WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS!!!!

I never thought this day would come...but it has! We got our flight plans and will be leaving next Sunday the 4th (Conference Sunday). I am SO stoked! This also means I get to talk to my family on the phone ;) yay! We leave the MTC at 1:00pm, fly out of SLC at 4:55pm (get to LAX at 5:55pm), leave LAX at 9:00pm (get to New Zealand at 6am on October 6th because of the International Date Line...I will never live October 5th haha), then we have a 11 HOUR layover and leave New Zealand at 5:00pm. We arrive in Tonga at 7:55pm Tuesday night. So crazy! I LOVE flying though, so I am looking forward to it :)

On Sunday, I got to give a talk in church. But in the MTC you don't get much warning. They don't announce who is speaking until right before you have to go up and speak. Luckily, I had kind of prepared something and it only had to be 3 minutes!

We got two new sisters in our room who are going to Fiji aaaaand one of them in Tongan! I LOVE the Tongans here they teach me so much and they are HILARIOUS! I'm super grateful we have her in our room for this last week before we leave!

This past Tuesday for devotional, Elder Craig Clayton (I think that's who it was...), spoke to us. In honor of the passing of Elder Richard G. Scott, he shared us a thought Elder Scott told him a couple years ago. Elder Scott said something along the lines of, "don't let your strong feelings get in the way of the Spirit." Meaning, that when we have firm testimonies about a particular subject we tend to push those strong feelings on others. As missionaries, we may feel passionate about a certain gospel principle or a certain way to teach, but we must to be open to the Spirit so that we might know how to touch the hearts of our investigators. We must know what our investigators need to hear and it's going to be different every time, so we need to listen to the Spirit. Teach People, Not Lessons. 

Also, there's a devotional that Elder David A. Bednar gave at the MTC a while back entitled Character of Christ (they still play it at the MTC on Sunday nights). It is wonderful...so go look it up!! It talks about how the Atonement was only possible because of the Christ's character--who He is! Our tendency is to turn inward, but Christ ALWAYS turned outward. I am striving to develop a character like Christ's.

I learn so much everyday here! This week I memorized the First Vision in Tongan...I am still working on polishing it up! I love the Tongan language because you can dissect words into other words...it brings so much more meaning to every word! I am so grateful to be learning a language even though it is SO stinking hard! haha

Hope you all have had a great week!! Remember to always share God's love with everyone you meet...we're all children of a loving Heavenly Father. Oku ou ilo oku ofa ae Otua kiate kitautolu. Oku ou ilo oku tali e he Otua etau ngaahi lotu (I know God loves all of us. I know God answers our prayers). 

Ofa Lahi Atu!!!!!!

Sister Reid

More people I've seen at the MTC: Sister Sara Lowry, Sister Kate Mitchell, Elder Cade Young, Sister Hailey Egbert, and Sister Amy Slater (my visiting teacher)!