Spring is Here!

Spring FINALLY hit! And it's awesome! It's warm and there are flowers and leaves growing and we can sleep with our window open at night and it is the most blissful feeling ever. I love New Jersey in the spring!
Here are some highlights of this last week:
~Finding a prepared family! The dad's name is Tino and the mom's name is Julia. We taught them the Restoration and it was an amazing lesson. Tino is going into a major surgery for his hip on Tuesday and he is going to be in bed for months afterwards. Julia is 9 months pregnant and due on Tuesday. Despite having plenty of good excuses not to meet with us, they are instead finding ways to meet with us! Tino told us we could visit him two days after his surgery and teach him while he is recovering in bed. And he says as soon as he can walk again he will be going to church. They felt the spirit so much while we were teaching them that he told us he knew what we were teaching was true, and that he felt that we had that light he needed in his life. He wants it so much! It's really exciting.
~Our investigator Nicolas is on date for baptism! We taught about the Word of Wisdom and why we don't drink coffee, tea, alcohol, smoke, or do drugs. He already is doing it :) He told us about how a few years ago he would drink and smoke and do drugs and get in trouble all the time with his family and with the police in Ecuador. Then he went to Alcoholics Anonymous and stopped doing all of that stuff. We asked him how it changed him and his family and he said, "It changed everything. Everything is better. My relationship with my family, my friends, and myself. Everything is different now." Never has that hit me so hard. His personal testimony was so powerful. Obeying the Word of Wisdom is so important.
~Sister Heule and I have decided that we have an inception-like effect on the people we teach. For example, we asked one of the hermanas we visit to imagine God was right there while she prayed to make her prayers more sincere. Well, in a later appointment she said, "I heard somewhere that if you imagine God is there while you pray it becomes more meaningful. I have been doing it and my prayers have meant so much more to me now!" We were like, "Wow, that's great! What a great idea!" Another time we asked her to invite all the sisters she visit teaches to the Women's General Conference and later she calls us and said, "I had an idea to invite all my sisters to the Women's Conference. Do you have their numbers?" INCEPTION. They don't even know we are putting the ideas there :P Sister Heule is of the opinion that we don't actually exist.
~Having a mini wedding party thing at the church! One of the families in our ward got sealed and the ward celebrated it the next day. I love ward parties because you get to see less actives you didn't know existed there! Which is exactly what happened.
~Meeting a couple from Spain on the street! Weird! They had the accent and said 'vale' and used the vosotros form and everything :)
Funny contacting experience of the week:
Me: "Can I give you a card?"
Random Guy: "If it has your number on it."
Me: "Never mind..."
Good week! Spring is in the air and everyone is twitterpated! See Bambi for an explanation of that term. I love you all! The Church is true! Choose the right and know what you stand for!
Love,
Sister Reed

Happy April Fool's Day!

This week was the week of April Fool's Day! The extent of the excitement for this April Fool's Day was that the elders put an exhaust whistle in our exhaust pipe. Wow, good one elders. Anyway, elders are definitely more exciting during April Fool's Day than sisters are. That and my companion probably would've killed me if I had done anything to her. However, I have decided that next year on April Fool's Day I am going to put a lot more effort into it and maybe get more into the spirit of the holiday :)
Highlights of this week:
~General Conference!! I got the answers to all of my questions, some of which I didn't realize I had. Nice going, Heavenly Father.
~Going to Fearbuster, which is where we take all the new missionaries contacting through downtown Newark. It's seriously gotta be one of the most fun things I have ever done. My companion was a new missionary from the Philippines. She was so cute!
~Getting  a new Obsipado (bishopric). This means that WE GET WARD MISSIONARIES!!! Yay now they get to teach lessons to ALL OUR RECENT CONVERTS MUAHAHAHAHAHA
~Working on Ellis Island. I have found out that when a random person comes up to you with a big ol smile and arms outstretched it usually means they're a member of the church :) It's really cool to serve there and meet people from all over the world. Scottish accents ARE real, it turns out. I though everyone was just pulling my leg.
~Our investigator, Nicolas, read the Book of Mormon and is progressing! We are so excited for him. We also found 2 families this week which is the bomb.com (do people still say that? Oh man I'm getting old).
~We had a mission-wide fast to consecrate ourselves to missionary work  and it was a really awesome experience. I'm not ver good at fasting but in the end it's worth it :) Even though that last hour is always killer. Self-discipline! That's important.
Love you all! Remember the church is true! Choose the right and know what you stand for!!

Hello from New Joisey!

After 6 months I have finally realized that I'm probably not going to come back with a New Jersey accent. I don't know why but the Joisey sound just doesn't rub off on me. How sad! Life is full of trials sometimes.
It rained! Aaaah! I don't have a rain jacket! I guess I needed one of those. I'll think about getting one of those.
Transfers this week happened and my comp and I are both STAYING!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Watch us tear up Kearney.
Also General Women's Conference on Saturday was amazing! Of course. The best part is we got two less-active women there and a recent convert and they loved it which pretty much makes my life.
AWKWARD EXPERIENCE OF THE WEEK: Yesterday we went to see someone with Hermana Castro, the Relief Society President, and when Sister Heule was saying goodbye afterwards she missed and accidentally kissed her forehead instead of her cheek. Which somehow is SO MUCH MORE AWKWARD and I nearly died laughing afterwards. Good thing Hermana Castro is a saint and loves Sister Heule anyways.
Sorry, not much else to say except for of course that the gospel is true! I love you all! Choose the right and know what you stand for!!!
Omni 1:26 is my favorite scripture of the week.
Love,
Sister Reed

2nd Talk in Spanish!!

Hello again from Kearny! It has been a good week! Good times and bad times as always, but I like to focus on the good times :)

We found three new investigators this week! One of them is this crazy old Dominican lady named Elva who, when we talked to her on the street, hugged us and then ran away. We saw her yesterday and she basically agrees with everything we said, which is good. However, I am not positive on how much she was actually listening to...though if she already knows that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet, then that would be really great :)

We also have a new investigator who, when we walked inside, had A Marvelous Work and A Wonder sitting on her desk. This book is written by an apostle (Bruce R. McConkie) and is about the Book of Mormon. I saw it and couldn't decide if she is a secret member that we never knew about or if she just likes to read books on LDS doctrine. Turns out to be the latter :) She's really cool! I like her.

I also gave my second talk in Spanish! The Bishop called on Saturday night and asked me to give it. So I wrote it very fast on Sunday morning. I know for a fact that I definitely had divine help doing it. I opened my mouth and the Spirit filled it with the right words. I talked about how much the wards in Mexico and Honduras helped my family when we were in foreign countries and didn't understand the language. And I did it all in Spanish that was way beyond my normal Spanish! Definitely had a little gift of tongues there. The ward members liked it a lot and I hoped it helps them reach out to the people that are struggling in our ward as well!!

We also had a ward talent show this week! Sister Heule and I sang and played the ukelele. My ukelele skills are not exactly that impressive but everyone liked it anyway :)

This next week is transfers. I'm pretty sure I'm not getting transferred! Yaaay!!!

Highlight of the week: Doing push-ups in church. It was an object lesson :)

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

Sister Reed 

Awkward Door-Knocking Experiences

This week was fantastic!! Highlights:
~Receiving fruit snacks called "Walking with Jesus".
~Explaining gas laws to my unfortunate companion (she asked me what happens when pressure decreases in a vacuum. What was I supposed to do? Not explain PV=nRT?)
~Having 13 of our less-actives go to church!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!
~Meeting an old lady from the Dominican Republic who told us that she loved us because we talked about Jesus, hugged us, and then ran off. Sister Heule is officially in love with Dominicans now.
FUNNY EXPERIENCE OF THE WEEK! On Sunday we went on a split, which basically means two different women got to be our companions so that we could go to more appointments. Hermana German, a lady from our ward, went with me to go to two less-active's houses, one of whom I have never been to before. So everything was going great. We visited the first house and they gave us a TON of food (Hermana German was like WHAT I HAVE TO EAT and I was like WHAT DO YOU THINK MISSIONARIES DO?? Ok I said it a little more lovingly than that :)
Then we went to our next appointment!! The following occurred:
Me:"I think that's their house!"
Hermana German: "I don't think so..."
We knock on the door and a teenage boy opens it.
Me: "Are your parents home?" (We had called and confirmed the night before)
Boy: "No, they're down on the shore. They've been gone for three days."
Me: "Three days? We talked to them last night!!"
It was at this point that I realized that we DEFINITELY had the wrong house. So I pulled out a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told him it probably wasn't an accident we had met him and that he should read this pamphlet because it will bless his life. Then we said bye and left. Hermana German was like I CAN'T BELIEVE WE JUST DID THAT! All in the life of a missionary. We have the most awkward experiences ever. I didn't tell her that that was nothing compared to the time I climbed up on a cement block to knock on a less-active's window and then the less active opened the door and saw me...that was awkward.
I kind of love my life.
So it was a fun week!! We saw a lot of miracles that we weren't expecting—I hope everyone is doing well and happy! Remember to choose the right and know what you stand for!

Quick Email

The internet is SUPER slow today so this will probably be short. Quick highlights for this week!
~Danna is getting confirmed! Love that girl.
~Met one of our investigators, Carlos, this week for the first time! His wife has been waiting a long time for him to get baptized and he's not there yet but we are working slowly and surely with him.
~Found an old investigator named Ingris! She has a crazy story of how she got into the States and is amazing. She listens to everything and soaks it up and we are SO happy we found her again. You have no idea. Sister Heule was literally jumping up and down for joy for a solid 10 minutes.
~Our recent convert, Jonatan, got the Aaronic Priesthood! YAAAAY
The sad thing of this week was that we lost a few investigators that we have been working with for a long time. It's heartbreaking to have to stop teaching someone but I have faith that they will be ready someday, on the Lord's timing.
It's been a little chilly but not too bad. Nothing like December...I'm not even wearing boots today! A first for months.
Highlight of the week: Reading the Book of Mormon in 33 days! WHOOOOO That's what you get when your comp's sick...
Downlight of the week (yes I made that a word): Daylight savings. I did not enjoy getting up at 5:30 AM yesterday. No bueno.
I love you all!!! Remember to choose the right! Read your scriptures! Get to bed on time hehe :)
Love,
Sister Reed

1st Baptism!!!

This month I had my first baptism! Her name is Danna and she is 14. I gave a talk at the baptism about the importance of the Holy Ghost and then we took LOTS of pictures :) We are really excited for her and it was amazing to see the change in her after her baptism. I can't really even describe it.
There is a LOT of work going on, even though we had a few sick days this week :/ Danna has 2 brothers who we are teaching right now and we are working with them a lot. We hope that they all will be able to be baptized soon. Eternal family HERE THEY COME!
Another of our investigators, Oscar, who is probably around 60 and is seriously one of the sweetest old men EVER, fasted on Sunday even though the rest of his family (who are members) didn't. THAT'S what I'm talking about :)
Oh also I had a birthday and that was cool.
We also somehow ended up teaching the elders' investigator and because we were visiting teaching his wife, who is a member. They came to church after years of not going! YES!!! You're welcome Elders!
Highlight of the week: A member telling me that I don't have a gringo accent!!! He probably was just being nice but I appreciate it anyway!!!!
Love you all! The Church is true! I love it so that's why I'm doing this. It's hard to be a missionary. Really hard. Sometimes I wonder how I actually do this. But I do it because I love my Heavenly Father and I love this work and I know that he wants me to be here. And there is nothing like seeing someone read the Book of Mormon and see that new light in their eyes. It seriously is there and I'm not even joking. You should try it sometime :)
Choose the right and know what you stand for!
Love,
Sister Reed