Sept 5, 2011

Hello dear friends and family.

I was going to start today's email with a ton of trivial information, knowing that you're all hanging on bated breath to know what my new comp is like. So I was thinking about sharing some of the Church statistics:

Stakes - 2,896

Missions - 340

Districts - 614

Wards and Branches - 28,660

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

Total membership - 14,131,467

New children of record - 120,528

Converts baptized - 272,814

MISSIONARIES

Full-time Missionaries - 52,225

Church-service Missionaries - 20,813

TEMPLES

Temples dedicated - 4 (Vancouver British Columbia, Gila Valley Arizona, Cebu City Philippines, and Kyiv Ukraine)

Temples rededicated - 1 (Laie Hawaii)

Temples in operation - 134

but I decided, instead to just get straight to it... Soooo....

Her name is Sister Williams. She's from Albuquerque, NM. I already compared notes with her about Abq, and we don't know any of the same people. In fact, she lives on the complete opposite side of town from where we lived. Anyway. She's got four older sisters, who are all at least twenty years older. She was adopted as an infant. She's African American (how many sisters get to say they served with a black sister? Not many!) She's a graduate from BYU in, drum roll..... English Lit... crazy, huh? So we have a couple things in common. She's super cute, and has a rockin' testimony of the gospel. She was raised in the church. She's a very shy person, but she's intent on overcoming her usually quietness so that she can share the gospel. She wants to be the best that she can. I'm excited to be serving with her, and for the miracles that we'll be seeing together. She's pretty cool!

As for the things that have happened already this week... I don't really have much to report, because we've been attending a lot of training meetings this last week. The church has rolled out a new training program that is a lot different from what trainers used to do (which was pretty much whatever they wanted). Now we have a structured study program with goals and applications that we're supposed to complete each week of the new missionary's first twelve weeks. It's pretty cool, but since no one has done it before, we've had to have a lot of training on it. Which means that we haven't done much proselyting yet. We've done some... a little tracting, and some lessons that we already had scheduled, but nothing miraculous. Probably the coolest thing was getting to see 3 confirmations in sacrament meeting yesterday. I was so proud of those new converts! I love them, and I'm so happy that I got be a part of their teaching experience.

Coming up this week, we have some exciting appointments with a few new potential investigators, and some good less active lessons. So it'll be our first real full week of work together as a companionship. I'm excited to see what the week will bring. I hope and pray that it will bring good miracles. :) Both for me and my comp, as well as for all of you!

As a side note... Next week, on Monday (my traditional email day) we are having a mission conference. Elder Kearon of the 1st Quorom of the Seventy will be meeting with us for most of the day. So we won't be having a regular P-day next week. President Weston will change our P-day to a different day next week. I don't know which one, yet, but just so you know, when you don't get an email on monday next week, it isn't because I didn't write, but because I couldn't. :) I love you all. I hope you have a great week!

Love, Sister Reid

Aug 29, 2011

Hello everyone!!! I sure hope you had a great week! Ours was pretty awesome. I'll try to fit it all in. :)

Most of the week was pretty normal---as normal as missionary work gets. hahaha. Just lots of teaching and knocking on doors. Like normal. :)

The weekend was very long, though. It started on Saturday morning. I had the opportunity to go back to Antelope for a baptism. Not someone I knew when I was there. I mostly went so that I could see sister Barfuss and Sister Christensen agian. It's been a very long time since I saw either one of them. It was a wonderful day. We got there about 11:00 and left after lunch at about 3:30. It was soooo great to see them. I'd forgotten how close I was with each of them. And it was also kind of bittersweet because I had to leave again. But I got to see them again yesterday because they came to Yuba city to see Jan and Leonard get baptized. But I'll get to that in a second. First, let me tell you about Saturday night.

I was running around, making tons of phone calls trying to get everything finalized for the baptisms for yesterday. I randomly got a call from Elder Osborn, one of the assistants who told me that transfers were done, and then he told me that I would be training and my current companion, Sister Hurtado was being transferred to Auburn. The rest of the transfer calls were made that same night. None of companionships that I suggested were what really happened.... I guess that's why President is the President and not me. :) I really like that the calls went out early. I hope it's something that President does from now on. Sooo... yeah.... training again...

Anyway.

Sunday was very busy for us. We had church, like normal, and then right after church, we had a couple of appointments, before ward council. Ward council got finished at 4:00 and then we booked it over to the stake center to get things ready and set up for Jan and Leonard's baptism. It was well attended by the Colusa branch, and I was very happy to see Jan and Leonard go through with it. We've been teaching them since March, and they've had a lot to overcome. It was wonderful. And one of the best parts was that Sister Barfuss got to come. Jan and Leonard are the first investigators that she was involved in finding that have gotten baptized. It was just a really great service. Then, we had some cookies and socialized for a few minutes. After that everyone from Colusa went home and people from the Feather River ward showed up for Leslie's baptism. It was really great to rewind and start over. It wasn't quite well attended, but Leslie hasn't been to church much yet. The spirit was still super strong. I love baptisms!

So last night we got home and were super exhausted. No rest for the weary though. Sister Hurtado had to start packing. Today we have tons of people to visit so she can say goodbye, and tomorrow is transfers. I'll be off to Antelope again for Meet Your Trainer... the 5th time I've been to that meeting. Geez.

I love you all. I can't wait to see you all in a few months. Keep your prayers coming. I'm going to need them this week, with a new greenie and all.... :)

Love, Sister Reid

Aug 22, 2011

Hiya everyone. I have one very awesome story to tell you, and then that's pretty much it for this week.

We had a baptism last night. Jack Norene, age 89, got baptized. It was VERY well attended by multiple wards from the stake. Sister Norene has been an active member here in the city for 70 years - back when there was only one ward here. Now there's an entire stake, and everyone knows her and the family. We had to move the whole program into the chapel because the primary room (where the font is) was too small for everyone that came. It was a pretty great experience and I'm so grateful that I got to be part of the event that will eventually bring this family together forever. :)

We also had Zone conference this week. It was the first real conference for President Weston, and it was really good. We focused a lot on how to have more effective companionship study and how we can qualify for the spirit as we seek to find those for whom we are looking. The best part of the whole conference, though, was probably afterwards when he met with some of the missionaries in specific breakout groups. First he met with the trainers and trainees for just a few minutes. He made sure that we're all doing okay and then told us about a new program that the church is rolling out for trainers and trainees. It will be pretty cool, and we'll initiate it next week, with transfers. After that, he met with all the sisters who were there. President Pendleton ran the sisters in the mission like a seperate mission from the elders. Which was fine, but it meant that we were pretty isolated from them. So President Weston told us (the six of us that were there) that he wants to integrate us more fully, and asked for our suggestions on how to do that. We asked for more leadership training and for more opportunities to be involved in our districts and zone meetings. He was very grateful for the suggestions. I'm excited for the changes over the next couple of months that this will bring.

After that he asked to meet with me alone for a few minutes. Then he asked for my input for transfers. He asked about my opinions on some specific companionships and for suggestions on who might serve best with who. It was kind of wierd to be that involved. And I feel very honored that he trusts my judgement enough to be asking. He also asked me if I'd be willing to train again. It's very hard to train this much. I've done it three times now, and it's tough to teach, pretty much alone, for two or three months, while your junior comp gets the hang of things. I've been trying to ask President for an opportunity to work with a sister that's been out awhile so that I could really work. But at the same time, I don't want to miss out on another opportunity to meet the next sister Barfuss - my last companion that I love soooooo much. So that's what I told him. I don't want to miss any opportunities. I'll do whatever I'm asked.

Yesterday was probably the most stressed I've been in a couple of weeks. We had to speak in sacrament meeting up in Colusa, and I felt very impressed to kind of lay the law down about home and visiting teaching. It was a hard talk to prepare and give. I don't like making people feel guilty, but it's what the Lord wanted me to teach, so I did. After that we had to go see Jan and Leonard, who are supposed to be getting baptized in a week. The called a few days ago and said that they were maybe not so interested. So we went over to their house and spent about an hour trying to pull that back together. It was kind of tense, but we reminded them that they know that this is true, no matter what other people say, or whatever goes on in their lives. So they are back on for this next weekend. Then we had to book it back to Yuba City for jack's baptism. It was a stressful day, full of wonderfully hard miracles. But it ended well and I'm glad it's over.

That's pretty much it for this week. Transfers are next week, so by the time I write next week, I'll know what's happening to me and Sister Hurtado, and pretty much all the other sisters in the mission... hahaha. This sunday, we have three baptisms scheduled. So it'll be another busy week. I'm looking forward to it though, and to all the wonderful things I'll be able to tell you next week.

love, Sister reid

Aug 15, 2011

Hiya everyone! I sure hope you've had a great week. Ours was not bad, as they go. :) We had a mini missionary with us for most of the week. It was lots of fun to take her with us on all of our appointments and to show her every phase of missionary work. She's going to be a great missionary someday (if she doesn't get married first... hahahaha).

We met a new investigator this week named leslie. She's investigated the church before, and really liked it, but couldn't join because of her disapproving husband. They're divorced now, and when we knocked on her door this week, she invited us right in. We taught her about the book of mormon and how doing things to grow her faith, like reading, praying and coming to church, will help her get a closer relationship with God. She ate it up. We set a tentative baptismal date for the 18th of Sept. She didn't fully accept it because she wanted to know for sure that it's true. She came to church yesterday for the first time. After Relief Society, she asked to speak with us privately. I was worried that the lesson (which was the law of chastity) had turned her off of the church. But instead, she said that this church is her church. She feels like she belongs here. She said she didn't want to wait till September, so, since we already have a baptism scheduled on the 28th, we said, sure! She's super excited and she wants to meet with us twice a week now, which is different from the once-every-other-week schedule she had originally asked for. It's cool to see her change so quickly! I don't think I've ever seen it happen this fast before. :)

Our other baptism that we have scheduled for the same night is actually a couple of investigators from Colusa. It's funny that the work and the investigators really started progressing after we left there. Weird. So we've been teaching this couple, Jan and Leonard, since April. And about 8 weeks ago, after teaching them the final lessons, for the 3rd time, I handed Leonard (who'se been the one holding them back) a calendar and said, "you choose the date. When do you believe that you'll be ready?" And he chose August 28th. Even then, we haven't been sure that they'll be ready. Except that when we taught them this week, they were excited and making plans and getting ready. It was so cool. So we scheduled the building. We'll have Jan and Leonard and the Colusa branch come for their baptism at 5:30. We'll have dinner in between (a nice little potluck, I hope... ) and then Leslie and the Feather River ward at 7:30. It will be pretty cool. :)

We also have a baptism this sunday. It's for Jack, our 89 year old investigator. He's pretty excited (from what I can tell.. hahaha) and so is his whole family, and basically all of the mormon community in Yuba, who've known the family since they got married. It's going to be pretty packed. I'm glad I was able to be a part of this. :)

In non-baptism related news, we were asked to speak in the Spanish Branch here. We did it yesterday, and it's the first time I've ever had someone translate for me. It was pretty interesting. My talk was 6 minutes long if I read it myself, but when I actually gave it, it was 25 minutes. It took forever to get translated. I hope I don't have to do that again for awhile. :)

That's pretty much it for me for this week. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks for us, while we prepare for these baptisms and gear up for transfers... which is coming on the 30th. So not next week, but the week after. :) I'm hoping for a bit of a change. I've been in this stake for 5 transfers now. No other missionaries have been here as long as me... Oh well... what happens happens. :)

I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from you!

Love, Sister Reid

August 8, 2011

Well hello everyone!

We've had kind of a slow week here. I think that it seems to always happen after we have a baptism. There's always a bit of a let down. Not much... just a little one. Last week we taught 30 lessons, and this week we taught 19... which is still 4 lessons over the mission standard... :) Just not as awesome as it could have been.

There's really not that much to report in terms of specifics. We weren't able to meet with our investigators who have baptismal dates for various reasons. That's something we'll change this week. We did manage to have a pretty awesome experience with a new family we just started teaching this week. The mom, Christy, is a less active. She was baptized and extremely active when she was 13. She loved the church. She fell away when she was harshly judged by members of her ward as a result of some mistakes she made when she was 16. Now she's 25 and married and they have a yours, mine, and ours family. 6 kids. It's pretty roudy, but it reminds me of home... the oldest is 16 and the youngest is 2... just like my family, practically... :) Anyway. We found her when we were tracting a couple months ago. We've been trying to get in to teach them, but they've been forgetting our appointments. This last week, both of their dogs died from Parvo - a pretty nasty, very contagious disease. The kids were asking what happens to the dogs after they die, and Christy didn't know how to answer them, so she asked us to come in last night and teach them about the plan of salvation. It was a pretty great experience. The kids don't know much about religion, so when we asked them how Jesus Christ helps them in their lives and they didn't even know who he is, we set up a return appointment right then for next week. Christy really enjoyed us being there, so we'll be going every sunday night for awhile. She's excited that the kids will have some knowledge about God. It's cool. We'll continue to work with them, and help her to find forgiveness so she can come back to church.

That's pretty much it... We have a mini missionary with us this week. Her name is Sister Yang. She's from a Hmong family, and for those of you who don't know, that's a very small minority of asian people from the Mongolia area. She was born in the United States, but her parents weren't. She's a convert of almost two years. It's going to be a fun week, showing her around and teaching her about missionary work. :)

I love you all!

Love, Sister Reid

August 1, 2011

Wow. Can you believe that it's August already. It seems to me that time is flying faster than it ever has before.

It's been a really busy week for us. It started out really slow, though. On tuesday night, we'd only had 3 lessons actually take place. A bunch of people were no shows. So that was kind of sad. But after that, things really picked up, and by friday night, we had taught 20 lessons. So we looked at our plans, and decided to go for broke. By last night, we set a new personal record of teaching 30 lessons in one week. It was awesome. Maybe the coolest thing that happened out of all of that was that the other elders in our district have caught on, and decided that they're going to try to beat us this week. So there's an out an out contest, and for the first time in two transfers, I feel like our district might be trying to be unified. It's nice.

As far as our investigators go... Rhonda and Linda (i don't remember if I told you about them, but we've been teaching them for about a month) decided this week that, after praying (maybe) that the church wasn't true, so they've dropped us. Which makes me sad. Especially since they aleady believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. But they were given some antimormon literature about a week ago and things haven't been the same since. Oh well. We testified like crazy, and they know that we know that it's true. Maybe the next set of missionaries can affect them. We've also been meeting with a part member family quite a lot, and the one who is not a member, Mark, has been really interested. In order for him to accept the truth, he'll have to make some pretty major changes in his life. But he said that he's willing to do it. The hardest for him will be living the word of wisdom and keeping the law of chastity. But we've talked a lot about the blessing he'll recieve for doing it, and he wants them. So he committed to being baptized on the 28th of august. We'll work hard with him. Hopefully he'll make it for that day. We also picked up a new family. We've only taught them once so far, but it was really great. After our first lesson with them the wife told us that she felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders and that she was more at ease and peaceful and happy than she'd felt in a long time. I'm excited for the coming weeks and beginning to really teach them. It's a mom and dad, his teenage son, and their six and one year old. It'll be fun to tell you about them as we continue to teach them. :)

My companion and I also had a really great breakthrough this week. I've noticed for the last several weeks that she's been trying less and less to participate. She speaks only when spoken to and doesn't teach unless I make her. We had a really long conversation about it, and we found out together that she has thought that her call to speak english was a mistake, because she wrote on her application that she learned English in High School (which is the same as most of us Americans learning Spanish in high school -- practically useless). So she's been thinking this whole time that she wasn't supposed to be here. We talked for a long time about the inspiration of the calls, and then we talked about the gift of tongues. She was having doubts that she could learn English at all, so she wasn't trying. It was hard to get her to admit it, but once she did, there's been a shift in her attitude. Now she has faith to know that she can learn english if she tries, and that the Lord will help her. She's more actively involved now. Things have been so much better the last few days. It's like I'm not so alone in the work anymore. I wish we could have had that discussion two months ago. :)

We had a wonderful baptism for Juanita Roberts this week. It was amazing. Nearly the entire branch showed up. I was so proud of them. And they took care of the whole thing. We didn't have to do much at all. It was wonderful. And I got to see them all again. It was like going to the best family reunion I've ever been too. The mission president came, and I'm a little embarrased. He probably thinks that I never did any work in Colusa, just hung out with the members all the time... hahahaha.

Anyways, I love all of you. I can't wait to hear from you. So please email!!!

Love, Sister Reid