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