No Problems, No Changes, Just WORK!!

April 23, 2012

Hello Family! 

This week has been the best week of the mission in a long time!  No problems, no changes, just work!  Elder Cabrera and I are having a lot of fun and working hard.  He really is a great missionary, he just got caught up in a house full of disobedient missionaries, and he got sucked into the temptation of that.  It is great to be here with him again!  So, as we figured, we are staying here again for this transfer!  It will probably only be for 3 weeks though, because his visa should be here in 3 weeks.  After that, who knows what will happen!  Elder Hall is getting sent to the capital, to work in Cristol Ray!  He is leaving San Cristobal before me.....but he is getting sent to a really dangerous area, so keep him in your prayers!  Elder Day is going to Azua, and besides that, nothing too exciting!  In other news, I got to talk with Elder Gatherum the other night, and that was fun!  He was on an intercambio with Elder Day, and they called me up, and we had a nice little chat.  He sounds like he is really loving the mission, and it was nice to talk to him and learn what's going on in the world of the teenagers in Hyde Park. 

This week has been another great learning experience for me in the mission.  I know I have said it a million times, but I am just so grateful to be on the mission.  I have learned so many things that I could not have learned anywhere else, or doing anything else.  It really is true that the mission field is really the MTC for the rest of life.  It prepares us in so many ways to hopefully be the men that the Lord wants us to be.  This week I had an opportunity to do my first baptism interview.  It was an extremely fun experience to talk with someone who just had a burning desire to get baptized.  I am constantly amazed by the people who have been prepared by the Lord.  This amazing lady can't read or write, but she bore a testimony of the Gospel that just about brought me to tears.  It was an awesome experience! 

This week I really learned a lot from the scriptures also.  This week I was reading in the Book of Moroni, and I found a part that really stuck out to me.  In Chapter 7 in verse 40 it says....   And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope.  How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?  in 41 we find the answer.  And what is it that ye shall hope for?  Behold I say unto that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.   42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.

We always need to have hope and faith for the future!  Sometimes it is so unclear, but we have the promise that if we always stay true to the Gospel, we will always have the things that we need!  I invite you to all read and study Chapter 7 of Moroni.  It is so powerful and applicable to us.  I love the Book of Mormon.  Every time that I read it I feel the power that it gives me.  I feel the Spirit teaching me, and testifying that it is true.  I hope that you all do the same. 

This week really has been great!  Elder Cabrera and I are great friends, and we get along great!  We are always laughing and talking, and it makes the work so fun!  He wants to learn English, so I'm teaching him English and he is teaching me more Spanish!  I am going to shoot some video of him someday to send you guys, he is absolutely hilarious.

This is really just a scattered letter, I feel like after 6 months in the mission I just repeat myself every Monday.  I just want you to all know how much I love you!  I am grateful for everything that you do for me, and for the great family that you are!

Love,
Elder Riley Ted Reeder

P.S. - We get to talk in like 3 weeks....sweet!!
P.S.S. - I made some freaking delicious Chicken Alfredo this week!  My comp even liked it.  I took pictures, but I forgot my camera....Sorry!  Thanks for all that stuff!
P.S.S.S. - Thanks for the pictures Dad!  They were awesome!  I did notice that you guys took out the tree that was by the sidewalk in front of the house, what happened there?