Ron got Baptized!

Sick days :)

Hey Everyone!

This was one of the longest weeks yet haha. Me and sister Cook were BOTH sick this week. and the worst part, not even on the same days haha so we were stuck in the house a lot. But we will get to that.

Monday...Our Zone played a great game of "savage ball" its the same game we used to play in the Reston ward...but i can't remember what we called it them. BUT it's like dodge ball with out teams or boundaries, if you can imagine that. It was super fun though, one of the elders dented one of the accordion doors. it was CRAZY. so after that we made all of the elders play left handed haha.

Tuesday...We had one of the BEST district meetings i think I've had on my mission. Our District leader started by telling all of us to take off our name tags and toss them to the back of the room. We were all very hesitant to do it at first but we did and then we just had an awesome training on why we all came out on missions, and to remember how we felt about our missions before we came. It was very powerful.

On Tuesday we also....actually i don't really remember i was sick that day and so its all a blur haha.

Wednesday we had a miracle day! It seems that the days I'm sick and go out anyways are always the best. First i went to the doctors, but then we were out visiting people, and we got a referral from Salt Lake (which NEVER happens in a YSA ward) for a guy with a baptismal date foe May 31st! we were so excited. We had a few other things that we were excited about but ended up not panning out. We did, tract into a girl we had previously met though. It was amazing, we met her on Chaffey campus, and at first she was really not interested, but when we knocked on her door she thought it was the coolest coincidence, and ended up telling us all about how she used to love going to her church, but she had a bad experience and that she feels bad about not going now. So we will be teaching her soon :) sadly  she won't be in our ward, but we are excited anyways :)

Thursday...Was the day i finially started feeling better. And the day that sister Cook got sick haha. We had a some really good lessons, very powerful, but im not going to go into detail about them

Firday... Everyone in our apartment was sick haha. Sister Cook was super sick, sister Brown had a migraine and me and sister christensen were mostly ine, but not on our top game. So we blacked out our windows with blankets for sister Brown, and me and sister Chistensen went on mini exchanges, then we went back with our regular companions and went out for a little while. By about 7:00 though sister Cook and brown were just feeling horrible. So we made phone calls and things, but we were ready for bed super early, so we all crawled in my bed and watched the movie "mountian of the Lord". it was soo FUN! It reminded me of being in college again hahaha.

Saturday...me and sister cook did some service and that was about that,

Then SUnday we had a really fun day. Our ward is just great and i love them all so much. PLus its fun to have ward mates. Us and the elders in our ward love to pull little pranks on our ZOne leaders, so it was fun :)

It was a great week, despite being sick :)

ill just ended with a little quote. I have been reading 2 general conference talks a day and I read this today and just really liked it.....

"Of course we will face fear, experience ridicule, and meet opposition. Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval. … Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with [faith] have courage as well."

Love and miss you all

SIster Redd

Dear friends and family,

This was a CRAZY week. and i forgot my planner....so i was hoping to just hit the most exciting parts and then go over a few things I've learned this week, because well....i always fell like i don't really include that into my emails.

But this Wednesday there was a BIG fire in Rancho. We woke up that morning and there was smoke everywhere! Me and sister Cook happened to be on exchanges that day though. So Sister Heine (the sister i was with) and I just went out to go to our appointments. At about 11:20 we get a call from sister Cook saying they will be evacuating the part of Rancho that she was in, and that 2 other sisters were being evacuated also. So Wednesday consisted of frantically getting all these sisters packed and over to our apartment. then deciding 8 sisters in one apartment is WAY to many. and then sending them to other apartments and then getting them bed's and things to sleep on. IT WAS NUTS! the whole day ash was falling and it was just crazy wind making the fire even worse. BUT it was all better by the next day. SO that was a fun little adventure during the week.

The other Highlight was that I got to go on exchanges with Sister Naitoko. She is from Tonga, and she is HILARIOUS! we were walking that day and i just died the whole day she was so fun and funny. At one point i said something that i guess she though was really funny, so she grabbed my head and headbutted me and rubbed our heads together. Haha it hurt pretty bad but it was soooooo funny. I really loved the chance to be her companion. Also it was amazing to see how the spirit can work through people who don't know the language very well. I feel that missionaries learning languages are better at following the spirit because they have to rely on it more. SO it was such a great experience to spend the day with her.

hahahahaha okay quick story...were in a community center, and we are in the computer lab right now that is FULL of older people and the worker was listening to music on his computer and it was like heavy rap and he didn't realize that it started playing out loud, REALLY LOUD. And all the old people freaked out, and he noticed and was super embarrassed. it was pretty funny.

Anyways,

I was thinking of something specific i wanted to share about things i have learned...But rather than do that i just want to share how i have changed. When i left for my mission i feel like i had a testimony of the things i was teaching, but I'm not sure how much of it felt REAL. That one day we truly would live with God again, that Christ did pay for our sins, that everything in the gospel was real. And I'm not sure if that makes sense....but i knew it was true, but at the sane time i think i missed what that really meant in my life. Because, now as i have had the chance to learn about the Gospel more, see it affect people's lives and just change people, i have felt myself change. When i think about the Gospel now, it isn't just a knowledge of it's truthfulness, but its an excitement. I think about the day that we will see God again and i get a little giddy haha. Its hard to explain, but i just feel as though i have come to know that the things i teach people are true. Before i believed, now i know. And i wouldn't trade that knowledge for anything. And i know it is such a blessing that everyone can know. And i just feel so lucky to be one of the people who gets to help other reach that in their lives.

Sorry if that sounds cheesy or anything. but i tried my best to explain it.

I love and miss you all :)

thank you for your letters and emails!

Sister Rebecca Redd

Oh also, i hit half way of my misison this week! woo!