Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Blog Letter 12/31/2014

¡Hola!

I am going to start off with talking about the days with the day AFTER Christmas. I hope you are all okay with that. And if you're not...well...bummer. 

Lets start with Friday the 26th:
We had our activity with President Zanni. Him and his family came to ParanĂ¡ and we decorated cookies, played some games, and ate lunch. We then went to a children's hospital and gave away the cookies and sang Christmas hymns to the little kids and their families. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it. On the way to the hospital it started to rain, but I am talking torrential, wash away cars rain. So we all got soaking wet. But it was fun. :) We also found out that Elder Reidhead was leaving, and my new companion is going to be Elder Quiroz. (more on that later)

Saturday the 27th:
We had a really good lesson with E., she is programmed to be baptized on the 17th of January. Then at night Elder Reidhead said goodbye to some people. 

Sunday the 28th: 
We got locked out of our pench, and somehow we luckily got in through a window that we are pretty sure we had locked. (blessings) The members threw a going away party for Elder Reidhead. The members here are AWESOME! I love them so much. We also ended up going to sleep really really late trying to get everything ready for the next day. 

Monday the 29th:
Transfers. I was in the Bus Terminal from 8 o clock to 7 o clock. Yes that is 11 hours. As a zone leader I have to make sure not only the missionaries from our zone, but from other zones get to there areas. Elder Reidhead left, which really did make me sad. I love that guy. Elder Quiroz got here. (more on him later). We played a trick on him. One of our male members told me to tell my new companion that we had a Inactive member that was attracted to men. Well the member is a really good actor, and we scared my comp pretty good. ha ha. 

Tuesday the 30th: 
We programmed two people to be baptized. It is awesome! We also have been having a lot of fun. The people here are great. I love them! One of our members that just got sealed in the temple has a son that wants to come back to church. We are hoping he can come back. I love that family so much! 

Elder Quiroz is from Bolivia. He is really cool 19 years old, has 14 months in the mission. We get a long realy well. He was serving in a city called San Nicolas before coming here. 

I love you all so much! You are all so wonderful!!

Love,
Elder Mason Paul Reid

Monday, December 15, 2014

Blog Letter 12/15/2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Well hello everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far! I saw a way that a missionary emailed his family and I kinda liked it, so I am going to try it. Let me know what you think.

Monday:
Last monday after going to the Ciber and talking to you guys, Elder R and I with two other sisters walked to the Giant Mate, we went into the giant mate store which is a souvenir store but it was SUPER expensive. So we went to the store to the side of the Giant Mate, and we got some souvenirs, I love going into some of the random corner stores here.

Tuesday:
Like all Tuesdays we had regular district meeting. After regular district meeting we went and taught some lessons in the tarde. We ended the night teaching our investigator D with some members inside the church it was a great lesson. 

Wednesday:
We taught a less active member who is really sick, and has a speech impetiment, we gave him a blessing. B passed her Baptism Interview which is awesome! And we taught a kid some english that had to take his final exam, he knew about as much English as I know German...So I am not sure if he is going to pass... R our recent convert is doing awesome. She has never read the scriptures before, but now she is reading 1 chapter of the Book of Mormon, The bible, and Gospel Principles every day. 

Thursday:
We taught that same kid English, he actually retained the first lesson pretty well. Maybe, just maybe he will pass. We went looking for a lady that we needed to find in order for a person to get baptized in La Paz. We had to go into a Villa, and right as we passed this one are, and talked to a lady we turned around and passed the same spot less then 4 minutes later and it was surrounded with Police with shotguns, and people were fighting...that was cool. 

Friday
B GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was a great baptism! A lot of people came and we had a great time. It went out without a hitch! (which has never happened). Elder Reidhead baptized her. It was a great baptism!

Saturday:
We helped a guy push his car to try and start it, as we were practically running, and pushing this car kinda down hill we got close to an intersection, we stopped pushing, but the guy decided not to stop, and ended up T-boning another car...But they got it all figured out. We also taught D, and S, they are two recent converts, that are kinda struggling, So if anyone has any marriage advice it will be welcomed. We also did service in the morning.

Sunday:
We had our stake conference with Pres. Zanni. It was a really good meeting. I felt the spirit really strong. Also D will be baptized this 20th of December she passed her interview!  We taught some good lessons that night. 

All in all this last week has been a good week! I hope you are all doing great!

Love,
Elder Mason Paul Reid

Monday, December 8, 2014

Blog Letter 12/8/2014

Hello Family and Friends!

This week has been a great week. We have had a lot of laughs, and a lot of good times. It feels good to be a missionary. 

We have had a lot of success and a lot of miracles have happened. 

We should have a baptism next week, then the week after that. We are hoping to have more baptisms in January. We are finding a lot of people, and seeing the lords hands go before us. 

This week I went on divisions with Elder G, he is from ecuador, he is a good guy, it was fun to be with him and learn a little bit about Ecuador, he actually lived on the Galapagos Islands. He made me want to take a trip to Ecuador. 

I also went on divisions with Elder C he is from Guatemala. He speaks a different Language that is an ancient tribal language. It was interesting to hear him speak it. I went to Victoria with Elder C. Victoria is a small pueblito about 2 hours in colectivo from ParanĂ¡. Its a really nice Tranquilo place. 

One part of the Mission I didnt expect is how much I am able to learn and interact with different cultures. I have met and talked with people from Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Columbia, Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, and more. I have learned so much about other cultures. Its really been awesome!

We did Service for an hermana that had a pool that you had to put together. It was quite a big pool. and it took a long time to put together. It was super hot outside, and the Irony is that we as missionaries couldnt even get in the water. But I have learned to really enjoy serving other people. 

Now me and Elder R are going to go and try to find a Giant Mate. It supposed to be bigger then a human. It should be fun. I will be sure to take photos. :)

I love you guys so much!!
Elder Mason Paul Reid