I Almost Shot Myself

Hey guys,

Good news!! DIANA AND HER KIDS GOT BAPTIZED TODAY!!! WOOHOO!! So we had to push the date forward once because her kids weren’t quite ready but today they got baptized but they will get confirmed tomorrow which is just as important. I will let you guys know how that goes next week!

Hunter and Taylor are off to Seattle it sounds like. I hope they behave themselves. I feel older everytime something happens in peoples lives at home. I remember their first tryouts in soccer as freshmen.

I love the way all of the Apostles speak. They are all different but they all hit home. 

What cell phone do you have now? I cant even remember what phones exist. Mine is called an alcatel one touch if you want to look it up. (Not sure where that came from!)

Way to go Reese! (My grandson is learning how to go potty!) Sometimes you almost loose control of your potty training abilities as a missionary. A missionary told me a story about his Dad that only gave him one word of advice at the airport when he left. 

(I'm so sorry about this next story!) His dad was a pretty serious guy but when he hugged him goodbye all he said was ¨Never trust a fart.¨ 

This Elder didn't understand until one day in a lesson he let out a silent fart and it came out wet. Then he just chuckled and understood what his dad was talking about. 

One of my other investigators attended the baptism today and I know that her and her husband and her daughter are going to get baptized. They just had a baby like 4 months ago and she is adorable. 

Take some pictures at Kylies (Hunter's cousin) wedding for me! I wish I was there to support her.

I like that BiMart (One of his dad's FAVORITE stores) is closer now. I hated going before because it was so far but now I can deal with that.

This week while the APs were gone we found a roman candle in a closet and it was pretty old. I didn't think it would actually work so I lit it. Turns out the fire comes out from the same end as the wick. Who knew? I almost shot myself. The worst part was that it was super loud and bright and there were 30 of them. Also, at this point all the other secretaries that agreed to be a part of it had fled. In a panicked state I broke it in half hoping they wouldn't come out anymore. I was wrong.

They just started coming out by fives. Eventually they stopped and we all learned a lesson. 

Anyways, that is it for this week! Love you guys.

Elder Reese

Have You Ever Eaten Spaghetti with Rice?

Hey guys,

I hope everyone had a good Mothers Day!! 

It was so good to see everybody. I didn't expect so many people to be there but I am glad they were.

 It seems weird to think about Hunter and Taylor graduating (family friends)! 

The ward split seems like a good change. It is no different than having transfers in the mission. They are directed by God just the same.

I had no idea that the church was pulling out of scouts. That makes me sad. That was one of the best parts of being a young man in the church. I hope that the church can find some sort of curriculum to make up for it. 

Mom should start taking Duke on walks he would love it!(Duke would end up taking Mom on a walk instead) Mom wouldn't but hey he is going to get fat! I saw Kameron chasing Duke around in the skype call. He is a cute little boy.  

Yea the time just keeps counting down I don't know what to do about it. I have gone to the airport probably over 30 times here in the office and I have never once had a desire to get on one and go home. God still has plenty of things for me to do here. 

I am glad Grandma and Grandpa will have their laundry room upstairs. I wish I was there to help with the project. 

You will be great at your new calling Mom! You have a degree in being a secretary so it will be super easy!

Costa Rica and Colombia are very different.(I met an Elder who was getting ready to go to Costa Rica) Costa Ricans are very relaxed people. There is also a lot of very pretty beach in Costa Rica. 

As for your story Mom, (I asked Hunter to give me a story I could tell in church tomorrow) I want to talk about why President Nelson has focused on Ministering instead of Home and Visiting teaching. 

I was privileged to meet Fabio Viosotis when I first started my mission. His house was actually the first house I ever visited as a missionary in the field. He had been investigating the Church for more than 3 years and went to church every Sunday but still could not make the decision to get baptized. The missionaries just retaught him the lessons over and over and over. 

My companion one day asked him how he was doing with reading his Book of Mormon. He said he only read it while he was with us but read the Bible every night. 

My companion smiled and said okay well lets keep reading then. Every time we visited him we read the Book of Mormon and left a part of it for him to read. We didnt talk about the Plan of Salvation or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about the Book of Mormon because that is what he needed. 

Later we had a very powerful family home evening with some members and there was a video played where Jeffrey R, Holland testifies of the Book of Mormon. 

When we went by his house the next week his daughter was full of happiness when she told us he had started reading the Book of Mormon all by himself. 

Two weeks after he scheduled his own baptism and was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

There are plenty other stories that I could share about ministering. That is just something that I have learned here on my mission. 

As for my mission in total. It is the best mission there is. Colombians are the happiest people that exist. They don't complain about what they don't have they just smile for what they do have. 

There have been few times that I have been mistreated by the people here. The food is great. There is rice with every meal. The other day the lady that gives us lunch made spaghetti with a side of rice. Have you ever eaten spaghetti with rice? Me either. I just ate spaghetti to avoid the weight of all of that. 

I love Colombians. I love being here. I love my family but I am happy to love them from a distance for now. I love all of the people in my new ward as well. Que Dios les bendiga! 

There ya go mom! 

Diana and her 2 kids will be getting baptized this Saturday!! WOOOHOOO!! 

Anyways, that is it for today! I love you guys!! 

Con amor, 

Elder Reese

Mother's Day Weekend

Hey Guys,

Don't be surprised if I don't write much today because I will be skyping tomorrow at 4 o'clock your time! 

I have a new baby nephew!! Woohoo! He is healthy and happy and that makes me happy so all is well! Madelyn has not seemed to realize the disadvantages to being the oldest yet so better to keep it that way! 

I am glad to hear that things are getting done at Grandma and Grandpas house! I am very excited to talk to everyone tomorrow!

By the way I got my package! Thank you all for everything!! 

Ricky (One of Hunter's best friends) is going into the Air Force in a couple of months and he is super excited. He will go to basic training in San Antonio Texas. 

I love my new companion he is one of the best! We are really focusing on baptism in every lesson now to figure out the people that are ready for us. 

 If we had Iphones we would get robbed so fast it would be more like the church starting a charity for thieves in Colombia.

Anyways, I will talk to you tomorrow! Love you! 

Elder Reese

It Rained So Hard That Nobody Came To Church

Hey guys,

No I did not get my package yet and I dont know why! I have been waiting for it but sometimes the south american mailing systems really are terrible.

I hope Dad had fun fishing this week and that he caught some good stuff! I was actually talking about fishing this week with this guy that always takes us to the airport and he said he would love to do it. It takes patience though! 

That is a weird split. (We just got assigned to a new ward with new boundaries) The ward is probably really small. I dont know very many people there either. Doesnt Pierce Yeakley get home pretty soon? That is not a very high number of missionaries! (Our new ward only has two missionaries out in the field). That means that when I get home it will be a new year and we shouldnt have church at 1 which is good news! 

Do you guys know what you are going to do with the house? What you are going to add on and where? (We have decided to add to on to our house to make it bigger)

I did hear about Gretchen and I am very happy that everything is okay! I am excited to meet the little guy! 

I will have some baptisms coming up it is just that this Sunday it rained SOOOO hard that nobody came to church. So the people that were going to get baptized could not because they didnt attend church. 

Elder Godoy is going to be a part of the Presidency of the Seventy but he wont start until August. 

It sounds like Reese is growing up all the time. Dad says he can talk a lot better now which is great. He wants to mow the lawn now but when he is older he is going to hate it. I remember I mowed the lawn for Adam once and I just had no desire to mow the top part cause it takes forever so I skipped it and hoped he didnt notice. He noticed because it was soooo obvious. Mans gotta try! 

I am excited to talk to all the family members that I will be able to see next Sunday! I love you all please be safe! Everything else is in my voice recording! 

Con amor,

Elder Reese

Hunter Has A New Companion

Hey guys, 

So I was not able to do a voice recording this week so I apologize. 

I am currently sitting in an internet and this old guy is just watching spanish rap videos and rapping along with them fairly loudly. He sways his body back and forth as well. 

This week was a very long week. We had transfers which means I usually have a lot to do. I went to the airport 3 times between Tuesday and Wednesday. It is somewhat draining just driving to the airport so many times but it was not that bad. 

Also, this week they announced that here in the mission and I think a lot of other missions here in South America, that we would be switching phone carriers. I don't know how but part of my job is taking care of the phones so it was all up to me to get everything ready. 

The thing was that on Friday (yesterday) at one point all of the sim cards in the mission were going to stop working and that everyone was not going to be able to make phone calls or anything until they put in their new sim card which I had given to them. The numbers were all supposed to stay the same and everything was supposed to be smooth. 

I didn't put my sim card in until like 10am to avoid the phone calls. It turned out that almost all of the numbers were different and I had not register of any of them. That was disaster number one. 

Number 2: Presidente and Sister Whitesides were in Lima Peru in a seminar with all of the other mission Presidents from a couple countries. Their phones did not work correctly either so we could not communicate very easily. 

Number 3: The church headquarters in Bogota accidentally sent me the sim cards for Ipiales which used to be a part of our mission but now is part of Ecuador Quito north  mission. I didn't know until he called me on Monday and transfers had already started so I had no free time until Thursday. I asked them for an address but they didn't give it to me until Thursday afternoon so I hurried to the post office (that is not what it is but it is the American equivalent) and sent it but it was not going to get there until Saturday which meant that Ipiales would not have cell phones for a whole day. I am pretty sure that their mission thinks I am a huge idiot but I don't really mind lots of people probably think that! 

So at the end of the day I pretty much stopped answering my phone and let the fires burn. 

I also have another new companion. Elder Villon is now the secretary of materials and Elder Chacon is my new companion. He is from Peru. He is super funny. Also, he is pretty good at soccer. We have had fun so far being companions. 

This week the hot water heater in the house ran out of batteries and we never had any time to buy some and the water was pretty cold but by the time we bought some batteries I was pretty much used to it so it wasn't all that bad. 

I took two of my previous companions to the airport this week to send them home. Elder Vallenas and Elder Alcorta. 

Elder Vallenas was my second companion in the mission and is one of my best friends. He had some rough patches in his mission but he went home a good missionary. 

Elder Alcorta had been my companion for the last 6 months. He is from Argentina. Also one of my best friends. 

The more times I go to the airport the easier it gets to say goodbye to people. It is not that bad anymore. It was not easy but I am glad that they are home and starting their lives.

Today we played soccer and it was pretty fun. After we were all like dead we just played Russian which is a game I taught everyone that we would play to warm up before indoor games. There is a point system for the way you score goals and everything. 

Elder Villon went to go do a sideways bicycle kick and jumped in the air but he completely missed the ball and his body just made this loud slapping noise when he hit the ground and it was probably one of the funniest things I have seen.

As for my investigators we are currently fasting to have a noche blanca (white night) on the 26th. It means that there are more than 5 baptisms on that day. The goal in our district is 14 on that day in total. 

The 5th of May is the baptism of Diana and her 2 kids and then I am not quite sure who has a date when for now. I know that we have a lot of people that are getting closer and closer to baptism. 

I have not gotten my package yet just so you know I don't exactly know what happened but it still is not here. 

As for my package for my birthday, Elder Chacon would really like a ring like the one I have. It is the CTR ring with the wood on the inside and silver band. I think that 9.5 would be a good size. You should probably get one for Elder Villon too because he never got one. I would get him a 9 though. He is little. 

As for things from the states, most of the things I need I can buy here but I would appreciate some snacks. I will list them right now. Remember these are ideas I do not expect you to buy all of them. 

Hot cheetos (lime), Dynamitos (doritos brand), takis (always the purple bag), gardettos (never the mustard or the cheese flavor), flamin hot funions, jerky of course (I dont know if you would be able to get the jerky from Idaho falls that is like local that I would always buy from that one local store there), something else that I want the latinos to try are those super sour hard candies. They are the warhead brand I can't remember if they have a specific name but it would be a great video to have them all try them. If there is anything else you see feel free to put it in there. 

The only like thing from the states that I thought about recently (I dont know if it is possible) but it would be super cool to have a soda stream here because there are not very many sodas here. If you could send one that would be cool but if not that is totally cool. If you can't send a soda stream I could use the syrup. If you could send rootbeer and maybe lemonade or something that would be great! 

Other than that there is nothing else I have in mind but never feel obligated to send me everything I list! 

Anyways, that is all for now! Have a great week! Love you all! 

Con amor, 

Elder Reese

With A Smile Everybody!

Hey guys, 

So this week was great! Well it was great in some ways and very long in other ways. 

Monday we had a BBQ at President's house to say goodbye to Elder Alcorta who will be finishing his mission and to Elder Pizarro who is leaving the office. It was great. There were enough people who knew how to use a grill so I just let them do it and ate the fruits of their labors. Plus one of them is from Meza, AZ so he lives in a BBQ. 

It was really fun but it is never fun to say goodbye to people. I don't know if you guys remember Elder Vallenas? My second companion in the mission field? He finishes this transfer as well and I have to say goodbye to him at the airport. It is not easy because the odds of me ever seeing any of the Latinos again in this life are very slim. 

We also started interviews this week for the missionaries that are leaving and that creates a lot of work in my life because I am in charge of helping them and greeting them and all of that. 

I also got a phone call saying that the church in Colombia will be switching phone carriers and that in a week all of our sim cards will no longer work and that I have to distribute all the new sim cards (120) to the areas before that happens. Everything just kind of gets thrown together at the last minute every time there are transfers. 

I also got a personal phone call from Elder Gordoy who is a new member of the Presidency of the Seventy. I explain that experience in my voice recording. 

Today I bought Dad something at a gift shop that I will have to save for later. It is classic Colombia and classic dad. I think I will have to buy every Reese boy one. 

One thing I didn't mention in my recording was that Elder Gordoy and President said that the missionaries in the office are leaders. They said that we are there because the Lord knows that what other missionaries do in a whole day we can do in three hours. It made me really happy to hear that they had such confidence in not only me but also in my companions. 

I am glad that everything at home is going well. It sounds like we all need to be ready to help Grandma and Grandpa like they have helped us all our whole lives so with a smile everybody!! 

As for my investigators. Everything is going really well. We have very high hopes right now about how we are going to end the month of May with at least 7 baptisms. I will give you a rundown on that next week! Thank you for everything! Love you all! 

Con amor, 

Elder Reese

She Ain't Beyonce

Que mas?? 

So I am currently at an internet and this girl is singing sooooo loud into her headset and I don't think she knows we can ALLLLL hear her. I won't say she's bad cause that is rude but she ain't Beyonce  I can tell ya that. 

It sounds like my family has been enjoying time away from home with my niece and nephew and maybe Brittany and Ty but they never talk about Brittany and Ty so who knows? (Bill and I went over to Salem this weekend to see Brittany and Ty)

I would be very grateful to see all my Grandparents if it is possible on Mother's Day! I totally forgot that Mothers Day was coming up. It is different the more time you get in the mission. It is still exciting but you don't need things like that to keep you going. It is a very special treat and we all love it but it is not like it was before! I don't really know how to explain it! 

Right now we have 7 baptisms scheduled. 3 for the 21st of April and 2 for the 5th of May and 2 more for the 19th of May. WOOOOHOOOOO!! All this work is finally paying off! 

Transfers will be the 22nd of April which is in about a week! 

In other news, Elder Villón is being trained by Elder Pizarro to be a different secretary which means that he won't be my companion anymore at the end of the transfer and eventually I will get a new companion or maybe my own replacement will come this transfer I actually don't know. If my replacement comes it will be here next Sunday so I will know then. 

Also, I will never be jealous of anyone that goes to a tulip festival. Ever. (We went to the Tulip Festival while we were visiting Brittany and Ty in Oregon) I will however be jealous of who they go with! 

I would have laughed soooo hard if Reese pulled the fire alarm. That would have been a perfect ending! I dont know how that lady thought you were the father of those two kids. Being a Grandpa is cooler anyways. 

This week Elder Alcorta made the mistake of assuming that a new investigator was expecting a child. She had had the child about two weeks prior and was just fat. Never ask someone if they are pregnant, NEVER. There are no limits on how big people can be! 

I didn't really hear anything about the attack on Syria. This crazy guy kind of yelled it at us and then we tell him we don't watch news and he thought that was the craziest thing ever. He thinks that the next world war is coming. I honestly don't know!

I actually had to buy a trip home for an Elder from the Philippines and he goes from here to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Taiwan and from Taiwan to the Philippines. He will be traveling for 2 days. 

We have been doing really good in the area! I am a little worried that they are going to take me out of my area and put me in Versalles with the other secretaries which would really be hard considering all the things that are going to happen here pretty soon. 

Anyways that is my week! I love you guys! Be safe! 

Con amor, 

Elder Reese