Elder Reeder -

Hello Family!

You all look really good in the photos! It makes me happy! Also Casey Smith and Brian Falor wrote me! SWEET! Hahah that was awesome. I will try sending a letter back if you could get me their addresses mom... I am going to mail Daniel, and i just few other letters too.

Well this past week has been really interesting... The plan was go to Las Torres del Paine up North, but a tourist kind of lit the place on fire... so it is closed and WERE NOT GOING! So we came back to Porvenir early on Saturday. I really dont enjoy holidays because we can only work with Appointments, otherwise we have to be inside due to all of the drunk people. (Although they are really fun to talk with) And I dont like being inside... i feel like in a box. I also feel like i should be working, because i should! So it has been stressful saturday and sunday.

On Friday we had our zone conference in Punta Arenas. President Rappleye talked about the progress/vision of the mission. It was pretty sweet. We worked in Elder Bassets sector for a while.

Well i figured i would just begin to share more of what i am thinking/feeling lately. In church i was thinking and... well people ask me all the time "why is there so much bad in the world? why does god allow it? why is everything so injust? why is everything so bad?" just questions like that.... There are a lot of answers. But just thinking about it has deepened my understanding. I also here a lot of things that people tell me "my way" i do things how i want etc.... Everybody thinks they can just do things however they want. I want to ask everybody. If everybody just did want they wanted, did things their way, what would happen to the world???? What is hapenning now. Destruction, murder, rape, and every other bad thing. The Natural Man is an enemy to God. Now, i know a lot of us feel like "well what can i do about what is going on in the world?" We cant take away peoples agency. So what can we do? HOW DO WE FIX THE WORLD WITHOUT WAR ETC.??? We teach, and we dont just teach anything, we teach of Christ. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the far but through me" Christ is the way. His gospel is the ONLY thing that will give our lives happiness, meaning, stability, and every good thing. We must purify ourselves, and then help others to do the same. We must become like the savior... but how can we become like somebody we dont know?? We cant. We must first come to know him. We must have an accurate, correct image of who he was like, then strive to be like him. So how do we come to know him? The scriptures. Apply and pray about them. What you feel is sacred. Nobody can tell you how you feel but you. So i guess those are my thoughts....

I had a cool experience the other day. One of the members here slipped into drinking again for 3-4 days. He has been out of work, and has not gone to church for 2 weeks. He has been sad that nobody has visitied him or said hello for christmas. So this was the 4th day we passed by, this time he was sober and hungover. He told me he didnt want to go back to church because he felt ashamed. Then he asked me why is it so unfair? Why do you feel shame etc... I told him that "Hermano, Jesus Christ was perfect. He was perfect, he didnt mess up. Not once. And what did the world do to him? They crucified him. The son of god. Our redeemer. Do you know how much shame he suffered?" something like that. And he just burst out crying and praying to Heavenly Father for forgiveness and WOW what i felt, i felt the love of heavenly father for that man. I felt the spirit so strong. I could see that he was being comforted and i could feel it. I know that he loves us, and he forgives everyone if we repent and change.

So that was really cool. I think i will share more experiences like that from now on! Happy birthday matthew! I love you all! The book of mormon is true! If you ponder the circumstances of the how it was written and everything, and how perfect everything lines up, along with reading/feeling/applying it becomes very clear that it is true. Then the rest of the claims (JoSmith, God, The Ressurection) go along with it. READ IT!!! Even if it is just a desire to belive...let it grow within you. Alma 32:27

Elder Reeder :)