Now, the headliner may be interpreted in many ways. So, which way am I
going to go? Spiritual? Economical? Physical? Wrong. Sangral. I would
like to revisit a moment we had this morning because I don´t want to
forget it. And it´s funny.
So this morning, we were talking about donating blood. I forget how
the conversation came up, but we were. OH! Hermana Renteria said she
liked my freckles. Which I know, in the beginning doesn´t make sense.
But it does, I told her "yes, that´s what got me all the boys before
the mission (sarcasm)" and then I had to tell a story about a
phlebotomist who told me that he really liked my vein, and ended his
sentence with "oh, but I bet the boys tell you that all the time"
".....yes, every date I´ve been on...." Anyways, so that´s the
connection. The point is, we then go into a discussion about donating
blood, and more importantly, the cookies that we eat afterwards (as
missionaries we are always hungry, and it was close to lunch). So we
are sitting there talking about cookies, and Hermana Bray turns to me
and says "Hey, what type are you?" "Chocolate chocolate chip....."
Now, I would like to make it clear, that I actually knew that she was
asking what blood type I was. But we were talking about cookies. So I
chose to interpret the question how I wanted.
There are two spiritual things you can learn from this story. First:
If you want a specific answer, ask a specific question. God can only
answer questions that we ask, so get specific and you will see
specific results (i.e. peace for a test, the gift of discernment for a
wedding, getting into a good college program, a baptism, etc.) The
Second is that we are all different. And even though we interpret the
same question in different ways, we always get a truthful answer.
Especially when we ask God. It reminds me of when President Hinckley
went on Larry King, and Larry asked him a question, and President
Hinckley didn´t actually answer it, he answered the question that
should have been asked. I obviously was very touched by this
experience and remember all the details. The point is it happened, and
President Hinckley was a good example. That very random story actually
turned out pretty good. I guess I´m getting pretty good at being a
missionary. I´m letting God mold me into the instrument He needs me to
be. That´s uplifting.
Now, on to the spiritual side of my week. We had a training meeting
this week for all of the district leaders, zone leaders and trainers,
which meant our entire district was at this meeting (kind of cool) and
we talked a lot about being bold, and the vision of the mission. Truly
understanding that if these people do not accept the Gospel in their
lives they can not return to the Kingdom of God. Sí o sí. We can not
fully and truly repent without being baptized by someone who holds the
true authority of God, by His order. And we talked about how important
this was, and how we will change our missions if we better understand
this vision. It was a very good meeting. Anyways, so we get home from
the meeting and we had plans to go visit this investigator named
Daniel de Ballester. That´s what we call him anyways. He works in our
area, but lives in Ballester. Anyways, the Elders from Ballester had
asked us if we had talked to this Daniel in a while, because he was
golden, but then one day he got super mad at the Elders and they
didn´t know why. And during nightly planning I felt it was really
important to make sure we pass for Daniel even though he is
technically not our investigator. So, with this new vision, we go to
visit Daniel. Turns out that one day the Elders called him one to many
times and he got upset. He said they called him 10 times in one day,
but I think he was exaggerating. And that´s not the point. The point
is, he got upset, whatever the reason, and now doesn´t want to talk to
them anymore. So, Hermana Alvey and I got to play medic. And we
explained to Daniel that all of us missionaries are just so happy for
this opportunity to help Daniel, because he is looking for peace and
tranquility and he felt it in the church, and he wants to get
baptized, and the Elders are just so excited for him that they want to
help all the time. We then pointed out, that they are 19 years old, so
they may not be able to hold back their excitement at times, and maybe
they got a little carried away. But what is important is that Daniel
can feel the truth, and the Elders are the ones that are going to help
him find it.
In the end, Daniel understands a little bit better (thank you Holy
Ghost for confirming the truth and helping us smooth things over. We
received a lot of inspired words to help with that). So we ask him,
"So, when can you meet with the Elders?" In the end we end up setting
up an appointment with him right there. And we had him call the Elders
in Ballester. Now, we didn´t have their phone number, so we had to
call our district leader, ask for the phone number. And then when
Daniel didn´t have credit (i.e. minutes) we let him use our phone.
That´s called taking the initiative, being persistent and
understanding the vision. Daniel will be meeting with the Elders
tomorrow. He´s going to get baptized.
It was a great experience. And, usually I´m not very pushy. I´m still
not. But I was able to share my testimony with him. And I was able to
see him feel the truthfulness of my words as the Holy Ghost confirmed
to him what I had said. And it was a great experience. I don´t do that
every time, but I´m getting better and more consistent.
Other experience of the week.
So, we had a good district meeting, where we prayed individually as
companions as to five families in the ward that we should visit this
week to ask for references. One family name we received was the Family
Roig. They are awesome. Anyways, so we are working in this area and we
have a bit of time before our next appointment and we pass the Roig´s
house and are about 2 blocks away when I just get the idea that we
should go back. The thought process really was "...meh, sure, why not,
let´s go visit them now. We are in the area." So we go back and knock
on the door and Hermana Roig answers the door in tears. "Hermana!
What´s wrong!?" We go in and start talking to her. And it´s nothing
super big, just whenever she´s on her period she gets a little
depressed, but never really this bad. She´s sitting there crying, not
uncontrollable shaking tears, but she is obviously not a very happy
woman. And so we ask her what we can do for her. And we talk for a
bit, and I decide, well Hermana, we´re going to read in the scriptures
with you, and then we wanted to practice with you the Introduccion to
the Book of Mormon, something we do everymorning, it´s how we set
baptismal dates. mmkay? Okay.
So, we start reading in Alma 13. Which we had read with President
Gulbrandsen, which basically states that we have been saved for these
latter days, and the Plan that God has for each and every one of us is
specific enough that He has planned the very day that we would be
here. For instance, we have been called as missionaries here to the
Buenos Aires Norte mission because we have people we need to teach,
who would only accept the Gospel from us and no one else (maybe we
made a pact up in Heaven I don´t know, I just know it´s true). And it
says we were saved for the last days because of our great faith. It is
an amazing chapter, everyone should read it, because it applies to
everyone, It´s just awesome to read it as a missionary because I´m all
like "Whoopah, I´m so a servant of the Lord right now. Rock it."
Anyways, so we have a little testimony meeting, and then do the
practice with her. And she ends up sharing with us that this severity
of depression has only happened twice in her life. Now, and we´re
here. And the other time, when she was in her house crying, there was
a knock on the door, and the Elders were standing there. God knows us
individually and by name. And He sends His angels to answer the
prayers of His children. I´m grateful for this opportunity to be an
angel of the Lord. And I know that every friend I have and every
member of my family has been an angel for me at some point in my life.
Thank you for being my angels. I hope I have been able to be one for
you.
Anyways, it was a good week. Very successful, lots of experiences. I
got chastised again for not being super awesome about writing in my
journal. I do want to do that more, hopefully it will be easier as
Hermana Alvey and I are moving in to a separate apartment. Less
distractions.
I love you, keep being you. That´s how God made you, and God doesn´t
make mistakes.
Hermana Reed
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing...
Ma! I remembered what it was. This is super not important, but I learned recently, that if you so desire, you can be facebook friends with Hermana Gulbrandsen, and then you can see all of our Zone Conference pictures. Which is good because you know how awesome I am at sending you all pictures (sorry....kinda. I´m actually banking on facebook for most of my pictures when I get home, i.e. getting them from other people. I do remember that I have a camera. Promise). Anyways, the point is, you can go look at the pictures and see how much I still don´t like pictures. But I take them and think of you...in a good way. I love you! You are awesome.
Randomness number 2: I don´t think any of you know this, but the pillowcase that I brought is the one that Aunt Allison made like 7 Christmases ago, or something like that. The point is, I love it, still use it. And it made me think one day last week. We passed by a house and it had a shield emblem on it. We as a family need an emblem, and I think it should have CTR on it. As in...Choose the Reed!! We can put it on shirts and then go play basketball or something. I know this is crazy, but yes I thought about it. And it just applies to everything: companions (Choose the Reed), sports (CTR), marriage (CTR), is there anywhere that this doesn´t apply? I submit that it cannot! I know. I´m a genius.
And now on to more spiritually uplifiting and connected stories. Okay, so essentially, Dad is spiritually connected and received correct revelation about me this week. It was a week of seeing miracles, many of them small and simple, some of them like bolts of lightning. For instance, last week our district Leader Elder Leon received revelation in the form of an idea to do a choclo de fuerzo - I have translated that into a "powerplay". Essentially what we did, is grouped together with all the missionaries in our district, had the Obispo from Bulogne (our DL´s area) pray about what area we should work in, and then all the missionaries went there and essentially opened the area. The thought was that the Bishop would receive the revelation to know where the people that God is preparing are, and then we can find them quickly through our experience and our faith. So, we all got together, carpooled over to Bulogne (a more ritzy area that had absolutely no investigators or members living there) and essentially knocked doors for 2 hours. But the thing was, it wasn´t boring, and it was incredibly successful. Hermana Alvey and I as a companionship essentially took out our map, offered a prayer and asked God to tell us where we needed to go. I never got the distinct impression to go to a house, but areas of the map did come to my mind. (we actually were only given a 12 block area, but distinct corners or streets). And then we would go, offer another prayer and then knock on a house door. We made 4 return appointments in the two hours we were there. And I think we really only had one flat out rejection. Essentially we had a 4 out of 5 success rate on that one. And, this Tuesday, Elder Leon called us and said that he had gone back to one of the return appointments - a Ricardo and Gabriella. We had been walking - prepping to meet back up in the group - and we saw them across the street. So, like a good missionary, I said hi. I wasn´t planning on going over and talking with them, but they said Hi back and looked like they wanted to talk, so we crossed the street and started talking. I think we talked about Obama for a bit, and then we got into the Gospel. The cool thing is, when Elder Leon went to talk with them, they said that when we said "Hi", they felt something pull them out to the street to talk to us. And they accepted the invitation to go to church with Elder Leon and his companion. AND - they said they will never forget my voice, because of the feeling they got when I said Hello. It is just amazing. Because President Gulbrandsen has been talking about how the people are prepared by God, and we need to do everything in our power to help them recognize His voice. Ricardo and Gabriella recognized the voice of God. And now they are preparing themselves to enter His kingdom. How amazing is that? I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called by him to declare his word unto his people, in order to gain eternal life. Something like that, That´s 3 Nefi 5:13. I only know it in spanish. Even better, by this one contact in the street, Elder Leon and Elder Haws found 5 new investigators. Miracle.
Miracle Number 2: We got the chance to do another Capilla Abierta. This week we were working in Jose Leon Suarez - which is our Zone Leaders Area. And it was fantastic. They had so many of their members there working with the refreshments, there were little rooms for the different auxilary programs. So, a little run through. We start out in the Sacrament Meeting Room and we listen to the Cristus, we introduce ourselves, share our testimonies, and then we take everyone into the cultural hall where there are 6 posters that have the basics of the Gospel, we do a little tour, we talk about Jesus and his life, the apostasy and restauration, the Book of Mormon, the Plan of Salvation, Families and the Temple. And after all of this we took the tours into the baptismal room where the font was filled, there was the picture of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, and Elder Witherspoon (Zone Leader - everyone calls him Elder Winnie-pooh, which is a random sidenote) gave an explanation of the importance of baptism. And it was very successful. We were talking and giving tours the whole time (compares a lot to the last time where we were on the street the whole time). We had 18 non members go through the program, and even had a Catholic family commit to being baptized - and they had just walked in off the street! In the end, I loved it. And I want to do another one like that again. It was crazy, because we had so many people coming in to take the tour, Hermana Garvin (wife of the man in charge) kept pulling off one of the missionaries to start a new tour, so I actually taught by myself the majority of the time. But the spirit was always there. And I just love teaching! I love when there are people there that actually want to learn! And I know they want to learn because they came in! Loved it.
Anyways, there were a couple of other things. We seem to be really good at finding investigators who are super prepared, accept baptism, and then we find out that they live somewhere else. We found out this week that Hermana Alvey´s first fecha bautismal - actually read in the Book of Mormon. Because he called us and asked to meet with us again. I had kind of teased her because the first time we met Hector - he seemed to not be there all the way (medication in a legal or illegal sense may have been involved) and we really didn´t think anything of it. But then he called us twice and sounded more normal so we met up with him (because we couldn´t not try, what if he really was prepared?). Turns out he really had read, and he wanted to know what he needed to do to receive the blessings. He even mentioned - "Look, I´m less nervous than when I first talked to you. I can tell. There´s something here. I can feel it." Which is great....but we think he may be misplacing some of his feelings. Because he asked Hermana Alvey if he got converted, would she be his girlfriend. To which she pretended not to understand (That´s my hijita!) So he tried to explain the question, and said "If I got converted, would that mean I could get married to someone like you...?" to which my answer was ".........yeees, OR some other worthy member of the church, and we´re going to introduce you to some of them this sunday, mmkay? mmkay. Moving on." I love my life.
And the truth is, I do love my life. Super hard. Super great. And all the people here seem to like me. I love it. Well, I hope you have been spiritually edified. I was reading in 1 Nefi today and there are a couple of versus that talk about how when Nefi was going to get the plates his mom got a little upset because she thought that all her sons had been killed. And called her husband a "visionary man". To which Lehi replies "yes, I am. Because I know what I see is from God." And it made me think a lot about Joseph Smith. And how, after the first vision, he refused to deny that he had seen God. And I was just thinking about how really, we all receive revelations all the time. God is putting into our minds the things we need to do. And who are we to deny God? When we have a crazy thought, don´t think "oh, that won´t work." You just denied that God has power to do what He wants! Or, when you think, "oh, I can´t do that. I´m not smart enough/talented enough/blah blah blah enough". You did it again! We have been put on this Earth at this time because God knows that you are good enough, smart enough and talented enough. Stop denying God. He lives. I am a witness that He lives, He loves you, and He wants you to understand your true potential. God is talking with each and everyone of you every day. That´s why we are given the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Don´t deny yourself your true potential. And don´t deny God.
Besides, life is always more exciting when you do things God´s way. He always promises an adventure.
Love you all!
Hermana Reed
Randomness number 2: I don´t think any of you know this, but the pillowcase that I brought is the one that Aunt Allison made like 7 Christmases ago, or something like that. The point is, I love it, still use it. And it made me think one day last week. We passed by a house and it had a shield emblem on it. We as a family need an emblem, and I think it should have CTR on it. As in...Choose the Reed!! We can put it on shirts and then go play basketball or something. I know this is crazy, but yes I thought about it. And it just applies to everything: companions (Choose the Reed), sports (CTR), marriage (CTR), is there anywhere that this doesn´t apply? I submit that it cannot! I know. I´m a genius.
And now on to more spiritually uplifiting and connected stories. Okay, so essentially, Dad is spiritually connected and received correct revelation about me this week. It was a week of seeing miracles, many of them small and simple, some of them like bolts of lightning. For instance, last week our district Leader Elder Leon received revelation in the form of an idea to do a choclo de fuerzo - I have translated that into a "powerplay". Essentially what we did, is grouped together with all the missionaries in our district, had the Obispo from Bulogne (our DL´s area) pray about what area we should work in, and then all the missionaries went there and essentially opened the area. The thought was that the Bishop would receive the revelation to know where the people that God is preparing are, and then we can find them quickly through our experience and our faith. So, we all got together, carpooled over to Bulogne (a more ritzy area that had absolutely no investigators or members living there) and essentially knocked doors for 2 hours. But the thing was, it wasn´t boring, and it was incredibly successful. Hermana Alvey and I as a companionship essentially took out our map, offered a prayer and asked God to tell us where we needed to go. I never got the distinct impression to go to a house, but areas of the map did come to my mind. (we actually were only given a 12 block area, but distinct corners or streets). And then we would go, offer another prayer and then knock on a house door. We made 4 return appointments in the two hours we were there. And I think we really only had one flat out rejection. Essentially we had a 4 out of 5 success rate on that one. And, this Tuesday, Elder Leon called us and said that he had gone back to one of the return appointments - a Ricardo and Gabriella. We had been walking - prepping to meet back up in the group - and we saw them across the street. So, like a good missionary, I said hi. I wasn´t planning on going over and talking with them, but they said Hi back and looked like they wanted to talk, so we crossed the street and started talking. I think we talked about Obama for a bit, and then we got into the Gospel. The cool thing is, when Elder Leon went to talk with them, they said that when we said "Hi", they felt something pull them out to the street to talk to us. And they accepted the invitation to go to church with Elder Leon and his companion. AND - they said they will never forget my voice, because of the feeling they got when I said Hello. It is just amazing. Because President Gulbrandsen has been talking about how the people are prepared by God, and we need to do everything in our power to help them recognize His voice. Ricardo and Gabriella recognized the voice of God. And now they are preparing themselves to enter His kingdom. How amazing is that? I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called by him to declare his word unto his people, in order to gain eternal life. Something like that, That´s 3 Nefi 5:13. I only know it in spanish. Even better, by this one contact in the street, Elder Leon and Elder Haws found 5 new investigators. Miracle.
Miracle Number 2: We got the chance to do another Capilla Abierta. This week we were working in Jose Leon Suarez - which is our Zone Leaders Area. And it was fantastic. They had so many of their members there working with the refreshments, there were little rooms for the different auxilary programs. So, a little run through. We start out in the Sacrament Meeting Room and we listen to the Cristus, we introduce ourselves, share our testimonies, and then we take everyone into the cultural hall where there are 6 posters that have the basics of the Gospel, we do a little tour, we talk about Jesus and his life, the apostasy and restauration, the Book of Mormon, the Plan of Salvation, Families and the Temple. And after all of this we took the tours into the baptismal room where the font was filled, there was the picture of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, and Elder Witherspoon (Zone Leader - everyone calls him Elder Winnie-pooh, which is a random sidenote) gave an explanation of the importance of baptism. And it was very successful. We were talking and giving tours the whole time (compares a lot to the last time where we were on the street the whole time). We had 18 non members go through the program, and even had a Catholic family commit to being baptized - and they had just walked in off the street! In the end, I loved it. And I want to do another one like that again. It was crazy, because we had so many people coming in to take the tour, Hermana Garvin (wife of the man in charge) kept pulling off one of the missionaries to start a new tour, so I actually taught by myself the majority of the time. But the spirit was always there. And I just love teaching! I love when there are people there that actually want to learn! And I know they want to learn because they came in! Loved it.
Anyways, there were a couple of other things. We seem to be really good at finding investigators who are super prepared, accept baptism, and then we find out that they live somewhere else. We found out this week that Hermana Alvey´s first fecha bautismal - actually read in the Book of Mormon. Because he called us and asked to meet with us again. I had kind of teased her because the first time we met Hector - he seemed to not be there all the way (medication in a legal or illegal sense may have been involved) and we really didn´t think anything of it. But then he called us twice and sounded more normal so we met up with him (because we couldn´t not try, what if he really was prepared?). Turns out he really had read, and he wanted to know what he needed to do to receive the blessings. He even mentioned - "Look, I´m less nervous than when I first talked to you. I can tell. There´s something here. I can feel it." Which is great....but we think he may be misplacing some of his feelings. Because he asked Hermana Alvey if he got converted, would she be his girlfriend. To which she pretended not to understand (That´s my hijita!) So he tried to explain the question, and said "If I got converted, would that mean I could get married to someone like you...?" to which my answer was ".........yeees, OR some other worthy member of the church, and we´re going to introduce you to some of them this sunday, mmkay? mmkay. Moving on." I love my life.
And the truth is, I do love my life. Super hard. Super great. And all the people here seem to like me. I love it. Well, I hope you have been spiritually edified. I was reading in 1 Nefi today and there are a couple of versus that talk about how when Nefi was going to get the plates his mom got a little upset because she thought that all her sons had been killed. And called her husband a "visionary man". To which Lehi replies "yes, I am. Because I know what I see is from God." And it made me think a lot about Joseph Smith. And how, after the first vision, he refused to deny that he had seen God. And I was just thinking about how really, we all receive revelations all the time. God is putting into our minds the things we need to do. And who are we to deny God? When we have a crazy thought, don´t think "oh, that won´t work." You just denied that God has power to do what He wants! Or, when you think, "oh, I can´t do that. I´m not smart enough/talented enough/blah blah blah enough". You did it again! We have been put on this Earth at this time because God knows that you are good enough, smart enough and talented enough. Stop denying God. He lives. I am a witness that He lives, He loves you, and He wants you to understand your true potential. God is talking with each and everyone of you every day. That´s why we are given the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Don´t deny yourself your true potential. And don´t deny God.
Besides, life is always more exciting when you do things God´s way. He always promises an adventure.
Love you all!
Hermana Reed
Monday, January 16, 2012
Spiritual Insights and a whole lot of walking
Okay, this is going to be shorter because I refreshed the page and it
erased all my words. But, on the plus side it has been a really good
week. We had interviews with the President this week and he told me
that I was heaven sent. We were talking about the progress of Hermana
Alvey and how she actually is happy now, (after lacking a whole lot of
self confidence and good childhood memories). And, it made me feel
good. I don´t really understand how he sees it, but it was nice to
hear it.
Oh, and then, President Gulbrandsen told me that I need to work on
being more annoying. Yes, he pretty much did say that word for word.
We were actually talking about the fact that our companionship still
didn´t have a phone (we haven´t had one for a whole transfer) and that
he was aware of the fact that at least 12 phones had been given away
(what the....?) so we have to be annoying. Call E´Gardner morning and
night to get it. And then the President commited me to be annoying. It
was and is the weirdest form of repentance I have ever been a part of.
And then we talked about Enoch and how in the scriptures it says that
he offended many. And so I need to have Enoch as my role model for the
last half of my mission. I´m kind of scared. I have been pretty good
at not being annoying (usually, it´s never intentional), and I don´t
know if I´ll be able to live with myself now that I need to be. Well,
I know I will, I just don´t know how I´m going to live with myself.
That is the current mystery.
Anyways, so now my investigators really will love me. I´m going to amp
up my calling them every day and being better on committing people and
overall being more bold. Sigh, there´s always something to work on. At
least I´m feeling good about the way I teach, for the most part. It´s
a work in process. It´s all a work in process really. When I die...I
will still have to keep working, the progression will just be even
slower.
The good news is I have an amazing mission President. He always seems
to be one step a head of the game and looking for an opportunity to
give good constructive feedback. As in, he corrects us all the time,
but it is done with such love that you just want to make yourself
better. You want to be better because you understand that it is the
only way to truly help God in His work. And you have such a love and
devotion for your mission President that you don´t want to disappoint
him. It is great to have such strong leaders to help you out.
Oh, one last thing and then I have to go. I have discovered that going
on a mission is the way to prepare the future mission presidents and
their wives (among other things, life, marriage, kids, being a
leader). I was just thinking about that the other day, how President
Gulbrandsen is really good at directing people to do the work, and
it´s all to help them know how a mission runs. We all understand and
know how a mission should run now. I could be a mission president´s
wife. Maybe I will someday. Right now, nobody knows but God, but I´ll
be ready for it if the day comes. So, prepare yourselves too, because
God needs leaders!
Anyways, got to jet. Love you all!
Hermana Reed
erased all my words. But, on the plus side it has been a really good
week. We had interviews with the President this week and he told me
that I was heaven sent. We were talking about the progress of Hermana
Alvey and how she actually is happy now, (after lacking a whole lot of
self confidence and good childhood memories). And, it made me feel
good. I don´t really understand how he sees it, but it was nice to
hear it.
Oh, and then, President Gulbrandsen told me that I need to work on
being more annoying. Yes, he pretty much did say that word for word.
We were actually talking about the fact that our companionship still
didn´t have a phone (we haven´t had one for a whole transfer) and that
he was aware of the fact that at least 12 phones had been given away
(what the....?) so we have to be annoying. Call E´Gardner morning and
night to get it. And then the President commited me to be annoying. It
was and is the weirdest form of repentance I have ever been a part of.
And then we talked about Enoch and how in the scriptures it says that
he offended many. And so I need to have Enoch as my role model for the
last half of my mission. I´m kind of scared. I have been pretty good
at not being annoying (usually, it´s never intentional), and I don´t
know if I´ll be able to live with myself now that I need to be. Well,
I know I will, I just don´t know how I´m going to live with myself.
That is the current mystery.
Anyways, so now my investigators really will love me. I´m going to amp
up my calling them every day and being better on committing people and
overall being more bold. Sigh, there´s always something to work on. At
least I´m feeling good about the way I teach, for the most part. It´s
a work in process. It´s all a work in process really. When I die...I
will still have to keep working, the progression will just be even
slower.
The good news is I have an amazing mission President. He always seems
to be one step a head of the game and looking for an opportunity to
give good constructive feedback. As in, he corrects us all the time,
but it is done with such love that you just want to make yourself
better. You want to be better because you understand that it is the
only way to truly help God in His work. And you have such a love and
devotion for your mission President that you don´t want to disappoint
him. It is great to have such strong leaders to help you out.
Oh, one last thing and then I have to go. I have discovered that going
on a mission is the way to prepare the future mission presidents and
their wives (among other things, life, marriage, kids, being a
leader). I was just thinking about that the other day, how President
Gulbrandsen is really good at directing people to do the work, and
it´s all to help them know how a mission runs. We all understand and
know how a mission should run now. I could be a mission president´s
wife. Maybe I will someday. Right now, nobody knows but God, but I´ll
be ready for it if the day comes. So, prepare yourselves too, because
God needs leaders!
Anyways, got to jet. Love you all!
Hermana Reed
Monday, January 9, 2012
And here we go again...
I find myself getting less and less creative with the titles of my e-mails. I hope you all forgive me. Good news though! I am alive. I feel like that is something I should celebrate everyday. You should too, because life really is a gift, that´s why it´s called the present.
And, it´s a new transfer, but for the first time in my mission, nothing is really new. I´m still in Vicente Lopez and I´m still with Hermana Alvey. We´ve got another 6 weeks to perfect VIcente Lopez together. Maybe this transfer we´ll get brave enough to go knock the president´s house. we´ll see what happens. This is something that I have been trying to work on. Enjoying the mission. Don´t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do. I´m actually the happiest when I have a really good spiritual lesson. But, as all return missionaries are fairly aware of, really great spiritual lessons do not happen 24/7 on the mish. So we got to do something to spice up our lives while we´re finding the people God has prepared to teach.....so this week, we went down to the limit of our area and knocked doors so I could say that I have taught/spoken with people in all four corners of our area. Which you may not fully understand or appreciate, but let´s just say, my area is still HUGE! So it´s like mild bragging rights. Algo, así. It´s really not important, but I liked it. My companion did not. She really does not enjoy contacting at the moment (understandable). To be fair I don´t either, I just wanted to be able to say that I did it.
Oh, so, we had some awesome miracles this week. First off, we´ve been working on following the spirit more. We´ve been struggling for a while finding investigators to teach with it being the first week of vacations for everyone, but God promised that there are people prepared to listen, and God doesn´t lie, so obviously I was lacking in something. So we were working on bettering ourselves. Anyways, point is, One day we were walking around, trying to contact a few references and we were in an area where we normally aren´t when we decide to go visit our investigator Daniel. So we´re coming from a different direction, we´re like 15 blocks from where he works, when we hear "Hermanas!" And we turn to look and sha-bam! There´s Daniel! We were a bit stunned. Because what was he doing there? Turns out he was in the area because he´s working on getting his papers ready for his trip home to Peru. But if we hadn´t been in that spot at that time, we wouldn´t have been able to find him (Did I mention how last transfer we didn´t have a phone? When we split the area they had to buy us a new phone and it still hasn´t come in. Not fun). So miracle that we found him! And then we had a fun lesson on the Apocolypse. Also fun. Thank you 2012.
And then! This one´s fun. So, we´ve wanted to get better at having lessons with less active members. So we planned to go visit a family. Went there. They didn´t live there anymore. We talked to the lady at the house and she said that maybe they lived next door? So we go next door, they don´t live there, but a nother man named Daniel lives there and says we can teach him (score!) but he has to go to work, so if we want to stop by his work later we can. Bueno. So, we´re waiting at a train station, we were about to leave the area when I get the feeling that we should go stop by Daniel now instead of later in the day (it´s later). So we go, and Daniel is not there, but there is a man named Fabian. We start talking to him about his life. He´s 30, and super stressed because he´s trying to provide for his family of 7 brothers and sisters. And really, it just turned into this amazing lesson. We talked about how God does not want us to be stressed, depressed, or burdened in our lives. And God knows what we need. And then I wanted to share the scripture 3 Nefi 13: 31 - 34, but I couldn´t remember where it was at the time. I remember now. Anyways, I just remembered that it was in 3 Nefi somewhere, so I was about to pass the talking baton to Hermana Alvey so I could look for it real quick, when I opened up my scriptures, looked down at the page, and I was at 3 Nefi 13. The exact scripture that I had felt impressed to share. INSPIRATION! God loves me so much. Also, confirmation that this really was what Fabian needed. So, we shared it with him, and then invited him to be baptized. And he accepted. He has a baptismal date for the 8th of February (because I didn´t know which day was Saturday. It´s randomly a Thursday, but that´s okay). And throughout the whole lesson you could see his demeanor change. while we were reading the introduction he kept stopping and pondering. We were able to testify over and over again that he was feeling the power and truth of the Book of Mormon in that moment, and he hadn´t even read much of it yet. But you could tell that he felt the truthfulness of what we said. Increíble. And then we were getting ready to leave, we left him a chapter to leave and he tried to pay us for the Book of Mormon. First time this has actually happened to me, but we just explained that it´s free. He was mildly insistent, so we told him that if he really wanted to pay us for the hope that we had given him, then when the missionaries called him to talk to him, say yes, accept their message and their help. And then we left.
And it came to pass that I was mildly upset that he didn´t live in our area. Gah! I wanted to teach him so bad. Well, continue teaching him. But that´s okay, it will be a blessing to the missionaries in San Martin. Sigh.
But all in all, it´s been a week of miracles. We´ve also been bettering our relationship with the ward, they are getting so much better. They are accompaning us and when we ask if we can help them they actually say yes! Sometimes it´s just to offer a specific prayer (i.e. my husband is going through a rough time, he´s really stressed pray for him please). Because usually when we ask the members if we can help them they just say "pray" which is valid but mildly lame. We can do more. For instance, this week, a church member helped us to help her clean the church lawn. That was fun, and helpful in many ways. And when we ask the leaders if we can visit a family for them that they think needs help, they actually give us names. It´s crazy. My mind nearly explodes every time. God. Loves. Me.
And the best part of that sentence is that I love God too. THat´s why I´m here in Argentina. How cool is that? I´m so glad that I´m so sure in my knowledge that God really is my Heavenly Father, and even though I have trials, and it´s hot, and I pretty much have permanent sweat stains on all of my shirts (I know I´m pretty don´t worry about it), it doesn´t matter, because God has a plan, in His little/ginormous filing cabinet with my name on it, with a list of people that I´m specifically going to help, to know, to care for, and to love. And I know each of you are on that list. Because God thinks of you too. Thank you so much for everything.
Hermana Reed
And, it´s a new transfer, but for the first time in my mission, nothing is really new. I´m still in Vicente Lopez and I´m still with Hermana Alvey. We´ve got another 6 weeks to perfect VIcente Lopez together. Maybe this transfer we´ll get brave enough to go knock the president´s house. we´ll see what happens. This is something that I have been trying to work on. Enjoying the mission. Don´t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do. I´m actually the happiest when I have a really good spiritual lesson. But, as all return missionaries are fairly aware of, really great spiritual lessons do not happen 24/7 on the mish. So we got to do something to spice up our lives while we´re finding the people God has prepared to teach.....so this week, we went down to the limit of our area and knocked doors so I could say that I have taught/spoken with people in all four corners of our area. Which you may not fully understand or appreciate, but let´s just say, my area is still HUGE! So it´s like mild bragging rights. Algo, así. It´s really not important, but I liked it. My companion did not. She really does not enjoy contacting at the moment (understandable). To be fair I don´t either, I just wanted to be able to say that I did it.
Oh, so, we had some awesome miracles this week. First off, we´ve been working on following the spirit more. We´ve been struggling for a while finding investigators to teach with it being the first week of vacations for everyone, but God promised that there are people prepared to listen, and God doesn´t lie, so obviously I was lacking in something. So we were working on bettering ourselves. Anyways, point is, One day we were walking around, trying to contact a few references and we were in an area where we normally aren´t when we decide to go visit our investigator Daniel. So we´re coming from a different direction, we´re like 15 blocks from where he works, when we hear "Hermanas!" And we turn to look and sha-bam! There´s Daniel! We were a bit stunned. Because what was he doing there? Turns out he was in the area because he´s working on getting his papers ready for his trip home to Peru. But if we hadn´t been in that spot at that time, we wouldn´t have been able to find him (Did I mention how last transfer we didn´t have a phone? When we split the area they had to buy us a new phone and it still hasn´t come in. Not fun). So miracle that we found him! And then we had a fun lesson on the Apocolypse. Also fun. Thank you 2012.
And then! This one´s fun. So, we´ve wanted to get better at having lessons with less active members. So we planned to go visit a family. Went there. They didn´t live there anymore. We talked to the lady at the house and she said that maybe they lived next door? So we go next door, they don´t live there, but a nother man named Daniel lives there and says we can teach him (score!) but he has to go to work, so if we want to stop by his work later we can. Bueno. So, we´re waiting at a train station, we were about to leave the area when I get the feeling that we should go stop by Daniel now instead of later in the day (it´s later). So we go, and Daniel is not there, but there is a man named Fabian. We start talking to him about his life. He´s 30, and super stressed because he´s trying to provide for his family of 7 brothers and sisters. And really, it just turned into this amazing lesson. We talked about how God does not want us to be stressed, depressed, or burdened in our lives. And God knows what we need. And then I wanted to share the scripture 3 Nefi 13: 31 - 34, but I couldn´t remember where it was at the time. I remember now. Anyways, I just remembered that it was in 3 Nefi somewhere, so I was about to pass the talking baton to Hermana Alvey so I could look for it real quick, when I opened up my scriptures, looked down at the page, and I was at 3 Nefi 13. The exact scripture that I had felt impressed to share. INSPIRATION! God loves me so much. Also, confirmation that this really was what Fabian needed. So, we shared it with him, and then invited him to be baptized. And he accepted. He has a baptismal date for the 8th of February (because I didn´t know which day was Saturday. It´s randomly a Thursday, but that´s okay). And throughout the whole lesson you could see his demeanor change. while we were reading the introduction he kept stopping and pondering. We were able to testify over and over again that he was feeling the power and truth of the Book of Mormon in that moment, and he hadn´t even read much of it yet. But you could tell that he felt the truthfulness of what we said. Increíble. And then we were getting ready to leave, we left him a chapter to leave and he tried to pay us for the Book of Mormon. First time this has actually happened to me, but we just explained that it´s free. He was mildly insistent, so we told him that if he really wanted to pay us for the hope that we had given him, then when the missionaries called him to talk to him, say yes, accept their message and their help. And then we left.
And it came to pass that I was mildly upset that he didn´t live in our area. Gah! I wanted to teach him so bad. Well, continue teaching him. But that´s okay, it will be a blessing to the missionaries in San Martin. Sigh.
But all in all, it´s been a week of miracles. We´ve also been bettering our relationship with the ward, they are getting so much better. They are accompaning us and when we ask if we can help them they actually say yes! Sometimes it´s just to offer a specific prayer (i.e. my husband is going through a rough time, he´s really stressed pray for him please). Because usually when we ask the members if we can help them they just say "pray" which is valid but mildly lame. We can do more. For instance, this week, a church member helped us to help her clean the church lawn. That was fun, and helpful in many ways. And when we ask the leaders if we can visit a family for them that they think needs help, they actually give us names. It´s crazy. My mind nearly explodes every time. God. Loves. Me.
And the best part of that sentence is that I love God too. THat´s why I´m here in Argentina. How cool is that? I´m so glad that I´m so sure in my knowledge that God really is my Heavenly Father, and even though I have trials, and it´s hot, and I pretty much have permanent sweat stains on all of my shirts (I know I´m pretty don´t worry about it), it doesn´t matter, because God has a plan, in His little/ginormous filing cabinet with my name on it, with a list of people that I´m specifically going to help, to know, to care for, and to love. And I know each of you are on that list. Because God thinks of you too. Thank you so much for everything.
Hermana Reed
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
And it came to pass...
that a new year was born! Feliz Año Nuevo!
How are you all feeling? Are you ready for the end of the world? Me neither. Luckily, I don´t think it will be to much of a problem. For all I know. We had emergency transfers this week. Well "emergency" I don't think it was an emergency, apparently we're getting like 30 new missionaries next week, and only 15 missionaries are going home, so they moved people around so that when the new missionaries come in, they can divide some of the bigger areas. Either ways, we are now in a new district for the last week of transfers....Happy New Year!
Alright, lets get to the fun stuff. I did a whole lot of sporatic sleeping New Years Eve, I really was quite tired and happy not to feel mildly obligated to go to a party or New Years Eve Single awareness Dance (good job Beez, Skyler, Dallin and Josh for going. I'm so proud of you). Didn't actually sleep though as the people in Buenos Aires like to celebrate año nuevo by buying fireworks and shooting them off all through the night. Kind of like our fourth of July. Very loud.
But in more spiritual news, we had a great teaching week, a very eventful teaching week. We had a bit of drama with Carlos. Carlos was doing really good, he accepted everything, he loved church, he was reading, and was super excited for his baptism. Then Wednesday we get a call from him saying that his Ancianos from his congregation of the Testigos de Jehovah called and wanted to have a meeting with him. Can you say "Oh no!" Yeah, super sad. So he goes to the meeting and comes back super scared to commit to anything. Apparently there is another TJ in the same block, and everytime we go over to teach Carlos, she calls the Ancianos, and then 15 min after we leave, they show up. Carlos wanted to give back everything. He wanted to give back the books, the himnario, everything, and not talk to us. But when I learned that he was going to this meeting, I asked a member of our ward to call him (a member he{s very attached too,) and so she was able to talk to him, calm him down, and at least get him to keep investigating the church. And then Friday afternoon we had an emergency charla. Which actually was really great. We went over to a members house, and we just wanted to talk with him, help him understand that we still love him, and to help him remember that if the Book of Mormon was true, then he didn{t need to be a testigo anymore. But he{s been one for 35 years, so it{s hard to just drop it. Anyways, the member and Carlos ended up having a really good discussion (lesson with missionary present) and the spirit was really strong. (Dad, if you want to know about an experience where I didn{t really know what to do and just followed the spirit....this is one of those times. It was incredible). And so he stayed. I really think the biggist problem is that his neighbor is watching. Because he still wants to talk to us, but he is a lot happier to do it when it is at someone elses house. Hmmmm... pray for us please. Pray for Carlos.
But, it was very drama filled, and made things super exciting/stressful for a while. Above and beyond the normal stress and drama of the mission. I learned from this experience.
And then, the other investigator that we have is Daniel. He is from Peru, and he received an answer in one night. We gave him a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon, explained how it was important to pray to receive an answer, and we came back the next day and he told us "yeah, right after I prayed, I got up from my prayer and I felt happier. I felt peace. I know it{s true!" I nearly cried right there. This work is so amazing! The only downer is that he{s going home to Peru for three months (valid, he hasn{t seen his family in 3 years, but he just found the church!). The fun part was that we spent some time and looked up the closest church to his house in Peru. It{s seven blocks away! He{s excited to go there and talk to the missionaries, but he wants to wait to get baptized so that we can be there...aw! Que tierna. But every lesson we have with him is amazing. He{s always reading and has great questions. Some of which I can{t answer. Like last time, he asked us what the names of the three nefitas were. I told him the truth, we don{t know. But he also has questions that I can answer. Like: What{s Sion? (Why Daniel, we can just look that up in the guia in the back, look at that! Answer!) or What were the names of the 12 apostles in the americas (Answer:3 Nefi 19:5, I had to look that one up to.) The point is, I don{t know all the answers right away, but I do know where to go to find them! So in the end, we{re all happy. he{s so great. I can{t wait for Daniel to be baptized.
So yeah, that was my week. Super awesome. Full of the spirit, full of lecciones. And Love. It was great getting to hear from my family, hearing their experiences, and it helped me connect to the people here on a different level. We all are family. And I get to share the love I have for my family with the people here in Argentina. Because it{s the love of God.
Thank you for all your prayers. I love you tons! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Second Coming! (If it happens, it{s supposed to coincide with the end of the world, right? jijiji)
Hermana Reed
How are you all feeling? Are you ready for the end of the world? Me neither. Luckily, I don´t think it will be to much of a problem. For all I know. We had emergency transfers this week. Well "emergency" I don't think it was an emergency, apparently we're getting like 30 new missionaries next week, and only 15 missionaries are going home, so they moved people around so that when the new missionaries come in, they can divide some of the bigger areas. Either ways, we are now in a new district for the last week of transfers....Happy New Year!
Alright, lets get to the fun stuff. I did a whole lot of sporatic sleeping New Years Eve, I really was quite tired and happy not to feel mildly obligated to go to a party or New Years Eve Single awareness Dance (good job Beez, Skyler, Dallin and Josh for going. I'm so proud of you). Didn't actually sleep though as the people in Buenos Aires like to celebrate año nuevo by buying fireworks and shooting them off all through the night. Kind of like our fourth of July. Very loud.
But in more spiritual news, we had a great teaching week, a very eventful teaching week. We had a bit of drama with Carlos. Carlos was doing really good, he accepted everything, he loved church, he was reading, and was super excited for his baptism. Then Wednesday we get a call from him saying that his Ancianos from his congregation of the Testigos de Jehovah called and wanted to have a meeting with him. Can you say "Oh no!" Yeah, super sad. So he goes to the meeting and comes back super scared to commit to anything. Apparently there is another TJ in the same block, and everytime we go over to teach Carlos, she calls the Ancianos, and then 15 min after we leave, they show up. Carlos wanted to give back everything. He wanted to give back the books, the himnario, everything, and not talk to us. But when I learned that he was going to this meeting, I asked a member of our ward to call him (a member he{s very attached too,) and so she was able to talk to him, calm him down, and at least get him to keep investigating the church. And then Friday afternoon we had an emergency charla. Which actually was really great. We went over to a members house, and we just wanted to talk with him, help him understand that we still love him, and to help him remember that if the Book of Mormon was true, then he didn{t need to be a testigo anymore. But he{s been one for 35 years, so it{s hard to just drop it. Anyways, the member and Carlos ended up having a really good discussion (lesson with missionary present) and the spirit was really strong. (Dad, if you want to know about an experience where I didn{t really know what to do and just followed the spirit....this is one of those times. It was incredible). And so he stayed. I really think the biggist problem is that his neighbor is watching. Because he still wants to talk to us, but he is a lot happier to do it when it is at someone elses house. Hmmmm... pray for us please. Pray for Carlos.
But, it was very drama filled, and made things super exciting/stressful for a while. Above and beyond the normal stress and drama of the mission. I learned from this experience.
And then, the other investigator that we have is Daniel. He is from Peru, and he received an answer in one night. We gave him a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon, explained how it was important to pray to receive an answer, and we came back the next day and he told us "yeah, right after I prayed, I got up from my prayer and I felt happier. I felt peace. I know it{s true!" I nearly cried right there. This work is so amazing! The only downer is that he{s going home to Peru for three months (valid, he hasn{t seen his family in 3 years, but he just found the church!). The fun part was that we spent some time and looked up the closest church to his house in Peru. It{s seven blocks away! He{s excited to go there and talk to the missionaries, but he wants to wait to get baptized so that we can be there...aw! Que tierna. But every lesson we have with him is amazing. He{s always reading and has great questions. Some of which I can{t answer. Like last time, he asked us what the names of the three nefitas were. I told him the truth, we don{t know. But he also has questions that I can answer. Like: What{s Sion? (Why Daniel, we can just look that up in the guia in the back, look at that! Answer!) or What were the names of the 12 apostles in the americas (Answer:3 Nefi 19:5, I had to look that one up to.) The point is, I don{t know all the answers right away, but I do know where to go to find them! So in the end, we{re all happy. he{s so great. I can{t wait for Daniel to be baptized.
So yeah, that was my week. Super awesome. Full of the spirit, full of lecciones. And Love. It was great getting to hear from my family, hearing their experiences, and it helped me connect to the people here on a different level. We all are family. And I get to share the love I have for my family with the people here in Argentina. Because it{s the love of God.
Thank you for all your prayers. I love you tons! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Second Coming! (If it happens, it{s supposed to coincide with the end of the world, right? jijiji)
Hermana Reed
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