Leap Day!!!

I usually avoid talking about investigators, but we've had a couple really cool experiences that I think I'll share this week :)

We met this woman named Nina. She's probably in her 50's and is tall and Caucasian and has a very brilliant personality, and we had had a little contact with her but kept missing her or she'd be about to leave. I kept thinking that she just wasn't prepared and didn't have a lot of faith in her, but we finally got to sit down with her and she said that she'd been looking for a church and that she needed to get closer to Jesus. The next time we had a lesson, we were going to teach the restoration, which is where the wheat and the tares get divided a lot of the time - especially when they're familiar with religion. Anyway, we found out that she's been living with her boyfriend for 16 years and he's been emotionally abusive. She started crying when we talked about how much God loves her, and when we talked about Joseph Smith she said "well that makes a lot of sense, why wouldn't there be prophets now?" and when we talked about the Book of Mormon she said "I'd always wondered why God would only send prophets to half of the world!" She couldn't get her boyfriend to drive her to church yesterday and she had work, but she literally snuck away for 30 minutes and had her neighbor drop her off just to be able to come for a little bit. So cool!

Anyway, I love you all! Hope your weeks are the greatest ever :)

--

Hermana Reynolds

Another week :)

Updates:

A new sister missionary joined the mission mid-transfer, and she's now living in the same house as us as part of the other companionship. She's from South Africa and has a vibrant personality that's been fun to have around :)

Elder Lawrence E Corbridge came and talked to the whole mission. I'll write about the spiritual things I learned in a minute.. first I'll share a funny story :) I guess his visit was pretty last-minute, and so on Thursday night we were driving back home from Laredo with the Assistants and President called and told them that the missionaries in the Valley (McAllen, Mission, Brownsville) were going to have a meeting on Saturday. Then the next day President told them that he wanted a specific musical number (Consider the Lilies with Sister Moore, Me, Elder Myler and Elder Jensen), but two of the people who he wanted to perform are serving in Laredo, so then he said to have the whole mission come. It was a little crazy - people traveled 6 hours total for a 2 hour long meeting! But it was VERY worth it and really fun to see all of the mission :)

Elder Corbridge was following up from the special broadcast that happened last month called "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" and it was really good. I guess usually when he did the training he had about 5 hours, but he had to do it in 2, but it was still very insightful. 

A couple of learnings:

After the Musical Number, Elder Corbridge talked extensively about unity - he said "I love musical numbers like that because there's a miracle that happens when people make music together." He said that you have to sacrifice your desire to be the best and be better, but work together to blend with the others and make it work for the best. He said that an Orchestra is a prime example of that and that when everyone has to do their best but work together toward a cause, magic happens. He then had us read D&C 6:32 where it says "where two or three are gathered together in my name as touching one thing..." and said that when we work together, we have to "touch one thing" - meaning we need the same objective and work together in the spirit. 

He also said that a lot of times we think of there being 2 types of people - those who are prepared and those who are unprepared - but that actually there's 3rd group, and those are the people who, with understanding, can become prepared. That means that WE have to be really good teachers to give them the chance to accept the gospel. No pressure ;) but it was good to hear that and realize just how important our efforts are.

I hope you all have splendid weeks!

Love,

Hermana Reynolds

:)

Well, hello there!

This week, I learned a lot about communication. :) 

I realized that, thus far on my mission it's been pretty easy to work with my companions, but not to rely on them. I've kind of had this silent inward feeling that we work better when we just both use our strengths separately. I know, I know - that's prideful and silly, but I didn't realize that. So, I'm realizing that this whole strong companionship thing isn't just so that there are 2 strong people working side by side, but that we combine those strengths into an even stronger companionship by realizing that we CAN'T do it all on our own, and then relying on the other's strengths when we have weaknesses. 

As I'm typing this I'm realizing the spiritual parallel - we need to have that kind of relationship with Christ. We can't do everything on our own, but it's not enough to be strong and hope that he uplifts us and keeps us going, but that we rely on him. It makes me think of the bible dictionary definition of Faith that says that "Christ has revealed to us his perfect character, which enables us to put our trust in him without reservation." He has every perfect quality, and when we recognize that we don't and that we NEED that, he can help us and we work together and become stronger as we become one. 

Phew - revelation is cool. 

Here's a missionary moment or two to wrap up:

Musical numbers:

Surprise! I started singing in front of people (don't faint, mom). We've had lots of meetings recently and I decided to get over my fears and sing more for musical numbers. We had our 3 Day Leadership meeting this last week, and I got to do a couple of numbers. Anyway, I've discovered that I actually really like singing and it doesn't terrify me anymore. Our president LOVES music, so we always have musical numbers at every meeting and we have a lot of talent here - it's fun to see :)

Winter: ha ha. I don't think there's been a day below 55 degrees, and most of them have been in the 70's or 80's (knock on wood). this entire last week has felt like September or May in Utah - it hasn't been super humid and it's been BEAUTIFUL! 

Well, I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Reynolds

Thoughts of the week:

There's a quote by President Kimball (I think), quoted by Elder Christofferson in a CES devotional, that says "As we serve we become more substantive - indeed, it is easier to "find ourselves," because there is so much more of us to find.

I've been thinking a lot about that, especially in light of the whole realization we had about loving people more last week. I think a lot of times when I've thought about love, I tend to think inwardly. Thoughts like, "I DO feel loved by this person, but I DON'T feel loved by this person," etc. When really that doesn't matter! I think Kirk Duncan once said something about how we often look at situations and ask "do I belong?" but really we should look at them and think "what can I offer?" and once we change that mindset we forget about ourselves and are happier. President Malluenda often says something similar - he says that the difference between a good and a bad attitude comes down to the opportunities we see; a person with a good attitude will see any situation with a million different options and opportunities, but a person with a bad attitude will only see one or two, and feel miserable. 

So the invitation of the week is to not feel miserable :) 

I love you all! Have a very happy Valentine's day!

--

Hermana Reynolds

:)

Hello!

We had a pretty tranquil week, for the most part. this was the first week in 6 weeks that we've had a whole week in our area, so that was pretty weird. We've gotten into the routine of being out of our area and then just packing in work in a couple of days, so we have to work differently when we actually have time :)

I realized that I never really talk about the culture of McAllen/the valley, so today I'm going to share some of my favorite tidbits. 

1 - the birds. There are so. many. birds. They pepper the sky pretty consistently and the power lines are always dotted with them. You can hear them singing even when you're in the car.

2 - the skies. there's nothing bigger than the Texas skies, and they're amazing. 

3 - the Tex Mex. I was listening to conversations in a store the other day, and I realized that it's become very normal to hear English and Spanish mixed into the same sentence. It's pretty rare that people don't know a little bit of both languages, and they have a bunch of lingo that just doesn't exist (such as "troca, [instead of camioneta]" "ride [instead of llevar]" etc) that has been adapted from English words that are easier to say. It's funny. 

that's it for now.

Here's a quick spiritual thought..

This week we were struggling a little bit to feel like we were doing things right. We're doing things, but the results haven't been super evident. Finally, we realized that we just weren't loving enough. Moral of the story, just love people. focus on the atonement, and why Christ suffered and came, and then just share that love. 

Plus, it's valentine's day, so what a better time to focus on love?

Love you all!

--

Hermana Reynolds