Re:

Bah ha ha ha ha ha ha! I am laughing so hard about the lady telling you that you should marry that elder. Ha ha ha.

I miss you.

On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 11:37 AM Megan Reynolds <megan.reynolds@myldsmail.net> wrote:

This week was another week of miracles!

Man, I don't even know where to start. Well, first of all, Transfers are next Tuesday. While I'm praying I stay in Brownsville, it's a possibility that I'm leaving, soooo, send all mail to the mission office until further notice. :)

 

Jorge! So, we've had a lot more luck finding him this week. His mom had a stroke and had ulcers and now has tumors, so he spends most of his time in the hospital with his Dad, and he's been pretty worried about her. She can't even talk right now, and it's all been pretty recent. So on Tuesday, elder Cruz and Gibson went with us to the hospital and they gave his mom a blessing. The whole family was really touched and it was a sweet experience. We've been teaching him and he is doing super well - he has a baptismal date set for this coming Sunday and if all goes well he can for sure be baptized. The week before baptism is always the most crazy because that's when Satan is trying his hardest, so if you could all keep Jorge in your prayers we'd appreciate it! He is just so very sweet - we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he told us that he hasn't been having problems with everything and was super committed to live it, and at the next lesson we asked him "so is everything still going well with the WoW? Are you having any problems?" and he said, "yeah, I have a problem... let me get the pamphlet." so he went inside and I was so very sad and just HOPING that it wasn't serious. he came back out and said, "so, my mom is really sick right now, is that because she wasn't living the word of wisdom?" So his "problem" was actually just a question. Also, we were teaching him about the Atonement, and I explained what it was and what it meant for us, and he was pretty silent and so we asked what he was thinking and he just said "Wow, I'm just thinking that God must love us so much if he's going to take all of that for us." He also has been reading the Book of Mormon and explaining/translating it to his Dad. He'll read chapters 2 or 3 times if he doesn't understand them, and he has such sincere desires to improve and get closer to God. So we'll be working and praying super hard this week!

 

We also have an investigator named Brenda, and she's super funny. She is curious about a lot of things, but also trusts us a lot and wants to learn. We taught her about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, and after the lesson on the Book of Mormon she was like, "okay, Wow. I'm going to do this. I'm going to read it. But I need you to tell me something else I don't know." "Okay, well next time we're going to talk about where we lived before this earth and where we're going after." "no, like something new, something that I don't know." "okay.. well remember how we talked about Joseph Smith and how he was a Prophet? We still have a living Prophet on the earth today." To which Brenda responded "WHAT????? Oh my goodness. Okay, like that was too much. I shouldn't have asked. I just need to focus on the basics. I'm going to read the Book of Mormon, and I'm going to pray, and, wow. yeah. I just need to trust you guys." ha ha.

 

Oh, another funny story. So remember how I spoke in church last week? So one of the other elders spoke, too. Yesterday, an older member of the ward was talking to me and said "you spoke last week, right? And the Elder, too? You too need to get together. I want to see you too holding hands, married in the temple. If you want you should tell him to come over and I can tell him that, too." Ha ha ha.... Oh, how I love the grandparents in this ward :)

 

--

Hermana Reynolds

This week was another week of miracles!

Man, I don't even know where to start. Well, first of all, Transfers are next Tuesday. While I'm praying I stay in Brownsville, it's a possibility that I'm leaving, soooo, send all mail to the mission office until further notice. :)

 

Jorge! So, we've had a lot more luck finding him this week. His mom had a stroke and had ulcers and now has tumors, so he spends most of his time in the hospital with his Dad, and he's been pretty worried about her. She can't even talk right now, and it's all been pretty recent. So on Tuesday, elder Cruz and Gibson went with us to the hospital and they gave his mom a blessing. The whole family was really touched and it was a sweet experience. We've been teaching him and he is doing super well - he has a baptismal date set for this coming Sunday and if all goes well he can for sure be baptized. The week before baptism is always the most crazy because that's when Satan is trying his hardest, so if you could all keep Jorge in your prayers we'd appreciate it! He is just so very sweet - we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he told us that he hasn't been having problems with everything and was super committed to live it, and at the next lesson we asked him "so is everything still going well with the WoW? Are you having any problems?" and he said, "yeah, I have a problem... let me get the pamphlet." so he went inside and I was so very sad and just HOPING that it wasn't serious. he came back out and said, "so, my mom is really sick right now, is that because she wasn't living the word of wisdom?" So his "problem" was actually just a question. Also, we were teaching him about the Atonement, and I explained what it was and what it meant for us, and he was pretty silent and so we asked what he was thinking and he just said "Wow, I'm just thinking that God must love us so much if he's going to take all of that for us." He also has been reading the Book of Mormon and explaining/translating it to his Dad. He'll read chapters 2 or 3 times if he doesn't understand them, and he has such sincere desires to improve and get closer to God. So we'll be working and praying super hard this week!

 

We also have an investigator named Brenda, and she's super funny. She is curious about a lot of things, but also trusts us a lot and wants to learn. We taught her about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, and after the lesson on the Book of Mormon she was like, "okay, Wow. I'm going to do this. I'm going to read it. But I need you to tell me something else I don't know." "Okay, well next time we're going to talk about where we lived before this earth and where we're going after." "no, like something new, something that I don't know." "okay.. well remember how we talked about Joseph Smith and how he was a Prophet? We still have a living Prophet on the earth today." To which Brenda responded "WHAT????? Oh my goodness. Okay, like that was too much. I shouldn't have asked. I just need to focus on the basics. I'm going to read the Book of Mormon, and I'm going to pray, and, wow. yeah. I just need to trust you guys." ha ha.

 

Oh, another funny story. So remember how I spoke in church last week? So one of the other elders spoke, too. Yesterday, an older member of the ward was talking to me and said "you spoke last week, right? And the Elder, too? You too need to get together. I want to see you too holding hands, married in the temple. If you want you should tell him to come over and I can tell him that, too." Ha ha ha.... Oh, how I love the grandparents in this ward :)

 

--

Hermana Reynolds

:)

Howdy, ya'll!

We just finished week 4 - only 2 more weeks left in the transfer. Super nuts!

We had Zone Conference this week, and it was pretty intense. Our Mission President is a very inspired man, and he's also very intense, so coming out of zone conferences and interviews always feel like a little bit of spiritual purging. But it's good :)

President talked a lot about faith, and how if we really have faith we show it through our works. So he talked a lot about obedience, and how we need to show our love for the Savior through our actions, and how this mission is a time to learn how to be obedient so that after the mission we're obedient to the ultimately even more important things (things that will help our future families - family home evening, daily prayer, scripture study, etc). That's one of the things I really appreciate about our mission president - he focuses on the after-mission. I've heard stories of mission presidents who are super focused on the mission and tell their missionaries to leave all other thoughts behind, but President Maluenda is very aware and focused on how the mission is going to help us be the mothers/fathers we need to be after. So I'm learning a lot, and it's cool to see how I really can be different because of the mission. Anyway, I learned a lot and left feeling edified and more faithful.

 

We went to Bayview this week! It's this little teeny town out in the middle of nowhere, but it's BEAUTIFUL (hence all the pictures). I've liked different parts of Texas, and Brownsville is much more fun than I expected, but Bayview is the first place I've ever though "I could definitely live here." It's tropical with lots of citrus trees, and the lots of land are all really big so the neighbors are relatively close, but not suffocating. Also, all of the houses are built along a Resaca/lake, and it's like a little bit of Paradise.

 

So remember the story about Jorge? The guy the Elders found? So we tried by every singe day this week and we could never find him/he had to leave or couldn't talk. So we were pretty sad/frustrated, and just wanted to find him. Finally, on Saturday we were determined to find him, so we stopped by 3 times, and the last time it sounded like maybe people were home, but nobody was answering. Ugh. So we walked to another part of the neighborhood, and did some other things. The Zone leaders (who found him originally) called to see if we'd had any luck, and so they ended up coming. Elder Cruz knocked down the door (almost literally) and we finally got the (very-drunk) dad to open the door, and told us Jorge was sleeping. After a lot of persuasion, the Elders talked him into letting them go wake him up, and we talked with him for 10 minutes and made arrangements for him to come to church. We had two people who previously said they could give him a ride, and when Sunday morning rolled around BOTH of them fell through. Earlier that morning I had poured my cereal and was saying a prayer over it, when I felt the impression that I needed to fast. I was trying to justify it away "but I already poured my cereal!" but decided I should do it. So when all the craziness of finding a ride started happening I was so grateful I had that prompting - we called EVERYONE we could think of, even our less-active members and nothing was coming through. I was pretty frustrated, I felt like we had worked so hard to get him to come to church and he was ready, and we couldn't find anyone. Finally 1/2 before church, the Elders found an older member to take him. We all met up at Jorge's house, and seeing Elder Cruz come out of the house with Jorge was one of the happiest sights of my life. Church went really well! I gave a talk on member missionary work during sacrament, so I got to sit up on the stand and Jorge was paying a lot of attention, and after church he said he loved it (and he wasn't on drugs this time - hollah!). It was such a miracle and it was a really big lesson in "after ALL we can do."

Also, yesterday we found a cute little family that wants to learn more and the sister of Sarah (The mystery girl we found who had been taught by elders), but we still haven't found Sarah... ha.

 

Well, believe in miracles! They happen!

I love you all - keep up the good work :)

Love,

Hermanita Reynolds

So, somewhere in the past couple of weeks I finished 1/4 of my mission.. Yup. Time is going just a bit too fast.

 

We had some pretty interesting appointments this week, and the first ones involving drugs since I started my mission! The Elders told us they had an investigator for us  that they had taught a couple of times, and so we were going to have a lesson with them and trade off. We met him (Jorge) at church, and he seemed super nice, but maybe a little mentally slow. At the lesson it was the same, and he had a hard time remembering, but mostly understood the principles and seemed eager to learn more. So we set up another time to go by, and when we did we could only stay for a couple of minutes because he was leaving. We talked for a couple seconds and then he had to go get something in the other room, and Hna Quintero said "something's different.." and when he came back and we talked for a minute more, something WAS different - He was totally normal! He wasn't at all mentally slow, he'd just been using drugs.. Es por eso... So, yup. Gonna have to work on that.

We also met a guy named Josue who was interested (mostly because he doesn't want to go to Hell), and we stopped by again and started talking to him about church and things and asked how interested he REALLY was. He sat there for a minute and then said "well... you see.. I smoke weed. I was in the army and I can't sleep or be normal without it. I'm not a pothead though!" Ha ha. So, gonna have to work on that, too. But he's willing to try out church and to learn more, and his sister-in-law said she'd come too if his wife came, so we'll see what happens. They're the neighbors of the mystery-girl Sarah, and we still haven't ever been able to find her again. Maybe she was a ghost...

 

We also have an investigator named Michael, and he started out as an agnostic, but now he prays and reads the scriptures every day, and it's been cool to see his thoughts and feelings change. However, he's super intellectual and so he has tons of questions about the church's history.. He wants to know everything. he's been reading "Our Heritage," and he wants to read a biography of Joseph Smith and the Joseph Smith papers. He has a master's degree in History, so he loves learning and research, which is good, but we're trying to help him understand he needs a testimony, not just information.. It's been interesting teaching him because he is so very intellectual, and most of our other investigators aren't. So it keeps things interesting :)

 

I think I told you about the big family of girls we had a couple lessons with in Spanish? We taught them again with the Casa Linda sisters (who teach in Spanish where they live) so they could get to know them and start teaching them, and it was pretty crazy. There were 4 missionaries, Gina, and then 6 of them. So there was this huge group of girls all trying to teach and learn, and they kept asking questions and we'd have to explain to the little girls in English sometimes, and were trying to keep them involved, so it was pretty exciting. They said that the other sisters should come walking with them on Tuesday and they could talk more, so they said they would.. and then we're actually doing an exchange tomorrow, so I get to go walking/teaching with them. I'm not sure how intense of walkers they are, but they said they usually walk for 3 hours. so. yup. it'll be great!

 

The missionaries have been doing cross-fit in the mornings, and we've been going. It's pretty painful, but I'm getting a lot stronger! Plus, being in pain together as a zone has really unified us ;) Oh, we're also getting zone tshirts that I helped design, so next week I'll send pictures of how they turned out! The month of Spanish is coming along.. Mostly it's just hard when we're with the other missionaries because they all talk to us in English, and we have to respond in Spanish, but other than that it's been really good and I'm learning lots!

Well, keep on keeping on :)

Lots of love!
--

Hermana Reynolds

Hello! I have some wonderful stories this week - fasten your seatbelts ;)

 

On Thursday we decided to try and find a less-active family up in an area where we don't usually work, and when we arrived there we found this girl named Sarah. She seemed familiar with missionaries, and when we asked her if she had talked with missionaries before she said that two men with nametags like us had been teaching her and she was going to come to church with them (and it was our church). Se were trying to figure out who might have possibly taught her, and NONE of the elders knew who we were talking about .. she didn't end up making it to church, but we're trying by her again tonight and hopefully we can figure it out! Weird miracles...

 

We went and visited the family of the stake patriarch, and he used to work with president Kimball (I think) with the "Lamanites," and since sister Quintero is Mexican he just loved her. At the end of our visit he said "Sister Reynolds, you're very blessed because you get to have one of Lehi's kids as your companion" :)

 

We also had a lesson with one of our investigators last night at a park, and it was kind of flooded and there were lots of mosquitos, so we ended up having a lesson in a gazebo and drenched ourselves in repellent. The funny thing was that we didn't have chairs, so we were all just sitting on the ground. The lesson went really well though - we hadn't had a lesson with him in a long time, but he is progressing really well! His name is Michael and when we met him he had recently changed from being Atheist to being Agnostic, and he is progressing in really incredible ways - it's super amazing to be a part of it.

 

Okay, well I gotta run, but I love you all! The 4 sisters that live in our apt are doing an English fast for a month... so hopefully our Spanish is gonna improve a lot. Yikes! we started today and it's a little daunting, but it'll be good ;)

Love you all!

Love,
Hermana Reynolds