Two Areas!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, my new comp is 20 years old (same as me) he has been out for 19 months today. He likes to play tennis just the same as me so that is pretty cool. So anyway, now we don’t just have one area to worry about---some Elders got sick so we now have two areas. We will be doing both areas for a while--like 4 weeks. We also went on splits with the AP’s.

The new flat is pretty sweet. We have a good bathroom. The toilet is all black, so that is pretty nasty, but other than that it’s huge. The kitchen I have all to myself because no one else cooks. It’s pretty cool everyone lets me cook their food because I am like the best! I’m not bragging—I just love to cook!

The stores are limited---like none at all. There is one place that we are invited by the members every week on Mondays. It’s called Bountiful, like in the book of Mormon. So that’s pretty sweet! We have been having lots of fun here, but it’s not the easiest area.

To answer you questions: First, Compounds are places people live where there are about 30 doors with 100 people living there. It’s pretty intense and I love it, really I do because the people want to listen. Our area has 1 Compound that we know of, and we are teaching lots of people from it. The compounds are usually family owned and extended families live in them. It’s great because then we get whole families. So they are really great! Second, some of the homes are like homes in Gunnison, but most of them are huge. The people in these homes have usually stayed in America for some time or England. They are really easy speakers and can understand really well, but that also brings them to think they know lots about the Gospel already.

It’s a lot different what we teach people here. The first things we try to teach people are: there is one true church and that Joseph Smith is a Prophet. That’s what helps people to find or start looking for the true church. It’s pretty cool to teach these people. I am still understanding how to teach them because in Nungua we taught a lot in pigeon English. I think you know what that is. It has been hard for me to change from that to what these people speak. We have found some great people who we have not gotten to church yet but we are working with them.

Now, let me tell you about a happy story to brighten your minds! We have been teaching a lady named Becky--she is really cool--but she is not so sure about being baptized. We decided to give her a date and see what could come of it for the 10th of April. We did not know how well it would go and she did not really accept it, but we talked more and taught her more--then on Sunday we found out that she has been telling people her date--so that was great! We also gave a guy and his son a baptismal date at church, it was sweet. Since we have two areas--we have 9 with dates--so we are just trying to figure out how we are going to go see all of these people we don’t even know. It will work out in the end, I am pretty sure.

On Sunday we went over to a part member family. This guy is so cool. I will tell you small about the family. They are Ghanaians but they have been living in England most of their lives. The mothers name is Eunice and she is a member. Kwame is the father and he is not a member. They have 3 children: a girl who is almost 8 and two sons--they are a great family! Kwame has been coming to church for more than a year. He has even seen Elder Holland speak! We did not give him a date because there were some concerns that we went over. Afterwards we sat down and ate dinner with them, it was a great time. They are really cool! I love their family and I really hope he is baptized!

This week I took the numbers for the AP’s. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. We are working really hard and everything is going to go really good.

I finally got my hair cut, which was pretty cool, it felt long and heavy and hot! We are having Zone Interviews on Thursday where Elder Pearson and I will be accounting for the things we have done.

Well, have a great week! I think I am going to go back to work. Love you all so much. I miss you, but no worries.

Love, Elder Jeremy Reid