Sister Reed's Contact Info

wreed@myldsmail.net

1002 Amelia Station Way #202
Clayton, NC, 27520

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Feliz Navidad!

Hola!!

This has been a crazy week!  On Thursday we had TRC again and we had to teach a lesson about prayer and how to receive revelation on prayer. My companion and I are not very good at planning things out, but we're learning. So we're waiting in this room and my teacher comes in to tell us which rooms to go into. Someone asked him if we're teaching one or two people and he said one. Then my companion says, YES!!!, really loud and he looks at her and says, maybe two. SO we taught our first person. She was a nice lady. She was a member and very understanding, probably in her 50's. When we finished teaching we went back to the room where we started and our teacher stops us and says, wait you have one more. Just us. We were the only ones that taught two people. At that moment I started to have a little panic attack because the lesson we just came out of was not great and then we had to do it again. But we said a prayer before we went in and as I was praying, peace came over me and I knew this was a good thing. We were getting more practice, and heaven knows we need it! So our second volunteer was an 18 year old girl. She seemed a little impatient with our slow, broken up Spanish, but we were doing the best we could. It was good practice and I'm greatful for the opportunity. 

We got a new district in our zone (branch) on Thursday. There's an Elder Reed in my zone too!! Actually I've seen another Hermana Reed and another Elder Reed. Kinda funny. Oh my goodness. Can I just say I love my zone! And my district. The Lord really does know us better than we know ourselves and I know that we were placed in our districts and zones through inspiration from the Lord. The Lord knows the kind of people I need in my life. These people have been my strength and support during my stay at the CCM. And boy do I love my companion! I'm so glad we are going to the same mission. We might even be companions again!

Speaking of my zone, I have a really funny story about one of the Elders in my district. He cracks me up. So one time in class we were talking about how to manage stress and we went around the room and said what we do and how we feel when we're stressed. Now this Elder is constantly trying to speak Spanish. It's usually wrong but at least he is diligent and trying. When it was his turn he said when I'm stressed...Estoy en fuego! Which means I'm on fire. He was trying to say I'm frustrated, but we all just started laughing. He's always our comic relief and he loves it. 

This week when we taught our two investigators we got one of them to commit to baptism! During the lesson I was able to speak fluidly and say almost everything I wanted to say. I was talking and flowing so well it been like 10 minutes until I realized I hadn't paused to let my companion say anything. So then she started to talk and we were able to bounce off of each other which usually never happens. It was awesome! When you are teaching by the Spirit you can do anything. WIth our second investigator everything we said came from the heart. Usually we have to read a few sentences from a pamphlet or preach my gospel because we don't know how to say something in Spanish, but we didn't read anything the whole lesson. We were able to look him in the eye and bear testimony of our message. We got him to pray and commit to read the Book of Mormon. It was a good teaching week.

Sunday was the Best. Day. Ever! For Relief Society we had a Reader's Theater where some of the girls read the story of Christ's Birth and we had musical numbers with violins and sang hymns. It was so pretty. There were things in the narrative that I had never heard or thought of before. An inn like the one that Mary and Joseph were trying to get into was actually just a big common room where people were drinking, and smoking, and cursing. It was definitely not fit for the Son of God to be born into. There was no privacy. Heavenly Father knew this and made sure that they were led to a place that would be acceptable. They had to stay in a stable, but really that was how it needed to be. Jesus was laid in a manager which is a feeding trough for animals. The way Christ was born foreshadowed His life. Then our devotional speaker was amazing! Every Sunday we watch church movies for an hour or so and this time we got to see the new Mormon Message He is the Gift. If you haven't seen it I recommend you look it up and watch it! And then we watched Joseph Smith:The Restoration. Ahh IT was so good! After the video we got together with our zone and the Latino zone that we're singing with on Christmas Eve. Holy Moly. That was an ordeal. For some reason these Latinos don't know that we are down in Mexico to learn Spanish to go to a SPanish speaking mission. They insulted us a few times and thought I couldn´t understand them, but when you say Americano I'm pretty sure everyone knows who you're talking about. It was good though. There were some nice people who came up and wanted to help me translate. We practice with them one more time tonight. Hopefully we can make it sound adequate enough. After I was talking with one of my roommates and she was saying how they don't have music programs or anything down here so these Latinos are trying but they just have never been around music enough to know how to read it and sing the right notes. Maybe I'll teach music to Latinos when I graduate from college...

So my spiritual thought comes from the devotional from Sunday. It was so good!! 
- When he was in his mission Elder Holland came and spoke to them and told them a promise from the Lord: Give me your heart and I will give you my power and together we will change the world. 
- If we want to be the best missionary we can be (or best person) we need to be humble enough to change. We may have things in our life that may not be bad, but that aren't helping us. Garbage. Baggage. Whatever you want to call it. And when we are doing what we are supposed to be doing and we have the Holy Ghost with us, He will come to take away that garbage to mold us, and shape us to become a better person. Are we willing and humble enough to let this change happen and to let Him take it from us? Or do we keep the garbage and push away the Spirit?
- There is a part of a poem that I want to end with. 
 Come to the edge He said. No, we'll fall.
Come to the edge He said. No, we'll fall.
Come to the edge He said. We came to the edge, He pushed us, and we flew.
Come to the edge where there is high fear and inadequacy.
Man's extremity is God's opportunity.

The Lord is going to push us. Life is difficult but the Lord has promised that He will not let us suffer above that which we are able. He will be with us every step of the way. Heavenly Father sent us His son, Jesus Christ, so that He could understand everything that we will be called to pass through. I am so grateful for my Savior and I hope He is in your hearts and minds this Christmas season because He is the gift. 

I love you all! Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Reed

Monday, December 22, 2014

Another week in the CCM

Hola!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! They're putting lights up on the trees and they set up a Nativity scene. AND there are hundreds of Poinsettias everywhere that they planted. On Saturday we got a little treat and saw a Mexican Christmas performance of the story of Christ's birth. There was a lot of dancing and costumes and it was so great. It made my whole stay at the CCM totally worth it. I'll send some videos so you can see how awesome it was. Mom, you would have loved it! So for Christmas Eve we're having a big Christmas program and each district is being asked to sing two songs. I got asked to conduct them so now I'm a choir director. We're singing Joy to the World and O Little Town of Bethlehem but in Spanish. We're combining with a Spanish district. The instructions told me that "it will be really fun and offer a few challenges." Ha I'm pretty sure i'll speak enough spanish to be able to communicate with them, but I guess we'll see. 

On Thursday we did our fast from English day. We only made it to lunch time then we broke. But it was good to realize what words we knew and what we could talk about and what words we needed to learn. I can say the basics and get my point across, but I am definitely not fluent yet. Thursday night we had something called TRC I´m not really sure what it stands for but it's where we get to talk to real people who volunteer their time so that we can practice our teaching. Some are members, some less active and some are investigators. Our assignment for this for one was just to get to know them and share a spiritual thought at the end. Actually, we weren't really given any instruction on what we were supposed to be doing. Our teacher just told us to bring our scriptures and all our books. So the girl we talked to was 18 and a dancer. She ended up being in our Mexican Christmas performance. She's way good. So we just talked to her about her family, what she liked to do, and told her a little about ourselves. Then when I couldn't think of any more questions to ask her she asked if we had something to share with her. I said oh yeah of course and whipped out a scripture about prayer and gave a quick little spiritual thought on prayer off the top of my head. I'm getting good at thinking on the spot. 

So this is how our Sundays go. We study in the morning, eat breakfast, and the Hermanas have Relief Society and the Elders keep studying. And then after the Relief Society the Hermanas have study time. Then our Sunday school is just with our district. Our district is the people that are in the same class as you. You stay with them your whole time in the CCM and you all learn in the same class. Then we have Sacrament meeting with our whole zone with is multiple districts. I'm gonna put a picture of my district with our Branch President and his counselor. I love my district and zone. So in Sacrament meeting the way they do talks is everyone prepares one on the assigned topic and then they call your name on the spot and you have to give your talk. That happened to me on Sunday. But luckily I had actually prepared a pretty good talk and didn't just copy things out of Preach my Gospel and the pamphlets because that's what everyone does. The topic was the Atonement and I can talk for hours about the Atonement and bear testimony about it so it was a good topic. Sacrament meeting is all in Spanish, but all of our other meetings are in English. So I gave my talk in Spanish and I have never been that nervous before in my life. My entire body was shaking. But when i read the scriptures that I was using I was actually able to read them like a fluent Spanish speaker. My companion and I have been reading The Book OF Mormon in SPanish out loud and it has been helping so much with pronunciation and some other things. So I felt good after my talk. It's pretty nerve racking though when you're just sitting in Sacrament meeting and then they say and now we will be hearing from Hermana Reed. But the idea is when we are in the field and they need a speaker we can have something prepared for when the missionaries are called on to speak. 

Last night we said goodbye to a district in our zone. They're the people that I knew the longest here so I was pretty close with them. It was so sad. So every Monday night we play a game called Signs with our whole zone so we played last night for the last time with district 12-A. For the last 15 minutes we split in half and played just the our district and 12-A. It was the funnest time I've had at the CCM. Let me just tell you that saying goodbye with a handshake is a terrible way to say goodbye. I'm just gonna have to get used to it. I dread having to say goodbye to my Elders in my district. Every day we get closer. But we're already planned our reunion after our mission in Rexburg, Idaho so it'll be okay. So now our district is the oldest. We have the zone leaders in our district now and the Hermana trainers. 

Today we go to go to the Visitors Center! It was so beautiful. Mexico really knows how to make a Visitors Center. They have some cool rooms and exibits.

I just wanted to share one last thing with you all. This week I was studying charity and made some connections that I had never thought of before. In Moroni 7:45 it says that charity suffereth long, is kind, envieth not, not puffed up, seeketh not her own, not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things. Charity is the pure love of Christ.  In 1 Corininthians somewhere theres a scripture about how the people spat on Christ and he suffered it, they whipped him and he suffered it, they did all manner of afflictions to Him and He endured it because He had love for all mankind. When we have charity we are able to endure all things and beareth all things like Christ did. When people make us mad we can forgive quickly. When we are called to pass through tribulation we can endure it. When we have charity we are able to love anyone and everyone regardless of what they have done to us. Because Christ endured it, we can too. And we do not have to be alone as we strive to have charity and suffer all things. Christ is always by our side. He is always there, but we need to be the ones to go to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in prayer and ask for help. I know that if you do, you will not be left alone in your trials. 

I love you all! I hope you have a good week. Thanks for your prayer!

Hermana Reed









Week 2 en el CCM

Hi everyone!

This week went by fast...and slow some days. My teacher is such a cute little Mexican who recently got home from her mission. And she is such an amazing teacher! Spanish is going well. On Thursday we´re taking a fast from English. Solamente Espanol en jueves. It´ll be good, but let´s hope we don´t go crazy. One of the biggest struggles for missionaries here is trying to overcome doubt and fear. It gets hard and a lot of times you don´t want to say anything because you don´t know if that´s even the right word, but the only way to learn is to try. Just speak. We have devotionals every Sunday night and this last one we watched a recording of Elder Bednar speaking at the Provo MTC. He gave a great talk on being a Preach My Gospel missionary, but what got me was at the end. He told the missionaries that if he had the time he would want to give each of us a hug, look us in the eye, and tell us, You can do it! The Lord knows you can do it and He has promised you His help. Such a great talk. It made us all want to keep going. 

So my birthday was on Friday. When I got to class in the morning the Hermanas from my zone had put some candy and a note on my desk. Then in the afternoon the mail lady came and told me that I needed to come right now and get an urgent package. It was a birthday package from Sam. It was a big red box that said urgent on it. It was kind of funny. 

I forgot to tell you all last week that I saw Hannah! Hannah was my roommate in college and I saw her my first day and now I see her almost every day. It makes my day. I love having someone here that I know. 

So I learned a few things about my mission. Right now there are only 6 heremanas there. And two of them are going home soon. And the two girls that I room with and my companion, we are all going to the same mission so there´s a chance we might be companions again :)

We can´t have music in the CCM so I´ve been singing my little heart out. Whenever I get a chance to sing I do. I joined the choir as soon as I heard about it. We´re singing What Child is This at the Sunday devotional this week. And there´s also a choir that I´m hoping to sign up for that´s gonna go to the Visitor´s Center and sing Christmas songs. 

We´re trying to bring Christmas into the CCM so my roommates made a Christmas tree and I suggested it be our gratitude tree. So our ornaments are sticky notes with our blessings on them. 

This week we´ve been talking a lot on faith and trusting in the Lord. I know that with God´s help we can to anything. Put your trust in the Lord and He help you through the challenging times. I know that God has a plan for us all and He does not let you go through trials that you cannot overcome. The key is to first put your faith in the Lord and then He will bring the blessing. 

I love you all!! I don´t know if the mail system works over here but there´s website that you can write a letter and they will print it out and give it to me.www.mtcmexicocarepackage.com\free-letter

I hope you all are doing well! Thanks for the love, support and prayers! They are much appreciated.





I made it!!









Hola mi familia!!!

Holy moly! It's only been six days and it feels like I've been here for a month. These days are long hours and hard work. We are constantly in our classroom studying. On our second day they had us teaching our first investigator. In Spanish!! That was rough,but every day since it gets better. I guess the only way to learn is to practice and we are definitely doing that. All I can say is with God, all things are possible. I'm waking up by 6:30 every morning, I'm eating strange food I would normally never eat, and I'm speaking in Spanish. When they give us food you don't question what it is, you just eat. I've learned that I can eat almost anything if I wrap it in a corn tortilla which are served with almost every meal. These Mexicans don't really understand breakfast food. We've had tamales, salad, or even a ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast, but I guess food is food. I think this is slowly working me up to eat fish if I happen to have to eat it. 

My companion is great! Her name is Hermana Fields. She's from Orem, Utah and she's one of the 19 year old sister missionaries. But we get along well. She quotes things with me, but more importantly, she quotes Nacho Libre with me. It's just so applicable while we're here and Mexico and it's a good stress reliever. When we're frustrated or overwhelmed we just start to quote Nacho Libre and then laugh like little girls. It's probably frowned upon by the Mission President, but you do what you gotta do to keep going. We decided that Mondays are Matching Missionary Mondays so our striped dresses are the first of six matching Mondays. The other two Hermanas that we live with are in the picture. They are awesome. All four of us are almost always together. Yesterday we had a cool experience with prayer and Priesthood blessings. All of us Hermanas were having a rough day yesterday and were just not feeling like we could keep going. We asked some Elders in our District to give us blessings and it ended up being the first time for them, but they did amazing. Their blessings of comfort were just what we needed to pick us up and move forward. Each blessing was specific and I just knew that they were being inspired by the Holy Ghost to say the things we needed to hear. The Elder said things in my blessing that he couldn't have known anything about except if he were inspired to by the Spirit. 

Well, I hope you all are doing well. God is good and the church is true. Please pray for me so I can learn this language. 

I love you all!! 

Hermana Reed