Oh hey everyone!
I just want to start by saying that I love you all! You are such
amazing examples to me that we truly can live in the world but not
live of the world. Each week as I read your emails and stories of all
of the fun things you do I am impressed by the righteous was you have
fun. I love it!
Funny event for the week- a lady at church asked me how much I payed
for my curly hair. She was shocked and disgusted when I told her that
thanks to my mom it is free! :D She paid over $100 for her perm.
Thanks for saving me so much money mom!
This was a great week! I feel like I learned a lot about myself and a
lot about how to be a better missionary. My first 2-3 weeks here we
pretty much started with a clean slate of investigators in both of our
areas. We had a couple, but they weren't really progressing so we
dropped them all. That was hard but we knew that we would have more
time to find the people that really are prepared to receive the
gospel. So for awhile we just tried hard to find people to teach- and
it was hard. We contacted a lot, tracted a lot, set up a lot of
lessons, and got stood up a lot. And on top of that we prayed a lot.
And I can tell you that the Lord really does answer prayers. We don't
have 100 people ready to be baptized now, shoot, we don't even have 7,
but we do have 4 progressing investigators that are AMAZING! It has
been really cool to work with them from the initial point of contact
to now- a couple weeks out from their baptisms. Sis. Howard and I pray
everyday that we will know how to best help each of them individually
prepare to enter the waters of baptism. I love it!
Sis. Howard is such an amazing teacher! I have loved watching and
learning from her how to take the exact same doctrine and make it
personal to each person. All of our investigator's are so very
different but the doctrine is all the same. I am so far from being
able to teach like Sis. Howard does, but I feel so blessed each day to
be able to be a part of the lessons. We have definitely had to go over
a few bumps as we have been learning how to teach in harmony. I am so
grateful for all of the opportunities I had to teach in the MTC, but I
think I let all of my 2.5 months worth of experience get to my head.
Up until this last week I wanted to have a 50/50 portion in our
lessons. I thought that because I had taught all this doctrine in the
MTC I could teach it here too, no problem. But this week as Sis.
Howard and I have evaluated our lessons and as I have evaluated my
attitude I realized that I have been so prideful in thinking that I
can do everything Sis. Howard can do. I know, that sounds really
weird. But I was expecting to do with my 2 weeks on island everything
that Sis. Howard has learned from spending a year+ on island. I wish
that I had realized that before, but I am grateful to know it now.
While I will eventually be able to do all Sis. Howard can do, it is a
process. Each day I need to study hard, pray hard, and work hard and I
will one day be able to be as good of a teacher as Sis. Howard and all
of the other amazing missionaries that I will have the opportunity to
work with.
This week as I was reading in the Book of Mormon I found a little gem
of a chapter- 2 Nephi 22. It is all of six verses long and all six of
them are great! My favorite is verse 2: "Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength
and my song; he also has become my salvation." It is amazing to me the
strength and the courage that we can have if we truly trust in the
Lord. He has amazing strength that endured so much and He has promised
that we too can have His strength. I also love that Isaiah says that
the Lord has BECOME his salvation. Allowing the Lord to be our
salvation truly is a process. He is always there, but WE have to let
Him become our salvation. We have to do our part. I love the Savior!
He is so merciful and great. I am amazed each day at all that His
strength and power can accomplish. I am so grateful that I am able to
wear His name on my chest every single day for 1.5 years.
Well, as always, this turned into a long letter. Our mission President
is great and gives us one hour to write to our families and then
another 30 min to write to him. Which means that I have plenty of time
to write ridiculously long emails to all of you! If you take the time
and make it to the end of my letters I know you really do love me :D.
I love you all! Thank you for your love and support.
Until next week!
Sister Amy Reece.
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