Don't cry for me Argentina

I don't know why they would cry for me. That's where I'm going. Except I just heard that apparently south of neuquen just started having a war with Chile. Looks like I'm not going to the Tierra Del Fuego during the Winter after all!! There is a God and He loves me!

But that's just how I feel. You know, whatever. I'd go in the winter if God really wanted me to. The thing is, I'll know in what? 3 days? Whether or not I actually am? Woah. Craaazy. So, I leave on Monday. My flight leaves at 1:50, so mom and dad I'll be calling home around then.....because that's the only number I remember. Well, I'll try to call around 12:30. How about that? That way if dad could come home for lunch or something? Or mom, you can give me dad's number when I talk to you. Hope you're going to be home at that time. Seriously, my memory? Muchos errores ahora.

So, it's been a while since I wrote. And it's because they switched our schedules for the last week of my MTC experience. Namely, everything is a lot more structured, they no longer have pretend investigators that we have to make appointments with and teach. Instead we teach our teachers a lot more (so glad I only "get" to do that for one week). Oh, and we lost both of our teachers. Hermano Goodman we at least knew about. With the new schedule he was switched to a new zone, new district, the class he teaches is leaving the same day we are....I don't try to understand everything, but I don't really understand why we couldn't have kept him. The good news is, when we saw him last night, he told us how he still thinks of us as "his district" and when he comes to work he's teaching "the other district." He also mentioned how he's not as happy to go to work anymore like he used to be. We're so loved. :) And then, we lost Hermano Harper. That was a fun day. It was an accident. We got told Monday when our teacher didn't show up that there had been a mess up in scheduling. All the teachers in our zone had been given the schedules for a different zone. And because they signed up for classes at BYU based on that schedule, they weren't going to be our teachers anymore. We didn't even get to say goodbye. Let me tell you how much of an emotional day that was. Actually, let's not. I still want everyone to have some sort of respect for me. No one cried, let's just say....we may not have been as happy and as open with our teachers as we would have been if we had been told. It was a lot like our first week in the MTC when we were scared, closed off and didn't know what was going on. Except we had the added emotion of missing our old teachers, and not being happy with our new one. We ended up teaching one of our teachers Monday as a district and for the most part I didn't talk. Which I'm prone to do anyways, but then I also didn't know him, blah de blah. I didn't want to participate and everyone else had it handled. So, I'm just sitting there, and the new unliked teacher turns to me and jokes, "what's up with you Hermana? Cat got your tongue?" In spanish, por su puesto. Well, I'm never one to let a good situation run away. So I responded back in relatively fluent spanish and was the only one to get him to calm down, stop joking, and "as an investigator" get him to want the missionaries to come back. And then I stopped talking again. I'm not 5, I know spanish, and I'm a good missionary. And now he knows that.

I still don't talk much in class.

BUT!! The better news is that we were able to hear from TWO apostles these past two weeks. (Side note: please don't judge me for getting emotional and not being nice, I'm still working on repenting and I do feel bad about it but I was not happy with the changes. And now I know I never want to respond like that again, it was totally beneath me and not worth it, and I know he's a child of God too. It's all going to be okay. Now I know to be prepared for those emotions next time or whenever I get transferred suddenly. The other teacher that we met the second day is really nice. I like him in a decent enough way. He's just not Hermano Goodman or Hermano Harper...)

Apostles: The Tuesday Devotional before Easter Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke with us. And it was so powerful. That apostle just loves everyone, and he was talking to us and he was just making so many promises. He gave an apostolic blessing on everyone that we would receive the gift of tongues. We still have to work hard and study the language but he said it would be easier. And then he continued talking and he promised everyone that no matter what struggles we are faced with and gave examples, and he specifically stated if any of you have problems talking to people, or warming up to them (in essence, I don't have my notes with me) you WILL be fine. And, that was for me. It was actually probably for a lot of other people too, but I knew that that was something that I needed to hear. So, of course. I started bawling. Typical. Sometimes I'm such a girl. But it was great, and I loved it. And ever since, being a missionary hasn't been so hard. I still have a minor panic attack and blank when I'm preparing to go contact people, but for some reason, it always ends up going okay. I haven't offended anyone yet. And I can speak the language. I was talking with an employee during lunch (he was making my wrap for me, yum!) and he told me that I had a really good accent. I don't know if that means, good accent for a white gringo, or in general, but it made me happy. I also then got really nervous that he was critiquing my spanish skills so I said "gracias" pretty much like the whitest person you can think of. Yup, that's me. I can speak it....if no ones listening. Oh well.

And then, this past tuesday Elder Dallin H. Oaks came. So cool. And Two weeks in a row! Mind bomb. He gave a lot of statistics about missionaries and how much we are supported and then gave 7 specific counsels for us as missionaries. The main one (aka. the one I remember) was to allow ourselves to be instruments in the hands of the Lord. We are not our own. Our bodies are gifts from God so we can gain experiences and make choices that will allow ourselves to return to live with Him again, and eventually to become Gods ourselves. We need to allow the Lord to work through us, and trust in His divine power that we have a plan. It doesn't matter anyways, because God is in Argentina right now preparing the people I'm going to be teaching anyways. I'm kind of just a conduit. I'll do my part, and I'll make sure to be worthy of the spirit and God's diving guidance, but I don't really know what's best for myself or the people of Argentina. The good news is, God does. So, I'll leave it up to Him and just practice my teaching and learning how to listen to His spirit. I'd probably make bad choices anyways. I'm pretty emotional sometimes (see first story with my new teacher.)

And today we're in an epic day of classes. No normal classes, all the missionaries that are leaving next week get to go to an In-field Orientation. Which essentially means like 4-5 one hour classes on finding, our purpose, vision, and working with members. It's funner then I thought it was going to be. It also means that We don't get our p-day (supposed to be today. I'm e-mailing you during lunch. I have permission don't worry). We're going to try to go to the temple for the last time as a district tomorrow, but we're going to have to fit it around our classes which we still have. Tomorrow is supposed to be our p-day. As in, that's when we'll be packing up and what not. Oh packing. I'm glad I'm a minimilist. that's not spelled right. But, It's not going to take me a long time to pack. Woohoo!! Hehe, I can be such a jerk sometimes. It's not important. I'm ready to go. I'm not nervous. Kind of like I never really was nervous to enter the MTC. Just ready. It's the next step. I'll do what I can, fail where I can't. Move on to the next day. I have made some good friends here though. We have a riot of a district. Just wait till I get home. I've got so many stories to tell you. Like our teachers have always told us (real ones not the new teachers). There's something different about our district. We are going to do great things. (Being different might also mean we're all really weird. Which we are. But we embrace it. And it doesn't matter because our teachers love us anyways. They know we're cool).

Okay, gotta jet. Then I'm leavin' on jet plane. Don't know when I'll be back again. I'll talk to you on Monday. 12:30. Someone better have their phone on them. Or mom's cell. Turn that on. It's the only other number I ever bothered to memorize. whoops.

I love you all. The church is true. Always, even when the trials come and you just want to sit in a corner and not talk to anyone. The church is always true. Because God loves you. You're His child.

Hermana Reed

Last call for Dearelders!

Hermana Reed is learning to be a flexible missionary already! Recent communication has informed us that her schedule has been changed for her last week in the MTC and her preparation day is now Friday (4/29). She will be leaving the MTC on Monday (5/2) to head down to Argentina! As such, her last day receiving dearelder letters will be Friday, so all e-mails must be sent in by noon on that day. She will probably get snail mail through Saturday, but all letters need to be in by today. Sorry for the last minute notice, and thanks for everyone who's been writing and supporting her thus far. We will update her address as soon as we know where to send it next. I believe she may get pouch mail, but I'm just not sure. Thanks again, and look forward to an e-mail tomorrow!

Oh technology, how I loathe thee...

Okay, so because technology blows, this letter is going to be a little short. Don't worry about it though, the church is still true. also, i may not capitalize. This keyboard blows. And it took me ten minutes just to sign in, so.....what do you do? Pues....

Congratulations to my little/big brother. way to make it to prom for the first time. i bet you looked all fancy-shmansy in your tux, and wish i could have been there to laugh at you whilst you slept away the most important part of our sunday services. i love you! But between that and the big youth activity/games it sounds like the fam has been having a party, which is good because that ties in to one of the things i wanted to talk to you all about. Okay, i need everyone related to me by friendship or blood to be on the look out. apparently, satan is not so happy with my efforts and he's going to go after you to get me to stop. why would i be saying such a thing you ask? it may or may not be because for the past couple of weeks whenever there's a down moment or during a teacher interview, one of my leaders/teachers will ask me "how is your family doing?" seriously, out of the blue, and it catches me off guard every time. I hope everyone is doing well, and if you are. watch out because apparently, somethin's gonna happen.

Better news is that I have been doing a lot better with my teaching. part of that is because we've been practicing return lessons. and i can teach. no problem. sometimes i can even find out someone's spiritual problem without being told. so it's fun. the best is hermana hunt, who we've continued to teach. it's just so real. like yesterday we went in to teach her and for a moment she forgot that we actually taught her as her real self, so when i asked her "no, really, how are you doing?" she responded "oh yeah, you teach me. My day totally blew!" Actually, i think she said something about it being jacked up. which i was shocked to hear someone say in the mtc. Can't wait till I go back into the real world and get bombarded by swear words again. i may pass out from shock. maybe. Anyways, it was just nice because she told us about how she was stressing over finals, and her wedding, and how something came up and her parents aren't going to be there for the reception and she's afraid everyone from her fiancee's family is going to think she's an orphan. and it was nice, because when we really are teaching people in argentina, they are going to have bad days. they are going to have days where they are walking down the street and someone randomly gets out of their car hits them with a water bottle and then runs away (sis hunt said that happened to one of her investigators....weird). so cool. and then we were able to talk about celestial marriages and how the real importance of getting sealed in the temple is not the reception afterward or who is there or who isn't, but the fact that you are making a covenant with God to be completely loyal to him and to your spouse for the rest of eternity, and that you know after death you are going to be with your best friend, and nothing will be able to keep you apart. she left really happy. unfortunately we didn't actually get to teach the lesson we had planned. service. oh well, that's how the world turns i guess.

not even joking, that's pretty much all the story time i have for today. we taught our first full lesson in spanish at the TRC last week, and we also got asked to be "hosts" and show the new sister missionaries around. my companion had a friend come in so she bailed on me for the first part of the TRC and I got set up on an "exchange" with this very nice lady who had already served a mission in a spanish speaking locale. totally boosted my spanish confidence....not. during the lesson she'd lean over "transition to this..." "enough chit chat start the lesson..." things like that. and the whole time i'm sitting there thinking "lady! you're lucky i'm speaking spanish at all and it's related to the gospel in a real sentence. don't mock my ability *with a little glare and potential finger pointing*" anyways. good times. i hope to never go on exchanges at the TRC ever again. that will come true because we only have one more week at the trc! yay!

also, we finally got our meeting with the argentinian visa consul. he got to meet everyone in this big meeting. i thought i wasn't going to get a visa because that's what they had told me. but apparently they just sent me that note to make me go to the travel office to make sure i had already sent in my passport.....you couldn't have just asked. way to stress me out unneccessarily. lame. lame and lamer. but i've got my visa. in two weeks, i'm outta' here!

seriously, sorry for the lack of capitilization and shortness, but what are you going to do? complain? not my style! suck it up? sounds like it! i'll talk to you guys next week.

love you all, have a good week, don't die or do anything bad.

Hermana Reed

Betcha' Didn't Know I Was Famous!

Okay, so a lot of people have been asking about how my spanish is doing. I will tell you. Never have I learned so much about English as I have learning spanish. The actual language is coming along fine. I understand how to conjugate and what words mean what. Really, spanish isn't that hard for me. I've had a lot of background already, and with the gift of tongues, no problem-o. I'm actually a little worried that I haven't gone to bed with a spanish headache like many of the missionaries in my district....but not worried enough to spend more than a thought on it. I do struggle though. Just ask Hermano Harper who watched me try to teach the difference between imperfect and preterite. They are both ways to speak in the past. And I had to get up in front of the whole district and try to teach it. Let's just say, I could have been a substitute for the flaming pillar Lehi saw when he was praying to God in Jerusalem. Face *whoosh* beet red. The one subject I am not confident on I would be picked to teach. What. The. Lame.

Okay, so now on to why I am famous. I mean, other than the obvious. Of course I'm beautiful, charming, and wittingly funny, but we all also know that I stick myself in the corner....because that's where all the cool people sit. No, but this week, lots of things happened. First off, I met a one Sister Christiansen from a Sanford, Colorado who's going to Nauvoo (sound familiar Grandma?). I actually accidently contacted her, and she knew me. She called me out! Don't I know you? Oh man! You have grandparents in Sanford! And I'm sitting there thinking ".....oh crap, am I supposed to know her?" She recognized my face!! I wasn't very smooth. I admitted to not knowing her, she took it well. Actually, she thought I was Danica. She asked me if I had a twin. But she knows us....awkward for me. Actually, the really awkward part was when I ran into her a couple of days later, and tried contacting her and her companion...again. Didn't remember who she was, didn't remember where she came from. Again, she knew me. Shoot.

And then, there have been like three other people who have come up to me this week in devotionals or firesides, once in the cafeteria, all saying the same thing, "hey, you look familiar, do I know you?" to which I reply "....uh, I don't know, am I supposed to know you?" Blank look on my face, every time. No bueno. So, ha! famous.

Actually, the real famouscity (it's a word) happened during class. We were getting ready to sit down and start and our teacher pulls up a chair and says, "Okay, I'm going to use the words of a famous person when I say "something something, rapid spanish" Except he actually spoke in spanish. And I may or may not have been zoning out, so I didn't actually catch what he said, I was just thinking about famous sayings when I hear Elder Black say, "Oh, Hermana Reed." "......Que? what just happened?" Great time to zone out Hermana. Apparently, what had happened is that our teacher had asked us if there was anything we wanted specifically to work on. aka, do we have any problems (remember a couple e-mails ago when I said that while contacting? yeah, that time). me, having not paid attention once again blushes beet red, "oh.....I get it." ha, so there ya go. I'm famous and you didn't even know it. Although apparently our teachers had discussed this in a zone meeting and a lot of the other teachers thought it was brilliant. 95 % of the time it won't work, but it's very simple, and to the point. Hey! Just like me. :)

Okay, on to bigger and better things. The Fireside this Sunday was amazing. We had the BYU's Men's chorus come down and do a musical fireside. Which was amazing. I do love to hear men sing. They sang a bunch of songs, but the coolest were 4 songs from different countries. They did one from Hungary, and the men did a little dance with it. A song from New Zealand by the Mauri people. A song from Scotland. And my favorite, a song from China. (beez, that's for you) essentially they said two phrases over and over "i play my gong, I play my drum" that's it. But they had a native playing this cool windpipe. And...man, it was amazing. It was so nice to hear music!! I miss it. Especially in the morning when I'm getting ready. And running. And at night. I like music. Oh, but one of the best parts is that I got to see Brian Pearce, whom much of you won't know. But Clay will! Yup, he's still in it. And It was just great to see him, even though we're not bff's or anything. But I got to say I knew someone in the choir.

Oh, and speaking of music, I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting. hermana Whitehead did the leading. And by the end, we were both sweating from nerves I nearly couldn't play the keys. Not that anyone but ourselves were juding us. But, hey! It's nerve wracking, please don't judge. But I did realize something, later once I was sitting down. Playing the piano is kind of like the mission. Well, this experience was. The thing is, with everyone being rather limited on hymnal knowledge, we kind of sing the same songs all the time. So I stretched myself a bit and chose ones that we don't usually sing...aka ones I don't really know. And when did I decide to play the hardest song? That's right, right before the sacrament. Good job Hermana, way to bring in the Spirit with a botched song. But really, I was praying so hard, "please just let the spirit be here for the sacrament, despite my playing capabilities and the difficulty of this song. Pleeeeaase." Good news: I didn't play it that bad. So here's the connection. I have come out on a mission. And I'm going to have to stretch myself, and I know that I can't do everything on my own. I can't learn a language in 9 weeks, I can't learn how to be an amazing teacher in 9 weeks. I just can't. But if I put myself out there for a little embarrassment, God will be with me. He always has been. and of all the people mortal and immortal, he's never let me down. So, I'm going to do it. 3 weeks everyone. Then I'm in Argentina. Santa Vaca (holy cow).

The most exciting news though is that I've finally found someone I'm excited to teach. Her name is sister hunt and she works at the TE. She's supposed to pretend to be an investigator so we can practice but the last time we went we got distracted and talked about her real self. And then our 30 minutes was over and we hadn't done our lesson. So i asked her if she as a real person had any needs. And she told us. So I finally have a real person to teach. i don't like teaching the fakers. I know it's practice, but I have a hard time really getting into it. Because it's not real. I'm not really teaching a person from Mexico, I'm teaching a person who's pretending to be from Mexico. And it's not a real problem, it's a faker. Sis. Hunt is real. I can be excited about teaching. Yay!

Love you all

Hermana Reed

Pictures from the MTC

Me, Hermana Habel, Elder Reid (zone leader), Hermana Orton, Hermana Whitehead (my companion).
Elder Reid is serving in Argentina, Neuquen. He's all about treating the Hermanas with respect. We really like him.


Elder Mower, Elder Proctor, Elder Washburn, Elder Black, Elder Devore, Elder Streadbeck.
Hermanas Habel, Orton, Whitehead, Reed.
District 32-A.


Me and my companion. We have fun.


My zone: week 1. Elder Asoy is the awkward looking one with his hands clasped in front of him. To the left of Elder Black. He was one of my favorites. He is serving in Argentina, Neuquen. Way cool Elder.

Conferencia General

Hey there, Hi there, ho there,

Uh, so, here's my theory as to what happened last week. I was on this super slow computer, right? And it takes like a minute to log in. So, I type my e-mail with 29 minutes remaining, writing brilliant stories, filled with humor and spiritual insight, and then with 7 seconds left (plenty of time) I press send. Oh wait, it took a minute to log in. Shoot, so I think the internet sent half of my e-mail before being logged out (that part was still up and running no problem). Sorry you didn't get the rest of the e-mail. I didn't really talk about who spoke at the fireside. Just that all the missionaries were the musical number, we sang Called to Serve but like we were marching, and there were flourishes, and standing involved. It was great.

This week has been tan loco. Essentially, you know how people talk about how the MTC is a refiner's fire and God is melting out all our impurities and then molding us into the missionaries he wants us to be? Right now we're just a puddle of dross. I'm pretty sure all of the Hermana's have had a break down some point this week. Lots of crying, and lots of awkward "Can I help?" from the teachers. Also, our teachers have decided, that as women we may not be as willing to open up to male teachers, so we've gotten really close to Hermana Barker, who is the teacher for the District that came in right after us. She has seen all of us cry (although, to be fair, our teachers have to. We're not that picky about who we cry to as long as someone is listening). It blows though because more than anything we would like a priesthood hug, which requires a male presence, and we're not allowed to hug the Elders in our district. Super lame. The Elders are struggling to though, espanol is getting crazy, and we're coming up on the first week where we teach a lesson completely in spanish. Stress-maximum. It was a good thing it was General Conference this weekend otherwise, we wouldn't just be a puddle, we'd be....I don't know, gas or something, so much pressure we'd explode. Something, I don't know.

General Conference was sweet, I haven't had time yet to review my notes. But I stayed awake through all sessions, which I was rather shocked at, considering as a missionary sitting in the dark usually has a magnetic affect on my eyes, and not as a missionary I think I've been able to stay completely awake through all of the sessions.....maybe twice? We'd definately be pushing it with three times. Regardless, I loved all the talks and expect everyone to be married when I come back....except for Ethan. Go to prom, then on a mission. Fallyn....that would be weird, but I accept whatever the Lord has in plan. Jk, you're not even close to being out of highschool. Good luck with prom though, Ethan. That's pretty tight. You in a tux, I want pictures.

Anyways, so I wanted to take some time to talk about my district since I haven't done that yet. I sent the parentals pictures, so bug them to see them. First there's Elder Streadbeck who is an absolute sweetheart. He LOVES talking with the Hermana's and is super funny, and doesn't mind talking about girls or girl problems. Anything we throw at him, he's comfortable with. His companion, Elder Devore, reminds me of Ron Weasley. In looks and personality. It's an interesting mixture for a companionship. But no one's died yet, so we're good. Then there's Elder Mower, he's our leader, spiritually and physically. He's always keeping us on track, and has great thoughts. He helps boost us up when as a district we're struggling and knows how to give us confidence right before we go into the TRC for our teaching appointments. He was the district leader, now he's the zone leader. He is absolutely fantastic. His companion is Elder Black who is one of the most chill, relaxed men I have ever met. Nothing seems to affect this man. He studies really hard and has excellent insights, and his spanish is fantastic. He's our best speaker. Totally chill.

Elder Washburn reminds me of Eeyore. He kind of acts like he's glum but really he's very happy. very relaxed, go with the flow type of guy. Apparently he almost went home his first week, but no one except his companion knew it. And now that he's committed to staying he's broken out of his shell a bit, and this guy is funny! Which is good because his companion, Elder Proctor is a ridiculous type of person. Elder Proctor reminds me a lot of Ethan, plus he's a huge jokester, loves to tell stories and make other people laugh. But he's also such a sweetheart. You could talk to him about anything. Elder Proctor was also the one having heart problems, and it is phenomenal to see the growth he's made by relying on the Lord. Good news in that regard, he had a 20% chance of going to Argentina, his heart was functioning so badly. And, he's going. When he got the news he was ecstatic! And we all were for him as well. He wanted so badly to go to Argentina. And now he can. It's way cool.

So, that's all the Elders. I love my district. We get a long so well and are so tight with each other. A lot of people have commented on it, which intrigues me. I mean, you're with these people 24/7 for 9 weeks, how can you not get close to each other? But we're already planning on going for tractor rides in Nephi, going to each other's homecomings. We want to see each other after the mission, and we're all kind of sad that we're not all going to the same mission.

Okay, that's about it for me. I'm running out of time. But one last thing. There is this Elder in our zone, Elder Kirk. He actually just flew out to Chile this Monday. But if everyone could keep him in your prayers that would be great. His mom died last Friday. It was very unexpected. His dad woke up and went to check something/work on something and when he came back about an hour later his wife still hadn't gotten up. So, she died in her sleep, but it wasn't like she was sick. I don't think. And when Elder Kirk told us on Sunday he said that his dad IS sick, and he knew when he came on a mission that there was a good probability that his dad wouldn't be there when he got back. As he was leaving, Elder Kirk was smiling, he knows that what he is doing is important. But it's going to be a rough couple of months, especially as he's heading straight into Chile right now. He can do it, but if everyone would pray for him, that would be great.

keep on truckin' no day is so bad you can't find at least one reason to smile. :)

Hermana Reed