Sept. 7, 2010

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing very well! I got your package this week, and me and all the other missionaries in the zone are very grateful for all the cookies and candy. :) So thanks a ton!!! Also, mom, I'm sending you a nice long letter today, so you should get that friday or saturday. I'm glad to hear that things worked out for dad's ipod. :) and that everyone is doing well.

Our week was a combination of awesome and slow... if that's possible.. lol...

We started out with two canceled appointments on Monday (which turned out to be good, because we were able to make contact with some of our other potential investigators to make appointments for this week), and most of the rest of the week went the same way. But last monday, we were able to do a little sight seeing. We went to a bridge in Auburn, which is about 40 minutes north of where I am. Anyway, this bridge is about 1/4 mile long, and 800 feet in the air. It's been in a lot of movies. We got to go underneath the bridge and climb up the rafters and steel beams so that we could look, down at 800 feet of nothing. It was really fun! Don't worry though, we were safe and careful... I've attached some pictures... I didn't go out there, because I couldn't climb up the wall... But next time we go, i'm totally bringing a step ladder!

We met with Pupe this week, and it went really well. At first it was going badly, though. Her kids were all over the place and very distracting, and the spirit was not having an easy time making things work... but she took a few minutes out and put the kids down for a nap, and things calmed down. We started by talking about alma 18, and the nature of God. Then it evolved into a lesson on studying the scriptures. Pupe recognized that two months ago, she was excited to read the Book of Mormon, and that she got away from it for a little while, and now she has a hard time getting back into it. So we talked about the Holy Ghost - that when she has the desire to learn more, she's being prompted by the Holy Ghost, and when she doesn't, she's being prompted by Satan. It went really well. We went over some study helps from this month's ensign with her, and then gave her a whole list of scriptures to study about the Holy Ghost. We also gave her a small notebook that we found at the dollar store for her to write down her feelings and questions when she reads. I know that this will help her progress towards making more serious commitments, like praying everyday, and attending church, and someday, being baptized. :)

We also met with San, our new investigator. She's buddhist also, but much older. Or rather, she used to be buddhist. She converted to Christianity six years ago, but she's not active in any church, mostly because her husband, an american, disapproves of organized religion. They've only been married 4 or 5 years, and from the way she talks about him, it's a marriage of convenience rather than anything else... She's a caregiver, and he is very sick with Diabetes. He needed someone to take care of him and she needed somewhere to live. San speaks broken english, so our lessons do have to be really simple, but in spite of that, or maybe because of it, the spirit is really strong in our lessons. We have to teach at the park, because she doesn't want to tell her husband about us yet. But I know that the more she reads of the Book of Mormon (which we gave her in Thai) the more she'll have a desire to share what she learns with her husband. We teach her once a week right now, and so far we've only talked about the book of mormon, and what she can gain from it. This week, we plan to teach her about Joseph Smith, and the Restoration. I pray that everything will go well. :)

Sunday was also pretty awesome. The sacrament meeting was really good. The members, without any prompting from us, almost all bore their testimonies about missionary work, -- how it's effected their lives in one way or another. I don't know if I mentioned it yet, but our ward is on the verge of something big... I can feel it. :) The attitudes of the members towards missionary work is all changing, and I love it!

Well, that's about it for this week. I hope you are all doing really well and that life is good! I laughed at the story about the voo-doo ferret, and i love that Cale is trying to treat Cindi like a ferret. It makes me happy. :-)

I love and miss you all and thanks for all your prayers and thoughts. Keep 'em comin'!

Love, Sister Reid