Pictures of my trailer!

Brother Roberts and me at the MTC. He wasn't our teacher but he visited a lot our last week. He is from South Africa and served in London. He had lots of cool stories to tell.
This is me and Vanhin Clegg. He was one of my zone leaders in the MTC. He will be serving in Finland.

This is me, my companions and Vanem Peterson. He was my other zone leader. He will be serving in Estonia. They were a great help and great friends to me and my companions.

Elder Miller and Me. He is 7'2"

Branch President Thorpe and his wife in the MTC.
Brother Reid and me. He was my teacher in the MTC and in the picture he is telling me that I better work hard!

These are the 2 teachers that we had in the MTC Brother Belliston and Brother Reid along with the Elders that were in our class.

It was great to hear from you all. Sorry I didn't get an e-mail out yesterday. I was hard at work, plus it was President's Day so all the computer labs were closed. We are taking our p-day today. We went to the Temple today. The Gila Valley Temple is really beautiful. It has a lot of amazing art works. After our session we got to talk with the temple president and get a tour of the rest of the temple. It was a little crazy because we had 16 elders there. Everything has been really slow this past week. Vincent, our investigator knows he wants to be baptized, but he hasn't decided on a set date. We are hoping to get a firm date from him by the end of this week. We had a lot of clouds blow in but it only drizzled, not a lot of rain. That is good for the missionaries, but not so great for the local farmers. The whole town has been praying and fasting for rain. Besides that, nothing new has happened. I need to print out and send or get something so I can put the pictures on the computer because I have taken quite a few, so you can see what life is like here in the Gila Valley.
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I love and miss you all.
Love,
Elder Reese

Mission President

A letter to Mom and Dad came this week and included this picture.
In part, the letter said:
"From the airport we took him and the other missionaries to the Mormon Battalion Monument in downtown Tucson, where we talked about commitment, and leaving behind all the cares of the world to focus on the work of the Lord. After a brief stop at the mission office to meet the office staff, we went to the mission home, where our Elders and Sisters received instruction and training from the Assistants to the President, Sister Walker and myself. I had the pleasure of interviewing your son and of getting to know him personally and to feel his wonderful missionary spirit. Later that evening we dined together, took photographs and took the opportunity to discuss our purpose as missionaries..."
"As you write your son, please encourage him to continue to serve faithfully, being completely obedient throughout his mission. We know that he, and the Tucson Mission, will be in your prayers. We also know that the coming months will bring many blessings into your lives by your son's faithful service and the sacrifice you are making for him to serve the Lord and his fellow men."
President Wesley P. Walker and Sister Christine W. Walker

February 14, 2011

Christy, Yes, I know all about Mormon.org. Our mission president tells us to spend an hour a month on it making our profile and getting familiar with the site. Every time we visit potential investigators we ask them to go and visit the site. The people you chat with are actually missionaries in Provo. They are the missionaries that have physical handicaps. It is amazing because they get to teach people around the world.

We don't teach the people in our trailer park. Most of them are college students. This is a college town, Eastern Arizona College is right down the street. It is actually a junior college that was started by Brigham Young. We only teach families because we are in the family wards. It is really hard to get new investigators though because this is such a Mormon town. Everyone here is either a member or inactive. When we ride down the street every other car will honk and wave at us. It feels nice to be loved by all the members here. We get fed most every night. The members like to take care of us.

Yeah, you can tell they (the leaders of the church. I was talking to him about how the Ensign is full of stories about missionaries and is really encouraging young adults and senior adults to serve a mission) are doing a really big push on missionary work. Mom and Dad might be on some missionary video thing. We met this sister missionary in the MTC who was chosen to have a camera follow her for part of her mission so they can use it to promote the mission work.

My e-mail address can be used for ALL FAMILY MEMBER's. Tony, Davey, and BJ e-mail Christy and she will send you my e-mail address. We get plenty of time each week to answer e-mails.

Well, this week has been pretty quiet in Thatcher, not much going on. We are teaching the lessons to all our investigators. Ben, is having some trouble with the Word of Wisdom but he says if the Lord can help him through it then he will know the church is true. Elder Manumaleuna and I are going to try our hardest to help him.

I love and miss you all.
Love,
Elder Reese

So, the first week has gone pretty well. I have felt homesick a lot, but have gotten over it, for the most part. We have a couple of investigators that we are working with right now. Vincent, is an 17 year old kid we are teaching. He is at his Mom's, so we think he will be baptized. We are also teaching this guy Ben. His wife is an inactive member. We have him praying about a baptism date this month. Hopefully he will be baptized by the end of the month. We just picked up this investigator. Her name is Cherri. Shemoved into the trailer park here. She seems pretty interested, so we are going to see her a lot. The tracting out here is different than they always tell you. Because there are so many members, you don't tract too much. It's all member referrals. We go to a lot of members houses to try and get them excited about missionary work. We live in a trailer park here in Thatcher. The trailer has no heat and it's been 8 degrees the past few days. We have 3 little space heaters but you can only put one in a room or they will short each other out. So we keep one in the bedroom, one in the study, and one in the main room. The walls are paper thin, so whatever the temperature outside, that's what it is inside. You just got to live through it. A member gave us some big sleeping bags to keep warm but it is starting to warm up now, so we don't use them much. Well, that's pretty much what has been going on down here in Arizona. I love and miss you.

Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I got into the mission field okay. I am serving in the Gila Valley area (there is a temple here but not in my specific area) and my companion is Elder Manumaleuna. People always talk about trainers who are relaxed, well that's the trainer I got. But it is ok. We live in this tiny trailer that's pretty interesting. Last night we stayed at the mission home and that was really nice. We had dinner with the mission president and the area 70. We then had a testimony meeting and some orientation. There was such ans amazing spirit. I did get my new address. Its....
P.O. Box 791
Thatcher, AZ 85552
So you can mail things there and I will get them sooner than the mission home. Transfers happen every 6 weeks and they say you can stay in an area about 3 or 4 transfers, but I will keep you updated. Our P-days are on Monday or on Tuesday, if it's a transfer week. There is a good group of missionaries here in the stake, so I hope everything will go great. I will write you next week to let you know how it is going here.

Love Elder Reese