Enjoy what you do!

Remember to take every moment and laugh. Enjoy what you do, if you're doing it, why waste your time on being so sad and so negative?

While Sister Galeria and I were tracting, there was this really mean guy. He was closing the door and Sister Galeria tried to get in a word to this rude guy. She points up to the window that connects one side of the door to the wall and says, "Look! A spider".(  While we were at the door I pointed out the spider to her because I think they're cool and she's not a fan of them, and neither was my last companion. )Once this guy heard Sister Galeria says this, he jumped back and completely freaked out. We laughed for a long time after that, no matter how people treat you-- be happy.

You also never know how they might treat you after they were rude. That same day, we went on this one street and tried to talk to this gentleman outside, he was pretty mean and pushed us away. We went up and down this tiny street. When we came back he was pulled into his drive-way, probably forgot something, then two seconds later when he came back outside from the house, he handed my companion and I both a water bottle. It was super sweet. Remember, as was brought up in the Women's broadcast Saturday night, always treat others as best as you can, no matter how they may act towards you.

Another day this past week we were seeing if we could stop by a friend  of ours. We accidently went to the wrong house. As we were at the steps of the front door, two dogs came over barking at us. They were the cutest things ever. As a dog-lover, I HHAAAAVVEE to go up to the door and play with them from behind the big glass, screen door. As I did so, they got super excited and started running in circles. One of the dogs is big and one is pretty small. The littler dog was moving left and right like crazy and then hit the bigger dog in the face with his tail. He reacted as if he were in shock for a little bit, but then went back to normal being happy and silly. Something about that just made Sister Galeria and I laugh so hard.

We backed out of the super long drive way of this house and went up another long driveway to the right house right next door. On the way up through the woods of the super scary driveway, we saw a deer. Sister Galeria gave me a banana she had in the car, and told me to hand it to the deer. I was kinda confused, but did it anyway and then she quickly took my camera and took a picture of me, with the banana, and the deer. She then told me to throw parts of the banana at the deer, it was hilarious. I promise that I didn't hit the deer, I would've been greatly upset if I did that to him/her. 

At the beginning of the week it started getting colder. Then it got pretty windy.  I felt like we were going to be blown away sometimes when we were doing something outside. By the end of the week it started getting super cold. I've been told that the weather has been colder this time around than what it's normally like in the past. Some people are predicting that this winter is going to be one of the worst ones. I'm super excited for the cold, I love it so much!! The only problem is that I have to figure out how to drive in the snow, but hopefully by then I might have a companion who can actually drive on her mission.

So if you can remember one of my past emails forever ago, I said that I could be a model along with an actress. Sister Burke was sick and so I took a lot of super "awesome" pictures of myself. Well this past week we went over to an investigator's home, Tara and Sven.  Tara asked me if she could take a picture of me. She's a photographer, and she's taking a picture of someone every day to represent what she did that day. I felt like I was taking pictures at school all over again, "Move your chin down, etc.." But this proves that I totally can be a professional model now. 

This week as been pretty awesome in the fact that we've been able to enjoy so many silly moments together. We were able to stop-by some people who were on our former investigators list. We were able to contact 4 of them, and 3 of them are wanting to meet with missionaries again. When Sister Burke was my companion, we tried to find these people and talk to them, but they were never home or available. The Lord works in mysterious ways, whether they weren't ready yet, or the right people didn't come in contact for them and their progression. Whatever it was, I was thankful to meet all of them and I'm excited to meet with some of them more.

My cute little 9 year old Bryce met with us. He expressed that he's not sure about wanting to get baptized in November or December anymore, and that he thinks he wants to do it in October. Their family is super busy in that month, but its super amazing that he wants to do it even sooner! We told him to pray with his family about it and let us know if he finds a specific date he wants to have it.

I also met with Alexis and her two kids. While we went over to stop by pretty fast because they told us they didn't have much time, we found out that they were having this big, kid hang-out with those that live on the street. While waiting to teach them a little bit, Sister Galeria played and hung out with the kids. This one girl wanted to sing songs, she was about 5? and she's a member of the church. I rolled up my sleeves and got a bunch of little kids to sing some girl's camp songs. Then we played some hand games and other stuff as well. I love kids and I'm thankful for all the opportunities that I'm given to be able to play and hang out with them.

On Saturday I helped out with a service project early in the morning. We did a clean-up of one of the main roads near me. The mom of the members I'm living with told my companion and I to take a jacket. I didn't, but my companion did. It was kinda cold outside, but I liked it. My hands froze a bit, and were starting to get numb so it was pretty funny dealing with that. After the 7am-9am service project we had a lesson with an investigator. She didn't let us in her house and we just sat outside, I was freezing and I finally regretting not bringing a jacket. I thought that I was going to be fine because normally it would've heated up by 10 am, but Saturday it just didn't want to budge. I would definitely rather the cold than the heat, so I was happy by that. But the lesson is, no matter what kind of mom it is, always listen to them.

That night I also helped out with another service project, but don't worry, I was nice and safe and warm inside. It was super cool because from the activity day girls (girls who are 8-11) and up were at this service project. It was right before the women's session of general conference. It was super cool to see all the blankets, dresses, t-shirt bags, meal kits, etc that these wonderful sisters of the church were making. I'll never cease to be impressed by all the service the members of this church give to others. I'm so thankful to be a member of this great and glorious work.

Before I end with a more spiritual thought, I need to tell what probably is my favorite story of my whole mission so far. My companion, our zone leaders, and another Elder call this the "Scary Gary" story. On Friday night this guy named Gary texted us. Sister Galeria had the phone near her and asked me who that is. He said he wanted to meet with us. I was super excited because Sister Burke and I met with a guy named Gary at the beginning of our transfer/ near when I first got to Colorado, and Gary wasn't interested in meeting or talking to us or letting us do any service for him. So we were texting him and he asked us when the next time that we are available is. He then asked us what time the next day. We told him the time and then he informed us that we weren't going to make him become mormon. We told him that wasn't our intention. He told us not to bring anyone with us. As missionaries, we sometimes like to bring some people with us/ fellowshippers for the investigators. We like to find some friends for these people because that's the way the community of our church works, and missionaries move on, but members don't, so it gives them a friend who is stable in one place. We told Gary that we wouldn't bring anyone if it makes him uncomfortable. We have taught some people that don't want other people besides missionaries there because they feel pressured and don't like more people crowding their house or offering their help. Then... and this is where it gets weird, and where most people would stop telling their family and friends the story, but I have nothing to hide. Gary told us that "Sometimes I like to wear girls clothes, like a tank top and a skirt." We contacted our DL and then our ZLs. Our district leader told us to have a member watch from afar. As Sister Missionaries, we can't go into someone's house if it's just one or two males. Then we also got the Brother who is in charge of missionaries over the stake involved. He told us not to go over there as sisters. We got our zone leaders to go over and meet Gary at noon. They went to his door and then he asked if he could meet an hr later. We decided to go see him to actually see if he's interested, so that's why the elders went. Since the Elders, one of our Zone Leaders and his companion that he was on exchanges with/ one of my wonderful elders that was in the mtc with me, sat in their car for an hour and waited. Then they went over back to his house and.... no answer. We texted him and it turns out that it was a different Gary that was in the other ward boundaries. The four of us drove in our two different cars to my house to see the other teaching record for Gary. We keep teaching records for people to see what the missionaries have taught them and if they are a person that could be dangerous and to stay away from. Long story short, he has some mental disabilities, lives with his parents, and is 100% harmless. The Elders left and told us we could visit him ourselves. We went to his house and at first he wouldn't come to the door because he was too shy because of what he was wearing. We then drove about 3 houses down to get some service to call him and he texted us "wait, I'm sorry, please don't go". Finally he came out to the door and we talked on his doorstep. He was wearing a tight, multi-colored tank-top and a short and small jean skirt. He was also a chunkier guy. He's going through a bit of an identity crisis and he knows it's not right, so he was reaching out to the missionaries for some help. He is a very special-ed person, but we will always meet in public with him, take someone else with us from now on, and be very cautious when we meet with him. Super long and crazy story, but those are always best for telling for when you are on your mission. Sorry if I worried you, but this is completely safe and lots of leaders know and are aware of this situation and they agree.

At dinner last night my companion led the dinner message that missionaries will share with members of the church. The dinner I had was with Bryce and his family. It was about being a child of God, and how no matter what, that'll never change. I shared how I loved a talk from the Women's session of General Conference about your worth. No matter what you do, your worth through the eyes of your Heavenly Father will never decrease. One member, who is a young grandpa and I love him because he is about as preachy as my own dad, shared a story he would tell his kids. He said that he told their kids to go to the richest part of the town they were in, pick out the richest house and the richest car. Now go to that house and knock on their door every day telling them that their car and their house is worth nothing. Do that a few times. Then they'll just hand over their house and car to you, right? Sounds like a super good business plan? No? Well then why do you let people tell you that you're worth nothing and buy it? The buyer, our Heavenly Father, has already spoken. You are worth everything to Him, don't let horrible business plans rob you of that truth. 

Along with your worth, I love another one of the talks given in the women's session Saturday night. Don't let others rob you of your happiness, especially because they don't care about you being happy. Let yourself control whether you're happy or not. Find the joy in the journey :)

Please please watch General Conference this coming weekend. I wouldn't want anything more, but to hear all of your comments and things you loved. What talk did you like the best? Why? What were some quotes that you enjoyed? Please share and please watch and I'll do the exact same :) :)

Shout-outs;

-Thanks to my grandma and the jacket she gave me to use for my mission, it's coming in handy. 

-Thanks for the friends that keep me entertained by talking to me as I write these emails.

-Thanks to my mom for always giving me advice

-Thanks to my dad for being preachy ;p

-Thanks to my lil sis for being a good example of someone who can love others and be happy.

-Sister Reynolds :)