Sister Abigail Reese: Abby is Lovin' It!

Email from January 19, 2015

Mom,

I'm going pretty good! I love this area so much and I love the people I am serving with and the people I get to serve. My companion is incredible and she is helping me a lot with a lot of different things. We are continually learning to work well together and how to work in unity. But the difference between when we first were together and being together now is like night and day. It is really incredible to look back and see how much we've progressed. We did find two new investigators this week! They are great and I've met them before! The Gabler family. It's a family of three but one of the daughters didn't participate in our first lesson so we can't count her as a new investigator. But she will be! I love them so much and they remember when we met. Their names are Cathy (the mom), Catrel (13 year old), and Mariah (11 year old). they are so sweet and Catrel is going to sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir next month so it'll be really cool for her! We are continually getting to know more of the members and it's really cool to be able to just love them so much. I am excited about being a sister training leader too! It's not quite like a trainer, but it's close. A trainer spends two transfers with a new missionary, and a sister training leader just goes on exchanges with the sisters under her stewardship. In this case, we have four sisters under our stewardship so we get to go on two exchanges! We're going on one tomorrow and I get to go back to Alluvial! I'm so excited! I miss everyone so much. But I was really surprised because I was thinking about it and I don't actually want to leave my area which is a really good thing because it means that I love this area as much as I loved my last!

On Monday we saw the Olsen family. They are the best. I love them with all my heart. Sister Olsen loves us all. She is the sweetest woman ever. She is the young women president and she is so incredible at it. She just lost her second counselor though to being a primary president--and they haven't replaced her. Sound familiar? It reminded me of our ward because our bishopric was always really bad about replacing people in the young women.

Tuesday we had district meeting. Sister Russell and I gave a training on working with members and then Elder Bean gave a training on commitments--extending them and keeping track of them. It was a really good training. He is a really incredible district leader and I am really glad I've gotten to see how much he has grown since we came out. I absolutely love seeing how the elders and sisters I came out with have grown-and I get to see some of them this week because we have zone conference! We ate dinner with the Humanns and the elders (Elder Cook and Elder Parkin, the assistants) that day too. It was great! Elder Cook always says something super funny at dinner and we have these inside jokes...it's really fun! I love serving with the assistants. Elder Parkin was my zone leader for two transfers too--when I was a new missionary--so I'm glad he can see how much I've changed since that time.

Wednesday, we went to the relief society presidency meeting. It was so great! the relief society presidency is so missionary minded. Sister Debenedetti (the president) told us to utilize them. And they gave us some lost sisters to visit. So far, we've visited a few and most of them have told us not to come back. It breaks my heart because they won't even open up even a little to us. I don't understand why some people don't want anything to do with the church. I just want to ask them why. It doesn't make sense to me. We ate dinner with Sister Houlihan who was less active for a really long time and she has been more active for a couple years now. Her husband isn't a member and her kids are inactive. She's so great though. I love her. She made us pigs in a blanket and they were really good. I swear, I have never had pigs in a blanket the way she made them.

On Thursday, we went over to this less active family, the Os. It was only Sister O and her daughter who were home but she let us in and we talked for a while. She is super sweet and said she wants to start coming back to church. Hopefully they will. We'll go by again to see if we can do anything for her. We saw the Olsens again Thursday as well. We spent too much time there, as usual, but it was really helpful and Sister Olsen told us she wants each of her laurels to come out with us twice a month. That will be helpful for us because if they are with us in the evening we can see people we don't know after dark and there are still a lot of members we don't know and who are home in the evening.

On Friday, we had the coolest leadership training meeting! I loved it! President Donaldson from the District 2 was there. He is the former mission president of San Diego. And then there was a Brother Tanner from Salt Lake. I loved it! They taught us a lot of things about how we can keep the work moving forward even though the mission is splitting. Sister Russell and I decided we needed to be better planners and we needed to keep a model home...not that our home is dirty but it could be better. We saw the Whites this week. they fed us dinner on Friday. I love them so much. And they had a nonmember friend there! So we played a board game called "Armor of God" and Sister White and I won. It was fun! We saw the Kennedys. They are great, but they haven't been coming to church. I don't know why. It's really sad. I really love their family.

On Saturday, we took the Shepherd sisters to lunch. they have been stuck in their apartment because one of the sisters is still recovering from a car accident. They really needed to get out. I'm glad we got to go with them. I love those sisters so much. We had a movie night on Saturday. We watched Mobsters and Mormons. It was so funny! And there was a pretty good turn out. I loved it. We had a lot of fun. It was also Sister Hamilton's birthday but she's up north so I didn't get to see or talk to her.

Yesterday we didn't have ward council so we got to sleep in! It was nice. then Sister Russell did my hair for me. I figured out a really cool thing I can do with it. I love it! I also made lunch for the elders (Elders Cook and Parkin) because they don't live in our stake and they can't go home after church to eat. So we made a big thing of pasta and heated up the alfredo sauce that I bought at Wal Mart and we all ate lunch together. the elders stood outside our apartment and we stood inside and talked. It was really great! I absolutely love these two. they are the best and super funny. We ate dinner with the Linfords. He is the young men's president. the old bishop was there too. It was great! And then we saw the Robertsons. They are the best. i love them so much. He is super knowledgeable and I just want to stay in their house and go through their library.

Their house is bigger than ours?? What?? Why? maybe I'll just go live with them after I come home...babysit for them. Take a little while off from school...yeah, probably not. But that would be fun! I can't believe Maddi and Melissa are getting married. I thought that would be me by now...and now look! I'm a missionary. But tell them congrats (even though I think their too young...I'm not their mom) and I hope everything goes well for them.

I love you and miss you but I absolutely love being a missionary. Thank you for your support! I love you!

Always <3,

Sister Abigail Reese

PS Can you send me some vitamin D? I've been trying to get over congestion and losing my voice since Christmas...

Mom,

I'm going pretty good! I love this area so much and I love the people I am serving with and the people I get to serve. My companion is incredible and she is helping me a lot with a lot of different things. We are continually learning to work well together and how to work in unity. But the difference between when we first were together and being together now is like night and day. It is really incredible to look back and see how much we've progressed. We did find two new investigators this week! They are great and I've met them before! The G family. It's a family of three but one of the daughters didn't participate in our first lesson so we can't count her as a new investigator. But she will be! I love them so much and they remember when we met. Their names are C (the mom), C), and M, they are so sweet and C is going to sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir next month so it'll be really cool for her! We are continually getting to know more of the members and it's really cool to be able to just love them so much. I am excited about being a sister training leader too! It's not quite like a trainer, but it's close. A trainer spends two transfers with a new missionary, and a sister training leader just goes on exchanges with the sisters under her stewardship. In this case, we have four sisters under our stewardship so we get to go on two exchanges! We're going on one tomorrow and I get to go back to Alluvial! I'm so excited! I miss everyone so much. But I was really surprised because I was thinking about it and I don't actually want to leave my area which is a really good thing because it means that I love this area as much as I loved my last!

Wednesday, we went to the relief society presidency meeting. It was so great! the relief society presidency is so missionary minded. Sister Debenedetti (the president) told us to utilize them. And they gave us some lost sisters to visit. So far, we've visited a few and most of them have told us not to come back. It breaks my heart because they won't even open up even a little to us. I don't understand why some people don't want anything to do with the church. I just want to ask them why. It doesn't make sense to me. We ate dinner with Sister Houlihan who was less active for a really long time and she has been more active for a couple years now. She's so great though. I love her. She made us pigs in a blanket and they were really good. I swear, I have never had pigs in a blanket the way she made them.

I love you and miss you but I absolutely love being a missionary. Thank you for your support! I love you!

Always <3,

Sister Abigail Reese

PS Can you send me some vitamin D? I've been trying to get over congestion and losing my voice since Christmas...

Dad,

As much as I would like to be there to meet my new beautiful nephew, I know that there is a reason he was born while I wasn't there and I know there is a reason that I am here right now instead of there. I absolutely love being a missionary and I don't ever want to leave...but I know I'll have to eventually. I just don't think about that too much. I love Fresno and i love the people here and I love the missionaries here. I have so much charity for them. I never realized that you could have this much love for people you just met or met only a few months ago. I think it's really amazing and it has helped me to see how much love God has for each of us. The individual worth of all these people that I have met has been manifest to me because of the love I have for them. Love is a really powerful thing.

On Monday, we saw the Olsen family--the ones who knew the Gummersalls. I love this family so much. They are so amazing. And they love missionaries! They have one in Korea on a mission. They want to help missionaries as much as they can because they hope that others will help their missionary in Korea. Sister Olsen told us that every time she feeds missionaries her son is fed for that month. It's wonderful. They help us out so much. They gave Sister Russell medicine because she has been sick the last couple weeks.

On Tuesday, we had district meeting. My district is a really awesome missionary and he gave a really great training on commitments. I need to be better at being bold when I extend commitments. We saw the Olson family. Not the ones on Monday but the other ones in our ward. They are really great too. Brother Olson is really missionary minded. He wants to invite a man that he sees at the park to church. But he hasn't seen him recently yet. So he's waiting. His wife just had knee surgery. They replaced her knee so she has this gross scar on it from when it happened. They are the best. They are super sweet and I love them. We ate dinner at the Humanns again and the assistants (Elder Parkin and Elder Cook). The elders are hilarious. Elder cook always says something crazy while we are at dinner with them so it always makes me laugh.

On Wednesday, We went to the relief society presidency meeting. They are awesome and one of the members of the presidency took dinner to our new investigator! She and her family were sick. She had laryngitis and her daughters had the flu. This is a family of three we are now teaching. I met them back in July when I was here on exchanges and they remembered me! Cathy is a single mom and her daughters, Catrel and Mariah, are 11 and 13 so we can teach them too! I love them so much. I really want to help them come unto Christ. they have had three baptismal dates and all have fallen through so hopefully we are what they will need to make that commitment. We also saw the Dunmoore's. They are a family of 12 and they are the best. Sister Dunmoore is a saint and I love her so much. She was super sweet. Her daughter let us in when we went by and we talked to her for a while. Then we talked to Sister Dunmoore. They have so many kids. We saw the Hutchasons. They are the best. Sister Hutchason is so sweet. She is the compassionate serve leader and she just has so much love and charity for everyone. Brother Hutchason is a tease and he teases us a lot.

On Thursday, we went to the Bogle's for dinner. Our dinner conversation consisted of the elders talking about racing cars and bikes to which I could add nothing. When they asked us where we were from and I said Boise, Brother Bogle mentioned a track for racing that was near there...so there went the conversation again. It's okay though. I love the elders. They're great. We saw the Olsens again on Thursday. They are so great. Sister Olsen wants each of her laurels to come out with us twice a month. she's super awesome and wants to help us (as I mentioned before). We did service for a recent convert too. We were having a bad day and the we had met the assistants for lunch and they bought lunch for us. But then afterward, no one answered their door and/or they were all mean so we asked the assistants if they needed help and they finally let us help them. they took pity on us. It was great! We spread dirt for Rocio. She is the best. I love her.

On Friday, we had this awesome training by some people from missionary headquarters. It was really cool! They emphasized how awesome this mission is. It was a testimony to me that we have the best missionaries ever...and then it helped me a lot to know that I am a great missionary. God sent me to the best mission and there are high expectations here. It is really good for me to know that we are the best :) We saw the Gablers (the family we are teaching). We took dinner to them and then talked a little bit. It was great! I love them so much. I hope they get baptized soon. We taught Maddy Vaughn also. We are kind of tag teaming her with the elders. The elders think she needs what they call "sister love" so we are going to teach her too...I guess.

Saturday we ate dinner with the Zambranas. they are so awesome! We contacted a referral they gave us and she invited us back so we have a couple potentials because of them too. We took the Shepherd sisters to lunch and it was a lot of fun. I loved it. They really needed to get out too. We had a movie night at the Wilcox home. We watched Mobsters and Mormons and it was so funny! I loved it!

Sunday we got to sleep in because we didn't have ward council. It was nice. We made the elders lunch since their house is way outside our area. It was great! We talked to them for a while too. I love them so much. they have helped us out a lot. It's nice to have another set of missionaries to fall back on. We saw the Jeffery family. They are adding on to their house so it's kind of crazy but it's cool! And they are getting sealed in a few weeks so they are getting ready for that too. It'll be really neat! I'm excited for them. We saw the Freemans after dinner. Sister Freeman was just called as primary president on Sunday and she is one of my favorite people. She's so sweet. She was in young women before she was called to primary. they are awesome.

Since I am a missionary, I want to know how everything is going with your missionary work! Is Mom still posting my emails? Also, how are your family prayers? I think that's something that is really important that we have been good at in the past but off and on. And Family Home Evening too...that's important too. Anyway. Just want everyone to be uplifted spiritually!

hey, Sister Russell and I are going on a bread and desserts diet this week...we're going to test it out and see if we can do it...I don't know how it will work.

I can't wait to meet the baby! I hope all is well with him. I miss y'all but I know I'm here for a reason. And I for sure know that I am a sister training leader now for the other missionaries. I get to go back to my old area tomorrow and I'm excited! But I actually don't want to leave my area...which i didn't expect. I'm excited to help these sisters though! I love them so much.

Daddy, I love you. I am so grateful you are my dad. We went to young women's yesterday and we sat in with the laurels. they were talking about fathers. I was reminded how very lucky I am to have a dad like you. You are wonderful. I realized that when we were talking about our relationship with our fathers. I am so grateful for you and all you've taught me and done for me. Don't forget that you're still my favorite man! I love you!

Always <3,
Sister Abigail Reese

PS Can you send me Vitamin D?