News from Mexico

Hey,
Mom I am so happy to hear that Riley will be home by Christmas, and that Tylar got to be baptized. But I´m especially happy to hear that the Eagles won yesterday!!!! No I´m just kidding. Thanks for letting me know, I love to hear everything that´s going on. That´s awesome that you guys will get to see the rededication of the temple and the cultural event! It´s going to be so awesome. All the missionaries from like 6 missions are going to sit in 2 sections of the stadium and we´re all going to sing (don´t know what song). And we´re all going to receive special Mexico City East Mission ties and handkerchiefs (?). So it should be really cool. We don´t get to go to the rededication but we´re all going to watch it in the stake center. But I´m super excited that you guys can see it because it is gonna be sweet. This week we´re going to be working in the temple for the open house so that should be fun. My companion has been quite interesting lately. He does a lot of things that bug the heck out of me; but it has actually been a blessing because I can´t tell you how much patience I have developed = ). There is a section in Preach My Gospel about developing Christlike attributes and it says that we can´t do that without the help of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And that is one thing I have really gained a testimony of this week. When I just react before I think about what the Savior would do I end up being rude and hurting my relationship with my companion. But this week I have learned that I need to stop and think, and then act. The Savior blesses me with feelings of love and patience for my companion. Sorry that I don´t have much time, I have to go get my haircut because we´re going to be working at the temple this week. I love you all and hope all is well at home. Sorry this is so short. Love, Rees P.S. Dad when I read about you crashing on your bike I was surprised that I wasn´t laughing. My heart has definitely been softened. I hope you didn´t break any bones in that old body. = ) JK Love you dad.

Homecoming Week

Homecoming was this week for O'Connor High School. Rhegan had a fun week decorating the school, practicing cheers and dances, and dressing up for the dance. Her friend, Hunter, did something cute for her everyday!! Thanks Hunter!!!

I Love Mondays!!!

I love Mondays because I get to hear amazing experiences from Rees!!! A special thank you to those who e-mail my boys!!!

Here is his letter: the dangerous part in the letter was a shooting near his apartment!!!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thank you all for the great emails. I love hearing from everyone and how everything is going. Sorry I can´t email everyone cuz I can only email family but I´ll try and throw in answers to some questions from everyone. This week was great. We got to baptize 3 people! Hector, Alexis, y Areli. It´s been amazing to see the changes in people´s lives. We are so blessed to be members of this Church. So ya, it it pretty dangerous, dad you said that Tracee told you about those two things. It´s not like horrible, only in some areas. Me and another american (our zone leader) did divisions the other day and the people didn´t seem to like that much. We knocked a ton of doors and everyone was super rude. They were all tellin us to go back to our country and to quit lying to the people here. But normally they are super super nice and always give us water and let us teach them. But ya, that day I didn´t feel very safe cuz two americans working together here isn´t the greatest idea, but it all went ok. O ya, I bought a really cheap watch, just in case we got robbed that day = ). But we didn´t, so now I have another watch. Ya I But ya, everything is going good. Friday we organized a family home evening for all the members. We had a couple baptisms and we made a little video for everyone to laugh at, and then we all ate tacos. We bought a ton of meat from the taco guys by our house and they were freakin good. It was super fun and I think all the members liked it. The ward here is awesome (well we have two wards). The members are so nice and so friendly. They feed us lunch everyday and always help me with the spanish. And in return I help all their kids with their english homework = ). That´s always fun. The retention here isn´t so great. That´s definitely one of the biggest problems. Missionaries are good friends with their investigators and are always helping them come to church and to activities, but when the missionaries change areas, the people stop going because they don´t get visits every week. So it´s definitely a challenge. The thing you have to think about is how you can teach them to rely on the Lord now. How to learn from the Book of Mormom and rely on the Spirit. Because when you leave, they need something to help them, and it needs to be the Lord. That´s definitely something I need to do better at, teach people to rely on the Lord and be independent. The people here are amazing I am so blessed to be able to work with them and learn from them. They are very different than us, but they are great. I love you all and hope everyone is doing good. I gotta go, sorry I don´t have time to write more. Love you all! O, tell Jules I got her photos and thank you! O, and the dear elders take about the same time as normal letters, so just do those cuz I´m sure it´s much easier.

Another Amazing Letter from Rees

Ok, so this week was good. The weeks seriously go by like days. Before I know it it´s the end of the week and we´re in sacrament meeting again. I´m not sure if time is going fast for you guys but I can´t believe it´s already almost been 4 months! Christmas is already creeping up and that will be 6 months! So, the re-dedication of the temple here is the 16th of November, and the open house for the temple is from the 20th of this month until the 8th of November. We are going to do the tours and stuff so that should be pretty exciting. Also, on the 15th, they are going to have a big culture night in the big stadium here so that should be cool. The prophet is gonna be there and all the youth in like all the stakes are gonna do this huge dance, and 8 missions from mexico are gonna be there and we´re all going to sing. Ya, it´s gonna be pretty cool. You should see if there is any way you guys can watch it. That would be super sweet. So ya, we´re all super excited for that. Anyways, we got to baptize a kid Omar this past Sunday. He´s 18 years old and he´s super cool. He loves learning about the Gospel. He was nervous for his baptism but after, he was so happy and was saying how great he felt. I just can´t explain how amazing it is to see people receive a remission of their sins. So when Dalin H. Oaks spoke to us in the MTC, he talked about how important the sacrament is for missionaries. It has really hit me since I´ve been here, how amazing it really is. It´s just like a baptism for a new convert. All their lives they´ve had sins and problems, and each one is like putting a little rock in their shoe, and then when they´re baptized they can just dump all the rocks out. I feel the same way about the sacrament. All week we work and work and things just build up, and it is amazing to take the sacrament and just feel relieved. Elder Oaks talked about how we can´t teach without the spirit, and we can´t have the spirit if we´re not worthy, and the sacramnet is how we stay worthy. It is so true, but not only for missionaries, but for everyone. Every week we get the chance to renew our convenants witht he Lord and feel that cleansing power again; it is such an amazing gift we have from the Lord. Anyways, that´s about it. I love you all and hope all is going well at home. Check and see if you can watch the thing the night before the re-dedication. It will be super amazing. Take care. and tell everyone I say hi. Love you all.

Thoughts from Me

My HOT daughter-taken by Julia

I'm not good at writing personal things, but I'm feeling very blessed today and wanted to share my feelings!! This weekend was awesome!! I loved conference so much, I think the talks were just for me. I am so grateful for my testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and for His atoning sacrifice for me. I am thankful for a father who listened to seven sets of missionaries and then joined the church. I am thankful for a mother who was a great example of service to me. I am thankful for my six siblings and their examples and love for me. I am thankful for a husband, that's you Bart, who honors his priesthood and is such a good husband to me and father to his children. I am thankful for Riley, who is serving his country, so we can enjoy the freedoms that we have in the USA!!! He is an amazing person with the kindest heart!!! I am thankful for Rees, who is serving his Savior, so that others can enjoy the blessings of the gospel in their life. Rees is so right, FAMILY IS EVERYTHING-THEY BRING US THE GREATEST JOY!!! He is such a good example to me of happiness and obedience!! And last, but not least, I am thankful for Rhegan, she has so much personality, she is so committed to reading her scriptures and saying her prayers. She makes every day a FUN day!! I can't forget ALL of my amazing friends. Thank you all for being my friends and for letting us love on your little ones, we love babies!!! LIFE IS GREAT!!!!

Letter from Rees

Hey, how´s everything going? I hope everything is well. I´m sure it is. Thanks everyone for the awesome emails. I´m sorry that I can´t email everyone back but please keep emailing because I love to hear from everyone. So, this week was a bit different than normal. My comp was very sick monday thru wednesday, and then I was sick thursday thru saturday. It was pretty sucky. But we still had a great week. Conference was good (from what I understood) = ). We watched it in the stake center and there was hardly anyone there for both saturday sessions. But then on sunday morning there was seriously like a thousand people. They filled every room, hallway, and even set up a huge tent in the parking lot with tv´s in it. And then for sunday afternoon, no one came. So I´m guessing that the sunday morning session is the most important to them. But personally, I love the last last session. The prophet always leaves such a great testimony. I have definitely had my testimony of our living prophet strengthened this weekend. The other thing that I have really noticed lately is how important the family is. We baptised the brother of Billy, who was baptized a couple weeks ago. And their mom was just super emotional every time we visited them this week. When we invited them to conference (she´s not a member by the way), she was like, can you invite my other son too? We had never met him before cuz he doesn´t live there, but you can just tell that she wants all of her kids to have that same joy that the others do now. And then today, we were washing our laundry, and we always do it at this lady´s house, and she´s not a member either, and while we were there she was like, there is nothing good in this life... And I was just like, what? Of course there is! And she asked what, and the first thing that popped into my head was family. She has kids but no husband or anything. But it just hit me so hard, our families are everything. That´s where we experience all the joyful things in life. It´s not at work or at school or when we´re alone; it´s when we´re all together as a family. How lucky are we to be able to live with our families for eternity? Anyways, just thought I´d say that. That´s about all, I gotta get going cuz we´re gonna meet our district leader for tacos cuz he´s changing areas tomorrow. Tomorrow is cambios, or exchanges, but we´re not changing so ya.... I love you all and I hope everyone is doing good. Hope to hear from you all soon!

Letter from Rees

Hey everyone! I hope all is well. Everything is going good here. Thanks everyone for all the emails. I love to hear how everything´s going. So this week I got to baptize another pregnate girl. In case you didn´t know the first one was pregnate too. Her name is Viridiana and her family is all members but only her mom is active. Her mom was the only one of her family at her baptism, but her joy made up for the others not being there. I can´t even describe how amazing it is to feel the Spirit during a baptism. It is unbelievable how strong it is. One thing that a speaker told us in a talk in the MTC is that the forgiveness of sins is the greatest miracle on earth. And it is so true. There is nothing more amazing than seeing someone become clean from everything. The spanish is finally coming. I can finally actually talk to people when we visit them. Before I would just sit there and listen, but now I´m actually involved in the conversation. So that´s good. It´s really fun to talk to people and then after, I try and think about what I said but I have no idea. The words are just starting to come. Everyone new I talk to always comments how they have noticed how fast missionaries learn the language, and that´s a perfect way to start teaching. Anyways, I´m rambling quite a bit. So I forgot to tell you in my last letter about the wonderful meal I ate. It´s called ´´patas de res´´. And it´s cow feet! Ya, you guessed it, nasty! haha The taste of it actually wasn´t too bad, but it was like eating rubber. I couldn´t chew it. And I knew it was something different because everyone was talking about it but I just tuned them out so I wouldn´t hear what it was. Then afterwards my comp told me. It was gross. O, and today I ate another wonderful part of a cow. The sister told me it was just meat from a cow, and when she handed me my plate, there was 4 tongues! It´s weird becuase it didn´t taste all that bad, but I knew what it was and I couldn´t finish it, so my comp ate it for me. haha Anyways, besides the food with members, I have found the best food in the world. There is a taco stand right by our house and we eat tacos al pastor there. It´s super cheap so that makes it that much better. The guys who work there are really nice and always give us discounts and some free tacos. We eat there every night on our way home. I wish I could send some home for everyone because they are seriously to die for. So ya, the food has its ups and downs. O, so something that I´ve noticed that is really funny here is the names of movies. Because they translate them into spanish, well they try to translate them. A member had the movie Wild Hogs and I looked at the title and in english is was Rebels With a Cause. And that new movie The Happening is called something like The Last Day of the World. It´s just funny how different everything is. Anyways, everything´s going good. My companion has really been studying english a lot lately and I hope I don´t sound as weird as him when I talk. But it is pretty cool cuz there are quite a few people who speak english. It´s all the people who lived in the U.S. for a while. But then they got deported = ) . Well, I think that´s about it. O, so there is a picture of the baptism, and of us painting that family´s house today, and of those delicious tacos. I love you all, and hope everything is going great. Tell everyone hi and I love them. Can´t wait to hear from everyone!