and we have a handful of people progressing toward baptism.  The weather here in Elko makes no sense. One day it is 60 degrees and then the next day it is 18 degrees with snow hahahah. It doesn't make sense, but oh well. It is sad when we have powerful lessons and put people on baptismal date and then they fall back into their addictions. It is such a common occurrence in this...