Train your dog to be a lover not a fighter

Hi ya'll! 

This is gonna be short because I can only type with one hand right now. I'm sure you all know by now through Facebook that I was attacked by a pitbull on Friday. I got 32 stitches and I'm okay. A little shooken up, but it'll be okay. The ward down here is amazing and all these woman are like my mom.

So besides that we have been seeing miracles in our area! We found the Hispanics and they are ready to learn! Also, Monday night we taught a family who is so ready for the gospel! We are hoping to set them with a baptismal date next time we teach them. We got 12 new investigators this week! This area has only been getting 2 at the most each week. This area was going to get closed but then the mission president felt inspired to send two spanish speaking sisters down here to pick up the area. And it worked! Only with the help from the Lord could we have been able to find all of these people who are prepared for the gospel. Also, I have never gotten so many referrals before. Members are constantly giving us names of people to go teach. It is so great.

On Saturday we had pig pickin. Ha. I am definitely in the south. That is a picture of the pig they cut up and grilled.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! I really need them. Well, I love you all! Have a great week.

Hermana Reed

Your Receive No Witness Until After the Trial of Your Faith

Hey ya'll,

This week has been pretty crazy. Yesterday we finally got to see the ward members at church! It was good to put faces with names. This ward is so good to their missionaries. The meal calender is full and we've been getting fed every night! Sometimes twice a day. And the Relief Society passed around a sign up sheet for members to come out with us for a few hours. So at least twice a week we have members coming with us to appointments and visiting less actives for about 3 or 4 hours. It is really cool. 

Spring is in the air! Literally. It rains pollen over here. Everything is caked in green. After it rains it looks like there is yellow chalk everywhere but it's just pollen. On Thursday we had a crazy thunder and lightning storm! In the ten seconds it took us to run to our car our hair was dripping wet and our clothes were soaked. It was kind of exciting though. 

It is so fun being the first Sister Missionaries in this ward! We get to surprise the less actives and the young women and the relief society sisters are really excited to be able to come out with us. On Wednesday we had an experience with a family who just wanted to degrade our beliefs. We were responding to a referral we had received and decided to take one of the YW with us because the referral said it was a male. When we got there it turned out to be a teenager who had been requested by one of his friends as a joke. They let us in though and the grandpa shot down everything we taught as we talked about the Restoration. He wanted to know where the proof was. I was getting so frustrated that my hands started to shake. We kept our cool though and at the end I just bore testimony to them that I know what I am teaching is true and I the reason I am on a mission. As I bore testimony to them the Spirit testified to me. And although they couldn't see it my faith was strengthened because it was challenged. It reminded me of one of Elder Holland's talk where he said defend your beliefs with kindness and compassion, but defend them. Never be afraid to bear your testimony, especially to those who are critical. I know this gospel is true and I am so grateful to be out here on my mission.

I love you all!

Hermana Reed

New Adventures Await

Hey y'all!

Well, I'm in North Carolina now and their thick Southern accents are getting to me. It's so hard to say yall! So we are focusing on the English work down here for now because there is a lot to do. We are the only missionaries in our ward and they have never had Sister missionaries before so they are all freaking out. We've gotten questions like "SO what are the rules with Sister Missionaries?" Well, pretty much the same as the Elders. We don't understand what the big deal is, but even the bishop told my mission president he doesn't know what to do with us. So we have a mix of emotions from the ward members with us being here, but for the most part they are excited to finally have sister missionaries. These members have been so kind. Every time we call them to ask a question or to check up they ask us is we have dinner that night. We are getting fed every. night! 

So we are focusing on the English work for now and boy, is it difficult. Teaching in English is not the same as teaching in Spanish. It's a different culture and different religious background. We are putting all of our in trust in the Lord because we have no clue how to talk to these people. Hopefully we'll be able to teach a few Hispanics as well, but we don't know where to find them here.

My new address is:

1002 Amelia Station Way #202

Clayton, NC 27520

General Conference was great! I hope you all had a chance to watch it. And I hope you had a great Easter. I am so grateful for my Savior and for His Atonement and His example. The words that come to my mind are from the hymn I Know That My Redeemer Lives. 

He lives to comfort me when faint.

He lives to hear my soul's complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.

He lives to wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

"I know that my Redeemer lives!"

I love my Savior and I know that he is there for us every step our mortal journey. If you haven't seen the website or the video because of him you should look it up. It's on HeLives.mormon.org

I love you all!

Hermana Reed

#becausehelives

I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go

Hi Family and Friends!

Wow! What a week! Okay first off. I got a transfer call on Saturday and I'm going down to Clayton, North Carolina to open an area! Right now there are only Spanish Elders down there so Hermana Phillipy and I are going to be the first Hermanas down there. So it will be English and Spanish. As my mission president said it will be an adventure and we will have to find the Hispanics but we can do it. I am really excited to have this opportunity, but I'm a little nervous. It will be different being in an English ward and teaching English people and Spanish. Now I'm REALLY going to get a southern accent. My new companion will be Hermana Phillipy who is one of the other Hermanas in the branch so I know her pretty well already. She is from Washington and knows a lot of Spanish. She started her mission in Peru and came home after about 6 months for health reasons, then served in Washington for a few months and then got called to the Virginia Chesapeake Mission. So she has been a missionary for almost two years. She goes home in August. I'm really excited to be her companion! There's a lot that I can learn from her. On Wednesday we'll be heading down to NC together to embark on our new adventure.

On Wednesday I went on an exchange and this time I stayed in my area and my companion left. So I had to make all the decisions and talk to the people by myself. The Sister Trainer Leader knew a little bit of Spanish, but I was mostly teaching the lessons. It was good for me to realize how far I have come with Spanish, with teaching, and with talking to people and knocking on doors. I just finished my 12 week training so I am officially not a "greenie" anymore. I am, as my mission president called us, seasoned. After the day of exchanges was over I realized that Heavenly Father had answered my prayers as I had been praying to be able to understand and teach clearly by myself. That day He only allowed me to teach the investigators that I can understand the best. There are some where I have to still guess what they're saying and some talk way too fast for me. But the two lessons we taught were with people that talked slower and clearer than most of my other investigators. Heavenly Father was watching over me.

On Saturday my companion and I had a really cool experience as we were knocking doors. One of the doors we knocked a girl who looked like she was about 23 or 24 answered the door. In kind of an annoyed tone she asked who we were. We explained we are missionaries and she told us she is an atheist. We paused for a minute kind of taken back by her response because we had never talked with an atheist before. Then my companion started talking about the prophet and General Conference and how we were inviting people to watch. We were both thinking this is probably not going to go anywhere, but then she asked where the church was and if we believe in baptism. She said her boyfriend is religious and their are going to have a baby soon and he wants the baby to be baptized and to have a religion. I started to talking to her about baptism and how children aren't baptized until the age of eight so that they have the ability to choose. She said that makes sense. So we just had a great conversation and just as she was about to close the door to say goodbye she said, "That's crazy. I was just talking about this the other day how I need to find a church and then you guys show up on my doorstep." So cool! The Lord is definitely preparing people to hear the gospel. Never be afraid to talk people about what we believe, even if they are Atheist.

Sunday was really sad as it was my last time in the branch. These people have a piece of my heart. Hopefully, I will be able to serve here again later in my mission. A little tender mercy from the Lord though was that the last hour of church was combined with everyone so we were all in the same room together and I could say goodbye and take pictures.

The Church is true. The more I study it the more it makes sense. We have it all. The Gospel is one of the greatest parts of Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness. If we abide by the Lord's teachings and the instruction of His prophets we will be so much happier in this life and life hereafter. I hope you all will watch General Conference this weekend and ponder on the revelations these great men and women have received to help instruct us. Ponder the impressions that come to your mind as you listen. I love when Conference is on Easter Sunday. The Church just put out a video on helives.mormon.org. You all should go check it out. Christ lives! And loves us! And I love you all! Happy Easter!

Hermana Reed

March 23

Hi everyone!

Well, we didn't teach a lot of lessons this week, but the ones we did teach we really great. It's all about quality, not quantity. The beginning of our week was great. On Tuesday we had a full day. Right after our studies we helped some ladies in our branch move apartments and clean their old apartment. It was really good to finally be able to do some service. I love service! After that we ate lunch on our way to our appointment because we didn't have time to take a lunch that day. We had three appointments back to back which was awesome. Tuesday was a busy, full day but those days are the best. I love when you can get lost in the work.

We taught Edith on Wednesday the Law of Chastity and it ended up being a great lesson. She has a baptismal date for April 18 but we're probably going to have to change it because she's living with a guy and their not married and they have two little kids together. So we are hoping and praying that they can work things out so that she can be baptized. Every time we go over there we ask her how she's feeling about her baptismal date and usually she says good, but this time she said she had doubts. After talking with her for a little while we asked her why she wants to get baptized in this church and her answer was interesting. She said because every time she has a question about something we can answer it with something that makes sense. We explained to her that by the Spirit we are able to know what to say and how we understand her questions.

On Thursday we had a great lesson with a family that we haven't been able to meet with for about a month. We retaught the Restoration to them and this time it went really well. As it was getting towards the end of the lesson I kept getting a really strong prompting to ask them to be baptized. So I with the Spirit as my guide I invited them to be baptized and they all said YES! I am so grateful for the Spirit and that I am able recognize and act on His promptings. Never be afraid to act on a prompting from the Holy Ghost. He will always lead you in the right direction.

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Hermana Reed

Temples are the greatest!

On Friday we went to the Raleigh, NC temple and it was fantastic! It was a little bit of a sacrifice because we had to wake up a 5 am and drive 4 hours down there, but it was worth it! We didn't get home until 10:15 which was just in time for our bedtime. We were very tired the next day, pero asi es la vida de una misionera. You are always tired on your mission. On the way down to the temple I was in the car that arrived last. We got there at 10:55 for the 11 session so we ran inside and changed in 60 seconds. As I walked into the Endowment room it was one of the coolest sights to see a room filled with missionaries all dressed in white. That was an experience that I will never forget.

The Raleigh temple is TINY. You San Diegans are some lucky ducks. Take advantage of the San Diego temple! I would say it's my favorite temple just because it's the first one I went through, but now that I've been to a few other temples the San Diego is definitely the biggest and prettiest one yet.

The reason we went to the temple was for our zone conference which was centered on family history, temples, and eternal marriage. We're working on getting people interested in the gospel through family history work. Familysearch.org is awesome and it's a great tool to find the work that needs to be done for your ancestors. You all should try it out if you haven't already.

Our week was a little slow, but that just gave us more time to knock on doors and meet some more people. My Spanish is improving so my trainer makes me talk to people now which is good because the only way I'm gonna learn is if I do it. On Saturday it was pouring down rain as we knocked on doors. There was one door we knocked on where the guy was outside so we stood in the rain and talked to him for about five minutes. He seemed like a really nice guy. Hopefully, we'll have a chance to teach him this week.

I love being a missionary and I keep having dreams that I'm going home. So I think that means I need to take advantage of my time because it really is not very long. I am learning a lot and my testimony is definitely growing. Thank you for all of the support and the love.

I hope you all have a great week!

Hermana Reed

P.S. My mission president and his wife are the greatest people I have ever met.

I Will Tell You By The Holy Ghost Whatsoever Thing Ye Must Do

Hola!

This week went by really fast! But it was a great one. I had some amazing experiences this week with following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit is really such a great gift that Heavenly Father has given to us. It is an amazing feeling to know that I am being led by the Spirit as I do the Lord's work.

One of the experiences I had was with one of our new investigators. We found her as we were knocking doors a week or two ago. When we went to teach her, one of her friends that lives with her and her husband was there. So we invited him to join us and he said sure. He did not look interested at all though. He did not want to participate and he looked like he wasn't really listening or paying attention. BUT, at the end of the lesson we asked if one of them would like to say the closing prayer. Delmy said no so we asked her friend and of course he said no, but we really felt like he needed to say the prayer. So my companion explained to him how simple prayer was and showed him the page in the pamphlet that has the steps. He still kept saying no. So my companion said that I can say a pray first to demonstrate and then he can do it. So I said a short prayer and STILL he refused. I kept feeling like I needed to say something but I didn't know what to say, but I knew that I would have help. So as I opened my mouth words came out (in Spanish) and what the Holy Ghost put into my mouth was just what Francisco needed to hear and HE PRAYED! After the prayer he had a change of disposition and he started asking where the church was and when we met. It was a cool experience.

I am really loving to being a missionary. I don't remember if I have told you all about the new goal my mission president has for us. They are called I.O's (invite others). It has been the best thing for me because it is helping me learn to talk to everyone. An I.O. is when you invite a non member to do something that was outside of a lesson. So pass along cards, pamphlets, coming to church all count as I.O's. And with these I.O's miracles have been happening. Missionaries are finding investigators, investigators are keeping commitments, our mission is thriving. The Lords is blesses us for our efforts to share the gospel with everyone.

I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

Hermana Reed

Open Your Mouth and It Shall Be Filled

Hola!

What a week! Great things are happening in my area and I'm so excited! It has taken me three months but now I really feel like I know what my purpose is and I LOVE being a missionary! So my companion and I have been working on asking inspired questions during our lessons and not just going through the same routine lessons because we teach the Restoration several times a week. And since the beginning of my mission I have been taught that if you ask inspired questions you will receive inspired answers. I never really understood what that meant until this week.

Monday night we met with some investigators who have been taking lessons from missionaries since July and they still aren't baptized, but they still want to be taught. So my companion and I taught them the Plan of Salvation, well we reviewed it because they've already had all of the lessons once. As my companion and I taught we really were trying to focus on the promptings of the Spirit to know what questions to ask. As we asked inspired questions, indeed we did receive inspired answers and they finally told us what has been holding them back from getting baptized. We finally felt like we were getting somewhere and we knew how we could help them progress.

Wednesday was a great day. Every week we eat at a member's house for lunch. We call her Abuelita because she's this super cute, little, old lady in her 70's. She is hilarious though. I love her. The thing about eating over there though is that she feeds us so much. She starts with an oatmeal based drink, then we have a huge bowl of soup, then we have a plate full of beans, rice, and chicken. We usually bring little tupperwares in our bag to put some of our food into when we get full. After we ate at Abuelita's we had an appointment with our investigator named Lizbeth. She's from Puerto Rico so she speaks Spanish but she prefers to speak in English. So we teach her in English which I love because it's a different experience than teaching in Spanish. Lizbeth is so ready for the gospel. The Hermanas before me and my companion taught her for about a month or two and she wasn't really progressing well. She never came to church because she was in the army and so she has a little bit of PTSD and being around a lot of people makes her anxious. Anyway, at the end of our lesson on Tuesday she was telling us about something that was going on in her life and I felt prompted to talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how after we are baptized we get the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us in our life. She said "yeah the other Hermanas kept trying to get me to get baptized but I don't like going to church." So..we asked her if we could give her a church tour on Saturday so she can be familiar with the building before there were a lot of people in it on Sunday and she said yes! And the church tour went great and she accepted a baptismal date!! She's set for April 11th!

Wenesday night it started snowing again so we went home around 7pm because the roads were slippery. Wednesday was another snow day because we got like 9 inches! I finally learned how to build a snowman and apparently all Virginians build snowmen. I have never seen so many snowmen in my life!

This week we had to knock doors and most missionaries grown when they have to tract but I kind of like it. You get to meet new people and invite them to learn about the gospel. We had knocked a few buildings in an apartment complex and my companion was done and ready to get in the car because we didn't find any Hispanics and I said let's do one more. And we found a Hispanic! A super cute girl who let us right in and was ready for us to teach her. Unfortunatley we didn't have time, but we're gonna go back and teach her.

I don't have a lot of time left so here are some other great things that happened this week.

- We set Edith with a baptismal date too so now we have two!

- We learned how to make papousas and they are delicious.

- Our less actives are coming back to church!

I love you all!! Have a great week!

Hermana Reed

3 Months Down, 15 To Go!

Wow! I can't believe I'm already done with 1/6 of my mission! I just need to soak up every minute because time flies when you're on the Lord's errand.

So this week we got a snow day! Which isn't as fun for missionaries because the only thing to do inside your apartment is read the Ensign, or study some more, or watch the Restoration video. Actually we were able to watch 17 Miracles because our mission president approved it so that was cool. On Monday afternoon a big snow storm started so Monday night we weren't allowed to go out, well we couldn't drive. On Tuesday we couldn't go anywhere all day. After we did our four hours of studies we went walking down the street trying to find service opportunities, but nobody wanted help. So then we just made cookies and tortillas and playing some games. It was a good little break but we were ready to get back to work on Wednesday.

Although it only snowed that one day it has been freezing cold. The high for the next couple days after the snow storm were 22 degrees. 22 degrees! So the snow turned into ice. Thankfully, they had plowed the roads, but neighborhoods and parking lots were like sheets of ice. I fell right on my rear end walking from the car to a member's home. It was the worst. But luckily I had leggings on and no one was around so no one saw. Actually, that's a lie. When we went to one of our less active's house she asked which one of us had fallen. She said that her friend who lives over where we were saw me from her window slip and fall. I guess there's always someone watching you.

On Friday after District Meeting we got a message from the two people that we had appointments with that day and they both cancelled. We were bummed because one of them was Priscila and the other one is an investigator who we only see once a week and we had a great lesson plan for her. Also, we teach her in English because she prefers speaking English so I love teaching her. Anyway, we had to use our backup plans which was a lady named Yvette. She had been on our backups for a few weeks now and we had never had the opportunity to teach her yet. So we taught her the Restoration and that was the most amazing lesson I have ever taught. The Spirit was so strong, I was able to explain the Restoration in a way that she understood. As I stated the First Vision and bore testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon the Spirit was so strong and I started to cry. I asked her what she thought about the Restoration after I finished teaching it and she said she knows this is the true church and she knows it's going to take a lot of changing in her life. She understood that she was going to have to act and do some things that may be different for her. She is definitely ready for the gospel. Hopefully, we can set her up with a baptismal date next time we teach her.

My mission president announced on Saturday that we're gonna have a one time opportunity while on our missions to go to the temple and do an Endowment session! He got permission for us to got to the Raleigh temple and then do our zone conference up there in a stake center next to the temple after our session. I'm so excited! I love the temple! I miss being able to go twice a week.

I just finished reading the Book of Mormon today! That book is so good! Really. I'm excited to start reading it again. Actually, I've also started reading the Bible all the way through. I just love reading the scriptures now. They're so interesting to me. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that it contains the fullness of the gospel. The only way you can know it's true is if you read it!

Another thing I want to bear testimony of that I learned this week is that God is always listening when we pray. If you just kneel down and tell Him all of your frustrations and what you're thinking and feeling He will listen. And ask you humbly as for His help His love will fill your heart and He will give you answers if you are sincerely listening.

Well, I love you all soo much! Have a great week!

Hermana Reed

First Transfer Completed

I made it through my first transfer. I'm finishing my training in the same area, but one of the other Hermanas that came in with me is changing from an English area and will be in a trio with the other Hermanas. So we'll have FIVE Hermanas and two Elders in our Branch. The missionaries will make up half of the congregation! Just kidding. Actually, our branch is growing. We had another baptism in the branch on Friday. So that's four in the past month or so which is awesome! Hopefully, it will continue to grow.

It snowed this week! Actually it's snowing right now. Our mission president postponed transfers until Thursday instead of Wednesday because there is supposed to be a big storm coming tonight. If it gets bad tomorrow then we'll have to stay inside.

So this week was really slow because we had a lot of meetings, but it was good. We had a Sisters Specialized Training which was so good! It was all day Tuesday with all of the sister missionaries in the mission. So I got to see my Hermanas from the MTC again! It was fun to have a little reunion.

Priscila is doing amazing! We're working on getting her to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. Hopefully, this week or next week we can help her do her family history so she can bring some names to the temple with her. She's a member so she can come to lessons with us! We're hoping we can bring her to our lesson with Miguel and Ana.

We had Branch Conference yesterday so some people from the stake came and spoke. It was all white people speaking Spanish so I could understand everything! Church was really good yesterday. My stake president is so awesome. He speaks Spanish and he gave such an amazing talk. I just love all of these people over here. Virginia is great!

I just want to leave you all with some things I learned from the meetings I went to these past couple weeks. My mission president (who is the greatest, by the way) spoke and said that this church is a church of discomfort. There's a price for knowing the truth. We may be asked to do things that make us uncomfortable such as performing a calling, or changing wards. But Elder Holland said, "The joy of the gospel is greater than any of the demands it asks." This gospel pushes us, but we came to this earth to progress and grow and change. Only by being pushed out of our comfort zones will be able to reach our full potential. Okay I have some scriptures for ya'll to look up. They're really good! The first one is Moroni 9:25 and the second one is Hebrews 12:1-2. Another thing I learned this week is about joy. Joy is not the absence of sorrow. We need to experience sorrow to experience joy. And only when we are resurrected can we experience a fulness of joy. Also, we choose to be happy. Okay, one last thing. It's a quote from my mission president because he's just so awesome. He told us that we need to "slug the adversary. Knock the tar out of him!" Don't let the adversary control you.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Reed