i think its safe to say that some days are more celestial than others. Today was top notch. We went to the temple as the north half of the mission (QUICK JAB AT ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE CLOSE TO A TEMPLE THAT THEY CAN GO TO ALL THE TIME, GO FOR THE PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO CAN'T I MISS THAT PLACE) and then tonight is ESMYS BAPTISM!!! So many covenants so little time. So I dont have much time to write, but I just wanna say how much I love this gospel. I was talking to my mission president in interviews and he's like hermana reed you got 5 months left what're you going to do and I just was reflecting on how my worst day on the mission is seriously filled with so much more joy than my best days were before. It's a joy I have never experienced. It's a joy that only comes because I'm in full fledged service to my Father in heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ and I feel like I'm playing on their state basketball team and its just so much greater than anything I've ever known. I can't even describe it! This week was mostly preparing Esmy for her baptism, getting her interview squared away and getting her clothing and seeing her get more and more excited. It's so cool seeing that yeah she doesn't know everything but she knows this is right. We had our final lesson before baptism yesterday and we just said Esmy how're you feeling and she takes a deep breath and says "nueva vida". I know that baptism really is a new life. We can change everything. We can be new people. that's what the gospel does that's what Jesus Christ does! He makes us new people. and I am so so so grateful He made me a new person. Last quick highlight of the week: sister training leader perks means I got to be companions with hermana short for a day and it was so cool how we just fit back into that mold of companions and we could teach together fluidly again. We had the best lesson with Wendy, the Guatemalan (not sure if i've written about her before) but we taught the plan of salvation so simply and so powerfully and you could just see Wendy understanding and processing that there's purpose to everything and there's joy in everything. it was awesome, and she came to church with her lil 3 month old baby and the rama went nuts over lil mia. There Jesus Christ goes again, changing peoples lives. Anyways, hermana short is also as amazing as ever and I am just such a #proudmom. This week will be equally as crazy, and maybe every day wont be as celestial as hoy but lets be real every day on the mision is a dia celestial. I LOVE THIS WORK AND I LOVE THE GOSPEL. Shoutout to the big guy upstairs for letting me serve him for a whole 13 months now. con amor, hermana reed ps next week pday is a tuesday because labor day! feel free to email me what labor day is because i still dont know! love you all! 1 found this gem of fabi: look at her baby leg fat and ask yourself why we dont accept this on adults anymore its a crime
2 this is hermana hoyos old mission planner, dad look familiar? 3 finally took hermana wilson to mcdonalds (shes obsessed) ive never seen her happier 4 weekly selfi with fabi 5 temple w/ hna jeronimo 6 this is dayna, my life role model and recent convert 7 las hermanas 8 my bff president rasmussen 9 WAFWM :)
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This week's letter is dedicated to the tv show 24. You'll never believe everything that can go on in 24 hours. 6 pm Saturday night- we are in Graham, WA. Yes, my first area in the mission. We are back because NAZARETH IS GETTING BAPTIZED! Nazareth was one of the people Hermana Souza and I taught back in December. She is so aweosme, from the Dominican republic and has been progressing so much. She loves the book of mormon and was so happy to be baptized :) I loved being there with her and seeing the whole branch again. it was a tender mercy for sure. But it was amazing. 8pm - we are getting gas at a gas station and There is a very passionate jehovahs witness at the pump next to us who starts trying to fight with us about religion and really me and hermana wilson aren't saying anything we really respect what everyone believes and we love how passionate she was but no she talked to us for 20 min at this gas pump and told us everything that's wrong with our religion and how she thought sister missionaries weren't real. Hey there Satan trying to make us feel bad after a baptism we see you. 10pm - we recieve a drunk text from Antonio telling us he doesn't want to meet with us anymore because he thinks he's falling in love with us. Okay its fine I can cry in my bathroom for a bit. 630 am sunday morning - alright todays going to be better i'm going to watch bible videos instead of getting ready. 10 am - leave the house to find a half eaten, rotting, dead rat on top of our car. we are still unsure of how it got there... but it was repulsive!!!!! so gross!!! 11am - hermana reed finally gets the dead rat off the car with a stick and has bleached her hands twice :) 12:30 pm - we're at church. Life is better. we have 4 investigators! 2 are from venezuela, new investigators we literally met Saturday afternoon who have been praying for someone to come to their door to help them find the path God has for them because they don't speak the language of this country. So amazing. So prepard. Lisvi and Darwin and their cute lil 4 year old Camilla who LOVED CHURCH SO MUCH :) 2:30 pm we're about to start sacrament meeting, but Lastenia is crying?? so we go out to the hall and she tells us that the situation at her home has gotten out of control. She needs to leave and she needs to leave today. 3:30 pm the RS says that Lastenia and Esmy can move into her house. miracles. 6 pm - we talk to the zone leaders who are going to start teaching Antonio now because we know he knows this is the true church but Satan is confusing his feelings of the spirit for feelings of love for the sisters. My heart was pretty broken. But the elders will do so good! 7 pm - we are at lastenias helping her move all her stuff out. Is this really happening? we are so happy because theyre going to be SAFE and even more HAPPY. 8:45 pm - okay we gotta hurry we have to be home but Esmy is just following us around why isn't she helping us? we say Esmy come on lend us a hand let's go and in all the craziness she says/kidna shouts "me quiero bautizar". everyone stops moving. um WHAT. she says "me quiero bautizar ahora". She said she's wanted to be baptized for a long time but she hated all the fighting and yelling in the house but now that theyre leaving she wants to do it now before school starts. She's getting baptized next wednesday. probably the most ridiculous and emotionally straining 24 hours of my life but here's to the fact that God can plan way better than I can and that miracles happen every day. I love you all have a great week!! Hermana Reed IV 1- rita moved to mexico ):
2- weekly selfie with fabiola 3-4 almost all the missionaries that taught joey and nazareth :) 5- family photos, wow im a mom with two kids who am i 6- JOEY BAPTIZED NAZARETH IT WAS BEAUTIFUL 7- me after getting the rat off our car. pray for us. HOLA HOLA. espero que me recordaran cuando estuvieron teniendo una fiesta sin su hermanita favorita. TODAVIA ESTOY AQUI NO ME OLVIDEN. pero espero que de verdad tuvieran una buena semana juntas. los quiero mucho. Okay I know youre all dyyyyyying to know what life is like with my hijita. Dani and Dee I'm feeling what its like to me a mom for the second time. i think it's a little easier the second time but all the flashbacks are real. My comp is Hermana Wilson from Utah and she's seriously so cute hahaha I don't really know how to describe her except by saying she's so cute. She went to el ccm en Mexcio like I did and she actually had the same maestras that hermana short did, wow they really are sisters and both my babies. speaking of babies, SO GLAD WE'RE OPENLY TALKING ABOUT ALICIAS BABY NOW! FELICATACIONES ALICIA! Thanks for being kind and waiting til' I get home to actually have the child ;) When I first got the call to be a trainer again I'll be real I was kinda nervous because training can be difficult, but I was excited because training brings miracles and that's excatly what we saw this week!! Here's just a few. Okay everyone remember the mexican party I crashed last week? SO GLAD I DID THAT. Because on Wednesday we had a return apointment with Antonio Barreras who was one of the guys we met at that party. This man is incredibly prepared for the restored gospel. We taught him all about Christ and His ministry and we invited him to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized and he said yes and accepted a baptismal date right there in the first meeting. My favorite line was when he asked us "so you can't come in unless theres another female?" and we said yes and he said "wow. that's really respectful. Theres not a lot of women who respect themselves like that these days. you girls are different". Wow I love the gospel. So we invited him to come on Friday to the church for a church tour because we also have Bible class on Friday nights so there would be members there and we could show him around but then Friday comes around and nobody comes to the bible class.. the only member there was Hermana Jeronimo, the relief society president, and literally nobody else. The bad part of that is that we can't bring investigators into the church unless we have a priesthood holder there, so Antonio shows up a lil' late (hispanic standard time) and we can't even show him around. So we bring some chairs out and have a lesson outside and we are teaching about the book of mormon and hermana wilson asks in some broken adorable spanish "que piensa que Dios quiere para usted?" and antonio responds "creo que solo me esta preguntando lo que quiero. y donde quiero estar" so i chime in and say "y hermano barreras, que es lo que quiere?" and he says "felicidad" and I say "y donde piensa que puede encontrarla?" and he says "en la casa del Senor" .. .. .. "Hermano y donde estamos?" "en la casa del Senor. Puedo sentirlo, aun afuera" It was probably one of the most powerful lessons I've had on my mission, just looking at the church not even inside it you can feel that its the right place to be and that the spirit of the Lord is there. HE IS SO AWESOME AND SO READY. PRAY FOR HIM PLEASE!!! miracle 2: every first saturday in the transfer we have something called finding day where the whole mission goes out finding for the whole day and its basically my favorite day every 6 weeks. Sister Arnold and I decided that we wanted to base our finding with the sisters in Renton off of Alma 52 I think it is where the army of helaman is leading away the lamanites but theres the army of nephites behind the lamanites and they wake up one morning and can't see the lamanites anymore and so helaman asks his army "are we going to go back?" and the fearless stripling warriors trust in the Lord and go back to help their fellow soldiers and win the battle because they were all together. So it inspired us to trust in the Lord, turn back, and go to war together. We bombed an area at a time, all 6 of us and it just felt so powerful to all be there and to pray and then split off and see miracles and come back and have referrals for the sisters there and to know we overcame the world we overcame the battle and we helped people come unto Christ. It was a great finding day. In one situation I was with a new sister, sister Morris, and we were knocking this neighborhood and we were talking to this lady and she was awesome and we taught her and then on the way out we asked do you know anyone who speaks spanish around here? and she just laughs and says "the farm". umm what okay what and she tells us theres this farm that always has mariachi bands. as we walk away I just say to sister morris "sister. we're going to the farm" and she says "we're going to the farm" so we go to the farm and we meet Omar who is like in rodeos and he shows us all his horses and we teach him the restoration in front of his horses who i also think would've accepted the baptismal invitation ahaha but omar was so awesome and wanted to come to church so bad but he couldnt that sunday but he will soon because we're teaching him now. I LOVE MIRACLES. okay i realize this letter is now really long but last quick things. Thursday we took Esmy to the temple because the young women had a temple trip and she freaking loved it and promised we would go in together someday I LOVE HER SO MUCH. Then on thursday morning we had a new missionary training and once again blessings for having a baby because guess who came to talk to us? LINDA K BURTON THATS WHO. For those who don't know who Linda K Burton she is the now ex relief society general president of the church and she's probably the most incredible woman of all time next to marita of course. She talked to us about the power of our callings and just loved us so much and encouraged us to keep going for the rest of our missions and for the rest of our lives. I extend to you all the same invitation! Keep going. for now and for forever and don't forget who it was that got you here. I love you all so much! hermana reed IV 1-3 EL TEMPLO
4 this is me with Hermana Hoyos who I found out served in the same mission as dad in peru!!!!!!!! 5 weekly tongue selfie with Fabiola 6 trio life was gold last weekend 7 ps we got a new car again #blessings 2017 corolla hellllllllo friends && family to the weirdest week of my mission!!!! so much happened and then im here at the computer and can't remember anything. Forgive me for my jumbleness. First of all can I just say how much i love being a missionary? Its so weird how okay it is for me to just always be with another person and just talk to strangers all the time. I'm so grateful for the strength i recieve from my Heavenly Father because i never thought I would be in this situation, nonetheless be so immensely happy about it. la obra sigue adelante. So first off this last week we found out we were moving apartments, we were stoked because our apartment is in a pretty sketchy part of town behind a fred meyer and next to some traintracks where all the homeless people live so we were excited to move, until they told us it was in the same apartment complex just a smaller apartment hahaha but its okay because it didn't take AS long to move things and now theres less to clean! Blessings. moving took a solid day, I realized i've never actually moved everything from a house, so to all my siblings that thought i was getting out of helping the parents move i paid my dues. But now we're in our new lil apartment and we can keep doing the work! On friday we had a really cool experience in MLC. As leadership we try our best to help the missionaries reach the highest potential they can reach, and its hard being a missionary and doing all the things we need to and finding success in the midst of a lot of rejection but I've learned a lot about the power of goals. The first presidency has encouraged us to set transfer or monthly goals to help us stretch and reach our potential. we wanted to set a goal for the mission on baptisms this transfer that would push us to be closer to what we should be reaching, because quite honestly we should be baptizing a whole lot more but we have a lot of difficulties in the mission. It was humbling to kneel down as a leadership council and pray to the Lord on what His plan is for our mission, what we can do to help them, and how many people He has prepared in our mission to enter the waters of baptism this transfer. It was incredible as all of us came to the same number. I know that the Lord is in the details, He knows exactly who is ready to join His church, and He will guide our mission to them this transfer. I am so pumped! This was also Hermana Baird's last week in the field and we worked as hard as we could when we were together, but with MLC and her departing temple trip and interview and devotional we were hardly together, but we did see some crazy miracles. On tuesday night we were with a member, the relief society president, and we had a lesson fall through and our relief society president was kinda down, going through some hard stuff, so we asked if she wanted to go knocking with us and she said yes! We started knocking around in the apartment complex and nobody was answering really and I knew that God was going to provide a miracle to increase the faith of this member. we stood still and asked ourselves if we were in the right place. we then heard this really loud music coming from an apartment, and we realized it was some spanish rap hahaah so we went and knocked on this door and wendy from guatemala answers, She said her baby falls asleep to that music and her baby was passed out in her lil crib. Our member gets so excited and starts sharing the gospel and talking about random things and we were almost scared that this lady was going to get scared off but no, she invites us in to learn more. We taught her and invited her to be baptized and she accepted a date for later in september. God provides moments of faith to build His saints. Wendy came to our bible class on Friday too and loved it. god is so good. another miracle: two nights ago i was with two english sisters while hermana baird was in her exit devotional and we walk past this giant mexican family party and we waved and they were like 'the mormons! " So i was like eh lets talk to them and the sisters were like WHAT but i just had no fear but we ended up teaching this like 45 person party of drunk mexicans but they totally loved it and we got a return appointment. SO GOOD. I could go on for hours about the ways I see the hand of the Lord in everything I do everyday. i know He is aware of all of His children, and He sends us to their need when they are ready to accept this message of joy and hope. He also knows, that this area is in need of a greenie fire missionary. That's right folks, ITS A GIRL. HERMANA REED IS TRAINING ONCE MORE. Pray for me and my new baby! I love you all and I love this work!!! hermana reed okay lots of pics
1 zone kick ball. this is the chines symbol thing they do for love hahaha 2 district pics 3-4 this is mostly for Dani to show what i do for excercise every morning... i love WA 5 me post move.... RIP 6 this was when me and hermana baird invited ourselves over for dinner at the rasmussens and we had date night... this was the best day of my whole mission 7 MLC thug pic feat. Pres Ras money 8 we made these shirts 9 weekly fabiola selfie 10 notice the current temp 11-12 final goodbyes with hna baird )': 13 la familia espinoza en la iglesia 14 mi amiga Jocelyn y su perritito ahhh HOLA HOLA COMO ESTAN?! can it really be that I've been a missionary for Jesus Christ for a whole YEAR? Dreams do come true. I'm serious, being a missionary is a DREAM. I love it. Even though this week was pretty crazy. I refuse to say it was hard, because missions aren't hard, but it was a whole lot of learning this week. It started out pretty great because we finally went to King Donut's Teryaki and laundry and it was the best experience of my life. 10/10 would go back again for their curry. If anyones in Seattle go check it out! I don't have a lot of time because I had a surprise visit at the library today from Sister herlin (english missionary we lived with my first transfer) but this week we learned a whole lot more about Lastenia's situation with her boyfriend and it is just so heartbreaking to see people who's lives are filled with pain but I know that God has directed us to them to help all of them come unto Christ and learn of Him to be ultimately so much happier in their lives. Esmy, her sister, went to girls camp this week and SERIOUSLY LOVED IT. Man I miss girls camp, but even not knowing English perfectly she said it was the funnest thing she's ever done! This week we did everything physically and humanly possible to help our investigators come to church and I had so much faith I felt like so many people were going to come because they all committed to and church comes around and youre waiting at the door and nobody comes and it just seriously breaks your heart a little because we need church! We need to show our Savior that we are grateful for the sacrifice He made. We need that power every week. Its interesting to look at me as a missionary and feel like I'm working the best I have ever and still we see not many results, but I am going to keep working harder than ever because I know, I have known for a long time, that I was going to be serving here because I know there are people I need to help here. Back when I was in Graham I knew I was going to serve in Renton, i don't know why but I felt it back then and I know that there are people here waiting for me. This week is going to be crazy as Hermana Baird's last week but I'm ready to work her harder than ever! I know God lives and Jesus is the Christ and this is His restored Church. I'm so grateful to be His representative. I love you all! Hermana Reed IV 1 Sister Herlin is back with her FIANCE EW
2 sister herlin 5 ever 3 king donts teryaki and laundary hahahahah 4 Pollo con Tojadas de Honduras 5 Fabiola is getting better at doing my hair #gemelas y hermana jeronimo the best missionary in the world I could probably title every week the same thing. Milagros are everywhere. I know that this work is driven by the hand of the Lord because everything about this week is incredible. We had interviews with our mission president this week and let me just say President Rasmussen is such an amazing man!!! It is so cool to have someone who is called of God to recieve revelation and guide me specifically as a missionary. He gave me a lot of council and advice and I just admire the man so much. He encouraged me to start a journal the way president eyering does of ways I felt the spirit guide me that day and it is so cool to look back on my days at night and realize what things the spirit told me to say, what doors the spirit told me to knock, and what commitments the spirit told me to extend. This is so not me doing any of this. This past week I have learned so much about missionary work and about my Savior and really my purpose as a missionary. For those who dont know, missionaries are in charge of the spiritual welfare. We are literally here to help people come unto Christ in any and all ways, especially those who haven't yet done so. There is a return missionary that moved into the branch this summer who was AP in the Florida, Fort Lauderdale mission and has taught us so many ways to help people understand that Jesus Christ literally atoned for YOU and that in choosing to follow Him and be baptized He can relieve us of all our burdens. THAT'S what people are missing! It has been so cool. We've been implementing something we call a harvest prayer. basically we knock doors and they open and we introduce ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and testify of how the spirit has led them to their door and then we ask if we can leave a blessing on their home. So then they let us in and we ask them what they want us to include in our prayers (discern needs) and pray and then testify of how the atonement can help them and that they can follow jesus christ and recieve the help they need through baptism. One cool experience this week was when we were knocking doors and we met a lady and we did just this. We then find out that she had been taught by missionaries in the past 2 years ago when her family came into town from Mexico. her family had also learned from the missionaries but returned to Mexico. These same family members are coming into town again this next Tuesday. It was incredibly divine and she accepeted to be baptized! Just a testimony that theres no way I could just happen to knock on her door. This is God's work. Other cool story: on Sunday night my companion and I were just motivated out of our minds to find people prepared to be baptized. We went to contact a potential investigator and she wasn't home but we felt like we were supposed to be there so we kept knocking and nobody was home/interested. We stopped there on the sidewalk and asked each other, does God want us to be here? I felt a strong yes, but not where we were building wise. So we said another prayer, right there, on the sidewalk, and asked to know where to go. Both hermana baird and I felt guided to the second floor of the building behind us, when we went up the stairs there was a mormon.org card on the ground. OKAY SO LIKE WHAT. yeah so we knocked and the english missionaries had talked to him before. He was from the Phillipines and his dad died a year ago and he was suffering from PTSD from being in Iraq for 3 tours. It was amazing to feel the spirit just there on his doorstep as we testified of how Christ is better than any doctor and better than any medicine and is the only one who can truly heal us. He as well expressed the desire to follow Christ through baptism. Other major news, everyone remember Petra my bff back in Federal Way who had to postpone her baptism because her boyfriend Vicente couldn't find a place to live? well get this, HE GOT BAPTIZED THIS PAST WEEKEND. From the second it happened I knew that Petra had to postpone her date for him. it was all for him. God knows everything, he knows everyone and he did it for him. Crazy story getting to his baptism though, we drove with an investigator: hugo the boyfriend of Lastenia. You could say he's a bit of an excessive driver. He also drives like a mustang convertable or something... Let's just say there was some serious angel protection because I dont know how we didn't die hahaha but hey they all came to the baptism with us and it was awesome! Last but not least, we got the joy of seeing the lovely hermana huhem again as she came back to visit the mission. She impacted my mission so much, and meeting her family and seeing her again just makes me realize how happy I am to be here and to be a missionary. Don't be surprised if I never come home. I love this work and I love Jesus Christ and I know that it is only by following him through baptism that we can be lifted of our burdens and find eternal joy. Hermana Reed IV ps throwback to a year ago when I was leaving for my mission... where has time gone?? 1 HERMANA HUHEM NEVER DIES
2 this is a nice pic that hermana short captured of me cleaning her shoe with a leaf after she stepped in dog poop. just missionary things 3 hairdues by Fabiola 4 hermana short and reed back at it for exchanges 5 mid convertible car ride (it took me 20 min to brush my hair after) 6 FELICITACIONES A VICENTE Y PETRA :) 7-8 all you need to know about what Renton is like We had a pretty good week this week, for all the reasons you wouldn't think. We have this problem with people we meet/are teaching, hispanics just don't like hurting your feelings. I love them to death, but really people you don't have to listen to our message if you don't want to but you can tell us that! There were a lot of people we've met lately that act so interested and so excited when we initially meet them and have done everything in the world to not ever talk to us again. Life advice for everyone out there: don't drag people along just tell them how you feel! It was truly a blessing though because Hermana Baird and I have been able to reevaluate the way we talk to people and we've practiced sharing our message, stressing the importance, bearing testimony and promising them blessings, and inviting them to learn more but only if they are willing to act on the promptings the spirit will eventually tell them to take. I think it will definitely improve some of these situations. We had a crazy miracle this week! Our most progressing investigators are Esmy and Lastenia, the sisters from Honduras. They are so incredible, but the biggest roadblack is Lastenia's boyfriend Hugo who is supposedly abusive and has been very against the church even though his parents are members. But this week, out of nowhere, Hugo came in and sat in our lessons and was asking and answering questions. Where did this come from we have no idea. Tell us this was going to happen 3 weeks ago and we never would've believed it, but he as a lot of questions about the plan of salvation, the plan of happiness our Heavenly Father has for all of his children to be able to come back and live with Him again. We are so excited to teach him and help them progress towards a future celestial family life! Not to mention, Lastenia's daughter Fabiola (4) ended the lesson with "Tengo una pregunta, ustedes son bonitas" hahahaha Another tender mercy came this week as I went on an exchange with Hermana Kellar, the hermana that is now Hermana Short's companion back in Federal Way. It was an inspired exchange, because the day before Hermana kellar found out her grandfather passed away. A lot of times, well I would say almost every day I wonder why God asked me to be a sister training leader. I'm not the best teacher. I'm not a perfect missionary. But in moments like these I know he asked me to do this so I could be there to help comfort my fellow sisters, help lift them up and help her realize that her grandfather is doing the exact same work on the other side of the veil that she is doing now. She only has 3 weeks left, so it was hard not to go home for the funeral, but she taught me so much about dedicated Christ like service to the Lord and helping remember why we're here, its not of convenience or because its easy, its because Heavenly Father needs us to be. LAST AND COOLEST STORY: So most of you know I've had some back problems in my life and before my mission the doctor like casually told me I have scoliosis, which explains a lot thanks friend, but today I went to the chiropractor because my back had been bothering me for like a year now hehe but he was a member and he literally EXPLODED MY MIND WITH THE TRUTH OF THIS GOSPEL. he showed us this video where they recorded when the sperm and the egg meet and theres a literal spark and he talked about how trillions of cells make up a new human life. he said a million seconds ago is 12 days ago. a billion seconds ago 32 years. and a trillion seconds ago is 32000 years ago. thats how much a trillion is okay? not just a big number. a trillion cells make up the human body and they work perfectly. They work together naturally and dont need any help. THAT is how we are made in Gods image. THAT is how the human body is divine. Then he talked about how medicine tells your body that something is wrong with it and you have to be fixed, just as satan tells us there is things wrong with us, but that the whole point of chiropractic work is that your body can fix itself. we are God like. We have the potential to heal ourselves when we connect ourselves to God. That is our potential. We don't need to be fixed, we need to recognize that we are children of a DIVINE BEING. And that is gospel truth. I know this to be true. I have never felt the love of my Heavenly Father stronger than I have in my mission. I know He's there, just waiting for us to make good decisions so he can continue to bless us. This is His work. Hermana Reed IV 1 Hermana Kellar and I twinning on exchanges in FW
2 this is a drawing that heidi made of me, pretty accurate 3 nosotras y Fabiola 4 the day Hugo made us smoothies (this is Esmy) 5 not a bad spot to contact eh This week has been 12 years long. So much has happened, but I can't remember anything. All I know is that to finish this week I feel happier than I ever have and I'm giving up sweets for the next week. Follow up with me next week, keep me accountable. The 4th of July was pretty awesome! We were not looking forward to a day of talking to a lot of drunk people with their families that didn't want to talk to missionaries, so instead we made chocolate covered pretzals and delivered them to all the less actives in the branch we hadn't met yet :) It was decently successful! The nice part is most of our investigators were home actually because 4th of july isnt a huge thing in hispanic culture, weird right who'd of thought. I was on an exchange with Hermana Lambert so I was actually in Auburn for half of the day and the only drunk guy we actually talked to ended up being a really less active mormon... unfortunate. but he loved talking with us :) Hermana Lambert is the most humble, cute lil lady of all time. She is so full of the spirit and so confident in our message, so she taught me so much! Then this last friday we had MLC, mission leadership conference with all the sister training leaders and zone leaders in the mission and it seriously was the best MLC I have been to. We talked a lot about the faith we have to find people to teach. Its sometimes anti-motivating with all the rejection and rude things people say and its so easy to lose the faith but if we really understand our purpose, if we really understand that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, who suffered and died so that these people we meet can accept the gospel, then its not hard to get up every day. its not hard to knock doors for hours every day. its not hard because I love my Savior. We talked about our baptisms, how important they were even though I was just 8 years old, and what it means to us to help other people be baptized. It hit me just how important this work is for our Heavenly Father. He just is up there, watching, praying, hoping, that His children come unto Christ and return to Him. This work is everything to Him. I never realized how in love I am with His work as much as I did this week. It was incredible to feel the love He has for everyone around me, so its motivated me and I've talked to more people than ever. Like im probably kinda annoying, I talk to people getting in their car, people with their windows up, people who try to hide through the window, people who are running away, and I just LOVE IT BECAUSE THEY NEED THE GOSPEL SO BAD. I look back on times when I thought I was so happy in life, and nothing compares to the things I'm doing now. We are so so blessed. This week we had a new investigator come to church, her name is Paola. She is 23 and so so so awesome. WE met her Saturday, she came to church Sunday. She was slightly overwhelmed because it was a lot of new things but I loved seeing her faith. She was amazing we invited her to be baptized right there on the street and she says "well from what youve told me, this brings even more blessings to my family, so i want to talk to them first and invite them to listen to your message if thats okay" WOW PAOLA YOU ARE A BETTER MISSIONARY THAN MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN OUR BRANCH. No offense to the branch though we're getting there. Theres so much work here in Renton! me and hermana baird are super happy and working so hard. Shes sprinting to the end and loving life. Its interesting teaching with someone who teaches so naturally too, because she has more time than me. I do miss hermana short though, luckily we got to see her this week and i think these pictures describe my joy. life is so good and im so grateful I CAN BE A MISSIONARY :) hermana reed iv 1 MLC JULY
2 this was me on the 4th i was a bit excited 3 when everyone in your district is normal but you 4 best companionship, shoutout to religious freedom 5 hermana lambert and I reppin some BYU t shirts at the food bank 6 TORTAS LOCAS ES UN RESTAURANTE AQUI Y ESTOY EN AMORADA 7 got a lot of tools but i got one thats better 8 las hermanas :))))))) 9 I MISSED MY EX COMP Aun yo tengo mi historia. Most common phrase of the week: "Soy la Hermana Reed. Soy de Colorado. Vengo de la rama en Federal Way." with a close second of "si hablo Espanol". Welcome to Renton. Renton is a pretty cool place, its right under Seattle. Part of our area is actually Seattle and we've gone up a few times because we had some investigators up there, but we're not allowed to go at night so its been kinda hard. My favorite thing about Seattle is they have this place, we're planning on going next week, called "Teriyaki, Doughnuts and Laundry". What more do you need??? There are a lot of hispanics here so its very similar to Federal Way in that way but its way more city. Lots of big streets and highways and freeways and theres always traffic. I feel like its really hot but then I realized its just the exhaust from all the cars. Its a weird mix of Boulder and like new york city, but everyone here has a story, and they're usually INSANE. My companion is Hermana Baird. It's been cool because we already knew eachother because we've gone on exchanges as STL and so we got to skip the whole awkward having to get to know your companion and stuff and just be companions and work hard. She is on her last transfer and so we're ready to work so hard! I don't know why God keeps putting me in areas where my companion will be leaving in 6 weeks, but I'm trying my best to learn the area and the investigators and everything quickly :) She's actually only been in the area fora transfer as well, they white washed (took out both missionaries and put in two new ones) last transfer and they actually took out elders and put in hermanas. To say the elders lacked a little discipline is an understatement... so we're still building the area up and finding people to teach. The branch here is pretty big, it could be a ward if people were active but theres a lot of people who aren't so we have so much work to do and I'm really excited!! Heres the stories on a few of our investigators, and you'll understand the everyone has their own stories thing. Lestenia y Ezmy. They're from Honduras and are living with some members because she's dating their less active son. When they were in Honduras, they were sitting at home and the mafia of Honduras came in and behedded their mom in front of them and they've, obviously, been different ever since but came here to America to have hope of a better life. They are just very sad, but its been cool to see the gospel help them find a little bit of joy. Carla: daughter of a less active as well. Moved here from Mexico and had a baby and has been job hopping but this week she told her boss she can't work Sundays so she can come to church and she's showing her mom its actually important! She's super cute and super awesome. Suzi: her whole family is member and she isn't but she wants to be someday so she can go to her son's wedding, but not enough motivation to take the discussions from missionaries yet haha her husband was a member but was ex-communicated a while back and she has some hard feelings because he was pretty abusive to the whole family. This is just a peak. It's been a little hard because theres just a lot of pain in the investigators and the members and really the whole city here, but I'm excited to try and just share some joy because no matter what we've all been through, Christ can bring us joy. Christ can heal us, He's the only one. Big things here in Renton!!!!!! Stay tuned. ALSO HOW COULD I ALMOST FORGET PETRA GOT BAPTIZED YAYAYAYAYA SHE WAS SO HAPPY SHE CRIED. I cried too. It was such a great day and I heard her confirmation on Sunday was equally as great. She has changed so much as she's come to know her Savior, and I'm so grateful God let her be a part of my life. Hermana Reed IV 1-4 My favorite day ever, oh and also Petras
5 RENTON ZONE SISTAHS COMIN AT YA OKAAAAAY FOLKS BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS THIS WEEK IS ONE FOR THE BOOKS. there were so many things that happened this week I can't even explain them all but I will try. Biggest event of them all was of course meet the mormons. So it was Friday and we were getting all ready and had invited everyone in the entire city, including the mayor ( he couldn't come but he wanted to!) and we were so excited and it was about 4 oclock and the member in our branch, hermano Cardenas, was calling us and calling us while we were in a lesson so after we call him back and he says he dropped off all the things with the elders but that he had to drive himself to the hospital. WHAT. That's all he told us so we had no idea what was happening but we had to do Meet the Mormons without the man who did the entire thing for us. A quick shoutout to hermano Cardenas, I can not explain how Christ like this man is. His wife is too. They are 100% service all the time. He was the only one who really believed in our vision from day one and he would constantly tell us "we have to do this we have to get it done" even when it sounded impossible. He's amazing. Anyways so we set it all up and we had a pretty good turnout! The English elders dropped the ball and didn't help us with anything so it was mostly the branch there but we had like 13 nonmembers there and now we are teaching 5 of them. The coolest thing was through the whole thing, through the 6 weeks of work and stress, I just knew that if it would just help one person it would be worth it. Just one person, the Lord would do it all for them. It was an incredible night, but when we got home hermana short and i were just heartbroken because of hermano cardenas and we were trying to think of what we could do for him how we could repay him and we realized there is literally nothing we could ever do to even start to pay him back. As I thought through it, I realized that it is the same way with the Atonement of Jesus Christ. There is literally nothing we will ever be able to do to repay Christ for what He did for us. No gift or dessert or anything will repay for the sacrifice and pain He went through but He did it because He loves us and He believes in us and He would do anything for us to have success. My heart ached with gratitude for Hermano Cardenas and my Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that God taught me more about what that sacrifice really is, and I will never forget the impact it had on me. Other major news, Petra is getting baptized!!! She's getting baptized tomorrow, but sad news I'm getting transferred TODAY. Luckily our mission is so small that I will be able to come back for the baptism but wow, after 4 transfers here in Federal Way I was heartbroken to say goodbye to my investigators and my members. They have been my whole life and I have hurt and cried and worked and loved them so much that saying goodbye is really hard, but luckily Hermana Short will be here with her new companion and I know that they'll take care of them. Looks like I'm headed up to Renton! So cool because when I was there for exchanges I could feel that I was going to serve there, I just didn't know it would be so soon! Pics overload, but I will definitely miss Federal Way. Thanks for all the prayers and support from afar this week. I know Christ is our Savior, He loves us, He feels what we feel, and as we let Him take the pain from is we will be able to experience the joy and happiness that He wants us to, that He sacrificed so much for us to have. I love you all! Hermana Reed IV 1 my fav fam acuna i will miss my mission mom and dad ):
2 heidi mi amor, she doesnt know my name but she calls us "the amigas" 3 familia solgado/arroyo. gah this was a tear jerker 4 hermana petra :) 5 hermana lee, our partner in crime. she cried when i told her i was getting transferred and told me i should call our mission president and tell them he has no heart because i love these people and they love me and i cant leave hahahahahahah 6/7 MEET THE MORMONS ON LIVE 8 intercambios con la hermana lambert 9 TORTAS. EVERYONE GO EAT ONE RIGHT NOW Also bye district the final goodbyes rip the best companionship ever |
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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