Taylor Patterson - Reno, NV Mission

  What is up Friends!!! To be honest I don't know where time has gone it seems like every day flies by here in Reno. Only a little less than 10 months before I am home and it honestly blows my mind!! This week was super good! Elder McKay spoke to all the missionaries this week and announced some exciting things!! We can now go into members homes if we are invited and we can have in person exchanges with other missionaries. We still have to wear a mask and all that, but it's good to finally get a little more freedom. We had 4 non members at church this Sunday and had 2 church tours following that!! It was so spiritual and cool to show them around the building and explain the pictures on the wall. Both people really liked the pictures and you could definitely see them feeling the spirit. We also have been teaching a guy who went less Active right after his baptism. He's such a cool guy though and this week he said he wants to get the priesthood, he came to church and talked t...

  Heyo!! What is up friends?! This week honesty FLEW by!!! On Tuesday we got to go help run the transfer which was super fun. Another 16 new missionaries came out and another 30 are coming! This is the biggest the mission has been since the age change happened!! We have about 200 missionaries in the mission and we started and 145 about 3 months ago! It's been a rapid influx. Also Reno has been getting ALL the smoke from Cali, today is the first day the sky has been somewhat blue!! I can't even imagine how bad the smoke is for the body lol.  We've also been doing A Lot of yard work which honestly is fun because my pasty legs get to see the sun and it's keeps us active. We even harvested some corn which was super cool!! I've been gaining quite a few pounds on the mission so I'm trying to cut those off now lol.  Missionary work wise, we've been having lots of people try and make it out to church. We also are teaching two less actives who have came to church now...

  Hey Friends!!! This week honestly flew by!! Elder Bean, my companion is just a stud, and we've been working and making some Facebook content, which has been good!!! On Sunday we had 6 nonmembers make it to church and it was so awesome. They're some of the nicest people I've met. It was Angela and her sons first time ever going! They're the absolute sweetest!!!  We did like 10 hours of service this week and we finished putting in a fence for this lady. We do lots of yard work for people since we can't do much else but it has been so fun!!  About 30 minutes from us there has been this huge fire, today is the 3rd day it has been going on. Its been having ash fall on us outside which is super weird. Nevada just stays burning lol.  Not much else is new, we went golfing today, we only played 9 holes but it was a good time. It's good to be able to still swing some clubs even if they're not my own lol.  Also a lot of people think that being out right now is proba...

Hey Everyone!!! It's so crazy with all these new missionaries coming into Reno Nevada!! I got my new companion Elder Bean, he is a stud!! He's straight out the Home MTC which is super cool but weird that missionaries are being trained through technology. Not much new happened this week except we put Gavin on baptismal date!! We are planning on the first week of September. Gavin is such an inspiration he's probably one of the strongest and optimistic people I've met on my mission, let alone in my life. We went downtown for a Facebook video this week as well and we ran into some interesting people. One lady was strung out on something and was barely wearing clothes talking to us. It was so interesting to see all the different people and how poor lifestyles can really mess you up in the long run. We went on this really cool hike today to a waterfall and it was a super good time it was like 3 hours long but it was well worth it!!! Elder Patterson

What is Up Everyone!?!? This week was pretty good! We have been grinding when it comes to missionary work. We are in the process of making some missionary videos for Facebook. We also got into contact with 4 new nonmembers and we have been teaching them. We are also teaching one guy quite a bit still and he is so close to taking a big step for his life and it's just been so cool to see him light up!!! This week it was just Elder Christensen and I because Elder Schlese got transferred to a different area. We went to the golf course for our morning exercise which was super fun to be able to putt and chip it brought back some good memories.  We also got to go golfing this P-day. I shot 5 over par which wasn't to bad for haven't playing in 6 months.  Tomorrow is transfer day and I'm getting a new companion he's coming straight from the Home MTC and I'll still be watching over the best Reno zone but I'll also be comps with a brand new missionary which I think is ...