December 2, 2012
Hello!
Well, this was another great week out in the south! I don't quite know where to start, but I will try! So every weekend (Sunday), we come in to Santo
Domingo, and then we head back to the south on Tuesday morning. So
last week, Monday and Tuesday were quite boring--just a bunch of
meetings and driving! It was fun to come back to the office and see
Elder Batista and Elder Luzon, I really love those two. On Wednesday,
we headed out to Barahona again! This time we went clear out in the boonies to Neyba, Duverge, and all of those places! There is basically a whole lot of nothing....you go to the boonies...then
you pass it by 50 miles, and there you are! I could hardly believe
that we have missionaries in those cities, because they are just so far
away! It is also so hot there...that the sun starts
fires....yeah....wow!
Thursday, we had a meeting with all of the Zone Leaders to go over
some of their responsibilities and to help us get acquainted with them.
It was a really fun experience. As we were preparing the meeting, I
felt as if Elder Chinchilla and I really got a lot of help from the
Lord. At first I felt kinda overwhelmed because neither of us have ever even been
zone leaders, and here we had to tell them what to do! Well, we studied
really hard, and we were able to find some really good things! One of the
things that we want to improve on is how the missionaries make goals.
We are seeing that lots of missionaries just throw out numbers for
goals, but they don't really have any plan of what they are going to do! We gave this as an example..
"For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."
This is Heavenly Fathers goal. He wants all of His children to return and live with Him again. Now, imagine if He hadn't
made a plan to accomplish that! What if He had just said...this is
what I want...and left it at that? It would have been kind of hard to
accomplish it. So, Heavenly Father designed a plan, the plan of
salvation, so that He could accomplish His goal of living with all of His children again! We are really hoping to make better goals..and
really have a plan to how we are going to achieve them!
After the meeting, we headed out to San Juan to do an intercambio
with the Zone Leaders out there, Elders Boswell and Stewart. I worked
with them, and my companion with the other companionship that lives in
that house. It was awesome! I really do love doing intercambios.
It has been a huge learning experience for me. Every single missionary
has a different way of teaching the gospel, and that is what I love
most. I realize even more the importance of really becoming the best
missionary that I can be. I don't need to be anyone else. I
need to be the very best me that I can be! I know that the Lord has
sent me to this mission, and to the area that I am now for a reason! I
hope that I am able to be an instrument in His hands to help people to
come to His Church.
Yesterday, we had an interesting experience. We were contacting, and
we decided to contact a road. We just started walking...and both walked
to the same house...in the middle of the road. Well, we started
talking, and out came a woman calling, "ELDERES!" Whenever we hear
that we know that it is a member. Well, it turned out that she is
extremely less active. Well, we were able to share with her, and she
told us that we were the answer to her prayers, and that she really
needed that visit. We then received her parents as references, and have
planned to go back this week. I am so amazed in the way that the Lord
inspires us. It almost always is in such ways so simple, that if we aren't paying attention, we just might miss it.
I am so grateful for everything that you have done for me! I am grateful for all of
my many blessings, but especially for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am
grateful for the Atonement and for the cleansing, purifying power. I
am grateful that I have been given a chance to serve a mission. I know
that it has been such a blessing in my life. I get nervous that I have
such little time left. Sometimes I feel as if I haven't become what I need to be. But, I hope that if I keep working, the Lord will help me to become what He desires.
Love you guys!
Elder Riley Ted Reeder
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