Fotos!

These pictures came without explanation. But she's a missionary, so use your imagination!

I feel so much lighter!

Gratefully, this applies to a lot of feelings this week. First: Every day when I get home I take off a good 5-10 pounds of clothing. Not even joking. Shall I tell you what I wear? It includes: socks, thermals, thick tights, medium tights, two skirts, three shirts, sweater, my coat, scarf, thick furry boots, gloves and a hat. Not even joking. Did I miss anything? Don´t think so. Anyways, and then when I get home I take the grand majority of that off. So great. I feel 10 pounds lighter, literally.

But then, on to real things. This week was amazing. Because Alejandro got baptized!! Ale Alejandro. Yes we do think of Lady Gaga every time we teach him. But it was great. It was crazy. But we have been teaching him for about a month now, and he was just so affected by reading the Book of Mormon. In one of our first lessons he said "I know that there is not a more perfect book then this one." And he was so ready to do everything. He´s ex-military and in all of his prayers he kept saying "Lord, I am your soldier". It pretty much made me want to cry everytime. And we had his baptism last night, and he was just so happy. Not like jumping up and down running around happy, because he´s a soldier, very serious. But he was actually smiling. It was so great. And I just felt so much lighter. Hermana Erickson and I were talking about it last night. And if we were to go home right now, we both feel like our missions would have been successful (this is her first baptism that she was really a part of). Because we followed the spirit. And we were able to be a part of the process. We really were instruments in the hands of the Lord. And we know this, because we kept messing up, and Alejandro still got baptized. We didn´t do anything. The Lord did. But we were worthy enough to receive the direction of the Lord and to follow His counsel. And now I am more experienced, and the next baptism will be even less chaotic/messy. I get better every time (P.S. planning on having a baptism on my birthday because that would be the best miracle ever to see, Yes I´m turning 24 soon. You remember right?)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TWINNERS! I´m glad your all married and happy. But I didn´t forget your birthday.

That was a tangent, so, we are teaching to pairs of parent and child. First, there is Rosa and Hernan. We went to go teach a recent convert who decided that she had made a mistake, and never answers the door. But we went anyways. She didn´t answer the door. But there were these two kids in the stairwell so we start talking to them. But they look about 10, so we ask his mom´s name and where he lives (always better to talk to the parent. They get peeved when you don´t.) So we go knock on the door - which we are know awesome at because we did a choclo de fuerza again. I seem to attract districts that need that. Where all the Elders and Hermanas go to the area and knock doors/talk to people on the street for the whole day - anyways the mom answers the door and when we tell her we were talking to her son her first reaction was "oh no, what did he do?" Poor woman. Anyways, we talk to her and set a return appointment. And when we return she tells us that they are a family of 7 kids, with no constant work. The dad can´t find a good position, and they just barely get by with what they have. So we start telling her about the restauration of the Gospel, and the hope that we have through Christ. And in the middle her son gets home and we invite him to listen. Hernan is 15 and actually listens pretty intently the whole discussion. And afterwards we invite them to read and come to church and they say yes! When we called back the mom even said that Hernan is reading. Blessings.

The other family is a cool story. We went to a baptism of the Austral Elders and took a taxi to get there (we were a bit late) anyways, so we go and talk to the taxi driver on the way. I think I told this last week, anyways, Reader´s DIgest version, we teach the family and the mom is more interested then the dad (Evangelical Dad). When we come back, Hermana Marina tells us that she was reading with her daughter, they read both the chapters we had left for them and that they know a family from our branch. And are now super excited. Plus! They actually prayed, and we had a recent convert with us who testified of how she received an answer about the book of mormon, and Marina replied "that´s exactly how I felt." It was an incredible experience. And pretty much this week I have realized how little I actually do as a missionary. I just invite and open my mouth and God fills it. But I´ve actually been doing it. And for that. I do feel lighter. Because I´m doing my part. And it doesn´t matter what I want to say or what I want to do, because when we do it my way it usually doesn´t pan out. But when I follow the direction from God, everything works out the way it is supposed to. And I feel so much lighter.

And I love it because, okay, back up. So we have agendas right? Which, without I would lose my mind. And we decorate our agendas usually with cutouts from the Liahona, our only available reading material. And mine tend to have themes. Last transfer was faith in the Lord, this transfer has been faith in myself. And I have two quotes. The front is a picture of a violin with the quote "If ye are prepared, y shall not fear." the back is a picture of a stripling warrior carrying the Standard of Liberty with a quote from Elaine S. Dalton "Believe in yourselves. Believe that you are never alone. Believe that you will always be guided." And that is what I have been doing this transfer. Poco a poco, because it is always hardest to believe in yourself. Believing in others isn´t nearly as difficult. But we have been sent at this time and this place to serve the people because God knows that we can do it. And he wouldn´t send someone who isn´t prepared, just like he doesn´t make mistakes. We are who we are because that is what God wants us to be. And I don´t know if I´ve ever shared this with you, but I remember writing to myself in the MTC. And I wrote a little letter and in it I told myself. "Look, I know I´m not the missionary that I want to be. BUt I know I am the missionary that God wants me to be right now. And I will change. And I will get better. Because God has promised me that. But until that moment put forth your efforts and work with the knowledge that God has trusted you with this great work. And He will make you the missionary that you want to be. And then you will be. Because God doesn´t lie, and He doesn´t fall through on His promises." And I promise all of you that this is true. And I said that to myself to give me hope. But I continue to read it. and everytime I do I fell the Holy Ghost confirming the truthfulness of these words. We are who we are right now because that is who God wants us to be. And he is helping us to change in to the people that we will become. Because He loves us. Believe in yourself. God does.

I love you all.

Hermana Reed

I´m going to go change myself...

You hear the funniest things on the mission. For instance, Our district leader, who is learning english, and actually speaks it very well, was practicing with us one day after district meeting, and had to go change his clothes (he was going to do service). So, he comes up to say goodbye and says "I´m going to go change myself..." And I was able to keep a straight face until my companion said something. I don´t even remember what she said. But the poor Elder got all flustered. It was a direct translation of what he wanted to say, you just don´t usually say it like that in english, it´s just "I´m going to go change." Poor Elder. But this week has been a week of change. We were able to have a lot of amazing experiences. We went out on Tuesday with an Hermana from Centro who is preparing to go on a mission. She is one of 2 members in her family. Something like that, and is super excited to go on a mission, even though she still has 6 months before she can even put in her papers. So we were going around, and it was great, we had 2 citas planned, and then like every time we have a member all the citas fell through, so we went to go contact a few less actives, to teach them and see if they had any friends that wanted to hear the gospel. We go to one of our back up plans and find out that the direction in our list was for a house....when really it´s an apartment building. So we said a prayer to find this family, and while we were praying the number 3 came to my mind, 3 and 4 came to mind for Hermana Erickson, and Rosa (the member) thought of 4. So we thought, all right, we´re knocking 3 and 4. We go to knock apartment 3 - turns out an antiguo investigador lives there, we set a cita to come back, and then he tells us that the people we are looking for? Yeah, they live in apartment 4!! It was an amazing experience and testimony that God really does answer prayers, we just need to have the faith that He will guide us. The best part of that story is that when we went back to teach the menos activo family, we knocked on the door and their 12 year old brother answered. (P.S. this is a family where only one of the kids is a member) When he told us that the member wasn´t home, we started talking to him, invited him to church, all those good things. And then after he shut the door we heard this laughing coming from the inside. So, I tried to get closer to see what they were saying. Our member, who came with us tried to get close to the door as well, except, she ended up leaning on the door and it opened just a crack!! So all of us start RUNNING for the stairs. We get outside, hearts racing, and bust up laughing. They didn´t come to church, but it was nice to see the members getting so excited and involved in the work with us. And it´s true. We have 2 members in our branch that are just awesome! They went out together to go visit a couple of families and were telling us about it. Together they went to go visit the Family Heredia, but didn´t know which apartment they lived in. So together, they prayed to know where to go, and justo - a daughter of the family walks in the door. Shows them where to go. And then they talk, and Hermana Marcos (who is amazing) says that before they leave she wants to share a scripture. It literally nearly brought me to tears to hear this. Because she wants to be a missionary so badly. She knows the church is true and she has been completely changed because of it. Speaking of changing - the good thing about being a missionary, is that those who want to change talk to you, at least for a bit. We had an experience last Sunday I think, we were looking for the address of a family, and a guy comes up to us. He is clearly drunk, and starts talking to us about how he wants to change his life, how in that day he has already drunken 2 bottles of wine, and he just left his house to go buy a third, but he knows he needs to change his habits. (We know this because he comes up to us and says "Look, I´m drunk." To which I replied "yes, we know.") And he really wanted to change, but he didn´t know how, and I don´t know if it was the wine or something else, but he knew that he wasn´t treating his family very well with this addiction. We tried going back but we haven´t been able to find him. But I know, like he knows, that the only way to change is through God. He is the only one with the power to help us overcome our bad habits. And I was reading in the Liahona this week an article by Elder Bednar, he talks about the Atonement and shows us how in the scriptures the prophets don´t ask for their situations to change. Instead, they ask for the strength to overcome the trials in their lives. Two examples being Alma and his people when they were under the reign of Amulon - they were enslaved and set to work, and God didn´t free them right away, but he did give them the strength that their burdens would be made light. And then Elder Bednar talked about Nephi, how when his brothers tied him up, Nephi prayed for the strength to be released from his bonds. And then he probably had to work at the ropes, wriggling and struggling to free himself, but God gave him the strength to keep going until he was able to undo the bonds. This is how the Atonement (and the Grace of God work). It´s like the 3rd article of face. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. Believing that Christ exists is not enough. We have to do our part, but God will give us the strength to overcome every trial in our lives. This is the promise. And I testify that it is true. And I know it because I have been seeing the affects of the Atonement in the lives of so many people for this past year. In Argentina, in my family (even through e-mails) and mostly in myself. I know I am a better person for the trials I have been given. And I am grateful for the chance I have to change, because I know I am becoming what God wants of me. Just like you are changing to be what God desires of you. I love you all, until next week. Keep dreaming, keep praying. God will help you. That´s why He sent His Son. :) Hermana Reed

Where you There?

So, my new companion has a cd from Jericho Road - less boy bandy more awesome spiritual musicy - and there´s a song entitled "Where you there?" And Essentially the song lyrics go "Where you there when they crucified our Lord? Where you there? Would you remember? *remember (that´s the backup singers) Anyways, that´s the song that is going through my head. And to answer that question. I´m sure I was there. Wasn´t at my sisters´ weddings (a lot of people in Argentina think it´s rude that you two didn´t wait for me. But I´m okay with it. I just want pictures). But I was there when Christ was crucified. I just don´t remember. But I do get the chance to testify that it happened. And something that I was thinking about. I was reading my patriarchal blessing the other day and it talks about how I will have the opportunity to teach the principles of the Gospel and how I will have joy doing it. Okay, lets be 100% real. I was reading my blessing today, and thinking about what I´m doing as a missionary. And the word "joy" pops up quite a bit. And I was thinking about if I could say that I have had a lot of joy in my life. I could definately say happy, moments of mirth for sure, I mean, come on! I´m hilarious! It just comes out of me. That´s why I´m so skinny, I laugh all the time. So I had to do a bit of self analysis. What is joy? What is joy to you guys? Is it winning the basketball game against the rival team (Broomfield 3rd vs 1st ward? good times). Ace-ing the test? Do any of those things really matter? Or is it standing in a group of family members praying and watching as two children of God become one step closer to living with God again. I wasn´t even there, but I´m betting a lot of my family felt true joy this weekend. And my joy - is knowing who I am. A daughter of God, and having the opportunity to share it. It´s not work - in the grudgingly given, burdened down, dreading the dawn type of work. It´s hard, takes a lot of patience and planning (oh the planning sessions we have!), and you don´t get a lot of thanks (agradecimiento?). But every day I receive a witness that I´m doing exactly what God wants me to do, even when I botch it - because I´m at least trying my best. Here´s the joy that I have had this week: Hna Paola - aka Belletrix Lestrange - wants to come back to church. She wants to quit smoking, and she wants her family to be together. She hasn´t gone to church in 10 years. Juan y Cintia - finally prayed about the Book of Mormon, even better, they recognize that the "good feelings" they get when they read are actually confirmations from God. They´ve accepted baptism, have actually committed to coming to church (before it was always, I´m not going to promise anything) and are opening up to us as to how they want to change their lives and what they are willing to do. And do you want to know why we were able to have this progress? Miembro justo - her name is Rosalia, convert of two-three years ish and she was so excited to share her testimony and the strength she has to recognize that the commandments of God - wait for it, because this is epic- are commandments. They aren´t guidelines, they are not suggestions, they are commandments from God because He knows that is what we need to do to be happy, and breaking commandments is akin to denying the power and wisdom of God. I love having members with us in lessons. Alejandro - we called him Saturday night and he said he wanted to move up his baptismal date (it was 12th of may) to this saturday. Then he didn´t come to church, that´s rough, BUT! He still wants to get baptized. More to come on his story. He´s currently in Mendoza. Family Manrique - a reference from Ushuaia. They are Catholic by tradition, but don´t like it. And the sister of the mom is a member. Her nephew served part of his mission in Peru before cutting some tendons in his knee. The nephew lived with them for about a month after his surgery- giving them some time to feel the spirit and be open to listening. They don´t feel like they have the abilities to change religions at this point in their lives (52 is not to old) but they openly acknowledged that we have something different. We are blessed. Anyways, Find your joy. Acknowledge it. And recognize that it probably won´t come from anything, it most likely will come from a someone - or many someones. Because we can´t take stuff with us to heaven, but we can meet people there when we get there. Love you all, Hermana Reed

So, You would think...

You would think that in a Catholic country Easter would be a big deal, right? Me too! Turns out, it might be, just, when you´re at the end of the world, you have other things to do...like eat, and not be cold. I kind of forgot all week that it was easter. Which, I would say is unusual, but on the mission I forget about all holidays (or feriado - the spanish word for it hear) unless specificallly told to me by President Gulbrandsen, or my district leader day of (or during weekly planning, if it´s in my agenda, I will remember). We didn´t have any processions, we didn´t have any fiestas, we just had a special reunion based on the Atonement of Jesus Christ like President Monson asked of us. And then we all got a chocolate easter egg after sacrament meeting. That´s what they do here. They give out chocolate eggs, most of them are hollow, the really cool ones have M&M´s inside, I have no idea how they make them. How do they get the chocolate on the inside? I still don´t know. But 2 cool Easter-y things did happen this week. First off, I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting. Whoot. They must really like me to pick me out of the four missionaries that are here (okay, two were brand new to the area, and the other one has already been here for 5 months, so it may not be stretching to much to ask me). Which was fine. I prepared my talk, had the basic idea, and then a recent convert offered to correct my spanish. This was an incredibly humbling experience, as I thought I was kind of good with my spanish, and then she started to correct my talk. What do you mean to say here? What´s that? That´s really complicated and doesn´t make sense......Pucha. My writing eloquence just hasn´t really passed on into my spanish speaking apparently. It´s a lot harder. And then. She didn´t finish editing it and we had to go, so she said she would bring it to church the next day. So I show up to church at 9:45 and she´s not there....what? She ends up calling us at 10:30 (during the meeting, we did not answer). It was a good thing I kept my notes. I will be sending the talk to you, because it was actually really good. It combined a couple of talks from October Conference 2011 by Elder Carl B. Cook and Elder Cristofferson with the other cool thing that happened this week. MISSION EASTER CONFERENCE! Loved it, it was my first conference in the south. Which meant my first time trying to work the internet here. We tried doing it at the Downs house first, but the internet was out so we all had to run to the church, and made it right as the musical number was finishing. Phew! Anyways, President Gulbrandsen talked about a lot of different things, but one example really stood out to me. He had us all close our eyes and envision ourselves entering a room where Jesus was sitting upon His throne. As we walk into the room, Jesus gets down from his throne and runs to greet us and give us a big hug, having returned home from our long journey. After this reunion we spend time together and we go to a museum like courtyard where we see scenes from our lives hanging on the walls. As we pass through our lives together with our Savior, we come to one of the most embarrassing moments of our lives, as we see ourselves sinning. With the Savior by our side we plead for his forgiveness, and with tears in his eyes he tells us that all is forgiven. I really liked this analogy. But I had two very poignant thoughts that I wanted to share with you. The first is when we enter the room where Jesus is sitting, how do you feel? Are you excited? Are you scared? Do you feel worthy to enter into the presence of your Savior? Because if you don´t, you need to study the Atonement again. You need to truly understand the meaning of repentance. (This is what I talked about on Sunday, btw). Because there is nothing in your life that you can do, that would block you from returning to your Heavenly Father if you truly repent. And this is true, real repentance, as in a change in behavior, from the heart, drawing yourself unto Christ repentance. This is why we have the Atonement in our lives, so that we can enter that room with heads held high, and not wait for him to come to us, but for us to want to RUN to him, and with tears in OUR eyes, thank him for all that he has done, for the happiness that we have received, and to feel his emanating love surround us. And to want it. Because we can, because he loves us, because he died for us that we may live again. Point two: when you are in the museum of your life, begging for forgiveness for a sin that you are watching. I don´t want to feel sad. I want to turn to Jesus and say, "Yes. I sinned. This was a terrible moment in my life. But look! Look up ahead, a scene or two. That´s where I repented. That´s where I applied the Atonement in my life. I didn´t reject your gift, the drops of blood you spilt for me were not in vain. Because look! I became a better person, this is who you allowed me to be, to discover. I truly am your disciple." Such an amazing miracle that we have the Atonement in our lives. We are so truly blessed. And then the other day we were at a recent converts house, and they were watching Lord of the Rings II. And right before they turned it off Samwise Gamgee said: "I think I understand now. In all those stories, [the heroes] had so many chances to turn back, but they didn´t. Because they has something to hold on to. They had hope. Hope for a better future, and a better day." As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have this hope. We have this knowledge of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and we have the opportunity to share what we know with our family and friends. And we share out of love, not out of contempt, because we truly want this happiness for those around us. Thank you for being a wonderful blessing in my life. I wish you a happy Easter. Felices Pascuas! Go eat a chocolate egg. Hermana Reed Okay, so that was super spiritual. Now I would like to give you some quotes of the week that are hilarious! "The area is always better when I leave. No, I mean it´s better because I´m not there." - Hermana Erickson, my new companion. She gives me hope. "I could convert people with my body if they could se it...but they can´t because I´m wearing to many clothes." - Hermana Erickson after putting on 5 pairs of socks "Hermana´s! You can´t be in an apartment with a man alone can you?" Hermana Marcos (member of the branch) as she was accompaning us for a couple of hours "Right. But we didn´t....you were there." "Oh, right. I was with you." Hermana Marcos is hilarious. She´s 25 and has 2 kids, convert of 4 years ish, and hilarious. She doesn´t want to have another baby because it will delay her and her husband serving a mission together. They love us, and she loves helping the missionaries! "Hey kid! Do you want to get baptized?" - Me, because we wanted to see if he would say yes. Also, we´re reactivating a member who looks like Belletrix Lestrange. She´s happier every time we go back. The church is true. :) Love you!

Transfers in the south are a lot different then the north...

So, I know it´s Tuesday. I promise I´m not being disobedient. It´s just that when you are chilling with the non-existent penguins (lame that I still haven´t seen one) tranfers are a little more loco. Here´s why, because when you are waiting for your new companion, she has to get on a plane and travel all day just to get to you. As opposed to finding her at the mission offices and jetting off to enjoy your p-day. Also, because your now ex-companion has to wait a day for her flight, you spend a lot of your p-day saying goodbye to people. Things are very different here. So, would you like to know about my new companion? Her name is Hermana Erickson, she´s from Chicago. Blonde, and hilarious. She came in the same group as Hermana Alvey and Hermana Gutierrez, which means I have now been companions with every Hermana from that group. Which I think is hilarious. There is obviously something very special about this group. Oh, and I´m still in Chacra II. Hermana Gutierrez left, she went to Caballitos, capital. It´s going to be so different. I kept telling her not to wear her heavy jacket in the airplane but she didn´t believe me. She´s been in the cold so long she can´t wrap her mind around the fact that there are places warm in our mission. It´s cooling down up north, but it is still pretty hot. We know this because Hermana Erickson shows up in this very light skirt, without tights on, absolutely freezing. She put on her warm jacket real quick. Anyways, that´s the most exiting news. How awesome was General Conference this weekend? I loved it. As a missionary it is still one of the most stressful times of my life, because we have 5 chances to get investigators to church, which means 5 times to look for investigators, call them, wake them up, and get them out the door. But it´s all worth it because then we get to listen to the prophet! And we get the chance to sustain him (I did, enthusiastically) and promise God to follow the counsel that He gives us. Plus, as a native english speaker, I went in a little room with all the other english speaking missionaries so we weren´t distracted by all the little kids running around. A spirit of reverence resided. I won´t recap any of the talks, but I will just say, that going to General Conference boosts my testimony every time. To see all those people singing and testifying, and knowing that there are millions of people all over the world who are doing the same, and watching with me. It is also nice to know that at this time, my family is doing the same thing I am, and we are growing in the Gospel together, even though we´re about a bajillion kilomotres away from one another. Ish. Bit of an exaggeration there. And this week was just amazing, Divisions with Hermana Gonzales was very edifying. We talked a lot about receiving the Vision of God, something President Gulbrandsen has wanted us to do for a while. Because when we receive the vision we understand how to work more efficiently and then we achieve miracles. And I was thinking about this during conference, God has a Vision for each and every one of us, if we can take the time to understand it, we will be able to work miracles in our lives. Anyways, Hna Gonzalez taught me a lot, through her example and wisdom. She goes home this transfer, so she has a lot of experience. I´m going to be as good as her some day. I can do it. And then I got my companion back and we just went to town teaching and being missionaries. And it was awesome. It was hard, and we still had trials and had to show our faith, and we didn´t have a baptism this weekend, but we have some awesome plans and I´m excited to keep working. I know this e-mail is really vague. But there´s just so much to do. Last week when we were doing weekly planning I kept getting frustrated because lunch kept getting in the way of our plans. Sometimes I just don´t want to eat. I´d rather go and visit one more person, teach one more lesson. But that´s not healthy, also we need to form a good relationship with the members. God is wise, making us eat. We can do it. Thanks Heavenly Father. And don´t worry, I really do like to eat, I just want to keep working as well. We can do it. Pray for us please, I need to get better at so many things, but God is preparing people and He is preparing me. Just like He is preparing each and everyone of you to be in the right place at the right time to share your testimonies and bless someones life. You don´t even know when, but it will happen. Because God loves all of His children. Not just one or two. All righty, got to jet, otra vez. I love you all! Hermana Reed