Follow the impressions of the Spirit

I know that we are given challenges in this life to help us grow. The Lord knows us best and He knows what we need. I know that Priesthood Blessings are there for us to use whenever we are going through anything in our life, and that if we have faith that they may be able to help us, then they will be an incredible blessing in our lives. I have learned so much on letting others around me help me. I have learned how to reach out to others when I'm not feeling so well. A huge lesson that I have learned, was being taught how to be patient through my trials and afflictions. I know that if I lean on the Lord for help, He will help carry me. My Heavenly Father is with me through my challenging times, and I will follow His will, no matter what it may be. I have learned how to trust in God's will more and more, and through me building that trust, I've learned that He will help guide me on the pathway that is best for me. I have understood what it means to feel the prayers of others, and how it tends to just flood into you. I am so blessed to know that our Father has a plan for each of us in this life. I know where I came from and I know where I will be going. I am so thankful for being brought-up in this gospel, and the endless comfort it gives me. Life isn't easy, and how wonderful that it to be able to experience hardships in our life. I love how much my testimony grows whenever I am facing some un-perfect situations. Although I've been experiencing some heartache, as I have told a few of you, I am becoming better from it. It's crazy how big my testimony is, I wish I could just share it with the world, but it's almost so over-whelming for me that I can't even express the intensity of how I'm feeling. I am all in the Lord's hands, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else or follow any other road. 

We had Sister's Conference this week and it was amazing! I got to see other Sisters in my mission that I haven't been able to visit with in a while. We talked about marriage (this is brought up every time we have a meeting), building your foundation on a rock- and what the things you have in your life that build-up that foundation, getting rid of the chains that are holding you down, and making sure you're being healthy enough in exercising and the things that you are eating. I love my mission and I'm so thankful to be here!!

Our Less-Active member, Dianna, that we are teaching is finally progressing!! She is reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. Dianna, along with our investigator, Beth, came both to Sacrament meeting and the second hour of church. It was so amazing to see both of their attendances, and for them staying for so long. Beth sat by some of the friends she knows, and she wants to start paying her tithing! She is too caught-up with things to meet with us, but hopefully we'll be able to teach her more about the gospel soon. I love that I'm finally seeing some progression of the people here and that I can see their beautiful testimonies grow!

Shout-outs;

-All of my dear and wonderful friends and family. You give me comfort and you give me strength.

-I keep a chain and a piece of clothing near me, it helps, thank you

Missionaries Like Pranks

Transfers happened and *drum rolls* I am staying in the Arvada 4th ward for at least another transfer, unless there is an ET again for whatever reason. My new companion is *does more of a drum roll* Sister Sanwo. I love this Sister and I'm so thankful that she is still my companion!

On Tuesday we decided to play a "prank" on our District Leader. Usual for District meetings we have to wear blazers or suits. For some reason, he decided that we didn't need to wear them in our last district meeting together. Our Zone Leaders go to every district meeting in this area, so they texted all the quails and told them to wear a suit or a blazer. We all showed up to our Meeting with a suit or blazer on and our king quail started the meeting. The first thing he said was, "wow.. I.. told everyone that they didn't need to wear a suit or a blazer and.. you all did.. wow, I feel stupid." He knew that we were all messing with him and we laughed about it for a good while. I love our beautiful Quail District, and that might be the end of all the Quails though. Since we had transfers, our mighty quail king left us. We got a new District Leader and our old one, Elder Hills, made-up this rule that no DL can be King Quail unless they served as the DL in the Quail District for over 4 transfers. It's sad that it's dying, this week will probably be my last week sending a picture of some Quails (just so you know, any bird picture, they are all quails, there are just different variations of quails). 

What's cool about our new District, is that everyone out of our District are all babies. There's "baby quail" who is just experiencing his second transfer on his mission, then there's another Elder who just finished his training, so this'll be his third transfer, his new companion is started his fourth transfer, Sister Sanwo is starting her fourth transfer as well, and then there's the new District Leader and I who have only been out for four transfers and we're staring our fifth. I'm not sure if I've told any of you this, but this new Elder who is our DL, I would see him EVERYWHERE at the MTC. He wasn't in my District, but he was in my Zone. For some reason, just about every corner my companion and I turned, we saw him and his companion. It was so weird, but pretty funny. It's so strange to see that he is now my DL. I don't understand why our District is like this, but I think that I'm really going to enjoy being one of the two oldest people. 

When transfers happened on Thursday, my companion and I were texting all the Elders seeing who the new Elders coming in were. We texted this one Elder and asked him if he was our new District Leader, and of course, he said yes. With our DL, we have to text him and ask him permission to leave our area and we have to account to him on what's happening in our lives. So Sister Sanwo and I have been texting him and we've asked if we could leave our area to get gas one day and another day to go get food. Friday morning we found out, from our real District Leader, on who really was over us. This Elder had been faking it the whole time, and he's been forwarding all the text messages, of us asking fro permission to leave the area, to the real DL. We think that he's pretending to be our DL in spite of Sister Sanwo taking 3 months to figure out his name, even though they've been in the same District for that whole time. Our real DL gave us permission to put a prank on him. We don't know what we're going to do yet, and we've been brainstorming a lot of things, but we'll see if we can make something cool and creative happen.

Random things;

~It snowed, like hard, like 8 inches hard, and Sister Reynolds couldn't be happier

~We killed a mouse.. his name was Freddie... It wasn't my choice..

~I learned how to cook this week.. twice! Two people put an apron on me and got me to work, and they left Sister Sanwo alone because she's a master and a wizard in the kitchen

Sunday;

Is snowed from midnight to about 5 pm on Sunday. All the missionaries were praying with all their heart that they'd be able to not get a message that we would be stuck inside.The snow is the best thing in the whole world, unless it keeps you from doing something that you long to do. At 8 am we got a text message and my companion and I could hardly look at it. Thankfully, they gave us permission to be our on the roads. We were told very specifically to be very slow and very cautious and make sure all the windows were perfectly cleared off and so forth. We were very anxious to go to church today because President M Russell Ballard was coming to our stake center to speak to the people of Arvada and to have it broadcast to another stake! We were all so blessed to have the opportunity to hear from him. 

Spiritual thought;

It's crazy how different it is when you do and don't prepare yourself to hear an apostle speak. I remember, just a bit, the first time I heard him speak, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, but there wasn't much that I got out of it. This past second time that it happen, it was super amazing! I prepared myself a bit more and I took some notes and that made a world of a difference. I was talking to someone after the Multi-stake conference with President Ballard, and he told me how he read the Book of Mormon 4 times, and he didn't receive any confirmation if it was true or not. His intentions for reading the Book of Mormon was because of this LDS women he had met. If you want to know if something is true or not and you have a strong desire to know, then you have to make sure your intentions are right and that your heart is truly in the right place. There was also this women, Dianna, who came to the conference with President Ballard. All three speakers hit every point that Dianna had questions about it, but she had this wall up and so she got nothing out of this conference. It's super sad and it breaks my heart that she was unable to hear the things that were spoken, but everyone has their own agency.

Shout-outs;

-For some reason, my companion, the member we live with, and I were talking about guns. They asked me when I have shot any and then I mentioned this one time that I was just horrible at it. Thanks for that fun adventure haha

-I've been thinking about doing a good prank, and that makes me think of my dad and his fun stories that he has. Thanks for always being so goofy!

-Sister Sanwo broke her glasses, so we had to go to the library for her to order some new ones. I was next to her and bored, so I was on mormon.org, and I found my amazing and lovely brother. It truly made my day!

-Just wanted to tell my mom that I love her and that she's the best

-Sister Reynolds :)

1250 Main St

Broomfield, CO 80020

6 Months of me being awkward.. and I have survived

Dear my perfect people, 

Yesterday we were stuck inside for the first half of the day because of all the snow falling and it wasn't safe to drive on the icy roads! It was so amazing to see all the snow fall. Since both of my companion and I are adventurist people, we decided to "rebel" and go for a walk right outside of our ward boundaries. Our District Leader and his companion are over that area and the DL gave us permission to go there on P-Days and for exercise at 6:30. We had yet had a chance to go exploring, so with the free time we were given, we went out and saw this Lake.

 It was super fun, but my companion kept trying to make me take "cute" pictures. So I apologize for all the pictures of me, but I did delete over half of them. If you notice, the super amazing and stylish blue hat that only the most fashionable people wear it, that's why no one has one like that but me, is something I made. *bows*

While on exchanges earlier this week, I decided I wanted to go tract the mountains. Since my companion went to another area and I had this Sister who's been out for half the time as me, I dragged her along to this area. She couldn't be happier that we were seeing the mountains. She is from Utah and this just reminded her of her home, Sister Payne is just the cutest!

I can't believe it! In just 2 days is when this transfer ends and when the new transfer begins. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen to me this time. I love the area I'm serving in, it is one of the, or the most hardest missionary place to serve in the CDN mission. I like being in a place that is challenging, I don't appreciate things handed to me so easily, it takes away all of the fun. Wherever I go next, I know that it is right where the Lord will have me. I'm so thankful that my mission experience with those I've served with and the places I've served in wasn't ideal. I have learned so much and I'm not exactly sure what more I have to learn, but I'm super excited to find out!

Challenge; If you have yet to do so, watch President Monson's Funeral. It was super amazing and spiritual and I loved it! So many missionaries, members, and others cried because of how wonderful it was. Also, watch the First Presidency announcement. I have yet to watch the announcement, but I heard it was really good and I'm super excited to see it later.

Pictures:

Sorry, I have a lot of random pictures of Sister Sanwo and I at the lake with the snow along with when I was with Sister Payne on exchanges. I also saw some things that remind me of people. Then you can't forget that one picture of a Quail because.. ya know.. quails. 

Spiritual moment;

While at Cold Stone, the music was blasting some pretty weird things really loud. It was super cold outside, yes, I can eat ice cream when the weather is freezing, and we can't eat in the car, so we stayed inside. 

We were reading some scriptures together and were trying to decide what to share with this family. As we were reading scriptures together, none of us could even hear the music or the other people around us. The power of the Book of Mormon is so strong and I'm so thankful for this perfect gospel and the blessings it brings.

Shout-outs;

-I went to Cold Stone and finally used the gift-card someone send me, thanks for that!!

-I saw a silver mini-cooper with a Texas license plate on it... then i ate some cake.. happy birthday bro!!

-I saw a moose while tracting doors.... made me think of this super tall guy that lives in Vegas.

-Sister Reynolds has hit her 6 month mark this past week!! Happy Birthday Sister Reynolds :)

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What day is it?

I'm so delusional with time right now. This transfer has gone by faster than I will accept. There is less than two weeks left before people get moved around again. My mission is starting to fly by and I do not approve at all. My lovely mom reminded me that I have almost hit my six month mark, not possible. I think time is just playing a trick on me, I'm not ready to be this far into my mission.

I'm not sure this is possible, but I felt like I had another swift or side affect from my concussion I got two months ago. The top of my head started hurting so bad, I got super dizzy, my body felt really weak, had a sore and tight back, and I would just fall asleep so fast. It was the weirdest thing. We called our nurse and she said that it was a cold and that I would start getting a fever, stuffy nose, and a sore throat, but none of that happened. I got a short blessing from my district leader and then 4 days later, today, my head just hurts a bit. It is slowly going away, so there's nothing to worry about. It was so strange, and no one could really figure out what it was. Now I'm on the end of having it, so it's just been here and gone. This is just my report for what I was doing on some of the days this past week.

While we have been out tracting and knocking doors we found something that was hidden. We found tons of houses and this pretty sweet amount of condos. We are going to take the YSA (Young Single Adults, they're over a ward with single people from age 18-30) sisters with us tomorrow and do a blitz there. I've never done a blitz before, but it's where missionaries get together in a tough area and go try to find people to teach. YSA sisters usually knock on apartments because younger people usually live there, so we're going to kill two birds with one stone. It's going to be super fun!  

The ward that I'm over has church service at 9 am now. I personally like having church at this time rather than 11 or 2. This Sunday one of the counselors in Primary was sick, so my companion and I were asked to do sharing time. There is nothing better than being around a bunch of cute and adorable little kids!

Pictures;

-The member we live with have these super cool paint by numbers that they do and Sister Sanwo and I talk about them all the time. They gave us a canvas to paint. It's not like what they have, but we're super excited they gave it to us today.

-There's a road here called Ward Rd and the hill is super steep. It's super fun to go up and down this giant mountain at a good speed.

Shout-outs;

-Our dearly beloved Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson passed away on the 2nd of January. I am so thankful for his wonderful service to us and the wonderful revelation he has given us.

-Last week the Community Food Bank that I do service at gave me some Chobanis. This week I was at the service for the nail place and I did french tips by myself. I'm turning into someone I know super well, it's weird. (mom)

-While driving in this neighborhood I saw a street sign with QUEEN in big letters. I made my companion stop so I could show my sister that I found her on my mission.

-The 15 yr old girl that we live with was playing sandbox the last time I saw her. Now I know what game my family likes to playl thanks for updating me B-rat.

-HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANE, on the 11th

-My companion kinda knows her cars and my DL has a Rav4 that he loves. I'm trying to get a better grasp on knowing cars for mi padre and mi amigo.. not the best... but I'm trying

-I had a dream last night that a friend was going to like his dream mission, it was like a dinosaur mission. It was weird, especially because I never remember my dreams.

-I had a pretzel last week when I was out shopping, I miss getting them for free all the time.

-There's a missionary who kinda looks like my temple friend, kinda weird

--Sister Reynolds:)

2018!! It's come too fast

 

I don't have too many interesting stories to tell you this week, so here's a bunch of little things that happened;

^In the end of December, my little 10 year old, Bryce got baptized!! I wasn't there in Parker when it happened, but I'm so proud of him!

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​^On Monday 3 Sisters took a nap, and I decided to write letters to my wonderful family. 

^We moved back into our house that we were in first at the beginning of this transfer.

^One day the Elders asked us to pick up some milk they had left at the church building. When we came to bring it to their house, no one was home, so we just covered it with some snow.

^We saw a member this week who lives pretty far from where we usually stay in our area. We drove to her house and it was absolutely GORGEOUS. It is on top of a hill and inside the house looks even better (sorry for my bad pictures).

^We saw two non-members this week. They showed s their backyard with their horses and a goat. I love animals! It was so nice to be back around horses. Their goat reminds me of a dog because it followed us around as it was on it's side of the gate. Her eyes were so pretty.

^On Saturday our tire decided that, all of a sudden, it didn't want to have much air. We asked for permission to leave our area. The Elders asked us if we knew how to put air into our tire and I did *flips hair* While we were at the gas station I couldn't get air to go in the tire. We called the Elders and 4 of them showed up. Love my Elders. They tried to do it and it turns out that the air pressure pump wasn't work, not my fault. Then we all went back to one of the Elder's house. One of them started pumping it up with a bike pump *facepalm* they're so funny. Finally, one of them found their own air pump thing that the members they live with have. After a few minutes of trying to get it started, it finally worked. They tried to pump our tires, but not all of them worked properly. It was super fun and crazy. Long story short, either the self-gauger is off or the one on the car is, but we decided that we're going to take it to Firestone today, I'll let you know how that goes though. The Elders are my favorite and I love them for standing out in the freezing cold, late at night, to help us helpless Sisters out. The best part is that they wouldn't let us help or touch the tires. One Elder even said "We have to stand up for you, I'm not going to let you do this."

^I led the music in front of my whole mission, pretty fun! I also won at a cup-stacking game

Shoutouts;

-Sister Savage's Birthday is January 1st

-As the year came to an end, my companion and I have done a lot of driving to use up all the miles that we have. We also drove to the South, past Denver. It made me feel like I was on a mini-road trip. I felt like one of my people who just likes to drive around from place to place all the time.

-I had more Hawaiian chocolate, best thing ever!

-On the 31st they organized the missionaries by their zones. I was in the 7th group.

-Thanks for taking me to school so I could learn how to do cup-stacking pretty well so I could beat all my Elders in my zone!!!

-Sister Reynolds :) :)

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White Christmas

Wow, Christmas came and went so fast. As a missionary, time just goes by if you're truly pushing through and being diligent and obedient. I couldn't believe it when Christmas Eve hit and now I can't believe that Christmas is over. I'm not done living in the wonderful world of people being nicer and kinder to each other.

Last P-Day we had Zone P-day. We had to wear Hawaiian shirts because one of our Zone Leaders is Hawaiian. Sister Sanwo and I went to GoodWill and found some pretty nice ones. We went bowling together at a place called Fat Cats. It was super fun and I beat the 3 Sisters that are closest to me. It was super fun. We also went to one of our church buildings and did a white elephant gift exchange. I bought a nerf gun and the Elders kept stealing that from each other *flips hair* I know what my missionaries like.

Random things in the week;

^I gave a training in my District Meeting on Tuesday. I related it to theatre, it was, as my zone likes to say, "Dope"

^At one service I helped out with special kids. I talked to them as they ate their lunches, it was super awesome.

^At another service I did, I was at the community food bank. They were having a volunteer appreciation week. We went to the Break-room and ate some food. In came this older man and my companion and I, and our two zone leaders started talking to him. He asked us what we were doing for Christmas. I started to explain to him that we were missionaries and we can talk to our family. After a little bit one of the Elders helped me out and then gave him a Light The World card. It was "Dope"

^For Christmas, my grandma gave me a necklace with a place to put a pic. I put a pic of my comp. If anyone wants me to put them or something else in there, send me a 3/4" by 1" pic or a pic that I can cut that small piece.

^We went on exchanges. I drove again. I drove in the snow. Super scary, but fun

^It snowed... twice... and now a third time today!!!!!!! I HAD A WHITE CHRISTMAS!!

^While tracting, I shoveled some people's house, two little kids in my ward joined, it was "Dope"

^One night while tracting I caroled, just my comp and I, and we were perfectly in-tune. At one house we sang to, they let us in, and we sang "hey Soul Sister" with this teen.

Christmas Day was the best!!!;

-In the morning I got up, at 6:30, and I went to the presents. It's so weird, it was a little lonely not having crazy siblings run before me and start handing me things. This seriously was the year I've gotten the most presents. It was almost kind of over-whelming and I truly don't know what to do with all this stuff. I love and appreciate everyone who reached out to me and shared their love with me. I had some prayers answered that I didn't even realize I had.

-At 7:45 the Sisters picked sister sanwo and I up and we went over to a member's house (The Tarullo house) and ate breakfast. When we got there she had a little stocking from us. It was kinda funny because Sister Sanwo said "it's nice to be home". The member's house that we went to was the member that we were living with. Then, on Friday, we had to move out because of the family that was in town. Tonight we will be moving back in with them though.

-The Sisters brought us back to the house we are staying at now. We then left to go to this other member's house (The Bookwalter Family) and they gave us some scones. I honestly don't remember ever having them before, but they were good. 

-At 10:30 I got to Skype my amazing and beautiful and lovely family. They're so great and perfect! I love them with all my heart and I'm glad that we were able to see each other. It was nice, and too fast, but it didn't feel weird at all to talk or see them again. After me, Sister Sanwo got to talk to her awesome family.

-The first movie of the day that we watched was LEGO Batman. The Bookwalters had never seen that movie before, and they were super funny as they watched it. They were laughing the whole time, even though they kept saying it was stupid. Sister Sanwo got so exhausted after watching it. I loved being able to relax and watch and laugh at something again!

-We then saw this family who aren't members and who aren't investigators, but they were so great and fun to hang-out with.

-As we went to this next member's house (The Bashford Family), we started playing this card game. I can't remember what it's called, but it's like spoons, but instead you have a partner and you give them your sign that you have all of the same kind and they have to shout this one word and then you two get a point. 

-The second movie we watched was Mulan. We didn't have a lot of time, so we could only watch half of it. I love this movie so much!!!

-Last, we had a big Christmas dinner, it was super nice.

I love Christmas and I hope the rest of you had such a fabulous week and Christmas Day!!

Spiritual Experiences;

^I met with this one lady last week. She was telling us this creepy story about her life. My companion and I went back to our house, all alone, in the dark, with a bunch of... weird noises. We both got a little weirded out. It got to the point where my companion, who is from a sketchy part of California, grabbed a knife and was searching the house. That night, as I read the Book Of Mormon, all became fine and well. There is extraordinary power in the beautiful book! I promise you that those who read it will feel of it's power and it will comfort you, protect you, provide for you, and just over-all make your life so much better.

^I had another experience this past week where things became a little crazy and chaotic. I prayed for help to find time that I needed to accomplish so much. That night there was a big snow storm. We were told that we could no longer be out and that we needed to head-in for the night.I was then finally able to catch-up on everything that I needed.

Shout-Outs;

-When the song "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" played, I thought of my wonderful guys who could sing that song at a church dance. Forever grateful for you!

-When we caroled, I thought of my crazy Grandma. There was this one older lady, still pretty young though, and she got super into us singing. Then we, the missionaries, started to have a conversation with her and it was so funny. She was super animated.

-Everyone time the LEGO Batman said "I'm Batman", my mind kept turning to one person. Love you!

-Joseph Smith's B-day was on the 23rd. Thanks Dad for reminding me two weeks in a row.

-I was around this one lady this past week and she told me how she needed to learn how to shoot a gun. I still am no pro, so I'll just steal my marine and get him to save me and use a gun.

-I had to wear a Hawaiian shirt for Zone P-Day. It was waaayyy to big on me, but it's comfortable.

-I played card games with this one family and it reminded me, once again, of the wonderful times I've had playing card games with my family! Love you!