July 1, 2013
This week as been busy but slow. We had a zone conference and the entire mission came because the mission had not been officially split. (The mission is officially split as of July 1 and my first trainer is now in the new Bakersfield mission.) The mission was great and President Hall is excited with being able to start a ‘new mission’. At district meetings, so far, I am the only one who can play the piano a little bit. I only know 3 songs but I am working on other songs so that I don’t have to play the same songs over and over; but, it is better than not having music at all. The music coordinator of the ward has asked me to sing in sacrament meeting and is working on some of the music that I brought with me to see which one she wants me to sing.
I had an interesting Sunday this week (good and bad); it started of normal – going to our church meetings. After our ward meetings we stayed to go to the Korean branch’s sacrament meeting because a lady from our ward was singing and we told her we would be there to listen. The meeting was all in Korean and it was pretty cool to hear the language. There were only 23 members and afterwards, we were invited to their luncheon. There was one other person there who spoke English so we mostly spoke with him. After that we went with the Korean elders to an appointment they had with a blind 15 year-old who wanted to meet sister missionaries because he didn’t know that there were any. The family invited us to dinner and they kept bringing out more and more food. I ate with chopsticks and am getting pretty good with them because I keep having Asian food. (I have been trying tons of different food the last few weeks and some of it has been really good; but, there are some parts that just don’t taste right and my companion agrees with me most of the time. ) After the Korean dinner we went home and updated our records and books while we let our stomachs settle since we had another dinner appointment later in the evening. This dinner was made from organic food but it still filled us up again. We stayed for a while talking with the member because she was going through a rough time.
We had a really great P-day this week; it was a zone activity. We went up to the Calabasas rock (where we went 2 weeks ago) and we had lunch and climbed some of the rock up there. It was a really clear day and we could see the ocean really well and could see some islands and a boat out there. There was a nice breeze even though it was 108° and it was really peaceful. Later we went to dinner and then to Jamba Juice. It was really great for me at least; my companion got car sick on the way up and back and so did Sister Satini (another sister group we went with) and she ended up throwing up outside the car. I was surprised that I did not get car sick since I usually do and I did not take any motion sickness medicine. The next day, my companion was still feeling sick so she slept most of the day; we did make it to an appointment with an investigator and to a dinner with a member.
A couple of days ago a girl was raped in our complex by and our neighbor told us about it and made sure we were okay. As for Pilar, we met with her son, Lawrence and he brought a friend. They have had some problems with the law, but not too serious. He really wants to learn and he has a lot of questions. Pilar and Lawrence came to church for the first hour. We hope they keep coming. Well that is about all; more later.

Love
Sister Reese

Mission Update

June 25

So last week we had transfers and my new companion is Sister Wettingfeld. She is pretty nice, and at first it was a little weird because we didn’t know what to expect, but we got over it quickly and it is all good. I am in the same area; they typically try to keep people in the same place for about two transfers. So I am still in Chatsworth (porn capital) for now. Chatsworth is pretty nice though; it’s hard to find people most of the time but it’s a nice area.
On a p-day a while ago we went hiking with some other companionships and there are some cool sights that we saw of the ocean.
Pilar, the Philippine, that we have been teaching says that she wants to be baptized. She says that the message we share is what the world needs. She is ‘golden’ because she believes all that we are telling her. Each time we teach her and leave her with commitments, she does them and believes what we say. Last time we asked her to pray to know that what we are teaching he is true, and she said that she has and she knows it is true. (She is Catholic and knows some of the same doctrine.) She will even remember everything we teach her, she tells us about Joseph Smith and him restoring the church and about the atonement, etc. She even will reread the pamphlets we give her so that she does remember it more. At our last meeting with her, we asked her to be baptized on July 13 and she said yes, but the date will probably have to be pushed back a bit since she works every other weekend and she needs to attend church 3 times before being baptized. She also wants her son to join her, so we need to find a way to get him to come and if he does, she will be jumping into the baptismal font!
We haven’t been able to get in contact with Robert (the one being cursed) yet, but we are still going to try. Our neighbor isn’t interested at all. His health is declining (because he drinks beer and smokes all day long), but he is pretty nice. Sometimes he’ll ask us to go to Burger King and get him some sandwiches and he lets us keep the change. He’s a nice guy but he isn’t willing to give up his current lifestyle.
There are Korean elders living in our apartment complex and we see them all the time. One day they saw some bobby pins and were trying to put them into their hair but they could not figure them out and kept saying “ow” trying to get them in. It was really funny. On Monday we got to play soccer with some other missionaries and a few nonmembers. It was really fun; I’m surprised that I am still able to play after not playing for so long. Before you ask, no, I didn’t get injured; just a couple of bruises, so don’t worry about it. I even made the first goal which was great. I hope we do this again because it is tons of fun.
The work here has been kind of slow though; our other investigators have been harder to contact, but we still have a few that we get an appointment with. Hopefully it will be picking up more, but we’ll see. It can be hard to find people in California because a lot of people are either rich (self-centered and don’t care for religion), crazy (those that try to bash us or those that know what they should do but don’t), or too worldly (like into porn and they like the money too much to stop). Anyways it’s just slow right now.
Love Sister Reese

LA Temple and new companion

My companion was transferred up to Lancaster and she will be in the new mission when it splits. She was supposed to leave at the transfer meeting on the following Tuesday, but the president called Monday evening (the week before) and said that she is leaving Wednesday after we get out of the temple and that my new companion will be waiting for me outside the temple. My new companion is Sister Wettingfeld and she is from the Salt Lake Temple Square mission; they send these missionaries out into the real proselyting mission for 4 months during their mission. She has been out for 9 months and is to be my trainer, but I think we are training each other. She is super bossy and I don’t like being forced to do things; but it’s only the third day, so we will see what happens.
Earlier this week (last Saturday) we went to a baptism for an Iranian girl and it was really different because a lot of people there only spoke Farsi, so there was a translator. This translator also translates for general conference and the Book of Mormon recording. Sister Dyreng and I were asked to speak at the baptism about the restoration and the translator was translating what we said. It was very different since I’ve never been translated before. We also met with one lady and as we were teaching her we found out that she went to the masters college in Santa Clarita where they teach them how to bash Mormons. After the appointment we never went back. We also taught Sharon (the lesbian) again. We taught her the first lesson and then asked her to be baptized and she said that she wants to but not for a while. She wants to get out of her relationship because her partner is sort of abusive, which is perfect so she won’t get too upset at us when we teach the law of chastity. We are hoping to help her be ready in the next month or so.
The LA Temple is amazing; I definitely want to go back again sometime. It’s different from the Draper temple. We got to do a chapel session – the first counselor of the temple presidency spoke to us and he had a lot of good things to say. It was also really cool to see all the missionaries there (about 100). I think that I will be singing in church in a couple of weeks; we’ll see how it goes.
Love Sister Reese

Letter from Kirstin June 3 & 5

June 3, 2013
Dear Family,

This week has been kind of slow, but we did get a new investigator; her name is Sharon and is from the south. She is in her 60’s but looks like she is in her 40’s. She worked for the army in destroying chemical weapons and she is a lesbian. She was married twice before and has kids, but her first husband was abusive, which is probably part of the reason why she is lesbian. Her partner in in Iraq working kind of as a geologist (I think she detects bombs/mines in the ground.) Sharon used to be a Jehovah’s Witness but she said that they just weren’t logical; one minute they would say ‘God loves you’ and then the next they would say ‘You will burn in hell for your sins’ and she didn’t like it. We taught her the plan of salvation and she loved it because she said that it made sense completely. Next time we teach her we will be going over the Restoration. We have also been talking to a lot of people (a lot of door knocking) and we have actually met a lot of Iranians (mostly speaking Farsi and very little English). There has been a back-order on Farsi Book of Mormons so we are not able to get these for them. I don’t think that we will be teaching them since they do not speak English and we do not speak Farsi.
Later we met a lady from the Philippines and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she wants to read it and she wants us to come back and teach her and her son because she wants him to also hear the gospel. She told us “There is such peace around you guys”, she is like the perfect investigator; I can’t wait to start teaching her.
There are a lot of things happening in the mission soon (transfers). My companion/trainer is being moved to the Bakersfield mission (when the mission is split) and I will be getting a new companion/ trainer. I’m not very excited about this since I really do not know what kind of a companion I could get; will they be excited about the work or not?
The weather continues to get worse here, the other day it was 104° F, it is dreadful. I hope I get used to it soon or it cools down a bit so I don’t die of heat exhaustion (which I kind of experienced but not too badly.) Other than that it is going pretty well, the work is picking up.

Love, Sister Reese

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June 5, 2013
This is more of an update since a lot has happened after I already sealed the first letter.
Those that know me, know that I love Russian, and met a Russian lady as we walked around and I got to try a little Russian with her. She spoke English because she has been in the US for 20 years. It was great!
We went back and taught the lady from the Philippines and it was amazing! She used to be Catholic so she knows a lot of the doctrines which is great. When we first met her we told her to read 2 Nephi 31 which she had read. It was such a great lesson and at the end we asked her to be baptized and she went to the side of answering; she asked us how we do it and after we explained it, she said that she wants her whole family to be baptized. She has a son & her husband in England and a daughter that lives in Santa Clarita and a son that lives with her. She and her husband are separated but not divorced. We asked her to be baptized on June 29 but she didn’t really say a date since it will be probably 6 weeks before she can be baptized because she is a nurse and works every other weekend and they have to attend church at least three times before they can be baptized. She is definitely interested.
After meeting with her, Satan came after us. We went to dinner with a member (the one who is 84 years old) at a restaurant and we met some crazy people. One of them kept talking to about how he can see orbs and he can travel to different realms and sometimes a wall will come up when he is trying to talk to people, he said that we would hear about it and accept it. No chance. He kept talking so we just walked away. Then this guy’s friend comes up to us next and said that we don’t read the Bible, we told him we do and he said “no you don’t or else you would know that it says God is a jealous God and you shouldn’t have any other Gods.” We told him we didn’t but he was being rude about it. Then he called us Satan. Really? So dumb. So we just said have a nice day and walked away. We finally sat down with our member to eat dinner and while we were eating this guy came up to our table and tells the member to pray for us and she was so great and cute, she said “I’ll pray for you,” but the guy said “no, you need to pray for them, they are demons.” Then he started talking about global warming which our member said that she didn’t believe in, then he started talking about the resurrection and that he will be in heaven. He was so crazy; he doesn’t understand anything, not even the Bible correctly. He finally left us alone for a while until my companion and I went to get dessert and he came up to us again and said that we shouldn’t hate people; we said that we don’t. Then Sister Dyreng said you are provoking me, I’m just trying to eat. Then he said “why don’t you just say God bless you?” We said “God bless you” and he walked away and called us Satan. Satan knows that the Philippine lady is ready and that he is trying to break us down, but it’s not going to work because we know what he is doing and we are not like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. We are built on the rock of our Redeemer which is a sure foundation. (Helaman 5:12).
Anyways, that is over and it’s a new day and we are back on track again. We have six investigators, many formers and potentials, and we are hoping to have at least two more investigators this week. We want to have a total of ten before Sister Dyreng leaves in about 1 ½ - 2 weeks. The work is really flourishing here and that’s the best part.
Love, Sister Reese

My First Worn out Pair of Shoes

May in the Mission Field

May 9, 2013
I am out in the field. I am in the Chatsworth area (porn capital of the world) and my companion is great, we were meant to be; when I saw her it was like love at first sight. We went out street contacting for a while and talked with two people that we plan on meeting up with and teaching. This area is like starting from scratch, there are no investigators. Much of the work we will do is working with the less active members. We have a car and a blackberry phone and a nice apartment. We also have bikes, but we’ll see if we actually use them. We had a member feed us dinner and she is amazing. She is 84 years old and invests in property. She does all the maintenance on the apartments that she rents out and even finished putting in a sprinkler system in her yard without any help. One of her grandfathers played ball in the street with Joseph Smith’s children; she has a fascinating family history. We have an interesting neighbor; he is on social security, drinks beer, smokes all day and is huge flirt. We got his mail for him (he has a bad back and can’t move around very easily) and we slipped a Plan of Salvation pamphlet into his mail. He is really funny.

May 20, 2013
The work is moving along; we have two more investigators and one potential that we are teaching/working with. Our first investigator is Jennette, she is from El Salvador and we met her my first day working in the field and she is really receptive. Our other investigator is John, he has had a hard life, but is now ready to receive the message of the gospel. Our potential is Robert. He has quite a story…he has an ex-girlfriend who is cursing him and sending devils/demons after him and he is kind of freaking out. He has been given a Book of Mormon and has asked for a Bible to read. He goes down to Mexico every once in a while to see a witch doctor to cure him of the curses, but when he gets back his ex-girlfriend curses him again. We are going to teach him the Gospel, with a focus on faith, baptism, the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood.
I like working with investigators more than the less active members because I like teaching the lessons; in most cases the less actives already know the lessons and they chose to leave for some reason or another. We had stake conference this week and I was able to sing in the choir, we sung “This is the Christ” one of my favorite songs. The stake president gave a talk on how members should be helping more by working with the less actives so that the missionaries could work on finding new people, which is what I think it should be.

May 25, 2013
An update on the work, the ward is very unsupportive of missionary work except for a few members. We have four investigators right now: Jennette and her son Francisco (from El Salvador), Nancy (a member’s mom who is here until June/July), and John (a recovering meth addict). We have other possible investigators: a lesbian, a bar tender, and one who says he has been on a spiritual journey to look for something that’s missing because the Jehovah’s Witness can’t answer his questions who is from Israel. As soon as we started talking with him he went off about how great God is and that people are too obsessed with the world these days. The work is moving along and it will get better over time, but at least there’s more than less actives for us to work with. One less active that we see is Flora, she is 94 years old and in a rest home and the only reason she is considered less active is because she can’t go to church because it is hard to get up and move around. Other than that she is very spiritual and active in doing what she is supposed to. The bishop feels that she should make more of an effort to come to church so that she can get the sacrament; he doesn’t think that they should take her the sacrament every week (this is frustrating for me because I feel that she should be given the sacrament if she is worthy; I guess the bishop has his own ideas and I don’t know what they are.)

Life in the MTC

My companion is Sister Baxter from Bountiful, Utah and she is kind of reserved and really nice. We got to go to the gym and we played volleyball. I don't know if we are allowed to dive for balls, but I accidentally dove for a few balls...I'm going to have to work on that. We spend most of our time traveling to classes, cafeteria, rooms, etc. The food here is better than the U of U cafeteria, but still not that great. I mostly have salads, hard boiled eggs and tater tots.