Two weeks of post... half way mark and Washington's Bigfoot

Hello family and friends!!

 What a week it has been! it has been full of miracles and fun memories! I hit my 9 month mark on Wednesday the 17... INSANITY! I cannot believe that I have been out that long but then again... sometimes I can believe it hah! I am grateful for all of the amazing things I have learned by serving the Lord and the people here in Washington!

 This week we had a lesson with the motley family again but we brought Sister Motleys friend from when she was active in the church! They are still close and it was good to see how they were remembering things from girl’s camp and church things! I think Sister Motley is having a change of heart and having a greater desire to be a part of the church again!  She has come to church the past 2 weeks!! I love her and her kiddos so much. She sent us a text the other day thanking us for not giving up on them and for loving her and her kids. I think it is the little things that make these 18 months so amazing! I love seeing people change their lives and have a greater desire to follow the Lord.

Sammi, our investigator, has had a few struggles lately. she has felt pretty down about some things that she didn’t do as well as she would have hoped to do and she has been really questioning her testimony and her desire to be baptized. We met with her on Thursday at a member’s home and had a good talk about opposition and finding faith. The member gave an analogy about two wolfs that are in us and are constantly fighting. one is the wolf of Faith and the other of doubt. She told Sammi that the wolf that will win is the wolf that we feed. I loved that and it really helped her see what she needed to do! FEED THE FAITH WOLF! Sammi is back on date for baptism on June 10th. Keep her in your prayers! we know she can do it with the help of the Savior Jesus Christ.

On Saturday we had a Washington federal way finding day... again.  We have them on the first Saturday of every month. We go out from 10am to 5pm and knock doors all day.  So fun, but really it isn’t that bad and miracles happen which is awesome! We went on a few exchanges with sisters throughout the day. I went with Hermana Soza, one of the sweetest sisters ever! We were tracting in my area in the afternoon and it was there that I rescued a small puppy from 3 HUGE dogs. These two little girls were outside playing with the puppy and we had already talked with them so we were walking away. as we started leaving the puppy started following us and we were in the middle of a side street and then I heard this yell from someone saying " HEY! Get back here!" I turned around to see this massive lab coming towards us at full speed. I jumped in front of it to try to catch it for the owner who was running after it but they dog slid out of my fingers! BUT it stopped turned around and started 'playing' with the girl’s puppy. That thing looked like it was eating the poor thing! the two girls were screaming and trying to save the puppy but they couldn't get it off so I grabbed it and pulled it away and then TWO other huge dogs came barreling toward the pup too! The little girls screams were even louder as they were shouting at me to save it. my comp is just standing in shock off to the side so I pulled the other two dogs off the puppy and grabbed it and held it up while the creatures around me jumped up to try to get it. I felt like i was being mugged by dogs. The owner of the 3 dogs finally showed up and I handed the puppy off to Hermana Soza and I grabbed two of the dogs by their collars and helped her take them back to the ladies house. by the time this fiasco was done I had mud and dog hair all over me. I looked like I had been attacked. Ha ha! It definitely had me and my comp laughing the whole way home! good time, good times.

Elder Dube of the 70 came to our mission this week! He is hilarious!! It was a true blessing to have him come and speak at our stake conference and our zone conference. He told us that when he was first called to the 70 he was supper nervous at the first meeting. he said he trailed in the back and then out of nowhere he heard elder Holland say, "Edward!! i love you!" and elder Holland gave him a hug. Elder Dube then said that when he pulled away he reached up and started playing with his cheeks! Can you imagine it?!?!?! Elder Holland playing with his cheeks! hahaha!! Elder Dube told us that the next meeting he saw Holland do the same thing but to elder oaks! Ha ha! It was so funny! His message to us missionaries was powerful though. He spoke a lot about becoming a disciple of Christ missionary and turning away from the "me" missionary. I have realized that I have a lot of growth to do but the greatest thing is that we can all become better! all because of our savior and redeemer. I love that about this gospel. Even though we may not be the best at things we can always improve.

 I love you all so much and I want y’all to know that I am grateful for this gospel and I know that it is true. I have been blessed to be a part of it and even more blessed to be serving a mission! I KNOW that this church is true and that it blesses our life! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

Sister Reynolds

HELLO FROM THE LAND OF BIGFOOT BELIEVERS!!

 Family, Friends, the Washingtonians are MAJOR Bigfoot/Sasquatch believers! this past week I’ve heard more about him than any other subject! even more than politics! Okay not quite but pretty close! I may come home a believer.. They have me almost convinced... We talked with this one man in our ward and we spoke for about an hour about his encounters with Bigfoot. he told us these crazy stories about him in the woods and he heard this knocking sound that was a sign of bigfoot and how he had this thing push his car up on two wheels in the middle of the woods at 2am! INSANE! He even had an audio recording of the knocking noises.. He was quite persuasive and just for the heck of it i might claim to believe in Bigfoot :) 

what we find on our walks to church.. anyone want
a free used toilet?? its a rare find

 Anyway, GOOD NEWS!!! Sammi Kuhlman and Paula Martin are getting baptized in June!! Sammi will be baptized on June 6th and Paula on June 10th! We are so excited for them! These two are amazing and have truly won over my heart. They both have their own struggles and quirks but I love them even with those things! It has been so amazing to be there as they have made the changes necessary for baptism! 

 We did service for one of our favorite families this past week! (The motley crew) we pulled out her garden because it was overrun with weeds and black berry bushes. Those suckers are evil and they are SO hard to pull out of the ground! It’s ridiculous! We found spiders, worms frogs and slugs everywhere in that miniature jungle of theirs. I’ll have you know that I HATE slugs. These are creatures of the abyss and they are everywhere. The other day sister Tayco had the audacity to throw one at me... not a fan of that moment! Ha ha! Later that day when we finished the garden we had a BBQ and sister Tayco and I made pasta salads! We also had lumpia, cream cheese wantons and cookies :) what a combo! Ha ha! It was so much fun to be with them and help them out. I love their family so much! Sister Motley told us she wanted us to move in with her after our missions! (Don’t worry mom I told her I had to stay in AZ for a little bit :))

     looking back at past pictures. 

                i love this girl! 

 Crazy story, we went to dinner on Monday at a member’s home. They are an older couple and her son was there with his 2 kids. While we were eating the woman said to us that someone had just hit our car that was parked outside the house! Sure enough when we went out there our poor car had a huge dent in its driver’s side door and the driver’s passenger door! The woman was backing out of her house and just didn’t turn enough. I felt super bad for her but I was just glad nobody was hurt. That was something I was hoping to never have happen... now i have my name on the mission records for car accidents.. How fun :)

 Other than that nothing too exciting to talk about! I saw this Mormon message today and I really liked it!

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-music-of-the-gospel?cid=HP_WE_24-5-2017_dPFD_fMLIB_xLIDyL1-C_

It is a bit different then ones I have seen in the past but I really like the way they explain hearing the music of the gospel. I know that what it talks about is so true! We need to make sure we are having the spirit with us as we go about living the gospel. It is what will help us hear the music! I love you all and I’m so grateful for each of you! I hope you have an amazing week!

love,

Sister Reynolds