Que Pasa?

Hola familia y amigos,

Let me tell you a few quick things that are on my mind today. One, I can no longer spell. This is an issue seeing as I should be able to speak at least one language at any one time. But no. My ability to speak English has been hampered by my desire to speak spanish. Now I can do neither. Spelling is hard. cat k-a-t I'm outta here. hehe, I know there's two t's don't worry. :) okay, no really. Spanish is actually coming along fine. I can speak it. and i know the theories of the grammar just peachy keen. applying them is a little harder. But not to worry, my teachers say that I won't start feeling confident about myself for another ......two months. So, I've just got another two months to worry, and pray, and cry myself to sleep at night. No worries!

Second, and this is super petty. I'm losing my mind. One, I can't remember what day it is let alone the time....and I'm wearing a watch. I go to dinner and I think it's lunch. I go to lunch and I think it's dinner. The only one I don't get mixed up is breakfast and that's because it's first and I always eat cereal. Yum-a-lish. But, this has also caused me to have some concern about my weight. I work out every day. It's actually quite fun. But I can't tell if I'm getting thinner and tanner, or fatter and whiter. It depends on the day how I feel. But they haven't had to roll me down any stairs yet so I figure I'm okay. What I wouldn't give for some macaroni and cheese that wasn't made with plastic cheese. If anyone asks me what hell is like I'll say a buffet where everything is made with American nacho cheese. That stuff is disgusting. watered down melted plastic. But I digress. This is a happy e-mail. Or should be. *shudder* ugh, plastic cheese.

Oh, I have made a new best friend. His name is Thermal. Last name: Underwear. We're quite attached to one another. Now, I know that as a missionary I'm not supposed to encourage such relationships but I don't think I can hold back anylonger. I'm pretty sure I'm in love. He's going to propose soon. I'll tell him no. Not until after the mish. But I'm in love. Actually, the sad part of this paragraph is the fact that I felt the need to whip out my thermals in UTAH!! I'm not even in the Tierra del Fuego and my booty is freezing. Tough couple of years coming up? You bet. Pray for spring. okay.

Okay, randomness done. You ready for some stories?

First off Sunday night was Hermana Orton's birthday. And of course we had to party. But we were limited, One it was fast sunday, to it was a sunday, three....we're in the MTC. Let's just say the bookstore is "a little lacking" in party supplies. Something about not wanting missionaries to pull pranks. I don't know. Anyways, so end of the day comes around, we head back to our bedroom with like three buckets of candy courtesy of her parents and decide to have a "fiesta" because we're so spanish. To make it more so we decide to paint mustaches on with mascara. And of course since we're all hyped up on sugar, Hermana Habel dared me to put on a unibrow. So....of course I did. Then we walked around and found her friend and took pictures. And here's the kicker, I don't really look good with a unibrow and I can't really pull off a mexican accent. We got a lot of weird looks. But, it was fun. We also didn't get to sleep for another hour because of all the sugar. But the lights were off!

Yesterday: gym time. I'm playing Knock out with a bunch of elders and a couple of sisters. Elder Proctor has decided that I'm the white michael jordan. Male compliments are so endearing. However, it's different then being called a beast which I usually get (you men are so original) so I was okay with it. So, I'm banking it, and we're all playing and having fun. I get to be the last or second to last person quite a few times. (what can I say? when ya' got it ya' got it). We start a new round and Hermana Pacific from the newest district is right in front of me. She goes up, shoots it, the ball bounces up, she runs after it and the ball smacks into her pinky. Pretend I just made a noise. Something like "kriskcs" that's a new word. She comes up, finishes her shot then turns to me and says, "uh, I think I did something to my finger" now I can't see her finger because she's cupping it. So, I tell her to move it. it looks a little like this "\/" except flatter, that's a really steep v. She's popped that sucker out of place. so I took her to the trainer. mostly because I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know if it was broken. luckily the trainer did. She popped it back into place. And hermana Pacific was so funny. She asked if she could go play again. Well, uh, no hun. Ya just dislocated a finger. Let it heal. So we walked around the track. Good times.

Okay, fireside sunday. It was really cool. the coolest part actually was the devotional

Life always finds a way to be exciting doesn't it....?

Holla Familia. <-- that was the black way of saying it. It's something that I really like to do here since as a Spanish speaker we're supposed to say "hola" but I don't. I say holla' (as in holler back y'all). That or 'ello mate. Don't ask me why. Sometimes I can't explain the things that I do. It makes me happy don't judge.

That was a really random beginning. My bad. A couple things, how many people are actually reading this e-mail? I was thinking family...maybe a couple ward members? Do I need to try to act more professional? Because I can. I'm pretty sure I can anyways. I'd try. Nevermind. I don't want to know. Pretend I'm cool. It sounds like you guys are having fun. Way to get to know some Rugby players. Tongans are always so nice. And scary all at the same time. We have this Tongan Elder who plays volleyball with us everytime and he has a super hard serve and he likes to spike it right in your face. Well, he doesn't try to hit your face, but your face just happens to be in the way. Therefore, ouch. The Elder is really nice though. I miss playing rugby sometimes. That was always fun.

I'm also glad to hear March Madness is thriving. I'm glad BYU isn't out yet, although I have to admit I almost forgot about march madness. I would have completely forgotten except Hermana Habel's brother-in-law is Noah something or other. The really tall one. He got into foul trouble last time? I don't remember his last name. The point is, relation, we took a picture with his newspaper closeup, the whole district did. The things we do to accomodate some people. I don't actually know who this kid is. But I'm glad everyone is enjoying it. I'm glad we gamble every year, it makes things more interesting. I'm glad I didn't this year because I'm pretty sure I'd be losing.

So, fun news of this week. I killed my companion. Well, killed is an overstatement. But it was a close call. So, I've been working on trying to love people I don't really know (something that should be easy to do, but for me is not. I like to know people first before I decide whether or not I want to continue to know them. Details). And loving my companion even though we had been struggling teaching together, we're both not confident, and essentially it's a minor tiff every time to push the other person to lead the lesson and not ourselves. So I was trying to work on that, and I was praying for charity, and to just want to serve her. So the Lord decided what Hermana Whitehead needed was a ruptured eardrum. I'm sorry. That's not what I wanted. But we are a lot closer this week and our teaching is doing much better. The story goes like this: after the temple last week Hermana Whitehead was just shaking and she nearly passed out. So I made her take a nap (which means I got one too! I miss naps. :( ) When she woke up she had built up some pressure in her ear. She tries to tough it out but by night time it's killing. So we call the on-call doctor who doesn't want to come in, prescribes her oxycodon and tells her to come see her in the morning. 1:30 de la manana rolls around and after having slept a half hour (it took her two hours of midnight strolling to get tired enough to try to sleep, the pain meds hadn't worked) she wakes up with blood on her pillow. Oops, dr.'s bad. We go see him in the morning and he's all "sorry, we usually try to stop this kind of thing before it happens." Well, we did call you last night......So essentially she can't hear out of her right ear (which is where I naturally sit of course). It is kind of funny though, because when she prays she's afraid she's speaking really loud so she'll bend over and talk into her knees, but then I can't hear her so I'll bend down close to her knees and then she'll figure out she's fine and move up, and then I follow. It's a moving circus. She can't distinguish noises from that ear yet. Which makes teaching interesting, because she can't hear the investigator.....shoot.

Other news, do you remember Elder Proctor? He's the one who gained 13 lbs in four days? He's been struggling too. A while ago his heart started giving him problems. His family has a hereditary condition that causes an irregular heartbeat. It was the saddest thing because when the doctor's found out about it they said they would have to monitor him. If the problem didn't decrease then they were going to reassign him to somewhere in the states where they could monitor his condition. I felt so bad for Elder Proctor. He is a very happy guy, he actually reminds me a lot of Ethan, very spunky, gets off topic, studies the best when there is a game involved. And he was thoroughly depressed for like two days. Which, to be fair I would have been too. But he got a blessing on Sunday and he says his heart hasn't hurt since. He's going back to the Dr's tomorrow to see what they say. Hopefully he'll still get to go to Argentina. That's where he really wants to go.

The last experience I wanted to share with you comes from Sunday night. Every time we have a district that's leaving, we'll get together as a zone and have a testimony meeting, where the departing missionaries give advice and bare their testimonies to us (tangent, when you're bearing your testimony which form of the word "bare" do you use? I obviously have no idea). It was really good, and even though I didn't know these Elders like incredibly well, I was still crying. One told this story and I wanted to share it:

" So, a long time ago I had a best firend that I loved very much. This friend meant everything to me. We did everything together up there and never left each others side. Life was great and often times when me and him were hanging out we would think about our future call. We would guess what our call was going to be like, and dreamed about it every night. We had it all figured out! we were going to be together and be friends down there too. well the day we had been dreaming about for years finally came. the day we received our call. as i opened mine i read " you have been called to a city in the united states, you will be with a loving family. you will have parents that love you more than anything. sisters and brothers that will always be by your side, and great friends to cheer you up when you are down. but finally, you will have the truth of God in your life and the gospel of Jesus Christ to pick you up in those times of struggle." oh man, i was so happy as i read my call out loud to my best friend. we celebrated for a few minutes and then it was my friends turn to open his call. he quickly tore open the envelope, unfolded the letter and read...' you have been called to a small, poor village in Southern Argentina, you and your family will struggle greatly not knowing if you will have food the next day. you will not have the gospel in your life. you will live knowing and feeling everyday that a piece of you is missing. you will feel empty inside and will struggle to be happy"

'my heart dropped as my dear friend began to sob and struffle to read the rest. I was speechless as my friend congratulated me and dropped his head. my dreams and wishes quickly changed. as now i wished i could trade him and take his calling. but i knew that couldn't be. It was time to go down now. I grabbed my best friend and hugged him with all my might and said "i love you now and always will. i promise you, i will find youso i can bring you the truth, purpose, and happiness into you life., be patient my friend. i will come" his last words as he descended away from me to earth were "i'm counting on you. Don't let me down. I'll be waiting."

It was a really touching story, and pretty much everyone was crying. That was from our zone leader, Elder Reid (great last name). But it also kind of helped me to gain a new perspective. I've never been one to force my opinions on others. and for the first couple of weeks here I really struggled because I felt I was trying to manipulate people into conversations that they may have not wanted. I was interrupting peoples lives when they didn't even know me. and I did not like it. I know that this Gospel is true, but I was struggling to find a way to share it with out being an overbearing, annoying/attacking person on the street. We all have our agency, we all have the ability and freedom to choose. That's what america is. The land of the free. And I struggled with that a lot. But this is something that this story kind of showed me and helped me realize.

I am not forcing anyone to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. I don't want that. God doesn't want that, Christ doesn't want that. I have been called by God, set apart and ordained to be a minister of Christ's church so i can INVITE people to come unto Christ. There is no forcing involved. But I have seen the blessings of it in my own life. And if I haven't shared my testimony with you before this point I apologize. As a missionary that's what I do. I testify, I don't force, I don't coerce. I just promise you that God loves you. There is a reason we are here. The experiences, good and bad, that we share, are making us better people because we have the opportunity to respond to all of them. And this I know. Christ is central to my salvation. And because of that, Christ is central to my life. I have the ability to repent and be with my family forever because of him. That's what the Atonement is, it's an invitation to be happy forever, because I can become clean always, no matter what mistakes I make. As I continue to turn to Christ, I will continually be forgiven. There is no sin, no mistake, no problem, no infirmity, nothing, that isn't covered by the Atonement. Something one of the Elders said applies here as well. Christ suffered alone in the Garden of Gethsemane so that we all could be happy. But he doesn't deserve to be alone anymore. And I won't leave him. We can't leave him alone. Christ has done so much for us. What kind of grateful lot would we be if we turned our back on him? Worthless. And I refuse. I will not turn my back on my God, and my Savior Jesus Christ. And I know that.

I love you all.

Hermana Reed

Good News, Bad News

Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines.

I'm going to run out of Subject headings really quickly by the way. It's nothing personal. But I promise you it's going to happen.

So, have any of you ever been to an improv show where they do Good news, Bad news? Like Good news: I'm engaged! Bad News: it's to the library, we're very happy. That's one I heard a bunch at BYU. But that's what I'm going to do today, because I want to and you can't stop me. You'll enjoy it though.

So, Good news! My district thinks I'm funny. Bad News: It's because I'm the worst contacter in the history of contacting. Let me prove this to you with a couple of stories. So, contacting. Everyone knows what that is right? You're walking down the street, you see someone, you go try to strike up a conversation and get to know them, try to set up an appointment so you can share the message of the gospel. Easy-peasy right? WRONG! Well, for me. Because that means you have to a) walk up to a complete stranger, b) pretend to be (actually, God wants you to actually be) interested in who the person is, and c) participate in an emotionally engaging conversation where you develop a relationship. Now some of you might be thinking.....well duh, that's how you make friends. For all of my friends out there, I want you to think back to our first interactions. Who struck up the first conversation? Was it stimulating in any regard? Do you see where I'm heading? I'm not very comfortable striking up conversations on my own. I get uncomfortable. So, we were practicing outside, and because we have to practice on other companions they are always really nice and we usually get a chance to go and talk to them again. Not hard. So, my companion and I are talking to Hermana Orton, and we figure out she's a Christian, she's doing well. And we tell her we want to talk to her a little bit about the Book of Mormon....she allows us to come over.....But we're also supposed to have "figured" out something that we can talk about next time/if they have any needs or problems that we can help them out with. By this point in the conversation, we have not done that. So there's this relatively long awkward pause where we just stare at each other and then I ask "........do you have any problems? Because we need something to teach you when we come over and I've got nothing...." She starts laughing, and it's/I'm now pretty easy to laugh at. Which doesn't bother me. It is funny. I just wish I could actually contact people. Of course, since it was funny, I then did it to Hermano Harper, our teacher. And man, this guy knows how to stay in character. Straight faced all the time. So, while we were taking turns practicing on him, Hermana Whitehead dared me to ask him if he had any problems straight up. So, of course I did. "Hey, My name is Hermana Reed, this is my companions Hermana Whitehead.......do you have any problems?" And to my everlasting humor he finally cracked character! Victory!! Probably not what I'm supposed to be focusing on but it made me feel better because I was totally blowing at contacting.

Good news: I'm getting a lot of special attention from my teacher. Bad news: It's because I still can't contact and we've been practicing for a week. This is how yesterday went. "okay, Hermana Reed, Hermana Whitehead, I want you to practice contacting me" So Hermana Whitehead starts out and she's asking him how he is, what he's been up to. And then for some ridiculous reason he looks at me like I'm supposed to be talking during this conversation too! So, I try. I really did try. But this is kind of how it came out. "Uh, yeah, so....yeah...how are you doing?...I mean, did you just ask that Hermana Whitehead? ......uh, wait...no, I mean...uh.............*sigh* hi!" And then Hermano Harper started laughing again and blissfully allowed me to bow my head in shame as he let another companionship try. It was ridiculous. I'll get better eventually. But, right now it's a bit sad.

Good news: I got my name called over the intercom! I'm famous! Bad news: It was the most anti-climatic story in the world. So we're in the middle of class and they ask for Sister Carlee Reed (hey! that's me!). They ask me to go to the nearest phone and call the front desk. And I have no idea why they would call for me. My heart is racing, I'm thinking "oh my gosh, someone died, or had a heart attack, or ....I don't know I did something wrong and they're telling me to pack my bags and go home." (which I don't know why they would do that over a phone call, but I was not thinking particularly logically at this point). So I tried one phone and it didn't work. I tried a second phone and it took forever to work. The front desk? Oh, they wanted me to go to the health clinic to turn in a paper. Right now. Not even after class, right now. Not even to get a shot. So, anticlimactic. I was minorly upset. if you're going to make me freak out I at least want to be shot! with a needle.....you know what I mean.

The rest is just good news. I finally saw Sister Bush. She leaves in two weeks but I got to talk to her for a bit. She's doing well. And is super excited to go out to Germany. I also got to see Brent, he ate lunch in the cafeteria. We talked a little bit. I see Elder Engstrom all the time. He's a zone leader now, and to my everlasting shame when he told me I said "Really?" with a rather incredulous tone. It was just a shocker because he has only been at the MTC for 2 weeks. Like me. He's doing good though.

We also had our first TRC experience this week. We got lucky because we think we were teaching a Bishop. He accepted everything we talked to him about and accepted the invitation to pray. He prays better than I do. But the teaching experience was good. I'm pretty sure we messed something up though because we didn't really have a plan. Details right? Alright, it's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress who are we kidding.

We did have a cool speaker this week. The Provo Temple President came and spoke to us, about how we are blessed and protected. He told this story about a Japanese bomber who participated in the Pearl Harbor raid. He was nearly done and had one bomb left and a bunch of bullets in his machine gun when he saw this big white building on Hawaii. So he went to go bomb it. The building was the Hawaii Temple, and as he went to release the bomb, the trigger wouldn't release. So he made another swoop and tried to strife it (gun it down essentially), but the gun refused to fire. So he was heading back to base camp, feeling super ashamed and tried to at least get rid of the bombs and bullets (he couldn't go back with them as that wouldn't be honorable). As soon as he was out to sea the bomb released without hesitation and his gun reacted normally. It was a strong testimony and a powerful story about how God loves us and protects his houses and his people. It was particularly poignant at this time as Japan is dealing with the aftereffects of the Tsunami. Our prayers are with them. I ask that you guys pray for them too.

Then in class we talked a little bit about Lot's wife and not looking back. As missionaries we've been promised blessings and have been forgiven as long as we move forward with faith. There's a mormon message about Lot's wife, I encourage everyone to go and read it.

This week is going great! I'm glad to hear everyone else is doing well. One request is that while I'm in the MTC if you would dearelder.com me or snail mail me that would be great. We only get 30 minutes total to write e-mails and read them. So I can plan out my response before writing and not have to worry about reading and responding. Thanks guys! I love and miss you all!

Hermana Reed

First week and looking great!

Hola familia! Guess what, the MTC is pretty much the sweetest thing I have ever been a part of. Everyone kept telling me it was going to be hard, and I'd probably cry, and love my companion and don't hurt the Elders. They never told me I would LOVE IT! For shame, all of you really. Just kidding. I love you all.

So for the awesome news. I made it to Sunday. My companions are awesome. My companion is Hermana Whitehead. She's from Salt Lake City, wants to be a nurse. And hilarious. Well, actually, the best part about her is that she thinks that I am funny. Which always makes me happy. So we get along great. Also, she's gorgeous. I'm surrounded by beautiful women. Maybe it's the place, but it sure makes me feel good. There are only two other Hermanas in the district/zone (we got lucky to have all four of us together). They are Hermana Orton and Hermana Habel. Hermana Habel is from Montana and reminds me so much of Danica. Fiery red hair and an attitude to boot. Her favorite thing to say is "Como se dice 'you craazy??" Needless to say, we laugh all the time. Hermana Orton is from Provo and she wants to start a bakery. She loves musicals, and now that I think about it kind of reminds me of Dee. Just a bit. I'm surrounded by family. The best part of the four of us? We're literally a walking joke. A blonde, two brunettes, and a redhead. The joke gets better because all of us are constantly walking into walls....or other people. All of which are accidents. Oh well. We laugh a lot and that's all that really matters.

So my first week in the MTC was crazy. Part of which was because I was mildly sick and the other because I'm mildy insane. No big deal. The Sisters at the MTC get to have extra gym time if they desire, meaning there are exercise classes at 6 in the morning before normal times. And of course, all us Hermanas are like, "yeah! that's sounds like so much fun!" except that means getting up at 5:45 in the morning. Oh wait, I haven't been training for this. What? No, I have not been going to bed at midnight+ for the past four years of my life....pshaw.....shoot. Luckily we don't do it everyday. We just go for Yoga (Tuesdays), Pilates (Thursdays) and Kickboxing (Fridays). Guess which one is my favorite? Kickboxing! I love it. Also, my flexibility is next to none and so whenever the teacher is like "okay, let's now go into downward facing dog" I'm all "how 'bout we do downward facing nap?" Something like that. I think it would be a much better yoga class if we just took a little napster.

Sickness. So you know how I'm like one of the most intelligent people in the world? Oh, wait. I'm not. So I had a cold essentially Wednesday through Sunday. Really I just got over it. On Thursday or Friday, I can't remember, I was trying so hard to breathe I decided to take some medicine right before gym so I could breathe during class afterwards. Sounds smart right? Well unfortunately I think I actually took Benedryll. Guess what that does. Ding ding ding! You are correct sir! It makes you sleepy.....shoot. So all during class in the afternoon I literally was fighting to keep my eyes open. You should look at my notes. They look like a mental person wrote them. Once I nearly hit my head on the desk because it got so heavy.

Okay, Elders y Teachers. We have 3 companionships in our district. They are all really cool. I'll talk more about them as I get to know them better. My current favorite is Elder Proctor, from Nephi, Utah. Mostly because he's trying so hard to learn spanish (no background), partly because he tries to speak spanish in Nacho libres voice (he thinks it helps) and partly because in the first four days he gained 13 pounds and has to send all his shirts home because he can't close his collar anymore. We all laughed so hard on that one. I couldn't believe it. Hilarious! But they are all really sweet and are trying so hard. We're all working very hard. We've only been here a week and most of us can already say a prayer in spanish and bear a very simple testimony. Like, two to three sentences. It's great.

We have two teachers. Hermano Harper and Hermano Goodman. Hermano Harper served his mission in Spain and sometimes when he talks I chuckle on the inside. This is why. In Spain, they have a lisp. So instead of saying "Gracias" it sounds like "Grathiaths." Which....is kind of funny. For the most part I'm able to focus and I don't get to distracted. But then he says something like "uno veth math" (one more time) and I almost let a laugh slip. Oh, Hermano Harper. He really is a good teacher though. We'll do some practice teaching and he'll be someone from when he served a mission. And for the most part he doesn't break character at all. He was pretending to be this retired guy once and Hermana Habel asked if we could help him find work. "I'm retired...." "what are you retired from?" "...nothing...." so funny, and he just had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing. I laughed right out loud. I'm not as good at holding it in unless I'm afraid I'm going to offend someone. Then I ask to use the bathroom or something and laugh in private.

Hermano Goodman is great too. He served Spanish speaking in Tennessee. I know, there are A LOT of people in Tennessee speaking spanish right? New to me too. But he really wants to teach us and help us out. he's been home five months and is new to teaching at the MTC. He always has great stories to tell and all of his investigators were "the bomb" that's what he says a lot. They were the bomb. He was the bomb. You guys are the bomb. And, when he's joking around with us he'll do the " hahahahaha....serious face" and walk away. It's so hard to not have a good time while we're here. I'm just absolutely loving every day.

And I promise I'm having spiritual experiences too and learning more how to teach. That was the thing I was worried about the most. And I'll tell you more next week, I've just been making so many mistakes this week that I wanted to tell you about! Oh my gosh! Like how much Heavenly Father loves me because he sent me an awkward Elder. He's not even in my zone but I got to meet him. It was at gym, and we were playing volleyball. And he's one of those tall, gangly guys, who hunches their shoulders to be shorter. Absolutely no talent playing volleyball but he wanted to play. everytime the ball came to him he would squeeze up his face into a grimace, close his eyes and hope he would hit it. It was so great. Heavenly Father loves me so much. And at one point we were out together so I asked what his name was and he was like "Bryan" "...really? Elder Bryan?" then he got all embarrassed. Looking back I can see that really I was being super rude. What if his name really was Elder Bryan and I totally just mocked his name! I'm so rude. I'm working on it though. I don't even remember what his real last name is. Farnsworth or something. But he's my awkward Elder and every time I see him I smile on the inside. Sometimes on the outside.

Okay, I'm running out of time. But know that I am having the time of my life and I'm loving the MTC. My companions are great. My zone is great. and I have never been so excited to push myself out of my comfort zone (I have to actually talk to people I don't know. And try to sincerely get to know them on the first meeting. Hermana Whitehead doesn't like to do it either so that will be a great weakness we'll both have to over come). Love you guys!

Love you!

Hermana Reed

Salt Lake temple trip and First letter from the MTC

Here are a few shots of Hermana Reed at the Salt Lake Temple the day before she went in to the MTC.


Here are some excerpts from the snail mail Hermana Reed sent home:

Its so great here! I saw Kent/Elder Engstrom today. And I heard Sister Amanda Bush's name called. (forgot she was still here!) (Both of these are from our home ward)

But yeah, it's so great here. My companion is Sister Whitehead from SLC, UT. And we get along great. She's also going to Buenos Aires Norte. We share a room with 2 other girls. A Sister Habel & Orton. Both going to different missions in Argentina - can't remember where - oh well.

But it's just been great. I got to meet my district and I said the closing prayer in Spanish and I was sweating and stuttering all over the place. But say it, I did. Okay, it was very simple. First times always the hardest, though, right. Check, and done!

I'll write you next Tuesday, that's when my P-day is. Apparently the first week is always hectic. So, as Beez said, if I can make it through the first week, I'll be fine.

Pre-MTC Photo Sesh

Here are a few pictures in front of the MTC the day before Carlee started her mission. (To clarify, she will henceforth be known as Hermana Reed, but at this point in time she was still Carlee)