Don't blink, just like when you're 6 years old and you take a nap...

Wowza this transfer went by very quickly. I think it is because of how much stuff went on. Let's see. Let's take a journey on what happened this transfer-- Elder Taylor and I whitewash into CV1. (Clarksville 1) Pranks get played on us by the former sisters and some members. Baptism tossed at us 2 days after we get here. New investigators galore. (We found over 60 new investigators in the past 7 weeks)Baptism of Courtney. Teaching finding-- Baptism of Ase. Elkton Choir. I get called to serve in Morgontown, KY. 

Yup that just about sums it up. Ya there is a lot more but it's been a crazy fast transfer. Fastest of my mission. This week I hit my 9 month mark which is just insane to me. I still remember day 1 very well. 

So this week we sure did have a lot of fun. On Tuesday we went to Elkton KY to go sing in a interfaith Christian choir thingy and all the missionaries in the Zone were present except one companionship. It was so much fun. We actually sang pretty well for not having a lot of time to prepare. I will be posting the video on the family photo share as soon as I send this off. It was super cool cuz some baptist family also sang. Oh boy. Any ideas that you have about them singing are probably correct. That will also be posted. 

The new mission schedule was announced! It's pretty cool because Pres. Stone asked for permission for us to start living it a few weeks ago. But I am super excited for all y'all missionaries to be able to participate in this exciting time. Thank goodness for continual revelation. Can I get an Amen??

Other than that not too much happened. On Thursday night Elders Sargent and Hamilton got a phone call from Pres. Stone because Elder Sargent is a former AP and gets filled in on a whole lot of info. So we found out that stuff was going down in the district from them. On Friday Pres. Stone called us and gave us leadership assignments. He called elder Taylor to be the new district leader here and I will be moving to Morgontown KY to be a district leader up there. Super excited because it is still in the Stake. So I will still see some people around every once in a while. 

That's about it! Hope y'all enjoy some of the pictures I took this week! 

I know that this church is true. No doubt in my mind. I think about how hard this life is at times but then the though comest to my mind... it doesn't matter how hard it is. We need to work our hardest. If people make fun of us and try and tear us down, they shall have their reward. God knows our hearts. The life after this will be so peaceful. We don't even know how great it will be. But how happy will we be when we work our whole life and then are able to dwell with God once again? It will be so worth it. So keep working hard and keep living Gods standards even if the world isn't. 

Love y'all. 

Reese

I wanna know 'bout the strangers like me

Well hello there. This week was fantastic. We worked hard, got super stressed out, dunked a ex-convict, found new investigators and did some service in a dream home. I will now proceed to explain all of these points. 

We worked our butts off this week. We have been going through our investigators and dropping some-- seeing if people are interested or not-->getting rid of those who aren't interested. So we are kinda low on people to teach. On Thursday we were about to go out to tract and it started pouring. So we decided to switch the day and weekly plan and save tracting for the next day. Well that turned out great. We were able to find 6 new investigators on Friday on top of the other 3 we had found earlier that week. It was great to see how the Lord really does provide as we get out and work. 

"A" got baptized on Saturday!!! We-me-- were super worried about baptizing him. We were looking for a SUPER big jumpsuit for him because like I said. He is a large guy. So we went out looking for the biggest one we could find. We couldn't find one. XL was the biggest we could find. So we went about looking for big enough pants for him... . Even big and tall stores didn't have white pants in the size we needed. So anyway we were freakin out but the Logans--senior couple-- came in clutch for us and found a jumpsuit that might work and we got permission to baptize him in normal clothes if all else failed. But the jumpsuit fit and one more person, a very large person was added to the church. 

Service. Ahhh let me tell you. So we had dinner with a family this week, the Endsly's but it worked out really weird because Bro. Endsly didn't get off work until late and we had appointments after dinner. So he just took us to Zaxbys real quick and we talked. He loves his Corvettes. He rebuilds them. For fun. He has the new C7 Stingray. He also has a few others that he is working on. It is awesome. But anyway we asked him if there was any service that we could do for him. He said "Oh my goodness!! I have so much stuff for y'all to do!" So we were stoked and went out to their house on Saturday and helped him with some stuff. We leveled out his garage that he is building, and began making one of the portable Garages so he can get his Stingray out of storage and up to this house. Speaking of the house. It is this rickety old looking hillbilly home on the outside. But when you go inside--Mom, Gamie-- you would be proud. The inside is beautiful. It is still a work in progress but it is such a gorgeous home. I didn't bring my iPad out there so I couldn't get any pictures but we should be going out there this week so I'll get some them. 

So this transfer is a long transfer at 7 weeks long. Calls will come this Saturday. The Spanish elders and Us have a deal doin on to see who is staying and who leaves. Whoever loses has to buy the winner lunch and this Buffett. It'll be fun to see what actually happens. Haha 

Well I love all y'all. I love this work. I am beginning, just barely beginning to figure out how to do it. I love my Savior. I love how he provided a way for me to get back to him and I am happy that I am able to help others get back to him. 

Love 

Reese 

"A" the man with a bunch of dogs around him. Funny picture. 

District lunch plus the zone leaders and CV2 elders. 

We were trying so hard not to laugh. "A" is a thug.

When "A" sees the funny photo booth app. The thug turns into a Kid. 

God Im askin you to come change me into the Man i wanna be

This week was legit. So other than the fact that we are baptizing nations out here... hahahahahahahhahah jk @bananas4me -> Hannah Smock Baptizes more people each week than we teach hahah. But its been great. I love it here in Clarksville. The people here are... interesting... but really kind! I love it. 

So we contine to see miricals throughout the weeks here in Clarksville. It has been great being able to work this hard and see results. We will be having the 2nd baptism on the transfer on Saturday which is awesome. This will be my second baptism from tracting. 

We found A the second week we were here and he is so repentant. He is super excited to be baptized on Saturday. He didnt recieve an answer until we read through the interview questions with him. We got to the second question which is "Do you believe the Church and gospel of Jesus Christ have been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith?" and he said yes. We stopped and said "A you do realize what you just said right? You just said that you believe it to be true."

 He then went on and said that he guess he does and as the lesson went on he told us that he keeps looking back and continues to realize that he was getting his answer but just didnt recognize it. He was getting so frustrated that he wasn't recieving his answer. We were starting to get frustrated that he wasnt recieving it either. He was doing everything right. We had taught him all of the essential commantments and he was living them. He was reading the Book of Mormon, praying honestly and fervently. HE WANTED TO KNOW! He just didn't recognize he was recieving his answer all along. 

Welp i love my mission. The hermanas brought us by some extra food that a member gave them and we started talkin about how awesome missions are and how much they change you. It was super cool cuz we all started telling mission stories and i looked back and thought... oh no. Ive now lived in Tennessee longer than i lived in Hawaii... This is going by quick. I cant wait to keep working hard to bring souls closer to Jesus Christ.

Oh I also came to the conclusion that the people who live next door to us listen to KNBR 680 every morning. I can hear it actually right now. Now im on the other side of the county. That's pretty cool.

Love Yall

Reese

You can never fall too hard so fast so far that you can't get back

I am finding some SUPER legit christian music. Its so great because it all has a super good beat and is very meaningful at the same time. This song here is "Who you are" By Unspoken. I have a super great playlist that we can listen to while cruzin round town in our 2017 chevy Malibu with wifi in it. Or during lunch when we dont have the car.... and we are walking... in the 10 degree weather with the humidity that cuts you so deep that the spirit within me wants to leave because its too cold. Oh did I mention a -2 degree windchill? No? Okay well there ya go. 

So this week was BOMB. We found a TON of investigators. We set a high goal of being able to finding 7 new people to teach. We crushed that goal. We met our goal of 6 member present lessons. Oh man i cant tell you how amazing i feel right now. We also had a baptism last night.... so that was cool. We also set another date with Courtney's friend Mercaydes (Mercedes) on Friday. But we have to give her to the YSA sisters............ But we will definitely attend that baptism. STOKED. 

I had an amazing experience that i don't want to go too much into detail on but during a lesson this week, i had the opportunity to share my testimony. This experience will always be very near and dear to my heart. I very powerfully shared my testimony on something that i cant even remember. I was following the spirit. I am very grateful to be able to testify that i know without a doubt God lives and loves us. My testimony brought me to tears. I haven't cried while sharing my testimony in a long time. (Not including when i called home. THAT DOESN'T COUNT! Haha 

Today while i gave a talk on baptism i realized that i had shared my testimony so many times in the past few days. It was awesome. I am loving my mission yall. I cant tell you how much this has changed my life. Thank you for being an example to me. I am grateful for all of you. If you recieve this email, you played some part in my life to shape me to who i am today. I love you all and i miss you all very much but this, here in Clarksville Tennessee, is where i need to be right now. The Lord had prepared people here. I can see many more people entering into the waters of baptism in the near future. 

Love yall

Reese

1: roller skating Last pday! 

2: Zone Confrence with ya boi @therealprezstone #thelegend #gamechanger #schedulechange??? To be continued...;)

3: Snow? What is that? WOAH it's outside. 

4: Its cold outside.... and it didnt get up to 22 that day

5: Me-Courtney-Jody-Elder Taylor--> #theotherlegend

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

Hey yall! 

OHHHH BOYYYYYY. This week was amazing. SO! We set two baptismal dates with people. I cant remember if i had mentioned them earlier but anyway.... C  (baptism date-- January 8th 2017) is 20 years old, super awesome, 3 year game warden, girlfriend to a returning member to the church (who is a stud as well) and owns a super cute puppy named Duke (who is actually missing at the moment); and Ase (pronounces A-shay)--(baptism date-- January 28th 2017) a very... large and in charge, not looking like he is actually 50 years old, former "savage" (his words) black guy who is from the island south of Jamaica. I cant remember what it is. But he is super cool. We tracted into him. Anyway moving on.

This week was crazy let me tell you. I saw so many things that added to my testimony that the Lord will provide. We had set a goal to find 7 new investigators this week, have 1 person with a baptisimal date, 2 investigators at sacrament meeting and 3 member present lessons. Now this isn't standard of excellence goals but we are working to achieve them. We worked super hard and we were able to one-up our goal of 1 person with a date. We were skeptical but we had 5 investigators at church. We head reached our 3 member present lessons, but we were short on our goal for new investigators. Right before sunday school started a member in the ward walked up to us with a guy who looked a little lost. He is dating a girl in the ward and wants to learn more about what she believes. So we taught him and were able to mark him down as a new investigator. AWESOME! One more to our goal of 7. Sunday went on, we ate dinner and then went out for the rest of the evening. Getting to 8:30 we still were out contacting people, looking for homes who had lights on and we were able to find a super nice family! We were able to achieve our goal! 

Now I know that this isn't about numbers, but i am now realizing that with enough faith and enough effort, we will be able to achieve our goals. In any circumstance. I was so happy too be able to see that Elder Taylor and I had the faith to find someone who is interested in the Gospel. 

SO basically a BOMB week. I have learned that if you set your goals, whether they be with missionary work, work, education (GPA), ect... that if you first go into these goals, talking with God first, asking him for guidance and direction; then work your butt off then you will see results. They may not turn out the way you imagined them, but you will be happy. You will achieve your goals. I know this to be true. I saw it this week. I saw it as we knocked on this door at 8:45 last night. 

Scripture of the week!! 

Proverbs 3:5-6-- Trust the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths

Love yall,

Reese

We out ere tractin ayoooo foshooooo

As a popular music artist once said... "Truuuuuu...."