Moving Along!

Hi!

This week has been great :) I've been working a LOT with Elder Fowdy, my new companion. We've got some good things happening here in Leschenault. Elder Fowdy's from England. He's been out about 18 months, and he's very diligent.

We have/had a baptismal date! His name is Jake, and he's 9. His mom is a member who's been coming back to church. He's really cool. The family is very nice, too. They're moving to Australind, (about 10 minutes away) in 2 weeks. Still in the same ward, but it's in the other elder's area. Hahaha. It was great, his mom has committed herself to coming to church every week again. She's setting a good example for her son, and her husband as well. :)

We've also got a really cool investigator we just started teaching this last week! Her name is Wendy. We taught her about the Book of Mormon, and committed her to read it. She has a great faith, and wants to follow it. We had a good lesson with a member coming along as well, and the member invited her to church! She wants to come, and was willing, but she really wants to be able to bring her family along as well. So we're going to help her out. She's very friendly.

So, I've discovered that I already know several families in Leschenault ward! I've met family members from all over WA, including Karratha! Hahaha, it was so cool. I also ran into the Williams family, which was great. Cameron Williams was the mini-missionary that I spent a few days with last year. Sunday fun. We had a member from up in Heathridge (Perth) that was visiting, and asked to give the lesson in the Gospel Doctrine Class. He spoke a lot about member-missionary work. We had a good class with him, and I think he did a good job of encouraging the other members.

Well, I love you all! I hope you're all happy and such :) Happy Summer!

Oh wow, I just realised that it's almost summer vacation! And Graduation! :D

Love,

Elder Reeder

Bunbury Funbury!

Bunbury is Funbury! Or so they tell me :)

Hi, all! Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a short email, it's a busy day today.

Guess where I am? I'm not in Rockingham West anymore! Seeing as how Elder Moore is going home, I'm in need of a companion. Since the other missionary and their area has a lot of things going on right now, President Lindsay decided to send me down to Bunbury, with Elder Fowdy, from England. So one 3-hour bus ride later, I'm in a new city! It was a hectic week, getting packed, preparing the area book and area for the Rockingham East elders, Elder Iumalo and Elder Bennion, who will be taking care of the area for the next few weeks until some new missionaries can be transferred in.

It was quite a surprise, everyone, myself included, assumed I'd be staying here. But I'm going where I'm needed :) We got up at about 5:30 this morning, and went to the chapel with the rest of the district. The Zone Leaders wanted to play basketball with Elder Moore one last time before he leaves. It was fun :)

Elder Moore flies out tonight at 5 to midnight. He's staying the day with some other missionaries.

I love you all, and I hope you're all well!

Love,

Elder Reeder

How much can a koala bear?

G'day! Happy Mothers Day, to all you mothers out there! You are loved.

I got to call home today, and I was very glad to hear from the family :) Sorry I didn't get to talk to everyone. Sounds like a lot of excitement is going on, hahaha!

This week has been hectic! The weather's been a bit cloudy (read "pouring rain"), so we've been having some great adventures travelling in that. Out of it, though, We've got a couple of people we're hoping will become investigators this week. One is an older couple, from Scotland. Missionaries actually met them down south, and they said they'd be happy to have them come by their house sometime. They're a very friendly couple, and they seem to have great faith already.

In other news, I'm going to have a new companion quite soon! (Oh, I just remembered I hadn't told anything about transfers yet. Confusion.) Here's the surprising thing. Transfers happened Wednesday, I'm going to be with Elder Moore for his last 6 weeks. So that's all good. Elder Moore is really starting to get excited again about the work, really looking forward to the next 6 weeks, with teaching, finding, etc. Woot.

Thursday morning, we get a call. One of the missionaries that was supposed to come in, didn't, so there's a missionary without a companion. President asked if he would be willing to move his release date forward a few weeks. He thought about it, and eventually decided yes. When?

May 20.

So next monday, I'll be with another missionary. Where? Maybe here in Rockingham, maybe in the other area. We don't know who it is yet.

Elder Moore's now very excited to go home. We're still working hard, though. :)

We've been working with a member family, trying to help them share the gospel with others. They're inviting a friend to Family Home Evening tonight, and we'll be there as well. I'm really looking forward to it! Hopefully they'll have a good experience.

Well, I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Reeder

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the Fourth be with you. Always.

Actually, it's May 6th, but oh well.

Hi, everyone! It's monday again, and this week is Transfers week! The only difference about this transfers week is that no one knows who's being transferred. President Lindsay decided to tell us Tomorrow, instead. So... We're all in the dark. I expect I'll still be with Elder Moore. This is his last transfer, so he probably won't be going to a new area for just 6 weeks.

So Elder Moore and I have been having an up-and-down week. We've gotten a couple of referrals, that's up. We also found out that Teak (not Tico, actually) lives in Baldivis, which is our Zone Leader's area. So that was disappointing. But hey, we're all on the same team! Elder Gardner and Elder Jordan, the zone leaders, are great missionaries, and I'm sure they'll be great for Teak as well.

We've been working with the Ward Mission Leader, Brother Cotterell, and we've gotten some new events organised! This next Saturday, we'll be having our first Cottage Evening (Members and nonmembers get together for some food, games, and a short spiritual message. Casual, friendly fun.) Also, this past Friday, they began a sports night! (Everyone's invited to gather at the chapel and play basketball, volleyball, ping-pong, etc.) These are some ways to help the members invite their friends along, and meet people from the church. We're hoping that as soon as it gets announced, then more people will come, this week we didn't have anybody turn up for it. Oops.

We had a cool finding experience, too! Two, actually. One, there is a former investigator named Joey, that we'd been trying to get ahold of. Missionaries hadn't seen him in a couple of years. We finally caught him at home, and he was super friendly! He invited us in, and told us that in the past couple of years, he still had his Book of Mormon, had read through it twice, and had been really trying to cut down on smoking and had quit drinking as well. In the past he was really impressed from the Plan of Salvation, and the fact that we can be together as families for eternity. I think he still wants that. He asked us if we could come by every couple of days again to talk with him more. Why, sure! He seems like a golden investigator!

The other one- We were meeting with a less-active member, when a lady walked up to us. We know her, she's not interested, but very friendly and social with us. She told us that she was at a friend's house, and was talking with him, and he mentioned some things that made her realise that he's a member! We asked her more about it, and sure enough, we knew who he was! We didn't know where he was until now. Cool! It's actually quite funny, this lady isn't a member, but she's been a help with us finding some other members as well.

Rocky East had their baptism on Saturday! The person being baptised was married just prior, so it was a very special experience for them. It was apparent to everyone there, and at the confirmation as well, that this was a life-changing event for them.

Heh, while the missionaries were in the chapel, Elder Moore and I were waiting outside setting up chairs. Suddenly Elder Moore noticed water creeping under the door to the restroom. The font hadn't been turned off all the way! I raced outside to open the drain while he ran to the water faucets. It turned out all right, and we got most of it mopped up beforehand. Heh.

So, fun week!

I'm excited for next Monday! (It's Mothers Day.)

Love you all!

Elder Reeder