May 30, 2011

Hello everyone! I hope that all of you had a great week! Mine was pretty good. Not great, but good. :) We had some successes with a few of our investigators that I'll tell you about in a few minutes, and I had the opportunity to do exchanges down in Yuba City. I spent two days with my MTC Companion, and things have really changed for her. We had a great day yesterday, (it's always awesome when Sundays are great on the mission) and today we're exchanging again, only this time Sister Barfuss is going to Yuba and I will be with Sister Oro, who has been on her mission only 5 weeks. She is from the Phillipines. It should be a great day.

So to start with: Exchanges. Because we live so far away from the other sisters, we usually do exchanges only twice a transfer, and then it's for Monday night through Wednesday afternoon. I got to go to Yuba this week and spend the time with Sister Threlkeld, who most of you may remember was my MTC companion. When we served together there, it was not the easiest companionship. We didn't really get along that well and I think it had something to do with both of our attitudes about each other. We weren't really serving together, so neither of us put much effort into it. As a result, neither of us really had much fun at the MTC. Going on exchanges with her this week was an eye opener. Sister Threlkeld has changed so much since the MTC. She's a new person. And she's trying to make the effort. It was worth being away from Sister Barfuss and my area for two days if only to see that Sister Threlkeld's mission has changed her. It makes me wonder how much my mission has changed me. What kind of person was I before, and will any of you even recognize me?

Anyway. The next cool thing that happened after exchanges was that we had a sister's training at the Mission home on Thursday. Basically, all the sisters in the whole mission (the senior sisters and the wives of the presidency too) all get together for lunch and a special "district meeting" where we get trained by each other and president Pendleton. It was a good thing for me. We talked a lot about commitments and progressing investigators. And when we have investigators that aren't keeping the commitments, we have to realize that in those cases, all of my faith won't do anything for them. If they're not willing to do the things required to grow their own faith, than we should walk away, and not worry about it. It was good for me to hear. We've had to drop several of our investigators in the last couple weeks and that has been hard for me. When you love and pray for them so much, and they don't reciprocate in the way that you need them to, it hurts. But it was good for President to say that it's okay to let them go, and then not to worry about them. The Lord loves them, and He'll continue to work with them and someday, He'll send them the missionaries again, who can help them when they're ready. :)

So it was a good day - plus we got to see all the other sisters too. I got to meet some of the newer sisters that I haven't met since I've been up here. And I got to see Sister Christensen again. I miss that girl! It was cool. For a lot of the sisters, it was the last time they'll see President and Sister Pendleton. They're leaving at the end of June. :( Sister Barfuss and I have interviews on Wednesday, and that will be the last time for us. It will be hard to say goodbye...

On Friday we were back to pounding the pavement. We walked 6 or 7 miles, and I know that we haven't done it in awhile because I got 4 brand new blisters on my right foot... I guess we should be walking more... lol.

On Saturday night we had a great lesson with Jan and Leonard. We talked a lot about faith and we were able to discover some of their concerns. The spirit was amazing! We found out that they've been dragging their feet about getting baptized because, even though they know that it's true, they don't understand why they need to be baptized again... since they've both been baptized already. :) So we have a good place to go with them when we meet with them next time.

We had a great lesson with a new investigator on Sunday afternoon. Joann has investigated the church before but has never prayed about the book of mormon. We talked about that and about baptism with her as well. It was a good lesson. I'm really enjoying teaching people about the gospel. It's awesome, and I almost can't wait each day for the cool things that will happen...

Which, not many have been lately... Sadly. Sister Barfuss and I were talking about it last night, and we've decided that we need to pray for and expect that the Lord is preparing people for us to find. Last night we committed to be better and talking to people and working harder. We're already seeing results because today while we were at the Laudromat, a total stranger came up to us and started asking about our name tags. We won't teach him because he's moving to South Carolina this week, but that conversation sparked another with a lady that just moved to Colusa a few months ago. Her name is Jenny and she's been trying to find friends. She already knows a few of the people from church through a sewing group that she joined. We invited her to the Relief Society Activity for next week which is a "needles" night where everyone is just bringing sewing projects they've been working on, and they'll be teaching us about crocheting and knitting and crosstitching and stuff like that. She's excited and so are we!

So that's about it for today. I love you all and I miss you and I can't wait till Monday agian to tell you all the crazy cool things that will have happened by then. Remember that you can ask Heavenly Father for miracles, and if you work for them, He'll give them to you. It's a cool principle of Faith that I'm learning this week. Read about and study Faith in the Bible Dictionary!

Love Sister Reid