I Can Buy Coke Now!

Hey family!

So I just opened my gifts and I loved them!  I am trying out my alpha smart to see how it works! I hope that I can write longer letters to you guys every week now as well as other people.  My companions all wondered what this thing was.

So the day ended. I am currently writing on this keyboard thingy.

We went and sang hymns at this place in the center of Cali and we wrapped up Books of Mormon and were going it give them to people. We did that but it just happened to be POURING rain. So it was a little hard to aqui estuvo Elder Pizarro. (That was Elder Pizarro. Needless to say my companions like to mess with this as well.) Singing in the rain with our hymn books and also trying to hand out Books of Mormon is not easy. You can’t put anything on the ground because it gets ruined. Nobody really wants to stop for too long so you have to grab them while they are listening! It wasn’t easy but it was so much fun. You see all these people drinking or alone or only looking for other things but the few hymns we sang over and over got some people’s attention.

As for the skype call. It was great to see all of you that I got to see!!! This call was a lot easier than last time. The last one I had a lot less time in the mission and was still learning how to love it. Now, I know how much I can and do enjoy it so it just means we will talk in May and I will be having a great time until then. I got to talk to Brittany and Ty for a little bit which was great. Reese was super busy, but when I did my Scooby Doo laugh and my ruh’ro shaggy voice he definitely heard me!

Kameron also seemed to remember me which was nice. He recognized my voice I think. He got wayyyyy to big though. He is like huge.

I want to thank everyone as well for all the things they did for me this Christmas regardless if it was a gift or a prayer. I am super grateful for everyone and this time we had to help people remember Christ a little bit more.

Shoutout to my pregnant sister and cousins. I am super excited for you guys. I doubt that all of you can hold your babies in for a few extra months but give it a shot.

So we met D in the street on Tuesday and he was very drunk. He started apologizing to us for everything and wanted to just talk to us. He kept putting himself down and talking about how he went to one of the best schools in Cali and now he basically has nothing. I stood and watched my companions talk to him and just tried to listen. I didn’t really know what for but I just didn’t feel like talking at the moment. As Elder Wright was talking, me and D made eye contact and I just couldn’t help but love him so much in that moment regardless of the mistakes and lies he had told us. I gave him a smile and he put his hand out and gave me a hug and told me that there was something different about me. I took that as my sign to talk. I then told him how I had told all of you guys about him and how awesome I thought he was and how great he was. I told him how my Mom would ask about him every week to see how he was and how he was progressing. He couldn’t hold the tears back to hear that. He agreed to let us walk him back to his apartment and we cooked him agua panela (which is a sweet drink here) and I just kept talking to him. We said a prayer and ate bread and this drink. It was a moment I will never forget. Looking around and seeing four missionaries sitting in this tiny house, not teaching, not preaching, but just being there. I remember we took his shoes off and laid him into bed and tucked him in and we shut the lights off and he was already asleep. I don’t know how this story sounds to you guys but it was one of the most powerful moments of my life.

To know that God had sent me there to specifically help him. I can promise you that Elder Wright and Elder Alcorta and Elder Eldredge are all better missionaries than me. For some reason however, God allowed me to be what he needed.

Anyways, this week was good. We had an end of year conference which was super fancy. It was on the 15^th floor of this super nice hotel. It had two levels and there were servers there all day to help us with whatever we needed. They gave us a three course meal. I liked half of it. You could tell it was super expensive because the appetizer had gross weeds on it. We watched Meet the Mormons which I had not seen (he has seen it, he just doesn't remember). It is a good movie. Now I know the Mormons. We played Jeopardy and since the office made the questions we were judges for all the zones. My zone did not win.  We had a great time and there was something amazing that President Whitesides changed this conference….WE CAN BUY COKE NOW!! For those of you that are wondering which coke because I am in Colombia I mean Coca’cola.

 Also, Elder Alcorta and Elder Pizarro would like a CTR ring like the one I have. Here in South America they cant go to Desseret Book and buy one. Please if you could I would appreciate it. A size 8 and a size 9.5!! 

That was pretty much my week! Love you guys!! Stay strong!

Con Amor,

 

Merry Christmas A Todos

Hey Merry Christmas a todos! 

I obviously didn't have transfers and I won't for a little while. The thing is that they are very stressful here in the office. 

As President's secretary I am in charge of planning the whole 3 days of it. We call it plan de ataque. I have to schedule all the interviews for the missionaries that are going home and their flights and and all the transports. 

I have to schedule a lot of transports for the new missionaries to go to all sorts of different places. I was actually stressed for the first time in my whole mission. The things I handle are very delicate and I knew that. 

I knelt down before I left on Tuesday morning to do all these things and said a prayer and just thanked God for everything and begged him to just let things work. 

As we got to the airport we said goodbye to the old missionaries and rushed to the entrance to greet the new ones. I had scheduled two buses for the airport and knew they were coming. Then I saw some guy holding up a little whiteboard with my name on it. It actually freaked me out a little but it turned out that he had a taxi for two people. 

My stomach just dropped because there were 22 people and 40 bags that needed to go to different places. It turned out that he was just to take the assistants to the house with the bags. 

Then in the notary when I asked for everyone's passports one elder started searching everywhere and he confessed that he had left it ON THE PLANE. I did not freak out or anything I just said hold on a second everything will be okay. I totally lied. I thought we were done for. 

Luckily I made some calls and they had it there at the airport. Everything worked out alright there. 

Later, we had to take more people to the airport and the lady at the airport would not accept the paper I had to pay for there bags. It had worked in the morning but this time it didn't. I was freaking out. 

We ended up paying  for them with the mission card and it will just be reimbursed. 

Then as I was looking at the passports a sister from Mexico didn't have her visa. Which meant that she had a very limited amount of time to legally be in this country. 

Turns out that they had just realized that and were taking care of it and sent me an electronic copy through email. 

Then we had to send them all off to their areas with their trainers. I had not scheduled a transport. I didn't know we needed one. We just ended up calling A LOT of taxis. Then everyone got out and everything was fine. 

At the end of all the craziness I had just gotten home Wednesday night and was laying in my bed and it hit me. 

There were problems but they were overcome. There were times I had to work more than I had planned but it worked out. 

God didn't make it easy but I didn't ask him to. I told him to allow everything to work out and it did. I got down on my knees and thanked him for everything. 

It may not seem like he is helping out but he may just be requiring a little bit more faith.

Anyways, that was my update for now! I will see you guys tomorrow I think! 

Love you all!! 

Con amor,

Grandchildren Get More Spoiled Than Children

Hey guys!

Sounds like a lot of stuff is going on! 

Sounds like you will be having a lot of fun in Oregon with Brittany and Ty this week so that will be great. You should take some pictures of your adventures for me! I have never once made a gingerbread house with you. Grandchildren get more spoiled than children. 

I hope Duke gets better. Is he still going on walks with Dad or does he not want to? Do you think he got sick at grandmas house and that is why he is acting weird? 

It sounds like you enjoy working at the temple. I miss being in the temple. Working there was something very special. 

Something interesting that we talked about this week with President and Sister Whitesides was saying prayers every now and again without asking for anything. God knows what we need regardless of what we say. He, just like any other parent, needs to here us say thank you for everything he does for us. Through doing such a simple act we can feel his love through our gratitude and maybe receive such simple answers that we couldn't find before. 

My investigators are doing alright. This week has been rough though. Elder Falabella, who is a seventy here, came to our mission and the office had to prepare so many things. Also, transfers are coming up this Monday so I have to prepare a lot of stuff for so many things and I don't have any time to go out to the area and it is hard. Sometimes you feel like you aren't fulfilling your purpose as a missionary when you aren't out teaching. I think of the people that need me but I don't have time for sometimes and just pray that they will wait for me. 

D has come back and has been very busy. We have had to move his baptismal date a couple times but we are getting there. 

This week I was in charge of getting the chapel ready for the conference with Elder Falabella. When we got there the night before the stake center had a total of 3 tables in it and we had to seat 110 people. I was not a happy camper. But, we hadn't been beaten yet. 

We knelt down and said a prayer for a little help and then made a phone call. The guy in charge of that stuff said he would try and get them there before lunch so that we could eat. That was our only hope really. 

So we cleaned it and prepared what we could and went home.

We woke up the next day and went there early to control the other missionaries and when we got there all of the tables were there. They were all set up with table cloths and everything. I still don't know who did it but someone did. I was so relieved. 

I got a letter from someone this week. Her name is Liliana Cartagena. She was my second baptism in the mission. She gave me a printed letter telling me how grateful she is and that it is so hard for her to know I am so close but we cant see each other. She said that her doors are always open to any Reese's so lets take advantage!

Let Adams dad know I miss him! It sounds like they have a lot of work now.

Anyways, I love you guys!! Have a good week! 

Con amor,

I Have No Fear

Hey guys!

So this week was good! 

We had another Elder in the office because he has a bad foot so he was with us all week. He is a cool guy. He is from Utah and has one transfer less than me. 

We also had interviews this week. President and me had a good talk. I had to ask him if he thought I needed to be more professional because everyone says I am always joking. He told me that he has no problem with anything I have ever done and believes that he never will. Which means I am just a lot more fun than everyone else obviously!! 

I had a two day training session this week too. The guy that is in charge of all the immigration stuff in every mission in Colombia came to Cali to teach me a few things. 

He said that when he received this position in 2014 that there were 800+ missionaries serving illegally in there missions. Almost all of them got send home to serve. His biggest worry was teaching me how to keep everyone's' archives in order. It was interesting. 

He actually told me a story that I loved a lot. At one point he had to welcome and help Elder Christofferson when he came to Barranquilla which is at the North Coast of Colombia. He said that when it rains the roads just flood and it can carry cars and buses with it so when it happens it is better to stay inside. 

As it happened to start raining he was waiting outside Elder Christoffersons room for anything he might need and just staring out the window thinking. He then felt a hand on his shoulder telling him that no matter what happens everything was going to okay. As he turned it was Elder Christofferson. He just nodded and thanked him even though he had no idea what he really meant. 

Then they left to go pick up Elder Holland at the airport. As they had already got him he was walking behind the two Apostles and Elder Holland stopped and turned around and gave Hermano R. (the guy that trained me) a huge bear hug and lifted him off the ground telling him that he loved him. 

After these two interesting events he continued with the event they had come to Barranquilla for and it all turned out okay. After it was over he got a call from his wife. The call was to inform him that his son was in the hospital for the first out of 4 suicide attempts that he would try to do in his life. Luckily he has never been successful and is now in a much better state. 

The relationship the leaders of the church have with the Holy Ghost is stronger than we can imagine. We may not always get the hand of a servant of the Lord on our shoulder with comforting words or a bear hug from another Apostle. But, there is always a way the Lord helps us. 

He has sent people here to help us in times of need. Nevertheless, there are sometimes in our lives where we have to go so far into the dark that there is only one person that can come with us. 

Hermano R. told us that the amount of strength he took from the counsel of these Apostles was everything he needed to help overcome these problems. 

As for working in the office. It is hard some days to find drive to keep doing what the Lord has asked of me. I came here to teach and preach the Gospel. President told me that everyone here in the office has been called because God knows that they can do both. 

I wouldn't say that the office is safer it is just less probable that things happen because we are out less amount of time. My area is actually really cool and pretty sketchy but I love it all the same. 

As for the campaign here it is great. I love having such an easy excuse to talk to people. I have no fear when it comes to talking to people. One of my companions is not super confident when it comes to contacting so I create scenarios where he has to talk. I hand cards to people in a group and then tell them my companion is going to explain what it is and he has no choice. 

What kind of car did Courtney (Hunter's Sister) buy? 

I hope you get better Mom. We all got colds here like 3 weeks ago and still have side affects but it is all good. 

I will pull my package out Monday! I spent some money today but a lot of it was paid back to me in cash as I bought things at once for everyone. 

I love you guys!! Have a great week! 

Con Amor,

#Lightuptheworld

Hey guys,

Sounds like Mom is liking the temple (I am volunteering in the temple once a week). I wish I could see it. The last temple I was in was the Bogota temple and it seems like forever ago. It was a very pretty temple though. There is like this huge like double open staircase in it and I love it.

D's will have to wait to be baptized another Saturday because his wife invited him home for his daughters birthday and won't be going to church this Sunday. I promise he is a great investigator though!! Also, D was the guy whose wife threw him out. 

You both told me my package was in the mail. I will not know when we are Skyping for a little bit because it is like a month away!! I will let you know with sufficient time though. 

This week we are starting the campaign #Lightuptheworld,  that the church started for this Christmas season and it is a lot of fun. If you haven't watched the video yet or heard about it do it right now!! (Click here to see the video)

We have these little cards we hand out with all the info on them and we hand them out to EVERYONE. Zones have started keeping track and we are blowing them out of the water. When I take a jeep (it is a taxi but with two benches in the back that I use to up to my area)  I always give one to everyone and explain it and on the way down or we stop by restaurants and get everyone's attention. We gave out 50 yesterday. It was a lot of fun. 

Everyone is getting so big. Madelyn (Hunter's niece) would come to me but I was like almost her last resort and the only two below me were you and Mom so now I am in last!! 

I will probably get my box sooner because the elder that handles all of that sits right next to me all day. 

We had a lot of fun at the Thanksgiving dinner. It was all dish yourself type of thing THANK GOODNESS. I ate turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls. It was perfect. It was all mostly in Spanish though so that was different. I made those rice krispies but differently because there is no corn syrup here!! 

Anyways, I love you guys a ton!! Stay true!! 

Con amor,

Elder Reese