Madison in Federal Way Mission: Hello From Washington

HELLO!! September 12, 2016

Family and friends, greetings to you all from the land of the unknown weather, crazy spiders, and lots and lots of drugs. You guessed it, WASHINGTON! I am loving it here! Everything looks like it is right out of a Hallmark movie, mom you'd love it! I am serving in the Renton/ Kent area, mostly Kent but we go to Renton once a week, if we ever go.

I have been put into a YSA ward.... I think this is just real ironic because I was talking to someone about how serving in the YSA ward would be super scary and hard because they are your age but you can’t create deep friendships with the members. God is funny.... if anyone tells me he doesn’t have a sense of humor i will laugh in their face and tell them to guess again. But honestly it has been super cool thus far. My first Sunday was nerve wracking but it was also super cool! the people are super nice and so willing to work with us and come to lessons with us! The ward mission leader is a 6'6, white as can be, and way nice. He has been a huge help especially because he just came home from his mission so he is still in the missionary mind frame!

Sister Ericson

As always I have to tell some stories. I’ll begin with the very first day here... Upon arrival to Washington I went straight to the mission home. We had a super good meal, I felt like they were trying to make us feel like nothing bad would happen by offering us the best they could.... those sneaky little people... After that we went into meetings with president and while that was going on the AP's taught us a lesson. Let me divert for a minute and talk about the president. He and his wife are super cool. They are so loving and down to earth. It makes me feel good to know that we are all learning together because they have only been mission presidents for 4 months or so. His wife is so sweet. The first day I met her I about scared her half to death when I pointed out a slug the size of Texas inching towards her foot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone run as fast as she did! I felt bad... but not bad enough to not laugh! She thought it was funny but said she almost peed a little. These are my kind of people! Okay now I’m back on track. So we went and had our meetings and then we were herded like a bunch of cattle into the cars and driving to the auburn stake center. This is where we would either meet our demise or rejoice in the goodness of our trainers. We probably looked like a bunch of scared little lambs walking into the chapel that day. I took one look around and immediately said to myself, "what on earth did you get yourself into.." we sat there and one by one we were assigned our trainers. I. WAS. THE. LAST. ONE. CALLED! Again I sat there asking the same question but all is well. When I was called to my trainer I felt immediate relief. Sister Taylor is truly amazing!

A little more about her now! She lived in Arizona for a long time and then she moved to Utah. Sarah you might know her or her family. she lived in snowflake. Her name is Krista Taylor. Her parents Sharon and Colton, anyway she awesome! She is exactly what I needed to be able to make it through these first few weeks. Whoever is praying for me out here keep it up! You have been a part of all these blessings in my life!

Alright family, listen up, if arachnophobia wasn’t a thing in my life it is now. SPIDERS..... EVERYWHERE!!! These little creatures lurk on every door frame, every tree, and every surface of this wonderful place. Their little legs and creepy fat bodies run at you and dangle by you as you desperately try to unlock your door. Just as you think they had descended far enough to consume you entirely the door will unlock and allow you to enter into safety. there are perks to these nasty creatures though... while knocking you know if someone hasn’t been home in a while because in the span of 5 min, a spider will create a work of art telling us that no one is home at the present time. That so far has been the only blessing that I can find but I’m working on the list. Come February of 2018 I might have added another one but I can’t promise anything.

We have been given the blessed opportunity to go finding each day for an hour. This means taking it old school and knocking doors. For those out there that had an entire mission like this, my heart goes out to you. Not that I don’t like it, it just isn’t my favorite part of the day, but I have recognized some of the blessings that can come from it. But before I go to the blessings I’ve seen let me tell you about my very first finding experience, DAY 1. I just got to the mission field and my trainer tells me we’re going finding. Terror strikes me but I calm myself down, how bad can it really be? I’m sure these people are kind and all the stories of doors being slammed in your face are just fallacies told to scare young people. FALSE! The very first door we knock on was just like that. I lovingly refer to this moment as the pink lady cigar experience. This old woman had on a pink moo moo and a cigar hanging out of her mouth. If ever I’m told I’m not lady like, I will promptly take them to her home. We knocked and started to ask her a question and not even two words into it she told us to never come back and slammed the door shut, what a day. I don’t think I could have picked a better way to start my mission experience. Really, it has shown me some good things, for one, I now recognize the blessing of being able to talk to someone and share our thoughts, even if they don’t want to know more.

One of my favorite experiences so far was meeting Gabby. She is a mother of 4 and the moment we knocked on the door I knew something was different. We had been struggling to finding people at this time and were about to leave. We decided to pray and I told sister Taylor that we needed to stay. So we did and then the very last door we knocked on was Gabby’s. She was so ready and prepared. She accepted everything we said and asked US if we could meet again! She also accepted the invitation to be baptized! She is so amazing! Sadly, though, being in the YSA ward means we can’t teach her but I’m excited to hear how everything goes with her!

This mission is going to be one crazy adventure but I’m so excited to carry on and see what happens next!

I love coming home each night and reflecting on the good and the bad of the day. We can always find the light in the darkness if we search for it. This gospel bring happiness and joy to all those who accept it and work on becoming true disciples of Christ. Thank you for all your prayers and the loving words you send me each week. I pray for each of you and know that you'll all be blessed if you follow the council of the prophets and of the Lord. I hope this email finds you all doing well! Love you all so much!

-Sister Reynolds

My cottage on the lake that i live in... don't be jealous!