Blog Letter 1/26/2015

Hello how is everyone doing? I hope the answer is great!!

Lets get this thing started:

Monday 19th:

This day was fun, it was rainy, and I was super sick from something I had eaten so we left to start working, and had to return and stay in the pench. I was pretty destroyed. 

Tuesday 20th: 

We had divisions with the assistents again. I was with Elder C. He is a great missionary from Atlanta. They got to our pench at 2:30 in the morning. We had a lot of good lessons and had a lot of fun. Elder A from Chile was with Elder Q. 

Wednesday 21st:

(Side note: It took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out that its 21st and not 21th. Wow...Spanish...)

Wednesday was a great day as well. We taught a great family that we had taught Sunday. They have been waiting 10 years to get baptized, but haven't done the papers to get baptized yet. We are trying to help them begin to due all the basics again like reading the scriptures, and going to church. Sometimes our desires do not reflect our works. These people want to get baptized but aren't working to hard towards the goal. We also had Executive Committee with the priesthood. It was a good meeting. We are really starting to see the ward follow our example and work hard. It is awesome.

Thursday 22nd:

We did weekly planning, and had a really good lesson with one of our investigators named Sandra. She is having family issues, but we are trying to help her. Thursday was kinda a rough day we did a lot of walking. 

Friday 23rd:

We had a bunch of really good lessons today, My favorite was with E she has a date to be baptized, but is having a lot of opposition from her parents and stuff. She even had a Catholic Priest visit her house to convince her to not be baptized. But we had a good lesson and still have hopes that she can be baptized. We are seeing a lot of success with the recent converts here. They are really responding well, and progressing. And we are having a lot of less actives come back. The church is progressing. 

Saturday 24th:

We did service with the Ib family. They are really cool. We cut there grass and weeds with a machete...its normal here for people to cut their grass with machetes...Not nearly as effective as a lawn mower, but for a minute way more entertaining. I challenge you all to do it. We had some good lessons throughout the entire day. We also taught S's son A English. He needs to take a big test. We made it fun so he actually enjoyed learning. 

Sunday 25th:

We had a lot of people show up to church. Including a family from the very bottom tip of argentina. Our ward is really growing here and I love to see that. 

I love you all so much. I do have a request. I am trying to put together stories for genealogy here. I would love for anybody and everybody to send me some history forms for my grandparents/ great grandparents. And pioneer stories. Please send me what you can!! Its something our mission is focusing on.

Love you all!!

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Blog Letter 1/20/2015

Hello everyone. I am sorry to say that this letter probably will not be as interesting to you as the last letter. :) But read it anyways!!

Monday 12th:

We played futbol (soccer) with some members in our capilla. I am without a doubt the worse soccer player out of all of them. But I did make a goal. So watch out when I get home I will give you a run for your money to all you Yankees out there. (Here they say yankee instead of gringo)

Tuesday 13th:

We had district meeting this day. It was pretty fun. Just a really regular day. It was raining though. It began the rain that seemed to continue on and off all week thise week. 

Wednesday 14th:

Wednesday is a weirdly spelt word. We did divisions. I was with Elder P. from Peru. He is a really cool guy. He has like 3 weeks in his mission. He has a lot of energy and loves being a missionary. But being with him really made me feel like an old fart. We taught a couple of lessons with President Gericke (the stake president) It was a really good time. 

Thursday 15th: 

We had a lot of fun. We got our phone from the Mission home, and gave back the phone we had been borrowing from the elders of San Agustin. (Another area). We had to use their phone while we were getting ours replaced from the robbery. We taught a couple of lessons. And learned how to play an argentinian card game called trucos. Apparently it is a game based on lieing. I still dont fully understand how to play it...its a really difficult game to comprehend. 

Friday 16th: 

We did divisions with Nogoya, I was with Elder N. (my comp from concordia). We had a lot of fun. We taught a bunch of lessons. I had to travel in bus to nogoya its a pueblo about 2 hours from Paraná. 

Satureday 18th:

We spent most of the time walking around visiting with a short amount of time all the people we wanted to come to sacrament. It was fun to go around and visit for a quick moment with all the people. A lot of walking though. 

Sunday 18th:

Most of the people we visited came to church, thats always a good feeling. We visited with some investigators that want to get baptized but due to the complicatedness of the divorces here in argentina they have not been able to. But we are trying to help them be able to and get everything they need done. We gave them a lot of encouragment they were a little down about the whole thing. I also gave a talk in church. I love giving talks I really do. :)

Thats my week. I hope all of you are doing great. :)

Love,
Elder Mason Paul Reid

Blog Letter 1/12/2015

Hello everyone!

This week has been an intersting one that is for sure. I have had a couple of people ask me how exactly I "lost" my wallet. Technically I didn't lose it, I was obliged to give it to another person. 

Let me just tell you the story:

Me and Elder T. were walking down the street, Elder T. is one of the assistants I was doing divisions with. Well, as we were walking Elder T. turns around and I hear him say: "Wow, we don't want any problems" I turned around just in time to see a man with a revolver pointed at me come up to us. He demanded my bag that had ALL of my stuff in it because it had just rained so it was in a plastic sack in my bag. Well obviously a guy with a gun pointed at you is pretty persuasive. So I gave it to him. 

It was a bummer to lose all the stuff we lost. But I am glad that neither one of us got hurt. I don't want anyone getting all worried about me here in Argentina. It was a freak accident and the first time someone had been robbed with a gun in that area for 3 months. So it's not something that happens too frequently. 

Other than that I am doing good. We did divisions with the assistants, and with the other Elders from the area Terminal. It was fun to be with other missionaries. 

We also had our Zone Meeting it was a lot of fun. A Hermana from Mexico made torta de tres leches. Its cake but REALLY DELICIOUS!!

I love you all so much,

Elder Mason Paul Reid

P.S The mission has a blog you guys can look at: lagranmisionrosario.blogspot.com.ar

Blog Letter 1/5/2015

Hey everyone!

This is probably going to be a short letter, but we will see how it goes.

Wednesday 31st of December:

Due to the parties and all of that it was a rough day, but we made it fun. Our lessons failed us, and when we started contacting we didn't get a lot of good reception. One lady when seeing us rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air as if to say: I don't need anything else to bug me. Well I noticed that she wasn't happy so I said. Hello we are messengers of happiness. Do you need a little bit of happiness? She realized why I said that and started to treat us better. I gave her a lesson 1 pamphlet which is about the restoration of the church, and said. Read this: It's about the restoration of happiness.

Thursday 1st of January:

We had to stay all day in the pench and clean. Its not safe to be out in the streets after a big party. However, later that day we went to Rosario on a bus. I also beat my companion in T.E.G which is Argentina's version of Risk. 

Friday the 2 of January:

We were in Rosario in a consejo de líderes or in English a leadership council with all the other zone leaders. It was fun. I really love going to those. I get to see all my friends from different places, and we talk about how to help the mission improve. 

Saturday the 3 of January:

I have 18 months in the mission. That's weird... But it was a good day. We taught a bunch. I was bummed when one of our lessons failed. The guy had pleaded with us to teach him why God takes from us our loved ones. I told him we could respond, and he said that no matter what he would be there cause he wanted to know. Well he wasn't there. Sometimes I feel like we are that way to God. We ask for something so much, and plead for an answer, but we don't keep our part of the deal (I.E the commandments) so we don't get an answer.

Sunday the 4th of January:

It was a great day. Really tranquilo. We taught an hermano that had a lot of problems I learned how to really love him in that lesson. 

I hope all you guys are doing awesome. I love you so much!

Elder Mason Paul Reid

Remember: The Gospel is Great, but its even greater when you live it.