November 26, 2013
On Wednesday we had interviews with the president. Our mission president is so amazing; he is inspired to help lead and guide the mission towards bigger, better, and greater things. We then moved on Thursday to our new apartment. The move wasn’t too bad, my companion and I moved as much as we could on our own and the things that couldn’t fit in the car we loaded into the trailer. One of the senior missionaries, Elder Jeppson, drove the truck with the trailer and we moved in and got everything set up. We even have a small garage so we have a little more room to store things.
Oscar is still trying to get an appointment to be interviewed for his temple recommend, but he lost his aunt this week which was hard on him because he was really close to her. He seems to be doing okay and even looked happy on Sunday at church. We are still working on ideas on how to work with members and so we started sharing the story of Cornelius (Acts 10) – think of Peter as the missionary and Cornelius as the nonmember and the angel as the member. It worked and we had a family refer us to their friend.
It has been very rainy and cloudy which means that it has been cold. I have been bundling up but it is still pretty cold. I got to hold a real Emmy Award;

one of our members is a sound producer on some really big shows and he has won three awards and he actually told us to hold them so he could get a picture and send it home. It was pretty cool! I saw six robbers in our apartment complex Sunday night! They were very stealthy; one came out, checked the surroundings then moved to another corner and another came out. They were really organized and fairly quiet. I was the only one that saw them because my companion had gone to bed early and I went out on the balcony for a moment and saw them. The robbers had their traditional masks that never move because they are raccoons! That was really interesting to see 6 raccoons sneaking around and digging through the trash.
We had a great p-day – it started by us setting up a prank on the elders in our complex and ward. We took them on an adventure by having them follow clues to 5 spots where they did different activities and we covered their door with balloons

. When they finished, we had a water balloon fight.

We won. The elders told us that we had better watch our backs because the war is on!
Well that is about all for now.
Love,
Sister Reese




December 3, 2013
This week we were able to get a lot more done; first, we met with Murlin (a less active member of 40+ years) with a member and it was a pretty good lesson and Murlin was happy. We taught the plan of salvation and it helped him out a lot to understand more of the eternal perspective and where he is now and where he can be. We also had exchanges so I stayed in Stevenson Ranch and another sister came up while Sister Lind went to Studio City for 24 hours. On exchanges so many miracles happen. We got 3 new potential investigators and one new investigator. The three potentials are Mina – an Indian in the 20’s; Marissa – she is Hispanic and has been to church looking for somewhere to go; and Victoria – we met her in an RV park and she came to her door and asked us to come inside and pray with her. We held hands and said a prayer then she told us that she had been homeless and she was now living with a friend and her son-in-law, and he was going into surgery after a hand injury. She gave us her information for us to return and teach her. Then another miracle happened – we were knocking on doors in an apartment complex and we were nearing the end and we saw one door and almost passed it but we decided to stop. A young guy (30’s) Lynn, answered and invited us in to meet with him and his wife. We taught the first lesson and he had a ton of questions and it was really great! I even had a thought/image of him passing the sacrament – I believe that he will be baptized but am not sure when.
We were invited to a member’s home for Thanksgiving and they had tons of food. I tried many things I’ve never had before, like berry pie, and it was pretty good. We were sent home with a lot of food so we were set for a few days. We spent some time playing with the children building a wood castle.
Church was amazing we heard many great testimonies and it was really spiritual. We also got news that there are going to be transfers. I will find out Tuesday where I will be and who my new companion will be. It was really hard saying goodbye; I just love the members here so much! They have literally become like a second family. I’ll miss everyone; but the president knows what he is doing and I really respect him for that, he is so inspired for this mission and he is incredible. Monday morning we helped set up the chapel for the upcoming Christmas concert.
Anyways, that about wraps it up for now.
Love,
Sister Reese