"And sometimes you have to kill Laban"

I don't even know where to start this week. At the beginning of this week everything was "normal," but then on Tuesday the craziness began. On Sunday my compy and I fasted for service opportunities that would bring about teaching opportunities. Then on Tuesday there was a woman in our ward who asked for help with English (There are many members of the English ward that don't actually really speak English. Still not sure why.) So we were talking with her and helping her when she got a phone call from the Elders. Evidently they were teaching her daughter-in-law, but some things happened so they wanted us to start teaching her. She'd been to church lots of times and was living the commandments so she was baptizable, so the Elders told us to get her baptized that Sunday. So, the next 5 days consisted of us working harder than I ever imagined was possible to get things worked out. It turned out to be incredibly hard to contact her, and the Zone Leaders and the other Elders were all working with us. On Thursday night she was supposed to have her interview, so Elder Rosero (on of the ZLs  who is from Uruguay) and us were waiting in the church for the investigator to come. She didn't show up, so we called and were driving around trying to find her, and then came back to the church and were talking with Elder Rosero. (side note - we all really love Elder Rosero because he's super great, but also has a wonderful accent - he never spoke English before him mission, so it's really great.) We ended up talking about Jorge and how that one time we had to go by his house 4 times in one day before we found him, and then he said "Sometime you have to knock on a door 4 times, and sometime you have to kill Laban." So that became our motto for the week. "We're gonna go kill Laban!" Lots of crazy happenings and miracles came this week. Ultimately, the investigator didn't get baptized, and that was a good thing - she needed more preparation. We did end up staying out past 9 (with permission) 4 nights in a row, and one of those nights we didn't even get home until 10:30. I learned a lot about the blessings that come from following leaders, and we saw a lot of miracles. Didn't baptize, but we sure learned a whole lot.

 

That pretty much was our week in a nutshell - in the words of Elder Rosero, "I love you all, be perfect!"

Love,

M

Tuesday was my six month mark, and we celebrated by flooding our apartment. I was sitting at the table, reading the Fam Bam that mom mailed to me, and I looked down and there was water coming toward me. I hadn't heard it because all the showers were on, but something burst under the kitchen sink and there was water gushing out (like what happened at Aunt RaeLynne's - remember, mom?). Anyway, we eventually stopped it but had a good inch of water in the kitchen. It was pretty exciting.

 

Also, sister Moore and I discovered that we really like singing together and we've been having lots of fun with that and we had a musical number at our last Zone meeting. We sang Joseph Smith's first prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount, and it turned out rather well.

 

So, remember how I said we found Dominic last week? I have two more stories because of that.

 

Primeramente, we were teaching Dominic, and he seemed to know everything. We were going to review all the lessons, but we decided to just have him be interviewed and start the process of getting permission to be baptized. So we went over the interview questions, and then he had his interview, and after he left we talked with Elder Lindsay, who had interviewed him, and he told us there were a couple of things we needed to work on with him, but that technically he passed, but he wasn't sure what we should do because he was a little concerned. So he called the Zone leaders, and they called the APs, and the APs talked with President Maluenda, and then the next night Elder Lindsay told us that Dominic needs to wait 2 years before he can be baptized. We were pretty bummed, and we went and talked with Dominic about it and he opened up about some problems he hadn't told us about and said that he actually would want to wait 2 years, so in the end revelation is real and maybe I'll come back to Texas in a couple of years for his baptism :)

 

The second cool story is that when we were looking for Dominic, I was on an exchange with the STLs, and sister Perez and I knocked on the wrong door and this lady was like "Oh, are you here to see Alan?" and we said, "sure!" ha ha. We'll take about any excuse to get in a door. Anyway, we went in and they took us into Alan's room, and evidently he used to be super normal but then an accident or something happened and now he's lost use of his legs and only has limited mobility of his head and arms, but can use an iPad to communicate and understands completely fine. We went in there, and then his nephews wanted to be there, too. We had the sweetest lesson about the plan of salvation, and they all wanted to learn more. We went back once or twice more, but weren't sure what to do because he'd need a ton of family support, and we weren't sure if the family was willing. We went by on Saturday and brought a member of the bishopbric and had an incredible lesson with the family and they said if Alan wanted to go to church they would take him, but that he didn't like leaving his house and that missionaries from other churches had tried to get him to go to church and he had never wanted to. We went in and briefly talked with him and he said he wanted to go! So we worked things out and the mom brought him and he loved it. It was the first time in his life that he'd ever been and he wants to go back. We're hoping that the family will open up and want to start listening more, the little kids love it though and have been waiting for us when we come.

 

At first I felt a little awkward about the situation and honestly was thinking how the ward would think about it, thinking they would be like "oh, they're just teaching handicapped people because they're stuck into listening," but it has been such a sweet experience to be trusted with these souls. Moral of the story, don't be afraid of judgment and just love everybody.

 

Miracles happen :)

I love all ya'll ;)

M

like, another email

Howdy!

 

Quick update on training: It's possibly the most fun thing I've ever done. Our biggest problem right now is that we get along too well - like, we'll start laughing when we shouldn't and can't stop. For example, we'll be praying and we'll accidentally say something funny and then we'll start laughing and can't finish the prayer. The struggle is real. Also, yesterday in church we went to the gospel principles class and the lesson was on the Law of Chastity, and the first thing the teacher asked was "okay, so what's procreation?" And it just went downhill from there. I think all of the missionaries were trying really hard to keep it together. After about 15 minutes we just couldn't handle it anymore so we had to step outside in the hall and regroup and come up with a plan of how we would be able to participate without laughing. Also, I think we've been really exhausted this week, so that hasn't helped. But we've gotten a little better and the focus is improving :)

 

I feel like our area is improving and we're getting a better grasp of what's going down here, and we're seeing lots of miracles.
I know that cool things happened this week, but I honestly can't remember what. One cool story.. We found an old investigator named Dominic, and he's been taught everything twice. He's pretty prepared (with a couple of holes that need filling - like he still believes in rosaries and things like that), but he just got out of jail and is on Probation for 10 years, so he'll have to get first presidency permission to be baptized. He's super funny - he always refers to us as "man." He also may or may not be a kleptomaniac.. we're gonna have to figure that one out.

 

We had 2 blitzes this week (where other missionaries come and help us find investigators in our area), and because of that we had to spend a ton of time planning. By the time Thursday came around we were just done with planning and I never wanted to look at my planner again. But, we found 7 new investigators this week. Which is a lot. There were a lot of miracles involved in that, but sadly all of the times we found new people where when we were on exchanges or they were found my other missionaries for us,

so our goal this week is to actually find some people together :)

We've been biking a lot this week and I've come to really love biking - especially when we're biking home at night and it's quiet except for the birds and the sun is almost gone and the fireflies are out - it's kind of magical. The not magical part of our week is that we have weird bugs all over our house. Like, in our shower we found a bunch of weird black bugs, and some other bugs in the kitchen, and then we found a huge cockroach and an earwig and so I'm ready for that to be done.

 

Oh also we had interviews with the President this week and that was super great - I had a really long interview with him and he answered a lot of questions I'd been having, and I also got to train on Body Language to the missionaries who weren't in interviews - it was super fun :)

 

Okay, well lots of love from here :) Have a great week!

 

Hermana Reynolds

oh you know

Well, hello there!

Primeramente, here is my new address:

1912 Summer Breeze Apt A

Mission TX 78572

I'm serving in the city of Mission, in the zone of Hidalgo. My area is called "Palmhurst West," and it's brand new. Kind of.

This week I learned (once again) that I basically have no idea what I'm doing, but God is really ultra merciful.

So, on Monday afternoon they told us where everyone was going and they told me I was going to Palmhurst, and then people started saying "Oh! There's already a greenie there! You'll be finishing training her." So I was all mentally prepared for that. Then we went to transfers and I went up to the girl I thought I was going to finish training, and she and her companion told me that, no, they were opening up another area and I was getting a brand new greenie! Yessssss.

So, my greenie and I are whitewashing!

 

Her name is Sister Moore, she's from California, and she's super wonderful. The first couple of days I felt a little overwhelmed because she was super great and I was feeling like there wasn't a whole lot I could actually teach her. She's been so willing to jump in and act, and miracles are going to happen.

 

One of the first miracles is that our district leader, Elder Lindsay, was a missionary that was serving in Brownsville with me, so even though I didn't know anyone else in our new zone and district, we knew each other. We were friends before, and now we're tight and it's been such a blessing. We have many exceptional missionaries here in the TMM, and Elder Lindsay is definitely one of them. From the get-go here we've our district has had super great unity and a lot of focus, and I've seen a lot of blessings emotionally and physically and spiritually.   

 

Since we had little/no information at the beginning, our first efforts here have been valiant but a little pathetic. However, we're finally getting to know our members and our area and this area is wonderful. We have 23 active members in our area, and then 40 some-odd less actives, so we have lots of members in a small space (our area is mostly a biking area - we share a car with the other sisters that we live with, but their area is a lot further and bigger, so we bike/walk a lot. It's good :) ). So anyway, we've come up with some good plans and I am so excited to be able to work through the ward more.

 

Our fourth of July was pretty great - in the morning we went to the Stake Pancake and Breakfast Taco Breakfast (welcome to South Texas), where all of the missionaries sang the national anthem, then we went home and did some studies and then went to the ward activity. It was at the house of a member who has a zoo! like, seriously. He has this huge house out in the country and he has zebras and camels and horses and swans and probably other things too. It's not really set up like a zoo, but it was incredible. After that we went and did service with the elders (Scraping paint off of the garage doors of an investigator), got ice cream, and then went home at 6 to do weekly planning. We didn't see any fireworks, but we could hear them :)

 

Yesterday the 3 sets of missionaries that work in this ward met with the Bishop to get his vision and make plans for how we can work in this ward, then we had church, and then we went out working. We were having a pretty unsuccessful night, but then we found a less-active member who gave us rhubarb jelly, and then we were walking back to our car when we heard "SISTERS!" we looked over, and there were the AP's! They were at the house of the Stake President (who lives in our area) and they invited us in, and it turns out that they were having a lesson there with 2 recent converts along with 2 other missionaries. So the 6 of us were in the lesson, and then at the end they ended up thinking of 3 people they want us to meet with. It was such a big miracle and helped us feel like our efforts, pitiful though they may be, are recognized :)

 

Much love to you all! I forgot my cord to my camera,  but I'll send pictures next week :)

Love,

Hermana Reynolds