Another good week!

Another good week! This week was crazy busy and full of laughs and tears. There were the really good times and the really bad times :) There always are, but eventually I always am happy.
The highlight of the week was for sure a visit from one of the Apostles, Elder L. Tom Perry! He came to visit our mission on Monday of last week and addressed us and answered some of our questions. He talked about the importance of depending on God in all things. That's what he does! Well, if he does it then I'm going to do it too.

Betty and Hermana Reed

Other highlights:
~Explaining the Plan of Salvation to Enyer, our 17 year-old investigator from the Dominican Republic. I could not keep a straight face in that lesson. That kid makes me laugh too much.
~Asking a guy how his day was and how long he had been in the US. These two simple questions launched him into a 45 minute explanation of his entire life story and all the politics of his country and his home country. Also his first name is Washington which is great.
~Teaching the Restoration 3 times in the home of another Dominican lady. First we explained it to her, then to her granddaughter, then her son as each of them walked in. I hope it sunk in! But seriously that lesson was crazy. It was one of those moments where you walk out of someone's house and are like, "Oh...that was exhausting." In a good way :)
~Hermana Heule falling on ice cream and then on me while playing volleyball in a skirt.
~Getting candy from a sweet man named Edmund who is in the English ward for the third sunday in a row!!! YES!

Betty and Sister Heule

It was a good week. There were always a few days where we had some really hard lessons. One of our less actives is struggling a lot with her family. We have visited her a lot to try to help her through it. She's trying to get into nursing school so I relate to her a lot because of my mom :) Which helps.
The church is true! I know that more every day. I love you all and I hope you are choosing the right and knowing what you stand for!!
Love,
Sister Reed
P.S. The pictures are from service!

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!!