Wait, Labor Day already? (note from Mom, no it's next Monday)

Hey guys! it was a great bike week. It's starting to cool off now, so that is wonderful for us!

Monday was super fun! We didn't do anything specific, we just went to the church, played some dodgeball, goofed around, mad some brownies for Elder Schoenfeld's birthday (he didn't even show up, the punk) and in general had a lot of fun. We were going to go out pretty far, but since Schoenfeld didn't show up to fix my bike, I couldn't really travel much. So we tried some people close to home.

Tuesday was district meeting! It was a good one, too. We got a lot done, and I think everyone got a lot out of it. Our Spanish Zone Leader, Elder Jenkins, came over from Memphis, which was cool! He gave a really good discussion on how to make studies more effective. With being a language training missionary, we have 2 more hours of studying than a regular English elder that we have to do every day. Needless to say, it's kind of hard to stay focused. So we got a lot of good suggestions for that! After the meeting, we went out teaching with Jenkins. It was nice, since we could split into 2 groups we could do twice as much work! We found a TON of people, and had some good lessons with the people we already had! We let him go at dinner time. We were going to go out with a manner, but he forgot and when we called to see where he was he was out shopping. Sooo we went out on bikes. Slowly. We had managed to find one gear on my bike that wouldn't make the chain jump off, so as long as I stayed on that I was fine. We tried some people by our place we had found recently and then bought some medicine, since both contreras and I were catching a cold.

Wednesday was a little slower, but still good! We fixed Contreras' flat tire (our bikes are having SO many problems right now) and then went to find some more people. After that, we went to dinner at S's house. She made some super good mole. (Pronounced "molay." Not the animal :P) after that we had the Book of Mormon class, which went really well! We had one of the sisters' recent converts, the branch president's wife, and L. The sisters showed up too. Good news: Sister Bennett is no longer on bedrest! She can use crutches now, which are super exhausting coming off of a week of not walking apparently. Other good news: they brought us some leftovers from the dinner they'd had with a member! So we went home from the class with high spirits and BBQ. Good combo in my opinion. 

Thursday was GREAT. I had the privilege of going to the Mission Leadership Council meeting. Normally, it is only the zone leaders, APs, and sister training leaders that can go. But this time, they invited some random missionaries too. There were some special guests: Bro. Hemingway, the Director of Proselyting for the Church Missionary Department (basically the head honcho below the apostles) and his partner, Bro. Donaldson. Best. Meeting. Ever. Like seriously it may have been the best meeting of my entire mission. We were corrected on a lot of the things we do, plan and teach as missionaries. We learned a ton,  too. Those guys are really on it. It makes sense, since all they do is study missionaries and work on how we can be better. But yeah, it was incredibly good. After that, I met up with the other two (I was the only one of us invited) and we had some dinner. After that we went back to the church to meet up with the missionaries and members there. We all split up to go visit some of the people who hadn't come to church in a while. It went pretty well! We didn't get too many people to open the door, but I got to know the member I was with better, which was cool. He is Bro. Os' nephew, and he had kinda been quiet, so we had a good talk when I was with him. 

Friday went pretty well, too! We had a great morning. We started putting into practice all the stuff I learned in MLC and it went really well. We planned everything out super detailed for the three main people we had, and scheduled everything so that we could see all of them. So naturally everything went haywire, and we ended up in a hurry for most of the day. We met some super cool people though! We also had a great lesson with L. She still isn't sure about getting baptized, and it's hard to not pressure her into it since we know how important it is! But she committed  to read and pray every day for a week, and we promised her that if she does so with actual intent then she will know that everything we've taught is true. So hopefully she does it! We also met this AWESOME kid named J. He's from Colombia. He has some Mormon family, and also his girlfriend he met in Colombia (and now lives in Idaho) is Mormon too. He randomly showed up to the English ward last week, and they gave him our number. So he called us and invited us over! So we biked 5 miles or so out to his house and got to know him. He's really really cool, and he likes everything we teach too! His girlfriend's already talked to him about a lot of it (including eternal marriage ;) ) so she's helping out from a distance too. Anyway, after that we took him (well, he drove us) to soccer night. Unfortunately, we got there literally as the game finished and everyone was driving off. But the other missionaries were still there, so he got to meet them. 

Saturday was demanding, physically. We spent most of the day biking, and went about 20 miles. Most of the people we tried and had planned were not home, so we ended up just knocking on some doors. We met some cool people though! After dinner we had some more success. We got to visit with N, one of our top investigators, and meet her husband. We had a good talk with them, and she said she would come to church! Woo! Also, J and his dad said they would come. Add that to L and her son, and we have 5 investigators that said they'd be there! 

Sunday was great! Everyone except N showed up to church, which was fantastic. J really liked church, and so did his dad, I think! They had to leave early for something, but it was all good. L and her kids liked church too! Her daughter is super adorable, I will try to get a picture of her. After church, we went to the Bs for dinner (someone fed us, yay!) and it was super delicious. After that we dropped off the other elders (we have a car now yay!) we went to some appointments we had set earlier. None of them were available so we decided to try some former investigators. Elder Contreras and I had a bit of an argument over which trailer this one guy lived in, and we decided to try mine first. It turns out I was wrong, (I still think he's wrong  too though) but we met this SUPER awesome guy. His name is D. We had a really awesome conversation with him. He asked all of the questions that we missionaries dream about people asking. He really wants to know if all of this that we teach is true, and he's willing to do some work to find out, too! Which we really appreciate, because that's really the key to everything, actually doing some research on your own. It's how anyone can find out for themselves if this message is true. If you haven't done it yet, give it a shot, k? 

Love ya lots! Have a fantastic week!

P.S. Do you guys remember T, the lady I taught in Jonesboro? Well, she and her daughter just got baptized this weekend!! Woo!

Feeling all outdoorsy and stuff

Hey guys! This week was all over the place and really fun!
P day was fantastic. We got us, the Spanish sisters, the Benton
elders, and the office elders together and went on a hike to Pinnacle
Mountain. I hadn't hiked it since the end of my first transfer when
Elder Dalton went home. It was super fun. We went the hard way though!
About  half the hike was steep rockhopping, and we took a bit because
Sister Bennet is short and it really wore her out. So we picked around
and found the easiest path up that we could so she wouldn't die. So
then we got up there, enjoyed the fantastic view (I will send a ton of
pictures) and then went down. Half of us went down the easy way, since
we were beat. The rest went down the other way because they were in
shape. (Elder Asay, the big goof in the picture, went with weight in
his backpack. He says it helps him jump farther on the way down.)  We
made it down most of the way, and about fifty yards from the end of
the trail, Sister Bennett, who had made it really far considering how
rough the first part was, tripped and cut her leg open pretty bad and
sprained her ankle. So sister Tester and I carried her to the end, and
Elder Asay, who just so happened to be stocked with at least three of
everything we needed (true Boy Scout) stopped the bleeding and tied it
all up. Then we limped/drove back to get a wheelchair for Sister
Bennett to use. Since they are on bike week, we had been allowed to
pick them up with the other guys in the van. It also meant we had to
drop everyone off. By the time we got all that taken care of, we were
sweaty, dirty, hungry, and it was 8 o clock. So we went inside. It was
super fun though.

Tuesday was a little slow at first. Elder Moore had a migraine, so he
was out all morning. Then we went out and started to go, then we got a
call inviting us to come over to eat with Ana, the recent convert. So
we went over, and had a good talk there with her and her son. Then,
since we were up there, we made the most of the trip to the north of
town and got a bike for Elder Moore. After that, we FINALLY got to
work. We saw N, one of our best people, and talked with her about
baptism. Hopefully she comes to church this Sunday! We also went out
with Bro. Z and taught some of the people he knew in his
apartment complex. All in all it was a really good day.

Wednesday was good too! We got everybody in the van and headed out to
North Little Rock for a zone conference. It was really good. They
wanted us to come prepared and spiritual, so we had fasted since lunch
the day before. So naturally, it was really great. I learned a whole
lot of stuff. We talked a lot about how we can be better teachers, and
we did some practice teaching too. They also announced something I
think will be super legit! Missionaries out there, listen up, this is
good stuff. So normally at meetings we do a lot of practice to work on
teaching skills and principles. To anyone familiar with the practice,
a lot of the time it's pretty ineffective, since we are all
missionaries and already know things. So, what we will be trying out
is going out after instruction and teaching by the leadership go and
put it in action! Basically, we'll all load up in the vans and go
blitz the area for an hour, practicing by actually teaching in real
life! I'm pretty stoked. Anyway, after that we had a big Southern
lunch and then I had another class for trainers. Then we drove
everyone back to wherever they needed to go, and went to our Book of
Mormon class. Only one person showed up besides the sisters, so it was
kinda slow. Oh, by the way, Sister Bennett ended up going to the
hospital and getting stitches in her knee, and her other foot might be
fractured. She has to be stuck inside all week, since they were on
bikes. Poor thing.  Hopefully that clears up quick.

Thursday went all right. It was nice out, for one! We had been
dreading going outside, because it had rained the day before, and with
perfectly clear sky afterwards we assumed the humidity would be bad.
But it was like 70 and dry outside, so we were happy! We gave a
blessing to one of Bro. Z's friends, since she was sick. Then
we went and saw N, and talked more with her about baptism. She
still wasn't too sure about it, but she knows a lot more about baptism
now! Hopefully she will be baptized sometime soon! Anyway, after that
we meet some more people and had some dinner. Then we went to go see
one of our investigator's kids play soccer, but when we got there his
team didn't end up playing. So, we went to the church for volleyball
night. It was pretty fun, there were a lot of people there and it went
pretty well for the other team. Yeah, I'm pretty out of practice.

Friday was uneventful, sadly. We did some planning, told some jokes to
Sister Bennett to keep her from dying of boredom since she is on bed
rest for the rest of the week, and then went out. We talked to a
couple of people, but no one was really interested. We had dinner at
the Rs house with Bro. R and Bro. F. It was great.
Those two are hilarious. We had a spicy eating contest. Has anyone
tried half of a freshly cut jalepeño covered in Siracha and Tabasco
sauces, and then sprinkled with chili powder and red pepper flakes?
Yeah. I don't recommend that. (Warning from Andrew's mom.  Do not
try this next stunt at home or on your mission or ANYWHERE or your
mom will probably be angry and tell you to take better care of your
companions.)  Also, elder Contreras and elder Moore got Tazed in the leg.
I'll try to send the video. Then, we went to soccer night that the other
elders organized without telling us until an hour before. It was pretty fun.
We played with a bunch of random Hispanics and a Jamaican guy we
met at the park, and it was fun.

Saturday went better! We went out to some new areas, and had a lot of
success finding Hispanics there. We managed to have some good lessons
with people we had met before in the week too, and they went really
well. There's this cool guy named N we taught, he's awesome. He
works a lot, but he said he is really interested in learning. There's
another kid named J who is awesome. We met him a couple of weeks
ago, and we saw him today. He really wants to read the Book of Mormon
and all that, which is great. After all that, we decided to go to the
Os' house to visit with our recent convert, S, but when we
got there it turned out to be Bro. Os' birthday! So we got to be
part of that, which was great.

Sunday we started out early. Like before 5am early. You see, the north
elders had an investigator named J getting baptized that morning.
The catch was that he wanted to do it at Lake Heber Springs, a 2 hour
drive away. So we all got together and drove up (we went through
CONWAY 💔) and we did it there. There was some weather problems on the
way, but prayers were answered and he got baptized in sunnyish
weather! Then we raced back to make it to church on time. Church was
good too! One of our investigators, L, came to church again. It is
her 3rd time, and she likes it a lot! So do her kids. So then after
that, we had a missionary meeting and went to dinner with the Mfamily, which was great even though we all got at least one stain on
our shirts (it was caldo de res, it's messy). Then we tried to go out
and find people, but I had a bit of bike trouble (it's not as
"perfectly fixed" as I was told, we'll see what happens there) so we
didn't get too far.

That was a good week! Today's elder Schoenfeld's birthday, so we are
having brownies and board games and stuff. Hope you all have a good
week, and I love y'all so much!

Three's a crowd. A fun crowd, but a crowd.

Hello all! It's been another great week here in the South!
Monday was really, really fun. First off there was a lot of us, which
I hadn't seen in a P-day for a while. We had us, the Spanish north
elders and sisters, the Benton and Bryant sisters, the Little Rock
elders and the Benton elders. We decided to try deep frying stuff. So
we mad fried Oreos, Snickers, Pop Tarts, funnel cakes, and tried
tortilla chips out of corn tortillas (didn't work too well but they
tasted great). It was a lot of fun. Then we said goodbye and took
pictures with everyone who was leaving the area, which were Sis. Reed
the Spanish sister, Sis. Cawley the Bryant sister, and Elder Doty, our
district leader. After that, we had dinner with Sis. Bernal and two of
our investigators, D and O. D was the one I translated for
at church. We had a really good lesson with them, and they really have
a desire to come to church and get closer to God. We got a ride
afterwards to return Elder Meza's bike to the store because it was too
big and he needed to replace it. All in all a good day.

Tuesday was spent packing mostly. We tried making corn dogs out of
Maseca (cornmeal powder stuff) which didn't really work at all. They
were pretty nasty. We got ahold of a bike once we realized Meza hadn't
really said goodbye to anyone and we set off to say bye to some
people. We had dinner at McDonalds since we were on the move, and both
the sister missionaries and a member family from Jacksonville randomly
showed up. It was pretty cool. After that we said bye to some more
people and finished preparing the apartment for the new arrival!

We got to transfer meeting on Wednesday knowing exactly what was going
to happen with transfers. Which of course meant that basically
everything was different. I am now in a TRIO!! I got Elder Contreras,
who is direct from Guatemala and has been out about 7.5 months, and
then Elder Moore, who I am training. He is from New Mexico, and he
seems pretty cool. (Yes mom, he is the same one whose aunt is your
friend. Thatcher keeps coming back to find me.) So now our district is
us 3, Elder Salazar and Elder Schoenfeld (together for the THIRD TIME)
and then Sister Bennett, from Seattle, and Sister Tester, from Alaska.
It's a pretty good group! After transfers we worked out a ride home
(we had gotten one there but had no room for the extra person) and
then they unpacked while I watched a "training video" on how to drive
the transfer van. It was really pretty boring but I got through it.
Then we went to the Book of Mormon class, which went pretty well! We
had a couple members show up, one of which is a recent convert the
sisters taught named E. She is super cool, and she has a
really strong testimony. After that we biked (our van was in Memphis)
to McDonald's (we're eating there WAY too much) because no one had
food and we were starving. Then we remodeled the apartment a bit so
that three people could live there instead of 2.

Thursday was busy. We got a bed from the mission office, and then ran
some errands for people with the van. I gave my bike to elder Salazar
for the day, and we dropped off some more bikes people had left at
transfers. Then we went shopping for food. We got a call from Elder
Salazar, and I guess he destroyed my bike. Like really bad. Dang. So
that happened, but we kept going. (Don't worry mom, they got it
fixed.) We saw a few people, and Elder Moore got broken in to the
mission work. He likes it a lot, which is great! Then we had to wait
some more for the APs to get some stuff from the car, and then went to
see our recent convert S. She is really cool, I gotta say. She
really wants to go and bring people to the gospel, which is incredibly
awesome.

Friday wasn't as crazy. We did some planning, and went out to go try
some people we had in the area book that I didn't know. We couldn't
find any of them, which wasn't cool, but we did find some other people
who met with missionaries a lot 5 years ago, and they want to learn
more! So that was cool. Then we had dinner with the A family,
which was suuuuuuppppeerrr delicious. I got stuffed and probably ate
more than I should have. (Don't worry mom, my blood sugar is fine :P)
so yeah, we filled up there, and then we went out to a trailer park in
the outskirts of town to look for a former investigator who almost got
baptized but didn't. It went pretty well, they had missed the
missionaries and wanted them back!

Saturday went well. We had a conference call with all of the Spanish
missionaries. Our newly called Spanish zone leader, Elder Jenkins,
wanted more unity among us since we were all spread out so much. We
don't really have a "Spanish zone," so we call it a "brotherhood."
Nothing shady though, we're just all bilingual. :P After that we went
out to go find more people. We've been doing a lot of that lately,
since none of us know the area. It makes it a different experience,
since you basically just meet all new people. Anyway, we did that for
a bit, met some pretty cool people, met some drunk guys who were
really funny (it was Moore's first experience with "borrachos." He was
terrified. :P ) and basically wandered around until after dinner. Then
we went to the other side of our area to see some appointments that we
had made earlier in the week. No one was there, but it meant that we
could meet some MORE people! We got Elder Moore to do some more
speaking, which was good for him. Then we went to he Os' house
to introduce the new guys. He is the elders' quorum president, and his
girlfriend is S, our recent convert. So we got to know them a
little better, she made some really good carnitas, and all went well.

Sunday was pretty good! Elder Moore didn't understand much but he
liked it. We didn't have anyone show up, which wasn't too great, but
the lessons were good. Also, Sister Reed was apparently the only one
in the whole branch who could play the piano, and so since she got
transferred we had to sing a capella. It was... interesting. So in the
end I put my iPad under the microphone and used the music app to do
the rest of the songs, and it went better. Anyway, after church we
tried some more people, but no one answered the door except English
speakers who didn't want anything to do with the Mormons. So we went
to dinner with A, a recent convert here who loves feeding us. We had
some really good tacos, not even sure what meat they had. I think it
was steak. It was good, anyways. After that, we went and talked to
some more people and actually had some good lessons with them.
So yeah, that's my week! What did y'all do? I don't really hear from
most of you! Tell me what you're doing  out there!
Elder Andrew Reay
4 Wimbledon Green Circle
Little Rock, AR 72210
Love you all a whole lot!

Oh and here's Elder Moore and I!

I'm Pregnant!

 I'll explain that one in a bit. Hello from Little Rock, Arkansas! It's
been a wet week. The problem is, it only rained once. The rest was
 just sweat :P

 So on Monday most of my day was spent driving. Before I left we went
 to Steak N' Shake  one last time, and someone paid for us AGAIN. Then
 I drove with the zone leaders to meet up with the APs to make the
switch. We met up and had lunch part II (when you're with Elder Fiso
there is always time for food) and then I  went with the APs to Little
Rock. We hung out at the church for a bit and got to know all the
missionaries in the area. Then the English elders took us shopping
 since we were on bike week (whee) and then I unpacked.

 Tuesday morning I got a call from the office. It turns out... I'M
 TRAINING!!! Or, in mission terms, I'M PREGNANT!!! FYI, when you train
someone you are their "parent" so at this point I am  pregnant. He
should get here on Wednesday! I'm excited/stressed/scared/surprised.
 It'll be fun, especially if I stay here, because I have no idea where
anyone lives, and neither would my son. Plus, our iPad maps only work
with the wifi we don't have most of the time. But anyway, beside the
point. We went out to go teach some people. It was a hot one, and we
got pretty soaked. We did manage to find some new people and talk to
some old ones though!

Wednesday we had zone meeting in Pine Bluff, about an hour away. So
 all the local missionaries hopped in the transfer van (which I am
actually using as a mission car right now, it's hilarious) and drove
down. It was a good meeting. Elder Jones, the OTHER ginger diabetic in
the mission, is my zone leader, which is awesome. Afterwards, we went
to this place called Ocean's, a pretty good fried food place. I got
stuffed. Then we drove back. Right when we got to the church, it
started dumping rain on us, so we stayed at the church and did some
studies until it stopped. Then we had an appointment with a friend of
one of the members, which went well. Her name is L, and she's
pretty cool.

Thursday was about the same as Tuesday, except hotter. We met some
more cool people, some not-so-friendly people, and it went pretty well
all in all. We went out teaching with one of the members, bro.
Z. He's the branch mission leader, and he loves coming out with
us apparently. We didn't manage to see anyone with him, but it was
nice to sit down in a car for a bit.

Friday went better than Thursday. We did some planning, and then went
to go see if anyone was home. We didn't really find anyone at all
until later that day, and then we had some pretty good lessons! There
was this one guy we taught who we had been trying to get to church
for a long time, but he was always doing other stuff. His reasoning
was, "since I work so much, Sunday is my day to do personal things. I
can't make any commitments to God because I have already made personal
commitments with other people." And he was ok with that! He compared
himself to Noah from the Bible building his ark, even though other
people were telling him not to. Well, if you actually read the Bible
you'd know he built it because God told him to. And now he tells us to
go to church, not remodel your house. Grr. Anyhoo, rant over. Yeah we
talked to some people and then went home because we were pretty far
out there.

Saturday was pretty good too. This time I didn't have any sweat stains
on my shirt, mainly because literally 100% was wet. We did get stuff
done though. We saw one of our cool investigators, named Neira. She is
a friend of one of our recent converts. We taught her a bit about
God's plan for us and stuff like that, and she really liked it! Then
we went to some appoint,nets that didn't open the door, and then we
found a family who was just moving in from Texas, and helped them get
all their stuff out of their Uhaul. (Btw, I've noticed all the Uhauls
have Arizona license plates. Makes me homesick every time. :P) Anyway,
after that we went and cooled off for a bit because all that the Texas
family had was iced tea, which they offered us repeatedly. We felt
bad, but así es. Then the other elders came and took us to dinner with
the V family. They are super cool, the husband just got baptized
 the end of last year. After that we went out with bro. Z again,
but no one was home still.

Sunday was great! We went to an English ward first because we had an
investigator coming. I translated for the first time in a month or so.
Gave me a headache. But she loved church, so it's all worth it :) Then
we sat around without anything to do for a while, then we had church.
They do it in reverse for this branch because of the schedule: first
they have Sunday School, then Relief Society and Priesthood, and  then
the main service. It was different, but it was still good. After
church we picked up our 12 passenger van, which I now drive
(terrifying experience btw, would not recommend it.) But hey, it's a
 car. Then we had dinner with the branch president's family and one of
their friends that came to church, and afterwards taught her about the
Restoration. She seemed to like it a lot. Then we drove and got the
other elders, and spent the night at their place. Elder Doty's been
stuck inside all week with a killer case of Strep throat that's
sweeping the mission right now. So who knows? My little kid's first
week may be spent all inside. Whee. We'll see what happens.

So yeah that's my week! Pray for me please, so I don't die of Strep or
labor pains :P love you all a ton! Bye!
So here's my video of the week too. Finally found one that wasn't dead! :

A great week with a twist ending

Hello everybody!
So I will get the big news out of the way right now: I AM BEING
TRANSFERRED. 😕😢😥😦😧😑😔😖😟. That's about the equivalent of how
I'm feeling right now. It's not time for normal transfers yet, but
President felt some things needed to be changed. So, I am headed to
Little Rock! I am going to the south area with Elder Meza, and Elder
Butler will be coming over here. I'll be fine, I'm sure. Anyway, here
is my new address:

Elder Andrew Reay
4 Wimbledon Green,
Apt. 423
Little Rock, AR 72210

That should be right. Just to be safe, use the mission office address
this week. It's on my blog if you need it. The rest of my week was
pretty good though! It was the 40th anniversary of the formation of
the Arkansas Little Rock Mission, so there was a HUGE party this
weekend. More in that in a bit. :)

So on Monday we didn't do a whole lot. We went to Steak N'shake again,
per tradition. Someone we never saw payed for our meal! It was nice of
them, especially considering how much I'd been worrying that my card
had nothing on it. After that, we did the usual P-day stuff, bought
groceries, went home and napped. We were going to have a late dinner
because it was a surprise birthday party for Bro. G. He knew we
were coming for dinner, but that was it. So we went out teaching for a
bit. We saw some people we had been trying to teach all month, but had
never been home, which was good! They seem pretty cool. Then we went
to the party. He was pretty surprised! A few of the families were
there, and it was fun.

Tuesday was another district meeting! It was really good, everyone
learned a lot and enjoyed it. We had some refreshments (I baked
cookies and one of the sisters randomly gave us a TON of Mexican
sweetbreads) and then we took "family photos" since it was the last
district meeting of the transfer. They were pretty hilarious, I'll
send them. Then we went out to go teaching. It was killer hot outside.
Plus, we were walking most of the time because we were low on miles.
PLUS, no one actually let us in from 1 to about 5. At 5 we got in with
a guy named B. He's pretty cool! He works in construction, like a
lot of the guys we meet. But he also plays baseball and plays the
drums, which is pretty different! We'll see what happens with him.
Then we went and picked up the other guys for dinner at the Torres'
house.

Wednesday we had basically nothing to do. Plus, we were almost out of
miles for the month, so our driving was limited to almost nothing. So
we took that opportunity to make some progress digitizing all of our
records. We did that for a while, then went to go find some people. We
talked to a few, and had some pretty good lessons. We got called to go
give a blessing up in the north part of Memphis, which really made it
short on miles for us. We met some members up there from Venezuela who
went to the English ward. It was cool to talk to them for a bit, I had
never met people from there before. After that, we had dinner at the
T's house, which was super delicious. Then we had to go home
due to lack of time and me running out of insulin.

Thursday was our day to burn some calories from all the dinners we'd
been getting! We didn't have enough miles to make it to our area and
back 2 days in a row, and both of our bikes were unavailable (Heaton's
had a flat tire and mine was being used by Elder Moore) so we had a
member drop us off there. Then we were "kickin' it old school" so to
speak. We only had a couple of appointments, so we spent most of the
day just wandering around talking to whoever would let us! It worked
pretty well. We found a few new people. We also had a really good
lesson with the R kids! They really liked church, and they're
coming next week! After that, we got picked up by another member and
dropped off for another appointment that ended up falling  through. We
got picked up by the other elders and their ride, and had dinner with
the Hs.

Friday was pretty slow, mainly because we had so much to do that
wasn't proselyting. It was Elder Moore's birthday so we went to Sweden
Kream to celebrate. We tried the few appointments we had, found a few
new people. Then we did some weekly planning in the car to save miles.
Then we went and did some more record digitizing because we really
wanted to get it done. They're pretty time-consuming and we want to be
able to just leave them and get to work. So we made progress on that,
then we had dinner with the Ds. After that we met with Bro.
R and had a good lesson with him. As we were leaving, we got
surprised by the former Elder Henderson! Since there was the big
reunion the next day, everyone had been coming in to Memphis for the
big day. It was fun to see them. Since we didn't have the miles to
take the North elders home, they spent the night with us. We took the
opportunity to burn stuff. You see, it's tradition in the mission when
you reach 6 months, you burn a  tie. At a year, you do a shirt. At 18,
you burn pants. None of us had burned anything yet, and since Elder
Heaton's year mark was Thursday, we all burned our respective clothes.
I'll try and send the video.

Saturday was great! I stayed with Elder Moore for the morning, because
President Wakolo assigned Diaz and Heaton to go to the temple that
morning to help the Little Rock Spanish Branch to do some temple work.
They got back kind of late since there were so many people to do
(which is a good thing really) so we went straight to the T's.
They were having a lunch for Elder Henderson, his family, and some
members. It was good.  Then we went to the reunion! It was awesome. I
heard they broadcast it on the Internet, so I guess some of you saw it
already! It was cool to see all these people again, including my old
mission president and his wife, the Petersens! F was there too,
it was great to see him again. It was a great meeting too, I loved it
a lot. After the meeting we helped clean up, and then President
informed me about the emergency transfer. Then we went home, moped,
and packed for a bit.

Sunday was good! We had a few visitors who had come for the reunion.
The H family was there, as well as some ex-sisters that I had
heard of but had never met. It was a good meeting. After church, since
it was fast Sunday we had a "break the fast" party. Basically a bunch
of Mexican food got whipped up in a very short time, and we all had a
good time. I took some pictures with people and said bye. After
church, we went over to the R' house for dinner and to say bye
to his kids, since they didn't come to church. It was sad to say
goodbye to them. I do t think I have made friends with a ward member
faster than I did with Bro. R. Gonna miss that guy. Then we
went and saw A and L, and had a quick lesson with them.

So that's the drama. I'll be sending a LOT of pictures this time,
because I took a lot! Love you guys a lot! Talk to you next week!
Con muchìsìmìsìmìsìmo amor,
Elder Andrew Reay

At the Celebration

"Awkward Family Photo"

The R Family

D R and Elders Heaton and Reay