Elder Rees in Indiana: October 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011

Current Address

Elder Dallin Rees
402 S. Washington St. #2
Crawfordsville, IN 47933

October 12, 2011

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!! not sure how often my blog is being updated so i'm including you in this email.... but feel free to check out other weeks at www.dallininindiana.blogspot.com

OK, this could be the biggest post EVER! Or one that includes the most information/stories!

OK, lets start with the Pictures!

This week we were so blessed to have a baptism, we baptised a little girl named Alea! Her family is so great, and I've really become good friends with them, and it's been great to help them get over a few things that were holding them back from coming to church and to help Alea get baptized! I was able to give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost! It was so cool to be apart of that. It completed one of my goals for my mission: to find, teach, and Baptize all in 6 weeks! It was so great to help this family become active again, and help Alea be baptized!

We had 2 lessons with them this week, and one of the lessons we were coming home and I see these little beady eyes on the side of the road.... OPOSSUM! I have made a vow early on in my mission that if I ever had the chance to kill an opossum on side of the road/roadway, I'd take them out. They are super creepy! SO as we approach this animal, I have not yet discovered what it is, but we are driving toward it, and instead of running across the street, it runs away from us! Stupid animal! all i had to do was line it up with the drive side tires and then...... THUMP THUMP!! :) This was the night where my District Leader was with me, he came on exchange to perform Alea's baptismal interview.... So I'm driving see this opossum, and hit it, and am waiting to see if he's going to get mad at me for hitting it.... or what his reaction would be.... so I'm sitting there kind of cringing to see what is going to happen next and he starts laughing uncontrollably, and makes us turn around and take pictures! I didn't have my camera so i can't add any to this email, but needless to say it was awesome! We had a BIG Laugh, and a journal entry for sure!

OK, on a more serious note, we met a lady a few weeks ago on the street and she expressed some interest in getting closer to God, she then showed us her arms.... She's a cutter, and slices open her wrists in order to take away some of the emotional pain she's feeling.... kind of scary! We a few days ago we get a call from her... and she leaves us a voicemail, in the message she's crying, and going on and on about how she feels, and how she wants to feel better, how she needs help, and wants us to show her that we can help her... She said she wanted to die, and was so lonely, but then said no, i don't want to die.... The phone went silent, and then we heard "here i go." We were only a few blocks away from her house, and we took off on foot that direction... We called her back and got through, I calmly asked if she'd hurt herself, and she said she'd cut her wrist open, and needed help... We walked a little faster now. We called a member and had him meet us at her house. We got in and her arm was cut, but by this point wasn't bleeding and may have only needed a few stitches to keep it together.... I applied some pressure to her arm, while my companion and the member gave her a blessing of comfort... We calmed her down and got her permission to call for some help. Police, and Ambulance arrive, and take her away to get medical attention.... We filled out a report, and have not been back since... but are hopefully going to go by today and see how she's doing... Crazy right!?

Cool story number 3.

We were driving in a neighboring town, and saw a little old lady tossing logs into the back of a truck. We didn't have any appointments so we stopped to offer some help which we were glad she allowed us to. There was a man there also using a big log splitter to split up the remains of an old tree. These stumps were HUGE!! The man was in his 60's maybe, and had had a stroke, so his right side was useless... His arm was in a sling, and his leg was in a brace. He had about a 50 word vocabulary, but he was so strong! He used his left arm to wrangle the logs into place and then hold them with his good leg, and pull down the hydraulic press... We stayed there for several hours in our white shirts and suit pants to help them! SO MUCH FUN! It took the 2.5 of us to get the logs into place and help get them split. We were in the right place at the right time, and it was so much fun to help out strangers and to split wood! I explained I've missed out on the wood work this year while being here so it was good to be there and be able to help!

See a SUPER busy week, a fun week, and kind of a crazy week! But so many blessings came from this week, and we are excited to have another baptism this Weekend too!

His name is Danny, and he's so great! He's been ready for baptism for a while, and is excited to get wet, and make that covenant with God.

Well I've got to run I'm running out of time here in the library!

Love you all, Remember God loves you and Will answer your prayers

Love Elder Rees

Media

Hey so we are part of a new Media Blitz by the church, and are encouraged to get familiar with www.mormon.org and really use that more and more in our missionary efforts.

CHALLENGE: Get to know the people of mormon.org, by watching the 3 minute video profiles! They are short, but so powerful! You will feel the spirit!

Also Make your own profile for you to share your testimony with those around you!

I'll soon have my profile up, and will point you all to it so you can see what i'm talking about, but go to the website, and check out a few of the profiles on your own!

Love you all

Love Elder Rees

October 3, 2011

Has it really been 8 months?! General Conference was here again! What a wonderful time! I truly do love being able to listen to the General Authorities, and other officers of the church. The spirit was so strong in the sessions, and being able to sit and listen to the Prophets voice is such a wonderful blessings that millions of other human beings don't even realize they have that honor and right as well. I have realized I need to be a Bolder Missionary, and truly proclaim with vigor, and with sincerity that Christ Lives, and that he works through His servant the Prophet. Also super neat is that Wyoming is getting a TEMPLE!! It's too bad it's not in the Bridger Valley, but I guess Star valley works too!

This week: I'm trying to think if there was anything cool that happened or if it was just another week... We get to teach people all the time that make me glad I'm living the commandments. One guy who weighs 97 pounds... He has a disease that was contracted from drinking and smoking for 45 years.... He's going to die, very soon, and it won't be peaceful or painless. Another person, pays 4 child supports, and now doesn't have a paycheck.... We then get all those messages in conference to live the law of chastity, and the word of wisdom, so that we aren't "bound" by satans chains, which lead to destruction, and hell, it's so visible to me.

Um, I'm going to the Dentist today, to have a flipper made once again. I'm pretty bummed I have to be toothless once again, but it will be good to get some of that work done before I no longer have insurance.

We have a baptism this Saturday! WOOOHOOO!! I found out last night I'm going to be the one who gets to confirm! That's crazy! It will be the first one that I'll perform while on the mission. It's such a blessing! Their family needed us. Not other missionaries, but us. For some reason they needed our personalities to help them get back to full activity in the church and to help their daughter get baptised! Really fun!

Well other than that, we are in need of people to teach, we have dropped several of the people that aren't progressing, and it's really intimidating to look at your teaching pool, and see only 4 names, 2 of which don't meet regularly, and the other 2 are getting baptized this month...

Well i love you all, and am glad to hear that things are still going well out west! It was kind of hard to see the scenes of SLC on conference and not feel a little flutter of "oh i miss that" but those things soon pass.

I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful week,

Love Elder Rees

September 26, 2011

This Week: In a Word.... LONG!

I'm now beginning to understand what it means when RM's say that a mission is the Hardest thing they have ever done in their lives... It is tough sometimes. It's tough to do the right thing, it's even tougher to know what it is you are doing is the right thing... We plan, we study, we attempt to teach, we plan more, we study more, we re-evaluate, we re-plan, we study, we walk, and walk, and walk.... (I'd like riding a bike, but..... I'm a nice senior companion), we get anti church people trying to save us... Which by the way, I love... :) There are too many times when people seem to think that by asking us if we've read the bible, that the Book of Mormon will magically go away, and if we read the bible we'll understand the Book of Mormon is false.... ??? All the Negative in the world that surrounds the church is just another testimony that it's true! We get to see the MOST opposition from Satan, and we sure don't see him out to destroy other churches or other peoples faith. So with all of that planning and walking, studying, and talking, we should yield some success in the future weeks. On that note, we do actually have 2 baptisms coming up! :) One is with an amazing 10 year old little girl, who we truly were blessed and prepared to meet. She is the only remaining member of her family to get baptized, and she is so ready! She sits in Primary and just knows all the answers and runs circles around the other kids in there. Missionaries have known about this part member family for some time, and we were the ones that got in the door, and are blessed to see the baptism. It all happens in the Lords time, and I'm so glad that He's blessing us with some of his choicest. The other Baptism is an investigator, who all of his family also has been baptised, but more recently. We have been able to help him get to know the gospel so much better, and have really helped him overcome a few things in the past few weeks. Satan is working hard on this one, and it will be a stretch to get him wet the 15th....

Life as a missionary is getting better, I'm understanding a little bit more about why I'm here, and figuring things out by making mistake,s and struggling a little bit, but that is how we grow. I'm also really excited to be able to participate in General Conference, there are so many blessings that are found in those words... A Girl in the Seminary class here said this: "so it's like you listen to what God would have you know and learn for the next 6 months..." So simple, profound and True!

Challenge: Make sure you prepare yourself for Conference! This is the time where God answers Prayers! Revelation will come. Each one of us is working on something, and I KNOW that in the 10 hours of General Conference there will be something said that will help you. God will answer your prayers through His Servants the Prophets. Go into conference with a question on your mind, and it WILL get answered!

I love you all, and appreciate all the Love, and Letters!

Till next week!

Love Elder Rees

September 19, 2011

ELDERS IN THE CORN!!

OK, Well it's Harvest Season, and the Corn is as big as it's going to get. There are Corn Fields EVERYWHERE!!! I mean really they are all over, they get squeezed in, in the most crazy places. Well the Corn in mostly all dried out, and it's time to harvest. The type of corn here is not used for eating, but more for Feed, and for Ethanol.... but before it went away for the year i figured I'd better snap a few pictures and really show you all just how big the corn can be. So here are 2 pictures that i hope will show you just how tall the stalks are! Well over 10 Feet! and then another (sunset one) to show you the contrast with the corn field, and a field next to it (soybeans, also everywhere).

Well Today was transfer calls, and we are Both going to be staying for at least another 6 weeks. Elders in the past have spent a lot of time here... One elder was here for 9 months of his mission, so there is a possibility that I'll get to be one of those, ( i sure hope not, i like moving). We sat down with the bishop yesterday, and expressed our love for the ward, and our desire to help as much as we can, and I'm sure it's going to pay off. We have been pointed in the right direction as far as people to go and try by, and people to start to work on as far as re-activating. One of those families is a Part member family, where the 10 year old daughter isn't a member. We were able to meet with her 2 times and have set a baptismal date of 10/8/2011, we are so excited to be a part of her special day. This girl is so smart, and the family is the most "active" Less actives I've ever met. They all have solid testimonies, and are keeping all of the commandments, but have allowed a simple offense to take them away from renewing their covenants on a regular basis. They are a wonderful family. We got to help unload a few hundred bales of hay, and I loved it. I want to be a farmer... (only for a few hours, then I'll be bored).

Life here is good, there are so many people that are here that have expressed some interest in having us come back and to teach them. I hope and pray that, that wonderful blessing of being a full time teacher will continue. I'm beginning to enter a different phase of missionary work.... For the first 6 months I've been concerned with getting to know the What to do, and now I'm wanting to learn more and more the How, and Why? of missionary work. There are so many times i want to understand the process, and not just go out and "do work." It's been good to have Zone Leaders, and District Leaders who are here to help me in my understanding.

My companion is great, we are working hard, and are being blessed. Thank you for your letters, emails, and pictures! It's really great to see all of your families, and see just how big everyone is getting.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of your missionary in Indiana. There are so many times i wish i had my camera, but am missing it. The Sunsets out here are amazing, and my little camera just doesn't do the colors justice.

The time here is Flying BY!!! I look at the calendar and it's almost at month 8 for me.... I now only have 3 more transfers till my year mark! WOW!

Oh, other good news: 54-10 FOR THE U!! I must say my Sunday morning got very good when our Ward mission leader picked us up for church and said he was tired because he was watching the game... the words of a hymn came to my mind "oh how lovely was the morning, radiant beamed the sun above." Oh, good times. There are so many BYU fans here so it was great, I only wish i would have wore my red tie to church to show my true colors.

Well Got to run, I love you all, and appreciate all of your prayers and love and concern.

Love Elder Rees

September 12, 2011

So here is a little bit of the Mishawaka landscape!

So there is a little river walk behind our apartment, it made for some good pictures. I also have a picture of our house, we lived in one of the apartments, but this is a huge mansion that we were living in.