I'm gonna leave this world for a while; and I'm free, free fallin...

This week was one of the hardest yet best weeks on my mission. Not defined by success but by a change in me. My desire to work. 

So, starting on Wednesday I went on an exchange with Elder Olsen over there in Paris. Yes. Paris Tennessee. Home of the little Eiffel Tower. Anyway, I went down there and I made a new friend. Elder Olsen and I got pretty close and we were able to become pretty darn good friends after this exchange. We were able to go tracting for a little and we handed out 3 Book of Mormons out of doors. After that we then went to the most solid referral, ever. She was so awesome and told us her life story. She grew up in Dresden Tennessee which is just south of Paris. She was abused both sexually and physically. She saw her dad kill her mother. She then got into drugs and that sort of lifestyle. Living on the streets. But then a few years ago she said she had an awakening. She all of a sudden didn't want to do any of the stuff anymore. She was still addicted but wanted to be happy. She prayed to God and asked for help. She found Him. She was able to develop a love for him and find happiness. But now she wants more. So she seemed out the Book of Mormon. I'll update you in a few weeks about her;) --Again. This is while I was down in Paris. Not my area. I wish tho. 

Father in Heaven has answered my prayers.  I have been sent on a journey that I have been told is super hard. And I am living it right now. I keep getting out of the saddle and trying to do it on my own but it doesn't work like that. I need to stay in the saddle and trust God. Trust that he knows where I need to go. 

Well that's pretty much it for the week. I got some cool pics this week tho! 

I love all y'all. 

Have a great week

Reese 

This was a referral that we went to go visit down in Paris. This was like... the boonies of the boonies. This was in the middle of nowhere. That trailer is about 7 feet off the ground. Why? I have no idea. There are ladders going to the doors in the back. 

I found Waldo. 

Take your cat and leave my sweater cuz we have nothing left to weather in fact I'll feel a whole lot better if you'll think of me

We used so many miles this week.... oh my goodness... We had to drive to Hopkinsville to go to Zone Conference and it was over 50 miles one way. So we ended up using 120 miles total that day... we weren't too happy but it was super fun to go see all my friends and fellow missionaries over there. It was a little sad because there were a few missionaries like Elder Adair who I probably won't see again...he goes home in 3 weeks now. He and I got pretty close even though we only knew each other for a few transfers. 

It's also getting a little strange as I get closer to my 6 month mark, getting to know other missionaries becomes a lot easier. For example, WOAH! Side note. Example just auto corrected to "exams please." Those should never go next to each other. Never. Anyway, for example, Elder Briscoe and Elder Sanders serve nowhere near me, I've only met them a couple times and we are good friends! Like, I don't know it's weird. It's kinda like when we were at school and you really didn't know anyone for too long and you got to know them really well. Or you just clicked with other people and things kinda just happened. That's what is starting to happen with me. Other elders and I become pretty close after really only seeing each other a couple times. 

I guess I should probably tell y'all about what's going on here in Murray. Not much. Not too much... it's going to be a pretty tough area. It was interesting, the other day ago we were in Wendy's getting some food and I saw this guy looking at us. I thought to myself Oh no. He is going to do something to us... But I sit down and start eating and he walked over to us and had a really nice conversation with us! He asked us how the people were treating us, if they were accepting our message and so on. He didn't want to hear about our telefilm because he is a baptist but he was concerned for us. Things like that make me feel so much better about working in the south. Even if people don't wanna hear your message, they want you to help someone. 

That's pretty much it for the week. Hope y'all have a good week!

Love 

Reese

Saw some, how you say, Strange Clouds

Last time I will see my good buddy Elder Adair

The fall festival on Saturday!! There was a chili cook off and we were the judges! SO MUCH GOOD CHILI!

#PaduchaGold!! Zone pic 

Yeah the view I love the most, is my front porch looking in

What an interesting week! I feel like I always say that but that's how it is down here! It was SUPER hard finding people to talk to. We are trying get into contact with people who are on our roster who haven't been contacted yet. Most of the people who haven't been contacted are college age students. So we went around and tried to talk to them. We didn't get a single door opened. We then noticed that there were no cars parked at any of the doors including the ones around them. Also no one was at school. We then remembered. Fall break. No one was home. 

So! That was pretty much a bust but we did have some pretty cool experiences this past week. We got to do a lot of service. There is a family in the Ward who can't get to church because the wife has alzheimer's or dementia  and she can't get around. He has a hurt back so you know how it is dad. Can't bend lift or twist. So we went out and helped him clear brush, like branches twigs sticks, and put them into a huge pile which will later be burnt. This pile is hugeeee. Like 4 foot tall x 20 foot long. And there is still more stuff to put on it. It was awesome to be able to help him out. 

He is also getting very lonely so we just sat and talked to him for a while as well. We hardly said a word. I actually tried to say, "well we gotta go." But he just kept on talking. So we just listened and listened. He is such a nice guy. We will probably be going out there to help him out every other week or so. 

Yesterday after church we went and visited a lady in the hospital. She isn't in our ward. She is in Calvert city's branch. She has had a pretty hard life of probably drugs and smoking and other things. She has the nicest heart and wants to do good now even though she is suffering the consequences from the thing she has done in the past... she has chronic bronchitis and y'all know. Ain't nobody got time for that. But she also has pneumonia. So she wanted a blessing. So we went and talked to her for about an hour. She told us straight up she is very lonely and was so appreciative of us going to talk and give her a blessing. That warmed my heart. 

Well that's pretty much it for this week... Something weird is happening though. IM HAVING DREAMS! I haven't dreamed in such a long time. I guess because I don't have a phone to entertain me anymore, my mind can do that by itself! It's awesome. Last night I had a dream about Derek and for some reason I was down there in Bolivia. And a few nights ago I dreamed I was back in Hawaii with Hannah and Sarah and others . So that's fun and sad at the same time.... but ya! Have a great week y'all! 

Love ya! 

Reese

Temple pic from Wednesday... its the best one we got...

I almost bought this for Pa the other day. 

Nuff said. 

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