Sister Reynolds "died"

Sorry for the brutal subject, it's just apart of some missionary lingo. Whenever a missionary goes home, they end up "dead", and whoever their last companion was, was the who murdered them. Sorry for taking so long to finally finish typing up this email and sending it out to all of you beautiful people. I love you all!

  

My last week in the field I went to a zone conference. My companion and I were unable to go to our zone conference. There are two zone conferences each transfer/ every 6 weeks, one for the North half of the mission and one for the South half of the mission. I was currently in the North half of the mission, but on the day that zone conference fell, I had a dr's appointment, and President Savage asked me to keep that appointment. I set-up that appointment about a month ago, and I have been waiting for years for it to finally come. So I went down to the south (really killing our miles), and I had a blast being there.

The appointment was concerning my crazy head. The Doctor I went to is named Dr. Joseph Smith! Super funny, gets me every time. Nothing more concrete was brought to surface concerning what I actually have, but I did apparently have a fever. Looking back on it, I noticed that the past few weeks when I was out in the filed, I was constantly feeling on fire and I wouldn't wear any jackets or extra clothing out when it snowed. 

On my last Monday, we went hiking and had a super awesome Nerf gun war with the whole zone! It was honestly my best zone-P-day ever!! However, while we were hiking, my head wasn't feeling too wonderful. It started off hurting at about a 6/10 and then quickly ended up jumping to a 9/10. Luckily, the most part of the hike wasn't steep, so I just somehow got numb to the pain. Then, close to the end of the hike, it started getting super steep. I had to slow down, and no longer was I able to enjoy myself at the front of the pack. I had to stop about 3 times and I ended up behind everyone with one beautiful sister. One of the times when I stopped, I just couldn't stand anymore, so I sat down, and I noticed that everything was moving and spinning drastically more than it usually does, and I almost fell over while sitting. The other missionaries soon stopped and waited for me, which made me feel super bad because I've never experienced being the cripple in the group before. The view, when stopped moving so fast, was gorgeous, and I'm super thankful that we did it. It turns out, that part of the hike was not in our mission.

My companion and I thought we weren't in our area because of our experience when we went out of the mission and to the south for a dr's appointment. We asked one of our zone leaders about it possibly not being in our area and he said "well, this is where we went last time for a hike, when I was serving in this area. What are they going to do, send me home?" He is going home, not this transfer, but the next one, and his companion is going home at the end of this transfer. Trunky missionaries (missionaries who are going home soon and they are just ready to go) are insane more than their usual amount. After the hike, we went to a church building, and my companion and I pulled out our massive rifle and machine gun that this RM sister was gracious enough to let us borrow. There was a game or two that I had to sit out because of my head, but my amazing DL pulled me right back on, and got me to join his team. With no surprise, when there was no cheating involved, my time won! Looking back on it, I'm so thankful that I had this P-Day to call my last one out of my P. 1 of a mission. 

President Savage asked me to update him every once in a while about my health while out on a mission. I have been writing emails to him weekly and telling him what's going on, along with an occasional text messages. I have been letting him know how difficult it is to actually work. After communicating with him a few times and not being able to get any advice from him, my companion called him up and asked if we could meet with him in person. We met with him on Friday, after our community food bank service. We met-up with him in the mission office, so we were able to see the lovely senior missionaries that are stationed there. My companion talked with President Savage first, then I followed. Afterwards, he called Salt Lake City, the LDS missionary headquarters, and asked what the next step is to help me. We waited for about 4 hours to hear the results. Then President took us into his office, and he told me I was going home tomorrow. He called my parents and I was able to talk to them over facetime. Haha! I didn't have to wait for Mother's Day after all see see them again. It was the weirdest thing to be told, out of the blue, that I would be home in less than 24 hrs. I knew that they would send me home soon, but that was a really fast thing for me to have to find all my stuff, and pack it or ship it home.   

My family is amazing and I love them! I have moved in great. It's kinda like a new transfer​​; new place to learn, new people to meet, and I won't stay here forever. My plan is to get better asap and then go straight back onto a mission. If you have any questions , need anything, or want to just talk to me or reach out to me in any way, all my information is below. Thanks so much for your support, encouragement, love, and for those who actually read this email. You are all just the best! I wish you all the miracles in the world!!

Shout-outs;

-Thanks to the snow that decided to be present right before I left Colorado

-Thanks to my mom for constantly being there to fix all the corrections that need to be done to all my mass emails

-Thanks to my grandma for the money to get me the curling iron that I was able to curl my hair for our super "dope" zone P-day

-Thanks to my mom for the silly shirt that says "sorry mister I'm a sister" that my DL and 3 sisters "forced" me to wear

-Thanks to my friend who took me on a boat and paid to play bingo. I was at the retirement home and I called Bingo for the older people. Love that game! Would play it any day.

-Thanks to the silly guy who reminded me every single day to send this email off to all of you. He gave me the most motivation to get off my lazy self and do it.

-Thanks to all my friends and family for all of their love and support during this process!!!

If you had my phone number before it is the same

5432 Landsdowne Ct

Cumming, GA 30041

aubreyr98@gmail.com

-Aubrey Kaye Reynolds :) 

"Watch out with what you say, because she can hear everything" -Dr Pingree

I went to see the ENT Doctor on  Thursday and that seriously took up our whole day. The first thing we did in the morning was leave for our gorgeous ride down to where I used to live. We road along the outside of our mission because we were already going to be out of our area for the appointment, and we got permission to leave. It was so amazing just coasting by the big mountains. This morning, the snow had drizzled a bit, so the mountains were nicely coated and the roads were safe to drive on.

Once we made it down to Lone Tree, right next to Parker, we went out to eat, and then I had to fill-out some paper-work for my appointment. The result of this meeting was follows;

*I have perfect hearing (that's where the quote came from on the subject)

*The crystals in my ears are fine and there's no issues there

*Someone was able to put Sister Reynolds in a corner, in a box *moans*

*It's super easy to make me feel dizzy

*I am on a week long medication that I was on when I got into a car accident

*I am taking 4-6 pills of Advil a day, had to go buy some more

*I have exercises that I have to do daily that make me so dizzy, one is throwing the ball, so I'm having fun carrying around balls and having a medical reason for it

*They want me to go do some PT and possibly some dry needling

*There's no confident conclusion on what's wrong with me. However, they're expecting me to be better in about 2 months

On our way back from the Dr's appointment, Sister Sanwo accidentally took a wrong turn, and we ended up waaayyy out of our mission. It was super funny, but super scary. We were then just trying to follow the GPS, and it took us through this little town in Golden.

I love the adventure that we were on today, even if I do feel sick every time I'm in a car. Being in three missions in one day is really such a blast, I'm so thankful for being able to do things differently than other missionaries, Sister Reynolds likes standing out in her own way!

In Relief Society, I asked to pass around a badly made list to see when the sisters of our ward would be able to come out with us so we could get more work done when I have to stay home and rest. To my surprise, a lot of people actually signed up and said that they could help us out. I was super touched my this, I'm so thankful for the ward that I'm serving in! It's so awesome when you see how many people are willing to help you in your time of need. There were a lot of women in there that I haven't even been able to talk to much, and they signed-up to help. I'm so bad at asking for help, but I couldn't be more touched that I was able to do that.

On Sunday, there was a member's grandson, David, and his friend, Crystal, who came to church. They are about 19 years old, and both super sweet. They stayed all three hours and seemed very touched by all three meetings. We were able to get Crystal's number and she said she'd be interested in meeting with us, coming back to church, and going to the women's conference on Saturday. We're excited to reach out to her more and see how we can help her come closer to Christ. If they become investigators, then they will have to be handed over to the YSA (young single adult) ward because they are within that age range. It's okay if we can't keep them though, as long as they're finding their pathway back to their Father. 

Challenge: For those who don't go out much, find a time this week to let loose and have a little fun. Going out somewhere, that isn't too expensive, or driving a little farther than normal, or anything that you like doing, do it. Relax and find the joy in the adventures that you like taking, that you don't do enough for yourself. Dove chocolate tells me to treat myself all the time.

Miracle Moment;

Our Zone Leaders picked up some mail for us and the next day they gave it to Sister Sanwo and I. Sister Sanwo got some shoes, some glasses, and a letter. We also got the Ensign for this month. As my beautiful family knows, I love letters. Both of my parents had told me that the family had hand-written me some letters. When the Zone Leaders didn't have a letter for me, I was a little saddened. That whole day we had to stay home because I wasn't feeling too well. Sister Sanwo wanted to play the piano so we went upstairs for a little bit. I was having a self-pity party because I wasn't out and about doing what the other missionaries were doing. I was chilling on the couch, closing my eyes, and trying to relax so the aching swelling in my head would go away. Later, the doorbell rang with a package for the members we live with. Brother Tarullo got the door, then came in and gave me a letter from my family. The Lord was waiting a little longer for me to be at a lower point in the day, before he surprised me with something that I truly treasure. I'm so thankful for the His timing and all that He does to lift me up. I also couldn't be more grateful for my family and the constant love and support they give me. I love you so much!!!

Shout-out;

-I went to the butterfly pavilion, that humidity the moment you walk in reminds me of some strange place called Houston

-At the butterfly pavilion I saw some flowers that looks like it came from a place over s short distance across the waters, I love my foreign friends 

-I held Rosie/ the tarantula (she's famous, like me. She was in the movie "Heaven is for Real")! I need my mom to join me and get a sticker with me ;)

-The wonderful Ballew family sent me a package with some goodies in it. The Ballews are the best!

-The Ballew family also sent me dove chocolates. Made me think of some old times with my two best friends on a super amazing band trip that I'll never forget!

Pictures:

-The factory in the picture is actually a beer factory. So many people in our area talk about it, even members, so we thought we would talk some pictures for some people because we were out of our mission and this would probably be the only time that we'd be able to see it or even be near it.

-There are lots of pictures of the mountains and us being out of the mission, sorry.

-There's also a lot of pictures of us at the butterfly pavilion, it was loads of fun!