Blog Letter 3/30/2015

Well hello everyone.

This week has been awesome here in Feliciano. We are working a lot, and getting a lot of stuff done. 

I am still trying to get to know the area. Its not a big place so I am learning it really quickly but I still don't know where everyone lives. But it is fun to get to know new places and feel lost every once in a while. 

For about a day or so I was with Elder Chamorro. He is from Buenos Aires. He is serving in La Paz but his companion and my companion had to go to Rosario. He came here and we worked together. We did A LOT of walking. It rained that same day and the mud here is like a mixture of gum and cement. It sticks to your shoes really hard, and when it dries its harder then diamond ha ha. 

I am having a lot of new experiences. And we are working on accomplishing a lot here in the Branch. It is a new experience being able to really see ALL the sides of the branch, and the members. I also feel humbled when I think of all the things I have to do. I am grateful for the opportunity to really have an impact on the members lives here. 

There are some members that treat us so well. I have come to love them really fast. 

I love you all so much!!

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Ps.This weekend we have the opportunity to listen to the prophets and hear the words of God through them. I invite you all to go to conference with a question or a couple of questions you want the Lord to answer. He will answer I promise. Write it down, and leave some space for his answer!! I love you!!

Blog Letter 3/24/2015

Greetings, from Feliciano!

We started out the week really well. I was with Elder Q. and we were working hard trying to get everything set and ready for transfers. 

I figured I would be transfered to another area, maybe to train one of the new missionaries, but the Lord had other plans. 

I got a call from President Zanni at about 11 o clock at night on Wednesday right as we were about to say our nightly prayer and go to bed. President Zanni called me to be Branch President of the Branch in San Jose de Feliciano (Feliciano). 

I left friday in the Morning to Feliciano and got here friday at about 12:30. If you look at a map of the Argentina Rosario Mission you will see close to the top there is a small city called La Paz. Well about an hour and a half to the North, you will see Feliciano, its a small, really small, tiny, but wonderful town. It is the furthest point from the Mission home. Well it might be tied with a small place called San Cristobal. 

I had to get here early so that Elder L., ( the branch president before me) could show me the area and teach me a couple of things. Elder L. is going home now...crazy. But he taught me a lot. I also got to know a couple of the members. 

On Saturday we went out to a ranch that the church owns here. Its HUGE. Its a big cow ranch. We ate a sheep asado and we played a bunch of games it was a huge branch activity. 

Sunday was really great. I gave a talk. It was a really good meeting but it was a different experience being a Branch President. Elder L. left Sunday night. 

Since then I have had a lot of great expirience, and it has been a great time. I love to be here. Feliciano is awesome. The people are great. Its all just good small town country people. There are only a couple of paved streets. People have sheep as pets. I am loving it. 

My companion is Elder P. I know him from Paraná I was his zone leader. He has about 3 months in the mission. He is from Peru. He is a good guy. He helps me out a lot. and is full of charity. I have a lot to learn from him. He is the secretay of the branch here. 

I have a lot to learn. And I know that the Lord has a lot of things planned for me. I am ready for it. I know I have a lot of faults, and I lack a lot of things. But I am excited to do my best!

I love you all so much!!

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Blog Letter 3/16/2015

Hello Family and Friends. How are you? I am doing great!

Monday 9:

We got what we needed to done, and then we started our trip to Rosario, My comp has tramites...I am still not exactly sure how to translate Tramites into english. It embarks a lot mor things then just paper work.

Martes 10:

We went to a big building that had something to do with Imigrations, we waited a long time, and my comp actually did not do his tramites. He didnt have to do them. There was a mix up in the system. So we actually went down to Rosario for no reason. But we had to stay because of the leadership counsel we had the next day. So we did divisions with the assistents. I was with Elder A. We had a lot of fun, All of Rosario lost power while we were giving our last lesson of the day. But we got a ride back to the pench.

Wednesday 11: 

We had Consejo. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. We are being pushed to find an inner pressure. And to forget all about ourselves and just work. When we got back into Paraná from being in Rosario we were in our taxi heading home when I remembered I left the keys in the mission home cause I didnt want them to get robbed the day before. So we ended up sleeping in the pench of the missionaries of San Agustin, on the top of a blanket, on a tile floor, without a pillow...it was definately a terrible terrible nights sleep. 

Thursday 12:

After waking up several times the alarm finally went off. ha ha. Thursday was a great day. We had a lot fun, and we visited a lot of people. We had an interesting lunch with one of our less active members. and in the afternoon we had some really good spiritual lessons. 

Friday 13:

Friday was a good day. We did a lot of contacting, and taught a couple of lessons, really tranquilo. 

Saturday 14:

We had our Zone Meeting, we talked about all of the things we talked about in Leadership Counsel, and we applied it to the zone. We are seeing a lot of changes, and a good response form the missionaries here. It will be really cool to see how the mission responds. In the afternoon we taught our investigator about obeying the commandments of god. And how it brings blessings, she didnt end up coming to church...so this week we need to repass it, and help her understand. We got stopped by a really drunk homeless guy in the street, and we had a really long conversation. We ended up giving him food. We want to try and help him. Both me and my comp felt something that told us we needed to reach out and help him. 

Sunday 15:

We gave a couple of blessings on sunday. One to a less active member, and the other to Hermana R's daughter. She was a little sick, and it was to give her a blessing before schools starts. We challenged a couple of our recent converts to start preparing to go to the temple. 

It has been a great week. I hope you are all happy. Stay safe, and love each other. Pray for Missonary opportunities!

Elder Mason Paul Reid 

Blog Letter 3/10/2015

Hello everyone!

This week has been a great week! We have a lot of stuff going on today. So I am just going to inform you all on the biggest things of last week. 

I think the most interesting thing that happened this week was that I went to an argentine cemetery with a mortician. That is pretty cool. 

One of the Elders in our Zone is a mortician. He is from Utah. And we were in Divisions, and we passed a cemetery. We went in cause he is a fanatic for that kind of stuff. Honestly it was really cool. The cemetery here are A LOT different. Really really different. They have like houses. There are very very few tombstones. They are almost all houses. And some of the places aren't very well kept so you can see broken caskets...which is weird. But in almost all the places you can just see the sealed caskets. And they have big almost apartment type buildings just full of these things they call "niches". Or just wear they put the caskets. It is really cool, and kinda creepy. It was different then I expected. 

Other then that this week has been pretty tranquilo. We have been working a lot, and trying to find new people to teach. 

One thing that I heard that I would like to share is this: There is a difference in being active in the church, and active in the Gospel. 

Going to church 1 every month is considered active. But that doesn't make us active in the gospel. It is up to us to be active in the gospel, and it requires a lot more sacrifice, and will power. 

I love you all so much, and hope you are all happy!

Love,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Blog Letter 3/2/2015

Muchas gracias!

Thanks to everyone that wished me a Happy Birthday. You guys are so great! 

This week has been amazing. We are seeing a lot of miracles. And we are seeing a lot of changes with the members. Missionary work is really Member work. The missionarys are just in charge of accompanying the members. If you guys havent had the opportunity to really participate in Missionary Work. I invite you to repent. and DO IT!

We celebrated my birthday in two parts. Friday, and saturday. We were super busy both friday and saturday so we didnt have a lot of time to celebrate my birthday so we just kinda celebrated a little bit both of the days. ha ha. I didnt do anything special or big for my birthday. We spent the entire day teaching. Which for me was perfect. When we are serving our fellow beings we are serving the Lord. And if I can serve the Lord for my Birthday...well thats perfect. 

It rained a lot this week. A LOT!! It has been pretty crazy. I also figured out that you can tell if its going to rain by looking for Dragon flys. If you see lots of dragon flys in one place...its for sure going to rain. 

I got to go to an area called Terminal to do divisions. It was a lot of fun. I was with Elder B. He is a great missionary, we had a lot of fun and made some Empanadas for dinner. 

I love you all so much. Next week I will send some photos. From this week and the next week. 

I love you all so much!

Elder Mason Paul Reid