Pachuca Rocks!!!!

Hey Fam,
What a week! Sounds like everyone is stayin busy at home. That´s awesome that O´Connor is doing good. It´s about time dont ya think??? We had a great week this week. I had changes. I am now in the city of Pachuca in the state of Hidalgo. It is a huge change from where I was. My whole time here I´ve been in pure city, and now I´m out in a smaller town. It´s super chill here tho so that´s cool. I have never seen so many rich and so many poor people in my life. Like half our area is full of rich people (we dont have much success there), and the other have is just dirt poor people (where we have quite a bit more success). We baptized this family this week, they have 6 kids and live in just a little brick room with one mattress. I have never seen anything like it before, but they are so humble out there and that makes them super receptive to the Gospel. It always reminds me of Alma 32. But this area is awesome. It´s known for not baptizing a lot but I´m sure we can change that. The members are amazing. It´s almost like being in a ward back home, with old members who know a lot and a lady who plays the piano (this is the first time I´ve been in a ward with someone who plays the hymns). It´s a great experience. And the food out here is amazing too! The members are a bit more wealthy so we´ve been eating burgers and pizza and this one lady makes a mean lasagna! So far things are going great. Today we went up to this huge Christ statue that was pretty cool. It´s supposedly the second biggest one in the world. I´ll attach a few pictures in a minute. Well that´s about it. Hope you guys know I love and appreciate all your support. Thanks everyone for writin a bunch and keepin me in the loop. Love, Rees P.S. To look up our area, just look up the Christ statue or the soccer stadium of the Pachuca soccer team. It´s kinda near those.

Hiking!!!!

Everyone who knows me, knows that hiking isn't one of my favorite things to do in life, but I must tell you that I had an awesome time hiking at Squaw Peak. Thank you to the other patient, experienced hikers for encouraging me!!!!

Change!!!

Hey Fam!
Sounds like all is super good at home. Things are great here too. We had a couple more baptisms this week so I´ll be sure to send pictures. Tuesday are changes and like I thought, its finally time to change. I cant believe how long they left me here. The members started jokin that I should buy a small piece of land and build a house!= ) That´s about all the exciting the news, changes. Everything else is going normal, just work like always. Me and my comp get along great so it´s kinda a bummer to get changed after only one cycle with him. It´s truly been an amazing experience to be here in Mexico. I cant believe how fast time is flying. The people are amazing and the food is even better! JK. Everything is great. Sorry this is so short but not too much going on. Love you guys a ton.
Love, Rees

Life is Great!!!!!!

This has been an amazing few weeks in my life. I was having promptings about Bart's calling in the stake presidency, but not sure whether I should express them to him!! When I finally did, we talked about that we were inadequate(you know who puts those ideas in your head)!! I was reminded of a scripture that tells us that we are given weaknesses to make us humble and stronger. Needless to say, I am humbled. Last Monday Rees e-mailed Bart and reminded him about the talk Bednar gave in conference about the many little strokes that make up the painting, and thanked Bart for making sure we did the little strokes, prayer, scripture, family home evening, etc. We then felt a little adequacy. I too am thankful that Bart is such a righteous Priesthood holder and great example in our home. Bart and I were able to go to the temple on Friday morning, what a beautiful place the temple is. A friend was outside waiting on a wedding party so she took our picture!!! I don't like pictures of myself, but I love this picture!! I am so thankful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, I am thankful for a living prophet, President Monson, I am thankful for The Book of Mormon, and I am thankful for wonderful friends and an amazing family. Life is great!!!!!

Good Week!!!!

Hey Everyone,
How´s things? Sounds like a lot new is going on. You need to remind me where all those kids are goin on missions. I just remember Andrew is goin to Argentina right? Just remind me next week. Sounds like it was a good Sunday at church. That also should be exciting getting a new stak pres. Let me know how that goes. And dang, I wish I could have seen Sandra Day beat Boulder Creek. Sounds like it was a great game. So ya, things here are going great as well. This week we had 4 amazing baptisms. One had been waiting forever because the lady he was living with wasn´t divorced so they couldnt get married but we finally got all that taken care of and he was able to get baptized. The other was the wife of a convert from like 4 months ago, she didnt want anything to do with the church before, but he finally got her to just go one sunday and she read and prayed and couldnt neglect the feelings she felt. Something I have seen is that everyone has their time. Sometimes they reject us and then weeks, or even months later we find them again and they´re ready. Most the time people need some huge humbling experience to get them to listen. But those that listen and humble themselves alone, are soooo much more blessed by the Lord. The other lady we baptized too, had already heard the Gospel and didnt want anything, but then her son came from out of town to visit and told her he had been baptized and she loved the changes she saw in him and couldnt resist getting to know the Gospel. And the last guy was just a miracle. One day we didnt have much to do, so we decided to knock doors (yes we knock doors here), and we were just walking and saw this street and decided to knock it. And this guy answers and started to tell us how he had so many problems and he was waiting for us and we had got there just in time. One of the greatest joys in life is knowing you´ve been an instrument in the hands of the Lord to bring others to the truth. The Lord is never hesitant to bless us if we will just do our part. There is nothing that can stop the Gospel from progressing. It has to be true if a bunch of teenagers can keep it moving forward. I love you all and appreciate all your love. Tell everyone hi like always. Love, Rees

Conference Rocks!!!!

HEY FAM!
What a great weekend huh? This was the first time in my mission that I got to watch conference in english and I have to say that it was so much better! Every message was just amazing. Like you said mom, that message from Holland just blew my socks off. It is so true what he said about the Book of Mormon. It really does change people´s lives. A lot of people dont want to change or obey some commandments (which is normal) but when they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, they cant help but have a burnign desire to do what´s right and join the church. It really is the best tool we have as missionaries. We have been so blessed in the past months to be able to find so many prepared people. I was reading the Ensign the other day the message about baptism. It says that 1 out of every 1000 doors that is knocked by missionaries gets baptized. But that 600 out of every 1000 references from members gets baptized. That is so true. President Hinckley told us years ago to duplicate the number of convert baptisms. I promise you that the only way to do it is through the members. I hope you all enjoyed conference as much as I did. I cant believe that I´ll only be here for one more! Time is flying and I´m sure it will only keep going faster. The work is amazing. I have been so blessed. Of course there are trials and difficulties, but one miracle overshadows those moments so much. We are so blessed and we have a great responsibility to share this Gospel. I love you all and appreciate all you do for me. Keep on writing and tell everyone I say hi. Love, Rees

Homecoming!!!

We have had a FUN week!!

Winning football!!!!


Getting flowers from #5!!!!!

Decorating the school for the big game!!!!

Having friends come watch the parade!!!!


Making a poster for our favorite football player!!!

Making tutus and tie dying shirts to match!!!

It doesn't get much better than that!!!!