Teaching By Candlelight!

Me---really tired after riding bike in old area!

Elder Reid pounding Fufu in President Labinjos house (the woman is President Labinjos wife). They are coming to America very soon.

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, it has been a great week! We had a wonderful turn out at church this week. We had 13 people come. That made Elder Pearson and me very happy. We have been working so hard, it’s really not been easy the last little while. Too much stress, but I’m trying not to worry too much now, because I will go insane if I keep worrying!!!

Well Dad---“Happy Birthday” this week! I hope it’s really good. I also found something here that you will really like to wear. It’s pretty stylish--you will just have to see it when you get here! I’m glad that you got the tickets. That is really cool. I am happy to hear some of the stuff that you are planning on doing. It sounds like you have everything planned out. I will try to have a baptism that week, but I don’t know if it will happen yet. We only plan baptisms about one month ahead, so it will be about 3 more months before I know if we will be having one.

So, about the 13 people that came to church---we have really been blessed. Many people that we have contacted or they have contacted us are just coming to church and that is the best. If they come to church then we can build on the spiritual experience they have and they always feel the spirit at church so it's always so amazing. I will talk about some of the great ones, but first of all I want to tell you about Brother Felix---the guy that is always helping us with everything. He got a job at the Area Office and we are so happy for him. He will be going to the Temple very soon and he is the 2nd councilor in the Bishopric. So, one of the people that came to church is the mother of the 2 girls that we baptized last, her name is Naomi. She does not speak real great English but she has been coming to church on and off for some time now and she is finally ready---that is what Brother Felix told us. Four of them were the people we are going to baptize this week. Also, a really cool guy--he just had his 22nd birthday. One other mother and 2 of her kids came, too. So they are the ones that are really cool.

Well, I also have a great experience to tell you. Last week on Wednesday we went to teach a guy named Francis. He is really cool—he is the carpenter guy that I was telling you a little about. That day we taught him we tried to give him a baptismal date. We committed him to baptize and then gave the date but he declined. Then on Friday we went to Leadership Training where they are teaching us the new way we are suppose to teach and how we are suppose to give out baptismal dates earlier. So we took it all in. Later that night we went back to see Brother Francis with this new way to teach in our heads. We wanted to help him to know that he has felt the spirit and that he needs to follow it. We started and the lesson went perfect, we went into baptism again and recommitted him this time, with him knowing that he knows what we have taught so far is true. He loved it and was at church on Sunday to prepare for his baptism. He is just such a cool guy. This is one of those times that I know the spirit was with us as we taught that lesson. Oh yeah, we taught the whole thing by candle light, but that is not different from usual. It was so cool--I hope we can continue to do that.

Today we went over to play basketball at the Ahjies again. (I don’t know how to spell their name). It was pretty fun--not as fun this time--but the food was as sweet as ever! We kept the apartment clean all week but then after we had inspection it went all to crap. Well, I hope at least we won some banana bread or cookies.

We are still having lots of people call us, even last week we had a guy call us and it was pretty cool. He told us he is looking for the true church---what’s funny is usually we say, “We go around to teach the truth.” He was asking for what we had. He did not come to church though, but the guy will come next time. I will be so happy when this month is over because the transition of old teaching and old goals to new is messing with everyone. Also, it will be good for a change to come. Now we will always set goals on a monthly basis. Elder Pearson and Elder Jorgenson go home this month, at the end, that will be really weird to have Elder Pearson gone. I have served with him longer than with any other companion and it’s been really good. He only has 5 weeks left now.

Today I am going home to make some fish and some other great stuff like ground nut soup with fish in it and more fried chicken. It feels like Sunday today, it’s really weird. I was just thinking I wanted to go get some fried rice because we got money today and then I was like it’s Sunday--I can’t do that--but really it’s Monday so I can!

The Zone is looking really good on their goals this month of August. It’s going to be really different now but I think we will start to baptize more and more people. I am working so hard to stay with it. Now it’s time to finish strong.

Love you all tons and tons—have a great week--miss you all lots!

Love, Elder Jeremy Reid