Buenos Dias-28.Feb.2011

Dear Family.
I agree with Amy. It is really neat to hear about each of your experiences and how you are applying the Gospel into your daily lives. It helps me see how much I will still be applying the same things that I am learning now even when I get home and have a "normal" life again. Looking back, I notice that I didn't really live the Gospel before my mission. I mean, I definitely did the things I was supposed to but I really didn't apply the Gospel into every aspect of my life like I am learning to do now and like I see all of you doing. It is so comforting knowing that all my family back home is living the principles I am striving to teach every day. I think that being around so many people that don't know the truth all day, I forget that there really are so many people all over the world(including all of you) that live the Gospel and apply its teachings into their everyday lives. I love you all so much. Thank you for your wonderful examples. I hope that when I get home I can live the Gospel as well as you all do.
Yesterday was Ward Conference and the Stake President spoke about our testimonies and three things that we need to do with them: 1. Gain one 2. Let it affect your decisions 3. Share it with others. I really liked his talk. The second step is really so important. Our testimonies should affect how we act every day. They should take a part in our every day decisions. If we don't act on our testimony, we will lose it.
Sacrament Meeting yesterday was interesting. Because it was Ward Conference, all of the Stake Leaders were there, many of which don't speak Spanish. So I was the lucky guy that was hooked up to a microphone and translated for them. They each had headsets and I just sat in the back of the room and talked to myself the whole time. It was challenging but a good experience.
Yesterday I also gave my second Baptismal Interview. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite ready but he has sincere desires to get baptized and will work hard to get the last few things figured out. He and I will meet again next Sunday to see how he is.
Raul came to Church this week and had his interview. He passed it like a champ and will be getting baptized this Wednesday. It will be a great day. Tonight we will be visiting him with Martin, our other Recent Convert. They are both from Peru and great men and fathers. I want to talk to them about having Martin baptize Raul but we will see tonight. That would be awesome!
Have any of you ever met anyone from south or central America? They are such great people. I love all of them. I can't believe that before my mission I had no idea who they were or anything. Now I still don't know everything but I know quite a bit about almost every country in south and central America. I feel so privileged because I get to meet people from every one of those countries. True I don't live there like a lot of my other friends who are serving in south and central America. But my poor friends only get to meet and learn to love one people. I get to learn about, meet people from, and learn to love every country and their culture and their food ;-D. That is one of the things that makes this Mission so incredible. I love it. I am so blessed to be where I am.
Well that is about it for this week. Like Amy said, everyday at a glance looks about the same but each day is blessed with special experiences. Like I have said before, I only wish I could share with all of you all the wonderful experiences that I am having here in south Florida. This is a blessed time of my life.
I love the restored Gospel and I love my Savior and my God.
Con todo mi corazon y con mucho carino,
Elder Reece( hijo, hermano, nieto, amigo) ;-D

P.S.- Does it bug you when I use Spanish words like that? Would you like me to stop or at least translate? Julie- you understand me, right?

Nimen Hao!

Well, yet another week has gone by! Thank you all for your amazing
letters. They were filled with fun news and great information. It is
so fun to read about all that you are doing in your lives. I am
impressed by how much you each are looking for ways that you can
improve in your lives in all sorts of areas.

This week definitely went by a lot faster than the last couple of
weeks and was filled with all sorts of crazy experiences. Craziest of
all was Saturday. We only had a couple planned lessons that day and
they were for after dinner so we had the whole day to fill. We planned
out various contacting places, times we would go tracting and trying
to find less-active members. But place after place that we went we ran
into crazy men! It was so weird. But the night ended great with us
getting stood up by one investigator but a different family that we
had tracted into a couple of weeks ago randomly decided to show up at
the Church. We had a great lesson with them and then two lessons right
after that with two less-active/recent converts. Although that day was
long, hard, and weird, the Lord was so gracious to us by sending us
that wonderful family. I have been trying to be sensitive to the times
when the Lord is letting me struggle and then the times when he picks
me back up again. I am finding more and more that the blessings are
contingent on my faith and my dilligence through the struggles. I have
heard thousands of stories and testimonies about this very thing, but
I love experiencing it first hand. It is a lot easier for me to get
through the hard times by reminding myself that the Lord has even
greater blessings in store.

As I mentioned last week I have started reading the Book of Mormon
again. I have noticed that two attributes of the Savior that are used
extremely often are "mercy" and "grace". I love that Nephi didn't
acknoweldge His mercy and grace in 1 Nephi 1 and call it good. He was
ever conscience of these amazing attributes of the Savior. There are
so many levels of our lives that the Atonement of Jesus Christ applies
to. I love seeing the various struggles that our investigator's have
and been able to promise them with all of my heart that the Lord truly
does understand them. There is no pain too large or too small for the
Atonement to satisfy.

While I was in the MTC I started reading "Jesus the Christ" and I LOVE
it! I look forward each morning to learning more about the background
and life of the Savior that is not taught in the scriptures. Something
that I have found common amont many of the Chapters is how involved in
the life of the Savior Satan was. I know that knew this, but reading
it in a new light is making it so much more clear to me. So many
people were convinced by Satan to be His servants and I am sure that
they had no idea they were playing in the eternal scheme of things. It
is amazing how easily we can be convinced to take Satan's side just
because it is easy. I hope that each of us can take a look at
seemingly harmless things that we do that make us step over on to
Satan's side, even if it is just with the corner of our little baby
toe. Heaven knows that there are times when I seem to have a foot
firmly planted there!

Well, besides biking, studying, contacting, tracting, eating,
teaching, going to bed and getting back up to do it again there is not
much going on here. Each day looks pretty much the same on paper, but
turns out completely different in real life. I love seeing the little
adventures that are thrown my way.

Thank you again for all of the letters that you diligently send. I
absolutely love them all. I love you too! Be safe and be strong.

Love, Sis. Amy Reece

Elder Reece - 22 February 2011

Gosh I love you so much.
     I love being able to come here once a week and hear a little about each of your lives. How crazy that six years ago we all lived together in Colorado and now we are all in different parts of the world doing different, crazy things and the main communication we have is this little metal box in front of me. I definitely didn't take enough advantage of my time with all of you when we were all at home together. It makes true the saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder. The further away I am from you, the more I love all of you.

Elder Reece, Italo, Elder Robles

     Thank you for all of your emails and letters and your thoughts about Sabbath Day attendance. It really helps. You'll be glad to here that Raul came to Church on Sunday. He only stayed fro the first hour because he was super tired but HE CAME. He sacrificed and came. We had a really good lesson with him last Tuesday and talked about the importance of coming even if its only for sacrament meeting. After the lesson he said that he understood a lot better. He is doing so great. I am super excited for his baptism next week. All of your advice was so great. Thank you for your thoughts. I am sure that I will have other people that I will teach that will need more help. What helped me last week was talking to my Bishop and following the Spirit, exactly what you all said to do. I'm glad we're all on the same page.
     Well other big news is that Italo got baptized!! It was a great experience. He is super awesome. He was confirmed on Sunday. Also, Martin got married on Sunday! It was a great wedding, the first one I have ever been to. Bishop Ayaviri did it. It was a great night. The picture is him and his new wife. Both Italo and Martin were ordained Priests this last Sunday. Bishop isn't wasting any time with them. They are going to be put to work and they are going to be great! I love both of them.
      This week I gave my first Baptismal Interview. It went well. She will be getting baptized tonight but unfortunately I won't be there. It was a neat experience. I hope I can make my next one shorter, though. This one took 1 1/2 hours. Way too long.

Martin and Wife

      But that's all the time I have. Sorry. Know that I love you. Keep strong in the Gospel. Like Amy said, we need to learn to give our whole beings to God. I am learning to. And like Kim said, there is a lot of good things that we can do with our time. A great youth that I was with on Sunday told me that idleness is the greatest challenge we face in our day. It is a great point. We can fill our time with useful things. I love you all. You are great.
     Love,
                     Elder Reece

Oh Hey!

Our shopping cart

All items now on our bicycles

This Week

Dear Family,
Amy, you make me look so bad. You write a novel every week and I can't even manage two paragraphs:-) I should have taken a typing class in college to prepare me for my mission. I still have to look at the keyboard when I type and I probably type about 30 words a minute. But such is life.
It was great to hear from all of you and it sounds like everything is going well. I decided that I am going to try to give you all more information in my emails.
Biggest information for this week is that tomorrow Italo Inanami is getting baptized! He had his interview during CHurch on Sunday and everything is perfect. I hope it all goes well. You'd think that after having a few baptisms already I would know what I am doing and how to make sure the Baptismal Service is a success but I am still stressing about what needs to be done so that every one enjoys it and so that it goes well. We want it to not only be a spiritual, memorable experience for Italo but also for the investigators that we are planning on having there.
Other interesting news is that I am District Leader this transfer. It is my first leadership position so far on my mission. My District consists of 6 Elders and I am in charge of training them, helping them, and interviewing their baptismal candidates. It is an intimidating calling because of the 6 of us, I have the least time in the field. I gae my first Training yesterday and it turned out okay. I will be giving one every week this Transfer.
Unfortuantely, Raul Acosta will not be getting baptized tomorrow like we had planned on. He didn't come to Church on Sunday and we want to make sure that he is solid before we baptize him. He didn't come because of work and I am actually really wondering about him right now, wondering if we should baaptize him anyway. I want to say no until he shows that he will come to Church consistently but I know members that work on Sundaysso I don't know if it is okay for him to miss some Sundays because of work. I really want to know what the commandment is, specifically. Is it okay to work on Sundays? I understand in some cases yes. Like doctors or policemen or in other life threatening situations. But when people say that they "need to work" in order to support their families it makes me wonder. Won't God bless us for sacrificing to com to Church and keep His day holy? Won't God bless us? and take care of us? even if it seems impossible? I can't really judge because I have never had family depending on me, but I see it simply as a dcisions whether or not to trust God and His promises. But if I am wrong and God really won't take care of people for sacrificing and losing jobs and money to come to Church, then I don't want to be teaching that to people. If any of you could help me I would love it. What do the prophats say? What is the commandment and what are the promised blessings for keeping it? When is is appropriate to work on the Lord's Day? Is it really just as simple as a matter of faith in God and blessing us for sacrifice? What does God expect? Sorry if I sound rude or ignorant. But I really want to know God's will so that I can live it and so that I can help others receive all of God's blessings.
This week will be exciting because Elder Golden of the Seventy will be with us in our Zone Conferences. Mine is on Friday so I will be privileged once again to receive special training from one of God's special servants.
I love you all very much and I want you all to know that I know that God is always there for us to help us and guide us. ALl we need to do is trust Him. That's all He asks, that we love and trust Him. You all have a great week.
Con amor y carino,
Elder Kevin Reece

I am in Taiwan!

Oh hey! I loved talking to all of you that I was able to on Tuesday! I
am sorry David and Rachel that I wasn't able to give you a call. I
love you all!

I can't believe I am actually in Taiwan! Right now I am sitting in an
internet cafe in Feng Yuan Taiwan, just north of Taichung. This little
cafe is full of Taiwanese people wasting their day away playing games
on the internet. Well, minus the one unhappy man next to us that
thinks Sis. Howard and I are being way too loud. Little does he know
that Sis. Howard's Chinese is amazing and she understands all of his
grumblings. Poor man, he needs the gospel in his life.

Well, like I said, my companion is Sis. Howard and I love her! She has
amazing Chinese, is fearless about talking to people, and bikes like a
crazy woman. When I was still in the mission home I heard Pres. Bishop
say that there was one Sister that was training who was super goal
oriented and had all sorts of graphs showing her goals, and a Sister
that would be covering two church buildings and I thought I wanted the
first Sister and would probably get the second Sister. Little did I
know that the were both Sis. Howard and the she would indeed by my
companion. She helped me set all kind of crazy goals this morning and
each day we bike back and forth between our two chapels. Its pretty
insane.

Oh my goodness I have so much I want to tell you but my thoughts are
scattered all over the place. I apologize right now, but this letter
will probably go all over the place. :D

First, before I forget- I can only get AND receive emails from my very
immediate family. So that means mom and my siblings can email me and I
can email them. I am sorry to anyone who this inconveniences! I can't
argue with mission rules though. But- I would absolutely LOVE to
receive snail mail letters from anyone who is willing to take the time
and money to send them!

Okay, now that that is out of the way. Like I said, we have to
chapels. One is in Tanzi and is on the 15th floor of an office
building. It is crazy. And unfortunately for my legs it is at the
bottom of a pretty long, steady hill. That is not fun to ride up. The
second chapel, which really is a chapel (not an American looking
Chapel, but a nice clean chapel none the less) is in Feng Yuan. Having
two chapels not only means that we have to ride back and forth a lot,
but it also means that Sis. Howard and I have to split up on Sundays.
This week I went to the Tanzi Ward and she went to the Feng Yuan ward,
and next week we will switch. Its kinda crazy and it was really scary
having to go to church alone. Well, I wasn't entirely along because I
had a member "companion". But I didn't have my real, English-speaking,
know-the-ropes, trainer companion. It will be a great experience
though as I will really have to know our investigators and the members
of the ward. Luckily, our apartment is about in the middle of the two
chapels so that is somewhat convenient.

In our mission we have a rule that we talk to EVERYONE. And since we
are on bikes and most people are on scooters, this is really easy. At
every stoplight we just pull up next to someone and start getting
their information. We try and quickly set up an appointment with them
and then extend a baptismal commitment. Its crazy! I am still getting
up the courage to be really gun-hoe about it, but I do it! I don't
know the stats on how many of those appts and baptisms really go
through, but I don't think it is much. But the more we do it the
higher the stats we will have. We have had some pretty cool
experiences from talking to people already. The coolest one was when
Sis. Howard found a really-inactive Sister. Sister Howard was going to
talk to another person at the stoplight, but instead pulled up to this
sister, Sister Yang. We met found out she was baptized about 5 years
ago and after the Sisters that converted her were transfered, Sister
Yang just kinda fell away. But she is amazing! We met with her for
real yesterday and found out she is still keeping all of the
commandments! She has had some bumps in her life but is so anxious to
start coming to church again. She has been wanting to for awhile but
had no idea where it was. That is one hard thing about having the
church in an office building- it is not easily accessible. Anyway, she
is going to start coming again and we hope to help her prepare to go
to the temple. I am so excited. She truly is amazing and I am so glad
that Sis. Howard listened to the unaudiable prompting she had to go
talk to her. I love this work!

Kevin was so right when we said that members are important. Really,
they are essential. We can go find as many people to baptize as we
want, but having the Gospel won't help them any if the don't stay
active. Missionaries come and go but the members are always there.
Please, please, please help the missionaries! One of Sis. Howard's
stats that she keeps is lessons with members present. I have seen the
proof that the more that members are involved in the missionary work,
the more investigators get baptized. Don't leave the missionaries
hanging!

My love and testimony of missionary work has grown 10 fold just in the
last few days! The Gospel is true. Thank you for your love and your prayers!

I love all of you so much! God be with you!
Sister Amy Reece

Elder Reece - Querida Familia 8.Feb.2011

Dear Family,
What an exciting week! Amy I am way excited for you. Enjoy it completely right from the first. I also am excited to read about the experiences that you have in Taiwan. It's still crazy to think that you are going way over there. Buena suerte y Dios te bendiga (Good luck and God bless you).
Well, the big transfer news is that . . . we're both staying. Both Elder Robles and I are excited to be together for at least a little bit longer. It is fun being with him and we are planning on continuing to work hard here and see great miracles and success.
This week was really good. Five of our investigators came to Church on Sunday! Italo was there. Adulfo was there. We hope to see his wife there next week. And Raul came and brought his two daughters. I think they all really enjoyed it. There were also a few other people that should have been there but didn't show up. We will be talking to them this week to make sure they are there next Sunday. Mom, are regularly investigators at your Sacrament Meeting? I don't know how much any of you see the work of the missionaries but I know one thing that missionaries always worry about is whether their investigators will have a good experience at Church. We work so hard to get people to Church because that is a great sign of their progress and desires. But we always fear that they won't enjoy Church and won't want to come back. Something that makes a huge impact for them is if the Ward welcomes them. I always try to tell members when there is an investigator at Church so that they can say hi and welcome them. But something that I wish more members did and what I want to do when I get home is know my Ward so well that I notice when someone new comes to Church and can take my own initiative and go say hi to them. I love seeing members going and sitting by and talking to my investigators even without me asking them too. Because as Missionaries, we always have a lot of things to do during Church and we don't always have time to stay with our investigators the whole time to tell them where to go and answer any questions they have. Like I said, I don't know how many investigators you have come to you Wards but I know that your Missionaries will absolutely love it if you introduce yourself to the visitors and welcome them and help them during Church. At least make sure you smile, say hi, and say it's good to have them there. That will help the progression of the investigators so very much. Trust me. I know;-)
Well I really got to go. I love you all so very much. I love the Lord and His Gospel and this work. Like Amy said last week, remember the importance of the message we have.
Love,
Elder Kevin Reece

Mom- That great man that baptized Martin is our Bishop, Obispo Ayaviri. He is from Bolivia and is a great example for me. He is a man of great faith and vision. You'll enjoy meeting him when we came back to visit. He has a sweet wife and a funny, rambunctious son

Sister Reece - It's finally here!....

Well, the time has finally come for me to head off to Taiwan! I can't
believe that it has actually been 12 weeks since I came in here. I
have learned so much and have been so blessed!

This week has been crazy preparing for departure. Because the
missionaries in our zone go all over the world we leave at all sorts
of different times. So goodbyes started last Monday and will continue
until we leave tomorrow. It is so amazing to me all of the places
where the Lord needs His Gospel taught in Mandarin. It reminds of the
scripture in D&C (I wish I knew where exactly) that promises that
everyone will be able to hear the Gospel in their own tongue. I love
being a part of that promise. Hard though Chinese may be, I am already
reaping the amazing benefits of sharing the Love of God in this
beautiful language. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but
the gospel is practically written into the the Chinese characters. I
can't wait to learn the language better! Yay!

Besides saying goodbyes and craming in as much Chinese as I could this
week I have also been edified by my companion and my teachers. Sister
Okada is an ah-maze-ing example of setting goals! She has encouraged
and inspired me to set all sorts of goals for my mission, but more
specifically what goals to set for this first week. I have to give
credit for the actual idea of setting goals for the first week in the
mission to my teacher, Brother Beck, though. With his encouragement
Sis Okada and I took some time to set some crazy goals for the week.
Just as a little precurser to these goals, you should know a few
things. First of all, I will be on the plane for some 14ish hours with
12 other missionaries. Also, once we get to Taiwan we will be staying
in the mission home for a few days as the help orient us to our
exciting new life. After that I will be heading to my first area! Now-
the goals: 5 referals, meet 30 people at church, contact a less-active
or new member, and use ALL of the time contacting people as possible.
Yikes! Okay, those may not seem too bad to you amazing people, but I
am nervous for some of them. Although I am nervous I know that the
Lord will help me do His work if I do it His way, and with His Spirit.
If nothing else, I have learned in the MTC the importance of relying
on the Lord. He has called me to do a great work and He will not leave
me alone. He will never leave any of use alone. As we obey his
commandments and strive to serve Him, we will give us the strength we
need. I will report back to you next week on how they went. Yahoo!

Today was insane trying to get five of the six Sisters in our room
packed and ready to go. Sis Okada was amazing and helped me get all
packed and pretty much ready to go by 9:30ish this morning! I think we
may have set a record! I then had time to write a couple letters and
help some of the other sisters pack. It looked like our bedroom
exploded out into the hallway! There was so much stuff. Don't worry, I
got some funny pictures.

Well, we have to head off to finish some more last minute errands that
need done. Thank you for all of your love and support! You are all
amazing and I am so grateful for you in my life.

God be with you!

Sister Amy Reece

p.s. Britt- thanks for the letter! I had a cookies and cream milk
today in honor of you and will have a cookie tonight just for you!
love you! Keep me udpated on the married life!