IT'S CRAZY!!!!

First off I have to make a special shout out to my young mother who is turning 30 this week! Can you all believe it! jk. Happy Birthday Mom, sorry that I have now missed 3 birthdays in a row! Still love you!
I started my last transfer this week and It has been a great week, I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It's crazy! We are having a short transfer because my group is going home with our president, and the new one then comes in. 4 weeks left! It really just blows my mind.
I am so grateful that I get to be serving with my new companion Hermana Kamisese, we really are having a good time and working really hard. We have already found a lot of new people this week, and we are setting apart time every day to just contact and find new people. I know that the area has a lot of potential, we just have to find it. And she has the excitement so it helps me to have it as well.
Yesterday, 'Dominican Mother's Day', was wonderful. I thought a lot about the wonderful women in my life! My Mom, and my grandmothers, even my aunts! You are all amazing! I really enjoyed church. They just had a lot of people go up and share their testimonies about their mothers and wives. It was special. And a few of them were emotional, the spirit was really strong. They even sang a song by Janice Kapp Perry about mothers and daughters, and it was really pretty.
Hermana Kamisese is loving the ward and the people. so we are having a good time. I am happy because I really wanted to enjoy every minute of my last transfer and so far I am, I know that it will be great. We have made our new goal; to just serve the ward. We really have seen that it pays off. So we have done whatever we can. We just offered to do one thing with the Relief Society President, and then she just invited us to her house, and told us that she wants to show us around to get to know the members, and everything. Really I know that this ward can be amazing we just need to help show them their potential. I really miss you all and I am so happy that I will be seeing you soon! Love you
Con amor,
Hermana Reay

"Sunday Mormons"

Can you all believe that in 35 days I will see my family?=??????!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t! I am really excited because oh how I have missed them. Dylan continues to crack me up from across the waters and I always can find the love that I need in their comforting words. Family really is so important.
This week we have shared a lot from Moses 6 where it talks about how we need to teach the Doctrine to our children, about faith, repentance, baptism, the importance of the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I am so grateful that I was taught these things as a child and that the Gospel has always been a part of my life.
I was talking with my companion about how that is one of the biggest things that they struggle with here in the DR. The people are "Sunday Mormons" you could say. They have all converted, but have only given up their old ways on Sunday. Yesterday was really sad because it was raining all morning and less than half of the ward showed up for church. The Stake Presidency was sharing in our ward and the President expressed his sadness to know that only because there was a little rain, the people weren’t willing to put Christ first. I am so grateful for the example of my parents and that no matter what, we went to church. I always remember that Dad would wake up in the winter especially early to snow blow the path so people could walk to church, and the start the neighbors driveways. I was reading from the conference issue and I really liked the talk by Elder Richard J. Maynes : “Recognizing that we have a Heavenly family helps us understand the eternal nature of our earthly families....true happiness in this life and in the eternities is found in the form of family." That is one of the things that I have learned most about in the mission. Family is what brings you true happiness and I want to be with mine forever. So now I just have to do my part, and endure to the end. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to share about eternal families to people here in the Dominican Republic. I hope that they can all come to appreciate their families the way that I do. Maybe we can help them all come to realize as well the importance of living the gospel EVERY day and not just on Sundays!
Well there is also a lot of other news. My companion Hermana Bradley is going to be leaving me for another area, and I am going to be companions here in the same area, with Hermana Kamisese. She is a Tongan from California, and is SOOO fun!! I am excited! I have a picture that I took with her a while ago that I will attach. She is a great person and I know that we will have a good time. Also, INES WAS BAPTIZED!!! Both of the transfers that I have in this area, we have been working really hard with Ines, and she finally was baptized and it was amazing. Her son baptized her (and yesterday was called as the young mens president!!!!) and it was such a spiritual baptism and she shared her testimony and everything. I love being able to see the fruits of our labor because we are working really hard, but the people have their agency to choose whether or not they want to accept the gospel in their lives.
I know that everything is worth it and that God loves us no matter what. We just always need to do our part, and put him first. I know that through the example of all of you, I am a better person. Thank you for your love and example.
Con amor,
Hermana Reay

We are still loving, LOVING the new house.

Hello.
Well today I am a little sad, because I know that this is going to be my last week with Hermana Bradley. She is going to be leaving Los Frailes, and who knows I might be too. It is a really hard area, and we are working sooo hard. (sometimes it seems to no avail) We are finally going to see the fruits of our labors though. Inez is going to be baptized. We both said from the beginning that if we could choose any one of our investigators that we would love to see thier baptism, that it would be hers. She is wonderful. I don’t know if I have told you much about her, but she is the mother of a new member, and we have been teaching her for the last 2 and a half months. She is so ready but has an obstacle in her way because she works for another church. But she finally made the decision that she is going to be baptized anyway. We couldn’t be happier.
We are still loving, LOVING the new house. With it’s wonderful breeze and never-ending supply of water. :) I also have my hammock on the porch and that is my favorite spot! If I leave this area, it will be sad to leave the house that we worked soooo hard to get. But you really do learn something from every trial. This has definitely been one of the hardest weeks of my mission and not for any of the reasons that you would think. Helping others overcome their trials really does have an affect on you, emotionally, spiritually and physically. But it’s all worth it because you know that you are serving one of Gods children. I really do love you all and am sooo happy that I will be seeing you soon! Dave I heard that you are home and I want you to write me! Please. Love you all!
Hermana Reay

We are sooo happy!!!!

WE HAVE RUNNING WATER! (it's been 9 weeks but who's counting?)

Wow it was so great to talk to the fam yesterday! I really miss all of your voices, and it seems like it’s been forever but then when I hear you all again, it’s like I talk to you all the time. I love hearing about all the things that are going on at home, and the exciting plans for the trip to the DR. We are going to have a blast. The craziest news that I heard is that Nathan and Sarah are getting married, and NO ONE TOLD ME!!! And that it is going to be before I get home... :( oh well I am super happy for you guys!
Well...I FINALLY MOVED!!! WE HAVE RUNNING WATER! Can you believe it? I almost can’t! It’s so great. And the house is clean and bug free as of now. It’s brand new and we are the first to be in it! This last week, not much has happened because we have been a bit sick. (Welcome to my mission) But we have been pushing through it. There isn’t really time to take a sick day. But the great news is that we have been able to find A LOT of new investigators. We have some great ones, they just can’t get baptized for marriage problems, but the Lord has really blessed us. It’s fun to teach lessons when you know that the people can progress. We went to an appointment the other day and we started talking about blessings, and I asked her, Leslie, what the greatest blessing in her life has been, and she explained a story to us about her grandma, and her death and how it was really hard for her. She got really sick, and she still doesn’t remember what happened in those days, it was just too much of a shock for her to know that her grandma wasn’t here anymore, and she didn’t know where she was. So I changed the whole lesson and we taught the plan of Salvation, and she just loved it. It was fun to see her excitement to know that she could be with her grandma again. I love that lesson because above all others it has helped me the most in my mission. Life isn’t easy. We pass through so many trials, and sometimes we just don’t want to deal with them, but it’s all worth it because if we do our part, we will receive the greatest reward: eternal life, with our families and loved ones.
I know that this is the true gospel, and the only true happiness that we can have in this life. We need to stay strong and faithful, because the Lord is always with us.
Love you all so much!
Hermana Reay

It's May!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PORTER! I can’t believe my favorite nephew in the world is turning 4! Wow! How time flies! Well today has already been such a wonderful day! We came to Gazcue so we could go to the mission office for some things that we need. And I was able to see a lot of people from the ward. They were having an activity at the church! I got to see the Bishop! He was an amazing Bishop, and....JUAN PABLO!!! It seriously made my day. (I´ll send a pic) He was soooo happy, and it just really helped me to remember that I have made such wonderful friends here on the mission that have changed their lives around so much for the Savior. Juan Pablo was there early because he had an interview with the stake president, because they just called him to be the President of the Single Adults in the stake! Can you believe it? I love to here when the people I taught and saw baptized are still strong and happy. Also I was able to talk to Caterin and Luis last night. Hermana Garcia called me to tell me that they are doing so great. That Luis is still changing and that you can see it in his face. He is participating a lot in the classes at church and he paid his tithing’s and fast offerings and he is just awesome. And Brian, he blessed the sacrament yesterday! I love that they are all still progressing. I really do love this work.
This last week was a little hard, but we made it through. And we really did receive a lot of blessings. In church we had 5 new investigators that had never been before. We have decided to clean our investigator pool again, because the people just aren’t showing us their desires to change. But we have already found 12 new investigators so we will keep working with them and keep finding new people. We taught the mom of a member, and she pretty much just yelled at us the whole time, and she said that we weren’t aloud to say anything about the Book of Mormom because she isn’t having that in her house. But then she would ask us questions, and I know that she was feeling the spirit and knew that it was starting to make sense to her, so then she would freak out and tell us that we could only talk about the Bible. It was interesting, and I was just grateful that she´s not my mom! I hope that one day she will understand and gain a testimony because her daughter is the best!
I have been reading in my Journal from the beginning of my mission and it really has been helping me because in the beginning I was sooo excited to be a missionary and everything was so spiritual to me, and I don’t know if it’s that now I am just more used to everything, but I have felt that I am not as excited. So it has really helped me to change my perspective to how I was in the beginning. We are FINALLY going to move this week, which has us really excited. I am telling the truth this time for reals! We even have the keys to the new house. We just have to wait for them to connect the lights. I am so happy that they finally got Bin Laden I think that a lot of people will be able to sleep better at night. I just have to say that I am SOOOOOOOOO excited to talk to my family this week! It is going to be the best! Oh and Dave is coming home so soon! Ahhh! Give him a big hug for me! Love you all. I hope that all is well on your end. Thanks for everything.
Con amor,
Hermana Reay