Onward and Upward

Hello everyone!
Yes, it's Saturday. It's my final P-day for packing and everything, so
I am sending out one last letter. Aaaaahhhhh this is insane guys!
First off, here is my new address:

Andrew Reay
8732 W. Willowbrook Drive
Peoria, AZ 85382

Highlights of the week:
- It snowed yesterday! Less than an inch, but enough that it stuck and
covered stuff and made getting into the car a pain. Most of it's gone
now though.
- We had a super fun P-day! We got special permission to go to the
Memphis Grizzlies game!! We went with the other Spanish elders, the
Ds, and the P's oldest son, D. It was a blast. And we
won, 101 to 99! Woo!
- Most of the people we've seen this week are the ones we've taught a
lot, like the P family and the Rs and such. It's weird when
I'm visiting people and knowing this is the last time I'll see them.
Ahh.
- We had a worldwide missionary broadcast on Wednesday. It was super
cool! A few of the apostles instructed on some of the basic skills of
missionary work, and it was really good. Elder Bednar gave some really
good instruction on the Spirit in our teaching. Essentially, it was
that we can't force people to feel the Spirit when we teach. Our job
is to bring it into the lessons, and the investigator has the choice
of letting it into their hearts. Sadly, it made me think of a lot of
things I could improve on in my teaching. They should have done this
two years ago :P
That's really about all. This is so weird, guys. I'm not really
freaking out much, but as you read this I am putting away all my stuff
in suitcases for the last time. I can't believe it's actually going to
end.

Let me just say this: I am grateful for every second I have had to
serve the Lord as one of His representatives. I know without a shadow
of a doubt that his gospel is true. I know that because I have seen
how it changes lives. The Atonement is such a real thing. Jesus Christ
suffered in Gethsemane and died on the cross for US. I'd have to say
my favorite scripture I have found on my mission is one in the Book of
Mormon. A prophet named Alma explains what Jesus did and why so
simply:

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and
temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled
which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his
people.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death
which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities,
that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that
he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according
to their infirmities."

He went through all that. He felt literally every pain, sadness,
sickness, depression, fear, EVERYTHING bad that would happen to us.
And He did it so that He could know how to "succor" us, which means to
give aid to or help. There may be times (and I have gone through
plenty) where you feel like you are so alone, and that "no one knows
how I feel. No one understands." Well, He does. He knows exactly how
you feel, because He felt it. He didn't just feel pain, he felt YOUR
pain. And He felt it, so long ago, so that when you  are feeling it
now He can help you. Reach out. Make the changes in your life you need
to make to move towards Him. And you will find the peace that only He
can give. I guarantee it. You will still have problems. But you won't
be alone in overcoming them, and it is the best feeling.

I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. He has one church, and
it is this one. It was restored, as it had been when Jesus Himself had
been here, through the prophet and servant of the Lord, Joseph Smith.
A lot of people do not agree with this. I invite those who do not to
study it out and ask God yourselves. Do so with the intent of knowing,
not for finding fault or with no intent of joining the church anyways.
God will tell you the truth, but only if you truly desire it. So learn
more. Be honest with yourself and with God. And you will come to know,
like I and millions of others have, that this is the way to go.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about these past two years as much as
I have enjoyed living them! Thank you all for your support and love. I
love y'all, and I will see you soon!
-Elder Reay

Come Hear Him Speak!

Elder Reay will be giving his mission report/ homecoming talk on Sunday, January 31st at 10:00 a.m. at the Peoria Arizona North Stake Center 22034 N 83rd Ave, Peoria AZ.  All are welcome to come and we would love to see you!

It's a Party!!!

Elder Reay will be coming home on Tuesday, January 26th.  His good friend, Bailey Alexander is coming home on the 29th.  In an effort to be more time conscious and environmentally friendly, we will be having a joint "Eats and Greets" Dessert Potluck on Saturday, January 30th at the Peoria Arizona North Stake Center (22034 N 83rd Ave, Peoria AZ 85382) from 6:30 to 10.  It will be in the Relief Society room which is on the SW corner of the building.  Bring  your favorite treat to share, bring your friends and your family.  We will provide water, cups, napkins and games.

Here we goooooooo!!!

Hello again everyone! Hope you are enjoying the day off of school and
all that. This week was a lot better! A lot less walking haha.
Monday we had another bowling day. We got the ASL sisters to come too,
so it was a big fun group! We are all terrible at bowling though,
except for Sister Brown. She had us all beat haha. When we got back
from that we went and had dinner with President P and his wife.
They were giving us a lot of marriage advice, and it was even funnier
since they disagreed with each other a lot about their advice. :P
After that we went and saw J L with him. It was a really good
visit, we talked about a lot.

Tuesday the mechanic called about the car! And.... They found
absolutely nothing wrong with it. They replaced the driver's seat belt
buckle, since it was obviously broken. We were a wee bit irritated.
But it got fixed right in time for us to give it to the English elders
and start our regularly scheduled bike week. Woo! We had district
meeting too. It was the last normal one I had left, so we brought some
of the Martinelli's grape stuff and some fancy cups and had a proper
dinner party. It was great! :P Then we headed back, worked out the
car, and went down to the G's house. The whole district decided
to do a service day for one family in the branch, and they got it! We
basically cleaned out everything. The elders raked and cleaned the
garage mostly. It took a bit, but it was good. Then we had dinner with
Hna. H and Bro. V. Good news: they finally cleared
everything up for getting married! I'll miss the wedding of course but
it's still exciting! We went out teaching with him afterwards and saw
J R with him.

Wednesday we went out with A G. That was great! He's a super
cool kid. We went out a lot with him this week. We are giving him his
mission prep training haha. So yeah, we got to see quite a few people
with him. It was a pretty average day, but a good one too. It's always
nice to have a member with you, since they can really be their friend.


Thursday we came back to finish cleaning the G's garage. It went
a lot faster than the first time, and we got it all cleaned out! It
looks nice now! Then we taught A's little brother about the
priesthood, since he had just turned 12. He is a really smart kid, he
got it really quickly. Then we went out with A again and taught the
Os and the Ps. We hadn't been able to see the Os in a
while, so it was great to see them. The Ps had been through a bit
of a rough week, so we gave the mom a blessing and basically comforted
everyone. It's easy to do that when you talk about the gospel! :) Then
we had dinner with the V family, which as usual was delicious.
After that we did some more finding and teaching. It was a busy day.

Friday wasn't as busy. We got dropped off, but we were walking all
day. We got to see A and O and talk a lot with them. Then
Bro. D and his son picked us up and took us out to dinner at a
buffet. Naturally we all got stuffed. Then they dropped us off at
N's house, our friend from Jerusalem. They were just finishing up
cooking dinner, and they told us to stay and eat. So we got stuffed
again, but this time with some very different food. It was super
delicious though! We had a good time there. Luckily no one could pick
us up so we got to walk home and burn some of it off haha.

Saturday was pretty slow at first. We walked to some people in
Bartlett but they drove off literally 2 minutes before we reached the
house. We saw their car drive by. So, we walked all he way back just
in time for Bro. T to come pick us up and go teaching. We had a
fantastic lesson with the Ps. He was just his friendly self and
they talked for hours about the gospel and  got along super well.
Definitely inspired that we took him.

Sunday we had a regional conference broadcast from Salt Lake City!
That was cool. We had Robert D. Hales, Ronald A. Rasband and Whitney
Clayton there speaking. It was a good meeting. I didn't know they did
stuff like that, and it was cool! After church we got a car (finally!)
and went to J Rs' house for dinner. Then we took him out
teaching with us. We tried to see Y, but he wasn't home so we
talked to his brother in law, M. He is a super cool guy, and he's
been looking for a church for a LONG time. We had a super good lesson
with him. Afterwards though, we had a bit of a problem. You see, with
the car we have it has a special restricted key so we don't use it too
recklessly. The only way we can get into it is by using the remote,
since keyholes are too mainstream I guess. Well, as we left there at
like 9:15 the battery died. So we were stuck. But WHAT DO YOU KNOW,
M is a diesel mechanic, and has a car opening kit. It was super
cool and the door opened in under five minutes. That was great. We
tried replacing the battery but it still doesn't work. (Another tender
mercy:The car unlocked randomly after we had replaced the battery and
it hadn't worked, so we can still drive. Phew.)

Well, this is IT! I am so pumped for this week. Great thing about old
missionaries, when you tell people you are going home and you want
them to be in church your last Sunday they actually come! Here goes!
Love you all so much! See you soon!

Bowling Pic

So that was a week....

Hola hola everyone! This week was... Interesting. And cold. And wet.
It was good though, don't worry!
Monday the district spent the day just kind of hanging out at the
church most of the day. Played some Phase 10, threw a basketball,
stuff like that. Then we went down to the mall because it was freezing
outside and neither Elder Salazar nor Peterson had an actual coat.
Like, Peterson went through last winter with a windbreaker and coat
liner. I don't see how they survived. I looked around a bit for some
clothes myself, since I'll be needing them in a bit (aaaaahhhh) but no
luck. Anyway, after that we went to the I's house for dinner
and family home evening. It was a really good time, that family is
super cool! Bro. I works really hard to make sure that his
house is a spiritual environment.

Tuesday was pretty slow. Funny story though: We went to the L
house, but the dad's car wasn't there, so we assumed he wasn't either.
So, as we walked around the corner to go see another guy, who would
come around the same corner but the sisters! Totally not their area,
but hey. Whatevs. Apparently Sister P is the Ls' visiting
teacher, and she took Sister Reed and Sister Madsen with her to do
some visits. So that was a little awkward. They got to teach them
though, which I guess was good. We didn't find anyone at home, so we
walked all the way back and left right as the sisters did. (They had
parked farther away though so they didn't catch us putting cards all
over their car :P)

Wednesday was the beginning of our problems. It started off with a
really good zone meeting, where we set out goals and plans for the
zone for the entire year, which hasn't officially been done before. It
was pretty cool. After that we went on exchanges. I took Elder Spencer
back to our area. Our first stop was the car dealership. Our car had
been making some weird so we decided to check it out before it got
worse. We came there expecting to be there for maybe two hours.
Instead, we got told that they would let us know tomorrow. That kind
of blew all our plans to pieces. We got a ride with some other
missionaries to the house so we could plan our next move. The problem
was that my bike had literally been packed up that morning at the bike
shop. So, we were walking. We had an appointment with F, about
a six mile walk. So we set out to go there. About two thirds of the
way there, he canceled. So, we changed our route and went to go try to
see some other people in the Triangle, but no luck either. At that
point we needed to walk home if we wanted to make it on time.

That was basically how it was the rest of the week. They kept telling
us that they would let us know about the car, but didn't . They didn't
even look at it until Friday afternoon, and we don't know what they
found yet. So we walked. We walked and walked and walked and walked
and at the same time managed to teach practically nobody. We found out
that Immigration has been cracking down  a lot lately, and someone put
up a bulletin on some Hispanic community website warning everyone not
to open their door if there are "white people you don't know with
white shirts and uniforms knocking on your door." Literally what it
said. So, no one's been opening up lately.

Good news though: J R  is FINALLY BACK! We are so happy. He
had some legal stuff to work out for the past month, so we've missed
him a lot! He's doing great too. Good ol' J.

Another bright spot: I got to sing in sacrament meeting again with
Sister Bennett! It was super good, I'll send the rehearsal video. She
has a fantastic voice, it's always nice to sing with her. Plus it was
one of my favorite hymns so all the better.

Another cool moment: we met this guy from Jerusalem named N. He's
really cool. We talked to him for a while about his life and his
beliefs (he is Muslim). We also got to talk to him about the Book of
Mormon a bit. Then when we got home that night, I was looking at the
stacks of Books of Mormon we have. In the past, I guess they had
bought a bunch of different languages, like Guatemalan dialects and
such. Anyway, what do you know? We had an Arabic one! So we took it
back to him. He seemed pretty interested in it, so hopefully he gives
it a good reading!

That's about all that happened this week. A lot of walking. A LOT. But
at least I end the day exhausted, so I sleep better! Hope you have a
wonderful week! Oh and by the way, next week will probably be the LAST
EMAIL YOU WILL GET FROM ME BEFORE I AM IN ARIZONA. THIS IS NOT COOL
GUYS. NOT COOL.

Love you guys!

Look for the video on Facebook - Andrew's mom

Martinellis in Mason Jars

Hello everyone! It was a pretty awesome week! Good way to finish off
the year, I gotta say!
Monday we didn't do a whole lot, since we didn't have many miles left.
It was just Elder Peterson and I , so we just went to the mall and
people watched, had some Steak N' Shake, the usual. After P-day we
continued our search for the people we talked to during the Christmas
rush. We didn't have much luck, basically no one was home. That's the
downside to Christmas break, sometimes it's great and everyone is
home, but sometimes it's just empty.

Tuesday we had district meeting, which went well. It was a really good
one for me, I learned a lot of stuff and got a lot of inspiration on
how I can teach better. I got more out of it an I have in a while,
which is kinda annoying since I barely have time to use what I
learned! Oh well, I'm doing what I can! After District meeting we went
to Chik Fil A and had some lunch, then got to work. F told us
to come over, which is great news! He had told the missionaries a few
months ago not to come back. But now he wants us to come back, and he
wants to come to church! We also met another one of his friends who
seems really interested himself. Then we did some finding in a trailer
park where we hadn't really gone before. It went all right, we got to
talk to some people. Then we went and had dinner with  this awesome
family Elder Butler and Elder Hymas had found. Here is their deal: The
wife has family members that are Mormon, and she knows all about the
church and is super interested. She is moving to Phoenix though (woot
woot!), but her husband is staying out here working. So we came over,
and had a great dinner with them. We also had a good talk with the
husband. He's a really cool guy.

Wednesday we spent the day with Elder Spencer, since his companion was
at leadership training. It's nice having three people sometimes. The
mission rule is you can't really go into a house without any guys in
it unless you bring another one with you. So for trios we can do that!
We saw the Ro family. The mom had one of her friends over, and
we read in the Book of Mormon with her. She understood it, which was
cool! After that we were mostly wandering around until later that
night. We got in with the P family and FINALLY taught the husband
about the Restoration. He understood it well and had a lot of
questions. We have high hopes for him! Then we saw O, a guy who had
been taught by missionaries for a looooooong time, and talked with him
for a bit. We figured out more of his situation and how to help him,
so that was good.
Oh so funny moment too: we were eating dinner at the apartment and we
heard someone outside hiccuping a lot. Elder Peterson got curious to
see who it was, so we went out to "check the mail." He opened the
door, and the sister missionaries from Bartlett were knocking on our
neighbor's door! It was hilarious, they turned around and we're all,
"What are YOU guys doing here??" "Uhh we live here..." So yeah the
sisters are teaching our neighbor and occasionally leave notes if they
see our car there haha.

Anyway, Thursday was pretty fun! We went up to go see N and her
family, but they weren't home when we got there. So, we decided to
look around their neighborhood. While we were walking, we saw two guys
working on their roof. Elder Peterson, always willing to talk (which
is awesome), asked if they needed help, and they said yes! So, we got
up there on the roof! We didn't end up helping with the labor, but
they did want to know what we did as missionaries. So we had a good 20
minute discussion up there on their roof! That goes on the bucket list
haha. After we got done, N and her husband G had gotten
home, so we stopped by and talked with them for a few minutes because
G had to work. After them, we tried some more of the people in
the area and then went to President Perez' house for dinner. We had
some super good food and a lot of fun with their grandkids. They're a
hoot. When we got home, we planned on celebrating New Years at like 10
or so, but there was a LOT of partying long on, so sleep was basically
impossible. We'd bought a bottle of Martinellis and sat around for a
bit drinking it from a mason jar. It wasn't super exciting really. At
Friday, though, you'd think it was another World War. Some of the
bangs were fireworks, but a lot DEFINITELY weren't. We collected the
shells and slugs the next day to prove it haha.

Friday was pretty slow, it being the first day of the year. We did get
to meet some cool people though! The guy works with a member of the
church, and he wanted to improve his life. We can help with that haha.
So we met him and a bunch of his friends. It turns out that one of
them had a mom who was Mormon and another who talked with missionaries
a lot in Honduras! We had a really good lesson with them. That was
basically all he people who we saw that day though.

Saturday was better. We found Y after weeks of not being able to.
He's been really busy lately I guess. We set up times to visit him
though. We also went and invited everyone to church. The Ps said
they would. We also visited with the Cs, a less active family
who hadn't been to church in a long time. They said they'd come too!

Sunday was sweet! We got there early to practice a duet President
Perez called me to do with Sister Bennett. It sounds super good, she
has an amazing singing voice. I'll try to send a video of us singing
it. Anyway, THE PS AND CS CAME TO CHURCH!!! For Hna. P
it is the first time in 11 years she's been to church. It was sweet.
It was the last testimony meeting I'll have on my mission, which was
sad. I am grateful for being able to share it yesterday though. I just
love this branch so much. They are really good people, and they have a
lot of faith. After church we went back up to G's neighborhood
to try and find the roof people again. We had an AMAZING lesson with
one of them, named J. It was great. He knows scriptures like the
back of his hand, and he actually knows what they really mean! Like,
he would quote Bible verses that perfectly applied to the lesson! He
understood everything, and is excited to read the Book of Mormon. He
is totally getting baptized. :) Then we read in the Book of Mormon
with the L family, and they randomly fed us super good food. I
helped C, the oldest daughter, figure out some algebra homework.
I was surprised I remembered how to do it haha!

This year is going to be big. A lot's going to happen, and it's going
to rock! I hope your New Years was fun, and I hope all the kids enjoy
going back to school! :P
Pics: District panorama!

Haha just kidding. Here's what happened.

Hello everyone! I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas on Friday! Our
week was pretty awesome!
Monday we got together with the other elders and went to Beale Street.
It was raining a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. We also went to
Riverside Park, which as you might think is alongside the river. It's
a really cool park, and we got some sweet pictures. I'll send them.
After that we stopped really quick at the Brown's house, since they
were on vacation and needed us to feed their hedgehog. (I know, a
hedgehog! It's sweet!) Then we chauffeured the other elders to their
place.

Tuesday we had district meeting. It went pretty well. I got the new
sisters in the district their funny Christmas socks (the narwhal with
a Santa hat was my favorite) which they liked. Then we went to lunch
with the other elders to Gallo Giro, and a random member there paid
for our meal. Thanks! We spent the rest of the day finding people. We
found a few cool ones too, which was great! We had our usual dinner at
the Hs and then ran down to the Cs to visit them. It
was a pretty good visit, and we committed them to read the Book of
Mormon cover to cover in the coming year. The mom thinks she can
finish in 4 months. The race is on haha.

Wednesday was the same as Tuesday, except we did more finding. It was
still good though, we found a ton! All in all, I think we only gave
out 100 or 150 cards, but it was worth it. We are booked solid this
week! But yeah, it was literally all we did. It was raining in the
afternoon, so we made a lot of cookies and brownies for the members
and investigators. Thanks to Sis. H for giving the district
supplies for that!

Christmas Eve was just another day for us! We did more finding in the
day, and went to the Cs for dinner at their place. It was super
good, and they refused to stop feeding us. We were sooo full haha.
After that we went out with A to go give out the cookies to
everyone. They were well appreciated, and we had one leftover plate to give
to his family. Then we went up north to give some to the Rs, and
we found out THEY HAD THEIR BABY!!!! They had her Tuesday. Her name
is L, and she is ADORABLE. I don't have any pictures (we didn't
know it happened so we didn't have cameras) but I will work on it. So
that was a lovely surprise to end our night!

Then came CHRISTMAS!! Thanks to everyone for all the gifts I got. A
lot of them were edible, which was greatly appreciated by both me and
Elder Peterson. :P We also got matching sock ties for ourselves, which
look super cool. After opening all the presents, we went to the D's
house to Skype! It was great to see my family one last time before
actually seeing them in person! 29 days are going to FLY by. They
already have been, really. Scaring me to death. Anyway. I did that,
then watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and Music and the Spoken Word
with the Ds while my companion talked to his folks. After that we
went to the Ps' house for dinner, which was delicious. We watched a
Nativity movie with their family and watched them open presents.

Saturday it was "back to the grind" for us! It was almost 80 degrees
outside, which wasn't the coolest thing (obviously) but we made do. We
finally got to visit the Rs again. I had missed them a lot!
After that we had the first of all the appointments we had been
setting through the week. It went about as well as we had hoped! Some
of the people were not home, but we got to teach some others, and they
seem to be very interested!  That was about all we did that day.

Sunday was good too. Sister R's family had come out to see her
baby, and they all sang in sacrament meeting. They did a great job!
Apparently her dad sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for several
years. If that's any indication of how they sang. We also got our
Christmas present from Bro. B, which consisted of a tie, a
razor, and nail clippers. I love that man. :) After church, we went
right back to it! We met some super awesome people and had great
lessons with them. I hope what we taught sticks with them.

Well, that was about it! I hope y'all have a wonderful New Year's and
I will see you soon!
Love, Elder Reay
Pic: Pro panorama on the Mississippi!