It's my Birthday!!! I am ...old!!!

Buenas!
¿Como estan ustedes? Wow, quite the week! Did I tell you that we are moving? I get to do that again, but I am so excited because we got to pick the new house, and I like it a lot, and it is way better than our house because it ALWAYS has water! I have a few experiences to tell you about! But first, I can’t believe that I am going to say this, but this week I have actually been cold....yep COLD! It’s all because of the hurricane, it has been super windy and rainy but apart from that we didn’t get anything. We have just heard that Haiti is getting hit hard again. I feel so bad for them. Especially now that I know some Haitians that are really special to me....anyways we have been wet all week, but its been fun! And the other day we went to a members house and we were asking for an address, and her son comes out and he has a drinkable yogurt and he’s just squeezing it (and it is totally facing me) we were all just looking at him, like what are you doing? Just then the lid pops off and yogurt goes flying all over me. Everyone looked at him and then they looked at me. It was awkward silence, I just busted up laughing, and the kid takes off running! They felt so bad, but I just thought that it was hilarious! It was fine because then we just went out in the rain and it washed it all off anyway! DIGNA!!! Our miracle! She is for real getting baptized on Thursday! We are still waiting for her to have her interview but I know that she will pass! No one believed her at first and now they do. Half of the testimonies on Sunday were about her, and a lot of the other people got up and talked about how the missionaries are angels sent here to help the people, and I was just crying! Her daughter is so happy, she is putting together the whole baptism and all of her family, from all over are coming to baptize her, speak, sing, play instruments, and everything! It is going to be huge! I am so excited. I will take lots of pictures! I love to be a part of this work; I can see the biggest change in her! Tonight we are going to watch the Testaments with her, and I know that she will love it! One other thing that I wanted to tell you about, was after fast and testimony meeting, one of the members comes up to me freaking out, and she just keeps saying "Reay, Reay come with me, your mom is here" and I was just like WHAT? So I followed her, and it wasn’t my mom of course, but it was Flavia and her Kids! My baptisms! My first family! They came to my ward today to see me and brought me pictures of the baptism day and everything, I was sooooo happy! Flavia, and Yole, and Bryan, and Mario, and Patricio (by the way did I tell you that he got baptized when I left!?) The whole family! I love them, I will never forget these people here, and the changes made in their lives and mine! Love you all!
Hermana Reay

I LOVE my new companion!

Hello all,
It was really weird to receive my emails this week and find out that Weston is home. I am a little heart broken for him, because I know how much he loves being out in the field and working hard. At least we all know how hard he actually worked, he wore his knee completely out. Love you Wes! Shout out to Hermana White and her Fiancé. I wish I could be at the wedding! Love you! Oh my goodness, I LOVE my new companion! She is soooooo tiny! I will send a picture soon, but just warning you now, I sorta look like a GIANT next to her, she weighs like 85 lbs. But she is great, from Guatemala, and I love her Spanish because I understand it even better and it’s more correct, it is so true that the Dominicans speak like a ghetto Spanish. Haha but we are getting so much work done, we have so many contacts every day, we are talking to everyone, we have a lot of new investigators and I have to tell you one of the most amazing stories!!!! So Eva, (she is the one that is waiting for her papers to be married) her 2 boys wanted to have a missionary experience and go out with us to teach. They are 9 and 10 and adorable. Well we just decided to visit their neighbor with them, so that it would be close. Her name is Digna. She is the mother of one of the most faithful members in the ward. Her son is also a member. Her kids were baptized 25+ years ago, but she never was. Her parents were Catholics, so apparently she can’t change religions. But she knows that the church is true and she loves everything about it. When the church started in this area, it was in their house. Anyway, there have been COUNTLESS missionary companionships that have tried to get her to be baptized. When I got here and found out that she wasn’t a member, I told the bishop that one of my goals was to get her to the waters of baptism.... well we went to pick up the boys and they were all dressed up in their pants, white shirts and ties. They were so cute and I put some stickers on their shirts that say "future missionary". They loved it. Well we shared with Digna, and sang "Called to Serve" and she cried, because she just loves these boys, and they bore their testimonies about baptism and I cried, we were all crying! (So adorable.) When we left she said that she would pray about baptism.. Well we went back 2 days later, and she was still stubborn, but........she said she felt really good in her prayers, and that it’s time to take this step! She is still iffy and I am praying so hard and putting all my faith that she will be baptized November 12!!! I was so happy I couldn’t believe it! Well that is my message for the week, we just need to always have faith and keep praying for the people that haven’t accepted because you never know when their time will come! I love you all so much!
Hermana Reay

TRANSFERS!!!

AHHHHHHHH Happy Birthday Aubrey Reay!!! (you are sooooo old!) haha. Today is a good day! Quick funny story, we were in a lesson on Saturday and I was sitting there talking about the Restoration and this little girl comes up from behind me and just whacks me on the head with a broom stick, it was the most random thing ever, and I couldn’t help it but just laugh...Crazy things happen here in Mendoza. This weeks I complete 9 months away from home, and you know what else is this week? TRANSFERS!!! I am getting a new companion and she is from Guatemala, Hermana Garcia. I am really excited, I don’t know her well, but I have met her a few times, she is tiny, 4 foot something... but I think that we will work well together. I am excited to talk to her all about Guatemala, and we are going to make tortillas and yummy food! YAY!!! Guess what else? Best news ever....Hermana Haggard is coming to my zone!!! That means we will see each other every week, and Hermana Batty is staying too... We are going to have a Thanksgiving dinner together and show them all here the wonderfulness of Thanksgiving, and of course a birthday party for someone that is going to be OLD!!!! (Apart from my sister...) I am excited to stay here in Mendoza, because we are teaching some good people and I know that I can help them a lot to progress. Dani came to church and brought more people :) We also had a family home evening at her house and there were about 15 people there!!! We watched ‘Together Forever’, and they were all crying, it was really spiritual! (I really think that that movie is a great conversion tool!) We starting teaching an old investigator this week, Danuvio... he is an interesting guy. His "wife" (that he isn’t married to yet) is a member, but inactive. He had a date to be baptized a longtime ago, but he never got married... well we were teaching him, and can I just say that I know exactly what I DONT want in my future husband. His wife works full time, goes to school, takes care of their child, and she cleans and cooks every meal. She wakes up at 5am to start her day and doesn’t go to bed until 2 am because she is doing her homework...you know what he is doing? Sitting on the couch or in front of the computer, or out with friends!! SERIOUSLY? Wow, so we made a schedule with him and what he has to do every day of every week to help her out. Thank you to all the men out there that actually love their wives and help them around the house so that there can be unity!! Anyways, you can probably tell that I was a little frustrated, but also excited because we are going to help him change! It reminds me of the Joseph Smith movie when the guy from Ireland won’t help his wife, and then Joseph asks him something like "if you can make your wife happy here on earth, do you think she´ll want to be with you for eternity" something like that, and then later in the movie he is beating the rug....anyway there is my little lesson for the week. Have unity in the home and help each other out! I love you all, and am so grateful for the people I have in my life...YOU!
Hermana Reay

Another week!!!!

Hello!!!
Can I just tell you how much I love you all? Every time I open up my emails on Mondays I feel so much love because I have so many emails. I am so happy that I can print them off and read them otherwise I wouldn’t have time to write. How have you all been? I hope well. Things have been better here. We have a FHE planned tonight with the Bishop and his family, which I am excited about. I really do want to get to know the people better here. On Sunday we had 9 people in church which really makes me happy because I didn’t think that we were going to have hardly any. We really are receiving blessings. And do you know why? Because we have been doing our contacts. For some reason it was really hard for us to do our contacts before but now we always have more than 10 every day and we really are seeing the results from it. One of the people in Church was Dani. She came with 2 of her little girls. Her husband didn’t come because he had to go somewhere but she did and she loved it so much, and her little girls had so much fun in Primary. She is even going to go the Relief Society activity that they are having on Friday night. So we are starting to see some of the progress here. I am happy for that because for a while I felt like we weren’t doing anything and that can really get you down as a missionary. But can I just tell you what a blessing it is to be able to read the scriptures and pray out loud? For real it has helped me so much. I am almost done with the Book of Mormon in Spanish, reading it out loud and I understand it, which is great. I am learning so much here in the mission, mostly patience and love. I just want you to know that I love all of you and think of you often and pray that you are happy.
Love
Hermana Reay

push on a large boulder

Hello all,
I am just going to apologize right now because the keyboard that I am using is sooooo hard so I am going to try to make this a little shorter. Sorry or I will have carpal tunnel... I miss you all, I want you to know that. This week I had an intercambio and got to be companions with Hermana Batty, it was the best day ever here. I loved it we got soooo much work done and twenty two contacts. I also am down to my last Jody dress because when we have water we don’t have electricity and when we have electricity there is no water, a little bit impossible to wash your clothes. But it’s the mission and I love it. It is extremely hot right now. Today we had a Zone activity and we played volleyball and it was so much fun but I got sooo sunburnt. I look like a lobster...Hermana Batty shared a story with me that I want to share...
There was a man who was asked of the Lord to push on a large boulder. So, wanting to be obedient, he pushed, everyday. Some days he pushed a little harder, some days he didn’t push very strongly. But every day he consistently pushed. Day after day. He tried to mark his progress one day only to realize that the boulder hadn’t moved at all. Not even a centimeter. A little discouraged, but not disheartened he pushed with all his might. It didn’t budge. Finally he started wondering and thought, I have been pushing as hard as I could and doing what the Lord asked me to do. Why isn’t it moving? He asked the Lord, Why isn’t it moving? You asked me to push everyday and I am. The Lord responded, I never asked you to move the rock. I just asked you to push. But now look at how strong your arms have become. I just asked you to push.
I loved this story when she told it to me. Sometimes we feel like we aren’t going anywhere or helping anyone, but the thing is, that we need to push through and be obedient, because really we are the ones being changed. Can I just tell you that right now is really difficult, but I am trying to endure, and I know that I will be the one who learns from this time. If I rely on the Lord and do what he has asked of me. I love you all, please keep me in your prayers.
Hermana Reay

I love, love, LOVED conference!!

Hey Everyone,
I love, love, LOVED conference, the only bad part is that we have to wait 6 months for the next one! It was a great party for us missionaries here in the Oriental Zone. We made treats and I made salsa and it was so fun. I love that we get to watch it in English and at the exact same time as you guys! The translators are really that good that they do it right away! I can’t pick a favorite talk, but there were so many that just applied to my life right now! We also had 2 baptisms on Saturday night and it was great! I was really happy for them! I love to see that change in the lives of these people. We are teaching a family right now; they are really putting an emphasis on teaching families. Well their names are Dani and Rafael and they have 3 little girls. They are wonderful but we were just about to leave them because they haven’t come to church and they hadnt’ been reading. So we thought that we would give them a few days, and then pass by to remind them about the conference. When we passed by Dani was so happy so told us that she had been reading and she got her Book of Mormon and showed us. She has read so much and it was all marked! We were so happy. So we are going to start to focus more on them. I hope that I have really good news about there family next week! I hope that you are all enjoying the fall and the beautifulness that is inUtah right now, with its mountains and cool breeze. Soak it in for me! I love you all, and remember what President Monson said, that “we need to show gratitude for EVERYTHING!!” Love you all!
Hermana Reay