Jan. 3, 2011

So today marks my 12 months left in the mission. Today, 12 months from now, I will be headed home! Yikes!!! It's a little bit crazy to think about it, really.

This week was good. Not great... but good. We had a lot of potential at the beginning of the week, but unfortunately, as seems to be the pattern of the last 5 or so weeks, we've not been able to keep most of those appointments. We're working hard with the investigators we have and we're doing our very best to find new investigators. We have lessons scheduled with 7 new potentials this week, and we're hoping that they'll keep their appointments, so at the very least we can share with them a bit of the spirit before they decide if they're interested or not.

We did have one really great lesson with Alisha this week. We've been working with her almost since I first came here. We met her tracting in August, I think. Things have been slow with her mostly because her brother, Robert, is terminally ill, and lives with Alisha. He has Sarcoidosis, which I don't know what that means, except that it's terminal in most cases. Robert used to be a Pentacostal minister, and Alisha had been a member of the faith at one time in her life. So was Alisha's mom, before she died twenty years ago. Anyway. We've been working hard and slow with Alisha. At one point, about a month ago, she wanted to drop us, saying that it was just easier to stick with what she knew (Pentacostal). We brought an amazing ward member with us who convinced her to let us keep coming, just so we could share with her our basic beliefs. Which we've been doing. We thought we weren't getting anywhere until we stopped by a couple days before Christmas just to say hi. She ended up telling us that she loved the Book of Mormon, and that she was really starting to find truth in it and in what we were teaching her. She falls asleep every night reading the book of mormon. It was great. In the same breath she also told us not to tell Robert. She's worried about upsetting him in his final days. He was just diagnosed with congestive heart failure, which means he doesn't have much time left. We are sad for Robert, but so excited for Alisha... Well, we had a lesson with her on Wednesday. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- namely, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End. It went really well. As we taught, I felt that it was exactly the time to invite her to be baptized. But I wanted to give my companion the chance to do it. Luckily, she felt it too, and almost before I could even catch it, Sister Christensen comes out with, "Alisha, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood Authority of God?" I was like, YES SHE DID IT!!! Alisha didn't say yes immediately. She has some legitimate concerns about her brother and the way that her mother (who is in "heaven") will feel about her converting to a different religion. We talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation, which we taught her previously, and how her mother, and soon her brother, will also have the chance to hear what she's hearing, if they haven't already. And that she'll be able to perform the work for them so they can join the same church she's in. That really soothed her concerns. We're going to go off the regular path this next week to teach her about temples before we go back on schedule with the lessons. After we talked about that for a little while, we asked her if she knew that what we were teaching her was true. She said, almost. And then I committed her to a baptismal date. I said, "if you find out that this is true, will you be baptized." she said yes, and then I said, "we're holding a baptismal service on January 22. Will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that day?" and she said yes!!! It was an awesome experience! I loved it. It was a great lesson, and we're excited to keep teaching her! It will be amazing when she finally gets in the water, all dressed in white! I can't hardly wait!

Other than that, we've been pretty much tracting and visiting our less actives and former investigators, trying to get new people to teach. It's going to be a good week.

I hope all of you are having a great week as well, and that you're doing well. I love you all a ton, and I miss you, and I'm looking forward to all of your letters and any pictures that you want to send as well--- is that hint subtle enough for you. **wink, wink** LOL.

Love, Sister Reid

Dec. 20, 2010

Hello everyone!!! I sure hope that everyone is doing great! I'm awesome! We've had a really great week and things are really ramping up! I can tell that 2011 is going to be a good one, especially for the members of the Antelope 4th ward. We, miraculously, picked up 7 new investigators this week! It was AWESOME!

We started out by meeting with a new woman that we met a few weeks ago named Raj. She's Indian and her religious background is Sikh... I'm not sure exactly what that means yet... But we've started teaching her about the nature of God and Prayer, and it's going really well. We have a chapel tour with her today, and a regular lesson with her tomorrow. It'll probably go slowly with her for the next little while. It feels familiar to teach her the basics, just like we did the Napa, San, and Hieu. I love it!

We also got a phone call from some sisters in the Sacramento Mission about a man they've been sort of teaching. He's been going to church for about 3 months with his girlfriend who is a member. But he lives in our ward boundaries. So they suggested that he start meeting with us so we could have an actual lesson, and maybe he can investigate the church without his girlfriend always around so he can express how he really feels about it. So we met with Chris and his 10 year old daughter. And they are prepared! They've been reading the Book of Mormon every night together and attending church. Chris said that he knows that Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. He's even given up coffee and alcohol already. He's not ready to get baptized yet because he says he wants to make sure he's making this change for him and not for his girlfriend. We're so excited. And, don't tell Chris, but he's going to get baptized in January, lol. His daughter is ready too. They're both saying things like, "when we get baptized" and "when we're members of the church" and stuff like that. It's cool!

We also got a phone call from another member in a different ward about a family that lives in our boundaries. The mom, Kim, was baptized when she was very young, and has really positive memories. But her mom, Helen, went inactive and got involved in a rougher lifestyle. Kim was able to get out of it when she was a teenager, and has legal gardianship of two of her siblings kids (who haven't been able to get out of that lifestyle), totaling 5 altogether. She's married, and she and her husband have two kids of their own, with one on the way. So they have 7 kids, 4 of whom are 8 or older. Anyway, Kim's been wanting to get involved in church so all the kids can be raised with better values and lifestyles than they've had so far in their lives. We invited them to the Christmas Party we had, and they came and the second they walked in the door nearly all the primary kids surrounded Kim's kids. They all know each other from school. It was really cool. We had our first lesson with them last night and it went really well. Kim is in! She's committed to coming to church regularly and is excited! We did a soft commitment for baptism, meaning we committed her kids to get baptized, but we didn't set a date yet. They all said yes! It's going to be great!

January is really going to be cool!!!

I guess that's just about it. I want to wish each of you a Merry Christmas. I appreciate all of you more than I think even you realize. And I know that your prayers and thoughts really help. I can feel them, especially on harder days. And I lean on that more than I think I even know. I wish I could get each of you something for Christmas, but all I have this year is my testimony, and I'll give that away every day!

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and He made it possible for me to continue to progress. I couldn't be here, doing what I'm doing without that knowledge. I have faith each and every day that the people I talk to will someday accept the gospel, even if they don't accept it from me. I know that Heavenly Father has again called prophets on the earth who make His will known and lead us in the way we should go. I love every minute of this work, even if I don't realize it till later the next day, lol. And I know that this special season is something to be treasured. Christ was born for us, and he died for us. That's the best gift I've ever gotten or will ever get.

Merry Christmas.

Love, Sister Reid.

Dec. 13, 2010

Hello family!!!

I hope that everyone is doing really well as we head into Christmas. I wanted to apologize in advance for the fact that I'm not really sending any presents home to anyone for christmas--- unless I'm in the name drawing for the immediate family, in which case, you need to tell me who I have so I can send it! --- Otherwise, I figured that purchasing gifts and then shipping them would be cost too much, and on my limited budget, I just can't afford it. Sorry. I love you all and really wish I could do more for you. :(

We had Santa Run this week. It was tons of fun. President and Sister Pendleton dressed like Mr. and Mrs. Clause, and the APs were dressed like elves. It was fun. We got called up one by one and had our pictures taken with our packages and the President and his wife. It was fun. The mission office had just been saving every package they got for a couple weeks, so I got the big one (thanks mom) plus a smaller one filled with cookies, and the package from Grandma Mary. Plus, Mom, the letter you sent before the funeral they saved and I didn't get it till Tuesday. Sorry I wasn't able to send a story about grandma. I opened the two smaller packages and the letter on Tuesday because I figured they weren't part of it. Then, just in case, I had my companions open the bigger one that night. They checked it for perishables, and when they found the individually wrapped gifts inside, they gave me the all clear to come out. We haven't gone through the stockings--we'll save that for Christmas Morning--and I've saved the letter/card and the presents for then as well. Both Sister Silva and Sister Christensen were really touched that you thought of them and made them stockings. And they laughed when they saw all the poptarts. I had to explain about the cereal/oatmeal/poptart evolution tradition. :) So we all have something to open on Christmas Morning. Which is awesome!!

Otherwise, for the rest of the week, we've just been working hard. It's been a lot of mostly visiting with people for a few minutes here and there because of the holidays. I'm sure things will get much busier after the holidays, but until then, we're mostly just trying to get into the homes of some of the less actives and our investigators to share a short holiday message with them. It's been a hard couple of weeks, for sure, but I'm optimistic. We've got a really strong list of Potentials that we're working with, and our ward is behind us one hundred percent. Which I love them for.

We had interviews this last week and President said that he's going to transfer Sister Silva somewhere else and leave me with the area and the training of Sister Christensen. He told me he trusts me with this and he knows that I'm up for the responsability. I'm really going to miss Sister Silva. We've been together a long time (6 months), and the ward won't be the same without her either. But I'm also really excited for a little change. And I think I'm really going to like being the Senior Companion. :) Transfers are on the 21st, so we still have a week to go together. Which is good. :)

I don't know if I told you all this, but President Pendleton issued all the missionaries a challenge to read the Book of Mormon by January 13th. He gave us 3 months, basically, to get it done. It's been a really neat experience to read through the Book of Mormon so quickly. I'm always amazed that I've somehow missed all these amazing things the other 10 times I've read the book. How does that happen? I've just finished Alma and I'm working on Helaman. I'm really impressed with, and somehow forgot about, Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, who were called on missions just after the last of the big wars between the Nephites and Lamanites. They traveled all over the land and met up with everyone. And because of them the ENTIRE nation of Nephites and Lamanites were ALL converted. Such that anyone could travel back and forth between them and not get hurt. There was basically not a division anymore between the Nephites and Lamanites, except maybe it was cultural. Nephi and Lehi were AWESOME!!! They're my new favorite missionaries. Forget Ammon and the Arms, or Alma and the 8000 lamanites... Please... read about them in Helaman. I like how they were put in jail, and they called down fire and conversed with God, and Christ spoke to the mob at the jail. And they were all converted. I want to teach with that kind of power! That would be SOOOOO COOOL!

Speaking of teaching... As you all are very aware, I'm sure, my six month mark is this week (on Dad's birthday coincidentally). I've been thinking about my mission so far and what I have left to do. My testimony has grown so much from when I first came. And I've learned all about what Missionary work really is. It's been so wonderful. With all this introspection, and especially this opportunity to take over the area and become a Senior Comp coming up, I feel like, as a Missionary, I'm about to grow into so much more as well. I feel like, as much as I've grown in the past 6 months, I'm about to grow that much more in the next transfer. My faith and testimony of this gospel and the savior and his atonement are all about to take this huge giant leap. I've really gained a strong testimony in the power of repentance, Because, to be honest, I haven't been the most obedient missionary. We've wasted a lot of time as a companionship and I've had to account for that to the Lord. But I know that as I've repented, and I strive to do better, I really do feel the forgiving power of the Atonement working in my life! I don't know if I'm making any sense... But I wanted you to know that I'm not wasting my time here. I'm really working hard to be a better missionary every day, and to be a better person every day. A month ago, I don't think I would have said that I was changing that much... but something has happened in the last couple weeks... I dunno... I'm changing. The Atonement is changing me. I'm being converted! It's amazing to feel this way. I guess I'm really just rambling, but I wanted you to know how I'm feeling right now. :)

Dec. 6, 2010

So hello everyone! I hope your week went well for all of you. Ours was great. We started the New Member Lessons with San and Henry. There's a girl named Melissa Larson from one of the other wards in our stake who just got home from her mission to Thailand last week. She came with us to the lesson and has been a wonderful help in making sure that San really understands the gospel. It will be really great for San to have the lessons in Thai, so that we can be sure that she really does understand the principles and such. We're excited. Plus, Melissa is great. I love her already. :) And it's really fun to sit and listen to them converse in Thai. I'm starting to pick up a few words, which is fun. :)

Many of the appointments with potential investigators that we had scheduled for this last week didn't actually happen. But we've been fasting as a zone and we're seeing the results. We were able to meet with a woman named Jamie, her daughter named Courteney, and Courtney's friend Sasha. All three are really interested in the things we had to teach about having a prophet, the priesthood, and the Book of Mormon. So we picked them up as new investigators and we're excited to continue teaching them. Although we probably won't get to meet with them, or many of our other potentials and investigators, much until after Christmas. Just about everyone is difficult to pin down to an appointment right now because of the holidays. Sis. Silva said that this is normal, and that the same thing happened to her last year. It's cool though. It means that we'll have more time to find new investigators, so that in January, we'll have a nice big teaching pool to work with. :)

The lesson with Jamie was pretty much the only really exciting thing that happened this week missionary wise. Sis Silva, Sis. Christensen, and I are all getting along great. We're making the best of the holidays and having a blast. :) I'm grateful to them and to you and to all of our families for making this Christmas a good one. We have "Santa Run" tomorrow. Basically, President and Sister Pendleton dress up like Mr. and Mrs. Claus and hand out the packages you sent us for christmas. Then we have a spiritual devotional about the birth of the Savior, and then we get to watch a G Rated movie. I've heard that it's Toy Story 3 this year.... They watched Up last year. Then, after lunch, it's back to work. We'll take our packages home and place them under our 2 foot tree to wait until Christmas. :) I'm excited. It will be tons of fun.

I guess that's pretty much it for me for this week. I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season and that you're trying your best not to miss me too much ( **wink, wink**). I love you all and I'm so grateful for all your support and prayers, just like always. You make it possible for me to be here.

Love, Sister Reid

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Sorry it's a little late, but I can only email on Mondays, after all. :) I hope that everyone had a wonderful day and that everyone is back home safe and sound.

Our week was kind of slow because of the holiday. We haven't really been able to meet with most of our investigators because they were all busy. We did a lot of tracting and street contacting though, and it yeilded good results. We have 7 new potential investigators that we're meeting with this week. I'm a big fan of running numbers, and I figured out that, statistically, one of these 7 will get baptized! I promise I'm not focusing on numbers, I just like to know how we're doing as a mission, and I recognize that every single number represents a person who needs to have the gospel in their lives. I LOVE IT!!!

But I'm sure you're all wondering what I did for thanksgiving, so I'll tell you. :)

We started the morning by taking pictures in our area... pictures we haven't had time to take until now. So we went to a really pretty park in our area--with tons of fall leaves--and took pictures for several hours. It was a lot of fun. Then we went to our first of several Thanksgiving dinners. Jean, our investigator from Trinadad had us over first, and we got to taste everything she made. The turkey was really good - it was smoked. Then we were off to our next "appointment" at Gemma's (pronounced Hemma) who is from Mexico. They also had their own spin on thanksgiving dinner, including an amazing cranberry salsa that was so good but so spicy it numbed my tongue. Then we went to Hieu's house for our final dinner of the day. Everything was really good all day long. but my favorite may be that we listened to Chinese Opera at Hieu's during dinner. lol. I found it especially interesting that we had three dinners, and none of the hostesses were American. :)

On Saturday night, our dinner appointment was also Thanksgiving Dinner because the Gibson family had postponed their dinner from Thursday. Their oldest son gave his missionary farewell talk yesterday, so they had thanksgiving the night before so all the family from out of town would be there. It was more traditional and more like what I'm used to for thanksgiving dinner. I really loved all four dinners though.

That's pretty much it for me. Like I said, it was a slow week, but we have a lot of stuff lined up for this week. I'm looking forward to being able to tell you all about it.

I love you all tons, and I'm so grateful for all of your support. Especially as the holidays roll around this year. I know that I can count on all of your thoughts and prayers to help me in my work and to keep me focused. Although... I definately won't say no to any Christmas packages you can send my way... lol... :)

Love, Sister Reid