Nov 28, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! Okay, so I'm a little late. But I hope that you all
had a great weekend. Mine was pretty awesome. My new companion, Sister Tubbs,
and I moved up to Paradise on Tuesday afternoon. We met all the other sisters
that were transfering up to the north just before we left. It was really cool
because all of my ex-comps that are still in the mission were there. It was way
fun to see them all before we moved up to Paradise.

Originally, we were supposed to be living in the same apartment as the
Elders had been, but the missionaries realized that the house where they lived
was owned and shared by a single man. So on Monday night they did a lot of
scrambling. The district leader and his companion moved out of their house and
into the place where we were supposed to be. We took over the district leader's
place for a week and a half, until our new apartment is ready. So we've been
staying with a wonderful couple named the Reeves. The house is beautiful, just
like all of Paradise. And the room where we stay has two queen size beds. It's
pretty awesome. We love it a lot, and we'll be sad to move on Thursday. We'll
be moving in with a member of the stake presidency and his wife. We haven't met
them yet, because they live in a different ward, but it's not far from our ward
boundaries, so it should be cool. We heard that they're really excited to have
us living with them.

Now, as for the area itself. It's a beautiful little town, population
about 22,000. It's way up in the mountains, so there's lots of hills and curves
in the streets. The area is COVERED in TALLLLL pine trees. It honestly feels
like a really huge campground, except that instead of tents, it's million dollar
homes. And also lots of RV parks. :) There's no wallmart, but there is a
McDonalds and a Taco Bell. So we're not too far outside of civilazation. The
members are really cool, although they're mostly older. We do have a few
younger families in the ward. I think the Primary has 15 or so kids. We cover
about 1/3rd of Paradise and 1/2 of an even smaller town further north called
Magalia. Our district is part of the Chico zone, which is the big city about 30
minutes west of us. I feel like I'm back in Colusa, kind of. A small town in
the middle of nowhere, but this time, there are other missonaries around, so
things are better here. Plus the members are excited to do missionary work.
:)

It was tough to do much work over the holiday weekend becuase so many
people were out of town, or they were here with tons of extra family around.
But we've met three of the investigators so far. One family, the Leroys, are
really ready. The mom is a reactivating member, and the dad, Chad, is the one
we're teaching. They have 3 kids, Riley who is nine, Malachi who is six, and
Lorelei who is 3. They're a way sweet family. Chad has been meeting with
missionaries for a few months now. He was really skeptical about having
sisters, but he warmed up to us right away. He's really close to committing to
being baptized, and when he does, so will his son Riley. The other investigator
we met is named Amanda. We didn't really get a chance to talk to her much, but
she's excited to be taught by sisters. The notes that elders left us said that
she was pretty close to committing too. So we're excited for all of that.

Most of this last week has been filled with trying to get everything
settled. But we did manage to visit a few of the members and set up some
appointments for the coming week. We have some excellent prospects of picking
up some new investigators who are part member families, and we have a lot of
people to visit that ward council has asked us to see this week. So it's going
to be great. I'm way excited to be here.

That's pretty much it for me. I can't wait to hear from all of you next
week. :)

Love, Sister Reid