Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say, on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day

Hey everyone! Hope y'all had a Great thanksgiving! Hopefully no one died on Black Friday.... 

Not really too sure what to talk about this week... not too much happened. It was fairly disappointing and unproductive. Thanksgiving was so fantastic!!! But the day before the Paris elder got into a car accident... so we had to go help them out. Drive them around all day where they needed to go and get things done. So that was kinda a waste of a day. 

Thanksgiving was so much fun. Our 12:00 meal was at the Anderson home. That family reminds me of my family! They are so much fun. I ate way too much food at their house so I was hardly able to eat anything at all the other homes we went to... we then went to the Bakes home, then to the Steinfeldts after that! Oh man. Finally by the end of the our time at the Stinefeldts I was starting to be able to eat some more food.  So I ate more. I woke up at 4:00 that morning, with the worst heartburn I've ever had. It was terrible. 

Well I love you guys. Have a great week! 

Love 

Reese 

Burning a tie! It's okay. It was an ugly tie that was sitting in the closet since before I got here. 

Paris' car 

it's not supposed to be cold yet....

There's so much to be thankful for...

Merry Thanksgiving and a happy Black Friday!

There is not other way to be grateful for things than to fight over a bunch of semi good deals! 

Oh boy, this week was full of good things. Elder olsen and I went on exchanges down in Paris Tennessee. We were able to get a lot of work done. We went to visit the people who were baptized last Saturday and they are amazing. Oh my goodness they have such a solid testimony of everything. The whole gospel. It's fantastic! They gave us a present of trail mix! It was simple, but so nice of them. 

We also went and did service for an older woman who calls herself Grandma Nut! She asked me to give her my moms phone number. I got an email earlier this week where mom told me she got a call from a lady (grandma nut) who was nice and loved having the missionaries over. Oh boy she had so much stuff in her home. There was one room just completely full of stuff. We were looking for a door and we couldn't NOT find this door! So I climbed on top of this pile of stuff and she walked in and looked at me and said "Oh! Hi! Did you find it up there?" She is so sweet. 

So far we have had one thanksgiving dinner. The Gs invited us over tonight and that house was crazy. Their home is a double wide trailer with a little.... room? Tower? Something, coming out of the top of the house. It is fantastic! Redneck ingenuity!! Anyway, we went out there and they are such a nice family. Swear words flying because someone cheated at cards, someone else says "shut up the elders are here!" That made me chuckle. A few weeks ago I put a PING sticker on the back of my iPad case. One of the first things that T G said to me was "Do you golf!?!?" About 45 minutes later another one of the guys there said "PING? You golf??" So we talked about golfing for a long while. They said that one PDay he is going to take us golfing. I'm stoked. 

That's pretty much it for the week. I miss all y'all. This will be the 2nd thanksgiving away from home. But my mind will and always is thinking about y'all. I miss wrestling with all the cousins, Carson, Kyson, S

hay, Jackson, and any other cousin who participated in these matches. 

Love you guys!!

Reese 

Elder olsen and I Match! 

Took this picture yesterday. It was on our car. Didn't turn out exactly they way I wanted it to but it's still kinda cool. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Holy junk it's getting cold out here in da south. This ain't nothin like da Aina weather in Hawaii or even in California. I looked at the weather for Long Beach (@sarahmitchell) and it was like 92 degrees still.... I hate you. But It's November. There shouldn't be crispy grass because it's frozen yet. That's like a mid January February thing... welp. I'm stoked. 

This week was pretty fun! I got some letters from some of my favorite people! Y'all know who you are;) thank you so much. I will write back as soon as I get the chance. 

I had some pretty cool opportunities this week. The work here is still slow and will probably be slow until the millennium, but on Tuesday Elder Olsen gave me a call and asked if I could help out with a baptism down in Paris! D and A, who I taught about 3 weeks ago down there on exchanges with Olsen, were getting baptized and since A is blind and confound to his wheelchair, they needed some help with getting him into the font. So I was able to help

out with that! Such a great experience. The spirit when there is a baptism especially of a convert is very sweet and different that any other time in life. It's great. 

I did have a pretty great dejavu moment this week. It happened when we got the call that this man in the Ward was in the hospital. I will say he is pretty darn stubborn in... pretty much everything he does and refused to let us help him do some work on his property. (Oh he owns about 6 acres of land and his house is pretty much exactly what I want) a few weeks ago we went, as an elders quorum, to cut up some of his trees that had fallen down. Those who helped me about 2 years ago, woah.... It's been that long, know what I'm getting at. So these pieces of these trees were sitting out in front of his house, so we took the chance to help him out! We went and split the wood on Thursday and it was so much fun! Thank you eagle project for teaching me how to split wood! 

I hope y'all, this week find a way to draw closer to your loving father in Heaven. I know that as you try and do so he will pour out his love to you. 

Love 

Reese

Zone meeting on Tuesday! Elder Olsen and I are in the MMA stare off. Elder Rock has got the chair. Sister Monson is peacin' out, Sister Steinman is confused and sister Ashment is freakin out.

Woah bruhhhh Deja Vu....

His fingerprints are everywhere I just slow down to stop and stare, open my eyes and man I swear... I saw God today

This week was another good one. I am finally getting the hang of this thing called missionary work. I'm not going to say that I'm good at it just yet because I'm not. Haha but we are working with a lot of less active families who have needed to be pushed a little bit. This past week, with some part member families we had good solid lessons about the Book of Mormon. We extended a firm invitation for them to read the Book of Mormon, to truly ponder it in their hearts and then to ask God if it is true. If they do that, then they WILL come to know that this is all true. That Jesus Christs church has been restored through a Prophet. That HE lives, and through Him we are able to make it back to our Father in Heaven. 

I am seriously SO SICK AND TIRED of serving around people who are going home!!!  A few days ago I was thinking about going home next Wednesday just like Elder Tracy is, (not going home, but that my 2 years is up) and going to see my family. But then I was like... oh wait. HA!! You've still got 18 months bud!! Haha it was funny. I laughed a little. 

On Wednesday when we were out knocking doors, we knocked on this one door and thins college girl answered. She was... how you say.... drunk. It was so funny trying to carry a conversation with her. She was like "Guys! You'll never guess but I have Mormon friends! Ya they are on their missions.  When do you guys go on your missions!?!?" I was like.... "We are kinda on it right now?" Then she flipped out and was like "NO WAY!!!! That's awesome. Good job guys. Give me a pamphlet to read or something and I'll read it." So we did! Haha she hasn't called us yet but I'm not really expecting her to remember us visiting her. Haha 

Anyway HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! We have to be in our apartment by 6:00 tonight so not too much stuff will be done today. Love and miss y'all so much. I can promis you that not a day goes by without thinking of you. 

Love 

Reese

We tryina thug it out ere but we are missionaries. Hannah, that pose is for you.