Taylor Patterson - Reno, NV Mission

Hey Everyone!!! This week was a crazy one, so much happened in such little time! I am in a trio again. We will be with Elder Rubio until next week. I love the trio because it reminds me of Ely and all the good times we had as a trio. We have been teaching so many people!!! Between our two areas, the 1st and 3rd Ward we have found 48 people this month and are teaching 51 all together. Let's just say we don't knock doors anymore and it's fun!!! Christmas was a blast we got to hangout with the Boyd family for 3 hours and it was a good time.  We have 2 people getting baptized in the other areas this weekend and I got to do their interview and it made me so happy seeing how excited they were about it, they are just so awesome! I love the mission! I have seen such a change in my testimony and my love for others. They don't lie when they say your first convert should be yourself. My spiritual message this week is from Mosiah 3:19. It says "For the n...

Hey Everyone, This week was pretty good!!! We did so much service for people!! We did 15 hours of service this week and it was a blast. We also found 6 more people to teach and it has been keeping us so busy and we love it! This week we plan on making 120 Oreo balls for the people we are teaching because it's cheap and good hahahah. But we are hoping they love them!! This week we were teaching this lady and she told us in the middle of the lesson that she wanted to be baptized! She has been smoking for 55 years and this week we are going to start the 15 step program to get her off of cigarettes in 7 days!!! We are excited! My spiritual message is from Mosiah 3:17. It says: "And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent." As we remember Christ during this season we remember the true meaning ...

Hey Everyone! This week was definitely an interesting one!! We found 8 new people to teach and we have found 25 this transfer, it is super awesome!!  We put someone on date for baptism for January 4th and hoping they stay faithful and progress!!! This week was a tough one on the body for sure!! I got in a nice bike accident. We were biking down a steep hill and I hit a puddle that was deeper then I thought and lost control going on the sidewalk and flew off my bike hitting my head into a thick metal pole. Don't worry the pole is A okay. Thankfully I had a helmet and the doctor showed everyone at the hospital my helmet lol.  We went to the emergency room to get a CT scan of my neck and luckily it is good, just sprained. I know I am truly on the Lords errand because I should've walked away with something broke, but thankfully it was just a sprained neck so it's all good. Spiritual message "But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put...

Hey Everyone, What an amazing week this past week has been!! Elder Stillwell and I have been working really hard to make this area blow up with missionary work.  We bike like 8 miles a day so our legs are getting swole, but that's beyond the point lol.  We found 11 new people this week to teach and man has Heavenly Father been blessing us with our work. We have taught 28 people this week and it is so fun.  I also had the opportunity to see the kids of the family we were teaching in my last area get baptized and the spirit was so strong!!!  Then we had a lady who we were teaching here in the Elko 3rd ward get baptized. I got to confirm her by the laying on of hands on Sunday I was a little nervous but the spirit was very strong especially when I said the words "Receive The Holy Ghost"  We also had zone conference which was fun we got to wear ugly Christmas sweaters and watch the other side of heaven 2 it was so fun.  My spiritual message ...

Hey Everyone!! Walking in the cold every day has been a challenge but it has definitely been worth it! We found 7 new people in the past 5 days to begin teaching and it has been such a blessing. We have about 4 to 5 lessons a day and man it's a lot of work, but it is totally worth it. T he East family from my last area are getting baptized December 7th and it's super awesome. Then we have a baptism here in my new area on December 7th also. We also put someone on date for the 14th of December it's super exciting!  My new companion is super cool he is from Quincy IL. We are the only missionaries from Illinois and we are serving together it is pretty cool. This week we also had a lesson scheduled to teach 2 people at this Western Inn and people kept walking by and sitting in on the lesson which was amazing. We are now teaching 7 of them it was super awesome!!! My spiritual message is Ether 12:6 we used this scripture a lot this week so I will just send it in...

Hey Everyone!! This week was full of so many miracles!!!  First off I am getting transferred to go to the Elko 3rd Ward to be a District leader. So this week we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Araujo from Brazil. We went to this town called Carlin. While we were there we found 2 families!!! One family has a daughter who lives in Ely who was baptized in September, and the others have been looking for missionaries and want to be baptized, it was so cool.  Then in the Elko 5th Ward we got 2 people on date to be baptized December 7th. They were on date for November but had an emergency so they couldn't make it in November. Then we met a family who wants their granddaughters to be baptized. They are 11 and will get baptized in January. Then we got another 11 year old who has read the Book of Mormon already and has restarted, he is on date for January. His mother is less active and dad isn't a member, but he comes every week he is so awesome....

Hey everyone!! So another week goes by here in Elko. We had a pretty busy week with a lot of lessons. We found two more people to teach here, and we also are hoping to get three people in Owyhee on a baptismal date within the next couple of weeks.  On Sunday we got to go to Owyhee and there were only 16 people there at the branch, but it was still a good sacrament. We did 10 hours of service this week! A lot of it was moving people in and out of homes and that was super fun.  I got to meet 2 families I haven't met here yet in Elko and they were awesome. The first family is the Natapu's, he grew up in Compton and man....he has some stories, he is super cool. We then met the Becks, he is a die hard Dallas Cowboys fan and man he had all sorts of stuff like football cards and signed Dallas stuff, I was in heaven.  Sadly we didn't have the baptisms this week so we are trying to get them back on date. However, we are still teaching a good amount of people an...