Christmas is for......everyone

So, initially, I thought this e-mail was going to be super quick, very
spiritual with the thoughts of Christmas and our Lord and
Savior.....and then I realized I didn´t tell you the stories I had
planned on telling you. So, this will be slightly longer, funnier, and
normal.

But first things first, Mom/Dad/my family. Could you please apologize
to Brenton and Summer. They tried skyping me when I was online last
night and I quickly rejected their request. Not that I don´t love them
( <3 you Brenton, Summer and children!) I just wanted to talk to you
guys more...and we had to leave, so, yeah. But randomly, I do have a
question for Summer. Is she related to any Huish´s that live in
Arizona? Because we had a mini missionary for a while and she looked
mildly similar to Summer....I think. I had that thought the other day.
But really it´s not important.

And second, as for the testimonies, I would like at least one from
each of you, and then if you could find converts (preferably recent)
of a young single adult, a young family, and an older family that
would be great. Especially with the converts if they could share their
testimony on how the Book of Mormon has changed their lives, I think
that would be really special and help a lot of people here in Buenos
Aires. But really, anything is wonderful! Thank you so much.

Okay, stories, muaha, get excited. Okay, so last monday we went to go
make goodies, sing christmas songs and play futbol for p-day
(well...the elders played, the hermanas made goodies), which means I
got to make my toffee and fudge (toffee turned out weird, the sugar
here is super crystallized ginormo chunks). But it´s okay because
elders eat anything with sugar and all the elders not from the united
states had never even heard of it before. And it came to pass that all
hailed Hermana Reed for her christmas goody skills. Which was weird.
Hermana Bray made gingersnaps, they hailed her too. One funny story
from that is that to make gingersnaps you need molasses, right? Right!
And our fearless district Leader, Elder Leon from Chile, was super
excited and was helping us unpack our stuff, saw this molasses, asked
"what is this?" and before anyone could stop him, took a swipe with
his finger and put it in his mouth. Now, I don´t know if any of you
have tried pure molasses....but it´s not tasty. The look on his face
was priceless.

But wait, there´s more. So, I had made the fudge, which needs time in
the freezer to chill/set. So we went to go sing some christmas carols,
and afterwards I was talking with the zone leaders for a bit, so we
were late coming back in to the kitchen to get our supplies. As we
were walking, Hermana Bray comments "I am still hungry" to which I
reply, "well, it´s a good thing we still have the fudge then.." pan in
to the kitchen where we walk in and see Elder Leon and Elder Halls
digging in to the fudge with spoons, rapidly eating as much as they
could. And when they see us walk in Elder Halls drops his spoon like
it burned him and bolts to he corner as if he hadn´t even been near
the fudge. Leaving poor Elder Leon standing there with a huge glob of
fudge on his spoon and this look of guilt. It was the ultimate
hand-in-the-cookie-jar moment. And I laughed so hard, I nearly fell to
the floor. It was hilarious. And the Elders tried to play it off all
cool, oh wait, I mean, they hurriedly started blaming each other and
explaining what had happened. That they were horsing around and one of
them had knocked into the fridge, making the door swing open when they
saw the fudge (which they call food-hey, pronunciation is hard).
Thinking they would take "just one bite" and then smooth it over to
make it seem as if nothing had happened, they ate like half the fudge.
I love elders. So funny.

Story 2 - we went to the Mourtisens family for Christmas Eve to have
dinner and do the nativity. It was really good. We actually did an
Argentine Christmas dinner with an asada. So delicious. And then
afterwards we did the nativity. It was a really good experience, and
my favorite line came when the wise men were bringing the gifts to
baby Jesus. They needed something to be a gift so they looked around
and found this trivia board game. "And it came to pass that the wise
men brought gold, frankensense, and a board game to the baby child.
But it´s okay, because no one really understands this game so it
really is like myrr." So funny, so special. I love acting out the
nativities.

And then, I learned the history of showing someone the middle finger.
Apparently in the middle ages it was custom, when a long range archer
was captured to cut off their middle finger. Because to draw back the
arrow you need your third finger. And so in a taunt, the archers would
show the enemy that they were still capable of shooting them, by
showing them their middle finger. How´s that for random trivia. I
actually learned that from my companion. Thank you companion. I don´t
remember how we got on that subject. But, there you go.

Anyways, those are my stories. kind of random, but it´s Christmas. I
did have a wonderful Christmas. we have solidified the baptism of
Carlos, he will be getting baptized the 5th of January. And we set a
date - ish for the baptism of Daniel....in April. With him we´re
teaching him, and he received a solid answer that the book of mormon
is true, and wants to get baptized, he´s just leaving for three months
to go back to Peru. And wants to be here in Argentina when he gets
baptized. But he´s going to look up the missionaries in Peru when he
is there with his mom, and he´s going to go to church here too. So
that, is a miracle. The other miracle came when we were explaining
about Joseph smith and then he just whipped out his google phone to
look up the mormon tabernacle choir (i forget how we got on that
tangent...but we did) and then he found the restauracion on his
phone....so we watched it. Thank you internet.

Anyways, Christmas is a wonderful time of year. Full of love and the
spirit of giving. And really there are angels around us, protecting us
and helping us move forward. Keep looking for them, because they are
there.

I love you all. Merry Christmas, happy New Year!

Hermana Reed

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Happy new Year! It´s going to be a white christmas!
We´re working miracles here people. Here´s the story:

First, we had the capilla abierta this week. The capilla abierta is
when we invite anyone and everyone to learn the basics of the church
and listen to the Crista (?) the word of christ while looking at the
statue that´s in almost every visiting center? That one. And then we
go into the cultural hall and we have some cool posters to show, and
it´s like a tour. And the Hermanas are the tour guides. Well, to prep
for this, all the Hermanas went to a training Tuesday in the morning
in the Area offices. Well....we thought it was a training, turns out
we actually practiced doing the tours to all the people who worked in
the Area Offices (luckily not the Area Presidency, that would have
been stressful!) Which was cool because there are a bunch of people
from Nunez that work there, so I got to see them again.

And then the capilla abierta was Friday. But before that, we had a
training meeting for all of the trainers in San Fernando. So, at 9 in
the morning we all bustle on the train to go to the meeting. And what
to our luck, someone jumps in front of the train. So everyone has to
get off....the only problem is, it´s about a 6 ft jump to the ground.
Luckily, there were also Elders on the train to help us Hermanas in
skirts get down modestly. Yes there was male/female touching, but it
wasn´t inappropriate, and I would much rather have an Elder grab me
around the waist to help me off a train then a random stranger. Even
still, it was weird. But, the story gets better, so we start walking
to the next train station (which looking back I don´t know why we did
that, the train was still there blocking the path of any other on
going train). Regardless, apparently we were all shell shocked so we
didn´t think about it, and we start walking to the next train station.
We get there just in time to see our original train pull up.....except
we´re on the wrong side. So all the Elders start running for the other
side, us Hermanas are behind...in skirts....so of course we start
running to make it too. The Elders got there and started yelling
"Espere! Espere!" until all the Hermanas made it on. Aren´t Elders
just great? They really do take care of the Hermanas. And with all
that adventure we still only arrived 10 minutes late to being 30
minutes early. President Gulbrandsen still baja´ed the cañe because we
have to be there early, everytime. Oh well. Love the adventure.

So, went to the training, left the training early to go set up for the
capilla abierta. Took the train (risky we know) to the nearest station
when....it starts to rain. Needless to say, we showed up to the church
a little wet, but we had prayed to at least look presentable and we
did. Started the capilla abierta, all is well. But there weren´t
throngs of people there so every companionship that wasn´t giving
tours was out on the street contacting and inviting people in. It was
fun. We had a couple of Elders from our district come and help us out
too. All in all, good clean fun.

And afterwards there was the Ward Dinner and we got to eat Papa lajuan
kaina. I love Peruvian food!

Then there was Sunday. We had another searching for people moment,
didn´t think we would get anyone to church. But in the end we ended up
having 5 investigators in church. One of which was a miracle.
Graciela, whom we had invited to church 2 minutes before starting last
week, came to church all on her own. Literally, because we hadn´t been
able to contact her at all this week. Tiny miracles for working so
hard every day. I love it .

In the end, I have a huge testimony that this season really is a time
of miracles. God is watching over us and he knows of our efforts and
what we truly desire. I´m so grateful to be a part of this work. And
it would be really cool, to hear from you guys, some of your Christmas
miracles that you have seen or been a part of. That would be a great
Christmas present.

I love you all so much! Remember, Christ was born, and Christ Lives.
And Because of him we have the opportunity to live a truly meaningful
and wonderful life.

Hermana Reed

Wonder of Wonder, Miracles of Miracles...

Sometimes I get so trunky. First things first. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I am so excited. If anyone is thinking of being super nice and wants to send me a package with some Christmas CDs I would probably love you forever. I know that is random, but I just realized I do not have any,and that is just not acceptable. I know I will not get it until next year or something, but I can make up for lost time. And really, I am not anti christmas music just because it is not the season.

Second, super sorry about last week. I had pure intentions to return and finish my e-mail after soccer with our district, but then it got late, and we have a 45 minute collectivo ride, so it didn´t end up happening. I will make it up to you guys in this e-mail, because we have plenty of time!

Third, I would like to give a hearty congratulations to Daniel Roylance for tying the knot this year. That really is heartfelt. And I would now like to give a hearty guffaw to Uncle Milton who always wanted me to marry him. I. Told. You. That is all I am going to say to uncle milton. There were actually a lot of people who wanted me to marry Daniel, looks like God had other plans. And that was probably very pecador-ish of me, so sorry Uncle Milton. But I can say it because I am in Argentina and a missionary. What are you going to do? Pray for me. And obviously I am not sorry enough about this because if I was, I would erase this paragraph, but look, you are still reading it. Tangent, felicitaciones to Tyson who is also engaged. Sorry, but I won´t be able to make it to either of your weddings.

Four: for every person who will be traveling this season, please remember:
Tis the season to be slow,
Not go dashing through the snow,
If you dont, well then, ya know
Youll be second hand smoked fo sho!

(editor's note: this is an inside joke from one of our many roadtrips between utah and colorado. in wyoming, there was an anti-second hand smoke campaign with billboards along the highway where they would use the words 'second hand smoke' in place of 'dead'. ex: ding dong the witch is second hand smoked. or who second hand smoked and made you king? while driving to colorado on a particularly snowy trip, carlee came up with this rhyme in reference to a particularly speedy driver who passed us up. hope you enjoyed it.)

Okay, I am pretty sure I just got out all of my Christmas trunkyness. There are a very limited amount of people who will fully understand how incredibly funny that poem is. Just...I don´t know, memorize it and think of me when you are traveling, for those of you that don´t understand it.

So! Training. It´s super fun. super glad I get to do it again. It´s a little bit harder this time around. Just because she has less spanish training, and isn´t super confident in her desires to push herself and share her testimony in broken spanish. Which means I have to be the momma bear and push her into doing things that she doesn´t want to do. I feel like every transfer I´m being more and more prepared to be a mom. I also appreciate every mother more. Did I tell you she´s from Vegas? Well, she´s from Vegas. She lives about 10 minutes from the temple, not a fan of the strip, worked before coming on the mission at Carmax, playing with numbers. And she knows a lot more about the different types of models of cars then I do. But it´s okay, because at least I know how to change the oil in cars. She actually does do really well, her spanish is fine, she just lacks confidence. Confidence in who she is, in being a missionary, in speaking spanish,in being social.

Brings back a lot of memories really, and has helped me seen how much I have grown as a missionary. In my personal testimony, in my personal confidence, and in my trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because I´ve learned how to put myself on the back burner. For instance, it doesn´t matter that I don´t know them, that I don´t know their needs, that I don´t know what to say to them, I know that each person on the street is a precious child of God who will not enter the Kingdom of God without being baptized by someone who holds the authority of God. Si o Si, they cannot enter the Celestial Kingdom without this key. So I will talk to them and invite them to know this knowledge for themselves. Because, it´s not about me. We´re on this Earth to help other make it to the same place we all want to go. If we remember that, why wouldn´t we open our mouths and invite our friends to church? Talk to the woman on the bus that looks like she´s about to cry? Or to the security guard who hasn´t seen his family in two years because he had to move to a different country to find a job? Don´t they deserve the happiness that we have too? ´Tis the season.

Sorry, didn´t mean to baja the cañe there. Want to hear about some amazing experiences that I´ve had with my newbie power? I love it. So last week, it´s Sunday. I have made it a goal this transfer to not go to church a single week without having at least one investigator with me. So even when we have plans to call some of them, or have members bring them (build friendships), the plan is to be out on the street at least an hour before church and bring someone in. So, last week we went to look for our investigators Roxanna and Jonotan. We go to their house, ring the bell, call them on the phone. No one answers. We had prayed the night before on who we needed to look for this morning and we were positive there was a reason we were there. But they weren´t...so what do we do? Well, we started praying, and in the middle of my prayer the name Adrian pops into my mind. And it wasn´t like "hey, what about that one antiguo investigador Adrian?" it was like "HELLO!! WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE GO GET ADRIAN!" I hope the caps on that crystallized how strongly the prompting was. So, we go to Adrians house. Knock on the door..... no answer. Now, I´m mildly confused at this point because the prompting was strong. pero, nada. He doesn´t answer. It´s 10 minutes before church and we´re about 9 minutes away so we have to go. And I´m crushed. So we get to church, sit down, and about half way through sacrament meeting, guess who walks in the door. ADRIAN! I´m not even going to give you time to guess. Yeah, he did. I have no idea why. Because we hadn´t spoken with him all week, but he was there. And afterwards he stayed. And I nearly cried. A tear may have leaked, because we were trying so hard, and in the end, it really isn´t about my efforts anyways, it´s all about what the Lord wants, and we just have to show our faith. And I did. I received the prompting and I went. And we haven´t been able to get a hold of Adrian since, but it´s okay, the church is still true and God still loves me.

Story numero dos: Also happened this sunday, so we go out looking for investigators again. As we´re walking to the parada we receive a phone call from our awesome Testigo de Jehova investigator (Have I told you about him? He doesn´t feel the love of God in his congregation, so he´s searching for the church that has it, and is super pumped to get baptized January 1st? yeah, him) Apparently, his friend got killed by robbers the night before so he wasn´t going to make it to church today. Which, really, what do you say to that? I asked him if there was anything we could do to help. But anyways, so he wasn´t coming to church, at least he called us. The other investigator had called us the night before and specifically said that he didn´t want us coming to his house to walk together...okay. So we go out for another family. Reach their house, and they don´t answer. What is this curse upon me?? ("Honey, that´s called Satan." "Oooooh. Now I see." Sorry, Random). So, with 45 minutes until church starts we literally start talking and inviting people on the street to go to church with us. They all said no. But we got a few good contacts in. I think there´s an aethiest now who will atleast give our pamphlet to someone prepared to receive the Gospel. Whatever, not important. Okay, so again, 2 minutes before church starts and we don´t have anyone. So I¨m getting out the phone, going to call our investigator who said he would meet us at the church to confirm, I almost press send when this woman comes up to talk to us. "Are you missionaries?" I LOVE that question. Yes ma´am we are. Anyways, so we talk to her for like two minutes and then we invite her to come to church with us. Miracle of Miracles, she says yes! God LOVES me. And As I was super willing to put forth my efforts into this work, He has blessed me un montón. Lots? I don´t know. It sounds weird in English now.

Story Tres: So, in a lot of our Capacitaciones with President Gulbrandsen we have been talking about how the Lord is sending angels to prepare the people in our areas. And we need to really focus on finding the people who are prepared. But there are angels out there, and the people will recognize the voice of Christ if we but open our mouths and let them hear it. Because we know that our message is of Christ (literally and spiritually...like the words of Christ and about Christ..whatever, you know what I mean). Anyways, so we´ve been focusing in on that and being prepared to receive the promptings to go to the people God has prepared. So, we´ve received over 30 references of people we need to go contact lately, and it is my goal to actually contact them all (harder then it sounds, don´t judge). So we had this one contact, he is a security guard ( by the way, I love all the security guards here. They are all from Peru, and all super prepared, and they all accept baptismal dates. The only downside is that they don´t live in Vicinte Lopez. Pucha!) So we go to contact Daniel. It´s about 8:30 at night so we have to be very efficient in our teachings to make it back to the pension in time. We go up and make the contact, it turns out his name IS Daniel, but he´s not the Daniel that we were looking for. But who´s going to drop an opportunity to preach the word of God? NOT ME! (I know, look at that change) So we start talking to him, and tell him that we are missionaries and about our message of Jesus Christ and how through a boy named Joseph Smith the church of Jesus Christ was restored on the earth once again, with prophets and apostoles y todo, and we just got really bold with him. We started saying, and we are going to teach you everything that you need to know to make it back to live with your wife again (his wife had died two years ago). And as we teach you, you will feel the desires to make these changes in your life, so will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds the authority of God? And he said yes! so we said, perfect. We wrote down his address, found out he lives in the area of our zone leaders, so we told him that the Elders there were going to teach him, and that they were preparing a baptismal service for January 1st, will you prepare yourself to be baptized that day? And he said yes!

And then we had to go. But it is true, God is preparing people in our areas. Now I just have to start praying more specifically to find the people that God has prepared that live in my area (I´m willing to teach other missionaries areas, but I would like to find some in my area too).

Anyways, it´s just another testimony that all the promises that are in Predicad Mi Evangelio are the truth. God is preparing people to receive His gospel and he will lead them to us or us to them. We just have to be willing to do our part. Oh, did I mention that we didn´t find Daniel until 8:30 at night, after 4 hours of trying to contact people? Yeah, we´re putting in our effort to find. Pray for us please that we find the people who are prepared to receive the Gospel, and that we will say the words so that they can recognize the voice of the Lord! Thanks!

All in all, it has been a great week. Full of adventures, and good spiritual discussions (that was the Capacitacion). God sure does love everyone of His children.

Thank you for all of your love. I hope this e-mail made up for the lack of one last week. MERRY CHRISTMAS! HoHoHo

Oh, P.S. Get stoked for next weeks e-mail, because this week we´re doing a Capilla Abierta, or Open Chapel(?) where we invite everyone off the street to come into the church for a brief presentation. And us Hermanas are incharge. I´m excited for the adventure.

Besos to all the females, a nice hearty handshake to the males. Got to stick with the mission rules =)

Hermana Reed

Antes de morir. VIVE

Siempre me siento feliz, sabes porque? Porque no espero nada de nadie, esperar siempre duele. Los problemas no son eternos, siempre tienan solucion, lo unico que no se resuelve es la muerte. La vida es corta, por eso, amala, se feliz y siempre sonrie, solo vive intensamente. Antes de hablar, escucha, antes de herir, siente, antes de rendirte, intenta. antes de morir. VIVE.

este cita es de William Shakespear, y no, no yo traduje. Estuvo en un locutorio donde fuimos para hacer llamadas. Pero me gusto. hay mas importante cosas en nuestras vidas que preocuparnos sobre las cosas del mundo. tenemos amigos y familia y tenemos la abilidad para ser feliz para siempre. y nosotros tenemos el conocimiento sobre lo que tenemos que hacer para regresar y vivir con Dios despues de esta vida. podemos hacerlo. Vamos a hacerlo. sigan adelante. La iglesia es verdadera. Yo estaba en la despedida de Hna Jones ayer, y escuchamos el testimonio de Hna Gulbrandsen. y, su español no es muy bueno, pero todavia, cada persona en la salon sacramental pudieron sentir de su sinceridad y de la verdad en sus palabras. y eso me gusta mas que nada. el espiritu santo habla cada idioma, porque habla la idioma mas important. La verdad. y cuando preguntamos a Dios para saber la verdad, vamos a recibirlo. Dios nos ama un monton. Y tenemos que recordarlo cada dia.

If anyone was wondering how my spanish is coming along.....I hope I have crystallized it for you. It is not a challenge anymore. Anyways! Want to hear some great news! I´m going to train again! I know right, duh, Hna, you are training Hna Sperry, and it is a 12 week program. But wait! Pte Gulbrandsen is giving me a NEW companion to train. I am just so special. I have no idea how it came to be, but it is so. It is actually great, because I will still be in Vicinte Lopez, but now there are going to be two companionships of Hermanas, which means we are going to work miracles! I love training. it is like a power play, because the new missionaries have no idea what is going on and can just focus on receiving revelation for our investigators. LOVE IT!

So, the coolest thing that happened this week is that we found a family to teach. They were a reference from the CCM missionaries here in Buenos Aires. and they actually were golden, just like they told us. We knocked on the door and they let us in right away! It was almost shocking, but we handled it coolly. we taught them lesson 1 and they actually came to church on sunday. I love it. They are going to get baptized for sure.

And then Sunday, we had the despidida. Hna Jones se fue. She is now back in the states and loving it (i am sure). Also, Elder Johnson, our district leader went home. He told us he was so nervous he hadn´t eaten anything in 2 days. Poor kid. we were talking to him earlier and he said that the biggist change on his mission is that now he is not scared to talk to people....which is true. I could totally see him being the shy, not talk to anyone type before the mission. but now it is not a problem. we just grow up so fast on the mission.

And then sunday night I heard the news that I was training again. Which was shocking, because I was expecting a phone call, but nice because I dont have as much time to worry about things. Currently I am in El Talar with Hermana Olsen (she will be training too) and it is very campo. We just passed by a couple of buggies being drawn by horses. I am super excited to be hear. But it is also hot and humid. I am starting to sweat like crazy. But I kind of like it too. mucho mejor que el frio. But! Hermana Whitehead is in el sur! Sorry, I know that was random, but she is. and I miss her, because now we will not be able to see each other at training meetings, and that makes me sad. But she is super stoked to be going south for the summer, sad because she spent 7 months in tigre and now will be spending christmas with strangers. but she is a trooper so I am not to worried.

Anyways, things to do, ways to prepare. But I am glad you all had a fabulous thanksgiving. To be truthful, I completely forgot about it. We were making phonecalls thursday and were calling all the american families and no one picked up. I couldn´t for the life of me figure out why until my companion reminded me that all americans are celebrating turkey day. my bad. I got lost in the work. But thank you for thinking of me and all the other missionaries.

Keep doing good and being good. The Lord is blessing all of us every day with miracles. And we can see them if we are searching.

Hermana Reed

Picture Update

Jean Pool testing out the font.


Hermana Reed and Hermana Gonzalez.


Chilling in the hallway with District Leader Elder Johnson, Lucas, Hermanas Sperry, Gonzalez and Reed.


Baptism Photo! Hermana Reed, Jean Pool, Lucas, Hermana Sperry.

Por Fin...

It happened! It finally happened! Jean Pool got baptized. It was a crazy week, mildly inefficient, but he got baptized. I´m so excited! This week has been so crazy. So one thing that you have to do is have daily contact with your investigators right? And Jean Pool doesn´t have a cell phone which meant going and visiting him every day. Which was super time consuming because he lives on one polar side of our area. And our area is huge. And of course all of our references were in the opposite side of the area. Love that. But the good news is, he got baptized, and this sunday he got confirmed! I´m so happy for him. His family really is great. And they are slowly but surely progressing too. His dad is reading in the Book of Mormon, and his sister Noelia is reading, and we had a lesson this week and she just blurted out I want to get baptized! Which totally made my night. And overall, this week was exhausting.

Well, that was the highlight. Other fun stories include - we had a training this week. All the Hermanas were invited so I got to see Hermana Whitehead and Hermana Gonzalez! We were mildly distracted during lunch, it´s a good thing we didn´t have spirtual homework to be working on during that time, because we were so not practicing. To be fair we were talking about our areas, but it was more with the spirit of laughter and good cheer than the spirit of reverence and revelation receiving. Maybe there was a bit of both. But the super fun part of this training is that the Buenos Aires North Mission is going to be a draft mission for this new program called Capillas Abiertas. It´s this program that got started in Mexico, where there is a small program in the chapel, followed by a guided tour by the missionaries. And there are posters and explanations, and then at the end there´s a table to write out references. It worked really well in Mexico, they had on average over 400 people show up, most of which were not members. And the sister missionaries are the ones that will head up the touring and the program. Probably because we´re more pretty than the Elders. The Elders are in charge of inviting people in to the capilla. Anyways, so that´s something that´s going to be starting up soon. I´m excited to be a part of it and see how it changes finding people in Buenos Aires.

And! This week we had interviews with the President. Which was super fun in that we received all of our pedidos (finally), we have been out of the Restauracion folleto for nearly all of this transfer. The only close call was that the President nearly skipped me being interviewed. He was super stressed out, so it´s not that big of a deal. Just kind of funny. I never really know what to expect or what I should do in the interviews. They are like Personal Priesthood Interviews, right? Well, regardless, it was short, but spiritually uplifting. I came out of it very edified. So that was good.

Sorry this e-mail is so random. We didn´t find a whole lot of people this week because we did have a lot of trainings, and we focused a lot on Jean Pool: We did find this new family. A mom and her son, they are reading in the Book of Mormon, and praying, and are super humble. They want to learn more and are willing to make changes in their lives. We just have to make sure that they understand what knowing that the Book of Mormon is true means.

One fun story before I jet. So, we´ve been contacting all of those references from the CCM, right? and this one contact was "de oro!" So we go to contact "Juan" and it ends up being a woman named Florence, who´s Buddhist. Super funny, because we´re trying to contact her and share our message with her and she keeps saying "Como? What?" and finally she just started chewing us out. "Look, I´m from Argentina, I speak Castallano, I don´t know where you are from but you need to go back to your country, because I can´t understand a word you are saying." And I know I was speaking spanish, so she really can´t say anything. The good news is I was able to hold in my laughter until after she closed the window on us. She may have told us to go back to the united states like 3 times. I can´t remember. But it was funny.

Anyways, I hope you are all doing well. I pray for you often. The church is true! I know it, con todo de me corazon!

Love you,

Hermana Reed

.....It´s just hard,

to fully explain just exactly how I´m feeling right now. I´ve got about a billion emotions going on, one of which is that I don´t want the mission to end. Pretty much ever. Now, I know I really don´t have anything to worry about because I´m not even half way done with my mission, but I´m just starting to get really good at what I´m doing. And that´s usually when the Lord decides to tell me it´s time to change. Because as far as the record shows, when I get comfortable, He decides to push me a bit more. Not that I´m done learning here in Vicinte Lopez, but, I´ve pretty much shot up in the air my ability to do things. And I´ve just got this feeling...and since I´m a touchy feely express my emotions type of person, I felt the need to share that with you. Is anyone getting married in my family and just hasn´t told me about it? Because if that´s the change I want to know now! Tell all secrets to the missionaries, who are they going to tell? Well, you´ll at least have a week before I can tell anyone. hehe, I love secrets.

Anyways, this week has been crazy exciting. First off, we received 40 let´s say that again 40 references this week. As in, 40 people that we need to contact within 24 hours of receiving said references.....it didn´t actually happen. But we did try. What happened is this, so the CCM is in Buenos Aires, or atleast there is one here. And every Saturday the missionaries get the opportunity to go out and practice their contacting and teaching skills in real life. Which is great. So, the missionaries are taken to different areas, given limits (usually about a 6 block by 6 block area, ish) and then told to contact all day. And it´s literally all day, like 10 - 6. And all their contacts and lessons are referred to the missionaries in the area. Well, we´ve had the CCM missionaries in our area like 3 times now, so we´ve received a ton of references from them. Now it´s our job to go through all the references and see which ones actually have a desire to learn more. It´s actually kind of funny because a lot of the reports say "This person is way interested" or "Golden Investigator" and then we go to contact the person and they respond "I told those missionaries that I wanted nothing to do with your church!" Oh to be young and full of joyful faith. Hehe, mostly it just means these contacts are going to be way fun. ´We´ve already contacted a few, which makes for a mildly boring day. But we do have one family who is "animated" to listen. I look forward to our meeting next week.

Other news! We had a super fun week with one of our investigators Jean Pool. He is 16 years old and had a baptismal date for this weekend. He had his baptismal interview this Wednesday and I was so scared that he wasn´t going to show (I don´t know if I mentioned this before, but the previous weeks we had planned 3 interviews and none of them showed up, we made Elder Johnson late getting home pretty much all three times). So, we go to his house before, and he´s not there. So we´re running around, talking to all of his friends to ask where he is, when we get a phone call from Jean Pool. "Where are you at?!" "I´m at my house." "You are not! I was just there." "Well, I´m there now...." ...whatever. So we go back, he had been next door the whole time. Ugh. But we got there, and he told us that he almost didn´t go because of the rain. Seriously?? The rain? But we go to the church where Elder Johnson (district leader) is waiting for us, when I realize, there aren´t any men there to be with Elder Cortes (companion) during the interview, because for some unexplained reason, they are not having Young Men´s that night.

But what is important is that there is a soul to save. So, Jean Pool and Elder Johnson start the interview, about 10 minutes later, Elder Johnson comes out and says, we have a problem with question 4, and leaves to call the President. Question 4 asks if they´ve done a serious crime or participated in an abortion, so I´m sitting there thinking, oh crap, what did he do? Turns out he stole a soccer ball from his friend once, used it, then gave it back. This kid nearly gave me a heart attack. The good news is, he passed the interview! Score!

So, we´re getting ready for the baptism, he´s going to be baptized Saturday, at 6, we´re calling everyone. It´s been almost 4 months (?) since their last baptism, and we are all ready for everything. So we go to find Jean Pool (this is probably overly cautious but it´s also my first baptism as senior companion), and when we get there, first Jean Pool tells us he doesn´t want to get baptized because there´s a soccer game at 6. ugh. But then we get to the real problem, and he´s not feeling prepared, doubts, dudas, bleagh. We are there talking with him for 2 hours. And in the end, he didn´t get baptized. BUt we reset his baptismal date for next Saturday, and set appointments to talk to him everyday to help him feel more comfortable. We didn´t even make it to the church.

But the fun part comes Sunday morning. So, Jean Pool and his sister say they are going to go to church. We´ve asked our ward mission leader to go and pick him up and get him to go, but Ward mission leader shows up to church sin Jean Pool. What?? well, we have to take the sacrament, so we do, but after the meeting we ask one of the sisters to drive us over to Jean Pool, in church late is better then no church at all. So we get to his house, knock on the door, and he peeks out the window. "I can´t leave, I don´t have keys." Seriously??? He had left his keys in his dad´s car, his dad isn´t home anymore. I´m sitting there like, Satan! You are driving me crazy! But it´s good, we Jean Pool to pray that someone will come home with keys so he can go to church. After the prayer we get the idea to go to Raul (other investigator) that lives in the same house, and ask to borrow his keys. So we tell Jean Pool, okay, get ready, we´re going to be back in 5 minutes with the keys. We run/drive get the keys, and glory of glories Jean Pool AND his friend are ready when we get back. He ends up going to church, and I´m doing a happy dance.

The point of this story is that I am a changed missionary. No one can say that I´m not trying to do all that is within my power to help these people make the sacred covenants with their Father in Heaven. I´m doing my part. And Heavenly Father loves me. Because we found keys. Oh the simple tender mercies of the Lord.

Anyways, long story, but it´s a good one. I hope you all enjoyed this miraculous tale of adventures. The Life and Times of Hermana Reed. That´s my novel.

Thank you all for your prayers, I´m glad to hear you all are excelling in your lives as well.

Here´s a scripture that I really enjoyed this week. Think about it - Juan 4:13 pretty sure, it talks about how when we are working hard and align ourselves with the will of God, we don´t have to worry about the small stuff. Well, Jesucristo actually says that his food is doing the will of God. Essentially, it´s a little different in spanish. But, what are we doing to align ourselves with the will of God. I´ve done a lot of thinking this week about how much I´ve changed in the short time I´ve been on the mission. I have a long way to go, but I¨m changing, and in reality, I´m loving it. I love who I am, even when I´m scared to do it sometimes. God really knows what is best for us, the experiences that we need.

Love you!

Hermana Reed

Bob is really angry...

I hope he doesn´t catch me. It´s so hard to run with this sombrero on my head.

Now, I know that seems random. But if anyone has guessed where this song came from BEFORE I give the answer. Let me know, and I´ll send you an Alfajor from Argentina. But be honest, I´m a missionary. It´s from VeggieTales. Do you remember that one episode, where the silly songs with Larry was when he did a ballad from ARGENTINA? I just remembered that this last week. And if you are wondering what I was thinking about to make me think about Veggie Tales I will tell you... I don´t remember. I think it just randomly popped in my head. Maybe it was the line that the little asparagus says afterwards "Hey mom, take a picture of me with the cucumber in authentic argentinian garb!" The things I think about. I can´t explain it.

Anyways, so this week.

This week has been full of miracles, and disappointments, but mostly miracles. We have been doing really well talking with people in the street and contacting references, trying to contact all of our investigators daily and pretty much doing a better job at being missionaries every day. Some days it´s harder than others, but overall I think we´re doing a good job.

The biggest disappointments came in the form of investigators falling through on their baptismal interviews. I think we've made Elder Johnson late like 3 times now. That´s our fault. We´re just sitting there hoping and praying that they will come last minute...and then it ends up being Elder Johnson and Elder Guichanao who end up getting into their pension last minute.

One baptismal interview that we wanted to have was an investigator named Jean Pool. He has 16 years and is the son of a friend who lives with Raul. Which is how we found him. He is very open to the gospel, just needs a little push to change his life and habits. He is actually really lonely. His dad leaves him alone all the time. Like yesterday, we went to go make him go to church, essentially, as in wake him up. And he had been up until 6 in the morning waiting for his dad to get home. But he came to church. Practically slept through sacrament meeting, but he was there. The good news is he´s found a good friend in the church. Lucas. Who´s helping him out. Lucas actually came with us to the church to wait for Pool to do his interview. He actually ran...because his mom told him to book it to the church we were waiting. He´s a good kid. He will be good for Pool tambien.

Anyways, we´re planning on having his baptism Tuesday, which will be better because then we can get his Dad to come. We´re not sure yet how we´re going to do it. But we will. We´re working a lot on faith this week. Because we need to have a lot of help from Heavenly Father. I think that is something that I´ve learned the most this week. That a lot of people are really sad and lonely, and you can literally see it in their eyes, and really the only thing that is going to help is the Evangelio, and a new family ward! It was crazy, so we were teaching Pool in the church yesterday and the ward Secretary, comes up and starts talking with us, and was all gung-ho about the church and the blessings, and was bearing his testimony, and you could see the words go directly into the heart of Pool. Because Hermano Devari was doing all of it in a very loving manner. And you could see Pool respond to the love of a different person, someone who cared enough about him to tell him he needs to change for the better. And then Hermano Devari got him to try on some baptismal clothes! Yes! We have pictures to prove it. He´s even in the baptismal font. It was a great experience. And I loved being a part of it. Members are the key, they just do so much!

Okay, so training. Well, I think it´s going great. She hasn´t yelled at me, or started crying because I was yelling at her (I haven´t). And we´re pretty good at resolving differences in a mature and adultly manner. For which I am super grateful! We are working on finding balance in our teaching. She knows the language so she is just all for teaching and bearing testimony, and sometimes there isn´t a polite way to step in and kind of guide the lesson back to the basics. But I remember what that was like in the MTC, going off on more in-depth tangents of the Gospel because I wanted to answer their questions, when what is really important for them now - and in the end to help them reach exaltation - is to recognize the power in the basics - faith, prayer, the Book of Mormon.

Anyways, it´s going good. We´re getting a lot better at putting baptismal dates, we just need to get better at getting out investigators to the church on sundays so they keep them. Thank you for all of your help and guidance!

Hermana Reed

Good, Better, Best

Good thing: Celebrating Halloween,

Better Thing: Being on a mission,

Best Thing: Having a baptism.

I´m currently sitting in a better thing, missing the good thing, hoping for the best thing. We didn´t have a baptism this weekend, but we sure did try hard. One cool thing that happened, is that we have one of the best missionaries currently doing divisions with us. Hermana Gonzalez is from Chile and she is amazing. So amazing, that Presidente Gulbrandsen essentially called her as an AP to go around and work with all the Hermanas for a week and help them really reach their potential. Last week she was in Rio Gallegos, this week she is in Vicinte Lopez (with us) and next week, we have no idea where she will be. But with her, we had a power play, and this week was incredible. First we got to go pick her up from the airport that´s actually pretty close. And since then we have just been teaching, teaching, teaching. We actually had planning on Wednesday and so we looked through our old Area book to find any person who could get baptized this weekend. And then we prayed about the names and narrowed it down to 4 investigators. It was an incredible experience because we prayed specifically for each name, and really took the time to search for the answer. Paying attention to our thoughts and feelings. This week was a feeling week. And you know how I´m not much of a touchy feely kind of person? I think that may have been holding me back.... a lot. So, I´m open to change, and I´m trying to be more of a feely type of person. It´s kind of weird, but really awesome all at the same time. I also cry a lot more, but the tears help me de-stress so it´s okay. I know this because it happened Wednesday with the Hermana AP, love that. Anyways, so we have great plans. And we go to work, talking with our baptism for the week (Raul) and pretty much anyone else that was willing to listen.

Thursday we had a training with the President. It was incredible, we talked about the importance of working with the Spirit and working to be united with your companion. And essentially focusing in on the needs of your investigators. Which sometimes can be difficult to understand. But we practiced a bunch and we´re getting better. To be fair, we still are a bunch of relatively uneducated 19-24 year old kids, but we also have received this calling from God, which means, the people in Argentina can still know the truthfulness of our message. One thing I loved, was we talked about Luke 2:10, which talks about the one angel that went and proclaimed the tidings of great joy to the shepherds at the time of Christ´s birth. And we talked a bit about who wouldn´t want to be that one angel? I mean HELLO!!! Christ was born! He lived! He died for us! And ´He lives again! Well, the angel in Luke didn´t say that, but these are tidings of great joy. And guess what. I´M DOING THAT RIGHT NOW!! muahahaa, I´m so happy. The mission is great. Okay, so pretty much, after this week, I have completely changed my approach to missionary work. But, we´re happy, we know this! As missionaries we are telling every one to be happy, and that they can be happy! How cool is that? Pretty Rockin´ that´s how I feel.

After the training we go to visit two of our investigators, turns out they are not home, so we talk to the third roommate who is home, invite him to be baptized, he accepts. Love that. And then the miracles started coming. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we did divisions, which meant we were able to teach a lot more, and we had a member with us. And, we were talking with everyone. And I mean everyone. Want to hear our numbers for the week? Over 40 lessons and 18 new investigators. The people are ready to hear the message. Or, there are people ready to listen, we just have to find them. It was great.

And then there was Sunday, day of miracles. So, first, we wake up at 5 in the morning (blegh) to make breakfast for the investigators that are going to come to church. Meet up with a stellar member who was willing to do divisions with us, Hermana Sperry and Jessica went to Consejo del Barrio, Ward Counsel (? is that what it is in english) and to look for investigators in one part of our area, and Hermana Gonzalez and I went to go find Raul, who was getting baptized Sunday. Sad story, so we go to visit Raul Saturday, to get him pumped for his interview, we show up, he´s looking super down. But we talk to him about Hope, and having faith in God, and by the time we leave, he´s feeling stellar again. We remind him about his interview (it´s in 3 hours) and leave to go teach other people. We go to the church, wait, and Raul never shows up. We´re nervous because last time we spoke to him he hadn´t found a replacement for work yet, didn´t know what was going on. We called and called and called, but no response. So, we go Sunday, show up at his house. He´s not there. He´s working. We call him, and he´s a little short with us (i.e. me, I was talking on the phone). So we´re talking with Noé who had told us he wanted to go to church, but he´s refusing to go. But we´re at the house, and we know it´s for a reason, so we talk with the son of the other of Raul´s roommates. He´s called Paul. Takes a little bit of effort, but with breakfast as a motivation, he comes to church with us. We´re teaching him the whole way. And during sacrament meeting, he remembers that he´s been to church before. His mom is a member apparently, and he remembers some of the hymns and tells us he wants to bless and pass the sacrament, and wants to serve a mission. What a blessing. So we set a fecha bautismal with him and we´re going to be working with him to get him prepared for this. What a blessing/miracle!

AND THEN ( I love that statement), another thing we talked about in the training thursday was the importance of teaching all the recent converts the lessons of retention. Because they will have references for the people who are prepared to receive the Gospel, Kind of like a recent convert tree (touching the lives of generations to come...it feels like a movie statement o algo). Anyways, so I have wanted to visit this recent convert Delia for a while, but she lives in a mildly dangerous zone (it´s dangerous at night, it´s right by the river). But in the day time, it´s fine, full of tourists and other good things. So, after lunch we go to visit Delia, and the coolest thing, so we were walking towards her house, and I didn´t actually know where I was going (never been in the area before), and Hermana Sperry, stops us and says I think we should go talk to this woman sitting in the chair. Bueno, so we pray, and go to contact this woman. We ask her her name, Delia, Delia? What is your last name? Pared. Delia, we are in this area looking for you. If Hermana Sperry hadn´t had this prompting we would have gotten lost. I love this church. Anyways, we talk with her for a bit, her mom is struggling with Cancer, and they as a family are struggling a bit financially, but she is more then willing to talk with us. Which is great, because she is also inactive. Pucha, so we´re going to help her with that. And the best part, is that there are 11 people that live in her house (her, spouse, children, grandchildren). And with the thoughts of Presidente Gulbrandsen in mind, I know that we are going to see miracles. This whole family, is going to get baptized, and they are going to receive the peace, and tranquility, and absolute joy that comes from living the gospel. Miracles!!

Anyways, so that´s my week. I hope you all are doing well. Know that there are miracles in your life. I hope you have a chance to be an angel to someone. Go out there and let the world know, we can be happy! We have tidings of great joy, and we just need to open our mouth and say it! Oh, another thing, this week, Hermana Gonzalez loves to sing, so we´ve been singing in the Collectivos, to everyone. Which is fun. And you just feel so great. So, go sing a song and have a great day! (Have a great apple and sandwich! Can I have a... No.)

Hermana Reed

Got four minutes to [change] the world

Did I ever tell you guys about how that was like the theme song for one of the guys in our Ragnar team? He listened to it every time he was up for his run. It helped get him pumped up. Four minutes! Okay, well I don´t have four minutes to save the world, but I feel like I´m running on that kind of time limit sometimes. Whew! So much to do and so many people to visit!

But, that´s not important, well, it is, but I know you all want to hear about my new companion! Her name is Hermana Sperry, she´s from Pleasant Grove, Utah, and she is great. Want to know how I met her? Okay, I´ll tell you. First we will start off with the statement that I can´t seem to grab being normal here on the mish. So here´s what happened. As a trainer you get the lovely opportunity to walk in with all the other trainers singing "Called to serve" at the top of your lungs to a bunch of jet lagged tired but enthusiastic new missionaries. So, all us trainers were hiding in the back of the President´s house, waiting for our cue. When President Gulbrandsen walks in and starts out his little pep talk like this "Well, we all new when we came on missions that things would never go as originally planned..." that´s a great way to start out a pep talk right? Ya, I know. he continued "Hermana Reed (looks directly at me) your companion isn´t here yet (hehehe....what?). And Elder Latino (I forgot his name), your companion has a bad infection in his leg, he´s going to the hospital. He doesn´t know it yet. But everyone else, come in with big smiles!" That last part I summarized, the point is my companion wasn´t there. What happened was, Hermana Sperry was on the fast track at the MTC and only spent 2 weeks there because she previously knew spanish (went to Spain study abroad). But, she had problems with her visa so was moved to the Salt Lake City mission to wait it out. Only recently she got her visa and then her plane was delayed due to technical difficulties (their plane also got hit by lightning. How´s that for technical difficulties). Point is, she didn´t come in until 8 at night. Which meant I got to spend the day with Hermana Whitehead and her trainee!! Her name is Hermana Allen, I don´t remember where she´s from, but she´s pretty chill.

So, I´m with Hermana Whitehead, and it starts raining, right? Of course it does, and I don´t have anything prepared because when I left it was a billion degrees out (sounds like Colorado). So, we all get drenched, and then at 10 we receive a call from the AP´s that they are going to come pick me up and take me to my new companion. Yay!! I looked terrible, long day + rain = ew. But the point is, at 11 at night, I finally met my new companion. Whoohoo! And the best part of all of that is that the President told us that si o si we were to get 8 hours of sleep. So we got permission to sleep in. I love that man. Because I was beat.

Anyways, and since then it has been work work work. We´ve been given a challenge to contact more in the street. To Abrir la boca to invite people to hear our message. We´ve been struggling a bit to find investigators. And the best news of all of this is that Hermana Sperry loves talking to people! And I don´t mind talking to people, I just don´t like starting the conversation. So I let her do that, and then we talk. It´s great. I love it, and we´ve like doubled our number of lessons. Now we´re going to work on being more effecient in our lessons. But it is great.

And, one other story, so remember Raul? The security guard? Okay, so he finally got a Sunday free to come to church. Score, so I call up his roommate, who also needed to go to church, heard that Raul was heading out the door. This is great. Raul has a baptismal date for this Sunday (the 30th, happy halloween, no I have not forgotten about it. Love that holiday, I´m going to miss celebrating it). So we head to the church, and it´s like 2 till 9, so I call up Raul (which I could do, side story, Saturday night our phone broke. Wouldn´t read our Sim card so we had to borrow an old phone from our ward missionary leader. He´s so nice) and he says that he´s just barely getting on the Collectivo 314 and will be there in 10 minutes...ish. So, I´m sitting there praying like crazy, that he will get there before the sacrament is passed. I´m praying for long songs, slow songs, lots of announcements, anything to give him time. No announcements, our first hymn is 2 lines long, 3 verses. Pucha. So I´m praying, so hard. And then we start the sacrament hymn, normal song length, and all of the sudden, we start singing it really slow. And I¨m just in my seat going "Thank the heavens! We´re singing it slow!" and then I go back to praying. And right as they are getting ready to bless the bread.....guess who walks in the door. Raul. I´m so happy!! And Hermano Nunez (our ward missionary leader) is at the door, so he mouths to me that Raul is there. I´m so ecstatic. Raul comes in, takes the sacrament. Life is good.

And then I got to get up and give my talk....oh, did I mention that? This week just happened to be the week of missionary work. The Bishop told Hermano Nunez at 2 in the afternoon Saturday that we were in charge of all the speakers. Remember how my phone was broken? Yeah, so luckily we had Correlation that night, and we found out about our assignments to speak at 7 at night. Love that. I will admit, a lot of my talk was by the spirit, having had limited time to plan one out. I did have a sketch though of my talk. I didn´t follow it. Don´t ask me what I said, I don´t remember. THe church is true. Oh, and remember how PResident Gulbrandsen and his wife live in our ward boundries? Yeah, they were there. Love my life. It´s all cool. I think they liked it. They didn´t come up to me afterwards and tell me to go pack my bags I´m going home. So it couldn´t have been that bad.

Anyways, and life moves on. We´re saving the world. One paso at a time. I love you all. Training is going great. So many new experiences to share and do. Things to do better, I get to be better. I love it. I´m glad you are all doing well. Know that you are in my prayers.

Hermana Reed

Pictures!

Finally, huh? Here's a couple pictures of Hermana Reed's district. And just as a side note, I made that t-shirt for her. Love it!

Remember that one time....

....when you thought life was tough and anything would be better then what you were doing? Yeah, don´t ever say those words, in your head or out of your mouth. Because Heavenly Father is always listening, and when he hear´s those words he chuckles and says"just you wait."

Now, of course with this little header you have to be wondering. Oh gee golly wolly, what could Hermana Reed possibly be talking about. Well, today is the day of transfers. I am staying in Vicinte Lopez. And guess who my companion is! You´re never going to guess. Why? Because I don´t know her name. I´ll let you know Tuesday when she flies in from the United States...... Yes, I am going to be training this transfer, and yes, I do know for certain, that she is going to be American. Welcome to the grand mission Buenos Aires Norte. We are a mission built on faith and trust in God, because we are so well aware that we have no idea what we are doing. It´s a good thing the church is true.

Want to know the best part of this though?? I´m with Hermana Whitehead RIGHT NOW! I love this woman, she is crazy, and we´ve had the most ridiculous adventures together. And her life is hilarious, and I´m so glad I get to be a part of it. She was telling me today about how last week she yelled at her companion for eating her banana (the said fruit had been offered to the companion just days before). She was having a rough day. But I love it. And we´re companions for a day because she´s training too! And Elder Mower, I don´t know if you remember much about him, he was an Elder in my district from the CCM. He went from Companero Menor to Trainer. He´s going to be AP in next to no time. He´s such a studly, savvy spiritual missionary. Anyways, so yeah. I´m training. That´s cool.

Want to hear about my last week? Okay, so this week we went to visit Raul and he told us that he had worked it out with one of his work buddies so that he could attend sacrament meeting this Sunday (to come) and the Sunday after. Which gives him 3 assistencias and he can get baptized on the 30th! Whoopah! I literally squealed out loud when he told us that. He was pleasantly embarrassed. You know the drill, when he acts like I´m being ridiculous but really he´s pleased that we´re so stoked for him. Yeah, that one. And it was crazy because that same day we tried to go to a baptism with him but no one would come in to work for him. Pucha. And then he bailed on us going to the despidida yesterday. Less then cool, because we were sitting outside for the better part of an hour waiting for him. That man. But he has the most incredible faith. I´m so blessed to be a part of his baptism.

Oh, and the best part is that we were able to meet the guy he shares a house with. His name is Noé and he´s from Peru (all the cool people are, there and Argentina), he´s been to church, received the charlas, but never actually read the Book of Mormon or prayed about it. At the time, he didn´t have the time to do it. But now he does. He also has a baptismal date for the 30th of October, so he and Raul can be baptized together. Aww, so sweet. So stoked.

Oh, so want to hear about how I knew I was going to be training? Okay, so last transfer Hermana Cariola received a call during our weekly planning session to go to a meeting Friday at the Mission Home. We went, she learned she was going to be training, I learned I was going to be Senior Comp. Remember this story? Yeah. Me too, so everyone and I mean everyone has been telling me I´m going to be training. All the Elders in my district, yeah. so like 3 people. That´s not the point, the point is, I was scared stiff that it actually was going to happen. And I knew that if I could make it through weekly planning without receiving "the phone call" I would be fine. Which meant, everytime the phone rang my palms started sweating like Niagra Falls. I´m pretty sure I could have washed...something in the amount of water. That´s just gross, I´m not going to finish that thought. Point is, usually planning is a quiet process, with maybe one phone call from the Zone leaders to check if we have any miracle baptisms that we´re planning. THIS week? Like 5. I was so scared for all 3ish hours until we received the call from the offices. Which, tricky little devils, they started out with "oh, we have a reference for you" got me all calm, and then whabam! "You´re invited to a meeting tomorrow"....curses. The only thing that made it better was walking into the meeting and seeing Hermana Whitehead there as well...haha, I´m such a bad person for thinking that. But oh well, if I have to do it, she does too. And that´s called justice!

But the really cool thing is that I´ve gotten some additional training to help my new companion. And the focus of the two capacitaciones has been, essentially, that we don´t know anything. And I know I´m going to be thinking about this a lot too, because I only have, what? 8 months total? Something like that, including MTC. I sure don´t feel like I know what I´m doing. And I´ve made enough mistakes to know i don´t know what I´m doing all the time. But that is the great thing about the mission. We´re here, to learn how to completely rely on the Lord, and to realize, that really, we don´t know anything. We think we know, we have examples to help us out. But the only person who knows exactly what would help and knows exactly what to do in every situation? Is the Lord. And when we rely on him and trust his instincts, our lives are going to be better and happier for it. I love the mision. I mean, I knew this before, but it was more like a mathematical theory that I never fully applied. And so I kept getting the wrong answers in my life. I´m going to try it out with more enthusiasm now. I´ll let you know how it goes. But, here I am. Hermana Reed, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, and I will follow his perfect example because I know it is the only way to fulfill my purpose and to live a happy life. True happiness comes through God, because every day is a gift, every breath a loan. And it doesn´t bother me one whit that I need to depend completely and totally upon my Heavenly Father, because I know that his sole purpose in life is to help me be happy. Who can say no to such a loving gesture? "I want you to do this so you can be happy." "uh...don´t think so, I´d rather be miserable." Don´t think so. You´re crazy if you think this. This is the scriptural reference Presidente Gulbrandsen used in training today. Alma 37:37. It talks about counseling with the Lord, in literally all that we are doing. There is not part of our lives in which God does not have an interest. And this is a counsel, not a petition. Which means discussion, pauses, listening, and re-evaluating our plans. During the prayer. I know I need to step up my prayers. I´m going to need it to, because all the sudden I´m the "native" speaker in our companionship. CRAZY!

Anyways, thank you for your prayers, encerio, you all mean so much to me. And your counsel and advice has always been well timed and well received. It means a lot to me that I know I have such great friends and family that love me so much.

Take Luck. Do Good. The Lord is on your side.

Hermana Reed

When is it not a holiday in Argentina?

That really is a valid question. We have ferridas nearly constantly. Well, that´s not actually the word, but it´s close to something like that. THe point is, the people of Argentina like to celebrate, and they don´t have to look very far to find things to celebrate. The bummer to all of this is my reaction to these days are pretty much the same. Preach, Teach, Eat, Pray, Sleep. I love it!

So some fun things that happened this week. This week was the week of birthdays. Hermana Alfaro had her birthday and our district leader Elder Simper. Elder Simper is going home this week so he is very optimistic. He´s been a very good district leader and helped us out a ton, always. I´m grateful for his service. But mostly that meant we had cake at our district meeting. Love cake. But the best part of all of this is that when we were going to our district meeting, we were on the Collectivo and and on this same collectivo there happened to be a highly intoxicated Argentinian. And let me tell you, I have no idea what I do to attract these men, but drunks love talking to me. On my honor, I did not walk up to him, he got up walked over to a seat near me and started talking to me. There were like 10 other people on the bus, including another missionary. I don´t know why he chose me. Nevertheless, start up a conversation with me he did. I ended up teaching him the plan of salvation. More or less, I don´t know how much he remembered. Not the point. THe point is, it was actually kind of fun. And he was very easy to talk to and teach. I don´t know why I have an easier time teaching intoxicated folk, but I do. For me, it´s less nervewracking, and we have a very nice, amiable conversation, flowing back and forth, questions answers, questions answers. And then we were at the church and I had to leave. I left him a pamphlet with the direction to the church.

The point of that story is that I´m getting better at talking to people. Other than that, I just thought it was funny. The other cool thing that happened this week was that I got to see Hermana Decker and Mark! What made it really exciting is that Hermana Alfaro and I were dashing to the church hoping to make it in time for the sacrament because it was a sunday and the collectivos pass by very infrequently on Sundays. So we were speed walking like grandmas to make it in time. And it is very obvious when you walk in late. so we walk in late and the whole congregation turns to see who came in...including Hermana Decker and Mark. That was cool. I did get to talk with them after the meeting, so that was cool. p.s. my mom is pretty much the coolest mom in existence. Thank you for everything you sent mom! I know it took a lot of time to compile all the stuff and find the skirts and hem them and sew the pockets. Hermana Decker told me about how you were sewing like crazy to get everything ready on time. Seriously, thank you so much.

Lastly, I want to share a spiritual thought that one of the members shared with us when we were eating lunch with her this week. So, we showed up late to her house because someone decided to need time to recuperate her feelings (alright, it had been a bad day, I was emotional) so we get to her house and we explain why we were so late and everything. And as we are eating lunch she shares this insight. How deeply have you looked into the significance of the scriptures where Jesus is sleeping in the boat in the middle of the storm while the rest of the diciples are fearing for their lives? Here was the thought - literally Christ is once again being the perfect example for us. When we have complete and utter trust in our Heavenly Father, we can have the peace and tranquility to make it through whatever storm is passing through our lives. When others are fearing and do not know what to do, we can take a nap knowing that God knows what He is doing and is there to protect us. So the questions is, do we have the perfect knowledge that God is our Heavenly Father and is there to protect us?

I thought that was an interesting thought. Because the world is full of storms and trials and our lives are anything but easy, but when we are faced with troubles, how do we react? Surely we have to do things to pass the storm, but do we face the storm with the peace and calm that comes from God? Or do we fear because we do not know what is to come. Something to think about. I loved it.

Then rapido, something for mom. You talked about your studies in Moises a long time ago. And I was thinking about why eating the fruit of the Tree of LIfe would have frustratd the Plan of Salvation. And the more I thought about it the more I wanted to study it. In my studies, this is my conclusion. The reason it would have frustrated the plan of salvation is because it would have meant that Adam and Eve never died. Part of repenting means returning to God. There is that spiritual separation. When Adam and Eve received bodies, they were physically separated from God. To overcome this obstacle we need to die, and then be resurrected with physical, perfect bodies. Because no imperfect thing can dwell in the presence of God, no? Death is a part of the plan of happiness, it allows us to become perfect - literally in this sense because our bodies become physically perfect. God is so smart. I hope to be that intelligent some day. I love the plan of salvation, there is so much hope, and so many opportunities and ways to become closer to and more like God.

And lastly, Read Mosiah 7: 3-4. This is how I feel about my first transfer as a senior comp. And now that it is coming to a close, we will see if I have learned from my mistakes. I will let you know if there are any changes next week, but this transfer is closing this Sunday. CHANGES!!!! Oh, the joy of a new 6 weeks. Being a missionary is awesome.

Love you all,

Hermana Reed

General Conference pretty much rocks!

General Conference is pretty much one of the best weekends of my life, here on the mission. I just love listening to all the people talking and giving great counsel, and telling me that I need to be a better person and knowing that they are absolutely correct in everything.

And, like you, mom, I cannot even begin to think which is my favorite, or which I learned more. I will admit, I absolutely loved Hermana Elaine Dalton´s talk about father´s love their mothers. For two reasons. 1) I have seen time and time again, women of my age and those that are still growing beat themselves up for not being pretty enough, smart enough, cool enough, witty enough. It´s never enough what they have. And they think this because they do not truly understand that they are daughters of God. And in today´s society it is incredibly difficult to develop this identity. But when we truly understand that we are worth every moral, every standard, it is then that we can be truly happy. And we feel beautiful every day. And because we as women think so much about how others view us, the way a father treats his wife is crucial. Because they are the example. The women of today need to know that they have worth and that they will one day have a husband who will treat them like the daughters of God that they are. Which means that the men need to step up to the plate and treat the lady´s like the daughters of God that they are. Do not use and abuse. I will smite you with the word of God if I see you doing it. And don´t test me, I´ve got three Books of Mormon in my bag. 2) My dad has been an amazing example to me of how I should be treated. And while I haven´t always been treated the way my dad treats my mom, my husband will need to talk to my dad and take lessons. Because I love the way my family functions (as dysfunctional as it can be sometimes). And one thing that is never lacking is a stable, pure, Christ like relationship between my mom and my dad. So, way to go Dad. You have been a great example for me. He also treats me very kindly, so thank you for that to. Love you! I love you too Mom!

Well, how´s that for a soap box? Hmm, interesting. Anyways, loved General Conference. It was fun because I went in with about 5 other United State Native Elders to watch the Conference in English. I love America. These Elders are great, but I will admit, we made comments about the ability to stay still of the Primary Chorus. Loved it.

As far as this week in teaching goes. We almost had a baptism this weekend. We have an investigator who has had all the lessons, and just needed a little push to be ready for baptism. Many people feel the need to be 100% sure of everything and know everything before getting baptized, but this just isn´t going to happen. I don´t know everything and I´ve been a member my whole life. So we go over, have her try on the baptismal clothes, she says she feels like an angel, And then accepts the invitation to be baptized this weekend. I´m elated. We call her the next day.......and she wants absolutely nothing to do with the church, she wants us to come over, take our books back, she never wants to talk to us again. You confused? So am I. I have no idea what happened in those 24 hours, but it´s been rough trying to get a hold of her just to ask her what happened and why she changed her mind. I may never know. Whenever we call, she cuts the line. What are you going to do? I don´t know, I´ve been praying a lot though. It´s too bad she didn´t make it to any of the sessions of Conference this weekend. They sure would have helped her feel more prepared.

Other good news is that we were talking to another investigator who just hadn´t caught the fire yet. But when we went to talk to him this week he told us that he had been talking to his Pastor in Peru. He was talking to him about us, and our religion, and how he feels like there is something here, but he´s not really sure what to do. And what advice does this Pastor from Peru give? That it is important to do the will of God. And as long as you are sure it is the will of God, you need to follow it. Now, Raul was telling this story, and he was using flowery language, that was a bit advanced for me and my native spanish speaking companion. So we were just nodding our heads and going "uh huh" for a while. Until he stopped talking and looked at us expectingly like we were supposed to respond. Uh..Wait, what? Oh, you want to be baptized. Okay. You only have friday´s free so you can´t be baptized on the 15th (saturday)? No problem, we can have your baptism on the 14th, it´s a friday. Score. The good news of this story is that he went to the Priesthood session saturday night without us. Yes he has a testimony. Now he just has to work with his boss to get work off Sundays. Pray for him please.

That has mostly been my weekend. General Conference was the absolute highlight. And pretty much took all our day. We have studies until 11, General Conference was from 1-3 and 5-7, it takes an hour to get there. Which means we stayed at the stake center for lunch. Which means for 2 days in a row we had from 11 - 11:30 to visit people and from about 8-9 at night. We didn´t have many lessons in these two days. But I am very spiritually edified. I hope you all are too. I know that President Monson is a prophet of God. And his words are direct counsel to us from our loving Heavenly Father whose soul purpose is to guide us back to him. That is the goal and purpose of this life, and we have the scriptures and living prophets to help us do it.

I love you all, keep on the straight and narrow. You will do great things.

Hermana Reed

Don't. Cross. This. Line!

Okay, so this was a very fun filled week full of exciting news, congratulations and activities. First off, I would like to personally thank All the Manassa Andersons for their lovely letter. I would like to know what you all were talking about before writing it. A lot of you mentioned Rugby? I like the sport, don't get me wrong, just wondering what the theme was there. Regardless, thank you for the letter. And let me know if you all are going to be moving. You're not going to fit in your house anymore right? Keep me in the DL. Love you.

Anyways, so my weekend. We had a ward missionary activity this weekend. It wasn't exactly a success but was at the same time. We invited everyone in the ward to come and watch the new movie Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration. Saturday we're prepping for the day when the member that had said we could borrow his projector calls us to say, he couldn't get it from his office like he thought. So, it's T-6 hours till show time, and the television of the church is very small. So we are scrambling all day to find a projector. I'm almost positive that we called nearly every person in the ward. The good news was, they were reminded about the activity, bad news, no one had a projector. Scrambling, scrambling, lots of prayers. Time for the activity, and no projector. Regardless, we go looking for our investigator, not only is she there but she is waiting for us. Love that. Go back, and watch the movie on the small television. But the spirit is there, and we ate popcorn afterwards. Love that.

And then we had an act of faith this week. So, we had Zone Conference, and the President challenged us to prepare an investigator for baptism, this weekend or the next. The next weekend being General Conference weekend (are you all preparing your questions? Heavenly Father is going to respond, but not if you don't have a questions). So we're preparing for an investigator named Leonel. Leonel's grandma is a member, his family not, but he has been involved/connected with the church for most of his life. So, we call him, set up an appointment. Talk about baptism, he knows he needs to be baptized, but wants to wait for December when he finishes with his school work. We told him to pray about it, and we would call him in the morning. What he didn't know is that we had already planned to have his baptismal interview on Friday. Thursday we call him and he says he can't see us and still wants to wait until December. Me lacking in faith and aggressiveness accepted this response until my district leader pretty much called me on it. So I call Leonel up Friday morning and pretty much just blurt out words which include we want to have your baptismal interview. And miracle of miracles he says yes. So, I call my district leader up, we meet at Leonel's house at the appointed time. He's not there. That kid. We call him up, again. He tells us he had to leave early and didn't have the credit/minutes to call us and let us know. So we ask him where he's at and if we could meet him there. We get the direction and all four missionaries go trucking along to have this baptismal interview. Now he just needs to talk to his mom.

Anyways, I don't have a ton of time this week. But I'm learning more to have acts of faith, and to keep pushing. I need to trust my thoughts and feelings. To know that they come from the Lord, and that they aren't just weird thoughts. One thing we talked about in the Zone Conference was that we shouldn't be afraid, because it is God who is putting these thoughts in our minds. And He's not going to give us thoughts or plans that he knows we won't be able to accomplish.

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to General Conference. To hearing from our prophet. I'm excited for all of you, that you are excelling in your lives, and progressing in the gospel.

I love you all,

Hermana Reed

What´s the matter, Cat got your tongue?

Hello friends and family,

I think it´s been a while since I´ve actually salutated anyone...is that the word? Said hello? Greeted? I don´t know. Don´t ask me. The point is. What´s up? How´s it kicking? I´m good. You know, just keeping it real in Vicinte Lopez. This week has been really fun. Data includes one baptismal date, a lot of old investigators that we´ve re-started teaching, and stake conference with Presidente Gulbrandsen. And let me tell you, there´s not a lot of things more stressful in life then knowing you are going to Stake Conference, where your Mission President is going to be speaking, and knowing you don´t have a single investigator that´s going to show....Yeah, that one hurt just a bit. The good news is the conference was great! All about missionary work. Point being -share your testimony. Read the Book of Mormon, pray, and attend church. You´re going to receive an answer.

Okay, some fun stories. First, so we´re teaching this security guard named Raul. He gives us a reference for another security guard about two blocks away named John. So we go to talk to John and it´s a little weird because me being the very suave person that I am started out with "hey, we were talking with your friend Raul and he said you had some questions about God." the whole "tactful" thing is still a work in progress. What you should all be impresed with is that I started the contact, and that we didn´t really beat around the bush. We´re here to talk about our Heavenly Father. He exists. Bam. Okay, next step.

So we´re sitting there talking about his doubts and we´re sharing his testimony and we find out he doesn´t actually live in our area, so we note down his direction to pass on, leave him with a pamphlet and then ask. Hey, is there anything that we can do for you? (a very common question. It´s very natural now). And to my surprise he starts talking about how he´s kind of lonely, he´s in a new country (from Peru) and he doesn´t really like his job, he´s the only kid in the family without a girlfriend. And it was really interesting to see the change in him. That he was willing to open up to us, and really all we did was ask a simple question and then stop and listen. And after he had opened up a bit, I did what every good missionary should do. I responded with my testimony and told him "yo se que por medio del Evangelio usted va a tener una relacion mas fuerte con Dios and no va a sentir soltera nada mas." Now, why did I write that in spanish. Because there is an error. What I meant to say "I know that through the Gospel you will have a stronger relationship with God and you won´t feel alone any more." How it came out " I know that through the Gospel you will have a stronger relationship with God and you won´t be single anymore." ....hehe, oops. Well, we are very in to families.... luckily I just kept talking and I don´t think he noticed.....my companion did. She gave me a bit of grief over that later.

Story later: So we´re heading out to Stake Conference right? Right. Sunday morning, there´s no one in the streets. We´re at the bus stop when a group of men walk up to the parada and start talking with us. Now, these men may or may not have been highly intoxicated (it is sunday morning, the day after all the parties...) and one of them comes up to me and starts talking with me. In Dutch first of all, and I´m sorry, I just don´t know dutch. But he asks me if I know English. Which I do. and then the following conversation was a mix of English and Spanish. I don´t know why he asked me if I knew dutch.

First off, he asks me why I´m here. I tell him I´m serving a mission, preaching and testifying of God and Jesus Christ. To which he responds. No no! Why here, in Buenos Aires. So I get to explain a bit about how being a missionary means dedicating yourself to the will of God for 18 months. And I get the lucky chance to think solely of him. And it was actually really cool because in the beginning they were just trying to rag me a bit (hello, they were intoxicated) but after a bit they calmed down. Anyways, continue. So, I ask them if they believe in Christ. The dutchman responds, yes, no, I don´t know. He doesn´t (points to friend) he´s a communist. ....okay. Not sure how to respond to that, but "oh, you´re from Russia?" face palm Hermana Reed, what kind of question was that? "No, I´m not from Russia, just a communist". Anyways, we keep talking. And finally the Collectivo arrives. So we´re dashing to catch it but before we leave we shove an invitation for Stake Conference and a pamphlet about the Restoration in their hands. "Read this!" And then I got on the bus. hehe, my first real interaction with an intoxicated person on the mish. Not to shabby. I don´t want to do it all the time, but it was kind of fun. Mildly scary until they calmed down but what are you going to do? Luckily, Heavenly Father loves me and protects all Sister Missionaries.

Anyways, those are some fun stories. One thing I dowant to talk about is the priesthood. I love the priesthood. And I love watching people have it in their homes. Of all things, I´m excited to get married to have the priesthood with me constantly. I say this because last night my companion received a blessing for health. We were at the house of a member and we were chatting a bit and the ambiance was light hearted. But then after a moment, the Dad got really calm, and said okay, before I give the blessing, can we say a prayer. And it was like BOOM instant change in the air. And in him, I´m not sure if I can properly explain this. But it was the time where he was going to use his authority and he was treating it very sacradly. Like, he knew that this power comes from God, and he was going to treat it with respect, and act honorably in the process. I don´t know. I just loved it. I love it when the priesthood holders in our church recognize that the power and order that they have come from God. It is incredible to watch. And I love it. So, to all you priesthood holders, recognize what you hold. You have the amazing opportunity to bless your families. Forever. You are a direct link to the power of God. It is sacred. It is soo sacred. And miracles happen every day because you are worthy to hold that power. You help so many people just by your mere presence. Also, thank you for your examples. You do so much. Keep being worthy of what you hold. Please, don´t ever forget who you represent when you are invoking the priesthood. Don´t ever forget.

Love you all, Keep smiling and keep being you. You all have incredible personalities that help so many people keep going in their busy, hectic, harrid lives. Do good. Be good.

Hermana Reed