you read that right folks IM TWO MONTHS IN
Time is flying which is a blessing and a curse. I cant believe i ONLY get 18 months out here! im trying to soak up every moment. THis week has been really good. We've been working hard to find new people to teach every day and not be scared up by some people who may at first seem not interested and its been working! We now have 7 investigators and plenty of people who we've left information with and said we can come back again soon. AWESOME AWESOME. If only they knew we have the most special and life changing message for them!! Soon, they'll all know. I'll tell you about a few of our investigators because im pretty sure theyre the most interesting people alive. Claudio , 25, is the cousin of the Rojas family who makes up 90% of our branch(spanish speaking people in a certain area that we attend church at the same time). Everyone is somehow related to the Rojas familia it is ridiculous. He is Catholic but has basically been convinved to take lessons from us, but he's started to open up and ask a lot of questions and yesterday he CAME TO CHURCH!!! it was awsome because it was also fast sunday which means we had fast and testimony meeting(anyone in the audience an stand and bear their testimonies and their faith for the other people in the audience). Basically everyone who spoke was a member of the Rojas familia and bore testimony practically directly to Claudio about how they knew this church was true. we have a meeting with him tonight so we'll see what he thinks but he's so awesome. another person we're teaching is named Ada. She is something else hahahah last week she almost got arrested because she beat up her roommate and threatened to set her trailer on fire hahahah but its okay because she's awesome and she's working on her anger issues! She's been meeting with missionaries off and on since she was 23... shes in her 60s at least now but shes never had sisters! So we'll see how some hermanas do on her :) Last night we also talked to a man named Charles Eaglespeaker who told us his experience of shaking hands with Jesus on the pier last week. That was really lovely hahahaha people are so great. The work is hard and keeps getting harder but as it does we've been working harder and the Lord is blessing us here in Graham! I know he is leading us to people who are prepared to hear our message and prepared to change their lives and follow Christ. I know it! I hope youre all excited for General Conference this weekend because i am SO EXCITED. We get to hear from living profetas!!! about us! they recieve personal revelation for us in this day. its seriously amazing and next week you can all send me your notes because I'll be watching in Spanish and It will be a test to see if i actually understand anything they say (they all talk so fast...) I love you all and I cant thank you enough for all the loving words and thoughts. I pray that you all find ways to show your love for Christ this week because I know when we do then he shows us ways He loves us! Also, for all the members out there, Work with your ward missionaries! THey need it! We always need it but its hard to ask sometimes. So help them out and it will be worth it! Fe en Dios y Adelante, Hermana Reed IV
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hola mi familia y mis amigos :) what a week! time is flying, which is a curse and a blessing. We have so much work to do here. Today, for the first time, I was wishing we didn't have pday because I know theres so much stuff we need to do! weirdest feeling.. my comp says it only gets worse haha awesome. This week has been up and down as always but we're learning a lot and trying to work really hard :) The Spanish is hard because I have gotten to the point where I second guess myself on the conjugations and words and stuff which is awful but one thing my comp said to me which was so cool is that we can't trust ourselves in this work. WE cant trust ourselves, we cant trust our companions to save us, we have to trust in the Lord. He'll put words in our mouths if we simply open them! So im working on being more confident and trusting that he'll help me with it all. Highlights from the week: we have gotten a lot more people to teach and we're starting to learn the area better and better. One day specifically, Thursday, was going to be so awesome. we had 4 set citas with new investigators and we got 3 members to come to lessons (huge because were trying to get the members to trust us because they've never had hermanas before). anyways long story short ALL OF OUR CITAS WERENT THERE OR DIDNT ANSWER AND IT WAS ACTUALLY HEARTBREAKING. I was so bummed. We don't know what happened with any of them, but were going to go back and try and talk to them again and hopefully set some more appointments. but its okay because we know the Lord is blessing us here, if anything just with positivity and faith that our work will pay off :) This week one of the hermanas in our ward asked us to take care of her dog... not sure if that's allowed but we said yes because she was really stressed out and had to leave and couldn't find anyone else. so that was actually SO GREAT because the puppy was ADORABLE. His name is Wi. pictures attached. but the first day we went over there we found out she has an alarm system she didn't tell us about and it went off and we didn't know how to turn it off and the cops called her and stuff and it was bad but we figured it out and didn't get arrested so that was a blessing hahaha and a great story. Anyways life is good and im so greateful for all the love and prayers I can feel from back home! last thing I wanted to share is just that, the power of prayer! I was studying prayer earlier this week and I love what it says in the bible dictionary. "the object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is ALREADY WILLING TO GRANT but that are made conditional on our asking for them". God is so loving. He wants the best for us. that's all he wants! and he wants to bless us! We aren't convincing him or persuading him to bless us, we simply have to ask. Don't be afraid to ask for help because I promise he is waiting and hoping for the moment we do. Im so grateful for that, especially this past week ive felt it so much. I know God loves all his children and im so grateful for the power He has given us to talk to Him every day. :) I love you all! Hermana Reed IV THIS IS WI ISNT HE GREAT
2 THIS IS MY NEW FAVE MOUNTAIN ISNT IT GREAT hello my lovely friends and family :) you read that correct IM OFFICIALLY IN THE FIELD. This week has been crazy and full of stress and new things but its all good because I know I need to be here. but wow its been crazy! The first day I landed in WA at about 1 and had already been up for 13 hours... so I was slightly exhausted, but I met my comp, Hermana Souza more details to come, and right away we went to our area and contacted and met with the branch mission leader and met some members. I hope they didn't think I was a potato because I was seriously so exhausted... so my area is the Graham 2nd ward in Graham, WA. We are white washing the area, Hna Souza came from Auburn before, and also opening it because its never had sisters before. This sounds all fun right? but then we realized we know nobody in the area.. and we don't know where anything is or where any Hispanics live... so it was a bit of a trial the first few days. We had to do a lot of contacting, but the first while we have so much studying and training because im new that we felt like we had no time to even talk to that many people and so it was really hard. But weve started to figure it out and we have 3 new investigators were teaching starting this week and were so excited along with a less active family weve been working with and a brother of one of our ward members who is interested in taking the lessons. SO EXCITING RIGHT. Were definitely being blessed for being obedient and working hard, but we need a lot of work here. keeps us busy for sure :) Hermana Souza is seriously awesome. Her parents are native to Mexico, so shes spoken Spanish her whole life and I can already tell shes helped me with my Spanish so much. She corrects me on things and helps teach me better way to say things. Its sometimes hard though because she said shes never been with a companion who hasn't spoken Spanish before, so im new and slightly difficult I think but I try not to ask questions because I know it would annoy her. Helps me learn faster I think. We are also seriously blessed because we live with the two English sisters in our area and they are AWESOME. It is such a relief to have more people to talk to too. Theyre so fun and our little town home is so cute we love it. basically, im incredibly blessed. Me and Hermana Souza know were supposed to be here, because we were put to open this area and we were put together and its a huge testimony to me that theres a reason or some people we are meant to find. we just have to get out and find them. :) thank you for all the love and prayers! I can feel them every day and im so grateful to have family and friends at home backing me up. you guys are awesome. mom I got your packages by the way! I ate all the yogurt covered pretzels in one day... whoops. love you all!!! :) Hermana reed IV P.s. I am in the Graham 2nd ward/branch. not sure how well it is when looked up youll have to let me know. we are still working on meals with members so we haven't had the fantastic meals too much, except my companion is native Mexican and she makes some KILLER meals. #blessed I made it fam!!! Just a quick email to say I MADE IT and IM ALIVE!!!! The plane ride was brutal and im exhausted out of my mind but im safe in the mission home with my mission presidents and wife and a bunch of new missionaries who all knew eachther and went to the provo mtc together so thats fun. love you all!! talk to you in a week and ill know more about life! haha con amor hermana reed IV Last week at the Mexico City, MTCits official! im actually going to leave here! this week we got our flight itinerary for the states. i head out tuesday morning! we leave the ccm at 230 am, but im a flight leader so i have to be there at 130 am.... still deciding if im going to sleep or not that night considering packing and stress and excitement. but my flight is at 6 am and im the only missinoary on my flight! so basically ill be scared and companionless for a day. CANT WAIT. no but really i cant wait because im so excited to go! this week has been a lot of the same, studying, learning, practicing, but a few things stand out. on Tuesday we have our weekly devotionals and our choir sang the EFY medley (look it up on youtube if you dont know what that is its incredible). in it says , we are as the army of helaman. but we changed it to somos el ejército de Heláman. so we ARE the army of helaman. imagine us, these young 18 19 year olds, over 300 of us singing that for the first times in our lives as ACTUAL missionaries and actual members of Gods army. it gave me CHIILS. it was incredible. i wish i could live forever in that moment because i felt so much power, so much love from God, and so much excitement to be apart of this work. BEING A MISSIONARY IS SERIOUSLY SO AWESOME. Other big things that happened this week, we had another trc and this time we taught an old man named Carlos. he told us he had been a member for 19 years but neither his wife nor his hijos were members. it was really hard for him to talk about. WE taught about how we can recieve revelation, and i felt prompted to share Moroni 7:3 which talks about recieving the rest of the Lord and that we can recieve his rest now not in years when were gone or in the eternities, but NOW. it was so powerful, and i really hope that it helped him even if i shared it in my sad broken spanish. i dont have much time, but im so excited to get into the field! ive learned and grown so much in my time here in the ccm, mostly about trusting the Lord and trusting his plan and following the spirit to help me help others. a big thing ive learned, is this mission is NOT for me. it is for the people. im not learning spanish for me, im learning it for the people in Washington that were promised to be able to hear about this gospel in their native tonuge. i dont have the gift of tongues for me, i have it so i can help speak to the spirits of those people who the Lord has prepared for this gospel in Washington. I AM SO EXCITED TO GET THERE. thank you for the love, the prayers, and the support. I am all too lucky. next time you hear from me, ill be in the great PNW and ill be happier than ever!!!! les amo, mi familia! gracias por todos sus oraciones.Yo sé que esta Iglesia es verdadero y que Jesucristo vive! Yo creo con todo mi corazon que Dios nos amo. Adios! Hermana Reed ps mis maestros dicen hola! Picturas!
1 GOT THE PACKAGE MAMA AND IM SO DANG HAPPY 2 the latinas did our hair one night and this was the end result... h knudsen has a chongo, yo tengo una princesa leia 3 last district pic with our fav maestra hermana alvarado!!! 4 she was literally amazing 5 our mood when we WORE PANTS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 6 WEEKS |
Hermana Fallyn ReedMissionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Federal Way, Washington Mission. July 2016 - January 2018. Archives
January 2018
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