Hello from Washington!

Hello from Washington!

 Collectively, this was all of our scarfs, from the trio!

I hope that everyone's week has been amazing! I have heard from many people that good o’l Arizona is raining and cold... It made my day to know that we were all trudging through the same weather :) This has been an interesting week. One of my harder ones but also very rewarding! I got emergency Transferred back to James Hill YSA with a sister who just came back to the mission! Her name is Sister Skousen! She is originally from Arizona so we have been trying to figure out common people we would know. So far no luck but it will happen :)

I have felt like I have been a rag doll being thrown from the cottage, to Auburn, to Kent, in a trio and back to the cottage. I hope that I never have to move again but I think that is not a wish that will be able to have so I’ll just grin and bear it :D

The work has been slowing down and it has been making me think constantly of what we need to do to get everything up and moving again. I was praying a lot for help to find a new investigator to teach. We have been trying everything and no one was progressing. We were at church yesterday and I just kept asking what we needed to do and selfishly wanting our Heavenly Father to just give us a new investigator... sometimes he does answer our pleas in the way we want! After relief society we met one of our member’s friends. Her name is Lauren and she had been meeting with the missionaries in Skyway for the past couple weeks! She told us she was more interested in being in the YSA ward and asked if we could teach her instead! We feel bad about taking the elders investigator but... WE SAID YESSS! She has a baptismal date for March 4th! I have never needed something like that to happen more than I did yesterday! I know that God is good and if it be His will he will give us the things we ask him for! 

Any who, Washington is still Washington! There has been some upheaval because the Seahawks lost their big game. People are mourning about it but I rejoiced!! My prayers wear answered! People here won’t talk to you if the game is on and they will bail out of church and all things good if the Seahawks are playing. So many blessings are coming about! :) ha ha!

Sister Skousen and I crashed a wedding the other night. We went to the church to go to the bathroom and fill up our water bottles and these people were having a reception and we just walked right in not knowing about it! Luckily I sorta knew the couple and they were all good with it but we got some strange looks from some of the guests! It made for some great memories though so no biggy :)

Well, I love you all so much. I just want each of you to know that I KNOW that this gospel is good and true. It blesses lives and people can have pure Joy because of the sacrifice our Savior and Brother made for each of us! I hope that you all take the time to share your testimony with someone! I have come to love the Book of Mormon even more than ever being here on this mission! I challenge you all to make it a part of your daily life! I promise you that if you read each day, you will receive the daily guidance needed to make it through the trials of your life! I love each of you and I hope your week is amazing!!

Love sister Reynolds

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-11-018-a-book-of-mormon-story?lang=eng

 Watch this video if you can! it is called "A Book of Mormon story"

Sister Skousen and I! Not the best picture but I’m sure we will take more

I have been put up for adoption

Hello family and friends!

 So a lot has happened in the past week. I had been put into a trio, with amazing sisters! We have been trying to figure out how to get everything done for both wards which has been insane. We have the two craziest areas and we have been put together.  Insane! But it has been a good opportunity for me to see my weaknesses and strengths and what I need to work on!

Sister Livingstone, Sister Reynolds & Sister Gafa

The sisters I am with are the Arabic speaking sisters in the mission so I have been given the chance to learn with them which is way cool! I wish I could type something out for you so y’all could see it but that isn’t a possibility with their alphabet. It’s insane! I have learned to say and spell the alphabet in Arabic and I can say a general prayer to give thanks for food, the gospel and to bless people we are teaching as well as ourselves! It is a weird language with a lot of noises that sound like you’re going to spit on someone. You also sound like your last breath is being taken away with some of the words spoken! Ha ha! It really is an awesome language!

It has been super cold lately because it hasn’t been raining or been cloudy. Weird how that works right? Today it finally rained and it warmed up a bit which is nice! (and by warmed up it is about 40 degrees) 

Even though I am loving it here, I have been put up for adoption against my will. President came up to me on Sunday after the mission devotional and told me that I would be getting a new companion on Friday... my heart literally broke and I had to walk away without saying much because of my confusion. I felt like I had just been told I will never get to have ice cream again or something. It was a sad moment in life. We had thought we would be together for at least this transfer and we had just come to terms with it all, but I have now decided that this is going to be awesome! We found out the missionary who I’ll be with is coming back out! She had gone home for a few months for medical things and has decided to come back and serve! I am sooo grateful to be able to create a new relationship with this sister and help her know that she has made an amazing choice of coming back out to serve. Even though I will miss sister Gafa and Sister Livingstone, and Arabic, I am excited to take this journey! :)

That is pretty much what made this a crazy week. We had 6 1/2 hours of church on Sunday, LOTS of dinner appointments and a ton of lessons to teach. We were going all day and by the time we got home we were all looking like zombies! It is good though, staying busy. It keeps your mind on the work and how important it is! I am so grateful for this gospel! It has blessed my life so much. I know that in my life here, there have been trials that are personal to me but I love that I know about the atonement and how it can help me personally! I hope that all of you will take the time to ask to feel the atonement in your own life. It is amazing when you can feel it working for you as an individual and when you feel it and gain testimony of its reality you will have a very strong desire to share it with others. I am grateful for you all and I love you all individually! Have an amazing week! 

Sister Reynolds

Transfer news!

Hello everyone!

So another transfer has come and gone. TIME IS FLYING! I’m not sure how I feel about it but I just don’t think about it and all is well :) So I found out a few days ago, on Sunday, that Sister Taylor is leaving me. I am so sad and I am in denial about it but I know she is going to do SOOOO well in her new area! She will be right next to Mount Rainier and she will be companions with someone that I was in the MTC with! What a small world! I am so incredibly grateful for everything that she has taught me! She is someone who has helped me in hard times and who will forever be my friend and sister! 

 As for me, I will be staying here in Kent. But there is a twist to that statement. I will be in the James Hill YSA ward still but I will be put into a trio. 3 of us missionaries will be double covering. We will be in 2 different wards, James Hill and scenic hill! CRAZY STUFF! Even more than that, I’m pretty sure my future comps, Sister Gafa and Livingstone, are the sister training leaders AND the Arabic speaking sisters. This means there is a 99.1% chance that I will be learning and trying to speak Arabic here in good o’l Washington. I am feeling very under qualified for it all but I believe that God can do miracles and if this is what I need to do it will happen if I work hard. I am excited to be with these sisters though! They are so amazing and both are almost finished with their missions.

This is sister Gafa's last transfer and Sister Livingstone has 1 more after this... I am being trained by the greatest most experienced teachers and that will be awesome!

Anyway, this week has been good. We have taught a lot of recent converts and less active members! It is always good to be able to share our testimonies with them and help them learn more. We have had a lot of new move ins to the YSA ward. They have all left for school and new people are taking over! I miss them but the new members are awesome and I’m grateful for their testimonies and the spirit that they bring!

I don’t really have that much to update y’all with and I’m sorry about that but ill try better next week. I do however have some pics that i will send you so that should make up for it! :) I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week. Never forget that the lord loves you and wants you to turn to Him! 

Sister Reynolds

Alma 5:33

LOVE YOU ALL!

     Sister Reynolds 

I am not sure what this is used for exactly but the baptist church on the hill has something going on...

we went to some weird place and i put this mask on and couldn't recognize myself. scary moment haha

we were trying to be cool and all model like... it didn't work out because sister T was drivin.. so here is just a serious pic of my face and her profile.. :)

I saw this picture and thought of Elaine Webster

I had been craving a hot dog all week so we went to Costco for lunch! (the person in the back is the best part :))

 no judgement please, but while we are living in Auburn we can't go home for lunch and dinner, so for a snack we brought the last of Sister Taylors nutella.... but we forgot a spoon.. God gave us hands for many reasons.. haha

ITS 2017!!

ITS 2017!!

That is so weird to say! I cannot believe that the world dint end before this day... weird. Ha ha kidding! I hope that everyone had a good New Year’s Eve and an amazing new year’s day! How awesome that we got to go to church and take the sacrament on the first day of the year! Starting out clean! woot woot!!

Looking back on 2016 I’ve realized that a lot has changed for me to be here on a mission in Washington. I’m so grateful for you all! I know that each of you have made a huge impact on my decision to come and serve. I hope that all of you have made some goals for this New Year, more then go to the gym or stop eating the M&M's that are always on the table (that is one of mine...)  :) I hope that you have made goals that revolve around the Gospel and that you have involved Christ in some way. I feel like these kinds of goals are easier to achieve because we have the greatest support system on our side!

This past week has been a good one with some bumpy edges. We were able to find a new investigator and we hope that he will continue to have the desire to learn more and repent and be baptized! I have never prayed so much for people in all my life but man I’m so grateful that we can pray! It brings so much peace to our hearts. We also have been finding a lot of people to refer who are families! Families are so great because one makes a family. It is one person’s decision to change and follow Christ that will impact everyone else around them, whether they know it or not. I hope that each of you, even if you are the only active member in your family to reach out and share your testimony with a family member! I know that it will bless them and help them have the desire to change for the better! :)

Bebeto, our investigator who was on date for January 14th, dropped us again. It was even worse than the first time. We got a text that told us he was no longer interested and that he felt like the prodigal son and needed to return to his old church and God would be happy with him. I know that he will one day understand that God helped him on the right path and that he will have the desire to come learn again about this amazing Gospel. It broke my heart to have to let him go, but agency is real..... and we have to love it I guess :)

But any way, life in Washington is good! I’m not sure how it can be 33 degrees and sunny, which it is right now. If you looked outside you would think it was spring but that is false advertising! It is like the Arctic when you emerge from the warmth of your home. Speaking of homes, I am still in Auburn. Our bathroom won’t be done for a while so we have to take the commute every day. It really is no biggy but I have decided that I never want to live in an apartment if I can avoid it, or at least an apartment in Auburn. When you turn on the bathroom fan a plume of smoke, not really that’s an exaggeration, comes out and you become engulfed in the smell of drugs. But that only happens twice a day because we are never at our house. Always looking for the blessings! :)

I love you all so much. I’m so grateful for your support and your love. I’m sorry I haven’t sent pics in a while but one day I will. I never remember my camera.:) I also would love to invite you all to read Our Search for Happiness if you haven’t, it is soooo good! One of my favs I think! I love you all and have a great week!

Sister Reynolds