I Can't wear a Costume

I taught Bryce again this week. He is officially done taking all of the missionary discussions. Since his baptism date isn't until December 23rd, we're going to try and still meet with him to help him out in any way we can. We also want to make sure that his mom is doing well. She is less-active in the church, and since her progression towards coming back to church is very slow, we're going to see what we can do to help so in the long wrong Bryce won't feel alone with being a member. Every time I meet with Bryce I always get so happy, love that boy!!

There's also another kid we're teaching. Her name is Jordyan Howard, and she is just like how Maela McLaws was. Jordyan has a mom as a member, and she's super active. She also has two little sisters, who are active in the church, and a dad who isn't active in the church. This past week we met with her twice. We have one more lesson to teach her this upcoming week. Her baptism date is on the 11th at 11 am on the 11th month, none of that was done on purpose, but it's super cool! Teaching kids might just be my new favorite thing to do so far.

This one couple that we're teaching, Tara and Sven Krauss, invited us over for dinner. Their schedule has been pretty busy, and they only had one night that wasn't too crazy, so we stopped on by. They are pretty solid investigators, but are at a slower process. Tara is still trying to understand the basics of what most Christian religions believe, and now because they're always so busy, they can only meet for about half an hr at a time. They're a super sweet and nice family and I love them and how kind they are.

Trunk Or Treat happened. I was so excited to dress-up! I was soooooo ready to go all out with dressing up because I haven't been to one of these in about 4 years because marching band was always in the way of this awesome activity. I finally got to go and play with these little kids and young youth! I started planning what I was going to wear. Then.. I got a message from my leaders... I couldn't dress up for safety reasons. Someone may have "accidentally" brought some bruise make-up with them on their mission. So since our mission president's wife wants us to start wearing make-up, I decided to take some of that make-up and put it on my hand.

I did it pretty simply and I only did it for one of the two Trunk-Or-Treats that I went to. It was totally acceptable by my companion and by members around me. I'm so thankful for the Trunk-Or-Treat and I couldn't believe that I missed out on all this fun for so many years.

Yesterday was the Primary Program in each ward. I have grown close to so many of these kids and it was just such a wonderful Sunday for me!! Seeing these children with amazing Spirits and goofy attitudes just made me beyond happy! If any of you have the opportunity to attend a Primary Program on Sunday or go to a Trunk-Or-Treat, do it!! 

For those of you that are wondering, this Halloween missionaries have to make sure we're inside by 7 at the latest. It is preferred that we enter the house after dinner. It's going to be weird to sit inside the house at least 2 hours earlier than the normal time.

Shoutouts;

-I saw a husky this week 

-Grandma Roerta, I did a puzzle last p-day and finished it super fast, wouldn't have been able to do so without you providing me with about a trillion puzzles to do when I was a kid.

-Thanks to Grandma Roberta for giving me a mini-unicorn that I can grow and entertain myself that way when I have to be back home early on the 31st

-Thanks to my mom for the amazing new quad that she got me!! I love her and can't wait to mark it up and organize it.

-Thanks to those family members who wrote me a letter in the package my mom sent me

-Sister Reynolds :)

The quote above was said by my chiropractor, Dr. Andrew McKen, (also a member of the church and he went on his mission and got back 10 yrs ago), when referring to me telling my parents what I've been up to this week. I went on Tuesday, then I went back on Friday. I will be going back for a 3rd visit this coming Friday. I can only do 6 visits while I'm out on my mission, so the Dr/ Brother McKen is working me harder than normal people to try to get me better faster. It was kinda funny when I saw him for the first time. I was pretty scared that I was over-reacting and he was just going to tell me to do one little thing and to get over it and I'd be fine. I went in and he started feeling my back and see what was going on after I explained to him the pain I've been feeling. My back hasn't been able to really be cracked since about my junior yr of high school (even all three of my companions have tried) and he was able to do it. He also took my head, pointed to a part on my neck, told me to relax, and cracked it A LOT on both sides. My companion thought he killed me or something. He cracked my neck and back a crazy amount for both of my visits. The first time I was there it hurt so bad that I started crying, when the Dr./ Brother asked me a question and I answered, Sister Aversa said "Sister Reynolds, are you crying?" Of course I said no, but neither of them believed me. It made me realize the pain I was feeling was real and that I wasn't being a wimp.

The second appointment I had Dr./ Brother McKen was messing with my back and he said "this time, please tell me when you're in pain so I make sure I don't hurt you too much." Sister Aversa said "yeah, she doesn't like telling me when she's in pain." Then he said "yeah, I noticed. Usually when people come in they flinch or clench their fists, but she just absorbs the pain."

I'm doing a bunch of exercises to loosen my muscles and to try to get better. If you want more details feel free to email me and I'll do my best to answer what I know.

Diligence brings blessings! Don't forget that. Recently it's been pretty hard to meet with our investigators because of fall break and Halloween coming up. Everyone in Parker seems to just disappear any chance they get to go on vacation. My companion and I have been trying even harder to find more people to go visit and meet. Finally, on Saturday, 3 of our investigators that have been hard to meet-up with opened the door when we stopped by and we got to talk with all of them. We invited them to the Trunk-or-Treat and they all seemed pretty interested.

Tuesday night we had a practice for me playing the flute again. It was a bit over an hour drive. We asked a member to drive us and she took us four Sisters there. This member's son, who turned 12 on Sunday, tagged along with us. It was a crazy and super fun drive! It drove the member crazy, in a good way.

There was the North half of the mission fireside yesterday. It was about a 1.5 hr drive and we got over 100 miles on our car >_< I sang again in the choir for the opening and closing songs. I also played the flute again. When my musical number was being announced they announced me as the flutest and didn't announce any of the three Sisters singing the song or the pianoist. It made me feel special. I don''t think I'm that good, but it makes me feel pretty good that so many Elders, Sisters, and others were complimenting me on playing.

Transfers happened and I'm staying in South Parker with my same companion. That means for at least 1/4 of my mission I'll be in the same place.

At district meeting this week our District Leader gave us a training. His topic was about discerning and listening to the Spirit. What he did was gave us chocolate with different percentages of coco. All super gross chocolate. It was super funny because my companion was talking about how gross it was and she said "Look, even Sister Reynolds won't eat it all". There's a picture of this chart of what everyone guessed and the circled ones are the ones that are closest to the answer, and the answer is at the bottom. I was impressed with my skills, considering the normal foods I haven't liked most of my life so my taste-buds should be the worst. 

Stats;

I love math, when I was younger I would do that in the summer time. Constantly I will calculate how many miles we can use per day. So on the 12th of this month was my 3 month mark. I'm 1/6 through my mission, and that's when I'll be back home and I'll get to see my family again and hopefully my best friend. I'm 1/10 through until I get to see my dear friend who will be going on his mission in Jan. I'm 1/12 through until I see one of my favorite insane guy again. 

Shoutouts;

-Last P-day I bought some Disney cards, love disney! I played Remi and another game I used to play on the DSI. Thanks to my parents for helping me get the little game devise so I can entertain myself, and for my family, nana and siblings, for playing that game with me so much that I could teach my companion it.

-Not only are they being more strict than last week about wearing blazers and how often you have to wear them, but also about having to wear make-up. So thank you to my sister and my mom for buying me foundation and mascara that one time forever ago when we were at the store!

-Thanks to my dad for showing me some exercises to do to stretch and loosen my muscles so when I went to the chiropractor the Dr. was impressed by all that I'm able to do.

Why do I make these subjects if I just say random things?

First off, I greatly apologize for not sending out the mass email last week! I typed everything all out, but apparently I never hit the "send" button, so I'm super sorry for my silence for those of you who actually read these things!

Last week was our Zone- P-Day. What we did was go to the church. The Elders played some sports together for a bit at the beginning, then most of the Elders and Sisters carved pumpkins. I gutted my pumpkin, and like everyone else, I got a bowl and put all my seeds in there. After that we played soccer chair, never played it before, but it's super fun so you should look it up. The next day I got the seeds, washed them, and cooked them. I didn't do as good of a job as my mom did once, but it wasn't that bad.

On Tuesday my companion and I were in-charge of mutual for the Young Women in one of our wards. Sister Galeria asked if she could be over mutual one night. Finally the youth leaders found a day that was opened, and then Sister Galeria left me. Sister Aversa and I put our heads together and thought of our own plan. We decided to do a bunch of trainings (lessons that missionaries give to each other when we have our District Meeting). These trainings were the most active ones we could think of to get the YW engaged. They all loved it, which I was really surprised by because usually not everyone is super happy by an activity that goes on because of the different varieties of youth there are. After the little activities/ lessons, we played Soccer Chair! It was so fun, even all the leaders got super involved and everyone ended up laughing and having a ball. The success of this night was way beyond what I imagined.

There's this one super sweet older gentlemen that we saw this past week. His name is Richard Meese. He loves writing poems of not too long ago. He is a less-active member of the church and Sister Aversa decided to go see him because we were trying to find people in our ward to go see. We saw him and he totally opened up to us and started sharing all his poems with us. He doesn't get any visitors because he's out in the middle of nowhere/ Franktown, so he really enjoyed us coming over and talking to him and listening to all his cool stories he loved sharing. He could have talked for years and years, and now he wants us to come back and continue talking to him.

This Wednesday was our day of our Zone-Conference. I found out that there will be 16 new missionaries coming in, about 4 new areas will be opening up, and that 7 of our cars will be taken away. This mission will slowly start moving to become a biking mission. Also, at this conference, I had to wear a blazer. This mission President's wife thinks that the Sisters all look better with them on, and that they make us look like the wives' of the general authorities. So all the Sisters had to go out and buy some of these blazers. I went over to goodwill and got some... not super pretty ones, but that's all I could find. Not a single Sister I have talked to is happy about the blazers, but it makes Sister Savage happy. We also HAD to get a flue shot, gross. Shots honestly don't bother me, but I don't ever remember getting a flue shot, it's not necessary in my opinion, but oh well, I'll get end up getting sick from it.

On Saturday I watched my first baptism on the mission of someone I've taught. Maela McLaws was already going to get baptized and her family are members, but it was super cool to still be able to teach someone and then watch them enter the waters of baptism. I'm so proud of that little 8 year old for making that decision to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!

Yesterday was a Fireside for the whole South part of the mission. Next Sunday will be a Fireside for the North part of the mission. This musical fireside is called "Why I Believe". There were 4 people who bore their testimony and shared their story. The opening song was done by the choir of the missionaries in my mission, along with the closing song. One of the musical numbers had a piano player, an organist, three singers, and a flute player. Yours truly played the flute. I will be doing the same thing next week at the other fireside. So for those who have asked in the past, yes, I'm using my musical "talent" on my mission by matching pitch to the choir and showing other missionaries that they don't know how to read musical, rhythm wise, and by playing my own part on the flute!! *bows* :) :)

Service at Steph Kelly's house was awesome! Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but when my companion left to go to the bathroom Steph Kelly was a little worried about me. She asked me if everything was o.k. and if my companion was being nice to me. She wanted to make sure that I was taken care of. She's seen the way I work when I am and when I'm not comfortable. I love her for her kindness and willingness to make sure that I can handle those around me. Also while we were at her house, we were weeding and her new cat kept jumping in my lap, so she kept taking pictures of me because she just thought that was super cute. LOVE ANIMALS!

Just so you all know, this transfer is a little different. The MTC (Mission Training Center/ the place you go before you go out to the place you were called) make a bit of an error. Transfers usually happen every 6 weeks on a Wednesday. This week is a 5 week transfer/ 5.5 Week transfers. Usually, the transfers would occur not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday. Instead, transfer will happen this Friday, and next transfer will be a 6.5 week transfer to catch up. Then after that it will go back to a regular 6 week transfer.

Shoutout;

-Thanks to my mom for showing me that you can make your own pumpkin seeds forever ago.

-Megan and my mom, I got a new Personal Progress on Tuesday night. The challenge is on!! Can either of you finish it before I get back home with mine finished??

-Although you all three quite this brass instrument, I'm thankful for the one that played the smaller one this last year, the one that played the trombone, and the last one who picked football over band

-Thanks to my parents for letting me try out and play multiple instruments so that I may be able to help others feel the Spirit.

-Thanks to my wonderful older brother for letting me play with his legos all the time. I went to a member's house for dinner and they showed us in his basement of all the legos they had

-Thanks to my wonderful grandma for sending me some extra clothes, I've realized I've got about 1/4 of the amount of clothes that every Sister I've been with has.

-Thanks to my mom for the Chick-fil-a I got after seeing a baptism and then spending hours with other musicians with practice our musical number with me on the flute

-Thanks to my dogs for being perfect!!!!!!

Lessen the Load!

If you ask just about anyone that knows me, I have a problem with carrying more weight around with me than what is truly needed, both physically and mentally. I tend to deal with more problems then needed and I carry around too many supplies. I decided this week that it was time to "lessen the load"

Last week I bought a new bag. I have this giant bag that I told my mom that I NEEDED. So the big bag I have will be used at every district, zone, and other church meeting for now on. My other bag I will use when I'm walking around from place to place. It's good to be prepared for my meetings, but while I'm going to meetings and stopping by some member's house and so forth, I don't need as much things as I think I do.

Second, I've lightened my load by not procrastinating (1st sentence in Helaman 13:38). Taking things off your shoulders doesn't just mean to drop everything, but also to make sure that you're not making a pile of things to add on your "to do" list. I made a goal to read 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon daily and to not stop adding up that no matter what. I have fallen a bit behind recently, and three days ago I've finally caught up and I've been caught up ever since. Also on my journal writing, I've fallen a little behind on the days to write in it, I've had to really get my act together to make sure I don't fall behind. Lastly, I've been pretty bad at updating the information in the area book/ book missionaries have to keep track of all the members in the church congregation and others. I was able to update everything and that's been updated ever since! Once you realize you're procrastinating and you stop doing it, no matter how small it is, you'll realize the crazy load that will be lifted off of your shoulders, and it feels pretty great :)

I have been told since Thursday that it was going to snow today, on Monday. I watched a movie last night and convinced my companion to join me, knowing that she'd fall asleep on the couch. At night, for safety, you're supposed to stay in the same room as your companion, and I really wanted to sleep on the couch. 1. I just like sleeping on couches cuz it's comfortable, and 2. I heard that it was going to snow and I wanted to keep an eye out on the window and I couldn't do that if I stayed in the room with the actual beds. I woke up this morning, and went straight upstairs, and to my amazement it actually snowed. I ran back down to the basement, put on some shoes, than ran outside like a little kid. I made a mini-snowman, super fun. I've been told that this is the earliest it's snowed in a long while and people around here are predicting that it's going to be a rough winter, I'm super pumped!! I love the snow and I couldn't help but stand outside for a long while at 6:30 am. Someone, not naming names, wrote "Yay!" on the car window, and it's been a while since she's played in the snow, and she realized how easy it was for her hands to get numb, but I loved doing it anyways ;) ;)

An ET (Emergency Transfer) happened on Thursday morning. Some Sisters have physical disabilities to where the point where they can't walk around all the time. My mission is opening up a Call Center (where missionaries can teach people over skype, facetime, or phone calls) for the first time. My new companion's name is Sister Aversa. I stayed in my same area but Sister Galeria moved away. Sister Aversa is from Brazil, she speaks Portuguese, but her actual heritage is German. She is a super sweet heart. I have 3 moms, 2 step-moms. I am currently the senior companion. Sister Aversa isn't driving because her mom doesn't want her to. I am taller than her. So I have been taller than all my 3 companions out in the field and I always have had to be the driver. With Sister Aversa, I have to do language study with her so I have to help her learn new words, and that's super fun. I have to take a dictionary and read her a word and the definition, I've mainly taught her some theatre terms, what else do you expect. She also has to do an English book and I have to grade it. She was an exchange student her senior year before her mission and she's been out for about 8, almost 9, months. So the book she has is pretty advanced to the point where I almost can't grade it. 

Shoutouts- Lessen your load, and make sure to relax, people help you with this and sometimes you don't realize it;

- It's been cold recently, so it's nice to cuddle up with a jacket or something (sponsored by William)

- Even though it might be cold, getting some cold sugar in your body is pretty fun (sponsored by BonT)

- Along with the jacket, sometimes you've got to loosen up your clothes and just wear a comfortable large shirt (sponsored by Tie)

- Relax, at the end of the day lay down and watch a movie with some popcorn (sponsored by my new companion and the members I live with) 

- Release some stress by taking a walk, maybe with some... donkeys (sponsored by Promise Ranch)

- Go on a hike with some friends and enjoy the rocks and the different views that surround you (sponsored by Sister Reynolds when she paid for all the Sisters on Sister's p-day when we went to the Castlewood Canyon in Franktown/ Parker)

- Play some monopoly or some super awesome game. For those who don't know, Sister Reynolds loves games, and loves playing with money, so monopoly is super fun for her (sponsored by the members we live with) and, if you want, bring a 'lucky charm' with you when you play (sponsored by D-man)-- Also, just so you know, all the red hotels in the pic was mine, *whispers* I won, but that doesn't matter.

- Spread your wings and fly like a foil swan or a butterfly (sponsored by a member after dinner and also by mother nature for making butterflies migrate to the Parker South area in Colorado)

Shoutouts P2;

- HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRADY!!!!!! Love you little bro. ON the front of the car I took a picture and it has a smiley face, then a B-D (for B-Day), and then there's a B. That's meant for you B-rat ;)

- Thanks to my grandma for the boots she gave me so that I didn't have to ruin my shoes with the wet snow

- HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING! Hope you're able to celebrate it big bro

- While driving to one of our meetings I saw

these giant while golf balls. Turns out that they're actually satellites for a U.S. Marine Corps thing or base or I'm not super sure. But it made me think of both my dad and best friend

General Conference :)

Wow! General Conference happened, and I don't think I've ever been more excited to watch it then when I've been on my mission. There was no favorite talk that I loved more than the rest. What I used to love doing is looking up quotes from the talk and writing them down or putting it on my wall in my room. If anyone has any talk that they loved would you please send me a quote from it and tell me what you liked about it. I would love nothing more than to hear about it from you. In response, I'll tell you my thoughts on the talk as well!!

This week my companion and I had a lesson with this mom named Wendy. We actually met with her together for the first time. She completely opened up to us and expressed her struggles and concerns. The Spirit was so strong and she was in tears the whole time. We hope to meet with her more this week and see what we can do to help her. She has two really close families who are members and they're a huge help with Wendy. 

Our little 9 year old Bryce finally has a baptismal date. He wants to get baptized on December 23rd because he wants his families to be there for when he gets baptized. It's super far away, but I'm thankful for his decision to get baptized. It's almost good in a way that it's so far, because although he's completely ready to get baptized tomorrow, we feel like we need to help his mom come back to the church more. Chelsea is a less active member, and it makes it harder for a little kid to be part of a church when his mom isn't fully into it.

Friday night we went on exchanges. My STL, Sister Merrill came and slept over with me. Saturday, in-between the conferences, we did a switch and I went with my old companion, Sister Burke, until we switched back at 8:30 pm. We have a solo STL and Sister Burke is just a normal companion with an STL (Sister Training Leader). It's a little confusing, and I don't really know why there are solo STL's instead of a companionship of them, but the new Mission President felt inspired to try this out. On exchanges Sister Burke really wanted pictures, so that's what we did for a quick second when we were back together.

The weather is super cool recently and I couldn't be happier. There is snow on the mountains and it's sooo pretty. The mountains look less like shadows and more like a super beautiful white peak. I will never be able to get over the views with the mountains and the clouds of Colorado, especially in Parker.

At Promise Ranch, the theraputic horse ranch, the little boy that had a lesson the time we do service there didn't show up. So I walked around the horse he was going to us and waited to see if he was just going to show up. He never showed up, so then the person who is in charge of us was trying to think of something for us to do. A return missionary showed up, her last area she served in while she was on her mission was in South Parker and she did service at Promise Ranch. After her mission she moved to South Parker and now she works at that place. So she showed up for work and she told Shannon that we should walk the donkeys. It was soooo funny and super fun. I had Kate and Sister Galeria had Jake. We tried to run with them, but they're pretty stubborn haha.

I made cinnabon cinnamon rolls with the members that I live with on Sunday morning. It was pretty good!! It was super fun to make them too. From my memory, I don't think I ever made a home-made cinnamon roll, hope you're proud of me my little cook friend. When we were taking silly pictures of us making the food, the dad of the house threw powder on Sister Galeria and my face, we didn't actually become a mess from cooking until he decided to get involved haha.

On Saturday I saw general conference at a church building with some other missionaries. It was super awesome to be able to be around my fellow people. 

Alright, I need everyone's help please!!

1) Tell me a quote from general conference and what you liked about that talk

2) Simple ways I can get a lot of exercise in

3) Fast, cheap, and healthy meals that I can take with me on the go

Shoutouts;

- I walked into a members home and they had "Open Arms" playing... yeah... good song!

- I had cinnamon rolls Sunday morning, and I wouldn't have been so dedicated to wanting to have that without my wonderful family

- Hey Best Friend!! I was reading in the Book of Mormon and Alma 43:45 made me thing of you and what you do

- There was this one undressed 3 yr old and he was running a batman mask and saying how he's batman, it made me thing of the not Bob guy

- The one who played football in middle school and beginning of High School. It's kinda creepy because there's a lot of people around the place that remind me of you at your different stages, and they all look pretty similar to you. One of them is pretty shy, one was trying to show off to his friends and to some girls, and one is an absolute sweetheart. 

-Thanks to my dogs for the exercise they gave me in letting me walk them and getting some intense experience in that I could use when I'm on my mission walking an investigator's talk with her and her kids!

Stay happy!!!

-Sister Reynolds :)