Write to Elder Reiley

Washington Vancouver Mission
2223 NW 99th St.
Vancouver WA 98665
jaxon.reiley@myldsmail.net

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

10/05/2015

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the email! I love hearing about what is going on at home. Keep up the great work in Idaho! 

Things are still going great here in Washington. Here are some answers to your questions. Brother Stamps has lived in 7 different states, but he has lived in Ridgefield for a while. I don't even know where to start with  Bill. He is the most interesting, unique man I have ever met. I can't get a read on him. He stays up all night and sleeps all day so we don't see him often. He is a really nice, lovable guy and he is easy to get along with. 

I'll start with Keith. He came over to Brother B's home with us to watch the priesthood session. He is a really quiet guy so it was tough to see what he really thought of it, but he asked some good questions. He brought all three of his boys. C is 14, D is 11 and A is 7. It looks like a really promising situation. Keith goes over to Brother B's every day to read from the Book of Mormon and he said he knows it is true. Pretty good progress for somebody I have barely met! By the way, Brother B is the stake assistant clerk. He said that he basically doesn't have a calling. Haha. 

The weather here has been pretty weird. I never know if it is going to be hot or cold. the days are getting shorter and colder, though. We can knock on a door at 9:00 in the summer and everything is fine and we knock at 7:00 and people wonder what we are doing out so late. People are funny. 

We are working with a couple more people from Ridgefield as well that should be getting close to baptism as well. Salmon Creek is definitely in a finding stage, so we have to make sure we put just as much focus on that ward as we do on Ridgefield.

Something cool happened the last session of conference. We were planning on going to a family in the Salmon Creek ward to watch it. We were leaving the stake center at about 12:40 to head over there and a member of the high council stopped us and told us that there were three non members that just walked in. So we went in and introduced ourselves and then left. We didn't think much of it. Well the spirit slapped us both in the face and we turned artound and headed back to the stake center and watched it there. After the session, we talked with them some more and got some more info. One guy is an ex-communicated member who wants to come back. Another guy was from Ridgefield and is good friends with some members in the ward. Another guy was from Gresham. We got them all lined up with missionaries and they are interested in learning more! It was a cool experience and I will let you know how it turns out.

Here are some of my thoughts on conference. My favorite talk Saturday morning was Elder Lawrence's talk. He talked about asking God what you need to improve on. It might be something as simple as saying thank you more. I loved how he promised blessings. I got some questions answered. I wanted to know how I can have more charity for people around me. Elder Holland pretty much took care of that. Just look at everybody like their mother does. Hahah. That was easy. I wanted to know how I could be more positive. President Uchtdorf helped me out on that one. It is easy to be skeptical. I felt a little call to repentance. It is much more admirable to live a faithful life. I also liked the idea of "ponderizing". I had no idea it wasn't in the dictionary. I was trying to look it up on my iPad when he said it wasn't' in there. President Taylor has given us 25 scriptures to memorize before we go home so that will be a great place to start. Last thought... I think the three new apostles did an incredible job. They dropped right to our level. I loved how they talked about being overwhelmed with their callings. Who hasn't been there before? I think it was Elder Stevenson that said instead of focusing on what we can't do, we should try and focus on what we can do. Elder Stevenson and the rest can testify of the Savior and that is what is important. 

Thank you again so much for the great email. I am looking forward to a birthday package, too! Hopefully I can sneak it in without anybody realizing that it is my birthday so nobody tries to sing to me! HaHa! I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Love: Jaxon

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