Monday, October 30, 2017

Oh maybe someday, we'll figure all this out, try to put an end to all our doubt

I heard some Rob Thomas this week in Taco bell so I had to throw that in there. 

My friends and family. I would like to tell you something. It begins to get cold. Right now it is probably 32 degrees outside and will get colder as the night goes on. (Written on Sunday) We gave the car over to the sisters today so that was good. Therefore it is cold and we walk around in the cold. It's great! All of the people who we try and contact are not from here and are not used to the cold, so they don't come outside. Plus the world series going on, someone came to the door and said "not today! I'm trying to watch the world series!" I was like... Same. But I walk out here in the cold because I love the Lord. 

Oh just a reminder 
I hate the Dodgers. 

Moving on. 

We had an eventful week of trying to get out know the members better, teaching investigators and herding alpacas. On Saturday we contacted one of the coolest referrals I have contacted on my mission. They we so nice. They live a long way away but we decided it was worth the miles to try and drop in on them. The lady, Carla, was very happy to see us. She invited us in to with her family who was carving pumpkins. We taught the restoration and she and her kids asked plenty of questions. On of the sons has some struggles believing in a "Jesus Christ." He is a good kid. Having a knowledge of Jesus Christ will change his life. 

I love my mission!!!!!! I hit 18 months this week soooo...... BUCKLE UP FOR THE DOWN HILL RIDE!!!!!!!!!

Love yall! 

Reese

This is my new friend. 

17 months in the field selfie!


We had a Halloween party at church. We decided to be Nephi the ninja turtles. 


Sunday, October 29, 2017

South Carolina Low Country is the music that comes out of me

Yet another week has gone and past and I still can’t believe how quickly it all goes. We had yet another pretty dang busy week. We are still trying to find investigators who the sisters gave to us. We are mostly going through and getting rid of people who don’t even live there anymore or dropping them because they aren’t interested. We are pretty much walking around everywhere we go because biking here is aweful. The roads are so thin and people drive like mad men... 

So I'm pretty sure I'm getting spoiled with having awesome youth to work with! The youth in this ward are awesome! I don't know all of them yet but I have such a good feeling. Yesterday one of the young men came up to us and said "How do you refer someone to you guys?" I was like, Who is it! Tell me! We will teach them! Pretty awesome. The bishop here is pretty cool too. He owns a hot air balloon!! He has a side business of flying that haha. I'm very excited to see where the work goes in this area.  

Our district is a party. We all live pretty close to each other so we always see each other and help each other out with rides so we are all getting pretty close. 

I'm trying to learn my testimony in Swahili right now. I just have it all written down its not all that long because I only have Google translate to help me out. It's such an interesting language. I've come to find that there are no words like "the" You just say the noun. So that's kinda interesting. 

On Saturday and Sunday there was a huge car show up near the corvette manufactur plant. Like there were thousands of suped up cars. From civics to Subie's and Genesis, so we drove around campus and looked at all of them. There were so many cops. People were racing up and down the streets all night long. Our apparent is right next to a main street that's pretty straight for a while so people were flying down that road all night. I've come to like cars a heck of a lot more on my mission than ever before. 

Anyway the church is true yall. Learn it. Live it. Love it. 

Love yall! 

Reese. 

"It's the thing!!!" Elder humbling

Take note at what's going on here. 

Same with this one 

Family pictures. 

He out 

More family pictures. 

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase!

So... Let's just say that this area is the most diverse area I've ever been in. We are teaching immigrants from everywhere. Literally. Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Burma, ect. So I'm trying so hard to learn some basic things in Swahili, Burmese, and kenyorowanda. Along with Spanish because we are living with the Spanish elder and we got to Spanish dinners with them and also Portuguese because some African countries speak Portuguese as well.... Soooo... Who knows anymore. I'm going to try and summon all my friends languages. Ready? Hannah Give me Portuguese--Derek give me spanish--And that's all I got. Anyone who speaks Swahili send it to me. 

This week has been absolutely nuts. There are so many people up here that we are trying to teach. Before we got there the sisters were trying to teach all of these people. So we now split the area with them and took about half of their investigators and we have about 50 new, progressing, potential and other investigators. And probably about 75 dropped investigators. So about 125 investigators were given to us. It's absolutely crazy. So I'm completely overwhelmed. I'm not going to sugar coat it. My mind is going to explode. So many people when I have to remember their names and stories and such. It will be fun. Plus we have about 600 people on role here with about 180 people in attendance.  Way to many. 

It's so much fun up here. It's like little Africa. I love it. I will get more accustomed to the area within the next few weeks. We have people who want to get baptized who get drunk on  the weekends and then others who don't want to get baptized, because they are earnestly trying to see what church is true. Some of them are so sweet. Some of the cutest kids ever. 


That's pretty much all I got for the week! I'm sure more stuff happened but my mind, it's about to explode.

Love yall! 

Reese

                                 We played Pakistani. Last one with the Franklin T-Stat district. I love em 


                   This is the Kropach family. We made Ti-Tye shirts. It's was cool. I'm gonna miss these kids. 


Try reading this. This is Swahili. 


Monday, October 9, 2017

Thus we see that Elder Maxfield will be transfered back to Kentucky. Bowling Green to be specific. I'm super excited to be able to go up there but I am very sad to have to leave Spring Hill. I love this ward. I love this area. The people are so nice and the ward is awesome. I hate saying goodbye to these people but it's okay. I'll be back spat some point in time. 

This last week was pretty nice. We were able to go to the temple and when I went I had questions that I wanted to ask. The question was regarding who should we work with in the ward to able to help the work move forward in this area? As I came out I didn't have an answer. I was a little frustrated... But later on, I found out my answer on Thursday at about 10:27 at night when President called and told me that I would be leaving the Thompsons Station 1st ward. So ya. Sometimes God doesn't give us answers because he has a different plan than we do. 

Not a whole lot else happened this week. We contacted a referral yesterday who has a family of like 13.... And they are pretty solid. The lady is super nice and was really interested. She doesn't have a whole lot of relegious background at all but wants to go to a church. She actually showed up just as stake conference was ending yesterday so that was pretty cool. 

So I'm off to Bowling Green tomorrow! It's just south of Morgantown so that will be cool. Maybe I'll see some people from Motown. 

Love yall! Talk to ya next week! 

Reese








Monday, October 2, 2017

I want something just like this

Whenever we get onto year the words of our living apostles and prophets, it never ceases to amaze me how much I missed now that I listen to them with intent. General Conference is such an amazing opportunity for us to receive continued guidance for our life. I asked so many questions, some which are personal but some that I would like so share here. One of them being, Is this church even true. 

I loved President Nielsen talk where he discussed the power of the book of Mormon. How it will help you not only get closer to christ, but it will "Help you make better decisions." I love that. I've come to find on my nearly 17 months of service, missionaries don't always make good decisions. I am in this boat. I have made some not so smart decisions on my mission and in my life that I regret and I work to repent for each day. I have found, as I related last week, that as you study the book of Mormon temptation will lessen, or on other works, the strength to fight temptation will increase. 

I asked two great questions, one of them was how can I become a better missionary. Talk after talk I had my question answered. Elder Christofferson said, "Let us not be content with who we are..." Elder Evans invited me to "be willing to act and not be acted upon"--He actually said this twice soooo... We know that when something is repeated it's important. Elder Bednar said, "Press forward  submissively" which in turn means become more like Christ. Christ submitted to the will of the Father. I need to do the same. I also loved Elder Callisters talk where he goes off on the reasons people doubt the book of Mormon. That was legit. Amen amen bruddah.

Between the morning and afternoon session Baylee was baptized! I have been a scrub and haven't talked about her a whole lot but she has been meeting with missionaries for a long time. She is 12 almost 13 years old and was GLOWING yesterday at her baptism. She was just so happy to be able to feel herself be clean. She is such a great girl who loves the gospel. We can't wait to see her continue to progress in the gospel. 

That's about it for this week. We went on exchanges with the Assistants so that was fun. Transfer calls are on Saturday. I don't want to leave to say the least. Elder Jessop--My trainer--Is going home. So that'll be sad... He told me to the other day that he is tired... Very tired. He has worked really hard his whole mission. I'm so happy that I was taught by such a great missionary. He has been a phenomenal example to me my whole mission. 

Love yall. Read the book of Mormon this week and see what it will change in your life. 

Love 
Reese. 

Explains our district to a "T"

Baylee!!! And her dad who was able to baptize her. Such a great service.


Not much beats a Tennessee sunset. Well... A Hawaiian sunset does.