Oct. 18, 2010

So this week I hit my four month mark on my mission! It's crazy how fast it happens. The last couple weeks especially have flown by, which is crazy.

First let me say that we didn't get to go to Apple Hill today... Which is sad. We found out that it's about a half hour outside the Mission border, and our District and Zone leaders said we couldn't go. It was very disappointing to both us and the Less Active Family that was going to take us. Hopefully, this doesn't damage the relationship we've built with them. :) But I know that we have rules for a reason, so we didn't go.

This week has been really busy. We were gearing up and preparing San for her baptism on Saturday, which went so well!!! We met with her almost every single day this week, finishing up the lessons, and helping her prep for her interview, which she had on Thursday and passed with FLYING colors! She was so excited! The Baptism on Saturday night was a whole other kind of experience. I'm not sure I know even how to talk about it. San's husband came, which is pretty incredible. Afterwards he said that it was a nice experience, and not what he was expecting at all, since he was raised catholic. Bishop Summers performed the baptism (wearing my tie - YAY!), and right after San came out of the water, she was glowing, and so happy. She said she felt light, like she could fly away. Napa and Bro McArthur offered the opening and closing prayers, and they REALLY brought the spirit. I just think it's incredible that Napa, who has never prayed in public before in her life, and who isn't even a member till the 23rd, gave a touching, sincere, heartfelt plea for the spirit to be present, and she gave thanks for the gospel in all our lives. Well. It was over for me right at that moment. I was pretty much teary eyed for the rest of the service. lol. Then, yesterday, she was confirmed a member, and that was amazing too! The whole ward has really come out in support of her and her decisions to join the church. We're having a chili cookoff on Saturday, after Napa's baptism, and San, Napa, and Hieu (who I'll talk about in just a second) all signed up to bring stuff. It's so cool!!!

Hieu also came to San's baptism. She was the first one there, along with her kids. It was a pretty cool thing for her to come to I think. Afterwards, I asked how they liked it, and Hieu wanted to know if they're all like that. Then she said, "At my baptism, I'm going to have everyone who comes sign the program, so I remember who came." Can you believe that! We've only met with her twice! Her kids, ages 11 and 12, both also really liked the baptism. Eva, the 12 year old daughter, said that she got kind of emotional. lol... All three of them came to church. It was amazing to see how the ward really embraced them. The young women pres. Sis Bourgeouss, came and took Eva to Sunday School, and then didn't even need to introduce her to anyone because it turns out that most of her friends from school are mormons! Sis. Sobieralski, the primary pres, took Harold to Sunday School, and hooked him up with a few of his friends from school too. Hieu really loved Relief Society (and I thought it was especially awesome that the lesson was on Baptism... :) And she really liked hanging around afterwards for a little while, meeting everyone, and hearing how much Eva and Harold enjoyed themselves. She's already planning on bringing the kids to mutual on Wednesday night, and participating in both the ward trunk-or-treat, and the stake youth activity -- both on Saturday night, after Napa's baptism, which she's also planning on attending. It's so great!

We had exchanges again this week. This time I went to a different ward and Sis. Wallentine came her to be with Sis. Silva. It went okay for me, but I really missed the lessons that Sisters Silva and Wallentine were teaching in my absence. Apparently, the investigators and ward members who went to the lessons missed me too. I guess the lessons didn't go so well, and that's sad, but It's nice to hear that I'm making an impact in this area, and that people miss me when I'm not around. I especially love that almost everyone in the ward recognizes Sister Silva and I as an awesome team, who work hard. They trust us, which is amazing. And we're seeing miracles because of it! The work here is progressing. We'll have two baptisms in October (Joe's Mom decided to push his baptism a couple weeks) and so we'll have at least one in November. We're hoping to set a date for Hieu and her kids for the end of November as well. So we'll have 4 more. That's six in the six months I will have been here, where this ward hasn't seen that many converts in 3 years. Miracles really happen when people catch the vision of what missionary work can be.

I love it here! I love my mission, I've decided I REALLY love seeing my favorite people be baptized! It's so special!

Anyway. I've got to go. I've rambled on long enough. I've attached some pictures from the baptism, and Jared and Daniel you should pay special attention to the tie that Bishop Summers is wearing!

The one of Napa and San in the focus of the picture also has Hieu in the background. :)

Oct. 11, 2010

Hiya! I hope everyone is doing really well! I love to hear from mom, of course, so I know that the immediate family is doing good. But, in being honest, I haven't heard from Daniel and Cat, yet, or from Jaymi and Steven, in a while. Also, I got one letter from Jared while I was at the MTC (which you didn't finish or sign... you sent it with the rest of the letters from the branch, so I didn't even know whose letter it was for a long time, and I had to rely on the spirit of revelation to figure it out. lol). On the flip side, I did get the white tie this week. Again, my companion, and everyone at the mission office, got a big kick out of the fact that there was a package for me from my family, with no letter. I just laughed. I asked Bro McArthur to wear it when he performs Napa's baptism, and he said yes, and then got all choked up when I told him how Daniel and Jared had both used the same tie for their whole mission. I just love that guy.

Speaking of... Bro McArthur was ordained to be a Priest yesterday. I am so proud of him I can hardly come up with the words. To see the change in him and his family is one of the strongest testimony builders I can even imagine for how the Spirit changes people. He's reading the Book of Mormon for the first time in his life, and he and Napa have started a family scripture study program with Keith (age 3) and Tyler (age 6). It's the best. For everyone who is in the Derby Singles Branch, you'll understand when I say: "Finger thing!!!"

San is getting baptized this saturday. It's going to be amazing! She and Napa hang out all the time, and San is also starting to get to know other members of the ward. She sat with the Goldthorpes yesterday at church, and even brought her 30 year old daughter too. I know that the daughter, whose name I can't pronounce yet, but who told me I could call her Terry, was surprised to see that her Mom has so many friends at church. San has been lonely for a long time, I think, and Terry was worried about, I'm sure. So it did Terry good to see that San's testimony isn't just the crazy talk of a lonely lady, but that it is also worth something good. I know that San's prayers for Terry will help Terry to investigate the church someday.

So, Friday was the best day this week (outside of maybe Sunday, because of Bro. McArthur). We started out by leaving the house early so that we could teach English to Alicia. She's a mexican grandmother of one of our member's neighbors. We're teaching her English as a way to get into the home to talk with her son in law, who has reservations about the church. Once they're resolved, we'll be able to start teaching the whole family. So for now, we're teaching English as a way to gain trust. Anyway. It's going really well, and it's a lot of fun. I love Alicia... she's hilarious, and very serious about learning English, which I give her props for, because there are many people who live here in the United States who never bothered with learning English.

Then we went to Napa's house. We had another lesson with Napa and San together. Since they're both so close to baptism, we've been teaching them together, so that we have more time to find other new investigators. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that Napa had invited her sister, Ida to come to the lesson. We had prepared to teach the Law of Chastity, which both San and Napa needed to hear and commit to in order for them to be baptized. So we looked at each other, checked with the Spirit, and then proceeded to teach it, even though Ida had never heard anything, really about the church. That part of the lesson went well, especially since we had another ward member there, Sis. Goldthorpe (who, by the way, is my mission mom, here in Antelope. I love the Goldthorpe Family. So mom, don't worry, I'm being well taken care of :-)... After we wrapped up that lesson, Ida started asking questions about what we believe, the history of the church, and the Book of Mormon. We answered a few of her questions, and Napa answered the rest. It was AWESOME!!! Ida asked why Napa could even consider joining the church because there were so many restrictions, and Napa, like an old pro, answered by telling Ida that, now that she knows what's right and wrong, every time she does something wrong, she feels guilty, and wants to repent. She wants to attend church because the spirit instills in her that desire. She loves having the spirit with her, and KNOWS the difference between when she has it and when she doesn't. And she said that she never wants to not have it. After that stirring testimony, Ida looked at us, and asked if we could start teaching her too. *** BIG GRIN!!! ***

After that lesson, we were flying high on the spirit, but had to rush off to another lesson. This time with Heiu. We met Heiu at a member's home (Sis. Smedley - the Relief Society President, and another one of my favorite ward members). The lesson went really well, and we taught about the Godhead (because she has no foundational knowledge about God) and the Doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Endure the End). The best part is that we committed her to be baptized, and she said YES!!! We didn't have time to set a date, but she said she'd come to church this week (which she wasn't able to, but this next week for sure), and that we'll get to meet her kids, and hopefully start teaching them as a family. It'll be so great!!!

That's pretty much it for this week, really. Next week's email will be a little later in the day because one of our ward members is taking us to Apple Hill, which is a collection of Apple Orchards about an hour from here. It's going to be really fun, and I'll take and send lots of pictures... but we won't be home till later in the afternoon, so I probably won't be able to email until 5:00 or so.

I love you all a ton, and I look forward to all your emails and snail mails. Keep 'em coming!

Love, Sister Reid

Oct. 4, 2010

Hello everyone!!! I hope everyone is doing well. :) Life here in the mission is AWESOME!!! Things are really picking up here, just like I knew they would. We're having THREE baptisms this month, the 16th (San), the 23rd (Pupe/Napa) and the 30th (Joe). So Jared and Daniel, I'm not kidding, if you want that white tie to be in my pictures, and I do, then you'd better send pretty quickly!

The week went really well, and you'll never guess, but we've started teaching another Buddhist! it's crazy! Everyone in the ward leadership just starts laughing whenever we tell them. But it's good. I believe that the Lord prepared us to know how to teach them by first giving us Napa, and then San, because we learned a lot about how to teach someone who has no knowledge of Jesus Christ. So now we're teaching a Vietnamese woman named Hieu (pronounced Hue). She came to the US when she was five, and speaks better english than most americans. We taught her about prophets the first time, because of General Conference, and we showed her where to go to watch it online. She was very excited, and we showed her where to watch old sessions of conference, and she saved the website, and then started the first session of the April Conference before we even left. We meet with her again tomorrow, and I hope she had a chance to watch some of conference this weekend, because it was AMAZING!!!

We taught Napa and San agian together. And it went about like last time. We taught about the principles of the gospel: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Enduring the the End. We would teach for a few moments, then check for understanding, and have Napa translate, as needed. It was a good review for Napa, and we noticed agian that she would speak in Thai for sooo much longer than we spoke in English -- answering San's questions without even stopping to ask us what the answers were. We went over the baptismal interview questions as well, for both of them, and they are both excited. Napa was still not committing to a date, but said that she would tell us Friday, which she did, and she's getting baptized on the 23rd! Finally! The best part is that her husband, who has not been active for years, and who, until recently has been disruptive in the lessons, has made a total 180 change. He's met with the Bishop and is doing what the Bishop asked so that he can be ordained to a Priest so that he can baptize Napa. He even asked us yesterday where he needs to go get Baptismal Pants and a white tie so he can baptize Napa. And he's started memorizing the prayer he needs to say. It's amazing to watch the change in this family!

In fact, they invited us over for the Sunday Sessions of conference. So we showed up bright and early to make breakfast. I made belgium waffles and egg hash (thanks mom, it was a total hit!) and they made us lunch (thai style fried pork and rice). Being there for their first conference was incredible. As talks came on that applied to one or the other or both of them, they would call each other's attention to it. Bro McArthur especially liked the talk on the Holy Ghost and Napa really liked the talk about Prayer. It went so good and I was so happy to be there. It was a great experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Speaking of conference, I wanted to tell you that my favorite talk was Elder Holland's on gratitude, and if I could, I would plagarize his words here, and say the same thing to all of you who have helped me get here. You really are the best people in my life, and I know that I couldn't be here with all of your love, support, and prayers. Not to mention all the headaches each of you had over me before during and after I decided to serve a mission, and even up till I got my call. You really have helped me be here, I know it's all because of you. So thank you. All of you. But especially Mom and Dad. I love you guys.

Love, Sister Reid

PS. I found "14 Fundamentals of following a prophet" which was quoted twice in conference. You can find it here: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=browse&speaker=Benson%2C+Ezra+Taft&topic=prophet&type=&year=&x=9&y=7 and in case you need to hear it agian, to think of me saying it, here's Elder Holland's Talk: http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1298,00.html

Sept. 27, 2010

Hello everyone!

It's been a great week here, and I'm happy to hear that you've all had a great week too.

First thing's first! We got transfer calls today, as this is the first day of my third transfer, and.... drum roll please.... Sister Silva and I are staying here in Antelope for another six weeks together. Which is so good. We get along great, despite not having ANYTHING in common, and we teach well together. We are also seeing a lot of success in the last month, and in the next month or so to come, so it's good that we're both staying here to keep the stability of our investigators going. So, things are good. :)

We had a lot of great lessons this week too. We met with Pupe again, which, it turns out, her real name is Rungnapa (Napa for short) and Pupe is only her childhood nickname, kind of like "Sweetie" or "Pumpkin." So that will take some time to get used to, I think... lol. Anyway, her husband, Brother McArthur came too. We taught about the Law of Tithing, because this sunday's lesson in Gospel Principles was Tithing, and we wanted to prepare her for it. It was a pretty rocky start, with Bro McArthur talking about how he didn't have the money to pay tithing, but we focused on Napa, and on the blessings that she and her family could expect if they started paying an honest tithe. We especially showed Napa how her faith would grow (which is something she really wants) if she pays tithing. Brother McArthur kept saying how he didn't think they could do it, and then Napa turned to her husband and said, "if you don't pay your tithing, Eddie, how is your faith going to grow?" -- Yeah... Napa, who is not a member, is teaching her husband, who is a member, about faith!!! --- It was a great lesson. We found out yesterday that after we left, Napa and Eddie had a serious talk about their faith. He was asking her about her testimony, and how she got it. She told him to read the Book of Mormon, and Pray, and Pay Tithing. So when we saw them at Church yesterday, the first thing Bro McArthur said to me was, "I've been reading the Book of Mormon all weekend!" It's been so amazing to see the change in their family over the last several months.

Also, Bro, McArthur had an interview with the Bishop yesterday after church, and when we had dinner with the Bishop last night he said, without divulging any details, that Brother McArthur is a totally different person than he was 6 months ago, and that he'll be ready to be ordained to the office of Priest so that he can baptize Napa by the 16th! YAY!!!

Also, Napa came to our appointment with San this week. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, with Napa's interpretive help. We were so amazed at the fellowship that these two women have for each other. The Thai culture says that family is very important, and usually, the grandmother of the family lives with one of her children. Napa's mother lives in Germany, and can't afford to immigrate. And San's only daughter lives in LA, and San can't live there because her husband is here. So these two women have adopted each other, and it's so great. The lesson started out with us suggesting that San move her baptism date by one week, since we have a ton to teach her, and there's an understanding barrier... She agreed, since her daughter will be out of town on the 9th. So my first baptism with be on the 16th! ... Anyway, we then let Napa and San just visit for a bit in Thai... It was pretty cool. And they started telling each other their testimonies. It was cool that we could tell by the spirit what they were talking about, even though we couldn't understand the words they were saying. :) Then we taught the Plan of Salvation to San. We would start out by talking for one or two minutes about a part of the plan, and then Napa would translate what San didn't understand. The cool part was that Napa always talked way longer than we did, and San asked questions, and Napa wouldn't even translate, she'd just answer them. It was the coolest thing to watch our two investigators, whom we love dearly, teach each other the gospel. It was an amazing experience! I just know that they're going to adopt each other as family. In fact, they sat together at church yesterday, without us prompting them at all. It was AMAZING!

I love being a missionary! If for nothing else, than for this lesson. For the rest of my mission (which I know can get even better) this lesson with San and Napa will make everything worth it!

Anyway, time is short for me today, because one of the other sisters in our zone goes home tonight, so we are in a threesome until the new sister comes tomorrow. Which means that I've got to be going. I love you all, and I miss you all, and I hope to hear from you as often as possible. =) Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. They really help!

Love, Sister Reid

Sept. 20, 2010

Hello mom and everyone! How's life? In answer to your last email, mom, I would love to write Grandma Reid, but I unfortunately don't have her address. Please, if you could, give it to me next week... or, in case you forget, you could respond with just the address right now, and write you letter later, and then I'll be sure to have it by next week.

Well, it sounds like the family is in full swing. And I'm glad. It'll keep you all too busy to miss me too much. lol. Tell everyone I love them, and I miss them.

This week for me was awesome! Remember last week how we got one Batismal Date, and two other tentatives? Well this week we now have two Baptismal Dates, and only one tentative. **big grin** But I digress. I'll start from the beginning.

On Tuesday, we had an appointment with Pupe and her family. We brought our Ward Mission Leader with us, so Pupe can start meeting members of the ward, and so he could come to a real lesson, and see what it's like. We taught about the first part of the life of Christ, leading up to his baptism, since Pupe has no background with Christianity, it seemed like a good thing to do. We started talking about his baptism, and it just seemed natural to recommit her. We told her how all of our leadership said that it was okay that she could be baptized and still practice Buddhism as a part of her culture. She just has to understand the distinction between paying respect to Buddhism, and worshipping as a Buddhist, which I believe that she does. She was very excited. But also very hestitant. She really wants to be baptized, and she understands what a big step it is, but she didn't want to set a date. When we pushed her a little bit about it, she suggested next spring... and we were like... why so far? She wants to have her mother there, which I think is really cool, but her mother lives in Germany, and she wouldn't be able to come until then. We tried to help Pupe understand how important Baptism is, and how, once you know that it's right, you really shouldn't wait. She promised to pray about the date, and that we'll be able to set one this coming week for Oct. 23rd. The best part is that her husband, who was ordained as a deacon, but hasn't been active until the last year or so, is talking about doing what it takes to get ready to perform her baptism. We're super excited about it. I can just imagine her wearing white, and I get so excited! And plus, I'm imagining what the whole McArthur family looks like in White, being sealed in the temple. I promised myself already that, when that happens, I'm totally going to be there. And I hope that it happens within the year! The even besterest part is that the whole family came to church yesterday. and it was the best! They were so happy. The two little kids, ages 6 and 3, were so happy that their mom was there, and Bro McArthur was so proud to show his wife around. It was great!!

Wednesday was crazy busy for us. We taught Jean, a neighbor of some of the members in our ward. They call her "grandma" jean, and she loves them. We tracted into her, and have begun teaching her about the gospel, and answering her questions about mormons. We taught her the plan of salvation because her brother just passed away unexpectedly last week. It went really well, and she was very receptive. Although, she is a very active Catholic, so it will take some time to teach her, and for the spirit to work with her. I'm confident that, if it doesn't happen while I'm here, at least I'm sure that she will get baptized sometime. She's so great, and practically adopted by her neighbors already. In fact, Sis. Bourgess, one of the neighbors, invited Jean to church this sunday because she was speaking, and Jean came! By the way, if anyone's counting... that's two investigators so far in sacrament meeting...

Then we had an appointment after Jean to teach San. We started with the Restoration, but we got stalled on what a prophet is, and why we need one, because there's a pretty intense language barrier. We had the lesson at the Bishop's home, and it went really well. San still has a desire to be baptized, even though she doesn't understand why, which i think is incredible. The crazy thing is, Pupe, when we were talking to about San, offered to come to our next lesson with San and help interpret the things we teach so San can understand! Isn't that crazy! Our investigators are teaching and fellowshipping each other! I love it! Oh... and also... San came to church too... so that's THREE!

On Thursday, we went to Seminary, and taught the Junior class about Missionary Work, and how Seminary helped prepare us for our missions. It was really cool. We also met with Joe, our nine year old investigator. His mom was not super thrilled last week about talking to her Ex so Joe could come to church. But while we were there, she called him and asked if she could drop him off later on Sunday, for at least the next several weeks, so Joe could come to church. And the ex was like, sure, no problem. It was really cool. And Joe is really learning the things we're teaching him. He's remembering the stuff we've talked about before, and keeping his commitments, like reading from the scriptures with his mom. He was even able to tell us about the story we asked him to read (Ammon and the Arms), and he really liked it. So we set the date for Oct 30th, and it's awesome! And, oh, yeah... he was at church too.. so that's FOUR!!! Four investigators at sacrament meeting this week! That's amazing, considering we didn't have any for a long time!!!

On Saturday, we were on exchanges with some other sisters in the area. I was with Sis. Wallentine. Who's really cool. I think that if we ever served together, it would be a lot of fun. We met some fantastic Potential Investigators, and even one that I really liked, whose name is Jasmine. She's 19 and pretty religious. We talked for probably 30 minutes, and Sis. Wallentine commited her to be baptized and she said yes!!! It was pretty cool. We'll start teaching her this week, and who knows... maybe even have another baptism in October!

That's pretty much all the exciting stuff for the week. I just loved church this sunday. It felt so much better since we had investigators there, than it has other sundays when we haven't it. The difference is amazing. And the ward sees that we're working hard and getting results, so they want to help to. It's changing everything around in the ward and I'm so excited.

I love you all so much, and I hope you're having great weeks. Give each other hugs and pretend that they're from me. lol.

Love, Sister Reid