Happy Almost Thanksgiving

Hello everyone! 

We had the mission devotional and I was 

able to see some old YSA ward members

 and we took a picture with all the missionaries 

who have served in the ward :) SO FUN!

 I hope you have had a great week! I also hope you all have fun Thanksgiving plans! I love this time of year! I have tried to keep a gratitude journal and it has been really helpful to look back on hard days and see that even then, I can find something to be grateful for! I am so grateful for this gospel and the chance I have to be here on this mission!!

 As for this week, it has been a good one! We had a lesson with one of our investigators named Anika. I really like her a lot! she is super funny and I know she has a testimony. I can feel the spirit as she answers questions! She has had a few missionaries work with her and I know there are some fears involved when it comes to baptism but I have a lot of hope for her! I pray we will be able to help her with her needs and help guide her to baptism.

 We went to eat at a Part Member Families house and had dinner. As an appetizer we had artichoke with a homemade dip and then we had some shepherd’s pie and some amazing watermelon with mint, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese and olive oil. It was all SOOO GOOD and then it got even better, at the end of dinner he says he threw together some dessert a few hours back and he was excited for us top try it. This wonderful man brings out some homemade crème Brulee and then BRINGS OUT HIS MINI BLOW TORCH AND DOES THE WHOLE SUGAR BURNING THING. Oh my Lanta it was so good! Sister Espinoza and I have been talking about it ever since. SO GOOD!  A highlight of the week for sure :)

IDENTITY THEFT IS REAL!
(she wanted to be sister Reynolds for the day)

We had a super cool lesson with our Ward mission leaders neighbor Zach. He walked up to our WML and asked to learn more about the church. So, Brother Poulsen had him over a few times and talked with him and then we were able to schedule a meeting for Thursday! He is so cool! He has been on a search for a while. He told us he has had some questions that no other church has been able to answer and then he said, “from what I’ve heard i already have some answers!" AMAZING! it was a powerful lesson and i thought the spirit was quite strong. I am so grateful for this restored Gospel and the way it is able to answer our 'questions of the soul'.

 It really was a good week. Those are just some of the highlights! I hope that we all can take a few minutes each day, especially Thursday, to say a prayer of gratitude to our Father in Heaven. He has given us all things and I know when we can "Live in thanksgiving daily" (Alma 34:38) our lives will be more joyful. Joy is eternal!!! So why wouldn’t we want that? I have seen the blessings of counting my many blessings and I hope everyone can see their own as well! i love you all so much and i love this Gospel! I know that Christ Lives and He loves us!! 

Sister Reynolds

It has been a good week

Hello!

we went to Legendary donuts❤ 
SO GOOD! their donuts are massive!!
its also just a cute shop

 It has been a good week. We have seen some amazing blessings! One of them is a man named Mark. He is a neighbor to a recent convert, Don. We were tracting on the day of finding and he became a potential. When we went back, we taught about the Book of Mormon and the first few points of the restoration. He told us towards the end that the reason he let us come back and talk with him was because of the change He saw in Don! It was such a powerful moment. I love seeing others actions and choices to follow the gospel affect those around them. Now the recent convert wants to invite him to church each Sun

day! (I love built in fellowship :)) it was a testimony to me the power that this gospel has in changing people’s lives! i hope that Mark continues to want to learn! Keep him in your prayers if you will.

we went to Legendary donuts❤ 
SO GOOD! their donuts are massive!!
its also just a cute shop

 Our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Poulsen, and his Family are amazing! I love them a lot. He has been a lot of help in giving us the update on the ward information, member families to see and he has also blessed us with some of the best homemade meals i have had! they invited us over for dinner for thanksgiving and everyone was chapped at first that they stole us but then they followed up their comments with, " well, at least you’re going to the best cook in the wards house." True blessings :) but I really am grateful for them and everyone in the ward. They all know how to make us feel loved!

 It might be a short email this week, I apologize for that. I do want you all to know how grateful I am for all of you. I love this Gospel and I love this call to serve. We are all having the chance to actively participate in the Gathering of Israel and it is amazing! I hope you can all find a way to share your testimony of the gospel this week! I love you all!

Sister Reynolds 

Merry Early Christmas I Guess!:)

Hey!

 our view from our apartment..hopefully
 you can tel;l it is a mini lake with ducks in it :)

 So, it SNOWED!!! It is insane! It was just sunny and then BOOM! The earth thought it would be cool to get cold enough for the rain to be even colder, sticky, and WHITE!! It didn’t snow last year till the end of December! I feel like it should be Christmas time right now but then I remember about thanksgiving and I get a little bit sad to be honest... :) But I am excited for thanksgiving! It is a great time of year and it is a fun time when you're a missionary!

 Well, this week has been quite the adventure! Being in a new area where neither of us knows anything is always a fun time! We have been making lots of U-turns and we've been using tons of miles but that’s okay it’s all in the name of salvation! Auburn is AMAZING! I love the people we have been able to meet. All the ward members have been so loving and kind. They are really excited to have sister missionaries again and to have missionaries just for their ward. It has been a couple of years since they have had their own missionaries and they said that they have been on the back burner but NOT ANYMORE :D

Sister Reynolds and Sister Espinoza

 My new companion is great! Her name is Sister Espinoza! She is from San Diego CA! She is awesome! She thinks I’m an old person though because I don’t understand all the new slang and terms that the youth use these days. I am getting old folks 😂 whenever we tell people where we are from we get lots of comments like, "oh you all must be freezing." but then they just keep us standing in the cold even though we say yes... one day someone will let us in! 

 We had our day of finding as a mission on Saturday. It went well but at one point we split off and i was in a trio for a few hours. We knocked on this trailer home and this woman answered the door and spoke to us for a bit. In the background we heard her son yelling things like "Go Lucifer". He kept going and getting louder so finally I matched his loudness with my testimony, gave her a card, and then we left. It is a testimony to me the power of the adversary. He doesn't want the spirit to be with us and he will do anything to distract us from what we know to be true. I know that we can overcome his tricks as we continue to do the little things we have been taught each and every day. It broke my heart to hear what he said but it also strengthened my faith in many ways, if that makes sense at all!

 Anyway, I love you all. I am so grateful for this chance to serve! Don’t forget to count your blessings every day!! Have a great week!

Sister Reynolds

Happy Halloween

Hello everyone!

 I hope that you have all had an amazing week!! It has been such a good week for us here in the Renton area! We have been blessed to see lots of different miracles and we have been able to get a lot of work done which is so good!! 

Halloween costume 

 We got transfer calls on Sunday... It’s like the hunger games every 6 weeks. This time I was chosen to leave :( I will be serving in the Auburn area whitewashing, meaning we both don’t know anything about the area. I will also be training again! It is kind of scary to think about but i am excited for the challenge and I know that if I rely on the Lord I will be able to do everything he needs me to do. 

On Saturday I got to go to the Baptism for Laura Martin!!! (The one I accidentally drove to last week..) Sister Tayco, my old companion and I, got to drive down together while our companions worked together. It was fun to be back together! Her baptism was amazing. She has truly turned her heart to the Lord and has been able to rely on him even through a lot of hard things that have happened to her in the past few months. Listening to her bear her testimony about the gospel and how it has changed her testified to me of the importance of this work. We are so blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father who allows us to have the fullness of the gospel here on the Earth!! I love her and I love that I am able to help people like Laura come unto Christ!!

 One of our investigators Denene

  Friday evening we had the ward trunk or treat!!! Sister Morris and I dressed up as the bible and the Book of Mormon! I think I have pics I can send y’all! It was a lot of fun and the ward members loved it. We had 2 investigators there and some returning less active members there! It was awesome :D

 Last night we said goodbye to some of the ward members and people that we are working with. It was really hard to leave them. We had one lesson with a woman named Lani Fanene. She has been working on returning back to church and she bore her testimony about the Book of Mormon and man, I couldn’t stop crying! Ha ha! It was so powerful. She said many times that it is ONLY through the Book of Mormon that she has a personal relationship with Christ like she does. I love her and I am so proud of everything that she has done and worked for!

 It is always bittersweet to leave an area but I am excited for the new adventures that will happen in Auburn! I am so glad I am here and I hope I can do my best every day and work hard. Thank you for everything you all do! I love you!!!

saying bye to the Fanene's!

Sister Reynolds

Saying bye to Sarah! We served in the YSA ward and then
she was in this ward too!! saying bye the
 second time was even harder! (we tried to be like old people in rocking chairs

The Perez family! i LOVE these kids!!!​​

Zone Conference...

Hello!!

It has been a super weird week, but it has been a good one!! We had Zone conference on Friday and it was so good! We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and its role in our missionary work. We also talked about the power and authority of our calling as missionaries. I loved hearing the testimonies of the missionaries I serve with. The departing missionaries always bear their testimonies at the end and it is powerful. I am sad to see them go but I have learned a lot from them. One of the elders said we need to "Love big and hurt big". I have seen that when I open my heart completely I am more capable of seeing people as Christ sees them. Yes it hurts big when they choose to not learn but I know I’ve given my all. Another Elder said that he came to the mission to repay a debt and he is leaving with an even greater debt to pay. That touched my heart and I know it is true. 

On a not so spiritual note.... I need to tell you all to make sure you get the dates right for a baptism before you drive an hour and a half to go to it. I heard that one of the people I worked with in Graham was getting baptized on Saturday! I was SO excited!! So, me and my comp got in our little Toyota corolla and made the trek to Spanaway Washington. (It is right near graham where i served). So we get to the building and I’m so excited and then we pull into the parking lot and not a single soul was there. Basically it could have been a wild wild west scene with a tumble weed in the distance. I immediately start thinking it was canceled or we have the wrong building or something so we drive like lighting to the Graham stake center. When we got there, no one, I was defeated and sad thinking that she had to cancel the baptism. So we called around to find out what happened and in the mean time I drove to my old apartment in Graham to show sister Morris and lo and behold the sisters car was there!! When we knocked on the door they looked so confused and we told them about our adventure and through their laughter they told us that the baptism was NEXT Saturday. Sister Morris checked the text we had gotten the night before and right there on our little flip phone screen it said 'October 28'. Man! Defeated! embarrassed and also laughing quite hard, we made our journey back to Renton through the pouring rain. 100 miles later we made it back home. We parked the car for the night and started walking through the dreary storm. By the end of the night we were soaked through and chilled to the bone but i guess it makes for a good memory :) so moral of the story, ALWAYS double check the dates in texts. Ha ha!!

  Anyway, life in Washington is amazing! The rain has been killer the past couple days but i think we should be having clearer sky's in the next few days, which will be really nice :) I love being here. I am growing and learning in so many ways that I didn’t think were possible. I see my flaws more but I am comforted to know that we are given weakness that we can be made strong! (Ether12:27)

 I love you all and i hope you have the best week ever!! Don’t forget God loves you!

Sister Reynolds

What a week!

Hello,

 I hope you all have had a good week! It has been a great couple of days here in Renton Washington! We have seen a lot of miracles this week!

 We were able to find 2 new investigators! Both were tender mercies! One of them is named Lani. She is from Micronesia and has the sweetest little 2yr old boy. When we met Lani, we were actually going to her house to have a lesson with her step-dad. He was outside smoking and talking to someone so he told us to just go in and talk with Lani. So we went in and waited about 10 min but he never came in so we just started teaching the restoration to her. (it was a very smooth transition that both sister Morris and I are quite proud of ;)) As we talked she was really in it! We got to the first vision and right after Sister Morris finished saying it i looked over and saw Lani's brother in the kitchen and smoke was EVERYWHERE! so we all ran in and tried to stop the house from burning down. It is amazing how everything seems to happen during or right after the First vision. Satan works hard to distract from the spirit. But it didn’t work!! As we came back into the room Lani saw the Book of Mormon sitting on the couch and her eyes lit up. She asked if she could look at it and we told her she could keep it. For the rest of the lesson she sat hugging the book of Mormon to her chest. She committed to be baptized on November 11th and she was already double checking her schedule to make sure it would work! We knelt and prayed and then she promptly asked where she could start reading from in the book!!! We showed her the intro and told her it would be awesome if she could get to chapter 4. We came back a two days later and she had read to 1 Nephi 5 AND she took notes about every chapter! She was re-telling us what she learned and what she liked as if she had read it a million times! Sister Morris and I sat in awe with the biggest smiles on our faces! We are so incredibly grateful to be teaching her!! :)

 We went on exchanges this week. I went to another area in Renton. We met the sweetest family. One of their little boys put my arm around him during the prayer and there he stayed for quite some time and he did not want to move when we had to leave. As I was walking away he wrapped himself around my legs and wouldn’t let go. He was so darling!!! He also came up to me and whispered in my ear, “you’re pretty..." then he walked away with a smile on his face. SO CUTE!

 Also that day we met with one of their investigators who had Anti-Mormon information sent to her. When we went over to her home she showed us a bit of the video. I asked her to pause it at a specific part where I felt so dark inside. We talked about what we felt and then the spirit took over. I’m not sure exactly what I said but I know it was from God and not me. I testified that some of the things were not wrong but in order to know truth from deception we had to pray. That really is our only way to know what is from God and what is made up by Satan. At the end she said she didn’t really care about the videos anymore and that she would keep learning. ANOTHER MIRACLE :) it breaks my heart that stuff like that is out there but i am so grateful that we are able to tell what is true with the help of the Holy Ghost.

 

 On Sunday we got a new ward mission leader. We are sad to not be working with Brother Ramsey anymore, but i know that the Lord is in charge. Our new WML is a great man and we will see a lot of miracles as we work w with him. During one of the talks on Sunday something was said along the lines of, "Build upon others virtues even though we see their stains." maybe that’s not what was actually said but either way I must have needed to hear that. I know it is so important to see others as children of God. That is the only way we will be able to have charity, and without Charity we are nothing.

 I love you all and love this work! Keep on keeping on! The Lord is always there for us in every situation! I hope you have an amazing week!❤

Love,

Sister Reynolds

1. Not the best picture, but we had dinner at a members house and their little boy James was the CUTEST!! We read books together and he had them all memorized :)

2. I love my savior and i know He lives!

Time flies...

Hello!!

i found this pumpkin today.
I am the just about the same shade...
i need to get some sun in my life! haha!

 It is crazy how fast time goes! i feel like i was JUST writing a letter to you all! Time flies so fast it is crazy! This has been a good week, kind of slow but it’s okay because it has been lined with small miracles and tender mercies. 

 We have been working with this less active family in our ward lately. Every Tuesday we get together and read from the book of Mormon.  Last time we went over she fed us some yummy El Salvador food! Food and the Book of Mormon, how can you not be happy! Ha ha! We have been trying to get them to come to church for the past 2 transfers and it was one of the greatest moments ever to see them walk into the chapel yesterday!! They finally came!! Man I was beaming from ear to ear! I love these people and I’m so grateful that they are willing to learn more and strengthen their testimonies. The mom, Sister Perez, said she got Sundays off work so she and the whole family could start coming!! Sister Morris and I were practically dancing about it as we left the chapel! Small miracles, they are the best ones :)

Washington sunset❤

 We have this goal in our companionship to use the book of Mormon more in our contacting approaches. We got the itch to do it after Elder Nelsons talk from conference. We are talking to people about Christ’s ministry in the Americas and it is cool to start off like that because people can understand it more and they get excited about it! I love it! It is a testament to me that conference is divinely inspired :)

 On Friday we had a ward potluck. We have had them quite often in the past but this one had an amazing turn out! Ever since the wards combined there has been a real sense of unity and lots of people have been participating!  There was 100+ there!! So good :) Sister Morris and I were in charge of the games. We played Minute to win it games and it was a blast. I have come to realize I’m a lot like my wonderful dad when I get a mic in my hand :) ha ha! Lots of less actives, part member families, and returning members came which was so good!!! Over all it was a good night!

Fridays potluck and the minute to win it games!

 That’s pretty much all of my highlights for the past week. Every day we check on people and try to find people who will allow us to teach. I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord. I am grateful for the hard times that come. They make me grow and become a better child of God. I am so grateful for the many blessings I see. I have tried to look for the small things and point them out as blessings. Being able to wake up at 6:30 and not fall asleep again, blessing. Having the creepy men around the corner leave, blessing, not getting attacked by all the massive dogs, blessing. Ha ha really though all these things are blessings, the Perez family coming to church, being able to worship how i want to in this country, having the Book of Mormon, my family, this calling. Everything blesses me. I am so thankful for all of you and the support you give me! I love you all! I love this gospel. The church is true!!!

sister Morris and I are in the crafting mood lately...P-day :)

Sister Reynolds