Oh.. I’m good at talkin but maybe I should be listenin.

So I kinda cheated my system of using a different song every week, but last week I wrote the lyrics to the song, Phone call to God bye Brett Eldridge, and I was listening to it while I was in the shower earlier this week and I heard this part. That I’m good at talkin but maybe I should be listenin. It hit me pretty hard. What am I doing? Do I talk to God to much and ask for too many things? Or do I actually listen to what he has to say? Do I want to change or do I just complain and tell Him that he needs to help me? Maybe he is answering me, but I’m just not listening. 

Honestly not a whole lot went on this week. I’m still on my antibiotics for my pneumonia becasue I felt the side affects from the pills. So they got me on some new ones. So that out me down for a few days. I’m still trying to recover honestly. I would have much rather just stayed coughing than some of the side affects.... it was miserable. 

The snow is completely gone now... which is really upsetting but I’m a little happy that it is heating up a little bit. I’m not too sure if it will stay warm now or if it will drop off again sometime this month or next. Who knows. 

We had interviews with President this week and they went pretty well. Want to know something crazy? I only have 2 more interviews with him before I go home... wowza. K cool. That’s strange. 

That’s it for the week! Like I said not too much went on but that’s okay. 

Love y’all! 

Just a man making a phone call to God

Things are going good! I can't remember if I told yall but I've coughing for like 5 weeks now. I finally went to urgent care yesterday because my cough isn't getting better. It's just getting worse. So they said I have light pneumonia. I have a little fluid in my left lung thst isn't coming out. So they gave me some antibiotics. So hopefully I get better soon! 

It's been super cold here. During the day time it's not too bad when the sun is out but as soon as the sun goes down you lose that "Light heat." You know when it's the same temperature but it just feels colder because there is no sun? Also it's been super cloudy and there has probably been a total of about 8 inches of snow but on Monday the first set of snow melted so there is about 4 inches on the ground now. It's still snowing now. I absolutely love the snow. I didn't think that I would enjoy it this much but I love being in the snow. It's kinda tough being in dress clothes in it but if I could be in normal clothes I would be perfectly fine. 

Not too much new is happening in terms of missionary work. We are still sorting through people who may or may not be progressing in the gospel. We have been trying to lessen the people who are in our "Former investigator" lists. There are so many of them in there. It feels a bit overwhelming  to just keep adding people to the list. So what we do is we look for someone who is on the list, visit them, see if they 1) Live there. 2) are interested. If they are we set up a time to see them if not we delete them off the app so that it isn't cluttered anymore! 

Thats about it for the week! Love yall! 

Reese 

Love is the answer and music is healing

So I'll be honest. Thus week was rough. In and out of mental highs and lows, but I gained a testimony of working out. The Bowling Green 2nd elder have a really nice gym in their appartment complex so we made an extra effort this week to go out there and work out. On Saturday morning I just wasn't having it. I woke up at 6:00 to go to the gym and I knew it was going  to be a rough one... 

After workouts I just felt sadness and frustration fill me up. As I sat down to read the scriptures and begin personal study I just cried. I tried to pick myself up and we went out and walked all around town. 5 miles later I felt a lot better. Talking to people sharing the gospel. I defiantly tried my best. God helped the with all the rest. 

I remember that making sure to have good workouts is super important with regards to staying happy. So I made sure to work out really hard this week. And now I'm a lot better! So workout=truth. Haha 

Other than that, following up on Nene has been awesome!! I'm so happy for the sisters out there being so willing to help her out. Nene has been received so well out there in Rexburg and the sisters are going to take great care of her. 

I love all yall! Congratulations to Hannah and Sarah for finishing their missions this week! Yall are the bestest friends I could have! 

Love 

Reese 

Chipotle can fix anything. Except sis. Rummlers face Hahaha @panorama

Directing traffic at the park. 

It's not swimming in you can stand on it right?? 

Where are you now that I need you?

Heard this song the other day at lunch and thought back to Hawaii with Anjali! Good times. 

Anyway transfer calls happened this week! Elder Stucki and I are staying the same! I'm stoked to be with my son for another 6 weeks. He is awesome and is leaving so much. We are working on teaching more equally because I really like to talk during Lessons and I feel bad when I talk so much... So that's something I'm trying to get better at. 

I don't know who saw my video on Facebook of our Light the world liftoff this week but it was so much fun!! We tied a bunch of balloons and wrote out testimonies of Jesus christ on the back of a card and tied that to the balloon and sent it off into the air! If you didn't see it page video is on Facebook!! 

Nene got baptized!!! I'm so happy. This Friday she leaves for BYUI to go to school so we are in contact with the Sisters out there. We are making sure that she continues to meet with the missionaries and help her grow her testimony. 

Nothing else really happened, people keep telling me I don't have a whole lot longer on my mission... But I'm out here like... I've still got 4 months!! I have plenty of time!! 

Love you guys! Keep working.  And sharing the gospel. 

Love 

Reese

Mary and Joseph where the only ones on that very first Christmas day

Oh me oh my. Calling home this week was awesome! I love my family so much. It was so great to be able to say next time I see you all will be in the airport! 

We had some awesome Lessons this week with some progressing investigators. Nene is getting baptized this Saturday!! So excited for her. She went through a pretty rough spot last week but she got the help she needed and is progressing rapidly towards baptism. We have had to cram all of the things she needs to learn in a pretty short amount of time. We taught all the lessons in about a week and a half. Good stuff. It was pretty cool to be able to do that because it's awesome to see how much the gospel relates to itself. The gospel of Jesus Christ makes sense!! 

We went caroling to some families last week and watched thier eyes light up as we sang to them. Some of the people we sang to it was their very first time carollers ever showed up at their house. Now, some have only been in the states for a few years but nonetheless! We were the first. 

A member also donated a bunch of toys and clothes to one of our refugee investigator families. So on Sunday we  brought all of these boxes over to them. They were so happy to see these huge boxes with their names on them! I love it. 

Bringing people happiness has brought me so much joy as I keep teaching and serving. I love my mission yall. 

Love yall! Merry Christmas!!! 

Love 

Reese 

Christmas deliveries!!

Caroling 

Here come Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane

I honestly and truly cannot believe that Christmas is almost here. I remember a year ago when I was back in Clarksville with Elder Taylor. And now here I am with only 5 months left in the service of God. Time is truly an amazing thing. 

Earlier tonight we were walking down the highway, away from an apartment complex that our investigator Moise lives in. We had been trying to contact him but to no avail. To be honest, I am starting to feel the effects of being an older missionary. Tired all of the time. Even more than I used to be. Starting to not want to do the work anymore... You know. Just Satan working on me. As I was walking in front of Elder Stucki, I started to pray out loud, very quietly. But I just said, Father please help me get the drive and motivation, the will power to work hard. As I kept walking I looked up and said, I never realized that that apartment complex was here! So we began walking towards it. We get to it and a lot of lights are out in it. So I start to walk by it, then I said "Get over yourself Reese!!!" Out loud... Run up to the door and knock on it.  No escape now lol 

So by the end of the night we found 2 new investigators. We have been struggling to find any for the past few weeks. Pretty sure we will go back to that complex and finish tracting it out. God answers prayers. 

So the reason PDay is on monday is that on Wednesday we have Zone Conference. On Tuesday we are going to the Bishops Storehouse down in Goodlettsville TN to do service there. Last week there were about 70 orders filled out. I would Der how many are going to be done tomorrow with it being the week before Christmas. Should be fun! 

On Friday we messaged Nene on Facebook and asked her if she had been praying about baptism at all. She told us that she prays about it every day. She has been too stressed with school and other things to worry about baptism. But now that school is over we can help her work towards baptism. Hopefully she can be baptized before she goes up to BYUI on January 5th. Yes. A non member planning to go to BYU. She has been to church a bunch of times but now all she needs to do is be taught the lessons! Exciting stuff:) 

Love yall! 

Yo sé que Jesucristo vive

Love yall! 

Reese 

Elder Stucki drinking out of an "ALE" glass lol

The van says "Scrubs N more" that's basically our district. The elders are the scrubs the sisters are the n more! 

[Elder] It’s cold outside...

Yep, it’s definitely starting to get pretty chilly outside. Yesterday we went out tracting in the morning and it was like 32 with a wind chill of like 22... So that was no fun. I can take the cold! As long as there is no wind. We gonna be alright! 

We definitely had an interesting past week. Including visits to the ER, a member gave us a little Christmas tree, me beong sick.... Again, nativity festival. It was good! 

So I did not go to the ER. Elder Hamilton, a Spanish missionary who I live with, was biking and didn't see this little wall hiding behind a bush so he smashed his future between it and his bike peddal. We were all really surprised that he didn't break anything. Just a pretty bad bruise. 

We went and visited a member this week and they asked us if we had a Christmas tree. We told them that we had some lights pinned to the wall in a triangle to replicate a tree. So the mom went back I to the other room and she brought out a little boxed tree. She said that she was thinking about us the other day at the store and bought us this tree! It was awesome! 

So last week I told yall I had a cold. So, i tried pushing through it a for a few days but on Friday afternoon I was dying. I pushed all the way through till 9:00 but then I said fine! I'll rest. So I slept from 10:00 on Friday night, til about 8:00 the next morning, then fell back asleep around 10:30 AM, then had lunch at 1:00. Fell back asleep and woke up at like 5. Soooo I guess I really needed to let my body heal it's self. I did have a side affect though. I didn't fall asleep on Saturday night until about 2:30... So whatever. I'm good now! 10:30-6:30 sleep schedule is back in working order. 

The Nativity festival was so amazing!!! There were so many nativities there! They were from all over the world! There were probably over 100 different sets. I just got a package from Lexi this week that completed her nativity set she sent me last year and it is so adorable! Thank you so much lexi! I wish that I could have been able to place it on one of the tables during the festival but it's okay. I love it!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR 19!!!!! YOU'RE OLD!!!!!!!! 

That's about it for the week! In the Christmas season I think so much about my family. Even more than normal. I think back to setting up our Christmas tree. Last week dad send me an email talking about how he doesn't know how Noone has gotten hurt due to setting up the lights on our home. I think about going up to Gamie and Pa's house for Christmas day and being with the entire "Reese" family! (For those who don't know, my mom's last name was Reese before she got married) I think back to getting ready for Christmas break on da Aina. Back at BYUH. All the pretty lightsaround the Palm Trees. I love this Christmas season. Although, it is very hard as a missionary. But, because of what Christ did for me, because of the true meaning of Christmas, I will joyfully continue to serve, continue to work and preach the gospel, even if it means being away from home, family and friends for just one more holiday season. Christ means everything to me. Even though I know I'm not even close to being perfect, I hope  and pray that I can come somewhat close someday. 

Love yall 

Reese 

So we think there was a problem here 

This is the nativity festival! Only half of it. There was more behind me. 

Lexi sent this to me it's adorable