Tis Sweet to sing of Matchless Love

I want everyone to know that the title of my e-mail really has nothing to do with anything. It´s currently the song that is running through my head. Actually, it´s the melody. Because I can´t remember all the words, and I don´t know the words in spanish. Sometimes this inbetweener thing is confusing. But don´t worry, for the most part, I can think and speak. Except for yesterday, we were in a lesson and I was teaching and I said something along the lines of "Si, y cuando hacemos eso, podemos feel....no wait, that´s english...sentir....". Luckily they were very nice about everything. It´s weird too because a lot of people here are learning english or have learned english, so when I mess up and whip out an english word they still know what I´m talking about. So, I have to be extra sneaky when talking in English. I can´t say things like "Hermana! I don´t know where you´re trying to go with this lesson!" Because they understand that. Bummer. Luckily that doesn´t happen very often.

But, mom, I wanted to thank you for Drew´s letter. This week we´ve actully spent a lot of time talking about temples. In Relief Society, Principios Del Evangelio, and in lessons with our Recent Converts. We were talking yesterday with this family of the blessings of the temple and their experience. They were sealed as a family about 10 years ago and they still remember the feelings they had, how everything was so white and how literally they could feel the presence of God in the temple. And it made me really want to go to the temple. It´s been a while now. I´m starting to miss it a lot. The temple in Buenos Aires is being renovated right now, and it´s not supposed to be completed until maybe June of next year. Hopefully I´ll be able to go. I really want to. The point is, Temples are amazing. They really are the one place where we can be family´s forever. With our Father in Heaven. And It´s hard to have feelings of preocupation or worry while in the temple. For a moment, everything just stands still and you can focus on your priorities. On God, and all the blessings in our lives. And one of the things I´ve really enjoyed is working with the people here in Argentina. Because even though we´re in the capitol, the place where people have more money, there are still the humble, and most people recognize the need for God in their lives. But it´s sad too, I mean, as a missionary, we work with a lot of Inactive members, or Less actives. And sometimes we talk with them and they share these powerful, wonderful stories and testimonies of how they have seen the work of God in their lives. But then, we ask them how their reading is going, and they haven´t read the scriptures in over a week. And they don´t go to church. And All i can do is sit there and wonder, "you just told me how you know the scriptures are true, and you´ve felt/seen the blessings of going to church every week! Why don´t you go??" Super sad. And as an outside observer it´s hard to work with them and then have to sit back and allow them to use their agency and choose to receive the blessings in their lives.

Okay, so on to investigators. We´ve unfortunatley had to drop a lot of investigators this week. We had one girl tell us she asked God about the Book of Mormon and got a very firm and clear "no, it´s not." Turns out she hasn´t actually read in the Book of Mormon, rough, but when we tried to go back she wouldn´t let us in the door. Deysi and her family have stopped letting us come to teach them, and they are moving. Which turned into a bit of a bummer week. But we´ve had a lot of practice teaching about the Restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. So, that´s good. I highly recommend everyone practicing their testimonies. Because then you remember that you actually have one. And that is always great. The good news is that after one exciting adventure we had investigators in the church this week. One investigator, Kelly, didn´t want to go by herself (normal) and was at her work. So we had to go pick her up in taxi, turns out she works out of our area so we had to get permission to do this, but of course we didn´t realize this until after we had gone to her house and knocked (loudly). Oi. Good news, we still made it to church on time. Right as they started the opening Hymn.

Anyways, the work is great. I love it. I´m starting to feel more and more comfortable with my call, with the language, and with my companion. She really is great. Hermana Cariola is always optimistic, and really good about knowing what to say to help those who are searching for the truth. And really, I know that this church is real. That it is the same church that Jesus Christ established while he was on the earth. Sometimes, I feel like I´ve gotten complacent saying it, knowing it for my whole life. But, no. For reals. There are a ton of people who have so many questions, valid questions because the permission of God had been gone for so long. But we don´t have to worry about it anymore. The time is now. It´s the time to share what we know. So, for all you Broomfield-ers. Good luck with the spotlights and the media push. And invite everyone. It´s as simple as that. You don´t have to teach, or push, or call people to repentance. That´s what missionaries are for, they are the teachers. Invite your friends to church. That´s what President Gulbrandsen told us to do. So we´re making lots of friends and inviting them to church. :) I love my life right now! It´s so amazing and filled with miracles.

Love you,

Hermana Reed

Zoologico - I could have been in Denver

The good news is, pretty much all zoos are the same. Something about us all living in the same world where all the same animals are close to extinction. Something new is that I didn´t really like it. We went to the zoo for p-day today and really all I could think was "poor animals" they sit in cages all day long with people annoying them, nothing to do, no one to visit. And lots of annoying, loud, people pointing, taking pictures and chucking edibles at them. And there weren´t even good explanations/plaques of information to talk about the animals. Not my favorite experience ever. And I´m not going to get on any animal right bandwagon or anything, but I think the zoo just became one of the places I´d rather not visit. Oh well, you learn something new about yourself every day right. The good news is, my companion LOVED IT! And as along as she´s happy, I´m happy. we have a billion pictures that I´ll send a few of to you. No worries. We look great.

On a more spiritual and happy note. This week has been crazy. Good, but crazy none the less. The best news of the week comes in the form that Johanna got baptized! Hurray. It was a close call because there was a Relief Society activity at the same time and we literally had to drag the Young Men Group Leaders from Mutual to be witnesses, and the Priesthood leader that led the service did the baptizing as well. It´s a good thing we have some amazing members in Nuñez. The better news is that Johanna is doing amazing, she was confirmed Sunday by the Bishop, it was a beautiful blessing. And Johanna was really touched. She understands the importance of baptism, we know this because she got baptized-desipite her phobia of water. A phobia that we didn´t know about until she entered the water. She is a tender daughter of God, and there are a lot of people that congratulated her on Sunday.

For other investigators, we´re kind of in a flux right now. Eliana and Deysi now haven´t been to church in two weeks, which is really unfortunate because they loved it, and we had worked with Deysi to the point that she wanted to be baptized, but now she seems to be dropping a bit. We´re going to try to have a lot of contact with her this week, and hope that helps. She´s so close. We need to do better at teaching the importance of taking the sacrament. We´re going to do that this week si o si. Because I don´t want to drop her and her family. If we have to, we will, because there are people who are out there that want to listen. But her family could really use the blessings.

Other than that Bel Grano has been really nice in giving us lots of references. We´re going to make contacting a high priority this week because, as you can see, we have a lot of people to contact. Lots of references, or at least names of neighbors that we can talk to.

One thing from my personal study comes from Alma 6:6 which talks about fasting for the benifit of those that don´t have the Gospel. This is something that we always can do. It can be general or specific, but it´s something that every member of the church can be a part of. And this was Alma talking! It still applies today. And then I´ve been studying the story of Ammon and Lamoni, and there are just so many perfect examples of Christ like attributes and inspired questions. I love it. It is a really good missionary experience. I´ve learned a lot.

Sorry that this e-mail is lame, there are next to no stories, and very brief, I´ll try to update more next week. One funny moment came when there was another baptism of the ward. We went to drop off some pants for him (ward baptism, he´s 8 years old). So he goes to try on the pants comes out with his shirt up and starts dancing disco....which immediately made me think of Ethan. Love you little bro.

Thank you for your inspiration and prayers.

Hermana Reed

Pst..Hermana, Como se dice 15 in ingles?.....I don´t know

Okay, so this week was a week of miracles, and hilarium. It´s so crazy, but I love it. First off, we received a referral that there is a man who lives in our area that stopped the missionaries in a nearby area that lives in America, or is from there, and new some mormons in California, he´s tried out a few religions, didn´t like any of them, didn´t feel they were valid, and wanted to learn more. Justo, lives in our area so we get to teach him. Yea! Except, he´s from America, so he probably speaks English. Aha! I get to teach in English and my companion gets to practice her english. Score, because we had previously been talking about her need to practice more english. The hope was to teach Amir (the Muslim) from a few weeks ago but he doesn´t live in our area. Que bajon. But now we have the chance to teach this American. So, we go to call him, and me being the native english speaking companion get to make the call. It goes a little something like this me: Hola, como esta... uh, somos las misioneras, uh, recibimos su nombre de Elder Peterson (our district leader) y queremos conocerle...(To be fair, I hadn´t actually thought about what I was going to say before I placed the call. Something about trusting that the Lord will fill my mouth and forgetting that if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. shoot). Him: oh, hola! oh, it´s okay, we can speak in english. me: oh good, because I pretty much botched that one up in Spanish. Anyways, we would love to share our message with you, when do you have time that we could meet? him: uh, sometime this week, how about Sunday (there´s actually more than this but I´m giving you the summary). me: okay, perfect let´s meet at such and such place at 7? him: perfect, and is this your number because it has a bunch of weird zeros and is coming up all crazy. me: oh, no, we´re calling from a Cabina. if you have any questions you can call our celluar. our number is ........uh*pst, hermana, como se dice quince en ingles?* shoot, uh...one...five...cuatro no four uh.

The point of that story is I´ve forgotten my numbers in English. You don´t get my whole phone number because I don´t want any stalkers. Sorry, my heart belongs to the Lord. The good news is, I finally remembered english and we had a meeting with him. Except that I forgot to invite him to church so I had to call him back and repent. I´m still a greenie. But that´s cool.

On a more spiritual note, the work is booming here. We´ve had miracles, we´ve had rejections, and we have people progressing. It´s all good though. I like it. Our three baptismal dates fell this week as they hadn´t quite received sure fire answers. One was adorable. Eliana is 8 years old and in every prayer she asks Heavenly Father whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. And Her mom told us that the first night she was very dissappointed because she was expecting a dream or vision or a voice to tell her the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Unfortunately, as nice as those direct answers would be, God asks us to us a little more faith, we have to listen to the Holy Ghost. We´ve explained this to her. She understands now. But she is so adorable, and intelligent. In our last lesson the adults were talking a bit and she wanted to share what she had learned in primary a week ago about the Nephites and the Lamanites. But no one was listening. So, in the middle of this room, she bows her head and says a prayer. I watched her do this, and afterwards she explained to me that her teacher had taught her that when you don´t know what to do, say a prayer. And that´s what she did. It´s incredible to see the faith of children. And don´t worry, eventually she explained all about the Nephites and the Lamanites and how the Nephites had the Holy Ghost.

That was a tangent, the dates fell through because the mom isn´t sure of her answer. And then Satan whipped out his "i want everyone to be miserable" stick and stopped the water in the building and the spouse had a load of work and needed help. So Everyone stayed home from church. We were planning on having her interview that day. Bummer. But it´s okay. We went to visit her after church and finally found her (we don´t have credit in our phone for a week, score) and talked with her and now she wants to get baptized. Like, really wants it and not just knows she should/that we´re missionaries and that´s the point of our chats. But she still wants a bit more knowledge first. So, we´ll teach her more, and hopefully she can see a baptism, that would be great. Her family is amazing.

Plus, we´ve contacted the husband and are starting to teach him too. This helped out Deysi a lot. Because at the time contacting the husband was a priority to help Deysi feel better about our discussions. However, he is very difficult to get a hold of, and Deysi had been investigating the church, loves it, so does her kids, but wasn´t sure about whether or not she had received an answer to her prayers. Always felt peace, tranquilidad (?) y what not, but wasn´t sure if she was sure for sure. So she was praying that the missionaries would some how contact her husband to help her out because she really wants things to go better for her family. well wouldn´t you know, justo we were in the area, went to go teach her kids and daddy comes walking up the steps (literally, this family lives on the 8th floor of an escalator-less building, whoopie). We talked with him and he´s been more tranquil ever since. what´s the translation for tranquilidad? calm? I don´t remember, but you use that word a lot in castellano. Oh! Other miracles include but not limited to a couple of times when we went to go knock on her door, knowing she shouldn´t be there but wanting to try and JUSTO! she was there, thinking about wanting to talk to us but couldn´t because she didn´t have credit in her cellular. God is a God of miracles. Love it.

Anyways, it´s been a fabulous week. God loves me lots. He blesses me every day and I know this is true. Thank you so much for your prayers. Know that I´m praying for you always. And from what I hear of the wedding it was a success and there was lots of eating involved. Sounds like my family.

Hermana Reed

P.S. If anyone would like to witness a miracle I would suggest praying for one and then looking for it, because miracles don´t just come through visions and angels. Most of the time they come forth by the work and effort of our family and friends. Love you!

We´ve got lots of time and little to do..wait, reverse that.

That´s how I feel at the moment. Lots and lots to do, very little time to do it in, and fewer people to help us out. We do quite a bit of running here, involved with getting home on time. The motivation is that a new norm has been laid down. Something about, if you get home late you have to call the district leader, who calls the zone leaders, who calls the assistants to the President, who calls the President. That´s a lot of people who get to know that you were home late. We haven´t had to do that....yet. We´ve had a lot of close calls though.

The fun news is that the work is really progressing here in Nunez. Lots of contacting means lots of new people and lots of practice teaching about the Restoration. I almost feel comfortable teaching that one now. But it´s good, Hermana Cariola always backs me up. Sometimes I get a little down after I explain something and the investigators replies "I don´t understand". Shoot, right? Well, sometimes it´s because I didn´t explain well, and others it´s because I didn´t speak spanish well. It´s about 50/50 at this point. But hey, 50% is 50% and I feel pretty good about that.

The funnest story of the week comes when we were walking to a lunch appointment and this man on a bicycle stops us and asks "Excuse me, do you know of any Christian churches in the area?" well, we just happen to be missionaries sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and we can help you out! We have an appointment with him in the upcoming week. Not exactly sure if his intentions are pure, so we´re going to bring a Priesthood holder with us, but if it is, GREAT! If not. hehe, for shame :(

Other than that, it hasn´t been a super different week. Lots of teaching. We have a family that absolutely loves coming to church. And the mom loves talking with us. Unfortunately they are moving soon, so we´re hoping that they will receive an answer the the Libro de Mormon is the word of God so they can get baptized before they move. She was sweet and said how she would still come back and go to church with us. It was hard to explain that there are different wards and that she´ll probably go to the new ward...because we didn´t want to. They are a great family. She has a little girl that has 8 years and every time we ask her how Primary was she answers "Hermosa! (Beautiful/Amazing/Wonderful)" She´s so cute. I´ll try to get a picture of them soon.

Anyways, lots of prospective members, all with real interest. The biggist impediment is the idea that they need time to understand everything about the church. I don´t think they fully understand that even I don´t understand everything about the church. And I´ve been a member my whole life! But we´re working diligently to help them feel comfortable. Because it is a big change that they are making. It´s great to see the difference in their lives already, though. It´s a tangible difference in level of happiness.

Anyways, gots to go. The distrito wants to hang out in China town today. Thank you for your prayers. Dee good luck getting married. Rachel, good luck getting married. Know that I´m thinking about both of you and this step in your lives. I´m so happy for you both. And send me pictures!!! Well, do what you need to do first. It´s not like I´m really going anywhere. But Happy Marriage!

Hermana Reed

So a Muslim, a Jew, and two Athiests were walking down the street....

sound like a walking joke? Should be, that´s about the story of my life right now. Not even joking though, in one day of contacting ( many an appointment fell through, boo) I met an a Muslim that spoke English, a Jew that wouldn´t let us give directions to a passerby, and an Athiest family that was very nice about me being from America. Lots of religious excitement. Oh! And two LDS missionaries (us). Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!

Okay, so individual story time. So, I´m with Hermana Cariola right? Essentially she rocks my socks. She´s very patient, and VERY helpful. She´s teaching me loads, especially how to teach and how to contact people on the street. We´ve talked with more people in her one week (street contacting obviously) then in my two previous transfers...probably doubled. But it´s not scary with her. And she´s helping me do it to. But don´t worry, it´s not all a one-sided learning experience. I´ve taught her very important American phrases. Like "Just kidding!" and "Well, look at that!" You know, the important ones. Actually, it´s more like I´ll slip them in to the conversation because they come so naturally and then she asks what they mean, do you know how hard it is to explain sarcasm? Just kidding - when you say something but you don´t really mean it. Most people use it when they´ve said something mildly negative but don´t want the person to get mad....maybe you shouldn´t use it. But then I think of all the times when it´s not with something negative, and then my head explodes, I forget how complicated English is. The fun part really was when she asked me to pray in English the other day. Haven´t done that in 5 months, and it was a lot harder than expected. Which is weird, because when I write e-mails, don´t really find myself lacking in the English area. Must be because I practice my prayers so much in Spanish.

So Muslim, so we´re on our way to an appointment. It´s not a set appointment so we´re contacting along the way. We´re walking and this gentleman walks up and says "Do you speak English?" since I do, I responded, "Si, oh, I mean, yes." So he asks me directions to a street here in Buenos Aires, since I don´t know where this street is, I look for it in our handy dandy map booklet thingy and my companion starts sharing our message in her broken English. I wish I could act this out for you because it´s awesome. But she´s sharing her testimony and Amir (that´s his name) starts asking her, do you know who is the father of Jesus? HC "Dios" A "Who´s the father of Dios" HC and me "Psh, I don´t know." Amir "Me neither, no one knows. Who´s the mother of Jesus?" HC "On earth, Mary" Amir "Exactly, you don´t know anything about your religion." HC "uh, okay, we would like to share our message, and we have another testament of Jesus Christ". Amir "Okay, how about this. Do you know the Qoran (sp?) I´ll bring you two of my books, and you bring me yours and I´ll read yours okay. And then we can talk." HC and me "uh....okay." Anyways, so we get this man´s number, and later he actually calls us for directions to the church. As in, he was actually planning on coming. He ended up not because he was sick in bed, but he kindly called us to tell us this and asked us to pass by sometime in the week. He´s going to get baptized.

After the Muslim man, we´re walking and we see this Jewish man talking with a woman very animatedly. We´re all fine and dandy leaving this man alone but HE waves US over. I just want to point that out because I think it is important. So we go over, and he´s talking to this woman who clearly does not want to be there about the necessity of baptism and how she´s going to Hell, and he´s speaking rapildly and not really listening....well, to anyone really. And so we share our bit, about how there are prophets again on the earth and we have a message to share that will bless families and change lives and then the man starts talking again. While he is talking a car pulls up and asks us directions to a certain street. We try to answer but the man literally steps in front of us to block our view and won´t allow us to answer! So we say the direction of the street anyways...because he can´t block sound. Leave them both with Pamphlets of the Restoration and just walk away. I feel bad for the girl.

We continue walking to the appointment and there´s a family waiting for someone. So we go up and talk, and I get to initiate this time so I do, and afterwards they ask "so, where are you from?" *whoosh of air as I release all my tension* "the united states!" "ah, we could tell. But we understood, don´t worry." Whew, relief. Unfortunately, turns out they are aethiest. Is that how you spell it? I can´t remember, my spelling is no longer what it used to be. So, they didn´t want to set a return appointment (darn). But they were very nice. That was an interesting day.

The miracle of the week was that we have this family of investigators that loved going to church last week. So we go to pick them up again this week and they are not home. I can´t find their number in the phone so we can´t call them. So we head to the bus stop and while we´re walking they call us! Hallelujah! They ask for directions and the cross roads and say they´ll meet us at the church. Brilliant! Now we have to get there. But we missed our normal bus (it came early!) so it´s 9:25 when the next bus comes. Did I mention church starts at 9:30? Oh yeah, and sacrament meeting is first. So, we´ve got about 1/3 of the ward on our bus, and I´m panicking because we cannot miss taking the sacrament. We make it right at the end of the sacrament hymn. We all "sneak" in (with about 20 of us it´s hard to sneak anything) and sit down in the back row. But the family is there, a lot of less active members that we had contacted that week were there. Beautiful. And it came to pass, that my week as senior companion came to an end. Me being senior companion because my senior companion doesn´t know the area, the investigators, the recent converts, or the streets. We´re pretty much a walking team. Because it´s her first time being senior companion. But it´s all good. But let me tell you how excited I was for this P-day. STOKED! I already took a nap. sorry, priorities. But I love you all tons. Thank you for your prayers, please, keep it up. I always need them, but I always feel them too.

Mom - about your question of hope, faith and knowledge. I think it´s a circle. I think it always starts with hope. Because you have to want something to be true before you are willing to try it out. The faith comes when you are willing to act on your desire. In many cases it requires an action - prayer, fasting, making the phone call, whatever it be, and the end result is a knowledge of some sort. Or at least an evidence. When we can see and/or recognize the blessings of our faith, that is a level of knowledge. It´s not certain because we don´t know the exact result of our faith. We don´t know for certain that every time we pray for something we will receive exactly what we asked for. And this is in part beacuse as mortals, we don´t truly understand what is best for us. That´s where the faith comes in, that our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us, and is going to give us what we need. Even if we don´t recognize it. But we gain knowledge that Heavenly Father will always answer our prayers and always keeps His promises. That´s what I think anyways. The faith and knowledge cycle a lot. Especially beacuse as mortals we have a tendency to forget our knowledge, or start to doubt what really we already know. Then we need to act with faith again. Silly mortals, always needing to be reassured are we.

Love you all,

Hermana Reed