Christmas is for......everyone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hermana Reed

Merry Christmas!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hermana Reed

Wonder of Wonder, Miracles of Miracles...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hermana Reed

Antes de morir. VIVE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hermana Reed