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
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