Nov 1, 2010

Hello everyone!

Can you believe that it's November already! Not me! October farely flew by!!! And what a fabulous month for missionary work here in Antelope California. We saw two baptisms here, and 6 more people accept the challenge to prepare themselves for baptism. 5 of which will be baptized in November! But I'm getting ahead of myself. :)

This last week we met with Hieu and her two kids a few more times. The ward is embracing them, and they're already practically members. It's wonderful. They'll be baptized on the 20th. Also, Joe, the nine year old we've been teaching will also be baptized on the 13th. He's really excited and looking forward to becoming a full member of the church.

This week we saw a crazy amount of miracles happen on Wednesday and Thursday. We had an appointment to meet with Don, and less active who just moved into the ward about 3 months ago. He ran into some of the office senior missionaries at the grocery store a few weeks ago and asked what ward he was in, since he had just moved here and hadn't been to church in 20 years. He said he was ready to come back, and could they please send the missionaries in his ward to his house... so to his house we went. It was a wonderfully spirit filled lesson. He bore his testimony and made it clear that he is ready to come back to church, which was AWESOME! The best part was that his landlady, from whom he rents a room, was also there, and sat in on the lesson. She felt the spirit and asked a few questions, and when we taught her, she asked, "so what do I need to do to become a member of your church?" "Well, Eileen, let us tell you..." lol. So we commited her to be baptized and she said yes! We haven't set a date yet, because she's not fully committed yet, but within the next couple weeks, we should have some great news!

We were pretty excited about that lesson, so we called the mission president's wife, because she always loves to hear those kinds of stories. We told her what happened, she told her husband, and then President Pendleton got on the phone. He asked how big our apartment was, and when we told him there's tons of room (because we actually live in a one bedroom house, with two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room) he said that he was going to keep Sister Silva and I here in Antelope for another transfer and call us both to be Trainers. So we're going to be in a Threesom, training. He specifically said that we're training because there are so many good things happening in Antelope, and he wants the new sister to see what we're doing right. The new transfer starts next Monday, so Sister Silva and I are getting the ward and our investigators ready for the three of us. :)

The next morning, we had a lesson with San. We were going to start the New Member Lessons with her (which means that we teach the same missionary lessons over agian, but with a little more detail this time. Also, this time we only teach the first lesson. After that, the ward missionaries take over and teach the rest of them...) So we went over there to teach San, and Henry, San's husband came in and sat down with us. He had previously been pretty unsupportive of San's decision to be baptized, to the extent that for a long time, we had to meet with her at other members houses, or at the park... but he came in and sat down, and chatted with us for a few minutes. Then, out of the blue he asked, "when is my baptism scheduled?" So we ended up teaching Henry about the church instead, and committed him to be baptized, and he said yes, and we scheduled his baptism for the 13th!

A really good couple of days. :)

The work here is really moving. For a long time, we didn't have anything happening, and no investigators coming to church, but now we have 5 or 6 at church on a regular basis, and we have 5 baptisms scheduled for November, and we had two in October, and we have one on the backburner for December, hopefully. Plus, Lewis's work schedule (remember Lewis, the guy who lives with his girlfriend that we taught when I first got here?) changes in December, so he'll be able to come to church agian, and then we'll be able to move forward with him as well. Things are really going well for us here, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity that Sis. Silva and I have to stay here for another 6 weeks, and to continue working with all of these people. It's going to be a great holiday season!

I love you all and I'm grateful for all your support!

Love, Sister Reid