Sunday morning rain is fallin...

"And thus we see the trials and tribulations of the missionaries in T-Stat 1. Nearing the end of the 2017th year of our Lord, Elder Maxfield desireth a nap." --Reesiniha 2:17

That might be one of my favorite scriptures ever. So something pretty cool happened this week. We had Elder Gong of the presidency of the 70 come and visit our mission and I'll be honest. I didn't really get anything from the visit.... Until our meeting on Saturday. We had 3 meetings, Thursday Friday and then Saturday. In the meeting on Saturday everything tied together. It all began to make sense. One of my favorite things that I learned is that commitment is ESSENTIAL in repentance. I've thought a out that a lot. We cannot Repent of things if we are not committed to keeping that promise. There is no point. We must be committed. 

Some more pretty cool thing happened this week. We had an investigator let us come by and he let us fry his DJI Drones. Let's just say... I'm sold. Just another thing that I'm buying when I get home. But Jeff is doing super well. He is studying the book of Mormon. He told us that we have him about, .5% interested, but that is a lot for him. We are trying to get him to church, and he said that he will make it someday. He is so funny.

Another lady we are teaching, Patti, has been reading the book of Mormon as well. She has been changing. Her heart has been softened. She isn't just ready to be baptized, but she is just about there. The Book of Mormon has changed her life. Even if she can't see it yet. 

Another things I am seeing a lot of is how much the Book of Mormon WILL change your life. People tell me all the time that the book or Mormon isn't true... Have you read it? The book or Mormon is one of the best keys to your salvation. If you aren't of this faith and don't believe if it is true. Ask yourself this question, what if it is? What if the book or Mormon is true. That would mean Joseph Smith is a prophet. But if it's not then he is a fraud, a liar and has brought and deceived MILLIONS of people. What if the book is true? Then the authority of God is back on the earth today. I want to challenge yall to read the book of Mormon. Ponder the message it contains and then ask God. I promise you he will answer. But please remember, sometimes the answer is just Peace. Sometimes God places small things in our path to answer questions we have. The Book of Mormon has changed my life. How can it change yours? 

I know that families can be together forever. I know that we will see our families again. Sometimes lives get cut short, but God knows our trials. He knows what we go through. As you draw near to him he will draw Nearer to you. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen 

Love yall 

Reese

Flying drones with Jeff 

Franklin Zone with Elder Gong. 

Ooohhhhh yeaaaahhhhhhhh

Throw back?

A simple life and I'll be okay, here in Small Town USA

Startin off we didn't die with that hurricane Irma coming through. So that's good. 

But we have found some awesome people!!!! I love this ward down here! It's so cool because our ward mission leader is a complete stud. He works super hard to make sure that the stress we endure throughout the week is lightened when we come to church. For example our investigator Darlene, I've talked about her, is picked up by him and his family every week. So she doesn't have an excuse not to come! It's sweet! The ward is so welcoming to her as well as other investigators who show up to church. 

This week was full of exchanges and zone conference. So I was definitely stressed to the Max. We got to zone conference and then I realized that I forgot to ask people to do stuff. So... I had to throw that together in about 5 minutes but it all turned out alright! We made it through and it was a great experience. 

So we had Zone conference this last week and we learned Quite a bit about what we will be doing now that we have Facebook. It is basically going to be a huge learning curve as we work through this. It's fun and hard all at the same time. 

Last Sunday we meet with a youth who has been struggling a little. He opened up to us about some things and we got the impression to invite him to come out with us. He is super popular in high school so we figure that he is probably a pretty good source to go to for referrals. But our appointment canceled on us for Saturday, on Thursday. So we stopped in on him on Friday to tell him that it had been canceled. But! Another idea popped into our mind. So we took him with us right then to go see Darlene. But she wasnt home. So he offered to take us out to eat. Then for the next day he planned to come tract with us! It was so awesome! He was uncomfortable tracting but aren't we all for the first time? 

Yesterday we had a mission prep class. President stone taught that and he invited us to come and help him out. It was such a great class and the youth in this stake are phenomenal. They will all be great missionaries one day. I'm glad that I've been able to serve her and get to know some of them for this time. 

One of the Sisters here loves to send pictures home to mothers. So she snapped a picture of me and elder quiring after church and sent it home! Love it. 

Anyway that all for now! We are headed down to Linden Tennessee for pday then a baptism interview down there afterwards. It's about an hour and a half drive one way so that'll be fun! Hence the subject line of the week.

 The church is true! The Book is  blue--Anne Peterson 

Love yall! 

Reese 

When you tap out for the day. 

 We won cleanest car! 

Where I come from there's a preacher man in a cowboy shirt

So I guess not a whole lot happened this week. We didn't just get FACEBOOK or anything... So I guess you should add me if you have Facebook. I guess I mean yeah.... 

Using Facebook is so cool!!!!!! We have been able to stay in contact with our investigators so much better. Then again we don't have a whole lot of them... But it has been pretty helpful with staying in contact with our zone. We created a group chat and we are able to talk about investigators and concerns and questions that missionaries have about their investigators. It's so easy!!

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are anywhere I guess because there is so much chaos going on. The west is on fire. Texas is flooding. Caribbean Islands are.... Non existent anymore. Florida is buckled up and getting SLAMED right now. And I'm just here in Tennessee like... Oh it's a really nice day today. So... Ya. 

Back to what we did this week. We are working hard out here and we continuing to see progress. Baylee is still set to get baptized on he 30th! We had an awesome lesson with her the other night. She had a testimony of the gospel because she had been coming to church for so long! 

Darlene came to church! I talked about her a few weeks ago. She was the lady we gave a church tour. She loved it!!! We were thinking about dropping her but she came! That's progress!!

Not too much else is going on. Just going through Facebook and seeing that all my friends are getting engaged... Engaged and married. Or married with kids? What the flip? Anyway. 

Love yall! 

Reese 

MoFord back together 

There it is!! Facebook 

Probably exceeded the weight limit in the car but whatevas. 

Will it wash out in the water or is it always in the blood?

Wowza--what a week. This one was definitely full of ups and downs. But it is always great that the ups make up for the downs. It was tough because I we had to kinda throw a day together in the rain because on Thursday MLC was canceled due to the remnants of Hurricane Hudson coming through. We received about 5 inches of rain in 24 hours. We also saw some kids going to a golf match get into a car accident totaling his 2017 Ford Mustang GT. Elder Quiring called 911 for the first time ever so that was pretty cool. 

This weekend was awesome. The week wasn't too great with Hurricane Hudson coming through but the weekend was awesome. Starting off, we were able to set a baptismal date with a girl who hasn't had parenteral consent for years. She as finally able to "make her choice" and be baptized. She is awesome. Baylee is 13 years and loves the gospel. She is super excited to be baptized. But it gets better. 

Saturday we were out contacting people and a lady named Alysia (pronounced-Alisha) came to mind. She is such a sweet lady who is very confused about religion. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon earlier this week and her aunt passed away the next day. She texted us looking for some comfort so we invited her to read the scripture Alma 40 talking about the state where our spirits of after this life. She loved is and is now super excited to read the whole book of Mormon. While we were talking with her on Saturday we found out that a lot of her beliefs align with what the church is. We will be teaching there more soon. But it gets better. 

Saturday night we went to go fill up our tires with air because they were starting to get flat. So we were driving to the gas station and elder quiring asked me if I had Tracted these town homes. I said that those are brand new. So we went to the town homes and drove down the street. Towards the end of the street I see a group of teenagers and the first thing I think is.. Aw crap. I hate dealing with teenagers. But the closer we got we began to recognize them. They were youth in the ward! We were stoked! We pull of and get out to talk to them. (Let me just say that the youth here are so sick. They are the best) We started talking about their lives but then we begin talking about how important thier/our role is in the second coming. We talked about how soon the second coming is. How it is right around the corner. We talked about a lot of different things and towards the end of this 2 hour ordeal, one of the kids said something along the lines of "You guys are the best. I prayed to have an experience with you guys this morning." Then one of the girls said "Yeah! Me too! I did a few days ago because I've been struggling with some things." We kept talking and the spirit was so strong. Just a bunch of teenagers. On a Saturday evening. Talking with us. About spiritual things. There is no place I would have rather been in that moment. Zero place on earth. 

Love yall 

Reese 

Sometimes I wonder.... What am I doing? 

This hit us. 

Another one? 

PDay! 

That's a big ol cat!