Rhett - 9 more days till Argentina

Que paso, 

Things are going great over here. Its been a pretty cool week. On Wednesday we had a worldwide mission broadcast to missionaries all over the world. Elder Oaks was presiding the meeting which was cool. Elder Bednar and a few others were also in it. They answered a lot of questions missionaries have and spoke to us about how we can teach our investigators better. They also made some announcements about changes in the mission. The schedules are now changed for all missionaries. Our schedule is now a little more flexible on when we can study and what we study during certain times of the day. Depending on where you are in the World our schedules are now changed to that area. So depending on where you are you might have to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier or wake up later and stay out later. I think its pretty cool cause it gives you more agency and flexibility on when you want to study and do other stuff during the day. Anyways, it was a cool meeting overall. A funny story about the meeting. Me and 3 other guys in our district got seats in the 2nd row in the auditorium to listen to it. We were sitting there listening during the meeting and all of the sudden about 30 minutes into it I start smelling this terrible smell. So I keep looking around trying to figure out who it is and I cant tell. Then I look down our row and I see everyone else doing the same thing haha. I look in front of me and see this Elder that looks like he's from Africa who has his shoes off. Haha it smelled terrible, I couldn't focus the rest of the first half of the meeting. After the first half of the meeting I asked this old lady that was sitting to the right of me if she smelled what I smelled and she even said she did. Haha she said it was just about one of the worst smelling things she has ever smelled. And I had to sit right behind him. It was pretty bad. During the second half of the meeting he kept his shoes on so luckily everyone could focus again. I was about to stand up and walk to a different seat haha.

Something else that was cool this week. All the missionaries in my district going to Argentina got our flight plans. We are all going on the same flight to Atlanta, and then to Buenos Aires and then we will split off from there. We are heading out on February 6th around 2 oclock. Sweeeeeeeett. Also another thing, Trent got his plans too and were gonna be on the same flight!So we won't have to say goodbye until we get to Buenos Aires. In his district he also has some missionaries going to Posadas so we might be companions somewhere down the road on the mission. Super pumped about that!

Other than that, not many new things have happened. We have just been studying and practicing our Spanish. I feel pretty good with it but I know there is still a ton to learn, Haha when I get to Argentina I'm probably not gonna know what the heck anyone is saying but I know it will come. If I work hard I know Heavenly Father will help me out. Me and Elder Hedin are doing are doing a pretty good job in our lessons with the Spanish. We still have a lot to learn though. Sometimes I feel like we sound like a five year old would in Argentina but its all good. We work really well switching off and making our lessons flow smoothly. I know the Spanish will come a lot faster when I get to Argentina.

Just to end off, I just want to share something in the Book of Moses i read this week. In Moses 6 it talks about Enoch and how the Lord told him to preach the gospel to the people. In verse 31 it talks about how Enoch basically said why me? The people hate me and and I can't speak very well. After Enoch said this, the Lord told Enoch that if he would open his mouth and had faith, the Lord would put the words in his mouth so that he could speak. This applies to me and to everone in the World. If we have Faith to share the gospel with the people around us, Heavenly Father will fill our mouths and allow us to speak to those around us. I know this is true. I know that if we put our trust in the Lord, we can do anything. Heavenly Father has so much to give us if we have faith in Him. The church is true. Thats it for this week! Love you guys.

-Elder Reilly

My boys from Taiwan...Gangnam and Style

This is all the lotion I've gotten...haha

(Rhett has really dry skin and another missionary's mom has been sending him lotion!)

When your awesome dad helps coordinate a little In N' Out drop off and your awesome sister and brother-in-law deliver 15 double doubles and fries to the MTC!

Trent - Still Loving It

Hola Everyone! 

Another awesome week in the MTC! There have been some super awesome devotionals this week. They have all focused on forgetting about yourself and focusing literally everything on other people. Its so awesome. They have been telling us to always turn outward and look to help others and never turn inward and look to only help yourself because thats what Christ always did. Christ always turned outward. Its been so awesome. During planning this one teacher that I had told me that when I plan, on every slot in the planner to write down how what your doing is going to help someone else. Its so awesome. He told me that from 6:30am-10:30pm I should be focused on trying to help people come unto Christ. Its really awesome and humbling. When you forget about yourself and work always to help others, your problems seem so insignificant. You love everyone you meet and youre always happy. I study Spanish for like 6 to 7 hours a day in class and then study additionally on my own for 3 more hours and I love it! Its a joy studying because the whole time I'm dedicating everything I'm doing to how I can help my investigators. I wan to learn as much Spanish as i can so I can better share the joy of the gospel with everyone I meet in Argentina. Its amazing. Never thought Id enjoy so much studying but Christ strengthens me every day. Each day my Spanish gets better and better and during the lessons Im able to communicate more and more. Its awesome! Im so excited to head to Argentina in two weeks! Getting a little sick of the same food all the time honestly haha...

Also that reminds me, thank you Grandma Gail for the brownies. I think my entire district wants you to be their grandma too haha! We've almost eaten them all and they just got here yesterday.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon has been growing so much. Every single day when I read it I find a scripture that I need to hear. The other day I was a little frustrated about a couple of things and I was reading and a scripture comes up and says have patience in all your afflictions and you will be blessed(not the exact wording of course). As I study it diligently, scriptures are called to my mind. I am able to pull up scriptures out of nowhere during my lessons and lesson preparations. Its so awesome!

Also, the guys in my district are so awesome. Theres this one kid who is literallty the best beat boxer ever and always sing the hymns and he beat boxes to them haha. Its the funniest thing ever. Everyone says that we're the most "lit" district whenever we are walking around singing the remixed versions of all the hymns haha.

Thanks for all the prayers and the love and support! I can feel you all strengthening me. I love you all! Till next week!

-Elder Reilly

Rhett - Another Great Week

Man this week was GREAT. One of the best weeks so far in the MTC. We had a lot of great classes and lessons with our investigators. This week our district has been trying a lot harder to study more affectively and diligently. I can already see how much its paying off already. 

Its snowed here a lot in Utah this week. Its makes me want to go skiing haha. I would much rather be doing what I'm doing right now though. My district and I are all just super excited to leave this place and go to Argentina. Its crazy we only have about 2 weeks left here. Two weeks couldn't come sooner!

My Spanish is still coming along pretty well. I am learning new things every day. I feel like I can teach the first 3 lessons now pretty well except for a few words here and there. The hard part for me right now is trying to understand what our investigators are saying. They speak really fast and sometimes I only catch a few words of what they are actually saying haha. Sometimes I don't even know what they say but I just start speaking back in Spanish and it always seems to work out. It seems like what I say seems to work pretty with what they are saying. Pretty sweet!

This week my companion and I were talking to our teacher Hermano Zeballos about how we were doing and how our investigator, Viri was doing with our lessons. Me and my companion are kinda having a hard time with her because she doesn't really talk much in our lessons. We will ask her a question and most of the time she just gives us a one word answer. It is pretty frustrating at times because it makes it harder to teach and see what she understands or doesn't understand. We told this to Hermano Zeballos and he told us something really cool. He told us that when we are teaching, our investigators need to know that we are not just there to teach them but we are there to change their lives! We are there to help them have joy in their lives and come closer to Christ. He told us that we need to let our investigators know this. When the people we teach know that we really care for them and want to help them, they will trust us and will want to open up more and talk to us. This was just what we needed to hear. My companion and I had the opportunity to teach Viri againon Friday, and we let her know that we were there because we wanted to help her. She still didn't open up a ton to us during the lesson, but she talked a lot more and seems like she is more interested in what we have to say. We are going to ask her a lot more questions next lesson and try to gain her trust by letting her know we are not just there to teach her, but to help her in her life. I never really thought about that before. We aren't there to teach, we are there to help and change lives. I thought this was super true and cool to think about with the gospel and missionary work. We are not missionaries to just get people baptized and teach them lessons. We are here to change their lives and help them come closer to Christ!

Something else that I thought was cool this week. In class we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, and how we can get so much more out of it if we read it with real intent. I started reading it from the beginning last week and have been trying to read it with real intent. I have never gotten so much out of reading it as I have reading it here in the MTC. It is awesome! Every time I start reading now, I don't want to stop. It seems to make so much more sense now, I love it! I'm going to try to finish reading the whole thing by the time I am out of the MTC. Every time I read it I learn something new or I read a scripture that I feel like I've never read before. My testimony has already grown a lot. I know that the Book of Mormon truly does testify of Christ and that if you read it, you will come closer to Christ. I know that it is true. I want to challenge those of you who haven't read it yet, to read it. Not just read it, but with real intent. It will help you in your life and help you come closer to Christ! You can find something about Christ on every page. It truly is another testament of Jesus Christ!

Thats all for this week. Everything is going good. I hope you are all doing well. Have a great next week! P.S. Thanks Uncle Bill,Aunt Bonnie, and Mom for coming in clutch with the cinnamon rolls and food this week. They were much needed haha. Love you all!

-Elder Reilly

Trent - Half Way Done!!

Hello Everyone!

Another amazing week here in the MTC! First off, thank you to Bonnie and Bill and Gail and Wayne for the cinnamon rolls! They were very delicious and all of them are already gone! I shared them with my whole zone and they all love you haha.

Secondly, I dont know if I said it last week, but Congrats to Regan and Dan on having baby Cal!! I havent met him and I already love that miracle baby!! I pray for him every night and I pray for you guys too. I know that whatever happens Regan and Dan will be equipped! This baby has been waiting for the chance to come down and be in their family and fulfill his purpose! God has a plan and I have faith in it!! Love you Regan and Dan!

The Spanish is still coming along super well! I feel really confident whenever I teach the lessons. Its amazing how when you don't make the Spanish about you, but about helping others you are so much more motivated to learn. During my personal language study when I think about me it is so lame, but when I am studying because I want my Spanish to be better so that I can help others, its awesome. I can literally sit there for a solid hour and just study Spanish and I am not bored at all. I love it. And that's in addition to all the other Spanish study that I have all day with a teacher. Love this place

This week two districts in our zone left to go out into the mission field. It was so sad, but I'm so happy for them. They are all like my brothers and I know they're gonna kill it! The night before they left we all got together in the dorms and had a big testimony meeting/cry fest. It was awesome I love those guys. They passed like all this weird stuff down that they said got passed down to them haha it was super funny. One of the things was this loaf of banna bread that has been passed down for like two years or something. It was so gross hahaha. 

We had a ton more lessons this week and they were all so awesome. Our TRC investigator is Marco Tulio from Peru and he's the coolest dude ever! We taught him all about faith in Jesus Christ and how he can help you overcome anything, repentence, baptism, and especially enduring to the end. He has Polio so he cant really use his legs, so when he talked about enduring to the end he was so excited. He said that he'll never get to win any races or feel the joy of winning a sports trophy(from what I understood haha), but after that he said that he thinks if he pushes to the end and always tries his best then God would reward him and that is all he wants. I shared 2nd Nephi 31:20 with him and bore my testimony to him that I knew that if he really did endure to the end then God would have his trophy waiting for him. And I said that he would give him something far better than anything you could imagine. Happiness with his family for eternity. He got emotional and the Spirit was so strong and I got emotional it was so awesome!! Ive met this guy 4 times and I love him so much! And I love all my investigators! I jjust want to help them all eperience the joy that I'm feeling all the time at the MTC.

I love you and miss you all, but Im so glad im here! I don't feel that this is a sacrifice at all. I love it. It's a blessing being able to leave everything behind and truly devote myself to the Lord and to serving others! Till next week! ✌✌

Rhett - Good Week

Hola everyone!

Its been a good week this week. First off I just want to give a shout out to baby Cal! Welcome to the world buddy. Also congrats to Regan and Dan, you guys are going to be great parents! Nothing new has really happened this week, but I was able to feel the Spirit a lot. On Tuesday we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Neil L. Anderson which was super cool. We all thought that we were having a say goodbye devotional for President Burgess, and that the President and his wife would just speak but then when we got there we found out Neil L. Anderson was gonna be there too. It was super cool. He talked about missionary work and how there is always people out there looking for the Gospel in their lives, and it our job to find them. He also talked about how we as missionaries can see the benefits of our missionary work over time. We may not think we have done much but when we look back many years down the road we can see the changes we have made in people's lives. I think this also can apply to anything. When we do something meaningful such as service or doing something good for someone else, we can see the good that comes from it when we look back many years down the road. So whenever you do something good, don't think you are doing it for nothing because you really are making a difference!

My spanish is continuing to get better and better every day. My companion and I are now able to teach whole lessons with hardly any notes. Its sweet. My companion and I started teaching a new investigator this week. Her name is Viridiana and she is from Mexico. She is cool and nice and is currently studying at BYU. Our first lesson with her we pretty much just got to know her and let her know that God knows her and loves her personally. She seems to have a good belief in God and Im excited to teach her again. Were gonna teach her about the Restoration next week. Im pretty excited about that!

My district and I are doing really well at learning Spanish as a whole. We all help each other out if anyone has questions. We are going to try to talk a lot more this next week at speaking more Spanish to each other when we are outside of class. I know it will pay off. We are all pretty much like family, haha its sweet!

Our district every day has a morning class with sister Dibbs and a night class with brother Zoballos. They are great teachers. Yesterday in class we talked about how we should try to bring members with us when we teach lessons and how we should get members from the church involved in the things we do. Sister Dibb told us about a story in her mission about how the people in the ward she was in were pretty well off and how they didn't really like to help the poorer people in the town she was in. She told us how this poor lady going to church needed a home to live in. The well off people in the ward started helping this lady out and the ward built her a house. Through this service, the people started to love this lady and were so more willing to help everyone. I thought this was super cool. Through serving this lady, the wards whole attitude and love for the people around them changed. We can relate this story to Ammon and the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. When we do service, our hearts will be changed, and other peoples hearts will be changed. If any of you are ever having a bad day or are having a problem with something, I want to challenge you to just go out and serve someone. I know that if you do this, you will feel so much better. Your heart will be changed.

Hope you all had a great week and that you can have a great next week. If not, try to find someone to serve! Love you guys,

-Elder Reilly

-Those MTC haircuts though...haha

 -Our zone at the temple

Trent - Its lit

Hey Everyone!

Another great week at the MTC! Still love it here. We got our first TRC investigator this week. Its really good for Elder Jones(my comp) and I because it feels super real! He is getting a lot better at his Spanish and its really helping our lessons.We have completely different personalities but we are actually getting along super well now and becoming good friends. 

Congrats to Regan and Dan on having Baby Cal!! Everyone please send me pictures! And Happy late Birthday Dad! Love you all a lot and miss you a ton but im so glad im here. This week has just been so fun! Our zone leaders are leaving next week and they were feeling all nervous so they asked our district for blessings of comfort. Our whole district stood in on both of the blessings and it was seriously the coolest thing ever! The Spirit was so strong and there was just so much power there. It was the coolest thing there. Both of the ZL's said the blessings were exactly what threy needed and they were both really unique. It was so awesome. The Spirit is seriously just bouncing off the walls here. We're all dedicated to learning, studying, teaching, and serving and theres so much power in it. You really just forget about yourself and it seriously makes you so happy! 

This week Neil L. Anderson came to speak to us and it was awesome. But the coolest part was the devotional discussion after the meeting. We had a discussion together as a district and we all shared our testimonies and some experiences and the love was just so strong in there. Our district is seriously so legit. The new Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders are both from our district. I love them all.

Haha got a free haircut in the MTC and its honestly one of the best haircuts Ive ever gotten, with one slight exception. He cut one of my side burns at like a 45 degree angle and the other one is completely straight and i didnt notice till after it was done haha. Ill try to fix it tonight hahaha, but for now I look a little strange.

The Spanish is coming along super well. I can pretty much understand everything that everyone says and im decent at responding back. Its crazy. I feel like ive learned more in 2 weeks here than I did in 3 years in high school. And I know its not me. Im a great student, but I could no way learn this much in 2 weeks by myself. God is on my side! When I work hard, I can feel him behind me. 

Got to go to the Temple today with my whole zone and it was the coolest. Oh yeah and I have a little story about my recommend. So I got an interview from the branch prez and got his signature, but I needed to get one from someone in the MTC presidency too. So its Tuesday night and I still need the MTC Presidency signature and Im going to the Temple at 6 am the next morning. So after the devotional and they announce that President Burgess is getting released! So after the devotional I go to the help desk to ask if theres any way I can get a signature and they call the Prez and hes not in his office. Right after that, he walks right by me on huis way out and I asked him if he could give me an interview and he said he could! What are the chances he walks right by me! This was like his last official day as President and he was on his way home, but he went out of his way so I could go to the Temple. So awesome! Hes seriously the coolest guy ever!

Oh yeah and one more thing! Theres this kid in my district who is literally an Amish turned Mormon and hes the most humble awesome kid ever. Hes from Pennsylvania and he has the most hardcore southern accent ever for some reason haha its hilarious. Hearing speak Spanish is classic. He has one of the coolest life stories ive ever heard. Hes the freakin man!

Anyway, I love you and miss you all! Its so fun to get pictures so please send me some!! Till next week! 

Elder Reilly

Rhett - Happy New Year!

Hola! Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all are doing well. This week has been great. A lot of studying, a lot of time in the classroom, and a lot of hard work, but honestly... It's awesome! I love it here. What we do here everyday is hard at times, but because we are learning the gospel and trying our best to live it, everyone here is so happy. The gospel of Jesus Christ really does bring joy. We are pretty much in the classroom all day and its hard at times, but because of what I'm doing I just want to learn more and more. I dont even want to take a nap haha. I just want to learn more. It's awesome!

My companion and I are pretty much homies now haha. Hes out of his shell now and is super funny . We have been working really well in our lessons. We have taught Fransisco 5 times now. Every time we have gotten better and better. Our spanish is also getting better and better everyday. Our last two lessons I pretty much taught the whole lesson in Spanish using almost no notes. Its crazy cause when we were practicing what we were gonna say before our lessons, we pretty much had to read the whole thing but when we actually got in the lesson, the words just came! It was sweeet. I know Heavenly Father was helping me and my companion in those lessons.

This week I heard something I thought was really cool. Our teacher, Sister Dibb, shared something from a talk called The Road to Damascus. In the talk, the speaker talks about the story in the bible where Saul is traveling to Damascus and is converted to the Lord. In the talk, he compares the Road to Damascus to our own lives. He said the road to Damascus is 18 inches long. It is from our minds to our hearts. I think this is super cool especially with the gospel and in missionary work. When we take in something in our minds, whether it be a scripture, a talk, a cool experience we had, or whatever we put into our minds, do we really put these things into our hearts? When we put something in our hearts it means more to us and makes us want to do something about it. When we put what means most to us in our hearts we go out and act on those things. I can relate this to my mission. When I put my thoughts about serving those people in Argentina in my heart, it makes me want to be work harder so that I can serve them better. I thought this was a pretty cool message. What we put into our hearts will really affect our actions. I want to challenge all of you as it is a New Year, to try and put into your hearts to be better this year than you were last year.

Well I gotta go but I wish you all the best in this new year. Feliz Nuevo Ano! 

Elder Reilly

At the temple grounds 

My district with our investigator...now our teacher, Fransisco

Trent - Best New Years Ever!

Hello everyone!

Love you and miss you all! The MTC has been so great! I love it here. The first three days were really overwhelming, but I think they do that on purpose so you dont have any time or space in your mind to think about being homesick. And it actually works haha! I mean I miss you all, but it was impossible to think about home with a load of tasks to do and a firehose of imformation in a language youre trying to understand in your face haha. I love it tho! Along with all the information and class and studying there is the strongest Spirit here ever, so it makes it all worth it. 

So, the third day here we had to teach our investigator in all Spanish... and I didnt know any Spanish haha. His name is Victor and he is from Mexico and he doesnt speak a lick of English. Im not going to lie, the first lesson was a little rough because I was just reading some incoherent Spanish sentences that I had written down in my notebook and I could understand about 2 of his 20 questions. It was really funny actually because I would just say Si and sometimes it worked hahaha. Since then tho we have taught Victor two more times and they have both gone super well! The third lesson was yesterday and I taught Victor for like 30 minutes about the Gospel pf Jesus Christ for 35 minutes with no notes! It was so awesome! They tell us to pray for el don de lenguas(the gift of tongues) every week and I feel it when I teach! Words come to my mind and I am able to teach and testify and answer question that I can hardly comprehend. Its awesome. Sometimes I just know that the words that come to my mind are not from me because I literally didnt know that they were actual words in Spanish. Then I go look up what I said after and it was like the exact right thing. Its so awesome. When I testify of the things I know in Spanish I can feel the Spirit telling me that they are true and its the most special thing ever. Love it here!

My district is so awesome! I love them all! My companion is Elder Jones and he is a really nice kid. He is really struggling with the language, but hes working hard and I know he'll get it. Unfortunately tho, that means I have to teach the entire lessons myself haha, but I dont mind it that much. I pray for him every night that he will get the language and have confidence in himself and you should too! I love everyone else in my district too! There are 10 Elders and 2 Hermanas. They are seriously like family. We all strengthen each other and want to help each other its the coolest. And most everyone in my district can ball up so we play basketball and dominate haha its so sweet. Every night we read the scriptures together and share awesome scriptures that we find. My room has 6 Elders in it and they are seriously like my brothers. I love them to death and I pray for them every night. And all of our prayers have to be in Spanish haha. 

Also, Rhett and I see eachother every day when we eat. Its so sweet. I see VeLora all the time too! Its so fun to share our experiences together. The food here isnt even bad. On Saturdays they bring in Papa Johns pizza and its all you can eat. On Monday night they bring in fast food and it was Chickfila yesterday which is like my favorite thing ever. Lowkey ate like 3 Chickfila sandwiches. Dont worry Tori I ate a lot of fruit too. 

My zone leaders are also the coolest guys ever. They are Elder Dotts, a college track runner who is also a convert of two years, and Elder Maea, a huge polynesian who is playing O-line at Utah when he gets home. They are so funny and they are always willing to help us whenever we need it. Oh and by the way, Elder Maea says he knows who Morgan is. They're probably like cousins or something honestly. They're both going to Panama City, Panama.

I love you and miss you all! Yo se que este Evanjelio es verdadero. Yo se que el libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios. Dios es nuestro amoroso Padre Celestial y somos sus hijos! Jose Smith fue una profeta de Dios. El poder del Espiritu Santo es real y por el poder del Espiritu Santo podemos conocer la verdad de todas las cosas! En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

I think that is right haha! Love you all and miss you! Till next week! 

The ones at the temple and in the class are my whole district. Sorry for the low quality pictures. The two older looking guys are my zone leaders.