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In terms of the mission work this week, we taught a bunch of really strong lessons agian this week to our investigators, none of whom came to church yesterday. So we have some goals to set with each of our investigators. I look forward to being able to tell you more about them next week.
Again, I'm very sorry this is so short. Please understand! I love you all and miss and pray for you!
Love, Sister Reid
Happy Independance day everyone!!! I hope that you're all having a wonderful three day weekend. Not that I even remember what those are like anymore, lol. But it is a P-day today, so we don't have to figure out how to be productive during a holiday. Hahaha. In fact, we're supposed to be home tonight by 6:00 to avoid all the crazy people. :)
Not a whole lot to talk about this week, sadly. Things are getting better with me and my trials. Not that the trials are getting any easier, just that I'm getting strong enough to deal with them I guess. My companion is starting to pick up a little more english, and is participating more in teaching situations, which is nice. I would have liked to have her for a companion 6 months from now instead of as a greenie. Maybe then we'd really be able to get to know one another and to teach in unity and with strength and power. But as it is, we work well together, if most of the time in silence. :)
As for exciting things that happened... not a whole lot to tell you honestly. We've had kind of a slow week. We taught a lot of lessons, though, and met a few new investigators. We did have a disappointing setback with all of our investigators when none of them came to church yesterday. I'm struggling with how to help them understand that in order to have answers to your prayers, you have to do your part, and part of that is showing your faith by coming to church. It seems so simple to me. It's the number one reason that our investigators can't get baptized -- they don't come to church. Boo. But we'll see them all again this week, and we'll get them to understand, eventually. :)
I did have a really cool experience early this week which has helped to strengthen my testimony in spiritual promptings. Early in my mission, on day, I felt a very strong prompting to go down a specific street to tract. I was a greenie, and didn't understand what I felt, since I had never felt it before. It was a weird thing. So I ignored it. And I felt so guilty about it. I made the promise that when that happened again, I would not ignore that feeling. And I've waited almost a whole year for it to happen again. I think the Lord was testing me in that time. On Tuesday, we had an appointment not answer the door, so we were going to go contact some other former investigators. As we were driving away, i got the very same feeling about tracting the street we had just been on. Which I did NOT want to do. It's getting to be over 100 degrees here every day, so I tract as little as possible. But I had made that promise that if I ever felt it again, I would not deny it. So we tracted. And it was crazy because most of the people were home on that street. Which is weird for a tuesday afternoon. And two of the people we met are interested in hearing more. We have appointments set up with both of them (one of which is a whole family!) for later this week.
Anyways, I know that the spirit does guide missionary work. Hopefully, these people that we've met this week will be interested enough to want to change their lives.
That's pretty much all that I've got for this week. Please keep missionary opportunities in your prayers, and do your very best to listen to those promptings when they come, because if you ignore them, it may be awhile before the Lord sends you another.
I love all of you!
Love, Sister Reid
Hello everyone!
This one's going to be short, I'm afraid. It's been a tough week. Missions are hard, you know? But we did get to see Chris and Ken be baptized last night. It was a good upliftment. Also, I got to go to the temple on Friday. It was exactly what I needed. A little eternal perspective really helps.
We spent Friday afternoon in Colusa, teaching a couple of people that the branch asked us to meet, after we moved out, of course... :) The one that's the most exciting is a lady named Juanita Roberts. She's 85 and totally golden. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration with her, and then invited her to be baptized and she said yes. So hopefully, everything goes really well with her, and she'll be baptized on July 31st!
That's pretty much all I have time for. I'm super sorry. It'll be longer next week. If you want more details, you should write, and then I'll write back! LOL.
Love, Sister Reid
Dear family,
I hope that you've all had a great week! Ours here was pretty good! We picked up two new investigators and set 3 new baptismal dates! It was a good week, filled with some pretty cool stories, so strap in!
The week started kind of slow... On Tuesday night we got to go to the relief society activity for the month. They had a Summer Salad Social, and there were a ton of the ward and less actives and non-members there. It was really cool to go and meet everyone. I felt a little bit like a politician as I circulated through everyone, like I was "working the room" hahaha. But it was great because we got to meet a bunch of the less actives and some of the sister's non member friends. No real interest in taking the lessons yet, but we'll work on them. :)
Wednesday was a REALLY hard day. We had no scheduled lessons, so we basically just knocked on doors ALL day. We had no success and it was VERY discouraging. I was having a really hard day that day, so at about 4:00, I decided that we were going to do something else. So we found some shade (have I mentioned that it's in the 90's most days now, and this week it will get over 100?) and started "randomly" calling less actives and former investigators to see if we might be able to set up any appointments for either that night or later in the week. We got a few takers. One of them being a former investigator named Erica. The Elders stopped meeting with her over a year ago because Erica and her family were always too busy to meet or to come to church. We set up an appointment for the next day. Thursday we met with her and one of the first things she told us was that she's been having a really hard time lately and yesterday she had told her mom, who is living with her, that she missed the missionaries, and if they would come back, she would listen better. And we called two hours after that!!! How cool is that!!! We talked about adversity and why life has to be so hard. We talked about the Book of Mormon and told her we'd come back on Saturday. When we did, we talked about the Doctrine of Christ from 3 Nephi 11, and talked a lot about baptism. She and her 9 year old daughter were both very into it, and we committed them both to be baptized on July 17th, and they said YES!!! It was so cool. The spirit was definately there, and I'm so excited to be able to continue teaching them. :)
We've also been able to get into several of the less active's homes this week. It's been fun to teach new people. When I was first transferred here, I missed the people of Colusa a lot, but as I've started to embrace the ward, they've opened up and embraced us. Yesterday, when they passed the dinner calendar around, we found out that the entire months of June and July have already been filled. The ward is excited to have us here, and they're excited to help us do the work! It's a different feeling from before, and I'm glad to be here.
This upcoming week should be pretty cool. We have a bunch of appointments scheduled already and two baptisms on Sunday. YAY!!! Chris, who I told you about already, and Ken, who we met for the first time last night. He's a single dad who's son was baptized in December. He's a super cool guy, and has a very strong testimony of the gospel! It's so cool that he gets to get baptized. Also, I get to go to the temple on Friday!!! I'm so excited. I haven't been since December, and I never realized how much strength I drew from temple attendance before my mission. It's been eye opening to find out exactly how fast I've lost sight of the eternal perspective, which we gain from going to the temple. So I'm really excited to go, and plus, I found out that Sister Barfuss is going on the same day, in the same session, so I'll get to see her again, which i can hardly wait for! I love that girl!!! Then, on Friday afternoon and night, we'll be working in Colusa, teaching some of the investigators and less actives there, which will be really good! This week is going to be really good. :)
I love you all and I love my mission. I can't wait to hear how you're all doing!
Love, Sister Reid
Dear friends and family,
I hope that everything has been great with all of you this last week. Things here have been CRAZY! I think I told you all last week that I was being "shotgunned" to a new area and that I am also training. So first things are first... My new companion's name is Sister Hurtado. She's from Peru and she speaks very little English. She learned everything she knows about the language at the MTC... So it's been an interesting week. lol. She's a convert of about 4 years. She's 22 years old. She has 3 siblings. She's the 2nd oldest. Her mom, and two younger siblings are members, but her dad and older sister are not. Her family was not very supportive of her coming on her mission at first, but they warmed up to the idea, and now she's here! It's going to be a challenge for us, as we learn to communicate and to teach together.
Next up: The ward. We're serving in the Feather River ward. We're still in the Yuba City Stake, mostly because President asked that I keep my eyes on Colusa still, which I'm grateful for. He's given permission for us to spend 3 or 4 days a month in Colusa, teaching the investigators and less actives that we've been working with. Colusa is about 45 minutes away from where we're serving now. The ward we're in is part of down-town Yuba City (population about 65,000). It's so nice to be around people again! And the ward is amazing. The Ward Mission Leader is excited to have us here and so is everyone else in the ward. At first, I was very overwhelmed by the substantial learning curve -- I know NOTHING about the investigators, less actives, ward leadership, and the area. Bless their hearts, but the elders who were serving here before us did not do a very good job keeping accurate records, so I was not given a whole lot of information. And I've learned a lot about what an Elder considers a "clean" apartment.... hahahaha. But we've been so busy trying to catch up and learn everything and meet everyone that this morning was the first opportunity we had to clean. And I still haven't completely unpacked.
A lot of the lessons we've taught this week have been mostly just introducing ourselves and assesing the needs of the investigators and less actives. The elders left us with two progressing investigators, and we set baptismal dates with both of them this week. Chris is the first. And he's interesting. :) A couple months ago, the stake had a Mormon Helping Hands service project, and one of the homes that we worked on was Chris's. There's no other way to describe him than to be blunt, so here it is: He's gay. Really. A lot. But he's read the Book of Mormon, and come to church every week since the service project. He knows that the lifestyle he's been leading is wrong, and when he was interviewed by the Mission President, he committed to living a heterosexual lifestyle. Now he calls himself a "non-practicing gay man" with the idea that eventually, the spirit and Heavenly Father, will help him to change completely. President Pendleton gave us the okay, and so we set his date for the 26th of this month. The other progressing investigator is Ken. He has a 10 year old son that started coming to scouts with one of his friends. The son, Tanner, got baptized a few weeks ago. Ken has been a little slower in accepting the gospel, but this week, when we met with him, he said he wanted to be baptized, so he's getting baptized the same time as Chris. The 26th is going to be a fun night!
That's pretty much it for this week. I'm looking forward to the learning experiences that I will be having with my companion this transfer and to the new people I'll get to know and love in the Feather River ward. I'm grateful for all of your prayers. I've really felt them this week as I've knelt in prayer myself. Prayer has really been the only thing that's gotten me through this first week, and it's what I'll continue to rely on as I work hard to get to know my new area and my new companion. I pray for all of you every day; for your health, your success, and for you to have happiness in your lives. I love you all so much. I know I couldn't do this without your support. So thanks, and I'll talk to you next week. :)
Love, Sister Reid
