Letter 2/24/2014

Happy Birthday Family!

This week has been a great week. We had a lot of success, amid the failures. In my mission I have learned that optimism is really important. For example, even though this week a lot of the people we contacted we couldn't teach, the ones we did teach were really accepting and loving. We had a new investigator come to church that we didn't expect to come. We are really seeing the power of prayer and obedience in our work. 

This week I learned a lot. There is a wonderful part about the gospel, that even though we can here the same things and read the same scriptures. We can always learn something new. And that is because the Holy Ghost is the great teacher. When someone teaches by the Holy Ghost, and when someone listens to the Holy Ghost both the teacher, and the person being taught learn. That is just proof that what is being taught is true. The gospel and the church are not something we can learn completely in this lifetime. There are always ways to improve and learn something more, and that is what makes the gospel and this life so wonderful. 

I have noticed, and learned a lot of things in my mission, but a really big one of those things is that we need to rely on the Lord, and submit our will to his. 

We had the new investigator at church this week, and we also had a lot of members in general this week. So, when we entered into the sacrament room we went to sit next to our new investigator that way he would feel welcome. When we sat down we had a member come to us and ask us if he could sit next to our investigator to fellowship him. We agreed very happily (fellow shipping is key), then we found two other seats, then in walks our recent converts with their kids, they couldn't find enough seats so we ended up giving them ours. Seats were a hard thing to find. So we ended up setting up more seats for ourselves in the very back, but that my friends, is a good problem to have. :) 

This week we got the opportunity to eat cow heart, and kidney Milanesas, and I actually really enjoyed them. Cow Heart is actually really good, and Kidney is tasty. 

I hope you guys are all doing wonderful. I love you so much. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

His Milanesas sandwich he ate today.

Letter 2/17/2014

Mis Queridos amigos y familiares

This has been a really tranquilo week. Nothing to big or exciting has happened, With the exception of probably two things. The first one: Fridays we always have lunch with Bishop's family. The Bishop usually isn't there because he has work. So we just have it with the rest of the family, but this week he was on vacation from work. After lunch he offered us a ride back to our pench, we said yes, and jumped into his car. As we were driving a dog came out of nowhere, and our bishop ended up running over said dog. Oh my goodness it was terrible. I have never been in a car when that has happened, it was not a good feeling. The owner of the dog was sitting outside and saw it happen, so the bishop got out, and went to go talk to her. Me and my companion we were just like "did that really just happen?" It was crazy. 

The second story: well yesterday I must have eaten something bad, cause I got a little food poisoning, and I ended up throwing up, and had some pretty serious stomach issues last night. Luckily, it has passed and other then a little stomach ache, I am doing a lot better. But whatever it was, I don't ever want to get it again!!

Other than those two things the week was really calm and nothing big really happened. Just a good week. This week I have really noticed the importance of the little things. The little things lead to big things. I know that the Lord works in small and simple ways. So we as well, can change our lives for the good or for the bad, depending on the simple choices we make. So my challenge for you all is to do the little things. :) 

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

What the punks could have robbed. 

 We had to clean out our water tank, and when it rains, I get a lot of mud on my pants from walking. 

Letter 2/10/2014

¡MI GENTE!

How are you all doing? I hope you are all doing wonderful. I know I say that a lot. But it is true, I worry about you guys, and are always in my prayers. I hope none of you got too worried about me getting robbed. I have been fully notified that next time I should be a little more compliant, and I will do better next time. :) I love you guys. 

So I thought I would begin this letter with a story, so here in Argentina we have a ice cream chain called Gridos. It is a really good ice cream shop. They have such good ice cream, and in really good flavors. For instance, chocolate ice cream with white chocolate chunks. SOO GOOD! Anyways back to the story. Elder Watkins told me that it was impossible for me to eat a kilo of Ice Cream. I took that as a personal shot to my inner being. I LOVE ICE CREAM! So I took that challenge, and everyone went to gridos, and purchased their own personal kilo of Ice Cream. We dubbed it "The Ice Cream Challenge" and well we began eating! Oh my goodness. I didn't realize how much ice cream that was. Elder B, and Elder W quit, same with Elder C. But I foolishly continued on. It reminded me a lot of the gallon of milk challenge I have tried twice to complete. (Failed both times) Well I got to the last 5 bites of this ice cream, I had already been feeling sick for  a long time. But I couldn't give up, I had been challenged, and I had let my mouth talk WAAY more then it should have. So I continued. But don't worry. I FINISHED!! I successfully ate a kilo of Ice Cream. Just so you guys know. A kilo of Ice Cream is equal to 2.2 pounds of Ice Cream. ITS A LOT! I was really sick after. 

It has rained every day this week, and I have been so grateful for the rain. I love the rain. It kinda keeps the heat away, But when the sun comes out, boy oh boy is it humid! 

In Sacrament this week the stake president came, and he talked about fixing cars, and getting grease, or oil on your hands, and how when you get grease on your hands it gets on everything is, you cant touch something without it getting dirty. And how you cant get it off with anything but Soap and water. He related the grease and the oil to sin, and soap and water to the atonement. Fixing the car was related to just living life. As we live, we are going to sin, and we are going to get dirty, but we need to repent, wash our hands, or we are going to get grease, and oil on everything or everyone we touch. We cant live with sin. I really enjoyed the analogy. 

All in all, it has been a good week. We have a lot of investigators that are progressing, and we are hoping to see some of them in white here soon. I love you all so much, and hope you are doing wonderful. 

I love you,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

A Q&A with Mason

A close family friend of ours asked Mason some questions and I figured I would share his answers. Thanks Aubrey for sending me these back. 

Biggest Shock: The fact that I am the only American (with the exception of my comp). The people are SO different. They even think different. In a way I cant even explain to you. 

Nasty Food: Seviche, so so gross its like octopus, fish or muscles but all completely raw. Not cooked, in this nasty little soup of lemon, onion, and just nasty. I am pretty sure "Nasty" is an actual ingredient. 

Craziest animal/Insect: Okay this might not seem crazy to you, but GIANT Cockroaches that FLY!!! Did you know they could fly... well they can here!!!

Favorite Part: Just being able to help people. I love it when I can help people. And that is just my job...ALL THE TIME!

Favorite part of Argentina: The culture is just awesome. They are just so loving and friendly. Like I am sitting here in the computer place, and the guy just gave me a bunch of food to eat for free. Just because he knows us and considers us good guys. Like I just ate ten bucks worth of food. 

 Now that you live only with “brothers”, are you grateful for growing up with your awesome sisters instead: They are definitely different, but I will tell you what I love my sisters. The guys are great here. But I love my sisters!

Hardest Part: Definitely just missing my family and friends like you guys!!

Visit again: Without a doubt, I would love to live here for a year or so with my wife.

Biggest Adventure: I have no idea....That is a hard one.

Letter 2/3/2014

Hello Family:

Well here we are another week gone already, I cant believe it has gone by so fast, but I have learned that you have to take advantage of every day we have in this life. 

It is has been a good week, but definitely a challenging one. We had a lot of things happen that were tough, and we just had a challenging week. But, at the same time it was such a good week anyways. I feel like the Lord was testing us as a companionship to see our conviction, our faith, or our ability to put our trust in the Lord. I don't know if we passed, but I know that we did our best and we continued on faithfully. Now to say that it was challenging does not mean that we did not see success. A recent converts grandma committed to being baptized. We are thinking February 22. We also talked with a convert who we baptized him on the 25th of January. He is the only member and when we started teaching him, his family wasn't interested. They are now showing a lot more interest, and we are hoping to see them in white stepping into the baptismal font before this transfer is over. 

This Sunday it rained A LOT, and it was surprisingly my first time with a lot of rain on a Sunday here in Argentina. The rain here really gets felt by the people. We normally have 90-100 people show up to church (100 is a good day.) But this Sunday we had only 33 by the time sacrament rolled around. But I will tell you what, it was such a good meeting. I love fast and testimony meetings anyways, but this one was extremely special to me. With being so few we got to here from most of the congregation, and the people really opened up, and bore such sweet testimony. I loved it. It has been one of the best experiences in my mission. I wanted to stand up and give my testimony, but the time was not willing, and I felt like it was more important for the members to bear their testimonies. 

This should be a really good transfer. I hope all of you are doing wonderful I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid