March 21, 2011

Hello dear family and friends. I hope that life for you was good. It was a great week for me, and also a hard week. I dropped off Sister Archer to the Antelope 4th ward on Tuesday, and I was a little bit jealous that she got to go serve in my first area. I love that ward, and everyone in it! She's with Sister Christensen now, and I know that they'll do good work together. :) Then I picked up my new companion, a brand new missionary straight from the MTC, named Sister Barfuss. (Yes, it's pronounced just like you think it is. :) She's really cool. She's 22, from Oregon. She's the oldest of 5 kids, and the only girl. She's been a member all her life, and is strong in her testimony. She's a great teacher too. Being with her reminds me so much of what I was like when I first came to the mission. She's on fire with motivation, and really excited to work. She gets super excited any time we get any positive reactions, and really upset whenever things don't work out like we planned -- like with canceled appointments or with slammed doors. I was exactly like that too, I remember. She has the drive to baptize the entire county, and she's fun to work with. I'm so relieved that she's cool! So we've been working hard. Which is good. Sister Barfuss brought the rain from Oregon with her, though, and we've been in flood watch warnings all week. So we've basically been tracting in the rain. But it was a good experience, especially for her. We had some halfway decent lessons with a couple of our investigators, and we're teaching the rest of our investigators this week. We also have some fantastic potential investigators that we've had some contact in the past with lined up for lessons this week. I'm excited for the miracles that will happen that will allow Sister Barfuss's faith in the work to grow. And her motivation, coupled with mine, should help us make some amazing things happen here in the next couple months. :) I'm continually reminded about how hard the work is to get started with a new investigator. That is something I've learned in the last nine months... (PS... can you believe I'm half finished! YIKES!!) When we have a new investigator, or potential investigator who really wants what we have, it's ridiculously hard to schedule time with them. They're always either sick, or they forgot, or they're not home, or something comes up... It's crazy how hard the adversary works at making sure that we can't teach our friends about what we know. He doesn't want us to help them feel the spirit. Which is hard. The amazing thing is that when they finally do meet with us and we get to teach them about prayer, the Book of Mormon, the Restoration, or the Plan of Salvation, they feel the spirit, and sometimes, once that happens, the investigators can't seem to meet with us enough.. "come back tomorrow," we often hear. It's amazing what the Spirit can do, once we get to have him testify. :) It's getting to that point that is soooooooo hard! LOL. We had the awesome opportunity to go back to Antelope on Saturday to witness the Gonzales family baptisms. Remember them? I was teaching them before I left Antelope, since before Christmas, I think. They were so ready back then, but there was something holding thier Mom back from allowing them to be baptized. Well, she finally overcame whatever it was, and she let the four of her 7 kids who are over 8 be baptized on Saturday. We got to go, and it was a great experience. Practically the entire ward was there, so it was fun for me to see everyone. Plus, it was great to watch as this family was given the keys they need to live together forever. And I'm sure it was a great experience for my companion too... to see that there are people who are prepared and ready to receive the message that we'll teach them. We also got to spend some time with Sisters Christenses and Archer, who have both been my companions in the past, and also with Sister Withers, who was Sister Barfuss's companion at the MTC. They are really good friends, and they miss each other too. All in all it was a great experience. I came away from the whole day with a renewed energy and motivation to work hard. And to love the people I teach and serve. I know that I can't do this work without that crucial ingredient, and I think I was holding it back. But after being reminded how much I love the Gonzales family and the Antelope 4th ward, I feel like I owe it to my new branch and the people that I'm teaching here to have the same amount of love. To show them how much I care about them. Perhaps that is when we'll experience the miracles that we've been missing. That's about it for this week. I'm looking forward to hearing from ALL of you. :) Thanks so much for your prayers. I couldn't do this without them. Love, Sister Reid