Time falls away, but these small hours, these little wonders, still remain.

Well, I am now in a new area. Murray Kentucky. And the way I want to describe this area is.... think of your typical southern small town. Now add a college of 18,000 students to that. That is exactly what Murray is. I love it. There is a place that is called New Concord down south a little of me which people say is the reason the movie Deliverance was made. I kinda wanna go down there to see what it's like. 

So far this area is so very different than Sango. The people here are soooo different. So humble, so kind. Sango consisted of what any normal city is. 

This week was really tough. No work has been going on here for a little while, so we are trying to get things started... it's going to be hard... really hard. My companion Elder Coburn, is from Logan Utah.  This will be an interesting transfer. He was on the debate team in high school, so if you know me at all and how much I argue points and such, he is worse than me. This will be fun... 

There are some days where I seriously have no feelings at all. Where I really just want to break down and cry. For no reason at all. Just go into the bathroom and cry my eyes out. I have no idea why but that's how I felt on Thursday. There were a few times where we were driving in the car and I just wanted to start sobbing for whatever reason. I don't know why. 

I am so sorry that this email is all over the place. Not too much happened this week. We are going to start working with a lot of less active/part member families. Last night we went to a families home and they were awesome. G (dad) hasn't been active for years but loves having missionaries over to his house. His son, L, is super good at trap shooting. And by good I mean he is 2nd in the nation for trap shooting. (Dad tell Bishop Brown about him) He is so good. He doesn't have too much money so they don't have the nicest guns but he doesn't care. He still shoots better than anyone else out there. He will go out there and shoot a 199/200 (hit 199 out of 200) Such a cool family. They have a bunch of stories about going hunting and killing a bunch of different things from deer to bobcats to Coyotes. Super cool family. 

Not much else happened this week. Although I feel the hunger that I had at BYUH coming back. Where I was ALWAYS HUNGRY!!! That's starting to come back... not looking forward to the $$$ that I will spend. 

Anyway that's about it for the week. Conference was BOMB. 

Love y'all

 Reese 

Here come goodbye, here comes the last time, here comes the start of every sleepless night....

My final week here in Sango was super hard. Probably one of the hardest I've had on my mission thus far. I thought I would be here for at least another 6 weeks, but on Tuesday, I had a feeling something was gonna happen. So here we are. I've got one more day here and I don't want to leave. Yesterday was super hard trying to keep a smile on my face when I really just wanted to cry. The hardest one was when a guy in the Ward (Bro D-- standing at about 6'6") said nope you're not supposed to move, you need to stay here. He told me that I have to stop by sometime before I leave. So we will be going by sometime today. 

I know that the hardest goodbye will be with the O's tonight. I am... worried about them. They are struggling right now as a family with a lot of stressful things occurring. They are so awesome. I did promise them that after my mission I will come and find them wherever they are and be how A says "A normal person" haha. 

Something that has occurred to me a lot, is that people in the church respect missionaries a lot. They expect a lot from them. Last night when we were at dinner, the father of the home asked us to "bring the spirit I to the home." I thought to myself, you guys can do that? Y'all are active member of the Ward. Nothing bad is going on in this home, y'all are a great spiritual family. I am just a kid who has barely any idea what I am doing out here. I guess that comes with the calling. That is why I have been set apart for this. So that I can, as I am obedient, have the spirit with me at all time and more abundantly that ever. I have been set apart to share the gospel with others and promised blessings and given authority to call people to repentance. I did that for the first time yesterday. I said this "You guys need to repent of the things y'all are doing. They may not be big, but you need to repent. Moroni 7:33-34 tells us that if we repent, we will have the spirit with us and we can be saved as we continue to work. So if you lack the spirit, repent."  I kinda shocked myself as I said this. But each one of the members of the family nodded their heads, agreeing with what I said. That was a scary moment because I didn't want to get called out for that. But that is the calling. I have been called to call people to repentance. Invite others to come into Christ, repent and be baptized. 

We still struggled finding investigators this week so good luck to the new elder who comes to this area. Hopefully he can find more success than I did! We did have something interesting happen. While we were biking up to the O's for dinner, a guy pulled off to the side of the road and talked to us for us for a while and offered us a job to work for him. But he said that if you guys are working this hard to bike around I might as well listen to what y'all have to say. So we are trying to get into contact with him so we can share the gospel with him. 

That's pretty much it for the week! Love y'all talk to ya from Murray Kentucky next week!!

Reese 

Johnny Depps house 

District selfie!

Cheesecake and BOM

Saying goodbye to the J family. We went over to their house almost every single Friday since I've gotten here. They are awesome. (Left to right: D, C, E, me, A, H, sis. J) 

Ya gotta dig your roots 'fore the sun goes down show some love back to your hometown..

Heard this song in the store the other day. Man. I guess FGLs (Florida
Georgia line) new album is 🔥🔥!!
This week was full of surprises and interesting things haha!! The
first thing that I can remember is how we went tracting on a street
that Elder Jessop knocked on while I was on an exchange... Oops.. The
first guy who opened the door said "You guys are leading people
straight to Hell." Wow. That is a great way to start off the day!! We
ended up later that day talking to some people and giving them a Book
of Mormon. Super good people. They were interested in the book but not
too much about the church. Maybe they'll give us a call later haha.

This week I did 3 baptismal interviews!! The first one was with a
little girl who is 9. She reminded me of KJ. She was so adorable and
sooooo shyyyy until I showed her some pictures of kaitlyn and told her
about KJ. Then she realized that I was a normal person and I have a
family. I just about started crying when she asked me when the last
time I say her was. I told her about 4.5 months. She told me wow!
That's a long time. When do you get to see her again?..... 2 years...
Tears ran down my face in front of this little girl.... She started
talking to me a lot after that. She invited me to her baptism but I
couldn't make it we were busy at the time she was getting baptized.

We are really just trying to find people to teach. We still have had
no luck finding anyone. We are trying to get the O's to invite their
friends  to come listen to the discussions. They are so
scared to ask them. We will get them to invite them.

Last night we taught them how to have a family home evening! It was
awesome. We sang I am a child of God and then A gave us a great
prayer (we are working on her praying) had a great lesson and showed
the video "Mountians to climb" talking about faith. Watch it. It's
bomb.

At church I learned a scripture that I love that says "How long can
rolling waters remain impure?" That hit me like a ton of bricks. How
long can someone who is going through trial after trial remain impure
by keeping their faith? What is cleaner? Stagnant water? Or rushing
water? Campers-- I lied. Anyone should know that answer. Rushing water
is cleaner. As we go through trials, as we have our faith tested we
will become more pure as we maintain our faith and trust in God.

Love y'all

Reese

this picture encompasses everything I think of when I think of "Country". Old truck. Run down barn, tractor, barbed wire fence, blue skies with puffy clouds. No filter. Insta worthy. (Rach that's all you)  

It's cities and farms it's open arms, one nation under God! It's America!!

This week was awesome. We are still struggling to find new people to
teach but we are searching. It is so awesome to try and find some of
these people. One guy we tracted into was on the board for the HOA
(Home owners association) and told us that we are not allowed to
solicit in the neighborhood. Side note. We are technically not
soliciting and it is proven in the law as well. Thank you Jehovah
Witnesses.  But he told us he wouldn't run us off. But we ended up
talking to him for an hour! He invited us inside and we talked and got
to know each other. He really wasn't that interested but it is always
so nice for people to just take time to talk to us about Jesus Christ.
This man studied Theology and is a minister at a Non-Denominational
church across from the interstate on exit 11. (Oh they call the
freeway the interstate here and the exit, like Tracy BLVD or 11th
street by their exit number took me sooooo lonnngggg to figure that
out.) But we talked for a long time about how we all just need to
believe that Jesus Christ died for us Yada Yada Yada. He started
talking about questions that he had and we were like WE CAN ANSWER ALL
OF THESE!! But there was some deep stuff that I know about but not
well enough to answer for him. He was such a good guy. He accepted a
Book of Mormon and his daughter took a pamphlet. She didn't seem that
interested but elder case was so stoked and excited when he asked them
if they would come to church. She said maybe..(No) but he was looking
for them and talking about them all day on Sunday. Haha ohh man:)
greenie fire right thuurrr haha. I had it too so I can tease about it.

The O's. Let me tell you something. BEST FAMILY EVAH!!! I don't care
what any of y'all say. These are the best people ever. When we go on
exchanges, everyone says "Man I wish they were in my area." N
texts us every day and asks the same thing. "Y'all know what I'm going
to ask... Do y'all have dinner tonight?" This past week not too many
people signed up for dinner so we were over there a lot this past
week. We have taught so many great lessons with them. Last night after
church we talked about where the "Pre-Earth life" information came
from. We started talking about the Pearl of Great Price and G was
super interested. We did warn him that we won't be able to answer all
of his questions about it and he was okay with that hahah!!

On Tuesday we were able to take G out with us to a lesson where he
did an AWESOME job. He made so many great comments and helped us so
much! He is such a blessing. He has also been called to be the Elders
Quorum secretary.  His baptismal records aren't even in yet... My bad.
A is the First councilor in the Laurel class. N doesn't
have a calling yet. She doesn't want one. But she will get one. Give
it a month or so.

Man I love my area so much. I don't want to leave this place. Thank
goodness I have at least another few months here. I love the Ward. I
love the people. I love this church. It is true.

Love y'all

Reese

I also decided to quit my job and become a sport announcer. By that I mean, announce the things that happen in the Orr home. Crazy things. Let me tell ya hahah 

A took my iPad on the way home from the temple on Monday

Oh man we were living, didn't waste one minute we talked and drank and danced and said goodbye, we laughed until we cried.

Wait... Has this really been 4 months??? Woah...

First of all I'm going to apologize that this email is going to be
short. We are going to the temple with the O family to walk around!!
I'm so excited for them to see the temple. Yesterday G(the dad)received
the Priesthood!!!!! I was blessed to have the opportunity to ordain
him to the office of priest. It was funny because I had NO idea what I
was going to say before the blessing but once I placed my hands on his
head, the words flowed out. I don't even remember thinking while I was
talking. The blessing was for him. He glowed. Oh. And he bore is
testimony during church today. You know. No big deal at all. I just
sat there and cried as he told his story about how he came to find
that all of this was true. He has told us a bunch of times his story,
but the things he shared are the things that you hear from converts of
years. Not days/weeks. I seriously wish y'all could meet them. They
are such a great family. I love them so much.

Man this week was a good'un. We didn't really get to meet any new
people. Something that we are going to start working on is the less
actives. We have so many in the Ward that just don't come to church. I
have met almost all of them. Most don't want to have too much contact
with the church but that's their salvation I guess... We did have a
somewhat strange experience however... A lady sent us a referral
online through LDS.org and she said that she was a very less active
lady who wanted to "start new" so we went over and talked to her for
an hour or so. She has had so many  terrible experiences with the
church. So much so that I don't blame her for not wanting to associate
with the people of the church anymore. she is hoping that since she
hasn't been in such a long time, she will find that "new" feeling in
the Ward. I really hope she finds that.

Sorry! That's all I've got time for this week! I miss all y'all so much.

Love ya
Reese
P.S. I'm doing a terrible job of taking pictures so bear with me.

All y'all should send me pictures so I can plaster this wall with em 

I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday!! It was so awesome being able to finish it. It is such a great book. If you know me you know I hate reading. But I finished this book faster than I have any other book (per the 500 pages) I read it I just over 2 months. Read it to know its true. I promise you, that if you read it you will know that it is true. 

Sometimes all you can do is just take a picture and hold your place in time as the days go by

So to start off this weeks email I wrote this down the other day while
we were waiting for someone to pick us up. They took a lot longer than
we expected.. But this is what I was thinking. I was having a rough
day thinking about the past, something that I shouldn't do out here
but this hit me like a ton of bricks. Check it out --

Something that I'm starting and is hitting me really hard is how fast
time truly goes. It's really hard to really grasp, but the thought
that Sis. Naihe taught us in English at BYUH is that no matter what
you do, when you leave somewhere, anywhere, it will never be the same
when you return. This thought is and has been scaring me a lot. That I
didn't "capture" enough moments per say while I was a teenager. I know
I am still a teenager but I turn 20 in 6 months. That is ludicrous. I
can't believe that I'm not a teenager anymore. It's so difficult for
me to think back to a time and realize it will never be the same.
Never.
However, the thought that is saving me and just blew my mind right now
is that I have to stop thinking about the past. Yes, the past has some
great memories but what I mean is that in the grand scheme of things
this life is a test and who actually likes tests? Anyone? Cuz I sure
don't. So, bear with me for a moment while I make an analogy. This
life is a test. It is our final. The final exam that will allow us to
(if we pass) life with God, our father in heaven. In the middle of
tests we may find happiness if we know the answer! You know that
feeling your like "I KNOW THIS! I KNOW I got this right." Think of
those as those memories that you love. You enjoy thinking back on. But
it's still part of the test. You have those moments where you like oh
crap. What am I going to do.
When we finish the test and we pass we are so happy. We find so much
joy. That's how after this life will be. If we pass. If we don't pass
we feel that, not joy. We are angry upset, disappointed. We knew we
could have done better. The beauty behind all of this is that we have
an amazing instructor who allows us, with some struggle, to change our
answers. To erase what we did and make it new; correct.
This has helped me so much. As I think about my life, and how I have
some very happy moments and some oh crap moments I remember that the
joy that I will have in the life after this will be nowhere close to
the happiness I found here. That's now what Go pad wants for us. He
wants us to find joy. To be like him. If he is God, then he is Perfect
in every way. That means he has found perfect joy. Perfect happiness.
I want that. I want to become like him. The happiness that we find in
this life is not even comparable to the happiness that we will find
after this life if we pass the test. Even if we don't, we still have
that opportunity to fix our mistakes.
I have been struggling with these thoughts for the past few days...
weeks. When this thought popped into my head I had to wright it down
so I didn't forget because I wanted to share it with y'all. -August
24th

But ya! Something that I'm coming to find is how well elder Jessop
and I got along. He and I became best friends REAL QUICK. From the get
go we got along. Elder case my new companion is fresh out of high
school. He is a great elder. He wants to work so hard, and is working hard on learning how to do it.
He will get it and he will be a great missionary.

We did terrible on teaching goals. We didn't have a single tracting
approach lesson, we only had a couple Recent convert less active
(RCLA) lessons, and it was just a slow week. But one great thing that
did happen was that the O's want to take elder Case and I down to the
temple next Monday to walk around and ask questions! I asked president
and he said yes! I'm so excited for them!!

This I tried to how you say "Count [my] many blessings" or things I'm
grateful for. Here are a few--
- Waking up semi easily (as soon as the alarm goes off)
- Endurance (biking)
- Showers
- My thought I had that I wrote down
- The O's and their kindness towards us
- Service
- Feeling the spirit so strong
- Repentance

These are just to name a few. I am so grateful for all of my blessings.

So like I said earlier. Not much happened this week... Not many opened
doors. Not many people talk to or taught. But that's okay. Some weeks
are just like that.

Love y'all

Reese

I've gots the best Gamie ever.

This is my project. I am taking post-it notes and am writing quotes memories logos and lyrics of things that I like. From quotes from Coldplay to Nickleback to Cherie Call to a Nixon Logo and HE>I. To a Christian Rap song G showed me which is really really good and this line stood out to me so much. See bottom right notes. 

ABC stores? Hawaii????

Don't let me , don't let me, don't let me down, don't let me down down down **BEAT DROPS**

Well this week was crazy. So crazy. To start off I am training a new
guy. His name is elder case from Pocatello Idaho. He is pretty cool!
He kinda started off his mission the way you would dream of it. Going
from lesson to lesson with people who have a baptismal date. But I
keep telling him, this isn't how the missionary work is here. It's
usually knocking doors. And then going to a new spot to knock doors.
Anyway, it's been an awesome week.

The O's and C were baptized on Saturday. It was such a great
experience. I think almost half the Ward came out for it!! It was so
awesome. We had to move from the relief society room to the chapel to
be able to fit everyone in the room where we had the talks and stuff.
But the chapel was nearly full! Elder Jessop was able to come up to
the baptism with his new comp and president stone and his fam bam. The
baptism was so spiritual. G, who is like 6'5", knelt in the font
so that he wouldn't hit his head on the wall or anything. N is
starting to get really mad that she can't hug us! She keeps telling us
that we just need to "deal with her being motherly" towards us. I love
that family. I can't wait to see them go to the temple and be sealed
for time and all eternity.

Really, other than that this week was really chill. I need to focusing
on what's important. Making sure that I am not "hanging
out" with people but that I'm helping people grow closer to their
Father in Heaven. I need to continue to work on remembering my purpose
which is to "Invite other to come unto Christ by helping them receive
the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement,
repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring
to the end." These words that we recite each morning along with "The
vision of the south" are always in my head.

The thought that keeps me going is that Grant (cousin)
is going home I think this week. It feels like he just left a year or
so ago. I coulda sworn I just liked one of his pictures on insta a few
weeks before I left.


Anyway I'm so happy for the opportunity I had to find the Os and
teach them. They are such an amazing family. C is also just such an
amazing girl who was just beaming when she got baptized. I am so
grateful that I can continue to teach them for at least another 12
weeks.

I got some awesome letters from my awesome cousin Cady and the Rocklin
Maxfield clan. Thanks y'all. It made my week!!

That's pretty much it for the week! So I hope y'all have a good one!

Love 
Reese

So from left to right: Elder Jessop, N, A, C, G, Yours truly--A in front 

Another one with our new comps in

Who needs a filter when you've got Tennessee sunsets like dis one right herrr