Dear Family,
I am finally writing you again. Sorry I didn''t write you last week. I hope you received an email explaining the situation. My companion was in the hospital from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon. He had surgery on Tuesday and now he is missing his gallbladder. He is feeling a lot better but his stomack has been sore since the operation. He took it all very well though. He is great. A few days ago I realized that I should have written you a snail mail with all of my abundant Study Time in the Hospital. Sorry I didn't remember in time but if it ever happens again I will be sure to do it.
So Transfers was last week and I stayed with Elder Carpenter and I stayed in the same Ward but we switched areas in the Ward. We were in the west but now we are in the east area. It was a weird change. Both of our Sister missionaries left the Ward and two new Elders white washed behind us. What's fun is that one of them is Elder Lauck, my trainer. We are in the same Ward and living together again. It is fun. His companion is a Puerta Rican Elder that started his mission with me. His name is Elder Pacheco. We have a good group now. Both companionships white washed their areas but we had the advantage because we already know a little bit about the area and the members. The other two are started with a blank slate. It has been interesting. I haven't white washed since my first transfer with Elder Lauck. I am trying to get to know every one that I can. I want to be able to do good work here. At least I am still my Elder Carpenter. That helps but from some things that President has said we are pretty sure he will be leaving once he can, after some check up visits with the Doctors. We think he was going to Transfer but him being in the hopital changed that. So President will probably change him as soon as he can and not wait for the next Transfer to come.
Luckily I was able to go to Transfer Meeting on Wednesday morning while a Brother from the Ward stayed with my companion. Transfer Meeting is where all of the missionaries that are transfering meet together and receive their new assignments. We have one every Transfer. This one was special and everyone was invited, even those that weren't affected by tranfsers. President did this because Elder W. Craig Zwick from the Seventy came with his wife to visit us. Unfortunately Elder Carpenter was the only one that wasn't able to attend. It was really neat. They brought their son, Scotty, with them. He is mentally and physically challenged but has a great spirit and strong, simple testimony. They shared a lot of stories about him and I was able to learn a lot from him. One neat thing that I learned was how simple missionary work can be. We just need to invite people to act and let them choose. We heard two sweet stories about times when Scotty did just that with people that he didnt know. What's neat is that one of those experiences was when he was in Thailand. He invited a couple to read the Book of Mormon and they were later baptized because of the simpleness and sincerity of his testimony. It was a great learning experience.
Scotty is very sweet and thoughtful. He has been worrying about Elder Carpenter so he and President Hale came to our apartment this morning so that Scotty could see how Elder Carpenter has been doing. It was really neat.
I haven't said it yet but it was great being able to see and talk to most of you last week, I really enjoyed it and like always it went by way too fast. But I will be able to talk to you in another five months.
I am trying to send you some pictures from the last few weeks. Hopefully they are pretty self explanitory.
I think I have caught you up on my life over the past few weeks. I am trying to stay busy and work hard. It is scary that I am already almost a year out. I hope that I can work hard and take advantage of my time here in Florida.
Well I don't have very much time left but I want t you to all know that I love you so much. And I know without a doubt that God and Jesus live and that we are living the fulness of the Gospel of Christ. I was thinking this morning how grateful I am for the knowledge that I have about the Plan that God has for me and th evision that I have about life and what I need to do here to be able to live with God and Jesus and all of you orever. That thought still blows my mind. What an amazing truth! I love you all. Take advantage of every minute of 2011.
Con amor,
Elder Kevin Reece
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