One of the Chosen Frozen.

OKay. My life pretty much is amazing right now. I will tell you all about it. It´s called Once Upon A Time I had to wait until THURSDAY to go to the Tierra del Fuego. So I did. Waking up at 3 in the morning really wasn´t that difficult as I could really sleep that night anyways (Hermana Milmont and Hermana Alvey slept just fine). I get to the airport at 4 in the morning to find my good buddy Elder Palomino waiting to go south too! Elder Palomino is from Colombia and was in my zone for the past....forever. A long time. Anyways, I was happy because at least I was with another missionary and not by my onesie. Being in the Remis with the male driver was a little weird. So, it was good to have an Elder there. We were the only two lucky ones to leave at 4 in the morning. So we grab our stuff (aka Elder Palomino took my bag and his, LOVE being an Hermana) and we head out to the plane. Which we get into by stairs. Small airport. And by some crazy weirdness, we´re not sitting together. Pucha. But it doesn´t matter because it´s early and I try to sleep. Fast forward to 9 in the morning and I´m looking down to OCEAN. There´s going to be a lot of caps in the e-mail. Just saying. I´m excited. Anyways, so ocean. Yes, we get off the plane, we go find our bags and then head out to meet the Elders and the....Elders. Wait, where are the Hermanas? Oh, they didn´t know I was coming. Bienvenida al Sur. Yes, communication is a tricky process here. So, I get in a taxi and head off to the church in Ushuaia to wait for the Hermanas. Which is good, when they get there we get to chat for a bit, and I can change into tights - which was necessary. Oh, did I not tell you? Went outside and it was doing the mild slush rain thing. First thought in my mind? This is like Colorado! Love it.

Anyways, change into my tights, whip out my big coat, and then head out to the convey. But there´s only room for one passenger. Well, that´s not fun. So, we decide to wait until the next convey (which is like a 16 passenger van). Head back to the church and enjoy the little brownies the Hermanas had made for district meeting. Yumm, breakfast. So, we leave at 12:30 on the convey and it´s fun. Elder Palomino and I get to chat on this 4 hour drive, so now we are best friends, and he keeps telling me how he´s going to die. Never seen snow before, never been in the cold before, except for last winter in Buenos Aires. He will do great things. But we finally make it to Rio Grande and Elder Palomino gets dropped off first and I see the other Elders and there´s Elder León! Not my last district leader, but one of the Elders from my first district in Nuñez! I was all..what the..awesome! But I continue on to Chacra II - which is part of Rio Grande for those that were confused. I had no idea where I was going so I told you Chacra II because that´s what I knew. Anyways, so essentially, it´s like a barrio, a neighborhood, within the city of Rio Grande. The best part is I´m 5 minutes from the Ocean. yes!!! And I so badly look the part of the tourist. I´m just whipping my head side to side. Oh - tangent, driving here made me think of Wyoming. So, weather of Colorado, terrain of Wyoming - aka brown and flat. And I love it.

So, keep going, and I finally meet my companion. We take my bags in and the first thing I say to her is. Great! Can we go eat? I´m starving. I had not eaten all day, and now it´s 5 in the tarde. We cooked up some good milanesa while Hermana Gutierrez updated me on the investigators and menos activos in Chacra. And I just basked in the glory of being in the south. It is incredible. And I´m just so happy all the time. Hermana Gutierrez is incredible. She knows the language really well, and is full of confidence, we laugh a lot. And she always asks questions and tries to be better. She is an integrated part of this companionship. We actually talk about things and try to figure out what would be best for our area and our investigators. God loves me.

And then we head out and start working. First day I meet a couple of our investigators. And we found some new ones. My favorite investigator right now is Rodrigo. He´s 10, but he´s nearly as tall as I am. Which is nothing, we met his 13 year old brother the other day, and I had to go on my tiptoes to bezo him. These kids are ridiculously tall. But super humble and sweet. It´s a great family. The mom and dad are both deaf, so I´ve been trying to remember all the sign language that I know. They can read lips pretty well, and the kids help them interpret. I can understand them sometimes, like half the time. I usually get at least the gist of it, and then I can ask for details. I´m sure they´ve learned how to interact with the world. But they love reading and the Dad wants a book of Mormon, so we´re looking for a big version so he can actually read (his eyesight is really bad and he can´t read the small letters). But get this, So, we took Rodrigo to the baptism of the Elders on Saturday (we share a BRANCH - did I mention that? Oh yeah, I´m in a branch. It´s hard because I keep accidently saying ward. And I keep calling the Branch President an Obispo - or Hermano.) and set a fecha bautismal with him and he came to church on Sunday. When we talked to him last night he said that when he was reading he felt alivado - or relieved, he felt something. It was incredible. He´s such a cute little kid. He will be getting baptized in three weeks, I kind of want to make it four and have him get baptized with his family. We´ll see what happens. "I have a family here on earth...." That song just popped into my mind.

AND THEN, I´m writing on Tuesday because we had a Zone Conference on Monday. And this is what is awesome. Because Rio Grande is in the cheto boonies, we take a convey down to Ushuaia Sunday night, and then we do divisions with the Hermanas there until it´s time to go to bed. And it was hilarious. Hermana Gonzalez from Utah and Hermana Shelley from California crack me up. So I go out with Hermana Gonzalez and we´re sharing mission gossip and stories and it gets time to go back inside. It´s about 10 (the horario is different here because things are so tranquil. We get up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:30. So just an hour difference, but that means we are out later, when people are actually home. Love it.) and we get a phone call from a very out of breath Hermana Shelley. "Hermanas? Are you in the pension? President Gulbrandsen is going to inspect our apartment in 5 minutes!" and we´re all " FA!!!!!!" And we start booking it home. Run home, smash open the door, to find.....President and Hermana Gulbrandsen standing in our apartment. We´re panting, red faced, bundled up like mini snowmen. "hehe...Hey President....oi" It was good, Pte Gulbrandsen is pretty good natured about this kind of thing. Anyways, so then they leave and we get ready for bed.

Next day, we have our zone conference and it is amazing. We talk about how it really is our purpose to help others learn how to Love Christ. Because if we develop that love, then we are willing to do everything else. But we have to catch the Vision. We have to really understand it for ourselves. And that´s something I want to work on. I don´t have a lot of time left (I complete a year this Friday. How crazy is that? HAppy ONE YEAR! Yay me.) so I´ve got to capture it and apply it real quick. But I´m more determined then ever. And I´m super pumped because I know the Lord confides in me. We´re going to work miracles.

Well, I hope this letter was entertaining. I thought about titling it "I´m leavin´on a jet plane. Don´t know when I´ll be back again" But, obviously I didn´t. But I thought about it.

I¨M FARTHER SOUTH THEN THE PENGUINS! I´m happy, and sad about that. I asked my companion and she´s been here 3 months and hasn´t seen a single penguino. What the lame. Oh, and the people born here? Called Fueguinos. Because they´re from the Tierra del Fuego. I love my life.

Love you, I´ll be more spiritual next week. I´m to stoked right now to try to calm down.

Hermana Reed

..I can´t...I don´t....

I want you to know that I have been thinking for about 12 hours how I would start this e-mail. And I have varied in the number of ways I could fully express to you how I am feeling right now. Some of them were witty. Some of them were spiritual. Some of them were movie quotes. But none of them do justice. So I will just say it.

GOD LOVES ME SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I¨M GOING SOUTH FOR THE WINTER/SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that crystallizes it for you. I don´t think I put enough exclamation marks in there to really justify the sentiment. But that´s okay. It was actually really funny. When Elder Withspoon told me last night I was leaving for the south, I pretty much went in to shock. I didn´t even do a little happy dance until 15 minutes later. I´m going to be with Penguins! Muahaha. And, since I´ve almost reached my year mark (hello crazy right) I´ll probably end my mission in the south. How freaking awesome is that? I love my life! God loves me. And this is exactly what I needed. Because I will admit, I didn´t think I would ever be going south. Which saddened me, because the mission gossip is that only the really obedient and dedicated go down there (because we´re essentially left on our own...forever). And I hadn´t been sent down, so what does that say about me? Now, I know that´s only partially true. You can´t send down someone who is going to slack off, because it´s not like President Gulbrandsen can just whip on down there to baja la caña. But there are obviously diligent, dedicated, obedient missionaries that don´t have the chance to go down south. BUT I GET TO GO!! I´m ridiculously excited. And my new companion´s name is Hermana Gutierrez, who is actually from the United States, she came in with Hermana Alvey. So, another Hermana from the U.S. as a companion. I have had a lot of those. We actually don´t have many latinas (hermanas) in our mission right now. Kind of funny to think about. Anyways.

Okay. Mah! okay. I´m focused. What even happened this week? I don´t know. Uh, I´m pretty sure I taught people. I have to go look at my notes. Oh, want to hear something funny? So, Thursday we had a cita with Monica. And we were praying to know who would be our miembro justo to come with us, and we end up calling Jeremy, who is in her class in Primary. So we go, and Monica gets all bashful! She goes back inside, comes back and had changed into her skirt. Then she goes back inside and is doing her hair for like 15 minutes. Super funny, super cute, mildly annoying. It was super hard to teach her, because she didn´t want to answer, she just wanted to hide her face. If they end up getting married, I want a wedding invitation. When we told Elder Leon about this little experience he just started laughing, called us little matchmakers, then said good job. I´m glad we have such a good relationship.

What else happened. Oh, and we did divisions this week again. I went to Hermana Renteria´s area this time. And it was actually a really spiritual experience. We were going to teach the law of chasity to a 19 yr old single male, with a recently married couple on Valentines Day (hey, you find ways to enjoy the mission) but he wasn´t there. So that was a bummer. But it gave Hermana Renteria the chance to improve her "following the spirit" skills. As she essentially had to be senior companion for the day. I obviously knew the area (I´ve been here 6 months, only 3 of which the area being divided), but I gave her the reins. And she just flourished. And then during nightly planning we prayed specifically to know where we should go in the morning. And we both received the revelation to go to a certain area (one of those, pray and look at the map and listen to where God wants you to go.) And we both picked the same spot on the map. Obviously revelation. So we went there, and we ended up doing contacts for about 2 hours. But it was a great experience. We found a couple of people, we were able to share our testimonies. And we ended up contacting this Testigo de Jehovah who just couldn´t accept that miracles are being done today. (hoy en día? how do you say that in english). He even said "After Jesus crist died, miracles stopped, the power to do miracles wasn´t there anymore". Well, yeah! But that power was restored to the Earth once again! "no, no, miracles can´t happen anymore". It was sad, because I see miracles all the time. And I know the blessings that we have through the priesthood. But by that time we´d been talking for about 45 minutes so, I was super suave and we ended with "Well, I promise you that God will show you a miracle. And that´s a promise from two missionaries sent from God...." And then we walked away.....I thought it was cool. Maybe it was a bit catty. But I´m still happy with the experience. It was a great experience for Hermana Renteria. She was able to share her testimony, and she told me afterwards that all she could think about was "by the mouth of two witnesses" so she made sure she shared what she knew. Even though she still struggles with the language. So, no new investigators, but our faith was bolstered and we felt pretty shnazzy afterwards. Thanks Heavenly Father! We knew we were supposed to be there at that time, we have no idea what´s going to come of it. But it is very likely that one of those people will be baptized, eventually. We were supposed to contact them. That´s God´s plan.

Anyways, so. My mind is down south. I´ll be there soon. My flight doesn´t leave until Thursday (at 4 in the morning) I´ll get in to Rio Gallegos about 8 in the morning, and then I´ll take a convey (yes, that is how awesome and desolate the area I´m going to is) until about 12. I don´t know the plan after that but I¨m stoked. The area I will be in is called Calafate. I think. I didn´t really pay attention. Elder Withspoon just said the name and I responded "......I don´t know where that is." "Hermana, you´re going south." "oh! well, I still don´t know where it is, but now I at least know the general area." Anyways, googlemap it. Maybe you´ll see me proselyting. Just kidding. Like you´d be able to pick me out. I´m that black dot! *do the little chin jutting thing that Granddad always does*

Anyways, got to jet. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. I really needed them this week. And God is blessing me so much for the dedication of my family!

Hermana Reed

Be Careful What you wish for Cuz you just might get it

So, first off, that song was playing on the radio while we were grocery shopping today and I instantly thought of Fallyn and Just Dance. I love that game. You should be proud of me. I resisted dancing in the middle of the grocery store. Something about being a representative of the church... And then a Justin Beiber song came on and I burst out laughing. Never Say Never. It´s been a while.

Anyways, So this week was a rollercoaster week. Essentially we almost had a baptism. We have this little girl, Monica. Eleven years old. And living in very humble conditions, her parents want nothing to do with the church, but want Monica to learn. Monica loves church and the Book of Mormon, but also is told by her parents to essentially be the Mom of the house in taking care of her 4 and 2 year old brothers. A very sad situation. And in the end, her baptism fell through because she didn´t make it to church on time. The member who passed by her house didn´t get an answer from Monica. Talked to her 4 yr old brother Axel, who can be and often is a terror. So we ended up going after her with Hermana Gulbrandsen to at least get her to Primary. Score for being in the same ward as the Mission President. It does have it´s perks. But she didn´t have the asistencia to be baptized. So we had to suspend it. It was rough. But the work moves forward and our new and awesome ward mission leader is chalk full of energy and ready to help us out. Him and his wife are very pro-obra misional. So essentially the missionary work is going to explode here. LOVE IT!!

And that was pretty much the whole week. We did have a pretty awesome contacting experience this week. We went to contact a reference, who turned out not to live there. But when we talked to the neighbors they said they would read the Book of Mormon front to back (before we even got the chance to invite them to read it) and to come to church. They didn´t end up coming to church. But they are really nice, and we´re working on gaining their trust so we can teach them really well. Right now they are still a little hesitant to let us in their house. But, It was a good contacting experience. The best part though is that the husband is this gruff old man who plans on living until he´s 120 so he still has time to change his life around (he´s like 70). And he likes to give me grief. Even though he doesn´t even know me. Crazy man. I love it. I love teaching him, even if it´s only through his gate. It still makes the day a little more fun.

And not it´s time to go. A little word out. Just for all the future missionaries out there (*coughEthancough*). I´ve been thinking a lot this week of how much I´ve grown and what I want out of the mission. A group of missionaries are going home this week that I really respect. But it is interesting to see the difference between the missionaries who really got everything they could out of the mission and took the time to develop their spirituality, and others who had to take the time to learn how to do the trivial things - like how to take care of themselves, how to develop self motivation, discipline, working with others, prioritizing. You can see where they missed this wonderful opportunity to focus on their testimonies and relationship with God. Or atleast, it wasn´t as fruitful as it could have been. So my advice to you (and to everyone really) is to take the time now to develop the ability to take care of yourself, and learn how to work, that way when you have a calling or when you go on your missions, you will be able to focus in on what the Lord wants to make of you, and how you can really mold yourself into the instrument the Lord wants you to be. It is an incredible experience. To see, and to be a part of. I love my Savior. I love my Father in Heaven. I´m glad He loves me too.

I love you all.

Hermana Reed

What a weird weird world we live in....

So yeah, I have had some fun experiences of late. The first happened this morning during language study. I was just hunkering down, getting ready to whip out my spanish idioms (for instance, they say go to the grain, vaya al grano, instead of get to the point. Oh, and they walk in the branches, they don´t beat around the bush. My favorite is " No me de la lata!" Which means, don´t be a nuisance. Really it´s just fun to say, but I digress) When the doorbell rings. Uh...hello? It turned out to be two people from a different religion who were telling how the Mother of God was on the Earth. Something like that, it was hard to hear over the phone that we have. But, I told them that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and they didn´t go running in the opposite direction, so I figured, sure, why not, let´s go down and talk with them.

So we go down, and see that we´re missionaries (already told you that), and start going in about the Mother of God and what we believe and how we need to read in the Bible and how we´re just as bad as the catholics because we worship on Sunday and not Saturday because no where in the Bible does it say that they worship on Sunday. And, it was mildly confrontational. The whole time I was listening I was wondering why she was trying to fight me on this subject. She kept going back to that too, that we weren´t keeping the commandments, and that Jesus didn´t worship on Sunday. And I tried to explain a little bit about the Book of Mormon and share my testimony. We even read with them the sacrament prayers in Moroni. And the older lady that was there got kind of quiet and said "hey, I´m pretty sure that´s in the Bible." Yeah, it´s in Luke. So, she was able to see that the Book of Mormon goes hand in hand with the Bible, and as we tried to share our testimonies about how God has called prophets again on the Earth to help clarify the Bible, the little fire headed Hermana wasn´t really interested in listening. So I just bore my testimony again, and ended the conversation. Ya está.

The interesting part was just seeing the different preaching styles. Hermana Alvey and I were very respectful, we understand that she is trying to help people come unto Christ and it is important to her too. But for a goodly portion she just spoke at us, and then fire bombed us with scriptures. It helped me understand how the people we talk too feel. I don´t feel like I´ve ever been aggressive enough to fire bomb people with scriptures (look! You´re condemned to hell, it says so in the scriptures right here!, I don´t think so. That´s not nice or Christ like). But her whole approach just lacked the love of God. God wants everyone to come back to him, and Christ served everyone. He didn´t attack them. I don´t know, it was interesting.

Oh, P.S. God LOVES me! So, we had this lesson with Monica the other day. She´s our 11 yr old investigator who loves church and is getting baptized this weekend (please pray for her, she is the only one getting baptized in her family and we need the support of her parents. I really want her parents to come to the baptism..Prayers please!!!) And as we were talking someone who lives in the same house with her and her family walked by. So we talked briefly and set up an appointment to return. We continue talking with Monica and tell her, if she happened to feel like it, she should talk to Oscar (the man) and share with him how much she likes talking to us. To which she responds "Do you want me to give him a Book of Mormon?" .....DUH!! okay, so we whip out a book of mormon put in a little testimony and have Monica chose the chapter that we are going to give him to read (she´s so good about doing her spiritual homework, she chose 2 Nefi 32). And then the next time we passed by she had given him the book, and said that she thinks he was reading it. Not sure, but it was so great that she was willing to do that. It is so humbling to me, that in this chaotic world we live in, where so many adults want the truth and want to find peace, that they can´t find it because they won´t take the time. BUt the little children who don´t even know they need to look for the truth, take the time to feel it, and see it in their lives. Monica loves the Book of Mormon. She knows that it is true. And I´m so happy to be a part of the invitation, to help her have this happiness for time and all eternity.

Those were the two main stories from this week. I went to Villa Crespa this week and did another Capilla Abierta. I do love them. The fun part was racing home at the end of the night. We weren´t given a Remis (like a taxi, but paid by distance not by time) so at 8:15 we were pushed out the door with a "You have to go home now! (it´s over an hour viaje by collectivo).....be safe." They love the Hermanas. It did make for quite the adventure. Running to the Sube (Subway) and then to the Collectivo parada. And then to the pension. Got my heart rate up real good. I do NOT like running in a skirt. But the Capilla Abierta was a success, and I was able to do a lot of really good teaching, and help members and nonmembers a like. We all need to fortify our testimonies.

Here´s my scripture for the week. Well known, still needed. James 1:22 "But be ye doer´s of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Baptism is an act of faith. Searching for the promptings of the Holy Ghost is also an act. We are not a passive church. Salvation is not a passive lifestyle. We work hard every day to change and be more like God, because He is our perfect example. And through the gift and blessing of the Atonement we can draw ourselves closer to those who truly want to make us happy.

I love you all. You need to repent. But don´t worry. I do to. I repent every day so that when I meet you all again you can see how much of a better person I´ve become. I look forward to the day where I can serve you all and help you better understand your roles in God´s plan and how much He truly loves you and wants to be a part of your lives. You probably already know it. But that´s okay. I´ll still be there.

Hermana Reed

What type are you?

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

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

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