Elder Jaxon J. Reiley: 05/23/2016

Dear Family,

Thanks for the email. It sounds like school is winding down and summer life is starting up. Here is my update from my week.

I had interviews with President Taylor on Tuesday. This was his last set of interviews.He told me he would do my departing interview before he leaves so that will be cool. I will probably get one from President McAteer, too, so that will be interesting.

We saw April for a minute on Wednesday. She is still doing well, but it will be hard for her to come to church with work. She has three daughters. Her boyfriend has some disabilities so it is hard to tell with him, but she tells us he is interested.

Jeff was out of town this week, but we will meet with them this week. They do not have any kids living with them.

Arthur was also out of town, but we are meeting with him tonight. Arthur is in his mid-50's. I have no idea where his parents are. He has made a few friends in the ward so that has been nice.

We got a referral from Salt Lake on Saturday. It said that she prayed because she was going through a hard time and then the missionaries came and gave her a card. So she called the number and requested a DVD and for missionaries to come by. So we were pretty excited when we stopped by on Sunday. We stopped by and there were three ladies and a guy all really drunk and asking us dumb questions. It was a little disappointing, but hopefully we can go back.

The best part of the week was Robert's baptism! It was so good. Robert was pumped. He invited three of his nonmember friends that came. There were also a bunch of people from his work that came. Elder Labis and I did a presentation on the restoration and it was the best one I have been a part of. Elder Labis has such a humble and simple, yet powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. Robert was confirmed on Sunday. I think he will have a smooth transition into the ward.

Good questions about the blessing. The sisters have been teaching her and she looks really promising. She hasn't been able to make it to church, but her daughter is also thinking about taking the discussions. I have been a part of a lot of blessings which turn has been a real blessing for me. I usually just say whatever comes to mind and I hope that works! President Taylor has talked about how bad it is to use a blessing as a pedestal. When you start commanding in the name of something or promising in the name of something, you are on thin ice. I have learned a lot about priesthood blessings.

Thanks for the updates from home. That is interesting about he state baseball tournament. I wonder what happened to South and Shelley. Fruitland seems to be there every year. I wonder how they do it! Good to hear the Cavs are doing well. It seems like they are the favorite in the east. There are several teams in the west that could give them a challenge, so that's good we only have to play one of them. It sounds like Doug and Cheri are getting things ready to go. I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be. The Lord asks us to do some really hard things. They will look back on their experience with such a sacred reverence, though. I am excited for them. I'm glad everybody is doing well. Keep up the great work! I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Love: Jaxon