What a blessing we have received today!!

HELLO!!

 What a blessing we have received today!! Here in Washington it is currently 61 degrees AND sunny! Oh my Lanta am I overjoyed! I am not even wearing a jacket, what a glorious thing!! We went from snowing to this! The world is probably ending but I will handle it well if this is what it will be like! :)

We had the chance to serve at the Kent food bank this past week. We met the cutest Iraqi women! They had just moved to Washington 2 months ago and they wanted to do volunteer work and they found the food bank! I told them that I spoke a little bit of Arabic, like a SMALL AMOUNT, and they got so excited! They spent a good 30 minutes trying to teach me how to say different words and then asking me how to say it in English! I learned how to say oats and some other foods that I can’t remember how to say now BUT, as I was leaving they kept saying this phrase and then finally in English they told me it meant "you are my daughter!" it was so sweet! I never wanted to leave! Hopefully they will be there this Wednesday too and we can continue on with our English/Arabic lessons :)

 Lauren, our amazing investigator is working hard and is getting super excited to be baptized. She meets with us 3 times a week and would meet more if she could! We just love her! She has such a desire to see a temple on the inside and i mentioned the Tuscan temple open house and then the next time we met she said she has been looking at flights to AZ to go to it! I LOVE HER! haha!! We are planning her baptismal program tonight which should be fun and then maybe going to FHE but we aren’t sure where it is at yet. We are bad at planning on P-days... I’ll get better!

The mission nurse and her husband are the cutest things in the world! their name is elder and Sister Draney. They are from Wyoming and live on a small farm! they go home in march. I am so sad! she tells me all the time that we are soul sisters and that she always wants to be my companion but doesn't know what she will do with elder Draney! i told her that i want to come visit her and her fam in Wyoming for the summer and work on her farm for her. she said she would have me anytime! i would be moving pipe though and that crap seems heavy!  just thought id let you know that was going to happen one day

 Today when we went grocery shopping, sister Skousen decided she wanted to get me flowers for Valentine’s Day! She is so sweet! She bought me tulips in all different colors! When we got home, the only thing i could find to put them in was a fish shaped pitcher that was in the back of our cabinet. I wish i had taken a picture of it! I’ll try to remember and send it next week! She is so kind to me!

 I am so grateful to be here in Washington! i love these people and i never want to leave. Transfers are next week and though it might be good to get a new change if I leave, I will be broken hearted if I have to leave the James Hill YSA ward :/ I know that God puts us in different situations to learn and grow though them so anything that we go through we can know that it is part of Gods plan! How comforting is that?! I love knowing that our trials are there to make us better people and I hope that through each of our life’s we can remember that! Our faith WILL grow if we take the opportunity to let it! I love you all so much! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! Happy Valentine’s Day

Love, Sister Reynolds