buenos dias hermanos y hermanas! I feel like pday was like 2 years ago but also yesterday. TIME IS SO WEIRD. But seriously this week was probably the most crazy of my entire mission thus far. So last week was transfers. Hermana Souza and I stayed together but the sisters we lived with one of them changed. Sister Arnold left, and we welcomed in Sister Roberts with Sister Herlin! She was so awesome. But unfortunately, her welcome was short lived because she had to go home Thursday night because of some complicated issue I still dont really understand. So she left that night which meant Sister Herlin wouldnt have a companion so she ended up moving out too and becoming a trio, which means Hermana Souza and I are alone in the house! and it's actually really sad. we loved living with the sisters. they were so fun and made meals and excercise time so fun. also, we realized we now live in a 2 bedroom 3 story town house alone... probably the nicest gig we'll have until we're like 35. Along with that, Hermana Souza got sick this week so we had to go to the doctor one day and stay home half of another so the days were all weird and suddenly we blinked and it was Saturday! Saturday was quite possibly the greatest day I have ever had in my entire life thus far. Elder Rasband came and visited our mission!! He came along with Bishop Waddell of the Presiding Bishopbric and Elder L. Whitney Clayton, President of the 70s. CAN YOU SAY POWER SQUAD? It was so cool. A theme of the meeting was how many key holders were in the room. We counted 5! Apostle, President of 70, presiding bishopbric, mission president, stake president. All had their own keys! Elder Rasband said it was probably the most key holders in a room with all missionaries basically ever. The meeting started by having us all shake hands with every one of them. I kept my cool and didn't fan girl when I shook Elder Rasband's hand but on the inside I was dying. He seriously RADIATED love. He shared so much and I just wanna share everything he said but here are the biggies. One thing he shared was the divine direction of our calling. He talked about his experiences calling missionaries and how it was seriously a calling from God. Then in talking about keys he explained that our mission president holds the keys to make those assignments too and that our calling is divine down to the very area we are serving in. wherever we are and whomever our companion is is a divine calling from our Father in Heaven. There is a reason we're here. A reason we're in this mission, a reason we're in our specific area. It was incredibly powerful and just another testimony to me that Hermana Souza and I have a work to do here in Graham and a work to do together. Another thing that stood out to me was how much our Savior loves us. It was incredibly to see how the love the Savior has for us was physically effecting Elder Rasband. He was brought to tears multiple times trying to express the emotions he was feeling and how much love he know that the Savior has for us. The spirit in the room was so thick and so strong. I think I cried like the whole meeting and it was just streaming down my face. I kept thinking how lucky I was to be called as His servant here and to be His missionary. I dont know what I did to deserve such an incredible blessing as to serve Him every day. I love being a missionary!! He said a million other things, but another thing he stressed was how this work is so so so INDIVIDUAL. We teach to the individual. The Savior healed the individual. we do saving ordinances for the individual. This work is truly one by one. The Savior knows each of us, by name. Our pains, our worries, our everything. We are never alone! I love this gospel and I love the chance to be a missionary. I love the people here in Washington and I love my family! ANother thing Elder Rasband said was how humbling it was for him to send out his own children on missions. He said as a parent you go your whole life dreaming that your kid will serve a mission and then when it comes it hits you like wait theyre actually leaving me? Its humbling and a sacrifice and its hard. So thank you mom and dad for making the sacrifie of letting me serve this mission. I cant thank you both enough for your love and teachings all my life. Youre truly why I'm here! And I dont know how I got so lucky :) Love you so much, and my sisters and big brother too! Know your lil misionary up here in the PNW is soaking wet and thinking of you always. hasta el proximo lunes, Hermana Reed IV side note next week is halloween! we are still having pday but our pday is starting at 1 pm and going til night time so we're doing teaching and proselyting in the morning so i'll p robably be on later than normal :) talk to you next week! 1 we found this taco truck... literally a taco restaurant inside of a giant bus and it was AMAZING and we found TONS OF LATINOS So we got some investigators from it blessed 2 found a llama farm and decided that everyone needs the gospel so we shared a pamphlet 3 our investigator Victoria moved to California this week ): WHY DO THEY TAKE ALL OF OUR PEOPLE 4 on our way to see AN APOSTLE OF THE LORD
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hello hello from your sopping wet missionary in WA! This week it rained all day every day for a week straight :) and it was AWESOME. There's water everywhere all the time but I'm actually coming to kinda love it. We caught the tail end of some storm off the coast and the water was coming down more than I have seriously ever seen rain do and for so long! I dont understand where it all comes from but it just keeps coming haha Luckily there wasn't too much damage from the storm but it gave us some good service opportunities and luckily it helped people invite us in more because they just saw these two little girls walking around in the pouring rain and they felt bad. BLESSINGS. This week we saw so many miracles. I don't have too much time to write, but i'll try and hit the gist of it all. Claudio left this week and it was SERIOUSLY HEARTBREAKING. In talking with his aunt and uncle they said theyve noticed such a significant change in him. He is happier. He has the desire to be with his family and come to church and he loves reading the book of mormon. He said he's gonna keep reading whil in California, but it's going to be hard because he's going to his family who is all catholic down there. Before he left he was really sad and felt sick so he ended up asking his uncle and cousin for a blessing. WE HADNT EVEN TAUGHT HIM THAT MUCH ABOUT THIS HOW DID HE KNOW ABOUT IT WE DONT KNOW. But they gave him a blessing and he said he felt the power of the priesthood really help him. He kept saying he didnt know why he was so sad and his cousin said its because youre supposed to stay! and he said i know, im coming back and im gonna marry a little mormon girl. hahahah BUT SO CUTE RIGHT I DIED. Gah I know that he's going to come back and we'll be able to teach him again and help him find true happiness with that little mormon girl someday. also before he left he gave me and my comp a bunch of food and giftcards to winco and he said basically "I know its gotta be hard with finding people so i just dont want you to worry about food so buy something nice to eat for me okay?" I ALMOST CRIED. He's so great and we already miss him so much. On Saturday we went to the baptism of Stefanie Oropeza. She is a girl I taught twice on exchanges in Auburn and she is seriously so amazing and seeing her baptized was life changing. you could see the joy in her and the happiness she felt after baptism. It was the first time in the mission where I really felt like I want to do this for my whole life. That feeling was indescribable, and it really reaffirmed why im here. to bring that joy to everyone who doesnt have it yet. im so so so lucky to be apart of this incredible work. Transfer calls were this week and Hermana Souza and I are staying here in Graham! We're so excited, and for us this means that there are definitely people here that WE need to find and teach. We're ready to get to work this transfer and meet EVERYONE. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary! Thank you for the love and prayers. I hope you all know that you are LITERALLY CHILDREN OF GOD. And if life ever gets hard or confusing or sad just remember that your father, your literal father of your spirit, can bring you through anything. I've felt that so much and i KNOW its true. Hasta Lunes. Hermana Reed IV 1 SISTER ARNOLD IS LEAVING US AND WE ARE SAD
2 Surprise this is not a lake it is just ALL THE WATER 2 is actually us saying bye to claudio (hes there in the back hiding like a weirdo) 3 is the fake lake haha 4 5 Stefanie's baptism!!!!! just realized 5 is blurry sorry haha 6 Zone pic Hola mi familia y mis amigos :) This week had a LOT of firsts, but I'm realizing that a lot of my firsts are coming to an end here soon as we finish up the last week of my first transfer in the field! PANIC HOW IS THAT REAL. Time is seriously flying. 1. I had my first exchange this week with our Sister Training Leader Hermana Huhem :) She is SO AWESOME and I learned so much from her, especially because I have never had anyone but Hermana Souza so seeing a different way to do things was new in itself. I went to Auburn which is a really highly populated latino area and one of our goals was to teach people on the spot and just invite them to be baptized. It's awesome because it really shows us like right away if they really have interest in changing their lives. We taught this guy named Roberto, taught him the restoration and it was powerful and at the end we just invited him to be baptized and he said YES. HELLO MIRACLE OR WHAT. It was crazy, and it really showed me like I need to be bold in this work!! BEcause we will see Miracles from the Lord's hand. 2. I gave my first talk in church! I'll be real I was pretty nervous. Something about saying a lot of things in a language I'm not confident in in front of a bunch of people who speak it fluently gave me some freaks but I think it went well :) I shared what I wanted, gave a motiviating member missionary plug and bore my testimony of things i really knew. It was like a 10 min talk and the members after said it was like surprisingly really well spoken! Gift of tongues is real because i actually don't remember anything I said. 3. I had my first real real heartbreak. Claudio, one of our investigators - the one related to like our whole ward - told us he's moving back to California this week ): my heart nearly shattered. We have seen him and his faith grow so much these past few weeks that I just wanted to CRY ugh its so sad and were still praying something will come up and get him to stay and learn more from us. That was basically our week! Lots of work still to do in this area and a lot of changes that we need to make so that he Lord can work through us, but we're working so hard! Another thing about hispanics that slightly kills me is that they're all a little shorter than me... and hugs just aren't as satisfying as they used to be. That added to the fact we saw the sun only twice this weeks means my body is definitely struggling. I'm trying to eat lots of vegetables to make up for it, you're welcome mom. Love you all so much! Remember that no matter what you're going through, no matter what your question or your trial is, Heavenly Father is the answer and this gospel will help with ANYTHING. I have seen it first hand! Know your missionary loves and misses you. con amor, Hermana Reed IV ps. we found out an APOSTLE OF THE LORD IS COMING TO OUR MISSION IN TWO WEEKS. I CAN NOT WAIT. pics this week! 1. WE MET SISTER MEYERS. For all missionaries, they will know who that is. Shes in the district which is basically a show about how to be a rockin missionary and shes missionary famous. We found out shes in our area and speaks spanish so shes coming on splits with us and we are STOKED SHES SO COOL.
2. This picture was in the Liahona last month and it is LITERALLY me and Hermana Souza #twins 3. BRONCOS FANS EXIST IN WA TELL THE WORLD 4. Here's the district!!!! They're the best Hola from the pacific north BLESSED! The title of today's letter has a lot a lot of significance for our week here in good ol' Graham Washington. I can say I have changed incredibly from the beginning of this week to where I'm at now and I'm loving this opportunity I have to change so much!! First of all with the work. Claudio is doing so good. On one of our harder days this week we had a lot of appointments set and almost all of them canceled and we were to our 4th level of back up plans and we still weren't finding anyone who had the time to meet with us.. we went to Claudio's really late to see if we could help with anything and what did we find him doing? READING EL LIBRO DE MORMON. It was such a tender mercy after such a long day and SO EXCITING TO SEE HIM DOING THAT. It was huge and he said he's been super interested in it and loving reading it so far. MILAGROS. I've found this is something that has really helped me to have perspective in the mission, seeing everything as a miracle because ultimately it is! THe people we meet, the places we go to contact, the people who open their doors are all placed in our path and that in itself is a miracle. Other cool thing of the week we met with our girl Ada again and watched some great addiction recovery videos! She told us the most amazing thing. When we got there she was working on bringing a lot of stuff out onto her lawn for a garage sale and she gave us a ton of stuff (see pictures attached hahhaa) but she also told us that the day before she prayed and told Heavenly Father that if He brought people to help her overcome the craziness in her head and to help her with all the stuff she had to do then she would stop drinking. and she said "and then you guys showed up so I guess I'm done" BLESSINGS MIRACLES BLESSINGS WOW LIFE IS SO GOOD YAY ADA. Reasons I'm not the same : 1. I've started to translate everything in my head... whether it's said in English and i translate to Spanish or it;s said in Spanish and I translate to English. It leads to a lot of headaches at the end of the day but mostly i'm like wait okay this is awesome. The language is coming slowly but I trust that it will come eventually! And the Lord is teaching me tons of patience with that. 2, CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND WAS SO GOOD RIGHT. I've noticed I'm not the same because watching conference was so so different than ever before. I was watching and thinking of not only me but my family members, my investigators, our members, and it made it such a different and growing experience (even if i only understood probably about 50% of it). 3. I am not the same in that one night this week we had 4 different dinner appointments... and anyone who knows anything about latinos knows they dont feed you small portions... Hermana Souza practically had to roll me out of our last woman's house. IT WAS SO BAD. I was huge and I have not been the same since. 4. I am not the same because I officially love hard things. That is not who I used to be. but hard things are what we are here on this earth to face! we weren't sent here to have easy lives and to go through every day without a second thought and return back after this life all fine and dandy. we are here to have trials! but every trial is an opportunity for us to turn to our Lord. to turn to our Savior who understands us exactly and to feel His arms wrapped around us. We don't get to feel that if our lives are easy! So yes, I officially love hard things. I'm so grateful for the mission! It's the best thing ever. I miss my friends and family back home so much, but ultimately I know this is where I'm supposed to be. and trust me, I AM SO HAPPY. This work is not about me and with that I sometimes feel guilty that I'm gaining so much joy and knowledge from it. I am so incredibly blessed. Thank you for the love and prayers and know that your missionary up here in the PNW prays for you every day! Estoy agradecida for este Evangelio y por mi Salvador JesuCristo. Oro que todas las personas pueden escuchar nuestro mensaje de esperanza y gozo y que toda mi familia sabe que este Iglesia es verdadera. Les amo con todo mi corazon! Hermana Reed IV 1. This is Ada our bff who cut off all ties with drinking this week! YAYAYA
2. Okay I know it probably seems like all I do is preach to Dogs but this one is special.. His name is - you won't believe it - JACK DEMPSEY. AND NO THEYRE NOT FROM MANASSA 3. Here is some of the wins we got from Ada! Hermana Souza got the minnie mouse shirt and I got this really awesome Child's poncho that has holes in it from when she used it to put out her cigarettes hahahahahahahahaha 4. family pic but didn't get the memo that we were trying to be cute? 5 ALSO this is our plant we got her name is judith WE HAVE A PET |
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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