November 12, 2012

Hey everyone, so yep, it's official, I'll be spending my last 3 months training a new missionary!  Prayers answered!   I really do love the idea, i think it's going to force me to stay diligent and obedient, and not trunky.  Well, i'm not yet sure where i'll be moving off to, but I'll let you all know next week.  If you really did want to send any letters soon, you could mail them to the mission office and they can forward them off to where i'm going to be.  or just wait a week.

life is good here!  it snowed this morning but melted as it hit the ground, so it's not like the weather out there. 

Sure love you all!

Love,

Elder Rees 

October 22, 2012

Here's whats up.  We are just starting week 4 out of 6 in this transfer cycle, which means we have transfers in the middle of November, just the week before thanksgiving.  I'm very much anticipating a change in my assignment.  I have been a zone leader for about 9 months and have just 2 remaining transfers after this one.  That means I am a very big candidate to train a new missionary.  We have several needs to swap out zone leaders because some of us are going home, and we need to absorb that blow sooner rather than later.  I would love to return to being a trainer, and working a family ward again!  I really do look forward to transfer calls to see what happens.  But if I stay as a ZL, I'd like that too! 

I'm still with Elder Wilson, He's interesting.  He's very different from me, and a few times this transfer we've had to really push past some rough spots.  Little things sort of got magnified, and we had to talk it out.  That is for sure a skill I'll cherish when returning home.  Pushing away the spirit of contention and really humbling ourselves, and talking about how we are really feeling.  We have such different personalities and strengths, that we've decided on ways to best help our area, and each other.  It was amazing to sit there and put up on a white board all the things that each other is best at, and devise out our roles together.  We really do get along very well, but it's kind of a clash of the titans.  But we really have been managing it very well i think.

As far as the area, we have so many progressing investigators!  I love it!  We have a woman in the Williamsport branch that is getting baptized Nov 3...  She's amazing, but is doing this alone.   A few days ago we gave her the heads up that things would be getting more difficult as her baptism got closer, and we were right, Satan is using her husband to really put negative pressure on their relationship.  She felt that they were growing closer together, it's clear that the spirit is more in her life and she's feeling more love towards her husband, but he's pushing the church away, and is feeling more of the spirit of contention. She's really going to need that branch and the sisters there for support.   She cried all through our stake conference this week, which was all about eternal families and preparing for the temple, and the joy that comes from living this gospel together.  She couldn't hold them back.  My heart aches for her and the trials before her baptism. 

We have several other investigators that have baptismal dates, but are still awaiting, or having a hard time recognizing, spiritual confirmations.  I so wish that we could have access to an I PAD and  Mormon.org because we could show them all so many movies that really help the scriptures come to life, and bring the spirit.  But it's so cool to see their conversion really happen! 

We are starting to have all the leaves fall off... It's been amazing here to see all the leaves change colors and stay bright for a few weeks.  The weather is turning colder, and we are now wearing our suit jackets most days, but the afternoons are very pleasant here.  We will not have snow for a few more months, and I hope we just get rain until I leave... HA like that will happen.  Well I think that's all the cool updates I can think of.  I love you all and am sending my love from Indiana!