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.