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Dear Everyone!!!
My week here has been pretty good. We've been really busy this week. Our most progressing investigator, Veronica, quit smoking this week. She was struggling with it for the first few days. We had her meet us at the church last night with some of the elders in our ward who are preparing to serve missions in the next few weeks. They gave her one of the most beautiful priesthood blessings I've ever heard. The spirit was so strong. And Veronica is ready to be baptized. I'm excited to be apart of her story for the next few weeks.
We also set a baptismal date with Sella. I don't remember if I told you about her last week. She's from San Diego and a couple of weeks ago, when we went to meet her, one of the first things she says to us is that she wanted to be baptized. So this week when we met with her, we set the date for November 13th. She's really prepared as well, and I love getting to teach her. Plus, she has an ADORABLE 18 month old daughter named Zaray. She's SO cute!
We also started teaching a new investigator this week. Her name is Sarah. She's the best friend of one of the Young Women in our ward. Teaching her has been interesting because she comes to her friend's house (the member of our ward) to hear the lessons. But the family is big, so we're trying not to make it too uncomfortable for her. We've decided just yesterday that we're going to invite her and her friend over to the church for lunch a couple of days a week, during their lunch break at school. The high school is right across the street from the church. So the setting will be much smaller, and we'll be able to form a trusting bond that will allow us to ask good questions that can help us help her to feel the spirit without a 6 year old running around. :)
Other than that, things will be pretty normal this week. Just same old same old. :)
I hope that you'll all have a great week!
Love, Sister Reid
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Oct 10, 2011
Hi. I was going to start with: How the heck are ya? But then I remembered that the only people who ever write me back are my faithfully devoted parents (dirty looks for the rest of you!!!). So instead. Hello.
This week was a really fun week for me. We had the unique opportunity to have a temporary sister with us for this last week. Some of the Temple Square missionaries get to spend a few months of thier mission out in "the field." That usually happens during the winter because tourism is much slower there, then. So our mission got two of the Temple Square sisters on Monday last week. Sister Harris came to stay with us for the week until transfer, which are today. I'll tell you more about that in a second. So Sister Harris. She's way cool, and I like her a lot! She's way fun, and I'm sad taht our companionship only lasted a week. :(
But the work has been really good while she's been here. So that's cool. We taught Veronica another couple of times, and that was way fun. She's totally prepared for the gospel. And we're still on for her baptism for the 30th. We also picked up a new investigator named Sella. She's 28 and has an adorable 2 year old. She moved her this last week from San Diego. We got a text message from the missionaries there, and when we went to see Sella, she came outside and before she'd really told us who she was, she said, "I'm going to get baptized into your church." !!! It's way cool. She came to church yesterday. It was a great week.
Now. For transfers. :)
Nothing changed with me and Williams. Sister Harris, who is the Temple Square sister that has been with us for the last week is staying in the area, with the other sister's companionship. So she'll still be around, plus Sister Tubbs, the other Senior sister in the zone will be her comp and we're good friends. The best news is that there is another sister's area in opening up in the zone just north of ours, which means that we'll do exchanges with them and see them almost all the time. And the sisters that are opening the area are Sisters Christensen and Hurtado. Yay!!! Which means that we'll see them all the time!!! So really, this next six weeks is going to go really fast, and then I'll get transferred in November for my last six weeks! It's going to be a good transfer, I can tell. :)
That about wraps things up for me. :)
Love, Sister Reid
This week was a really fun week for me. We had the unique opportunity to have a temporary sister with us for this last week. Some of the Temple Square missionaries get to spend a few months of thier mission out in "the field." That usually happens during the winter because tourism is much slower there, then. So our mission got two of the Temple Square sisters on Monday last week. Sister Harris came to stay with us for the week until transfer, which are today. I'll tell you more about that in a second. So Sister Harris. She's way cool, and I like her a lot! She's way fun, and I'm sad taht our companionship only lasted a week. :(
But the work has been really good while she's been here. So that's cool. We taught Veronica another couple of times, and that was way fun. She's totally prepared for the gospel. And we're still on for her baptism for the 30th. We also picked up a new investigator named Sella. She's 28 and has an adorable 2 year old. She moved her this last week from San Diego. We got a text message from the missionaries there, and when we went to see Sella, she came outside and before she'd really told us who she was, she said, "I'm going to get baptized into your church." !!! It's way cool. She came to church yesterday. It was a great week.
Now. For transfers. :)
Nothing changed with me and Williams. Sister Harris, who is the Temple Square sister that has been with us for the last week is staying in the area, with the other sister's companionship. So she'll still be around, plus Sister Tubbs, the other Senior sister in the zone will be her comp and we're good friends. The best news is that there is another sister's area in opening up in the zone just north of ours, which means that we'll do exchanges with them and see them almost all the time. And the sisters that are opening the area are Sisters Christensen and Hurtado. Yay!!! Which means that we'll see them all the time!!! So really, this next six weeks is going to go really fast, and then I'll get transferred in November for my last six weeks! It's going to be a good transfer, I can tell. :)
That about wraps things up for me. :)
Love, Sister Reid
Oct 3, 2011
Hiya!
The week here has been pretty great as they go. Of course, how could it not have been great? We had General Conference! That was definately the second coolest part of my week. The first coolest was that we got to meet with a new family and start teaching them this week. The mom and dad, Samuel and Michelle are recently coming back to church, but they have two kids that were not baptized. Angel is 9 and Precious is 8. They're super cute, and we got to teach them the first lesson this week. We set the baptismal date, and Samuel had his interview with the Bishop so that he can be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood in order to baptize his daughters. Pretty cool. The family is awesome and I'm looking forward to getting to help them be baptized on October 23rd.
We also met with Veronica a couple of times this week as well. She's so ready for the gospel and she just eats up everything we teach. She's reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning, and we never even asked her to! She's so cool. She'll be baptized on October 30th, and Sister Williams and I are both really excited about that. :)
We have also been asked, by President Weston, to host a third companion for a week -- until transfers (that's right, the transfer is already almost over! So fast!!!). Our mission is getting two temple square sisters from Salt Lake City. That mission sends the sisters out to other missions in the united states so that they can experience what it's like to proselyte. They stay for 4 1/2 months. One of them will be staying with us this week until next tuesday when she'll be assigned to her real trainer. So until then, it's like I've got another mini-missionary. :) Sister Williams and I are excited to meet her today.
Conference was pretty awesome. I found it interesting that there were a few themes, as usual. They really focused on families (which made all the elders a little uncomfortable lol) and also on attending the temple... Something I'm looking forward to doing VERY regularly once I return from my mission. There were several talks about overcoming adversity that I especially liked. I just love conference.
Anyways. That's basically it for the week. I'm excited to tell you more about Angel and Veronica's progress next week. I hope that you all have a great week and that it's awesome!
Love, Sister Reid
The week here has been pretty great as they go. Of course, how could it not have been great? We had General Conference! That was definately the second coolest part of my week. The first coolest was that we got to meet with a new family and start teaching them this week. The mom and dad, Samuel and Michelle are recently coming back to church, but they have two kids that were not baptized. Angel is 9 and Precious is 8. They're super cute, and we got to teach them the first lesson this week. We set the baptismal date, and Samuel had his interview with the Bishop so that he can be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood in order to baptize his daughters. Pretty cool. The family is awesome and I'm looking forward to getting to help them be baptized on October 23rd.
We also met with Veronica a couple of times this week as well. She's so ready for the gospel and she just eats up everything we teach. She's reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning, and we never even asked her to! She's so cool. She'll be baptized on October 30th, and Sister Williams and I are both really excited about that. :)
We have also been asked, by President Weston, to host a third companion for a week -- until transfers (that's right, the transfer is already almost over! So fast!!!). Our mission is getting two temple square sisters from Salt Lake City. That mission sends the sisters out to other missions in the united states so that they can experience what it's like to proselyte. They stay for 4 1/2 months. One of them will be staying with us this week until next tuesday when she'll be assigned to her real trainer. So until then, it's like I've got another mini-missionary. :) Sister Williams and I are excited to meet her today.
Conference was pretty awesome. I found it interesting that there were a few themes, as usual. They really focused on families (which made all the elders a little uncomfortable lol) and also on attending the temple... Something I'm looking forward to doing VERY regularly once I return from my mission. There were several talks about overcoming adversity that I especially liked. I just love conference.
Anyways. That's basically it for the week. I'm excited to tell you more about Angel and Veronica's progress next week. I hope that you all have a great week and that it's awesome!
Love, Sister Reid
Sept 26, 2011
hello everybody!
I'm glad to talk to you today. Things this week were pretty good. We picked up a new investigator through teaching a less active. The new investigator's name is Veronica and she's pretty prepared. She doesn't know much about the Bible at all, but she has a firm testimony in prayer and in God. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and also about the Restoration this week. Both of the lessons were incredibly spiritual. And at the end of the first one, we committed Veronica to be baptized on October 30th, and she said yes! So that's exciting.
We also have a few new opportunities coming up in the future to pick up some investigators. A family just moved into our ward who are starting be active again after several years. They have two kids over the age of eight that were never baptized, so we'll start teaching them this week or next, probably. Also, one of my favorite families in the ward has a bunch of teenagers. One of them brought her friend to church this week, and introduced us. The friend, Sarah, has been attending seminary for a few days, and really liked church yesterday... so hopefully things will turn out. :)
that's pretty much it from here. I don't have much else to say except that I'm super excited for General Conference. The spirit is always so strong at those meetings, and I'm looking forward to hearing what the Prophet and other general authorities have to teach us about life and our goals.
I'm glad to talk to you today. Things this week were pretty good. We picked up a new investigator through teaching a less active. The new investigator's name is Veronica and she's pretty prepared. She doesn't know much about the Bible at all, but she has a firm testimony in prayer and in God. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and also about the Restoration this week. Both of the lessons were incredibly spiritual. And at the end of the first one, we committed Veronica to be baptized on October 30th, and she said yes! So that's exciting.
We also have a few new opportunities coming up in the future to pick up some investigators. A family just moved into our ward who are starting be active again after several years. They have two kids over the age of eight that were never baptized, so we'll start teaching them this week or next, probably. Also, one of my favorite families in the ward has a bunch of teenagers. One of them brought her friend to church this week, and introduced us. The friend, Sarah, has been attending seminary for a few days, and really liked church yesterday... so hopefully things will turn out. :)
that's pretty much it from here. I don't have much else to say except that I'm super excited for General Conference. The spirit is always so strong at those meetings, and I'm looking forward to hearing what the Prophet and other general authorities have to teach us about life and our goals.
Sept 19, 2011
Hello everybody.
Our week here was slow but good. I say slow, but then I realize that we taught over twenty lessons this week. It's just been a lot of teaching our recent converts, and trying to get appointments with our investigators. We're struggling right now with most of them. They have a hard time wanting to make us a priority, which is sad. I have to remember every day that there is life outside of missionary work, and people have families, and school, and jobs, and doctors' appointments, and about a thousand other things that satan uses to keep them from meeting us. It's been tough, but we're working through it.
Most of our really great lessons have been in teaching our recent converts the new member lessons. My favorite was being able to teach Jack Norene (the 89 year old) about how he can have the priesthood and be sealed to his family in a year. I also really liked being able to teach Jan and Leonard about home and visiting teaching.
Our newest investigator, Vicki, didn't come to church yesterday. She wasn't feeling good. She's battling some pretty crazy addictions to pain meds, and trying to quit. I think she was embarrased about it and didn't want to be in a crowd. So we went over yesterday after church to check on her. We set up two seperate appointments for later this week, one of which will include a tour of the church, so she won't feel so disconnected. Hopefully it will help her to want to come next week.
I'm sorry to say that that's just about it. I wish I had more for you this week. We were kind of lacking in the "miracles" department this week. I know that slow weeks are always percursors to the best weeks. It just means that there's some pretty amazing things coming our way. :)
I hope that you all have a fantastic week.
Love, Sister Reid
Our week here was slow but good. I say slow, but then I realize that we taught over twenty lessons this week. It's just been a lot of teaching our recent converts, and trying to get appointments with our investigators. We're struggling right now with most of them. They have a hard time wanting to make us a priority, which is sad. I have to remember every day that there is life outside of missionary work, and people have families, and school, and jobs, and doctors' appointments, and about a thousand other things that satan uses to keep them from meeting us. It's been tough, but we're working through it.
Most of our really great lessons have been in teaching our recent converts the new member lessons. My favorite was being able to teach Jack Norene (the 89 year old) about how he can have the priesthood and be sealed to his family in a year. I also really liked being able to teach Jan and Leonard about home and visiting teaching.
Our newest investigator, Vicki, didn't come to church yesterday. She wasn't feeling good. She's battling some pretty crazy addictions to pain meds, and trying to quit. I think she was embarrased about it and didn't want to be in a crowd. So we went over yesterday after church to check on her. We set up two seperate appointments for later this week, one of which will include a tour of the church, so she won't feel so disconnected. Hopefully it will help her to want to come next week.
I'm sorry to say that that's just about it. I wish I had more for you this week. We were kind of lacking in the "miracles" department this week. I know that slow weeks are always percursors to the best weeks. It just means that there's some pretty amazing things coming our way. :)
I hope that you all have a fantastic week.
Love, Sister Reid
Sept 13, 2011
Dear everyone!
Our week here was pretty good. We taught quite a lot and that was nice. Although we are experiencing some difficulties with most of our current investigators in terms of them keeping their commitments. It's hard to figure out how to help them when they don't seem to want to help themselves. It's something that I've struggled with for my whole mission... But the awesome investigators make up for the harder ones every time. We picked up two new investigators this week, which was good. We met the first, Vicky, as a result of tracting... which we've been doing a lot of lately because I have a new missionary and we also had a mini missionary with us this last week. I wanted both of them to really experience tracting... so we did several hours of it this week. It was hard, and we only met Vicky... She invited us right in and we got to know her a bit. She struggles with some major health issues. So we taught her about the priesthood and then offered her a blessing. She readily accepted and we have a return appointment with her tomorrow afternoon with some of the guys from our ward to accompany us. :)
We also met Alicia. She's the girlfriend of a less active. Things will be slow moving with her, but I'm confident that we'll be able to help her overcome some of the negative experiences that she's had with the LDS church. Especially as we help her boyfriend, Jamie, get ready to attend the temple. It should be pretty cool.
That's pretty much it for the awesome missionary stories this week. We did have a pretty cool opportunity yesterday (the reason this email is 24 hours late) as we met for half mission tour. Elder Kearon, of the First Quorom of the Seventy, met with us for the entire day. He's a way nice guy. We all got in line at the start of the meeting to meet with him individually and shake hands for a second or two. When I got up to the front of the line, Elder Kearon shook my hand, and before I could say anything, he said, "Sister Reid, I hear you're an amazing trainer." ... ... ... Let me just say, that I was/am very flattered that he knows who I am... And also a little amazed and chagrined that President Weston even said anything about me to him. It was pretty cool. All through the meeting as we were being trained, Elder Kearon kept calling me by name, when he simply called everyone else, Sister, or Elder... It's weird that a General Authority knows my name...
It was a wonderful meeting, otherwise. I needed a bit of a boost in my motivation to serve and to be the best that I can. One elder asked Elder Kearon how he best grows closer to what the Lord wants him to be. Elder Kearon said that he's found that his greatest growth always comes as a result of a calling that he's not nearly qualified for. It made me think about my experiences as a missionary. I feel very confident as a missionary, but as a trainer, I've had to stretch and grow. And as a "professional trainer" I've had to stretch beyond anything I've ever been capable of. It's amazing how I was just feeling a few days ago about being a trainer agian... about how I don't want to do it anymore, and about how hard it is, and that I didn't feel like I was up to it. Then Elder Kearon says that the Lord calls us to positions that we can't possibly do by ourselves so that we can grow into what he wants. It was an eye opening epiphany for me... I am a trainer not because I'm good at it now, but because that's what the Lord wants me to become. It's just taken me four different greenies to get it down, while most missionaries can do it in one... hahahaha. Seriously, though. I know that I'm stretching here. Stretching farther than I ever would have wanted or asked for, but also into this person that the Lord has shaped. And I'm better for it. And I'll continue to be better.
Anyway. That's about it for today. Sorry it's short. I'll look forward to hearing from each of you next week. On monday. :)
Love, Sister Reid
Our week here was pretty good. We taught quite a lot and that was nice. Although we are experiencing some difficulties with most of our current investigators in terms of them keeping their commitments. It's hard to figure out how to help them when they don't seem to want to help themselves. It's something that I've struggled with for my whole mission... But the awesome investigators make up for the harder ones every time. We picked up two new investigators this week, which was good. We met the first, Vicky, as a result of tracting... which we've been doing a lot of lately because I have a new missionary and we also had a mini missionary with us this last week. I wanted both of them to really experience tracting... so we did several hours of it this week. It was hard, and we only met Vicky... She invited us right in and we got to know her a bit. She struggles with some major health issues. So we taught her about the priesthood and then offered her a blessing. She readily accepted and we have a return appointment with her tomorrow afternoon with some of the guys from our ward to accompany us. :)
We also met Alicia. She's the girlfriend of a less active. Things will be slow moving with her, but I'm confident that we'll be able to help her overcome some of the negative experiences that she's had with the LDS church. Especially as we help her boyfriend, Jamie, get ready to attend the temple. It should be pretty cool.
That's pretty much it for the awesome missionary stories this week. We did have a pretty cool opportunity yesterday (the reason this email is 24 hours late) as we met for half mission tour. Elder Kearon, of the First Quorom of the Seventy, met with us for the entire day. He's a way nice guy. We all got in line at the start of the meeting to meet with him individually and shake hands for a second or two. When I got up to the front of the line, Elder Kearon shook my hand, and before I could say anything, he said, "Sister Reid, I hear you're an amazing trainer." ... ... ... Let me just say, that I was/am very flattered that he knows who I am... And also a little amazed and chagrined that President Weston even said anything about me to him. It was pretty cool. All through the meeting as we were being trained, Elder Kearon kept calling me by name, when he simply called everyone else, Sister, or Elder... It's weird that a General Authority knows my name...
It was a wonderful meeting, otherwise. I needed a bit of a boost in my motivation to serve and to be the best that I can. One elder asked Elder Kearon how he best grows closer to what the Lord wants him to be. Elder Kearon said that he's found that his greatest growth always comes as a result of a calling that he's not nearly qualified for. It made me think about my experiences as a missionary. I feel very confident as a missionary, but as a trainer, I've had to stretch and grow. And as a "professional trainer" I've had to stretch beyond anything I've ever been capable of. It's amazing how I was just feeling a few days ago about being a trainer agian... about how I don't want to do it anymore, and about how hard it is, and that I didn't feel like I was up to it. Then Elder Kearon says that the Lord calls us to positions that we can't possibly do by ourselves so that we can grow into what he wants. It was an eye opening epiphany for me... I am a trainer not because I'm good at it now, but because that's what the Lord wants me to become. It's just taken me four different greenies to get it down, while most missionaries can do it in one... hahahaha. Seriously, though. I know that I'm stretching here. Stretching farther than I ever would have wanted or asked for, but also into this person that the Lord has shaped. And I'm better for it. And I'll continue to be better.
Anyway. That's about it for today. Sorry it's short. I'll look forward to hearing from each of you next week. On monday. :)
Love, Sister Reid
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