Shaelie's Missionary Adventure!: Elko...

OLA!!!! Como vai!

Well I've officially started my mission! I'm pretty dang excited! I am serving in Elko Nevada in the Elko 2nd ward!!!!!! Yay!!! It’s pretty awesome here just a little bit cold and by a little bit I mean a lot! haha But it’s all good I’m just trekking it everywhere! My last few days in the MTC were sad but they were good. It was sad to have to say goodbye to my district but also super exciting because we actually get to be missionaries! When we first got to Reno President and Sister Hermansen were there to welcome us with open arms! They are super awesome and so loving I’m really happy to have them as my mission president and wife. There are a lot of great things going on in the mission and the other missionaries are great! It’s really fun here. So I had to stay the night in Reno before heading to Elko because it’s like a 4 hour drive but I had an interesting experience my first night! We went to visit a family in the ward and this lady turned out to have lived in my ward at home! And she totally remembers me and my family! They moved in 2002 but they totally remembered Brandi singing and they had just moved into the ward when Lacie passed away. I can't remember her name! But crazy small world huh!!! haha

Anyways as for Elko it’s pretty awesome! There are a lot of really interesting people! My companions name is Sister Anderson! She is so awesome! We get along so well because we are both super fun and loud but also really spiritual. She has been serving in another ward in Elko since October so she's pretty educated in the area which is nice, but we did get double transferred into the area so she doesn’t know any of the people we are teaching. We have been going through teaching records and trying to get the hang of things but it has taken some time so we haven’t been able to teach too many people but things have been picking up so I'm optimistic about what we will accomplish this week. We are both super motivated to get some good work done in the area!

So a little about Elko you may not know. It’s really cold. haha jk but it really is. But pretty much everyone who lives here works in the mines so they have these crazy work schedules which makes it pretty hard to meet people but we are trying to just work around it and do what we can. A lot of the people here have had some hard times. There is much to be done to help people and teach them about Christ so they can have better lives. There is definitely more to Elko then the gas station that we usually stop at on the way to Utah! But it’s awesome! I'm actually excited to start doing stuff!

So we have 2 investigators so far that we are teaching. The first one is Ben! He is so awesome and totally wants to get baptized, he's been meeting with missionaries and people from the church for a while now so he’s so ready we just need to teach him the lessons and everything and he'll be good to go! He is so awesome and has so much faith and a desire to change. And he's hilarious so that makes it super fun to teach him! The other one is actually a media referral we got from mormon.org, He requested for us to come which is super cool! He’s an older guy and has a lot of health problems so he doesn’t really ever leave his apartment so we are going to try and help him have Christ in his life more so he can be happy. I know that through the gospel he can find true happiness!

Well that’s about all we have been doing, we should be meeting some new people this week! So hopefully I’ll have more to report next week! Things are so good and I am loving doing the work of the Lord. I have already seen so many tender mercies and awesome things happen and that will only continue! I hope you guys write me so I'm not a total loser who doesn’t get any mail! Remember to study the scriptures and pray every day because it really does make a difference. Mosiah 2:41 really made an impact on me this week so check it out! :) I love you all so so much and love hearing how things are going! Especially mission calls so keep me updated!

O EVANGELHO E VERDADEIRAO!!!

My address is: 312 Rolling Hills Drive Elko, NV 89801 (I should be here for a while.)

Also my mission has a blog you can check out at nevadarenomission.blogspot.com

I hope things are going well and I try to always keep you in my prayers!

Our crazy messy room when packing!

Classic mtc map photo!

Double missions! what what!

4. Our district with one of our teachers! Irmao Perkes

Us with Irma Pike (the red head in the middle) GREAT teacher!

Branch President Radenbaugh

All the sisters! They are the best!

Sister Davis! My lovely companion!

The best district at the MTC! We are pretty much goofs! But I love this picture so much!

Okay so the girl in the picutre is Jenny Phillips and she turned out to be Irmao perkes's cousin so we loved her and kinda freaked her out a little bit.. haha but we didnt care!