Monday, May 4, 2015

Another Baptism and Transfers



Dear Family,

This week was a really successful one! It was really stressful and by Friday, I was completely exhausted mentally and emotionally, but it was okay! I got through it and now I'm here! Transfer call also came this week and guess what? I'm staying here in Hanford for another six weeks! I didn't want to super bad, but I'm grateful I get to. It just means more people need me here. I can do another six weeks. I promised God and President Clark that I would accept God's will in all things. Even things I didn't necessarily like.

On Monday, we saw T. She was so excited for her baptism! It was really awesome to see. Her sons, came to family home evening so that was really good too. We taught them the Restoration and we got a lot of participation from them too which was awesome! Then we got to see M, the investigator the elders asked us for help with. It was good. She is so awesome. I love her so much. She will be ready for baptism. I know it. She is already ready. I know she is going to do it eventually. Then we saw the Barth family. I absolutely LOVE them. She is the relief society president and he's just cool. They have the cutest love story: They didn't even date before they were engaged! They just met each other and then her friend and him ended up being companions on their mission and he saw a picture of her and started writing her. Then they hung out a little after his mission and then she went to see him and he proposed. (and since I don't like dating, this would be perfect for me right?? ;)

On Tuesday we had our last district meeting. It was good! T and E were both there. We practiced teaching them. It was good. We met with J this week for the first time too! She is so sweet. She's nine and she is so smart in the gospel. I am so grateful that we get to teach her. She is so ready and prepared to have the gospel in her life and to be baptized. I love her so much. Then we saw Sister R. She is so great. She's a less active that we've been teaching and she has grown a lot. She has anxiety really badly and so I can relate to her a little bit. It's good. We had dinner with the Barths (which is when she told us how everything worked out with her husband--I love those stories). We had hamburgers for dinner and they were really good! Their house is beautiful and I want one like it! She's a great home decorator. It was really cool. I almost took pictures. We went to see T too. We found out on Tuesday that it was recommended that she be off coffee for two weeks instead of one and we asked out district leader about it. He said yes that is the case but if we felt she was ready to make the commitment then we could go forward. So we went to talk to her about it and she was ready! Completely ready. Then we saw M again. She is so awesome. I don't remember what we shared with her but she love us :)

On Wednesday, we watched Forever Strong with a recent convert. She is really sweet and I love her a lot. I have seen her grow so much since I got here. It's amazing to see. We ate dinner with the Severs. They are wonderful. Brother Sever is hilarious. He is a chief of police in Hanford. So I talked to him about Dad, of course. We saw T again after that. She is super great. I love her so much. She was super excited for her baptism on Saturday! Then we went to see a recent convert named Stacey. She is pregnant and her back is killing her. So we set up a time to help her clean. Then we saw J. I love J. She is so sweet. She loves us too. We set up a time to watch 17 Miracles with her. I was excited!

Thursday, we went to the Remington and played beanbag baseball again. I love those people. They are wonderful. Then we saw I again to finish watching Forever Strong. We had T's baptismal interview and then we finished teaching the rest of her lessons. Then we stopped by the Ball family. They are great. We talked about the sacrament and it was neat to hear the son's testimony. We saw the L family whom I love. J was in Middleton last weekend. Her family lives out off of Duff so she wasn't really near you, but that's okay! I was excited to talk about my little town :) We saw the H family. It was really frustrating because no one was really paying attention but I was just so tired that I just wanted to crash and not care. We taught them and tried to get their attention. One of the little girls made us bracelets so that was sweet. 

Friday we went to the soup kitchen and invited P, who works there with us, to come to the missionary farewell on Tuesday. Well actually what we did was tell him we couldn't go unless we had a ride and then we asked him for a ride. He said he would take us!! And he is still saying that so...I get to go up to Fresno for a night! I'm excited. Also, some people I know and love are going home so I'm sad. We saw the H family later on. We taught the Plan of Salvation and invited them to be baptized. My invitation went something like this: "God wants us all to follow His Son's example so...who wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?" And then I raised my hand. It was really cute. They all want to so badly but their mom, who is a less active, isn't too keen on it...I'm not sure how to help her. We went to the Whiteheads for dinner. They are interesting. Sister Whitehead is super sweet. I love her. Then we saw T. We are going to watch 17 Miracles with him on Friday this week. He's awesome. Then we watched 17 Miracles with J. I love her so much. She loved it. And we cried together.

On Saturday we had T\'s baptism!! It was really amazing to see her go into the waters of baptism. She asked me to speak on baptism so I got to give my short little testimony of it. It wasn't all that great because I was really nervous and I think everyone could tel. But it's okay. I was honored she asked me to do it anyway. Then we saw a less active named B. She's sweet. She has been coming back to church and it's great! Then we saw Sister Sopp. She has essential oils and the serenity helps my anxiety. I may buy some from her but I'm not sure. We saw the S afterward who are an awesome couple. I love them. We got the transfer call and we are staying together, but one of our zone leaders is an assistant now! I'm so sad :( He won't be here anymore. But the new one is pretty cool too.

On Sunday, we had church. It was good. I learned a lot. T was confirmed. We ate dinner with the Obersts' who are vegan. It was yummy though, if a little too...salsa-y for me. Then we went to the Severs to watch the CES devotional with our recent converts and we ended up practicing teaching with M who is getting ready to serve a mission in July. She taught us...it was interesting. Then we saw M and we committed her to pray about baptism on May 16. So hopefully she did it! We are following up with her tonight.

I love being a missionary. I am grateful for everything you do for me and all the support you are. I know my Savior lives and loves me and He has helped me through the last six weeks. He will help me through my last five transfers. I know He is there every step of the way. Never forget that you have Him in your life.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Always <3,
Sister Abigail Reese

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