Español here I come!

Dear Family,

So I was going to start off this letter telling you all about the three Thanksgiving dinners that we have been invited to this week and are going to attend but...

I got a call from my mission president last night.

It went kind of like this:

"Hello Sister Reed, how are you?"

"I'm great! How are you?"

"I'm doing great! Sister Reed, I would like to extend a calling to serve in the Spanish program of the New Jersey Morristown Mission temporarily."

WHAT.

That's right. He's switching me to Spanish for a while, and maybe permanently.

I have been trained for six weeks as an English missionary and now I will be finishing my training as a Spanish missionary. This means that;

-I will have an extra hour each day to study Spanish

-I am going to be follow-up trained by a different trainer

-I need a Spanish set of scriptures (Thank goodness my dad had the foresight to have me buy a Spanish Preach My Gospel)

-I will be leaving Paterson.

I am so excited that I get to serve as a Spanish missionary! It's going to be a new adventure and different from what I'm used to. But I will admit I am very sad that I am leaving Paterson! I love Paterson SO much.

Things I love about Paterson: the people, the area, the experiences I have had, the members, the crazy situations I have sometimes found myself in, and of course my awesome trainer, Sister Clark!

I find mission lingo funny. My trainer is my "mom" and since I will have a follow-up trainer I now am going to get a step-mom. Step-moms (or step-dads for the Elders) almost never happen in our mission, especially getting switched to Spanish, so everyone is super shocked. I am just excited. What a great adventure!

I will be heading to transfer conference tomorrow to see where I am going. I have an idea of where I am headed and who my new trainer is going to be but I'll let you know for sure next week.

So much for the breaking news! Here are some of the highlights from this last week:

~Eating spicy African spaghetti with Betty in our car

~Getting brownies from my family and bringing them to all of our investigators and recent converts (they loved them of course since they are the best brownies EVER)

~Teaching and Albanian less-active family and having NO idea what was going on. Spanish did not help at all. It was exciting.

~Finding a new investigator who has already read the ENTIRE Book of Mormon (mind-boggling. We were blown away when he told us).

~Seeing two of our less-actives at church! Tomasita and Edward have been having really hard times medically and it was amazing that she was able to attend. We were SOOO happy!

~Being invited to a Thanksgiving dinner by our investigators Sinthia and Jose! I will not be able to go but I will definitely be there in spirit

~Eating falafel and shwarma and going to the farmer's market last p-day (I told you we would do it and WE DID IT)

~Deep cleaning our apartment. This was a serious adventure because we aren't the cleanest...

~IT SNOWED. And then it turned to ice. Also it got really cold. Like really cold. When they said it was cold in New Jersey they weren't kidding. Don't worry I can handle it. Sister Clark not so much ;)

We had an amazing week! We found seven new investigators and we had a LOT of member participation. Members are SO important in missionary work. They make all the difference.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true! I am so happy to be the Savior's missionary. There is no happiness like the happiness you feel when you commit yourself fully and completely to helping other people and serving the Lord!

Also, my address will soon be different, so if anyone is planning on sending me a letter, hold off til next week! By then I'll know my new address.

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

Sister Reed

The Weeks Seem Like Days!

Dear Family,

The weeks are flying by! Ok, the first two weeks did not fly by. They were slow but good weeks. The past weeks have been good and fast! Everyone who has ever been on a mission I'm sure will have heard this saying, and that is that the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days, and it is SO TRUE. I can't believe we have almost finished a transfer. My first transfer ever! Aaaaaaahhh, so cute.

Everybody says missionary work is worth it when you love the people, and this week I am beginning to glimpse what they are talking about. There's a bond you get no other way when you serve someone and do anything you can for them. I really do love my investigators and the members of our branch. Here are some examples:

    Betty! Betty is a 19-year-old member from Ghana and she is awesome! She is practically our third companion :) When we ask her to come out to see someone with us she will always go if she's not working. I LOVE Betty. She has been through some hard times and she has some incredible knowledge and testimony as a result in it. She is always laughing and smiling and she is blunt and I just love her. She is trying to get into BYU so this is my plan:
   

      1. Help her get into BYU

      2. Become roommates with her after I get off my mission.

      3. Have a party every day!

   Sinthia and Jose: These are two investigators of ours that we have been working with ever since we came to Paterson (aka every since I was born :) and they are really, really nice. These past two Fridays we have gone to our house and they have given us hot cocoa, cookies, brownies, and this amazing Nicaraguan drink that I don't know the name of (and I am going to get the recipe of so help me). The 6-year-old daughter is hilarious. She has all the sass of a 16-year-old and when she prays she thanks Heavenly Father that the Mormons came to visit them. SO CUTE!

    Laura: Funny story. The other day we get a call from a less-active member, Laura. This is how it went:

me: Hello?

Laura: Hi. Do you guys know cursive?

me: cursive?

Laura: yes.

me;...uh....yes...

Laura: can you write cursive very pretty?

me: I don't know
 [frantically look at Sister Clark because I don't know how to respond]

Laura: I want to learn cursive. Maybe I should print off those learn cursive sheets online

me: yeah, that seems like a great idea

Laura: how about we get together and learn cursive and you two can talk about the scriptures. 

me: ok...
Laura: ok see you later bye.

o.0

Apparently we are Laura's new BFFs. She calls us to ask us to help her with her cursive.

Which is fine, because she's awesome. Cursive it is!

People are awesome. The more I talk to them the more true it is. The best feeling in the world: meeting someone, loving them, serving them, and seeing them progress in the gospel. There is nothing more fulfilling them that! You can see them get happier!

Highlight of the Week; meeting an African Fashion Designer! Although it made me slightly self-conscious of my put-together-in-30-seconds outfit that day...

Goal for this P-day: go to Middle Eastern restaurant and eat falafel and shwarma. SO excited. 

I love you all! The gospel is true! Choose the right and know what you stand for!

Sister Reed

Miracles!

Dear Family!!!

This week has been a week of MIRACLES. Seriously. 

The biggest miracle: Bianca.

Bianca is a person we met after three weeks of searching for her. She met the missionaries before and they got her contact info so they could meet with her. We finally found her. We had a lesson with her. She agreed to be baptized. She went to all of church and the baptism afterwards.

You have no idea how amazing this is.

Bianca is AWESOME. She is so ready for this gospel! It never happens this fast unless the person is ready! She is so ready! We become best friends with our investigators and she is definitely my best friend! So exciting! And she's Jamaican! I love Jamaicans :)

It has been a good week full of ups and downs. Missionary work is hard but the good times are SO GOOD (example: Bianca).

Another miracle: The other day we were visiting less-actives in the ward and as we were walking down the road to her house we saw a guy look back at us, turn away, and then look again. Finally he turned around and asked somewhat desperately for three dollars to get home. Now, this is Paterson. Who knows what he actually needed three dollars for?? But we did anyway, and I started talking to him. He is AWESOME. He said that he felt that he had to turn back to talk to us. He has been searching for religion and he says that he admired us for actually practicing what we preach. He was super nice and we gave him a Book of Mormon and he gave us his phone number and told us to call if we ever needed anything!

NOBODY EVER SAYS THAT.

Jason = amazing.

We referred him to the missionaries in his area and we are looking forward to see what happens. Seriously, when you meet genuinely nice people on the street like that it lights up your day in a way nothing else does. Heavenly Father wanted us to talk to Jason. That's why we have to follow him the promptings we receive! If we do, he will make more of our lives than we ever could on our own!

We had our first snow of the winter this morning. AAAH! So exciting! Apparently it snows a LOT here. This is very good. I will let you know the details on a future date.

On P-day this week we went BOWLING. Weird. We wore jeans and shirts and it was kinda strange. I've only been out for a month and I'm like WHAT IS GOING ON. It's only going to get worse, I'm sure. That'll be fun ;) Anyway, I bowled the best I have EVER bowled, three strikes in a row (this is apparently called a Turkey. I'll just say I did that  intentionally in honor of Thanksgiving).

Highlight of the week: Bianca for sure :)

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

Sister Reed

1 month old!

Dear family and friends,

 

 November 2nd marked my one-month anniversery of going on my mission! I am now one month old in mission time! I am completely a NEWBORN compared to everyone else here on the mission (except for the other newborn missionaries). But I can proudly say I have survived one month of the mission, and I feel older and wiser because of it :)

 

Happy Halloween! It was a good one for my companion and I. We had to be in at 6 on Halloween so we dressed up and carved a pumpkin and had a party. MOVIE NIGHT! Don't get many of those on the mission. Gotta love the Testaments.

 

I've noticed from the past few weeks that each week kind of has a theme. My second week we met a lot of Jamaicans, so we had a Jamaican theme. This week is...

 

ITALIANS.

 

Oh yes, my friends.

 

Of the ones I've met I've noticed the following:

 

 -  I can barely make out a word they are saying

 - They say "beautiful girls" a lot. Also one of them tried to marry me on the spot.

 - They say "you know what I mean" at the end of EVERY sentence. This is frustrating because I can't understand them so I really do NOT know what them mean!!!

 

So we're teaching an Italian guy now! The one who didn't propose. I guess he wasn't really interested in the gospel...

 

We also had taught a man who was rolling joints as we talked to him. Literally. And he says that he has a very close relationship with God. Sure, sketchy joint-rolling man, sure. We believe you.

 

Gotta love Paterson :)

 

I seriously LOVE meeting all these people. It's one of the things I love about being a missionary. And the more I talk to people and teach them the more I KNOW that this is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love the the Gospel and I love sharing it with people!

 

This week we had an investigator accept a baptismal invite! We are SOOO happy because he was READY! I love seeing people progress and grow, especially when you become so close with them.

 

WEATHER UPDATE: COLD. Yesterday night somebody must've flipped a switch in heaven or something because one moment it was BEAUTIFUL AND FALL and the next it was FREEZING. I therefore busted out my tights, boots, gloves, scarves, my heavy winter jacket and of course my hot chocolate. BRING IT ON! I got this covered :) I also hear it snowed in Utah. That's exciting. I like snow :)

 

Highlight of the week: receiveing a wand from a fellow sister missionary and being informed that I am now a "faith wizard." Don't exactly understand what that means but I AM EXCITED ABOUT IT! The wand chooses the wizard, Harry.

 

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

 

Sister Reed