May 9, 2011

Hello everybody. I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's day weekend. I know that I did! I got to call home, and that's always amazing! Getting to talk to everyone was great! I miss you all tons, and I'm glad everyone was able to chat. It was bittersweet, though, because now we have to wait 8 months! Christmas seems like it will never come. lol.

So this email will be mostly for the benefit of those of you who were not on the phone call. Sorry. I wish I could have talked to everyone!

We had a great week! We taught some great lessons with a our new investigators Jan and Leonard. We taught them the Plan of Salvation at a member's home, and they liked it, and the spirit was definately there, but there was something lacking in their conviction. They were even suggesting that they might not want to be baptized on May 28th, like we committed them last week. We were kind of sad about that. And as we left the lesson we were concerned that they might be falling away. So after church yesterday, we went to thier home and visited with them a little bit. Something has happened between the last time we met with them and yesterday. They have a new light. The Spirit has taught them as they've read from the Book of Mormon and as they've talked about the things they're learning and prayed about it. Jan even made one comment where she talked about "our church". It was so cool. I love being a part of teaching them, but I know that I can only say words. As I've done this now for almost 11 months, I'm starting to recognize the pattern where my companion and I go in and teach them a few times, but they don't get it, and then we come back, and the spirit has worked with them in the meantime. And then they get it. And Jan and Leonard have gotten it! They still won't be baptized on May 28th, which is sad, because they'll be out of town for the next several weeks, and you can't get baptized till you go to church, which they haven't done yet, but as soon as they're back in town, we'll visit with them, teach them some more, and then recommit them. And that will be awesome!

We also picked up a new investigator earlier this week named Michael. He's 20 years old. His older brother is a convert of a couple of years. Michael has been to church with him a few times and said that he really liked it. So his brother, Andrew, went to the temple and asked for them to send missionaries to his brother. The temple sent us a text message and we contacted Michael. He's so prepared too. We've met with him once, and he readily accepted the invitation to be baptized! It was awesome. And we're looking forward to being able to meet with him again this week and to teaching him and setting a baptismal date with him. It will be so cool!

We had zone conference on Friday. It was an amazing meeting. We got to listen to a talk that Elder Holland gave to all the missionaries in the MTC in January. He talked about Peter, the apostle who became the head of the church after Christ left. Peter went home after Christ's resurrection, not really knowing what to do. He went back to his old life from before the Savior. He and the other apostles went fishing. Elder Holland said that that is what a lot of returned missionaries do. They go back to life after their calling is over. And they put everything they learned and have done for the last 18 months or 2 years away on a shelf somewhere. Some of them, more than they like to admit, even go inactive, having never recieved their own true conversion. But for Peter, and for all members everywhere, the calling to be His disciple does not end. Christ came to Peter and admonished him 3 times (3 being a fairly sensative number for Peter at this point in his life) to basically "forget yourself and go to work." The calling to be His disciple will not end for me in January. And it has not ended for any of you who are members of His church. Once you are a member you will never be the same person. You can't be the same. You've been changed. As a returned missionary, I will never be the same either. When I come home in January, I will not be the same person who left last June. "I have been called of Him, to declare His word, among His people, that they might have everlasting life" and that call will not end when I'm released from my mission. And it has not ended for any of you. Go and study 2 Nephi 31 - the Doctrine of Christ - and really internalize it. That will take time, and diligence and serious pondering. But when you do that, you will become who He expects you to be, and your joy will be above what you can even imagine.

That's pretty much all the amazing stuff going on in Colusa right now. We have a full mission conference on Friday and all the missionaries will be in attendance. Which hasn't happened in, like, 5 years. We have the opportunity to be taught by Elder Christofferson, and 5 other general authorities who are all in town for a massive training meeting with all the leadership in northern California. They've requested to meet with all the missionaries for several hours beforehand. So I'm sure there will much more to tell you next week. :)

So until then, have a good week. Pray hard, read your scriptures, be better today than you were yesterday, and when you're not, pray for help tomorrow. :)

I love you all and miss you all and I hope this wasn't too preachy. lol

Love, Sister Reid