Letter 12/17/2013

¡FAMILIA!

I have some really really good news, that news is: I am not going to get transferred! I get to stay in my area! I am so happy. We have been seeing a lot of success, and in the next couple of weeks we are expecting at least 4 baptisms. I love this area, and leaving it would have been a bummer. But I get to stay here. 

This week has been a good week, a little crazy, but a good week. We got a new rule that we are no longer allowed to be in the streets after it gets dark; just until the city starts to calm down. It is supposed to get really loco this Friday and Saturday. We are told to have 72 hours worth of water and food, just in case we can't leave our pench. 

Like I said today was a really good week, we have seen a lot of blessings, we found a lot of people that are going to be really good investigators. We contacted a lady because all of our lessons fell through, without us asking she just let us in. As we were explaining a little about the church, she kept saying "well that's just logical" It was nice to have someone so open, and willing to learn. 

We had another lesson with a contact that we found and oh my goodness, he likes to talk. He is one of the people that I fondly call: Gatling Gun talkers. The kind that just go off, and there is just NO end to when it is going to stop. You can try to interrupt them in order to teach, but unless it is done tactfully and with a delicate touch, well you just have no chance they will just talk right through you. 

I am loving the mission. I am loving the time I have here. This time of year is very very very special. My challenge for all of you is to go and read the story of Christs birth as a family, or alone. But read it, and let the miracle of that soak in your mind. 

I love you guys, 

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Luke 2-Story of Christs Birth

Letter 12/9/2013

One another week come and gone, That is CRAZY! It feels like just yesterday I was sending Mail. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Hopefully a good thing. 

So I decided to start this E-mail out with a funny story. Well it is funny now, not so much when it happened. So friday we had a meeting with the whole zone in Rosario, after the end of the meeting we were running late to our appointment back in Galvez. So I had the brilliant idea to not get off the bus on the normal stop, but take it to the end of Galvez to were our investigator lives. So we where on the bus, and all was going well until it turned off into the other part of Galvez. Me and my companion weren't too worrid we figured that it would eventually return back to San Martin, (the biggest road in Rosario and Galvez. So we stayed, and stayed on the bus. Until it stopped and well...it stopped for the bus drivers break in the very opposite end of Galvez. About 25 minutes from our pench and 35-40 minutes from our investigadors house. So in other words we were VERY late to our appointment. Ha ha. But it all ended out working. That same night we had a dinner with the ward. It was just a giant asada and you only had to bring plates, utensils, and something to drink. We showed up late, due to the bus. We planned on just staying for a second, making some contacts an appointments, but when a couple of the ward members found out that we didnt have plates within three minutes we had about 4. It was really nice. One of the members saw I didnt have a drink he filled up HIS glass and gave it to me. I was just so thankful for the love, and support of this ward. I really do love them. The dinner was a huge success and we ended up having 7 investigadors there. 

Another good thing: We have a person that owns a Kiosko his name is A, he went to the states for thanksgiving, and brought me and my companion back Butterfingers and Milky Ways, He also said he had Peanut Butter on the way. He is such a cool guy. We are hoping we can get him to start investigating here soon. 

The streets are a little crazy. The police have gone on strike, and the people due to the christmas season have begun to rob a lot. It is kinda like Black friday, but more then once a year, and the people dont pay for the stuff. ha The owners have begun to close down the stores. We now have military police gurding the stores. Its kinda crazy. Its called sackeos in spanish. Its just huge groups of people that run into stores and take anything they can. As missionarys we are just told to be really careful. So we are just being very cautious. 

I hope this Christmas season finds everyone well. Dont forger what the christmas season is for. Christ is the reason we have our lives, and the ability to return to our father in heaven. Without him, we would be nothing. Dont forget to remember him in all the craziness of Christmas.

 

I Love You All!!

 

Elder Mason Paul Reid 

Letter 12/2/2013

¡HOLA!

Hello family! I hope you are all doing well and you are having a good week, and enjoyed your Turkey Day. Me and Elder B went out and for exercise played a little bit of football for Thanksgiving. That's right I said football, not fútbol. Elder B brought a football to Argentina, he was a kicker in school, and is planning on kicking in college. So I tried my foot at kicking, lets just say it is not as easy as you think it is. But it was pretty fun to play a little bit of good old American football for a little while, and have our own little Turkey Bowl. It was pretty good. Other then that our Thanksgiving was just another day at work. We didn't do a whole lot. 

As for the spider bite you can all take a deep breath. I am doing good. I am taking antibiotics from the doctor and it is healing up good. 

So this week was a tough week in terms of appointments, it seems like no matter what we did our plans fell through. I don't know why, but our luck just was not very good this week. But we sure did walk a lot!! ha ha. We did have one appointment that really was a special one. It was with the R's. They are a family that is really loving, and loves missionaries. We have been working with them for a while, and they haven't been progressing. We thought about not visiting them this week because we lacked time, and had other people that we where having more respect with. But with all of our failed appointments we got time to pass by them Saturday night. When we got there they asked us where we had been all week, why we hadn't passed by. They where scared that we had dropped them, or that the Bishop had said they where a waste of time and told us to not pass by. We told them it was nothing like that. But then as the appointment progressed Elder B shared a scripture about repentance, and the blessing that it was. In that moment the idea of repentance really clicked in my mind. I really understood that repentance is not a thing meant to punish us, it is meant to bless us. Meant to really give us the ability to improve, and change for the better. So I explained it to him, and then asked him to pray and repent. It was weird to ask a 40 year old man to repent. Asking him to humble himself and pray forgiveness for his errors after all, I am only 18 years old. But I did it. And he was really touched. He was really touched by it. It was a really good appointment, and I left there full of the spirit, and really edified by the whole experience. 

I am doing wonderful here in Argentina. I hope you are all having a good week. And enjoying the cold Utah weather!

 

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

 

Words of Mormon 1:7

Letter 11/25/1013

Family and Friends,

I hope you are all having a wonderful week, I had a wonderful week, and we are expecting another busy week coming up. We gave two investigators dates to be baptized, both of them the 21 of December. We also have another two people we want to set a date for baptism probably the 14 of december. Hopefully we can get that done this week as well. We had exchanges this week, that just means that my companion as District Leaders goes with one of the Zone Leaders, and the other Zone leaders comes to our area, and works with me for the day. It was a really wonderful experience, and I learned a lot. The two biggest things I learned was First: Silence, silence is a good, and beautiful thing. After asking a question, or during the right part in a lesson you can let the silence come, and let the person you are teaching think, at first it might seem a little awkward but it is after that silence that the person really shares what their heart is thinking. It is really a great experince. Second: Promise blessings, as a missionary, and a representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we have the power and the right to promise blessings, I have been doing that, and promising blessings to my investigators that if they obey the commandments, pray, or read the scriptures they will recieve blessings. But as a missionary, I learned, That we can promise powerful, direct, and specific blessings. (Based on the fact that I am promising blessings that I feel through the Holy Ghost are correct.) It sounds a bit strange, but it is something that missionarys, can and should do.

As I said it has been a wonderful week, but also a busy one. We have had many moments of, How are we going to get all of this done? We arrived late to more then one appointment because we just didnt have enough time in our schedules. But we are seeing the fruits of our efforts.

On a more temporal note I am not so sick anymore, I have gotten over the worst of the stomach sickness. But I also got bit by one of the spiders that I am pretty certain was looking for revenge from me killing his buddy with the torch, but it is pretty nasty. We have kindly named all of the spiders in our pench "guapo".

I hope you are all doing great. I love you all, and my prayers are with you.

Love,
Elder Mason Paul Reid

Letter 11/18/2103

What a wonderful week!!

Me and my Companion have been working really hard, and doing our best. We are having a good time while doing it. I am loving it more and more every day.

 

I read two talks that I read earlier in my mission, but I reread them this week, and they hit me pretty hard, and I have been doing my best to apply it in my life. The first is about Missionary work and The Atonement by Jeffrey R. Holland, The other is The Infinite Power of Hope by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Both are such good talks. I re-learned that Before I can expect our investigators to be baptized they have to first find faith, and repent for their sins. Then they can be baptized. As a missionary, I have to make sure all my investigators understand the importance of those first two steps. The talk about hope was also very inspiring. It talked about the relationship between hope, faith, and charity. Hope is what keep us happy, what keeps us going even when times are rough.

As missionaries, we try to do our best, we try to teach the best we can, and we try to follow the spirit, but in the end we have to have hope that Christ is going to do the rest. And when we see that he has, we need to give thanks. The talk from Holland also talked about why conversion is so hard, it talked about the fact the conversion is so hard, because the gospel is not cheap. Christ payed his life for this gospel, and in order for us to be converted we will probably have to spend a little bit of our life in the garden of Gethsemane or on the road to Calvary. As a Missionary it is reassuring, that when we are having a hard time that we are just following in the footsteps of Christ.

 

On a less deep note, we have had a wonderful week. We had 120 People at church as opposed to the 80 that are normally there. The whole ward was pretty excited about that. It is so wonderful to see the change in people as they come to Christ. I went and bought a mosquito net for my Bed, which is SO wonderful. If anything I have learned to appreciate the little things. Like, having a mosquito net, so now I can sleep without worrying about getting destroyed by the mosquito's! We have had quite a few police in our area lately. They have really started to beef up the police presence here to try to combat the drugs, and the violence. Our bus got stopped on our way to lunch and got searched by two police men looking for someone. Me and my companion thought that was pretty funny, it was our first time experiencing that. I'm still feeling a little sick, but I think I have gotten through the worst of it.

 

All in all a really good week. We have worked a lot, and our schedule was full, we ended up running to appointments this week in order to make it to all of them. And this week looks like it might be just as busy. It really is a blessing to be in such a wonderful area. I hope all of you are doing well.

 

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Alma 7:24

You still can't get me off a motorcycle

Letter 11/11/2013

Family and Friends!

I hope you are all doing well this week, as for me I am doing wonderful. Me and Elder B. have been working our butts of, and walking our shoes off, but I am enjoying it. I have always been a strong believer in working hard, but it is a whole different story when you have Christ on your side, and he is helping you every step of the way. I know he is always there.

So I thought I would start out this letter talking a little bit about the random stuff. First things first. Me and my companion have both gotten stomach sick in a bad way, we are hoping we didn't drink or eat something that was bad for us. We have been eating a lot with members, and investigators, so we are hoping it is not anything our body's can't handle. A funny thing: In america, I am normal sized, maybe a little bit bigger, but here...well I am enormous  I am known as Elder Grande (big) or Elder Gigante (gigantic), They told me that usually they are worried about the missionaries walking the streets but they aren't so worried about me. Although I did have a member yell at me for wearing my watch, told me I would get robbed. It seems like every Elder ends up getting robbed at least once on their mission. But I guess a 6 foot, 200 pound person is less likely to be robbed. By the way all you people out there hoping I am fat (Mom, Dad, Koral, Yellie, etc) The 200 Pounds is actually not fat, we walk a bunch, and do exercises at the church! So your dream will not be coming true. I do love facturas, THEY ARE SO GOOD. One more random fact: So in Virginia I was told that I looked like Bill Clinton, Here I have been told I look like Emmet from Twilight (whoever the heck that is) and I also look like Clark Kent. I am liking the Clark Kent the most.

So in our companionship we have been trying to really balance our work, as much as we are working to find people to baptize, we do a lot of work with people who have been baptized, and have fallen away. I am a strong believer in bringing back those sheep that have strayed. I have made it one of my major personal focuses. We also have been doing a lot of contacts, trying to talk to as many people as we possibly can.

A funny story about that: So normally to contact someone we have to really try, and go out of our way to contact. But yesterday we had just finished eating lunch at a members, we were a little late getting out, and we had to hustle cause we had an appointment we had to get too. So we where fast walking down the street trying to get to our next appointment and two drunk guys yell at us and tell us to come over, we did our best to tell them that we would come back and talk, but we had to go. But we couldn't escape, so we talked and listened to the two drunk people as they laughed and staggered through a conversation. (they where so drunk) we finished and kept walking. So we continued on and just one more block we got stopped again, this person just wanted to know a little bit more, so we gave them our number and got there address, and tried to get out. That was 3 people that contacted US! That never happens! So we kept walking, and we hear ¡¡Chicos!! ¡Tengo una pregunta! I was amazed, that was 4 people, and we where already late, this just doesn't happen. So we stopped, and this guy was actually really a legitimate contact, he really wanted to know, We actually have a time set up to meet with him again. I am very excited. We ended up being late to our appointment, but it was worth it. We had a good laugh about the whole thing.

That is about it from Elder Reid for this week, I am doing wonderful and enjoying the work of the Lord.

I will also attach a photo of me killing a spider we named Guapo (Handsome) He was a very very big spider, we decided to kill him in a manner that made the other spiders think twice about living in our Pench. (By the Way the ceiling is cement)

Elder Mason Paul Reid

1 Corinthians 2:9

First week in Argentina 11/05/2013

¡Bienvenidos!

Well I finally made it. I am here in Argentina, I am serving in Rosario, in a part called Villa Galvez. For those of you who don't know Villa stands for Ghetto. I am living in an apartment (Pench) of four. One of the Elders is being transferred out this transfer and he will be replaced by an Elder From Columbia. The other Elder is from Mexico. Neither one of them speak English, so its just me and my yankee Companion Elder B. Elder B. is such a good guy. We are starting to really get some work done. We made a vision for what we wanted to see happen in our area within this next transfer. We are heading in a good direction. I love it. 

Argentina: Well Argentina might be on the same earth as America, but it is a different World! There are so many things that are way different, and I have honestly had to do a lot of adjusting. It was a little difficult at first. I had to do quite a bit of praying. But God has answered my prayers and has helped me out so much with coming to love this new place.

Things that are different:

Wild Dogs are Everywhere

Motorcycles are as common as the wild dogs

No one knows how to drive, especially people on the motorcycles

Castellano is a lot different then spanish (even though it is spanish)

My Pench (apartment) I have to fill up the water I am going to use to shower in a bucket.

The thing to warm up said water is broken, COLD SHOWERS!

Before if we didnt unplug the water heater upper it would shock you!

I have 22 Mosquito bites

The houses that people live in are really poor, sometimes just made out of metal sheets.

Those are just some of the things that are different. If it sounds like I am complaining, I really am not. I love it!! I love the weirdness. I love the ghetto, I love Argentina. The people are wonderful. Everyone here knows us as "The elders" Even if they have never heard about the church. My Spanish is improving, but I have to adjust to the way people speak here. Even though my Companion is the only person who I could speak English to, we usually speak Spanish anyways.

I know this church is true, we have been working hard, and doing a lot of praying and have ran into a lot of people that we have high hopes for. The nice thing about not having a car is that you get the opportunity to talk to a lot more people. Although a lot of the people are very poor, and are so much different, it is amazing how unifying the church is. I can say that even from this side of the equator the church is still true. And I have the opportunity to share it with people.

This is not his area but it looks very similar to his area. 

 This is a picture of his house. They have 4 Elder's living there.

  This is what he showers with. They fill this up with water and then it's supposed to heat for warm showers. But, like Mason said before it broke so he is showering in cold showers. 

  Mason and his mission president and wife. The Giuliani's.

A few things Elder Reid wrote to me that he didn't include in his blog.

-He has learned to appreciate the little things and that so far being there has really put a lot of things into perspective.

-His apartment is considered average for the area. It's not really nice but it's not the worst either.

- For the most of the week he was still getting accustomed to everything and not doing a lot of tracting. He said that they didn't have very many investigators to start out with in this area, so they are now just trying to get contact people.

-They do a lot of street contacting, and they don't knock doors. Instead, they just clap outside peoples houses. Sometimes because their door is behind a fence, and other times just because that is what they do there. 

No Blog Letter This Week

Since Mason is traveling to Argentina today we didn't get blog letter, but I do have some pictures! We were able to talk to him during his layovers and he is doing super good and is so excited for his next adventure. I'm just pulling them off an SD card so I don't have any stories to go with them. 

Missionary night at the Nationals vs Phillies

Playing Ultimate Frisbee, dove, and... missed.

Arlington

The Lincoln National Monument and The Washington Monument

He was there during the Governement shutdown, so he wasn't able to get the full experience of Washington DC sights. 

The White House 

The George Washington Masonic Temple 

Letter 10/21/2013

Family and Friends, It is official I will be heading to Argentina October 28, for those of you who do not pay attention to what day it is today, that means I will be heading to Argentina in exactly one week. I still have not fully begun to understand it all, and I honestly don't know what to expect when I arrive in Argentina. But my hopes are high, and I am so excited to get there.

 

This week I have been battling a Sinus Infection, It seems like at this point I am on the winning end of it. But the Sickness sure as not given up without a fight. I got so antibiotics, and as long as I am sufficiently drugged I am okay. :)

 

Random Note: So I have had a couple times where I have had to eat a dinner, or eat something I would normally never eat. But I am a guest in these peoples homes, and they are kind enough to feed you so, you eat it. But the worse one by far is Seviche, it is this raw fish, lemon, onion, octopus, thing. If any of that sounds good to you guys well let me be the first to say it is baaad. So we go to a members house and guess what...SEVICHE! It is there, and I manage to eat it. We got to the next members house: SEVICHE! Yes that is two members in a row, both serving Seviche, except the second one has Muscles in it. I couldn't do it. I took a couple of bites, and said I was sick (Which is not a lie). My other companion followed suite. Unfortunately my other companion who was not fast enough to think had to eat all the Seviche, He came home, and threw up. He ended up vomiting in the middle of night as well. Poor guy, he was not happy.

 

So we have been working with a less active for a while, finally she is coming back to church. She also has an unbaptized 9 year old daughter we have begun to teach. She is such a sweet little girl, and reminds me so so much of all the cousins back home. We have really high hopes for this family, and really expect it to be a new start for them.

 

I love you guys so much.

Love,
Elder Mason Paul Reid

Letter 10/15/2013

Hello!!

What a crazy and wonderful week. Two of the biggest things I want to talk about First: The Baptism, and Second: Seeing Arlington and D.C

 

Baptism: Okay so the day is Thursday and we have not had contact with our investigators for a few days, we try to call them but they don't answer, and they are not home when we stop by... so we are getting nervous.  Cause they need their baptism interview. So Thursday at 12 is the baptism interview, but we hadn't had contact with them in a while, so we show up to their house and they answer and just like Hispanics say: Oh yeah we got your calls, and we are just getting ready to head out. We are just thinking to ourselves: are you kidding me? Answer our calls. But to them it wasn't a big deal they new what time the interview was. So now the day is Saturday, Baptism begins at 5. But there is this thing called la hora hispana, It is kinda like Mormon Standard time. So now you have Mormon Standard time and la hora hispana, so basically things start 30 minutes after they are scheduled and its just not a big deal. 

So 5:30 rolls around, everyone is there waiting for our investigators who still haven't arrived. We gather as missionary's and say a quick prayer, go outside to the parking lot, and there they are just pulling up. Non-chalantly just like they had arrived at 4:50. ha ha ha but no, it was such a beautiful experience. I have never really felt anything like the joy I felt when I watched them go into the water. I could only smile, and the ward accepted them with open arms. The Sunday following they received the Holy Ghost, they both got callings, and the husband got the Aaronic Priesthood. And our ward is awesome so they got welcomed so well. They are going to prosper in this gospel.

 

Arlington and D.C: Such a good experience, I have always wanted to see the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, it is so so cool. I loved it. I also got to see Abe Lincoln Memorial, and the White house. It was kinda funny with the government shut down it says all monuments are closed, and their are police all around, but people don't care. They go into monuments anyways, past the barricades and tape. And the police just sit their talking to each other, not enforcing anything, it was kinda weird to see. But as missionary's we obeyed the rules and stayed on the outside of the monuments.

 

Visa news: I will be heading to Argentina sometime, some people say the week of the 28th I have heard a lot about the 22, But I have NO IDEA. All I know is I am a missionary, and I do what I am told to do. :)

 

I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

D&C18:15-1

Letter 10/7/13 Manassas Park VA

Family and Friends! How are you all doing? Boy oh Boy it has been a crazy week. I got my visa, we got to watch conference, and we have a baptism this coming Saturday! Oh the miracles!

 

Visa: I am still not sure the exact date on when I will be heading to Argentina. My companions are bummed, because we wanted to stay together until I killed them. (killing just means I was with them in their last transfer), But nope, they will die without me. My MTC Companion also got his Visa, I am not sure who else in my district got theirs, but I suspect quite a few. I am so EXCITED! but also a little nervous.

 

Conference: Well for us we watched conference in the chapel at the church. I have never gotten so much from a conference EVER! It was so so good. My favorite talk was by Gerald Caussie, and his story using Les Miserables was Awesome! I enjoyed Uchtdorfs talk as well "You can get up now" That is so inspiring! I loved how this conference was all about getting back to the basics, Just your basic Commandments, 13 articles of faith, and family. It is so inspiring that in our ever changing, and deteriating world our church, our belief is still just teaching, and living the basics. A lot of the talks used action words, so many said :take up your cross and walk, Yoke up with the Christ. I loved it!

 

Baptism: We have a husband and wife baptism this Saturday, We have been working with them forever, and now I believe they are ready. I am so excited for them. They are such a cool family. It took them a while to finally accept it, but I know it is going to stick. They are going to be good, strong members of this church.

 

Well Family, Until Next time. Smile, be happy. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

1 Nephi 4:7-9

"The reason I am e-mailing on a Thursday" Letter 10/03/2013

Attention! Attention!

I got my Visa to Argentina. I will be leaving sometime close to October 20.

That is all.

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Letter 09/30/2013

Bienvenidos!

Hello everyone, this week has been a very interesting but fun week. Transfers are this Thursday and for some reason transfer week and the week before are a little different then the others. One of the zone leaders I am living with is now the new Assistant to the President. We joke around about how we have to treat him differently, and how we cant talk to him cause he is the new AP.

 

We are told a lot as missionarys to be bold without being over bearing, now that is a very fine line. Me and my companions have definately had our fare share of being bold lately. We have two different investigators that are really interested, but never seem to act. Never seem to follow up on there commitments, so we decided hey, we are going to be straight up, tell them how it is, and if they dont like it, well we will back off and give them the time they need. Well those lessons were two very tough lessons, we were bold, and we promised the blessings, but also promised them that we can do nothing if they wont do anything for themselves. But the lessons went really well. It was tough, and they tried to weasle out of things, but we held strong, and we got them to find a new resolve. We are still waiting to see the result of one of them, But the first lesson, the investigator did keep his commitment.

 

This week has not been an easy week. It has been a hard week. For a lot of different reasons, but I am doing great. I have Christ to lean on.

 

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Mathew 11: 28-30

Letter 9/23/13

Family and Friends!! How are you wonderful people? I am doing wonderful here. I have kinda hit my stride, and I am loving it. Ya know the family we had at church last week? Well they will be baptized October 12. How awesome is that?? I am so excited for them. They have done so much, and changed so much. We had a lunch with them and we shared some scriptures, talked about faith in the atonement, and the blessings that come from baptism, the mom just broke down and cried. It was really so amazing.

 

I went on an exchange with the zone leaders this week and we went to this lady's house. When we got there you immediately knew that she was a good person, she was a less active, and she has so many  hard things going on in her life. She is fighting a custody battle with her husband, but her husband ran off into an army base with the kids, but the army base is in Germany...so it's really a crazy and hectic situation I don't understand all of it to be honest. But she was such a wonderful lady. She was so loving, and so friendly. Towards the end of the visit she kinda broke down and cried. Talked about how hard it was for her, and she asked for a blessing. Well... I ended up giving said blessing. First one in the field...But I felt calm. It was such an amazing experience. I really am so grateful for the power of the priesthood.

 

Another day this week we talked with a guy who was really having a hard time. He was living alone, had no job, and had no contact with his family. Come to find out he was a man who had been married for 34 years, he had a really good job, and had a happy family. But he was an alcoholic. He told us so many times how he tried. but he couldn't give up alcohol. He told us how happy he was. But the alcoholism destroyed his life. He had no pride, he had no resentment to anyone but himself. He recognized the need to change, he recognized his faults. But He didn't know how. I am so excited to see how the atonement, and the gospel will change his life.

 

Well everyone I love you. I pray for you. And I hope that your dreams are coming true every day.

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

3 Nephi 12:4-8

Letter 09/16/2013

Wow what a crazy week, and I mean it. We had a lot of stuff giong on. We also had a lot of success. This week was a lot of member work, we did a lot of visiting with Less Actives, and vistiting with the strong members to get them involved in the work. It is amazing to see the members that just seem to get it. They understand that they also are responsible to do missionary work, and that the most effective way for missionarys to work and have success is through members, and member referrals. We had 11 Less actives at church, and 3 investigators. Those three investigators are so awesome, Its a family Mom, Dad, and Son. The Dad is so cool, he is enthusiastic, loves the church, and always willing to participate in lessons, he says the prayer in priesthood meeting, he just is not quite ready to make that step into the font. (Well in his mind anyways.) But we are meeting with him this week, and hopefully we will put him on date and he will be baptized.

The Game: WOW That was such an awesome and fun experience, first off it was my very first MLB game. And yes the Nationals DOMINATED the Phillies, but I mean what can you expect? You have the faith of like 400 Missionaries cheering for the Nationals, how could they not win? Plus, Bryce Harper is a Mormon. They couldn't lose...Yes I might have just spoke blasphemy. But yes it was so much fun. We also got to do a lot of contacting, and it was nice to talk to people outside of their homes, and have them see that we are just regular people. We had both the D.C South and North missions there. I had a really interesting talk with a very very very drunk Hindu guy he was about 20, and he was trying to explain his faith, but had to stop, and says: "Man religion is hard when your wasted." But it was just an all around good day.

So in the hispanic culture they have this funny joke about how in order to learn spanish you have to eat spicy food, or hispanic food in general. Well, I am never one to back down from a challenge, especially when my pride is at stake, so when a member challenges me to Buffalo Wild Wings Blazing Wing Challenge, well I take him up on that offer, and tell him I could do it faster then he could. Well I dont handle spicy food very well, in fact I am quite the wimp. So I am pretty sure we are doing the challenge this week, and I will have to tell you how it goes.

I am loving it here, and even during the rough times, I can feel christs love, and feel the great power the gospel has. I know this church is true, and I love seeing the light of christ in peoples eyes as they begin to feel the light kindle in their souls. Everyone is givin the light of Christ, and as missionarys we are to help people find it, and bring it out. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

D&C 123:17

Pictures from Manassas Park 09/09/2013

Elder Reid just sent me some pictures! Due to privacy rules and such I can't post some of the ones he sent of him and his companions. I did crop him out of one though :) 

 That dodge is always parked there. 

Just some of the view 

Washington DC Temple

Letter 09/09/2013 Area: Manassas Park, VA

Well this week has been a full week that is for sure! It has been full of ups and also had its downs. We didn't find as much success as we would have liked. We did a lot of contacting, and finding, we didn't teach as many lessons, but sometimes we plant seeds, and sometimes we reap the harvest.

We were heading back to the place with a lot of Bed Bugs, and as we got there and pulled into the complex, we noticed something that really made us all uneasy, there was quite the party going on, full of beer, drugs and a lot of not the best type of people, as we pulled in they saw three white guys in white shirt and ties in a malibu, and I think they got hungry. Ha ha, Normally I wouldn't be nervous, but there was thirty of them, and the odds just aren't that good with 3 on 30. We said a prayer, and all felt like it would be better to leave, instead of walking through this group to get into the apartments. 

We had a lesson last night that was really cool, it ended with us all on our knees in a kitchen, and an investigator praying for an answer, it was a prayer like I have never heard, he asked God, but he did it in a way with so much power, that is was almost like him commanding God. I am not sure how that man upstairs thought about it, but this brother is really a good guy.

On a lighter note, I tried fried Oreos this week, yes you put pancake mix around an Oreo and fry it. It is a good way to knock off about ten years of your life, but it was SOOO good.

FUNNY STORY: So once upon a time before the mission I was at Britain Carters house and his mom tells me I look like Bill Clinton, as much as I want to look like a president who was almost impeached, and has views I don't necessarily agree with I laughed and just thought that it was a one time thing. Then we go to a members house and the father is a funny guy from El Salvador, and he looks at me and says: "You look like you could be Bill Clinton's Grandson." This was in Spanish so I wanted to make sure I heard him right, I said Como? which means What? and he said it again. I had to laugh. So I need your opinions do I really look like Bill Clinton? if so....Well I don't know how I feel about it.

I love you guys, and am doing great here.

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Oh, and I will be going to the Nationals game on Friday. YES!!!!! They play the Phillies! Jealous?