Can't catch a break :)

Well, it's transfer time again AAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDD I am being transferred!
Not only that, but my companion is getting transferred too.
DOUBLED OUT.
Can't believe it!
Transfers are always bittersweet. On the one hand you love the people of your area but on the other hand you are excited to go to a new place and see something new. I am really sad to leave Bayonne :( But I am excited to see where I am headed!
The 10 things I am going to miss most about Bayonne, New Jersey are:
1) Being so close to the Bay. Water is seriously cleansing to the soul.
2) All of the CRAZY people who live here. Life is not the same without them :)
3) Our best friend and bus driver, Anderson.
4) Our Egyptian gas station friend who calls us hani.
5) The 7-foot high snow piles in front of our house that are only getting bigger, since we just get more and more snow
6) Sister Larsen and her hilarious sense of humor.
7) All of the wonderful members we work with!!!
8) Our investigators. It is very tough to leave them :(
9) Our neighbors upstairs who gave us a giant basket full of chocolate for Christmas.
10) The beautiful New York skyline.
Things I will NOT miss:
1) No parking

2) Getting stuck in the snow while parking
3) Looking for parking
Obviously I am not a fan of parking...
It will be tough to leave, but we have worked really hard so that the new sisters will have a good foundation when they get doubled in. They better like Bayonne because it is AWESOME.
This week was a good one. I've decided the theme of Bayonne is Egyptians. There are bazillions of them here! The other day we were trying to find a referral and we ended up in this building that was almost all Egyptians. It was great!
Things I have noticed about Egyptians:
1) They are SUPER nice.
2) They like Jesus.
3) They smile!
Egyptians are great. We had one ask us for 20 Books of Mormon to send to their friends in Egypt. And of course we have our gas station Egyptian friend :) We gave him an Arabic Book of Mormon and he was super excited. My only regret is I don't speak Arabic! SO frustrating sometimes.
Also, one of our investigators, Jennifer, is thinking about going on a mission. We told her she should probably get baptized first. She said that was a good idea.
It's been a great week, and a great time in Bayonne! The work is great :) I love this Gospel! Remember—it's true!

Love you all! Choose the right and know what you stand for!
Sister Reed
P.S. Hold off on any letters or packages this week! I will send you my new address next week. If you've already sent some they'll get forwarded to me so no se preocupe! I will send my new address next week :)

P.P.S. Random picture I know but I promised myself I would sent one and my companion has the rest of them :)

But hey found a cool dolphin. I love parks!

Who Needed Toes Anyway?

My toes have officially frozen off, but who needed those anyway? Or fingers? Completely unnecessary.
Ok, that was a bit of an exaggeration. I am fine here. It's cold and I'm finally used to it. Don't even feel it anymore. Yay :) Life goes on!
So this week it snowed big, gloomy wet snow. This snow is very hard to drive in and makes it very slippery. HOWEVER, shortly thereafter it dropped to freezing temperatures and all the soggy snow then froze.
So the sound of cars' wheels spinning uselessly against ice has become very familiar :) Including ours. Luckily we have had many helpful people help us dig/push our car out of the ice. I love nice neighbors!
Highlights of the Week:
~Listening to the "Charity Never Faileth" choir on a CD we got from our Senior missionaries. I was like, "Really?..."
~Getting stuck at least 5 times in the snow.
~Becoming best friends with the gas station man from Egypt who doesn't really speak English and calls us "Hani". ("Hello Hani! How are you doing Hani!") Is that an Arabic word? Hopefully it's a term of endearment :)
~Eating at least 20 apples this week.
~Stake Conference! Emphasis: missionary work. YES!
~One of the members we work with has stopped drinking her coffee. YAY! She is literally my favorite. She calls us her daughters. I'm cool with that.
Spiritual Experience of the Week:
One of our investigators named Carol has recently been in the hospital. However, she has a LOT of faith and has improved so much. This week we were meeting with her and we had the following conversation.
Us: Carol, why do you think we ask you to be baptized if you already have been baptized?
Carol: Because this church is the one that has authority. You need to have authority to baptize.
Us: How do you know our church has the authority?
Carol: Because I read the Book of Mormon and I know it's true, and because Joseph Smith was a prophet.
Us: :)
We were awestruck. She understood everything the first time we ever taught it to her. That THIS is the only way, and we know that through the Book of Mormon. We don't have to believe anyone else. We can figure it out by ourselves, just by trying it out. In Carol I have seen how faith can move mountains. She is so faithful and so ready to actually demonstrate her faith! I LOVE her.
Love you all! Choose the right and know what you stand for!
Sister Reed

And another snow storm...

Snow storms used to be big news. After the fourth one though...everybody's tired of it. I am developing some serious respect for the pioneers. I am beginning to understand what it would be like to walk for miles and miles in the snow. Except they didn't have shoes...
So I am glad I have shoes!! So many blessings :)
Sister Larsen and I both got sick this week. It made getting up at 6:30 a little harder than usual. Not to mention exercise...that's what stretching is for!!! Anyway, this week is the first time I've ever slept during the day on the mission. But I could only sleep for an hour at lunch before I had to get up and start doing something. So after we felt a little better we got out of the house to teach some lessons!
Highlights of the week:
~We found one of my favorite investigators, Carol, this week! She is seriously the sweetest thing. She has been in the hospital and she can hardly walk but she let us in and talked with us and says she needs to go to church. I believe she will go even if she just got out of the hospital. She is that awesome.
~Quoting a scripture in unison with an investigator--that was weird.
~Getting two investigators to church! YAAAAY! One of them is an investigator we have named Jennifer who can't get baptized until she turns 18 because her mom won't let her. She loves going to church and she seriously is amazing. I want to be friends with her when I get home.
~Seeing a bumper sticker that said: "Relax. God is in charge." SO TRUE. I tried to take a picture of it and failed.
~Doing WORK!
~Getting lost on the freeway and ending up on a dirt road...didn't know they had those in Jersey.
Doing the work of the Lord :) I also illustrated Jacob 5 (from the Book of Mormon) during personal study. That chapter is SO much more exciting now.
I love you all! Choose the right and know what you stand for!

Winter in New Jersey

Two snow storms this past week! It is cold! Apparently it's been colder this winter than it has been for like 10 years or something. Once it hit 4 degrees I believed that. On the plus side, 30 degrees feels balmy now :)
Despite the cold, this week has gone quite well.
Highlights of the week:
~Having a Noche de Talentos (Talent Show) in our ward. We had to leave early for a meeting but I heard that there was juggling and also dancing so it must have been amazing.
~Doing yoga in the car with my comp after a particularly stressful day ("Breathe in, now tilt your head to the side, now breathe out." *this is where I start laughing*)
~Volunteering at Ellis Island! This experience has taught me two things: 1) I have forgotten/know almost nothing about American history and 2) cursive is REALLY hard to read. Some of the records we go through it's like, "Well, either that says Wallie or Guisseppe...probably your Grandpa!" *smile at patron convincingly*
~Teaching 10 crazy Dominicans the 10 commandments. We have little hand signals we made up to help people remember the commandments, and they were SUPER into it.
~Taught a new investigator who doesn't like in our area but wants to go to our branch anyway! YES! Poaching without even trying :) No but seriously, he is super ready and I think he might actually be marrying someone in our branch...so he'll probably move into our area anyway.
~A less-active of ours named Ines prayed in church THREE TIMES yesterday. Seeing as she wouldn't even consider praying the week before, I would say that is progress. So proud of her :)
~Helped another less-active set up a new TV  for her mother-in-law. Didn't think I would have to do that on the mission. DIDN'T WATCH IT I PROMISE. Service at its finest.
~Favorite experience of the week!!! On Monday when it was super snowy we were waiting at the bus stop and we see a bus coming. We began to rejoice but then we saw the bus turn on its "no passengers" sign and we were like ah MAN. But then he pulls to a stop ANYWAY and the bus driver is like, "Hey, are you missionaries? Hop in! Where do you need to go?"
So he gave us a ride! It was great!
On the way back he was like, "I saw you making snow letters when I passed earlier..." (Sister Larsen likes to write mormon.org in the snow :)
"Yeah...I've made some snow letters in my day." YES!!! Just became my favorite person ever.
So then he dropped us off on our street and turned the bus around and went back to the terminal. Seriously made the trip just for us.
And that is how we became friends with our favorite bus drive ever. Actually, we had met him a few weeks earlier on the bus. THAT is why it is so important to talk to EVERYONE :)
I love the Gospel! It makes life so much more fun! I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. This is his work! I know it.
Love you all! Choose the right and know what you stand for!!!
Love,
Sister Reed
PS: Sorry, no pics this week but next week I will have a lot! That's one of my goals for the week.

Ellis Island Here I Come!

One of the benefits of serving so close to New York is...

ELLIS AND LIBERTY ISLAND ARE IN YOUR MISSION!!!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

Ellis Island is literally 12 minutes driving away from our area. Actually, it's probably IN our area. We would probably take a morning run there (although that would take way longer than the 30 minutes we have to run). We see the Statue of Liberty every day when we are driving between Jersey City and Bayonne. Gotta say, I love the city. It is really fun to be here.

So a plus of being so close is being able to volunteer on Ellis Island! This past week we had an orientation to learn to help people with their family history work. I am SUPER excited to volunteer there.

Other highlights of the week:

~Got fed by members twice! I love Honduran/Guatemalan food! Slash every other kind of Latin American food you could possibly think of. You get people from all over Latin America and, come to think of it, all over the world in Jersey. We just get fed by the Latin American ones :)

~Having a lesson with a member that doesn't talk. He writes down his responses. That was a first for me.

~Had an awesome Zone Conference about repentance and the importance of forgiving others and yourself.

~Found and bought almond milk for super cheap and decided it's the best thing ever.

~Had a lesson with a new investigator whose house is decorated entirely by pictures of Buddha. EVERYWHERE. Also fluffy pillows.

~Saw the TV and realized that TV has definitely changed since I last saw it. WEIRD.

~Helped a nice lady named Veronica take her groceries in and then she let us stay and talk to her! She was super nice. Hope to see her again :)

~Another super big snow storm. Actually, this snow storm is currently happening. We had a lovely walk through said snow storm this morning to get to the library.

~Met a lady on the bus named Faith (haha funny) and referred her to the English-speaking elders. They went to visit Faith and her family and they want to get baptized and are going to church on Sunday! YES! I love it when people are ready to hear the Gospel.

Spiritual experience of the week: In New Jersey you have the bus and then you have wa-was, which are little buses run by a different company that are cheaper depending on where you are going. Well, on the wa-wa this week we were going up to Union City, an hour and a half ride, and an old lady got on the bus. She was struggling, and then a lady on the bus jumped up and helped her and got her seated and then gave her bus fare. The old lady was SO grateful, she started crying. Then the nice lady moved up next to her and prayed with her. Everyone on the bus, including us, were stunned by how Christlike this lady was.

There are so many humbling experiences like that on the mission. We are here to do the Lord's work but so often we are too busy or too distracted to see opportunities to help others. I am so grateful for that lady's Christlike example. I have promised myself that I will NEVER again be the person who doesn't see the lady struggling to get on the bus. I'm going to be the one who jumps up to help her, to give her bus fare, and to pray with her.

I am so happy to be the Lord's missionary. There is so much to learn and I am far from perfect, but I know that with the Lord's help I can be good enough. I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I know that this is His church!

I love you all! Choose the right and know what you stand for!

Love,
Sister Reed

It is COLD outside

It. Is. COLD.

This week we hit 15 degrees Fahrenheit, with humidity, and bow was it COLD!! Not only that but it SNOWED! So much snow. Ok it wasn't that much but it felt like a lot. 

Which makes missionary work a lot harder, because when it snows everybody in the whole city things, "Look, snow! Looks like I am staying indoors and not going ANYWHERE for DAYS! Yippee!!"

So no investigators at church, but we have high hopes for next week. We are working on convincing people that they can still leave the house even if it is cold outside. Latin Americans have a hard time believing that one. But I'm getting pretty good at it so we will get there.

Also snow usually means that we can't use our car until the roads are clear, so we usually end up walking and our cheeks get frozen! I had no idea that could even happen...

So an interesting week for sure. Highlights include:

~Getting our car out of a pile of snow (our neighbors were super impressed).

~Receiving a box of hot chocolate from a Guatemalan guy who we had met about 20 minutes previous. It's organic when sounds cool so I'm drinking it.

~Being approached by members at church offering to help us (now that the snow is gone). Made my week!!

~Seeing Oneyda and Carol, two of our investigators, both of whom have recently come from Honduras and gotten jobs! Super excited to see them again and at church! They are super nice :)

~NOT being transferred! Sister Larsen and I are in Bayonne for another six weeks together! YES!

I also remembered to bring my camera cord this week, so I FINALLY have pictures.

Last of all, Happy New Years! So excited for 2014! It's weird to think that the my entire year of 2014 will be spent on my mission. Should be a good year :)

Love you all! Choose the right and know what you stand for!

Hermana Reed

Our investigators Oneyda and Carol (on either side of me) and Hermana Santina, one of our viejitas on the right :) I love them. 

Christmas with all the missionaries at the Ward Mission Leader's house

Snow!

More snow!!

Jose de los Santos and me :)

At church with one of my besties

New Year in New Jersey

Good morning!

Had a great Christmas out here in the field. It's nice to have a Christmas where you are mostly focusing on sharing the message of Christmas. I really love Christmas. I was worried that I wouldn't like it on my mission but I actually did.

Also we had two Christmas dinners. Now that doesn't sound like a lot but actually IT IS. Yes I'm sure all who have been missionaries have done worse but I honestly felt like it would have been a blessing to throw up. Then later that night we ran home after eating these two Christmas dinners because we parked super far away and had to get home on time.

NOT GOOD.

Never do that.

But it's fine that is what the mission is ALL ABOUT :)

Highlights from the week:

Talking to the fam! It was great to see all of you (although I didn't figure out how to get skype to work til the last five minutes...I'm definitely losing my touch with computers these days)

Getting great packages!

   -My favorite gift: missionary journal from my sister Alison! I honestly never thought I would want one of those because that's a nerdy missionary thing but now that I'm a missionary I LOVE it. It has room for my companion and areas and everything else could ever dream about in it! Love it.

   -Getting the most candy I have ever received in my entire life

   -Got a present with Justin Beiber wrapping paper. Thanks Alison :)

Committing an investigator to baptism! About that... AWKWARD STORY OF THE WEEK:

Walked into an investigators house to find that he is in the shower. This made us VERY uncomfortable so we decided it was time to leave but she (meaning his roommate Rosalina) WOULDN'T LET US. So we just sat there on our investigator Luis's couch waiting for him to get out of the shower. SO. AWKWARD. So finally he gets out and we start our lesson with him and we have the most spiritual lesson EVER. He read the Book of Mormon, was prepared and asked questions and we could tell that he was ready! So we committed him to baptism. And this isn't just a "maybe I'll get baptized thing." This is a pull-out-your-phone-and-write-down-the-date-and-time-of-your-baptism-on-your-calendar thing. Overall, one of the most awkward/spiritual lessons I have ever had.

One of my favorite things about this area is the viejitos (old people) that live here. We work with an 89-year-old man named Jose. None of his family are members and he really wants them to be! He is the cutest grandpa man you will ever see. We call him Hermano Uva because in Spanish one of the meanings of "uva" is "cool" and he says it all the time. We're like best friends with him now.

Another adorable viejita is Hermana Santina, who is the sweetest and nicest old lady I have ever met (except for my own grandma of course :). She let us teach two investigators in her house and says that we are "angelitas" (especially my companion because she has blonde curly hair. kinda looks like a halo I guess). 

Nelson, our other investigator who is set for a baptismal date is on board still! I seriously love that man. We walk into his house and he says, "Enough chit-chat, tell me about the GOSPEL." Which is great, because that's our best subject. He really wants to learn! I love it when people want to learn.

That was basically my week. I hope that everybody had a good Christmas. It is my favorite time of year. And not just because I get so much candy. I love you all!

Haz lo justo (choose the right) and know what you stand for!

Hermana Reed

Merry Christmas!!!

Hello All!

It Christmas "Adam"! Then tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and then Wednesday it's CHRISTMAS!!!

I love Christmas.

This has been a CRAZY week. Crazy as in busy. We had the opportunity to go to the temple (SO nice) and we had an all-mission conference where Alex Boye came! He is amazing speaker and singer and it was really great to hear and see!

We also had two Christmas parties (since we work with a ward and a branch) that we just HAD to go to! It was actually super nice because members brought their friends and we got to meet a lot of new people. And eat a lot of good food :)

We have had very little time for actual work (aka lessons with people) this week. I love the stuff we have been doing (temple and parties and everything) but at the same time I miss working with people! Missionary work has turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Let me work!!

We have a lot of appointments on the 24th and 25th and so we will hopefully be very busy! The ward has really reached out to us. We have members giving us food, gifts, and letting us call our families in their homes. I love this area. I can't believe how nice people are!!!

Highlight of the week: a ward member gave us food for breakfast this entire week! I have NEVER eaten this good on the mission! Don't even know what to do with myself.

I love this time of the year. Our focus as missionaries is to really think of Christ this month. It's hard to describe what Christ means to me, but I do want to say that I know that Christ is my Savior, and that is why I am out here. Nothing else would get me to serve for 18 months besides a solid and deep knowledge that Jesus Christ atoned for me, loves me, and that I can return to him. That is what drives me to do what I do. I cannot hide what I know and I want to share it!

Have a wonderful Christmas! Choose the right and know what you stand for!

Love,

Hermana Reed

QUICKEST LETTER IN THE UNVERSE!

Dear Family,

I have six minutes to write to you today.

Everything is super busy. And there is snow!! We walked through the snow all day yesterday and it was really really fun and it proved that my boots are hard core. Then we had had an amazing lesson with one of my favorite investigators EVER and had cocoa and sang Christmas songs.

 We have three solid investigators with a baptismal date and I am so happy for them! Nelson Vargas we found last week and he is ready to be baptized on the 29th! He was taught before so he already knows a lot. We are SO excited for him.

 Also, the entire world went into hibernation for winter so I guess that means we can't meet with them. Well TOO BAD! We gonna find you!

This week we get to go to the Manhattan Temple (!!!) and we have mission conference (!!!) and two ward parties! It is crazy!

Happy Christmas! Choose the right and know what you stand for!

Hermana Reed

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hello family!

Another week of missionary work in New Jersey! It's going great. Everyone here has their lights up, including the other family that lives in our house, and our house is looking GOOD. They go all out with their lights over here, and I love it.

Most interesting contacting experience of the week:  Getting tootsie rolls from a random guy on the street in exchange for giving him a card. It was kinda sketchy but I ate them anyway.

I'm feeling much better about my Spanish this week! Just needed to warm up! That's not to say I am fluent in Spanish. I definitely am not. But I can communicate and that's a great place to start. I basically have had to re-learn how to teach the gospel in Spanish. It's actually kinda nice because it helps you understand what you are teaching better.

On Monday we taught a lesson that turned out to be an epic fail. For those of you who have not seen the tea bag lesson...basically, it's where you explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end) with a tea bag. At the end you light the tea bag on fire and it floats up to the ceiling and is really cool.

We tried that. Little did we know we had the wrong kind of tea bag.

So we basically ended up lighting Sister Larsen on fire. Don't worry! No one was harmed in the lesson. It was just a little fire :) I think we will be practicing that one before we do it in front of anybody else...

Miracle of the week: one of our investigators finally decided to get married with the man she is living with! We are so happy because now she will be able to progress and be a good example for her children! Definitely made my week!

We got to see the Christmas devotional this last week. That was a blessing. I love the theme of the devotional, which is how important it is to remember Christ at Christmas. That is what we are focusing on in the mission and it was amazing to be able to see the Prophet and other church leaders. I love Christmas! It is a great season!!

Highlight of the week: SNOW!!! yessss

Remember Christ! He is our Savior and he can help us in our life! The church is true and I KNOW IT. That's why I am here. Nothing else would've gotten me out here. I love the Book of Mormon. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Love,

Sister Reed

How to make instant friends!

Dear Family,

What I learned this week: missionary work is harder to do in Spanish than English.

Profound, I know ;)

All I can say is that I am SO THANKFUL I know so much Spanish already because it makes my life a lot easier. I'm used to being able to express myself easily in English, and I just don't have that knowledge in Spanish. But that is what study time and practice are for and also a LOT of depending on the Lord. I seriously could not do missionary work without prayer and a lot of faith.

I am in a lovely new area called Bayonne. It is really near Jersey City and is right on the water. It is SO beautiful. We have a better view of New York than New York does! It is great. It's definitely not Paterson, though. It's....not ghetto. There are driveways here. And I think I saw a gringo the other day.

WEIRD. # reversecultureshock

I love it though! We work with an English branch and a HUGE Spanish ward. Oh my goodness it's so big. I've never been in such a big Spanish ward before, not in all my Latin American wards. It's really fun :)

Also, I have found the formula for INSTANT FRIENDSHIP!

friendship=live in home country + speak some of their language

THAT'S IT! All you need is to have lived in the home country of the person you are speaking with and speak a bit of their language and you are FRIENDS! It works! Hence I am friends with all the Hondurans, Mexicans, Ecuadorians and Costa Ricans. Haven't met any Paraguayans yet. I only wish I lived in the Dominican Republic! We have so many of them here! We also have a lot of Hondurans, which is great! I love that country.

My new trainer (my Spanish mom hehe) is awesome! She is also from Salt Lake so that's fun:

"Where are you from?"

me: "Salt Lake City."

"What about you?"

companion: "Salt Lake City."
"...are you sisters?"

me: "kind of..."

Yep those conversations are pretty great. My Spanish trainer's name is Sister Larsen and she is hilarious. I cannot wait to spend Christmas/New Years with her!

Speaking of Christmas I am SO EXCITED FOR THE HOLIDAYS! I've heard that Christmas is awesome on the mission and I'm super excited! Christmas is the BEST!

Highlight of the week: going to six hours of church (one of the lovely benefits of working with two different wards)! Talk about spiritually uplifting

Also had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the Bishop and his wife! Yay for holidays :) Even if they are weird on the mission.

Good luck in all your various endeavors! Remember the Church is true and the Book of Mormon is scripture! Read it and love it. It's what gets us through the difficult parts of life. The mission is definitely one of those. 

Choose the right and know what you stand for! 

Love,
Sister Reed