30 Aug 2018: Soy un misionero en la Ciudad de Los Pecados!

Title translation: "I am a missionary in Sin City!"

30 August 2018
Hola todos!

I am now in the field! Sorry it took so long to write again, our P Day was today because we had a mission tour/conference on Tuesday. Two General Authorities came and trained us, Elder and Sister Lynn G Robbins, and Elder and Sister Bangeter. They were awesome! Good news is that it will be less than a week until my next letter. 

I call it a pineapple tree, because it looks like a pineapple

So last Sunday was bittersweet to say goodbye to my Branch presidency. I really grew to love them. Monday Elder Kelly left for Omaha and Elder Myer left for his surgery. Tuesday Elder Thomas and Elder Winter left for Alabama and DC. That night we had a great devotional given by another Apostle! This time it was Elder D Todd Christofferson, and be talked about the importance of using the full name of the church. We got to sing an 8 part piece of Joseph Smith's First Prayer! It was great to sing in my tenor range again. It was cool to have a general authority for my first and last devotionals. 

The next morning the rest of the district left. Then Elder Cluff and I hopped the St George shuttle to Vegas. There was a lady on there from Orem who took pictures of us and sent them to our families. That was cool. Then when we got to the city, I had to not look out the window because of all the risqué billboards. Yeesh. 

We got to the mission office, and met our new companions, had training, got interviewed by our mission President individually, and went to our areas! It was a long day. Elder Cluff had to go to Blythe, California so he got interviewed first and then had a 3 hour drive after that!

President Youngblood and me

My mission President and wife are awesome! They are President and Sister Youngblood and are so funny and nice and I could tell immediately how much they loved me! 

I am in an area about 30 minutes outside of the mission office and about an hour east of downtown Vegas. I can see The Strip from most points in my area, and the temple is about 15 minutes away from my apartment.

My new companion is Elder Dillender. He is awesome! He is from Salinas, California and has been out a year and a half. I have learned a lot from him already.

I am serving in two wards right now, which means that there are two congregations that I serve with. One is a Young Single Adult Ward that covers three stakes. I have a bike and a car for the really far appointments. That's pretty nice. The hottest it has gotten out here is 103 or 104. 

I don't have time to share a ton about the week in the field, but there are a couple stories I want to share. 

My new companion, Elder Dillender

My second day in the field, we were walking past a member's house and Elder Dillender said " oh that's the Martinez home" then we hear a car honk at us, and he says " and there is Sister Martinez!" We go over and say hi, she speaks Spanish pretty exclusively, and she eventually invites us in for some water. That turns into water and ice cream, then water, ice cream, and Ceviche. We were supposed to be going to another member's house for dinner that night. Then the member who we were supposed to have dinner with walks into the Martinez home! Her name is Hermana Lopez, and she is basically our mom out here. She is awesome. But anyway she says "Ay! Qué pasó?" (What happened?" Then she ended up eating with us, then we went to her house for dinner later. It was a fun time.

I have experienced real miracles here in the past week. One of them is just the fact that everybody, even the ones that don't want to hear our message, are so nice. Almost everybody offers us water.  Yesterday we were walking back to our bikes, and a guy was putting water bottles on our seats. Everybody is so nice out here. 

Also, the other day, I literally saw a chicken cross the road ... nuff said.

There are other miracles that I have experienced out here, ones that I have literally seen the hand of God in helping us do His work. I know that this is His work, and I feel blessed that I get to take part in it here in Las Vegas. 

Here is my new address: 

Nevada Las Vegas Mission 

Attn: Elder Lovell

451 N Nellis Blvd Apt 1146

Las Vegas, Nevada 89110

Make sure you get that exact address if you are going to send me something.

Love you all! 

Elder Lovell

P.S. There are some very interesting street names here in Vegas, i.e. The Strip, but there are some very entertaining ones in my area. For example:

Snugglers Ct.

Snoring Ct.

Pillow Talk Ct.

Memory Lane (no joke)

Magic Forest Drive

Mirror Lake Drive

Majestic Falls Lane

Looking Glass Lane

Great Falls Avenue 

My awesome MTC teachers!

Chariot Lane

Trump Tower

Moral of the story, Las Vegas is weird, but awesome!

Some of the scenery on the way to Vegas

With Elder Cluff in the Mission Office. His first area is in CA