August 19, 2013

Dear folks,

I'm glad the weather there is nice. The heat picked up a little here this week. There has also been a pretty big forest fire nearby in California so our whole valley has been filled with smoke this last week and we have been coming back home smelling like a campfire almost every day. 

 We still haven't heard anything about the changes from our mission president so I don't know what's going to happen. I will let you know though.

It's always tough dealing with families involved with drugs. It really clouds their minds and causes them to make really poor decisions. It's especially tough dealing with kids because there is not much we can do if the parents aren't on board. We were teaching the 11, 9, and 7 year old of a less active woman but she is was also involved with drugs and abusive relationships and had super bad depression that often lands her in the hospital because she freaks out. She has since stopped having us come over because her life is so messed up and it's hard because the kids were doing really well. Just keep working with him and being an example. Even if he can't be baptized right now, there can be a seed planted that will sprout later. Meth is a huge problem out here as well, most of our investigators have been involved with it, it's really nasty stuff. You can always tell who is on it too or who's done it because most of their teeth are rotted or missing and they have pieces of skin missing from their arms because they pick it off. 

This week has been pretty good and pretty bad. We have Ts who is doing really well and is progressing very fast. He is also doing more missionary work the half the ward combined, he wants everyone he knows to talk to us and hear about the gospel. Cs on the other hand, who was supposed to be baptized back in April before I got here, has given in to his sister and decided to stop meeting with us and go back to Judaism for a time, even though he has told us before that he has received the answer that this was the true church. The only problem is he lives with his sister and talks to her every day but hasn't been meeting with us for various reasons.

Elder Js, another missionary in our ward who also lives with us, was made district leader after our former DL was emergency transferred to Eli to replace a sick missionary. Now every time he enters a room he says,"Your District Lord!" and sings Darth Vader's theme song from Star Wars. He is a pretty funny guy, very easy to get along with. 

We also started teaching this guy named Js who is an alcoholic we met on the street. He always passes by and yells out God bless you or something like that, sometimes it's hard to understand him because he really slurs his words. He's a pretty interesting guy and really wants to stop drinking. We will see where he goes, him and his wife are planning on moving pretty quick here. 

We had a pretty interesting experience on Saturday. We were supposed to help Cty paint her doors but she wasn't feeling well and asked us to stop by later. We then decided to go to a different less active members house but he wasn't home either but as we turn to leave we see Sm running across the street. We decided to go say hi because she's a hard person to catch. When we walked up she saw that we were in our service clothes and asked what we were doing. We said we were doing service and she said, "Oh, you remembered the block party I was setting up." And we were like, yeah, even though we had completely forgotten. We ended up helping her set it up because she was was running very behind and then we also got to meet the whole neighborhood and show them that LDS missionaries aren't that weird. 

We also ran into a woman named Csy at the party who is a "Pagan Christian" or she practices witchcraft and Wicca but believes in Jesus Christ so it's ok. We have ran into a lot of Wiccans before and they all say the same thing, "Everyone always says Wiccans are bad but I'm a good witch, I only use magic for good not for bad like some others do." It's really hard to talk to them especially because they are not use to the Spirit. It often makes them feel bad inside so they interpret that as "evil" instead of realizing if you surround yourself with a bad spirit, you're going to feel bad around the Holy Ghost because that's what happens. Casey had been to an LDS church before and thought it was "evil" because she felt sick inside, but Elder Bm and I looked at each other and were like no kidding. That was an interesting conversation, we spent like half an hour talking to her. 

Other than that, not much else has happened. We are still walking everywhere and there is no sign of a car in the near future. They might be cutting our ward down from 2 sets to 1 set again but we will see. I love you guys and hope you all have a great week.

August 12, 2013

Dear folks,

We are getting fed pretty well here.

This week has been pretty good but kinda slow. A lot of people haven't been around because school was starting up again today and there was also a big car show called Hot August Nights downtown. We are still working on getting Cs recommitted with another baptismal date but his sister is fighting tooth and nail against it. She had a rabbi come talk to him and asked him go to Jewish temple services this weekend trying to convince him not to do it.

Dl is doing well, but he started school again last week so it's been kinda hard to meet with him. Ts is also doing very well, we have high hopes that he could be ready for baptism within a few weeks if he can quit his cigarettes. Cy came to church with us this weekend and seemed to enjoy it although she is pretty shy and doesn't like all the attention the ward members give whenever we have an investigator come to church. Sm is also doing very well, we had a good 2 hour discussion with her and she is super interested in the church. She had also been getting a lot of grief and hearing a lot of false information about the church from her neighbors because she has been meeting with us so she prayed and asked if having us teach her was a good thing. She said she felt very good about it and so didn't care what other people said about us. We also told her about the First Vision and she said it makes sense that a lot of people would hate Christ's true church because of the influence of the devil. We are pretty hopeful for her but there is a lot of stuff she has to change in her life first so hopefully she can.

We have anther lesson scheduled with a guy named Jk . I can't remember if I told you guys about him. He's been investigating the church for over 14 years and still hasn't been baptized. We took a different approach with him and fasted and planned for a couple hours the lessons we were going to have with him. We decided to be very blunt about addressing all the excuses he had and all the blessings he was giving up. He has been out of town for the last month or so so we haven't gotten to meet with him for awhile but the last time we did he said he didn't know why he wasn't baptized yet and that he would talk about it with his family, who are all members, which is something he had never done and would pray about it. Hopefully he has done the things we told him to do and that this next meeting will go well.

We also ran into a Messianic Jew, or a Jewish person that believes in Jesus Christ but still keeps a lot of the Jewish traditions. We were walking up to her and I asked her how she was doing and she replied "Shalom. Do you know what that means?" And we were like, not really, then she said, in a very mystical voice,"It means 'peace', peace that passes all human understanding." She started talking about her beliefs and that we should try to read a Hebrew Bible because a lot of the words can't really be translated into English and that we didn't really understand a lot of the Bible because it was mistranslated and that Christ didn't end the law of Moses but when he said that he fulfilled it, it didn't mean that he ended it, it only meant that he lived it perfectly and that we should as well (even though further into the New Testament it makes it clear that the law of Moses ended). At first I though, ok, she just really believes in her religious ideology and, you know, we do believe in the Bible as far as it is translated correctly which is why we have the Book of Mormon to provide clarity and further doctrine and we were going to talk about that but then she started talking about how we shouldn't call Jesus Jesus and should use the Hebrew form of his name and then told us she knew all about Mormons and that our religion was wrong and that no one had ever studied the Bible as much and as in depth as she had. She also had shaved her head because God told her to, and that he had told her to shave her head at least 3 times before and that something bad in the world always happened when she did and she also believes that the government is spraying us with chemicals mixed with human blood to control our minds and that the only reason we could talk to her is because God was blessing us with that ability. It was at this point we realized she wasn't all there and that we really couldn't convince her otherwise.

I hope you all are doing well and have a good week this week.  

August 5, 2013

Dear Folks,

Just regular music, like classical or instrumental stuff. As long as it brings the spirit and doesn't have romantic overtones really. CD's, this isn't the 80's hahaha. We only have CD players.

This week has been pretty good. We went into down town Reno to email today, it's an interesting place. We had a homeless guy walk up to us and talk about how he was related to Jesus and Mary Magdalene and that they had 4 kids, that was an interesting discussion. This week was pretty slow but we had a lot of success. We found a new investigator, Daniel, while street contacting. He is a petty cool guy and has a big interest in religion which is unusual for a 17 year old. We also ran into a lady who is inactive and had served a mission 3 years ago. She invited us to come visit and we talked with her boyfriend who is a pretty cool guy who was also at one point a priest in the church. We will see where that goes, hopefully we can get them to come back.

We also had one of our most spiritual lessons ever with Dianna. She has been investigating for a couple months but has been very strong in her faith. At the end we asked her to pray about the Book of Mormon and she said she was afraid to because she would get an answer. She also said everything we taught and clicked with her and we asked why and she said because it all sounded familiar to her like she had heard it before. We are excited for her and hope she does read and pray.

That's all for this week, I hope you guys are doing well and have a good week.

Love,

Elder Jacob Klingensmith

July 29, 2013

Dear folks,

I had to get a new bike chain and service cloths which I can't buy with MSF. I also bought a game, haha, we get so bored on P-Day there isn't much we can do, especially since we don't have a car and aren't with walking or biking distance of anything.  

I'm glad this week went well for you guys at the fair and with the dog. That's funny that the very first egg was a double yoke, did someone eat it or did you just crack it to take a look?

Yeah, we get along really well and figure it's probably down hill from now on with companions. This week was pretty good, we were pretty busy. This was the first week in a long time that we actually met our goals which was very nice. 

 

We have started working with a family called the Ss. They are a less active family that saw us walking down the road and asked us to stop by. They are a super cool family that are a blast to visit. They were converts to the church about 6 years ago but stopped coming because of a fight they had with the bishop of their last ward. This last week has been a pretty rough one, their oldest daughter who is 11 was taken by CPS because of some things Brother Ss sister said. They ended up getting her back a couple days later, but not until after they had decided to start coming back to church because they said leaving had been the biggest mistake of their lives and making big changes in their lives. Unfortunately, for some reason they didn't come so we are kinda worried about how things are going to go for them, especially after as many blessings they had received this last week, but we haven't gotten to talk to them yet so we don't know the whole story. 

Other than that, most of our investigators are doing pretty good but we are worried about O. He want's to change and said he had given up alcohol but is not ready to stop smoking weed. He is also in a rough spot with being able to convert because he is in a tough position to be able to do much for himself since he lives at home and doesn't have much motivation. We are still working with him an set him with a date so hopefully he will have more motivation but we don't know if he will make it. We are still working and praying for him. 

We started visiting a woman named Sm who is awesome as well. She asks a lot of the right questions and is well on her way to becoming baptized if she keeps the commitments we leave. She also had a friend with her that said she was a Wiccan and also said she wasn't interested but sat in on the lesson and asked if we were going to come back so  we might get to work with her as well. 

Ts is also doing well. He is thinking about inviting a friend of his to sit in on the lessons because he was also interested in the things we were teaching Ts. We are pretty excited for him, he is doing really well. 

Other than that, not much has happened. I miss you guys and hope you have a good week.


Mom's Note: It was fun to check out the mission blog and find pictures of Jacob  in this post! http://nevadarenomission.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-07-21T21:25:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=2&by-date=false

July 22, 2013

Dear folks,

Transfers went well, Elder B is still my companion which was a surprise since he has been here for more than 6 months. We are both pretty happy about that, he was really afraid that he was going to get a bad companion but he does want to get out of Stead. The other Elders in our ward are also staying as well, which is pretty unusual too. 

This week has been pretty slow. We had a fireside last night that we had been planning. It was about the importance of families and it went pretty well we had a good turnout. One of our Zone Leaders, Elder G just finished his mission so he is about to go home, which is pretty sad, we all liked him a lot. A lot of people haven't been home and we have been walking a lot, I will probably need some new shoes pretty quick here actually. We saw a rather large woman run from the police the other day, that was pretty entertaining. She ran out of these apartment complexes screaming at the top of her lungs at another guy that was following her, then hopped into a car but they didn't get very far. Other than that, we haven't been doing much. 

Hope you guys have a good week.

P.S. You could send like cookies or Mt. Dew or music or other stuff, haha. Music especially, as long as its church appropriate. Could you also send easy to make healthy recipes too?

July 15, 2013

(Letter to Mom)

You guys are going to have so many eggs, hahaha. You will have to send me pictures of all the new chickens and the new dog. 

This week was pretty good. We had a lot more to do this week than last week. Last week we barely taught 6 lessons but this week we went back up to 13. We have a couple new investigators as well, when of them is S, a middle aged women that really wants to know more about the church and what happens after we die since her brother passed away a couple weeks ago. We also ran into a kid named K who ran into a couple missionaries a few weeks ago that gave him a Book of Mormon. He has read about half of it and his mom also started to read it so we gave him another one and asked if we could come over. We are pretty excited for the both of them. 

O is progressing along well. He is still struggling with the Word of Wisdom, which is pretty much his last obstacle to being baptized, but he has improved a lot since we first met him. We also committed C to live the Word of Wisdom, which is also her biggest obstacle since she loves tea and cigarettes though she has been trying to quit those. We haven't been able to see T yet this week because we haven't been able to catch him. 

Other than that, the weather here has been ok. It's supposed to get pretty hot this coming week. Transfers are also coming up so Elder B will probably be leaving the area, which kinda sucks since we get along really well. According to the ZLs, I might be training, I will know for sure by Wednesday but I don't think I will be since there aren't that many new Elders coming in this time and there are a lot of other more experienced missionaries. 

I love you and hope you have a good week.

(Letter to Dad)
This week has been going by pretty good. Geez, that's a lot of chickens. What are you going to do with all the eggs? We are supposed to be in the high 90's into the 100's this week. That'll be nice, I can hardly remember what good a/c feels like. Our apartment's is pretty good but most people here only have swamp coolers which don't really work when it's higher than 80 or no a/c at all.

Things are going pretty well. We talked to the ward council on Sunday because our ward doesn't have a Ward Mission Plan and the Bishop doesn't like to work with the missionaries at all which is really bad for us. We did get them talking about it so hopefully we will get the ball rolling for a complete plan in the next few weeks. We especially hope so because of the broadcast a few weeks ago which specifically said that Bishops and the Ward Council are supposed to head the missionary work of a ward and they need to have a Ward Mission Plan and that they should do almost all the finding of people for missionaries to teach. We did not get to baptize C this week because he came down with a bad case of Bronchitis so we had to postpone it. 

Hope you're doing well and have a good week next week.

July 8, 2013

Dear folks,

The heat this week wasn't too bad. We had a storm on the 4th that came out of no where and also caused hail which was pretty fun.

 One of the families in the ward took us to Virginia City for a firework show because we had permission from President to stay out past curfew and leave the zone. Virginia City is an old mining town pretty much situated in the top of a couple mountains, it was pretty cool. There were a lot of "interesting" people there but we were not allowed to wear proselyting clothes or name tags so we blended in for the most part. It was kinda weird because we would walk past people and want to talk to them but we couldn't because we would look like a couple weirdos, or at least more so than usual I guess, haha.

This week was a pretty slow one. Other than the 4th, we really didn't do much. On Tuesday and Wednesday we ended up having to go to California for most of the day, one for Zone training and another to go pick of one of out ZL's that stayed back to go on exchanges with the Elders in Susanville so that took up a whole lot of time. Then most of our investigators weren't able to meet with us for one reason or another so we spent a lot of time walking around and talking to people. Since both sets of missionaries are on the street a lot more since we lost our car a lot more people are noticing us which is nice because often times they come up to us and ask us questions.

One of the families we were working with might be going through a divorce which kinda throws things way off. We had primarily been working with the kids and the dad since the mother was already a member. The father used to take lessons from us and things had been going very well for their family, they had even renewed their wedding vows a couple months ago. but all of a sudden he decided to stop because of work and now won't meet with us anymore and then walked out of the family and things just fell apart completely. We are super heartbroken over it but there isn't much we can do except encourage them to start living the gospel. To complicate the matter, there is a legal issue between one of the family members and one of the members of the ward so in order to attend church they have to go to a different ward or move.

We also started to teach a guy named T who the Spanish missionaries tracted into. He is a pretty nice guy, does a lot of service for the homeless community because of his past. The first couple times we met with him, he didn't seem to interested but last night he started to ask a lot of questions so we pretty much went through the whole restoration with him. He said it made a lot of sense and pretty much accepted it right there and also asked where he could get a Book of Mormon because he wanted to read it. Luckily for him, we carry like 5 so it was no problem to get him to commit to read and pray about it. We are pretty excited for him.

 

We will be baptizing a guy this Saturday named C and we are excited about that. I won't actually be baptizing him but I will be confirming him on Sunday. I probably will not be transferred for at least another month and a half.

I love you guys and miss you.