Brents newest letter

Buenas Tardes Familia!

The weather here has been cold, not Alaska cold but nonetheless I can see my breath outside and inside(no one has heating not even the stores). This week went by so fast a lot of things happened. First fun stories...my companion had a drunk come up to him and the drunk tried to start a fight with us, not that exciting because that happens all the time. Last night we must have smelled good because we kept having dogs trying to bite us so we started carrying rocks around, have I mentioned that there are dogs EVERYWHERE! Some travel in packs and all have fleas. We played soccer on p-day with some chileans and I dominated but the Chileans were only 16ish.

My companion is from woodland hills Utah and our branch consistently has about 50-60 members attending and a lot of inactives.I love the food, they put mayonaise and avocados on everything, what´s not to like? No, I do not need a sleeping bag, I have actually had better nights sleep here than I ever did at the MTC. No I haven´t gotten any mail and I only get to have mail twice every 6 weeks.Those 2 times are a week apart and they happened a week ago so I will not get mail for another 4-5 weeks ish. Unless we have an outside zone conference to meet the new mission president, President Humphrey and that would be on Thursday of this week. so pretty much my mail situation is sketchy.

This week I have learned a lot about how important it is to be a leader and to make personal commitments and keep to those commitments. Many Elders here have had a hard time since the earthquake getting back into to missionary work and I am so grateful for committing myself to exact obedience when I started this mission because it has helped say no to the questions that would make me a less effective missionary. I am so grateful for my testimony and the strength the Lord gives me everyday. This is truly his work and I am glad to be part of something so amazing and something so special. It´s true that if you aren´t moving forward in faith your moving backwards. We need to maintain the desire to always learn more, always progress, and always become more like Jesus Christ. If you think you are good where you are that allows Satan to get his foot in the door. I am trying so hard to recognize the miracles that happen everyday and grow from them. Like today I read a chapter in the Book of Mormon in Spanish and understood everything except one or two words. Spiritual gifts are real. Especially the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues because I have already experienced them in small ways. I know that as I continue to struggle and show faith I will be blessed with these gifts in their full and comprehensive form. It is like that with life as well, when we struggle we grow and when we are complacent we wither. Hopefully, we can push ourselves and through goals we have made struggle in order to grow because if we don´t, and even if we do sometimes, the Lord will give us adversity so we can better ourselves and influence, for good, those around us.

I love you all so much and I want you to know that I am working as hard as can.

I am Elder Reed servant of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

P.S. Look and see how Captain Moroni ends his letters