Hey everyone!!!

So this was hands down the best week this transfer!!

God was blessing us left and right i loved it!!

Where to even begin!

Ill start by telling you that we found 5 new people to teach! and let me tell you...that's a lot for Phelan. Especially that they were 5 solid investigators!!

First there was JoAnn :) and she is the cutest, feisty, little lady. She is 81 and just a fire cracker. SO we had a member of another ward call us and tell us that JoAnn would be interested in the lessons. So we gave her a call and tried to set up an appointment (and this was last week) and we asked if we could meet on Saturday. JoAnn was VERY passionate when she told us "OH young ladies! according the the 4th commandment in the law, Saturday is the Sabbath! and i just don't feel that would be appropriate. I think we're going to have problems from the beginning!" we later agree to me on Tuesday. I won't lie, i was nervous that this lady was just going to ague with us, but when we got there Tuesday morning she was SOO sweet. She welcomed us in and sat down and was so eager to learn. She explained that she LOVES to study the scriptures and was very excited to learn about the Book of Mormon which she had heard a little bit about before. We haven't taught her again yet, but she came to our ward party on Friday and LOVED it! She told us that she had read and prayed about the Joseph smith and that she liked what she was feeling so far :) 

OH! and i almost forgot.. She at one point mentioned how her daughters names were Rebecca and Nancy. We then told her that those were our first names and she got sooo excited and started calling us "her daughters" in her thick Maine accent. It was sooo cute!

Next there is the Home family.. 

SOO if anyone remembers i've written a few emails about a Girl named Mandy. She this awesome girl with bright pink hair that we keep running into in the oddest of places. BUT! this week after running into so many times her Mom decided she wanted the whole family to start meeting with us! it was soo incredible... We shared the restoration and the spirit was just so strong. The mom was just in tears the whole time. 

But that's not the best part... SO that was Thursday. But on Friday morning sister Huntington and i were discussing a date that we could invite them to be baptized on. We couldn't decide. I said the 17th and she said the 30th (of January) and we couldn't really agree on a date. SO we decided to let it sit for a while and both pray that night and discuss the next morning. When we talked about it the next morning, sister Huntington said she felt like the 17th and i felt like the 30th haha. It was kind of a mess. So we kept talking about it and i told her that the only number i felt when i prayed was the number 7, which wasn't a day they could get baptized...so we went with 17th. Then Sunday they came to church. Right before church we gave them a tour of the church building just before church. When we showed them the baptismal font, they were just in awe of it. They said they had never seen anything having to do with baptism, but that they had all wanted to be baptized before. I was getting excited :) Sunday night we went and had a lesson with them. We read 3 nephi 11 and when we got to verse 33 we committed them to prepare to be baptized on January 17th. The Mom BURST into tears... She told us that her sister had passed away that day and that the numbers 7 and 17 have ALWAYS meant a lot to her because of that. We then were able to explain what had caused us to set that day, and the family was just in Shock. They were so excited and said yes! 

SO bottom line...I LOVE being a missionary. I LOVE being able to see how we are guided by God. And I LOVE to see how present his is in this children's lives..

Other than that.. our week was just normal missionary things, we saw a few miracles within our ward, and with in some of the part member families here. We had fun just doing Christmas things... OH that was the other big highlight. We had a missionary Christmas party and the young women from our ward showed up to give all of the missionaries scarfs that they had made! it was so cute :)

Anyways...I'm sorry my emails always get soo long..

Hopefully they're at least interesting.

I love you! and miss you all!!!

Hope you all have a great Christmas!!!

and i will talk to you (my family- sorry everybody else) then!

Love,

Sister Becca Redd

Okay thanks everyone for the mail and packages!

with the way the mail works in Phelan everything comes in waves and so this week a got all my packages for Christmas a few from thanksgiving! so it was really exciting, between me and sister Huntington there is a huge pile of boxes now, which makes for some pretty happy missionaries haha :)

Man where to begin with this week...

This week was really good. We tried our best to work really hard, and we have definitely seen some miracles for it.

One of the best things this week was Cheryl, (some one we've been teaching on and off since i got to Phelan)called us and said she wants to take the lessons again, AND that she has quit drinking! She had a really bad drinking problem and so its been tough for her, she has had some pretty bad withdraws, but she is doing so good now. She keeps talking about how much more she can feel God in her life now, and you can just see how much happier she is.

Another Highlight was that I got to go down the hill for a meeting for sister Huntington and all the new missionaries, which wouldn't seem like a highlight, BUT i got to see 2 of my old companions. Sister Cobabe was there and she leaves in 2 weeks so i got to say bye to her. It was also weird though because i had to say bye to a few missionaries my self (that was not a highlight). But i was grateful to see a bunch of the friends I've made over the last year.

K last cool thing that i will tell you all about, was this week we got to go to a dinner show thing that we have been helping out with lately. Its a just a dinner that the local HS puts on and the choir does a bunch of performances during it. It was AWESOME though because we got to sit with a bunch of non members, and basically half of the town was there. We were able to meet a ton of people the missionaries in the past had taught and talk to a lot of our potential investigators. Plus it was really fun to see all the kids in our ward (because almost all of them are in choir) perform. 

Oh! I'm not sure if i talked about how a few weeks ago we met a girl named Mandy and then some one sent us to her house as a referral, but we were able to see her there too, and it was really cool because she said her parents really want us to come over and meet them! 

Other than that we had lots of other cool little miracles. Lot of people can to church :) it rained a TON here, so a lot of the roads were basically just HUGE puddles and have been super fun to drive though...and I'm just excited about Christmas! so it was a great week :)

I love you all!

Sister Becca Redd

Alright.

Thanks for the emails everyone! 

I always have so much fun reading what everyone did this week and the funny stories you tell me :) It always makes me super happy and have something to laugh about for the rest of the day :)

This week was pretty fun, things were a little nuts, BUT it went is it not crazy when you're a missionary?

I won't go through the Whole week, but i wanted to talk about a few things.

1. I got to go on exchanges with on of my favorite sisters this week, sister Green. We've served together a lot and so it was really great to spend the day with her. It was crazy though because it's been raining here a lot recently. It rained for 2 days straight and so it was super muddy everywhere, and when sister Green was here it was SUPER FOGGY. The whole day we could only see about 30 feet in front of the car. So everything looked really creepy, but it was pretty exciting. i will see if i can send some pictures to show it off a little.

2. This week sister Huntington and i had a little mini miracle. We asked a member if we could help them with anything this week (as missionaries always do) She say yes though, which is pretty unusual. She asked if we could help make food for a dinner show that the local High School is in charge of. We got permission and were able to go and help cook a BUNCH of food. It was pretty fun though because if was like a professional kitchen and everything was HUGE. The mixing bowl was big enough for me to get in i think haha i felt like a little kid again. The Best part though was that a Recent Convert to the ward, Her mom was in charge of the whole thing. In the past she had a pretty rough opinion of the missionaries and didn't like them very much. Being able to just serve her though REALLY softened her heart. By the end of the first time we helped out she even gave us hugs! and by the third time we helped out, she even accepted help from us in her home! it was super cool to see how quickly her heart was softened :)

3. As for the work right now, its going pretty good. We're in the process of just trying to renew our teaching pool. As we have been trying to find i have really seen how the lord answers prayers. The days i earnestly pray to find someone to talk to, he makes it soo easy for us. And the days i forget a little..well, its is a lot harder... I think that is one thing i have really learned on my mission, the power of prayer is so real. I dont think i realized that as much before my mission, but it is so incredible. 

Through out this week there have been a few things that have made me realize how quickly my time as a mission is going, and as i have thought about that it has been really good. Just this past week i think i have realized how much i have changed, and how grateful i am that i have changed. The small and big lessons i have learned have really changed who i am. And i can't even begin to explain how grateful i am for them. I don't to write much more in this email because it is getting long, but i will say that i know the things i teach as a missionary, and that every missionary teaches is true. I know that God loves us and is SO involved in all of our lives. I know that when we feel like he isn't there, that we just need to look a little harder. 

I loe you all sooo much.

I miss you all

Love,

Sister Rebecca Redd