The Countdown Begins

09-14-15

Dear Family,

This week was pretty crazy! We taught a lot of lessons and we are slowly starting to find more and more. It's wonderful to see the work moving forward. I just love being here. 

On Monday, we saw M! She is so great. We have decided we need to focus more on her when we are over there. We do Family Home Evening with them and we tend to just teach. We ned to make sure M is understanding. Just because she is now a baptized member doesn't mean she understands everything. I don't even understand everything. We saw Brother H! He told us this really personal, spiritual story that I won't write down here. He is the best. He really is an incredible man. He is like our dad while we're here! There isn't a woman in the apartment ever, which is why we are trying to get him to get married. But he stands at his door and will talk to us for forty five minutes. It's pretty great. The name I chose is Spirit Angel. I don't know how to write it in Cherokee but when he does it for me I will send it! I'm excited. (None...we didn't study as we went to the sequoias.)

Tuesday we saw Sister L for a little bit! She's great. I love her. She's pregnant too! I think she and Natalee are around the same age. We also saw M, a new investigator. She's super sweet. I don't think she's willing to join the church but she likes to learn so maybe if we help her feel the spirit, she'll want to know for herself. She told us she didn't want to change religions because the Bible says not to. We ate dinner with the B and then they took us to the farewell. The P came! It was great! There were only six missionaries going home, two of which was a senior couple. So...after the farewell, we were getting ready to go and P P called us and asked if we could give her a jump because her battery was dead. So we went to Brother B and asked if he could help. He agreed. So we went to give her a jump. BUT it wasn't working! I don't know why, to be honest. My knowledge of cars is very, VERY limited. I just remember when my car would die all the time. Anyway, it wasn't working so eventually Sister Putnam and I went back inside the church to find help. A bishop happened to be walking by and agreed to help us. We found out that she was almost out of gas so he went to get her some. We waited and waited and he finally came back. But it still wasn't working! So finally I squatted down on the pavement (in lieu of kneeling) and asked who wanted to say a prayer with me. So I said a prayer and all the kids said "amen." Then we started to sing a hymn. And it started!! So we learned a valuable lesson about prayer that night. (John 5:39)

Wednesday we saw Sister D. She's great. Except we need to help her with some things. But she's super sweet. Then we stopped by a less active. It was...awkward. She was...well, we'll just leave it at awkward. But we set a return appointment which is good. Then we saw Sister P. She's great. She is still in her rehab center. We hadn't seen her in a while. We ate with the B. They are super sweet. They love us coming over. They make really good food. We had orange chicken! We taught H, who still hasn't received an answer but I think he's starting to recognize answers to his prayers. (John 6:28, 38)

Thursday, we did service for Sister Ounesavath. I love her so much. She is just the sweetest woman in the world. We saw the R. She told us about this comedy show she used to watch and I can't actually remember the name of it. It sounded pretty great though! Clean humor...who would have known? We ate dinner with the M! I love them so much. He makes good food too. K is the best. I really miss going over there. They made pasta. It was good. We saw the P. They are the greatest. She told us that she feels good about her kids getting baptized, but she doesn't want them to go out and do bad things just because they can repent. We're going to talk more about that. We taught H again! It was a good lesson but a longer one. The member we took with us was very talkative. Also, i had this random craving for Mongolian BBQ! Can we go there when I go home?? (2 Nephi 24:3)

Friday, we went to have lunch with the Ounesavaths. i had a really good conversation with her. I just love them so much. They are helping us do laundry today! We saw Sister J. I love her. Sister Putnam gave her a really nice bookmark that she wasn't actually going to give her. But Sister J really liked it so she just let her keep it. We saw L N again. It was interesting. New investigator with one of her roommates though! We ate dinner with the L family. The W kids were there and their baby E is SO STINKIN CUTE! We saw H C and her cousin, K. It was good. They gave us brownies. We saw Brother H again. He has faith. (2 Nephi 26:24)

Saturday was a really successful day! We saw the M. R has some concerns that we are trying to help her with...but she is stubborn. We saw M. Talked about the Plan of Salvation. She had some good questions. OH YEAH! We also went to the Poverello House to serve! They just taught us what to do but it was great! I'm excited to do it! We ate dinner with the K family. We taught I while we were there. It was great! We taught F. She is grieving over her dad. I hope we can help in some way. Then we saw Sister H. It was great! She's super sweet. We saw F and J after forever and a year. It was a good visit. I'm just afraid now of what to say. I don't want to start an argument. But we are going to get fellowship in there. It'll be great. (2 Nephi 28:2, 28, 30)

Sunday, we went to church. It was a pretty good day, except none of our investigators came to church. Even H! But it was good. Brother Henry talked about the spirit. It was pretty great. Our lesson in Gospel Principles was actually really good. There was a good discussion about Adam and Eve. Then we crashed young women and learned about fasting. I had a massive headache all day and so I didn't fast like I planned :P We saw J for dinner. It was great! Her kids are crazy. Then we stopped by S but she wasn't home so we taught her daughter a little bit. It was good! (D&C 18:33-36)

I know this week hasn't been super exciting. Honestly, I don't even know what I've learned. Fasting is important. Satan is mean. But you have to keep your faith. I know God will continue to bless us if we do our part and I am so very grateful for that. 

I LOVE YOU ALL! 

Always <3,

Sister Abigail Reese

Pictures! 

1. Sister Putnam and I!

2. Hector and Carra!

3. Me up high!