April 16, 2012

Hey Dad,

  That's good its spring time now. Its been raining here and a lot of sun shine. Eagle Point looks a lot like Payson. I like it here a lot. Well, today at 3 we will be teaching a new investigator. Pretty exciting. We have been teaching a lot. Well, there is some people that remember James. We stopped by some water falls and they were sure pretty. Well, I am glad everything is going good there. Everything is going good here. The members here are great but yesterday I did 8 hours of church and it was a super long day. It was invitation Sunday up here, was it down there? Did you invite anyone to church? I was thinking about Mark Casperson, I think you should invite him to church. Well, I like my mission so far. I hope you had a happy birthday!!!!
I love you guys.

April 9, 2012

Hey Dad,

  Well, I am long my new area. Me area is so stinker big!!! My mission boundaries got into Cali. There is a lot of people that remember James. haha. On Tuesday I will go and visit the Mickelsen's. I think James taught her and she got baptized:) Well, my Bishop thinks he remembers James serving here. Well, my comp is a rancher from Park Valley, Utah and he is going home in six weeks and he is the trunkest comp I have had so far but he is way awesome. I hope I am never that trunkey, haha. I am so glad you stayed on Bell, does she buck really hard? I wish someone took pictures of you when she was bucking. Do you ride Bell a lot? That reminds me of what happened to me and all the bees!!! That was scary. I am also so thankful for the Holy Ghost. It has helped me in my life so many times!!! Like when I broke my foot. I share that  experience with people. Is it okay if I share what happened to you? That is a really good story about the Holy Ghost.
  I know you guys will do good on your talks:) I love that song Jamie sang. I listen to it all the time in the car and at home and it's okay about crying. I just realized its okay to cry because I became the biggest baby out on my mission. I guess Heavenly Father humbled me and I use to tease mom when she cries and Heavenly Father is getting me back. I remember when I started crying at my farewell talk. I started to cry because I looked at James and he was crying then I looked at you and you started to cry and then I lost everything. So I know how you feel. I am thankful for what Christ has done for me and everyone  I was thinking a couple days ago how much blood Christ shed for me and how could I ever repay him. I am so thankful for what he did and the resurrection. If it wasn't for that we would go straight to the grave and there would be no more life after this.
  Well Dad, I got to get going but I love you so much and everything you did for me. I love the family and I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I love you guys so such!! I hope you have a great rest of the wick and don't get bucked off of Bell this weekend. I also want to see those pictures when you went on that ride with Stetson. I love you Dad.
Love, Elder Reed

Elder Jones, Bro Woods, Elder Reed

April 2, 2012

Hey Mom,

  Well conference was good, I didn't fall asleep at all through the whole thing. haha Well, all the talks were really good and Uchtedorfs talk was awesome. It was funny when he said Stop It! I liked how they talked about families and how they are sacred and they are ordained of god and how we can be together forever!!! What hit me hard during conference was when they were talking about families. I was thinking if Jeremy is sealed to our family? That would be a wonderful thing if he was sealed to us!!! or maybe he is. I hope he writes me as I would love to talk to him! I am grateful for him letting me get to see him and that is cool he got to see Bridget and Sam. What did they drive up there? I don't have any notes here with me but there were a lot of talks I liked. Ballard's talk on how he said time is running out! I wish I would have brought my notes with me. I will get them when I get to Eagle Point. Well that is awesome you got some boarders today. How many horses did you get? Oh, we didn't get any investigators to church:) but it was still good. Oh, I took 60 bucks out of my account to give to this family. They stopped by the church on Saturday and said they were homeless and needed just a place to wash up. So I took 60 out because I prayed and asked the Lord what I should do and I had a strong feeling to go do this for them. I don't know why and I don't like the homeless begging for money but this situation was different and they also watched the second session of conference on Saturday and they really liked it! Well, it's crazy that I passed my 6th month mark!!! It feels like I have been out for 3 months. Crazy how time flies. Hey, so did you get my sd card I sent in the mail? I am going to send a package home too. Well, that is cool that Dillon Benevidas is going on a mission. Ben has been out so long and I think Dillon Keith comes home too this year!  Well, I hope John and Karlee can buy that house. I will fast for them and pray. I love you guys so much. I got to get going. I will talk to you later. I am way excited for my new area and the area I am going into is getting white washed. So all my areas so far have been white washed!
Love, Elder Reed

Hey Dad,

  I got 2 baptisms and it was way neat. I hope this family I have been teaching gets baptized too! I bet that 25 miles was way fun. I bet Stetson did great! I love that horse. I know that I found my person I got sent here for. It is Steve and Melissa Holmes. I am praying for rain down there as it seems to flood up there in Oregon. Well, I love you so much and I talk to you later.
Love you Dad

 Hey here are some pictures.

Here are yesterdays pictures. Love you family.
 I am getting transferred to Eagle Point, Oregon. 
I think that is where James served.

March 26, 2012

Hey Mom,

How are you doing? Well, we had a baptism last saturday and I got to baptize him! It was so awesome!!! The spirit was definitely there!!! Oh man, I bet that was way fun to ride up in Winslow. I want to hear the stories. haha, Stetson is so awesome, I can't believe he pranced 25 miles. I wonder if he got tired? man, you had a really busy week. That is awesome Caleb and Carson hold the priesthood now and they can pass the sacrament. I am so proud of them! So, Sunday I bore my testimony for the first time since I have been in the mission field. I was scared but it was fun! So right now we are teaching Steve and Melissa Holmes and they are going to get dunked. I came to Cottage Grove because of this family! My love for that family is so strong!!! It's weird, it feels like I've known them for so long. The work is doing really well here. The days go by so fast! What I usually do every day is knock doors and teach less active families and part member families. So it is really cool. I haven't really been reading the B of M, I have been reading the Bible. I read 1st Samuel and 2nd Samuel and I read yesterday in the B of M. I am at Alma 15. So ya its awesome David had so much faith to slay Goliath. I love that story. Oh, check this out, we have been going over to the Lee families house and they are less active because their daughter killed herself with a shotgun. It's so sad and the dad has been having the hardest time because he tripped over her because he is almost blind and he is hurting so bad. That is so sad so we went over and we shared a scripture in Mosiah about the resurrection. The wife totally told the husband that it was such an awesome scripture and testified to him that he can see his daughter again and that we can all get resurrected . He started crying and said he doesn't want to talk about it anymore! It was so powerful and the spirit was so there I felt it and I know he did too. That was my spiritual moment this week and I got to baptize my investigator. It was so cool. Well, I am excited to see what the prophet has to say. I love you so much mom.

Love, Elder Reed

Hey Dad,

That is so cool it snowed there!! I bet it looks so pretty. We got that crazy snow too. It snowed so hard a lot of trees fell. How are the deacons in our ward? Is there a lot of them? Well, I love you and I went to a chiropractor up here in Cottage Grove. The main guy is in my ward and he does it for free. But anyways, he took some X-rays and he says I have a short leg and thats why I keep throwing out my back and he said he is going try to fix it! Well, love you.

Elder Reed

March 19, 2012

Hey Mom,

You guys are getting rain!!!!!! We have been getting snow! That is awesome and I hope the desert turns green, it is so beautiful when it does that!! I hope you guys didn't do crazy things cuz I know you girls can get crazy when you get together! How is the family doing? That's awesome that you got to see Elder Oaks daughter. Was she fun to talk to? Those are good ideas on charity, I like it, its an amazing topic to talk about. I had a baptism Saturday and his name was Jaden. The spirit was definitely there!! It was so cool as his grandpa got to baptize him! We also have another one this Friday!! It's really awesome . We are also teaching this couple and their names are Steve and Melissa Holmes. Melissa just doesn't get the priesthood authority and she thinks she can be a prophet but we are still trying to work with her. I want to set a baptism date with her but we will see! Well, I also did take some pictures but I don't know how to put them on here, but I will figure it out! That is cool Jeremy called John. I wonder how he got his number? What did John and him talk about? His daughter is in the hospital. How did she get a collapsed lung?Man, and also he got his finger chopped off, poor guy. That is sad. Is anyone going to go up and see them? I hope he gets to know our family! That would be awesome! He sure looks like Dad! What does James think about all of that? I hope James will warm up to him! That would be cool if he does write me. I would love to talk to him!:) My favorite scripture is Malachi 3:10. I share that one so much. Hey, could you tell Karlee to email me! She hasn't emailed me my whole mission! Well, I love you so much and I am excited to email you guys back.

Love Elder Reed

March 12, 2012

Hey Dad,

That is cool the you're in young mens haha, when is mutual? Is it on Wednesdays? Oh, I am sure you will teach them something!!! Well, I hope Stetson will do good! Did you think about taking Belle? But Stetson needs the work:) That will be super fun. I want to ride in that horse ride. I love the Lord and His gospel and I mess Ma and Pa also. Tombstone is a great place and do we have a lot of family in that cemetery? Well, I like Bro Rogers too. I liked when he was my leader:) Well, we have a baptism this week, it will be super fun!!! I love you so much and take care.

Love you dad!!!

Hey Momma,

That awesome Wes is on his mission!!! I will try to email him. Holy cow, dad finally got released. That is awesome he is with the deacons. You girls have fun and don't do anything crazy!!! Brooke is going to have a new baby, my goodness and we have more than 21 grandkids! You forgot Jeremy's kids!! I am also thankful for the priesthood and I can use it!! Well this week we have a baptism on Saturday! I am really excited for that!! Well, thanks for everything you do for me. I love you so much!!!!

March 4, 2012

hey MOMMA!!!

Hey how have you been? Well it snowed on us in Cottage Grove again but the weather is turning out really nice and I don't have to have a jacket on all the time. Well, we have a baptism coming up on the 15th and we only have one more commandment to teach him and he is ready to get baptized!! So it should be really fun and exciting!! That's to bad Bishop Caldwell got released but Reo Evans will be an awesome bishop! Micah is coming down here? That will be cool, I would love to see him if he comes up here!! I miss that old man. So where does he live again? We just had ward conference and it was really good! KARLEE won the rodeo, haha. Good for her, she can keep a collection!!!:) Stetson is so awesome!! How is Belle doing, did anyone use her? Shandy broke her arm, that is to bad. Was there a lot of people there at the rodeo? Well that would be cool if you made a breast collar for Stetson but there will be too many belt buckles on it! Oh my goodness, that is one far trail ride!! Is Dad going to use Stetson? That will be a great work out for him. I wonder why Karlee likes Stetson so bad haha. Things are going really good. Its crazy how fast time goes by!! We found a new investigator and she said she loves the Book of Mormon and wants us to come back! She is Mexican too.

My Book of Mormon reading is coming along. I am only on Alma 9 but I hope I can finish it before Brittany does!! Your in 2 Nephi, dang your catching up to me!! Well, I just visited a less active and her daughter just killed herself on 11/3/11 so it was just resent and it was really sad and they use to be our ward missionaries. I hope they will start coming back to church! Well, I love you so much. Take care.

Love Elder Reed