"God is that rock"

Dear Family,

The exciting event of this week is when the Mission President's wife, Sister Taggart, decided to hang out with us for a whole day! On this eventful day we:

~organized men's boxers

~put sketchy clothes into sketchy bags in a sketchy basement

~got juked three times

~taught both of our recent converts (she just loved them)

~got on GOOGLE to search for services opportunities! I haven't been on Google for ever but when Sister Taggart is with you you can do anything! Weeeee look at me goooooo

~Tracted in the richest neighborhood in Short Hills (and Short Hills, I have heard, is the richest town in America. Whether that is true is debatable, but I think it illustrates Short Hills pretty well). This is the story of this memorable tracting experience

     *Driving through Short Hills*

S. Taggart: These houses are beautiful!

S. Jarman: Yeah, they're super nice. As you might imagine we don't do much tracting around here.

S. Taggart: Well why not?!

     *Pulls over and we get out*

S. Taggart: It will be fun just to see there living room.

So we knock on a few doors, one person says they want us to leave, another doesn't answer. But the third door an Indian man answered! He was Hindu and told us that God could be that rock if we wanted it to! (see subject) So we asked him to read the Book of Mormon after discussing who God really was and hopefully something great will come from that!

Overall it was fun and S. Taggart is crazy.

I also had my first exchange as an STL! Yay for me it was fun!

The other exciting event of the week occurred in church yesterday. A less-active of ours names Jose came to church, a 60-year-old man from La Ceiba, Honduras (GREAT place) and so I was very happy he came! So I sat next to him during Sacrament Meting.

After Sacrament Meeting Jose looked at me and said, "Hermana, I have to tell you something."

Me: "What?"

Jose: "I don't know if I feel very comfortable here."

Me: "Why not?"

Jose: "I was wondering if you would be my future wife."

Me: "Well...I don't know..."

Jose: "You don't have to decide right now. I can wait."

Me: *panicked because I think he came to church just because of me* "Do you even believe the church is true?"

Jose: "Of course I do! I believe--"

At this point God answered my prayers and Sister Jarman came up and started talking to us. Thank goodness for companions. After that I ran away with her to Relief Society.

Guess the elders get to teach him from now on. That's one less person we have to teach :/

Well, I love you all and I know the church is true! Remember to choose the right and know what you stand for!!

Love,

Hermana Reed

PS: I need someone to send me a picture of someone I can pretend is my boyfriend.

Short Money Hills

Dear Family and Friends!

Welp I've been transferred. And as you might have guessed from the title I got transferred to Short Hills! If you remember from last week Short Hills is the "NOT sketch" place I could go. Which is completely true because Short Hills is

NOT

SKETCH.

I am going through reverse culture shock! I've been in semi-ghetto city areas my whole mission and now my world has been expanded to:

TREES

YARDS

FLOWERS

GRASS

SPACE

TWO CAR FAMILIES

1 FAMILY/HOUSE

2 STORY HOUSES

GARAGES

DRIVEWAYS
UNLIMITED PARKING

SELTZER WATER

Missionary work here is a whole new experience. There is so much more space and trees and people here have a lot more things which has lead to the nickname Short Money Hills. There are also not nearly as many Hispanics as there were in Paterson/Bayonne/Kearny but they are there and we'll find them!! 

Because of some different situations in the area I came into an area with 0 investigators. I've never had an area with no investigators, not even in Paterson when we were doubled in, so this was a little overwhelming at first. But we made lots of phone calls and visited lots of people and now we have 2! So I'm feeling much better about life!

I'm really excited for this area! It's different but it'll be fun to have a different experience. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK: John the recent convert from Kearny who went anti now has a testimony and got confirmed this last Sunday!!! And he invited his friend over to hear the missionaries and bore his testimony to his friend! Aaaah I am just so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Church is true!! And I love it! I love you all and hope that you're August is everything you ever dreamed of! Here it's a balmy 80 degrees! New Jersey has the best autumns ever!

Remember to choose the right and know what you stand for!

Love,

Hermana Reed

Bye Bye Kearny!

Dear Family and Friends,

Well it's that time again! Transfers are here and I'm OUT!

Sister Stevens got called to train! That means that Sister Stevens is a MOM! I am SO thrilled she gets to train so soon! Only three months back on the mission and she's teaching somebody else the ropes. She's going to be awesome.

Once she got the call we knew I would be leaving so I have been in the process of long, painful goodbyes. It is just so hard to say goodbye! I really don't like it. It's nice to know that you have been loved but it's hard to tell them that you won't see them for a long time. 

Sunday was hard because everyone was like, "You're leaving?! Wait come to my house!!!" And so we had way more appointments that we normally would. But I got to see Nicolas, my recent convert, and a few other people so that was nice to see them one last time.

Highlight of the week: John is on track to get confirmed! He is de-antied and his doubts are almost gone!!!! So thanks for everyone who sent prayers his way. Prayer and fasting WORKS!!!

Also I seem to have gotten called to be a Sister Training Leader. That was weird. I thought you had to train to be a sister training leader but apparently that is not the case! So basically this means that I will be going on exchanges twice a week for months! WEIRD! I am excited about it! Although a little nervous.

There are three places I could go: Elizabeth (sketch), Short Hills (not sketch), and Bayonne (PREVIOUS AREA! WAT!).  So we'll see! 

Love you all! Thanks for the love and support and the prayers! Remember to choose the right and know what you stand for!!!!

Love,

Hermana Reed