Aug. 2, 2010

Dear Family,

I'm sorry to hear that you're having PC troubles. I understand that the "Pamiloma Virus" has struck again. *grin* No worries about no email from mom this week. I totally understand. And it means that I'll probably get a handwritten letter instead, which makes me happy!

This week has been really tough, honestly. We had six or seven appointments to teach investigators, and not a single one of them actually happened. So we spent a lot of time knocking on doors, instead. We found a new potiential investigator on Saturday, named Terilynn, who is 17. She's got questions about why there are so many different churches -- score! -- and why her church (catholicism) can't really explain "god" -- score again!! -- so we're going to start teaching her this week. Which is super exciting. We also went through our area book and found two former investigators, a married couple, the Crowders, who were dropped for an unknown reason. We went to see them and visited for a long time. When we asked why they're not members, the husband, Bill, said right off, "I'm Presbyterian", which means to us, that we'll have to show him the importance of the priesthood. The wife thought about it for a minute and said, "I'm not sure why I'm not a member" -- triple score!!! --

So even though the week was a tough one for our regular investigators, it turned out to be good because we've found some new people to teach, and had a little time to clean our Area Book (it's a mess!)

To update you on Lewis: He's kind of fallen off the radar. He canceled both our lessons this week and hasn't come to church for two weeks now. I know he's still wanting to be baptized... he's just having a hard time prioritizing. His new job is really taking a lot of his time, and he's not used to a set schedule. He hasn't worked for two years, so he's not used to getting 8 or less hours of sleep at night, with no naps during the day. I get it. It's just frustrating for us, when we know that the things we can teach him will help his life to be better, but he doesn't want to make the effort.

Pupe was a lot the same this week. Her sister is getting married in two weeks, so she's not really keeping us at top priority either. She also canceled both our lessons this week, and didn't come to church, like she said she would. Neither did her husband, which was a bumnmer. But, we do have good news. There's a branch in the Sacramento Mission in Sacramento (about 20 minutes from here) that's all Laotian (a country that borders Thailand). We got the phone number of the Elders that are serving there and we called them to ask if any of the members in that branch would be willing to come meet Pupe. They've contacted two or three members, and we're just waiting to find out which of them wants to come, and what the best day will be. Then we'll be able to have Pupe meet with someone else who has converted from Buddhism! Plus! One of our ward members here has a book about a Thai Buddhist Monk who converted to our religion, then went on a mission, and later served as a mission president. She emailed Deseret Book about the author, and they sent her his phone number, which we now have. :) He lives in Utah now. We're going to contact him and see if he'd be willing to talk to Pupe as well. So things should pick up as soon as the wedding is over.

That's pretty much it for this week. Next week's email should be tons better, since we'll actually teach some lessons!! YAY!!

As always, I love you all so much, and I'm sooo grateful for all your support!

Love, Sister Reid

July 25, 2010

Hi family!

How's life with you? Now that you are almost all back together, that is. I only just realized that summer is almost over. That's a bummer for Kayti and Cale, I bet, but a blessing for mom. :) When does school start? Is anybody going to do sports this year? I don't remember if Kayti made it back into the marching band, so you'll have to let me know if she did, and how that's going, since I bet that the band camp thing starts pretty soon.

Anyway, life here is marching on. Actually, we were REALLY busy this week. Our ward had a pioneer barbeque on Saturday, so Sister Silva and I were hitting the pavement to invite as many less actives, potential investigators, former investigators, and our regular investigators as we could. And it paid off. We had both Lewis and Pupe there, with their whole families, and a few of our less actives came too. It was really fun, because, since they came, we got to go too. We played volleyball, flag football, and missionary tag. There were probably over 100 people there from the ward. It was really fun, although pretty hot -- 102 I think. I got a bit of a sunburn, although since I was wearing proselyting clothes, it's only on my face - and my arms (I have a wicked farmers tan now... hahahaha).

The ward here is great. They've welcomed me in like I was always here. I'm really getting to know a lot of the members, and it makes me feel like I belong. It's of course different being a missionary in the ward. Everyone knows my name since I wear it, and I struggle every day with remembering everyone's names and their stories, but I'm praying for help in that regard, and it's getting much easier.

On Friday night, we met with a couple who really just wanted to argue with us. But we prayed for the spirit of truth and love to be there in our lesson with us and it went really well. I'm learning a lot from them what the world believes about Jesus Christ and the Atonement, which I never really knew before, because I grew up LDS. We brought some Elders from our zone with us. Elder Byrom is leaving in 3 weeks, and he knows his stuff, so it was good to see that the answers to all their questions can be found in the bible.

This week we met twice each with Lewis and Pupe. I'll start with Lewis. I don't remember if I talked last week about how worried we were that, since he's still living with his girlfriend he'd lose his drive to get baptized. So on Tuesday, when we met with him, we taught him "Follow the Prophet" and then asked him after, about his testimony. He's so solid in the church. He told us he knows that baptism is the most important thing, and that it has to be done in our church by someone who holds the priesthood. It made me so happy to know that he's still on the right path. He started his new job this last week, so he said, once he's got some money, he'll be able to make a change in his situation. We're looking forward to the next few months. We've set kind of a tentative date in October, so we'll see. He's getting along great with the ward members, and he brought all six of Patrina's kids to the barbeque (Patrina didn't come), and they had a good time. He didn't come to church yesterday, though. We'll find out what happened when we meet with him on Wednesday.

Pupe is doing so great too! We met with her on wednesday. Her testimony is growing. It's amazing to see how the spirit changes our investigators between our visits. When she first started meeting with us, she only wanted to learn about us. Now she's reading the Book of Mormon, praying to Heavenly Father (which is a big change for her, since she's Buddhist, and worships Buddha), and even reading the conference edition of the Ensign. We taught her Lesson 3 (which is the gospel) and then we committed her to be baptized. She didn't say yes, but she didn't say no either. Her main concern is that she'd be giving up a way of life by giving up Buddha, and she wants to talk to someone else who converted from a non- christian religion before she says yes. We gave her some Ensign articles about people who've done it, and we're trying to find someone else who can actually talk to her. But if anyone has any suggestions as to what we could say or do that would help resolve her concerns, that would be great!

We're also teaching two new investigators. We haven't taught them yet, but we're starting this week. Crawford Johnson is an older African American. He knows a lot about the church already, since he lived a long time in Ogden, UT. We can't quite seem to get a read on him. He's super friendly and knows a lot about us. He has a Book of Mormon that he says he reads all the time, and he's really interested in talking to us about it. So we don't know for sure yet if he's golden or he wants to bash with us. We'll find out, I guess. :) The other person we're going to teach is Jean, also an older African American. She's super nice. She's the neighbor of one of the ward members.

I guess that about wraps it up for this week. I finally got the note from Daniel with Mom's cell phone. I also got a box of BYU fudge from Dan and Cat. Thanks so much!!! it's sooo yummy. My companion just laughed at both the note and the fudge. The note only had a short thing saying, call this number, not home, and the fudge had no letter at all. I told her that's how our family does it. She thinks we're crazy... or in her El Salvadorian accent, cressy. :)

Anyway, I love you all and I hope you're doing well. Please pray for missionary experiences, and then keep your eye open to them!

Love, Sister Reid

July 19, 2010

So hello everyone!!

Tomorrow I will start week three in my mission. It's hard to believe that it's both only been and already been two weeks! So much has happened. You remember that I talked about Lewis in my last email? Well, he and his girlfreind have decided not to get married, but neither are they splitting up, and Lewis doesn't want to move out yet. So it's hard. We're trying to teach him the importance of the law of chastity, and how it will bless his life and his relationship. He still wants to be baptized, and we're still teaching him, but we're going to have to wait for him to learn that following God's commandments always turns out better than not. He is coming to church though, and we're hoping that, since he just got a job, he'll be financially stable enough to move out. So we're hoping within the next few months he'll be baptized.

We're also teaching a wonderful woman named Pupe (pronounced poopay). She's Thai, and Buddhist. Her story is actually very interesting. Her husband is a member, but inactive and he doesn't have testimony. She encouraged him to take their kids (ages 2 and 5) to church, so they could have religion, and since he'd never been to any other church, he just took them to his, which is how we met him, and Pupe. We've been teaching her for about 3 weeks now, and she's progressing so much! She told us in the last lesson we had that she didn't know how she would tell her family that she changed religion. I can see her changing between every visit we have with them. The interesting thing is that her husband, Eddie, is sabatoging our lessons. He knows that if she's converted and baptized that he'll have to be more committed too. The funny thing is that she recognizes that he's doing it. So our teaching her is going great, but getting her to come to church has so far not worked. But we're hopeful. We're actually going to commit her to be baptized on Wednesday for August 14th. So, please, include Pupe and Eddie in your prayers. There's a Pioneer Day BBQ for the ward on saturday, and they said they were coming. Lewis and his girlfriend with her kids should also be there. So we're very hopeful that they'll meet some friends there.

It's amazing how much my capacity to love has grown. I've only just met all of these people and already, all I think about is them. I worry for them and pray for them. When I'm not with my investigators or Less Actives, I think about what they're doing and whether or not they're keeping their commitments. It's incredible.

We've been tracting some streets in our area that as far as we can tell, have never been done before. We've found 3 Less Active families whose records were not in our ward. I know that Bishop is both happy, becuase now we can shepard them, and sad, because they're inactive, and it's hard to reactivate families (especially since all three of these families we found haven't been to church in over 20 years).

I'm learning more and more what the promptings of the Holy Ghost feel like. It's incredible when I go to open my mouth to someone and something I didn't even plan pops out. For example. We were tracting yesterday and we talked to a Chinese man for a few minutes. He ended up not being interested in our message, but after we'd been talking to him for a minute or so about the book of mormon and the bible, I opened my mouth to ask him about church, and the question, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ" just popped out instead. It was crazy. We found out that he didn't which helped us steer the conversation into something more basic to help him understand God. Nothing came of it this time, but eventually he'll learn more, I'm sure of it. And I'm learning every day, through experiences like this one, that God truly does "go before my face" and angels are guiding me to people who are ready to learn what we have to teach.

The work here has been slow, from what I've gathered. We really only have 2 progressing investigators. But I'm praying everyday and I have faith that there are more people here that are ready to learn from us.

I've attached some pictures... Most are at the MTC. The girl with me in the map picture is Sister Threldeld, and the picture of me and the two older people and one shorter person is me with President and Sister Pendleton, and my trainer companion, Sister Silva. And the picture with me sitting down at a table is my Greenie Dinner.

I gotta go. I love you all!

Love, Sister Reid.

PS. Jared, please tell the branch how much I LOVED their letters, and I'm going to write one back today, through the snail mail. Dad, thanks so much for your email. I love getting news from you and what life is like. I especially love your spiritual insights. I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond individually today. But I promise that I will next week.

July 12, 2010

Hello, hello from California! So I love you all, even though we didn't get to talk on the phone. It wasn't that big a deal, and I don't want you feeling bad. I was just a little bit bummed at the airport is all. But I got over it, because I'm so excited to be here!!!

I just got all the mail you've sent all week, and I haven't had a chance to open it yet, so I guess I'll respond to any questions you have in those letters either by snail mail or in my email next week. Speaking of snail mail, I sent some letters to you, mom, while I was at the MTC. Did you by chance get them? Also, thanks so much for the t-shirt. It's adorable, and I'm looking forward to wearing it. I only have heavier t-shirts, and it's over 100 degrees here every day! It's HOT!

So, lets see.

Tuesday, we landed at the airport and President Pendleton, Sister Pendleton, and the APs were there to meet us. There were 14 of us altogether, They had huge smiles and hugs for all of us. We loaded up in 3 cars to go the mission office and Sister Threlkeld and I had the privilege of riding with President and Sister Pendleton alone. It was an excelent ride to the office (about 30 minutes). Then, at the office we ate lunch while we were all interviewed by the president. The rest of the elders all went to the transfer meeting, about 2 hours away. But President Pendleton keeps all the sisters in the areas close to the mission office (which means it's not likely that I'll ever really leave Roseville) so we met our trainers there at the office. My trainer is Sister Silva. She's a convert from El Salvador, but she's been in Utah for 4 years before her mission, so her English is awesome. She's a great trainer. She's been on her mission almost 1 year. And she's been here, in Antelope, for one transfer before me, where she was follow-up training the greenie that was here before me. She doesn't have a driver's license, so I'm driving, which is really cool! But it also means that I don't get to know the area very well, since I'm never looking at the map. We live in a one bedroom cottage behind the owner's home that the church rents from the super nice catholic couple who live there.

My area is the Antelope 4th ward, in Antelope. I don't have the address for my house yet. I'll include it next week. In the meantime, the Mission Office is in my area, and we usually stop by there once or twice a week, so you can write me there.

The first night, we had a lesson with Lewis, who had already had most of the lessons and already has a baptismal date for the 24th. We taught him the law of Chastity... (cool for my first lesson, huh?) He's living with his girlfriend. We've taught him twice more since then, but his girlfriend is making it difficult. She says, "choose our relationship or baptism" because she doens't want to get married. It's tough because I can tell that Lewis knows that the Book of Mormon is true, and he knows what's right, but he loves Patrina... We're praying that he'll choose the right. But he didn't come to chuch yesterday, so we're worried, but optimistic...

Then, we had my first dinner at a member's home, the Weavers. Everything was GREEN!!! Green tableclothes, green drinks, green plates, napkins, my chair, two kinds of salad, the desert. It was all green. They were super cute. They were even all wearing green. Including Sis. Silva. I'll send a picture... :)

Also, we're teaching several other people. So the work is good. I've definately decided that Saturdays are no fun! Nobody answers the door and it's an all around unproductive day for the work... At least. this week was. Hopefully, it will get better. If anyone has any ideas how we can be more productive, I'd be happy to hear them.

Zone conference was Friday, and it was great. We were encouraged to make "finding people" part of our mission lifestyle. Finding needs to be part of every activity we do, not just the hour or two that we're tracting.

We've been tracting a couple times already. We went out yesterday before church and it was already 102. It was hot outside, but the first person we talked to was really open. We gave her a book of mormon and commited her to start reading it, then we set an appointment for later this week. We did more tracting after church, before dinner, and it wasn't very successful, until the last guy we talked to. We were just going to go home a few minutes early, but neither of us wanted to do that. So Sis. Silva said, "I think we need to go to the park" and so we went. The very first guy we talked to, named Mandell, was VERY open to things. He's been going through some stuff, and he said he never thought about God, really, until today. And then we pulled into the park and started talking to him. We gave him a BoM and testified to him that drawing closer to God can bless us in ways we never imagined. The spirit was definately there. We're meeting him later this week to teach him the lessons. And I really hope that he reads and follows through on his commitments--that he remembers the spirit he felt when we were there with him, and that he actually comes to our appointment. I know that the Spirit directed us to meet him and I know that if he keeps his heart open, he'll be taught the truth.

Well, that's pretty much it... Actually it's not. There's a whole ton of stuff that's happened, but those are the highlights. I'm doing my best to write it all in my journal, so, if you really want, when I get home in 18 months, you can read it. :)

My time is past gone, so I need to wrap it up. I love all of you. And I'm so glad for the letters and the prayers. I really feel them. Keep praying for me, my companion, my mission, and for the people here in Antelope.

Love, Sister Reid

P.S. I forgot to bring my camera cord, so I can't attach pictures today, but I promise next week to send pictures of everything, and I'll send some through the snail mail today too.