August 1, 2011

Wow. Can you believe that it's August already. It seems to me that time is flying faster than it ever has before.

It's been a really busy week for us. It started out really slow, though. On tuesday night, we'd only had 3 lessons actually take place. A bunch of people were no shows. So that was kind of sad. But after that, things really picked up, and by friday night, we had taught 20 lessons. So we looked at our plans, and decided to go for broke. By last night, we set a new personal record of teaching 30 lessons in one week. It was awesome. Maybe the coolest thing that happened out of all of that was that the other elders in our district have caught on, and decided that they're going to try to beat us this week. So there's an out an out contest, and for the first time in two transfers, I feel like our district might be trying to be unified. It's nice.

As far as our investigators go... Rhonda and Linda (i don't remember if I told you about them, but we've been teaching them for about a month) decided this week that, after praying (maybe) that the church wasn't true, so they've dropped us. Which makes me sad. Especially since they aleady believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. But they were given some antimormon literature about a week ago and things haven't been the same since. Oh well. We testified like crazy, and they know that we know that it's true. Maybe the next set of missionaries can affect them. We've also been meeting with a part member family quite a lot, and the one who is not a member, Mark, has been really interested. In order for him to accept the truth, he'll have to make some pretty major changes in his life. But he said that he's willing to do it. The hardest for him will be living the word of wisdom and keeping the law of chastity. But we've talked a lot about the blessing he'll recieve for doing it, and he wants them. So he committed to being baptized on the 28th of august. We'll work hard with him. Hopefully he'll make it for that day. We also picked up a new family. We've only taught them once so far, but it was really great. After our first lesson with them the wife told us that she felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders and that she was more at ease and peaceful and happy than she'd felt in a long time. I'm excited for the coming weeks and beginning to really teach them. It's a mom and dad, his teenage son, and their six and one year old. It'll be fun to tell you about them as we continue to teach them. :)

My companion and I also had a really great breakthrough this week. I've noticed for the last several weeks that she's been trying less and less to participate. She speaks only when spoken to and doesn't teach unless I make her. We had a really long conversation about it, and we found out together that she has thought that her call to speak english was a mistake, because she wrote on her application that she learned English in High School (which is the same as most of us Americans learning Spanish in high school -- practically useless). So she's been thinking this whole time that she wasn't supposed to be here. We talked for a long time about the inspiration of the calls, and then we talked about the gift of tongues. She was having doubts that she could learn English at all, so she wasn't trying. It was hard to get her to admit it, but once she did, there's been a shift in her attitude. Now she has faith to know that she can learn english if she tries, and that the Lord will help her. She's more actively involved now. Things have been so much better the last few days. It's like I'm not so alone in the work anymore. I wish we could have had that discussion two months ago. :)

We had a wonderful baptism for Juanita Roberts this week. It was amazing. Nearly the entire branch showed up. I was so proud of them. And they took care of the whole thing. We didn't have to do much at all. It was wonderful. And I got to see them all again. It was like going to the best family reunion I've ever been too. The mission president came, and I'm a little embarrased. He probably thinks that I never did any work in Colusa, just hung out with the members all the time... hahahaha.

Anyways, I love all of you. I can't wait to hear from you. So please email!!!

Love, Sister Reid