Taylor Patterson - Reno, NV Mission

Hey Everyone!!! This week was super crazy! I left the East side of the mission and I am finally in Reno!! Transfers happened like 4 days early because of the virus. So Saturday we drove ALL day to pick up elders and drop them off and then to finally drop me off.  I  am serving in the Lemmon Valley ward, it is just on the outskirts of the city. We have a huge area so we have a car but sadly this transfer we will probably be inside the whole time, but that is okay because the work still presses on! I know this quarantine has been hard for so many missionaries but I am so blessed to still be on a mission because I know of a lot of missionaries who got sent home for health reasons and it really reminded me of how much I love my mission. I had a bad attitude about the quarantine at first but I know our Father in Heaven will lead us and guide us through this transfer to still get His work accomplished. I am pumped!! I have a new companion his name is Elder Marsh he i...

Hello Friends!! This week was definitely the most interesting week since I have been on my mission. We have been inside since Wednesday and we only get to leave our apartment twice for 20 minute walks, it's crazy!! It sounds like a lot of foreign missionaries are coming back to the United States so our mission will be getting quite a few of them. I am interested to see how many we get!! My companion and I are still getting along which is good because we have at least another 10 days left together but if neither of us transfer then we have another 24 days stuck inside, with just each other, it is not the easiest being stuck with someone hahahah! Being obedient is not easy when you are stuck inside like this, but we did find someone while calling all the people in our phone. He was super nice and we talked a lot about faith. He then read all of Ether chapter 12 after he hung up!! We are having phone lessons where we just call people and share a message which honestly works perfectly!...

Hey Friends!! This week our mission came out with a bunch of announcements regarding the Coronavirus. We can't shake hands or have any activities, conferences, or even church. But we are still able to go out and proselyte every day so that's good!!  We are thinking that we may have to stay inside eventually because our Mission President asked us to buy a months worth of food storage of non-perishable food, so I guess we will see what the next weeks hold in store for us!! My companion and I have been working with a bunch of less active people recently. We are teaching 8 less active members of the church and I love teaching them because I feel I can relate so much with them. We have had 2 come to church a few weeks ago and others are beginning to prepare themselves to try and get temple recommends again. It was weird not partaking of the sacrament (to renew our promises that we made with God at baptism) yesterday since church is temporarily suspended. But seeing famil...

 Hey everyone!! This week was really good I have definitely felt the prayers from back home!  We had 3 nonmembers at church which was awesome. 2 of them got emotional because of the talk that was given during sacrament meeting. The person who gave the talk was a missionary who just got home and he reflected on some stories from his mission and they were powerful. We tracted an entire trailer park and ran into a drug lords house. We kept seeing people who were tweaking knock on the door of the trailer and then do a light jog away from the trailer after the door opened. Hahahah it was super funny then we knocked the door and they were not interested lol. This week we also brought as many members as possible to lessons and they were soooo good. Missionary work with members is the best work because the people we teach feel the spirit and the connection with others so much stronger.  Members make a difference! I have been really focused on working hard and ...

Hey everyone!!! This week was good, we had some really good lessons with people that we are teaching!! We are teaching a family where the wife is a member and the husband is not and they talked about wanting to go to the temple as a family, which is super awesome!!!  We have 4 people progressing, which we are hoping to continue teaching and seeing them keep commitments so they can progress towards baptism. We almost got robbed this week and it was hilarious but definitely a little interesting. He wanted our shirt and jacket and luckily I have a Tongan companion who would have destroyed him lol. This week was really hard and I know that my Savior is helping me through the trials I face. I know when we continue to push forward our Father in Heaven will help us overcome our trials.  Thank you all for all you do miss y'all and love y'all!!! Taylor