Dying Happy by MTM

Wow! I know it's only been a few days since last time we "spoke" 😉 but I'm thriving!! Although this is my last transfer and I have a cold that won't go away, miracles don't cease. My title is a little funny because my companions are MTM and they're killing me. 

My companions are the best missionaries ever! They're super funny, obedient, really good at contacting, and sweethearts. I'm so grateful for Sister Packard and Sister Van Tassell!!

In this ward with live a member named Sister Ellis and she seriously is so amazing! She is DEFINITELY the "mom" for the missionaries in this ward. She has been a missionary for many years in the past, so she knows all the rules. Sister Ellis is also our best friend. We'll go upstairs and cook out dinners (usually around 8:30 because we're working too hard to do it earlier) and we hang-out with her. She also helps us out with supplying around the house things, so that saves an extreme amount of msf. 

In my zone, we cut down a set of sisters (they swept us out from my old ward), there's only one STL (me), and I'm only over the other set of sisters in our zone. My new District Leader is serving in my old ward, so we are talking a lot about both of our areas. My zone leaders are awesome, and we have an AP in our zone. 

We LOVE to share are miracles with our Zone Facebook page, so here's what we told them;

From Friday: 

Hey there Wild Wild Westminster Zone! We are so excited for this amazing transfer and the wonderful miracles we will all see. We wanted to start off by sharing some of the miracles that we were able to see today;

1. Our first contact this morning was Tiffany. Sister Packard applied her to the message we share as missionaries. Tiffany seemed really interested and said she was busy, but told us to come back any time next week. We set a time to see her Tuesday morning and got her phone number. 

2. We texted a potential and she invited us to come over today. Sarah used to meet with the missionaries and come to church many years ago. Today she expressed to us how good she felt when she came to church, and we invited her to attend church this morning. We were able to pick her up as a new person to teach. Set another appointment to see her tomorrow morning. 

3. Before we left an apartment complex, Sister Van Tassell wanted us to go stop-by someone who formerly came in contact with the missionaries. We knocked on Claudia's door and she let us in. She is so sweet! We talked to her about our purpose as missionaries and about church. She asked us about how we felt at church and we were able to share our testimonies. Claudia is super excited to come to church this Sunday and was saying how church "sounds so nice".

Great kickoff to this transfer!! 🤙🏻🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉

From Sunday:

Hello again wild wild Westminster zone!!! 

🙌MORE MIRACLES TODAY!!🙌

We fasted for our area last night and this morning, and wow, the results are incredible!!

Sara, who we just picked up yesterday, came to church with her daughter and loved it! We later stopped by her house, but she was gone due to some family problems that came up. So we rescheduled to meet with her later the same day. We came by later and felt prompted to invite her to be baptized. She didnt accept it right then, but said she would pray about it and receive the lessons from us. We promised her many blessings if she took this leap of faith! She definitely had a change and softened heart by the end of our visit and is in a good place to move forward towards baptism.

Vincent is a guy we met through Sara and has talked about some evil spirits in his house that need to be cast out. We talked about how through the power and faith of God and Jesus Christ, those spirits could be driven from his home. He really wanted us to come over and do that, so we came over today with Elder Cabrera and Elder Vaccaro. They gave a special prayer on his home to make it a sanctuary where the spirit could dwell. The spirit was so strong and we testified of the power of God that has been restored on the earth today. We asked them if their family would like to learn more, and they said yes! They were very grateful for the prayer and Vincent's wife, Lisa, was thanking us with tears in her eyes.

We went by Iberia and her six daughters today and brought her and her mother each a cope of the Book of Mormon. They were so grateful for it and are very excited to read it! We shared Moroni's promise with them and also invited them to come to Meet the Missionaries. They got so excited and are all definitely coming to Tuesday's showing! Iberia's mom, who was the most closed off, even said she wanted to come and is excited to see the show.

We have had so many incredible contacts today and made three solid return appointments! We met Amber while walking to another appointment and simply asked her if she wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ and come closer to him. She said yes! We also met Sophia while walking and she moved in just five days ago. She told us about her family situation and how hard it is. We shared with her that the gospel blesses families and asked her if we could share that message with her. She said yes and got really excited to receive more peace and joy in her life and in her family. At the end of our conversation, she was in tears, just overcome with gratitude that God had sent us to her. She expressed how grateful she was that we stopped to talk with her. We set a return appointment with her for tomorrow night! We also felt inspired to knock on a particular door and met a guy named John. He shared his love for Jesus Christ and said he goes to a Christian church already. We shared with him that truth has been restored to the earth and asked him if he wanted to learn more about it. He said yes! He wants us to contact him later to set an appointment, and is planning on coming to Meet the Missionaries!

Our members from our ward are also just on fire!! We had MCM after church today and talked about a less active member. A new ward missionary noticed she was related to them in a round about way. She was so excited that she stopped by them after our meeting and was able to contact the whole family. She was also able to get in contact with the relief society to figure out her ministering sisters. The returning member is ready to come to church in our ward more often! Also, our Primary President came and talked to Sara's daughter after sacrament meeting and totally took her under her wings and to her class. She later told us that it was a prompting from the spirit. During today, Sara called up being super stressed that her daughter's babysitter bailed so last minute. We called our Primary President and she started calling people so fast. Also, a recent convert, Hajir, came up to us today and told us about her four friends who want to learn about the gospel, and how she has given them Book of Mormons already! We love this ward!

So sorry this is such a long post. We are just so overcome with the miracles and blessings we have seen in this area. God is truly reaching out in great power, and WE ARE SO GRATEFUL!! 😁😁😁❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏

(Sister Savage responded to that with a hypnotizing GIF and "Wow doesn’t even begin to express how exciting this all is!!!")

Meet the Missionaries:

There wasn't too many people at our Saturday performance, but the crowd was so hyped!! We have a performance near us on Tuesday and we've been able to invite lots of people. A family of 8 and many people here and there are excited to come, and lots of members are bringing their friends!

Miracles from that:

Sister Van Tassell met these two girls. One was a member and she brought her nonmember friend. Her friend was given a Book of Mormon and they asked the missionaries to explain a verse she didnt understand. This friend now wants to take the missionary discussions and accepted the invitation to come to church yesterday. 

With all these amazing blessings happening and more, there's no other way this transfer could be made any better! Like I said, I'm dying a happy missionary. 

Shout-outs;

♡To my wonderful two friends that would hang-out back in TC and talk about how I didn't ever sleep, that fact is so real with how busy we are!!

♡I'm going all out on the Hartman Color Code with my two new companions. 

-Sister Reynolds :)

Counting Down with Goals

It's so weird to watch the time tick down. It has really encouraged me to set goals about finishing things. I've decided to finish comparing the new and old Preach my Gospel, finish the Book of Mormon (I just started 2 Nephi), and listen/ read with a Spanish audio of El Libro de Mormón. We'll see how far I can get!

MTM; (Meet the Missionaries)

We performed at MLC. Terrible performance for me because of how stressful it was! We all go in from the MTM Fam Van and unpack the trailer of things we have. I asked one of the Elders that I work with, if he knows what they did with my board. He told me that President was getting another one. As I wait for President to show-up, I start to set other things up. In the process of this, someone hands me two new mics. I'm learning how to deal with last minute things/ little people telling in my har to fix things when there's bigger things at stake. I love this more than anything. It's as close to a dream job as I've ever gotten, it's so amazing!!

Also! Had an important performance before MLC (from Friday). There was one little boy that took a Book of Mormon, went up to his dad, and said "dad! This is our bedtime story." The boy isn't of age, but he will get baptized. The dad isn't a member, but they're working on him. There was also someone who saw MTM and now wants to get baptized! The Lord's work is moving in various ways :) Meet the Missionaries is such a spiritual performance created by our Heavenly Father and we are all His instruments. I cant even explain enough how outstanding this all is  

Did a zone blitz this week, that was super fun!

Wore pants this week, it was AMAZING!!

Miracle of Prayer:

Prayer is a powerful thing! This past week I prayed specifically to knock on someone's door that would recognize us and had a dream pertaining to the church. We were knocking some doors around this member that we haven't met. We were able to leave, but then decided to turn around and do this last door. Heather answered. She lives with this other member that we didnt know lived there. She knew we were missionaries and let us in. We taught her the first lesson/ about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As it turns out, she had a dream about bearing her testimony at a fast and testimony meeting. Heather has gone to church a few times, met the Bishop, and loves everything about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We are so excited to be working with her! Remember to be specific in the things that you ask God, and dont be afraid to reach out. 

Shout-outs;

- We were moving people, and the was a little big who was super cool who reminded me of Brady. If you add many years there was a fit senior who I can picture Brady becoming.

-Sister Reynolds :)

Sergeant Sound

Hey everyone, it's Sargent sound here! My little helpers are the boom brothers. Also on our MTM Fam we have 4 Sisters working on the stage and 4 Elders helping out with the projectors and screens. Everything is coming together piece by piece. We had a dress rehearsal with lots of real people invited. It went better than I thought, but I'm still missing some equipment. Hopefully I'll be getting these soon though. 

There was a baptism that occurred within the zone. We invited someone we are teaching to it. I don't speak much Spanish, but the Spirit was super strong.

Shout-out;

*At the baptism a guy spoke Portuguese 

Sister Reynolds :)

My Time is Now

Missionary Leadership Council/ Zone Conference; 

We did a mission tour in the CDNM with Elder Gifford Nielson. We were asked to do a lot to prepare for our conference with him, and it was really useful to come so ready. I also brought a lot of questions with me. Elder and Sister Nielson spoke super profoundly, boldly, and intellectually. I was really impressed by them. One of the questions that I took with me was, "How can I build a closer relationship with my family?" I feel like there's a slight disconnection with my family recently, and I want to get to grow a better connection with them. On February 15th, at about 11am, Elder Nielson was going to give us a training. Before he did so, he told us about a new change that was happening. I seriously thought he was joking for the longest time, and that what he was saying was all part of his training. It turns out he was serious. Elder Nielson is on the board of missionary work. At 10am that day, they came out with an announcement that we can now communicate with or families on or weekly preparation day. I looked at my phone, and to my surprise, my mom emailed me less than an hour after the new change came out. Originally, the board presented the idea to the first presidency about having a 30 min limit on taking to our families. President Nelson said, "Why would we put a time limit on our missionaries? Don't we trust them?" Although one of Elder Nielson's training was replaces by a while hour of us talking about this new change, I'm grateful for the chance we had to hear about this new thing straight from him. I know my time for being our here is counting down, but I think this new change is pretty neat.

MTM;

Was going to write something, but then I just got super busy with mtm. Lovey'all!

Contacting home; 

I think I'm ahead of the game on this. On Tuesday, some other missionaries contacted our mission president for me to email home. Don't worry, nothing bad happened, they just really wanted a picture of me to go on a PowerPoint that literally thousands of people will see. I'm famous, but telling you. Anyways, like I said, Elder Nielson was there and gave us a lot of insight on the background of all of this. It's something that has been a long process for it to make or to the light where our was released. I'm grateful that the brethren out so much trust in us. Lots of missionaries will abuse it, but a lot will use it to lift their families and grow closer to them. Regardless of this announcement, I would've found a way to talk to my family anyways, I've always found different ways in the past through the Lord's help (went home, had a concussion, needed a photo, members sending pictures home, people finding my family through Facebook, etc).

Shout-outs;

-Happy B-day Dad!!

-Happy B-day Elder Barker!

Never Home

This week has been pretty good! I feel like most of my time goes to being with the #MTM Fam (Meet the Missionaries missionaries).

MTM;

I slept over at the Mission Home, for the first time, and it was a blast!! The five of us Sisters were able to stay the night there so we could wake-up at the crack of dawn and take beautiful pictures of them! We went over to Boulder and it was an adventure! Our AP, Elder Cruz (who came out with me), drove the transfer van and all the younger missionaries crammed in there and had a party! We talked about the past, and it was so weird to be the only older sister missionary out of every one. Sister Savage keeps telling everyone in the cast that I'm in-charge, and it's pretty funny. For the most part, I blocked everything/ told everyone where to go and where they need to stand and sit. 

We have practice today for about 3 or 4 hours, so I don't have much time to do a lot of P-Day activities, but it's okay, I love being apart of productions, no matter how much sleep and time that I end up losing.

Friday night to Saturday night we went on an exchange. I cover the sisters over in the City Park ward, which is super exciting! Sister Pease and I went over there with Sister Madsen, and Sister Sauls and Sister Suarez joined my companion in the Cotton Creek Ward. It felt sooooooo good to be back! The city is, without a doubt, my favorite area! I was able to stop-by this returning member family, with an unbaptized child, and introduce them to the sister that is in that ward. They are planning to teach her now! We got stuck in the snow for about 20 minutes. We ate at the typical Saturday night dinner in the City/ this sketchy, cheap, and super gross Chinese place, but it was fun! Overall, we had an adventure on exchanges!

Sunday was my first full day working in my area! It was also the first time in a while that I've been able to do at least some companionship study. It's been a crazy week!

I know I'm probably missing a lot of things or information, but this is all I've got for now. Email me if any of you beauties need anything! :)

Shout-outs;

-The day we went to Boulder to take pictures, we ate breakfast at IHOP, without fail, I always to there for each of my productions!

-Sister Savage got onto me when she saw I had slightly wet hair and I was going to go outside, early in the morning, with cold weather. 

-I got pumpkins that grow for Halloween, both of my companions found them at different times and put them in a bucket of water.

Sister Reynolds 😉😁😃🐵

1250 Main Street

Broomfield, CO 80020

Power of Trios

It feels so awesome to be in a trio again! For a long while now, we've been asked to get 10 actual contacts everyday. These past few days the three of us have been on fire! Also, it makes things so much more interesting with a small party rather than you and only one other.

To entertain ourselves, Sister Christensen and I decided to make/ add to our coin jar. Every time we see a coin on the ground, we pick it up and just let our tiny piles grow. Now that we have Sister Pease, we told her of this new way of life. The only thing is, we have a car now, so it makes it a little harder to find them with less walking. Plus, there's three of us, and so it's more likely that another one will pick it. It's a fun, random activity.

On Friday, we had an adventure of things happen. I was gone most of the day at MLC (Missionary Leadership Council). I left a bit after 7, then carpooled a lot, and eventually made it to the church. There were a total of 5 of our companionships, each companionship had one STL. My companions spent the morning at our apartment and cleaned-out our whole room once again. Friday was the last time that they were spraying our place, and I'm glad that's over with. Then, to my surprise, MLC ended not too long before dinner and my companions picked me up in a car! Miracles do exist!! We no longer have to be on foot, it's crazy. I'm still making Sister Christensen drive until they tell us that I'm the DD (designated driver), which it's not official yet, but I know I probably am.

Last night we went over and taught Sarah. She is the cutest thing ever and I really love her! Her faith is so huge and she's willing to keep all the commitments we give her. Just like it is for all of us, life isn't easy for her all the time. She really wants to be baptized, but because of things outside of her control, there is something she had to follow first. We will continue to teach her all the lessons and get her to read more in the Book of Mormon.

During our lesson, these Elders called us. We ignored them, but then they called again. We decided to answer it, and at 8:30 at night they were driving over to President and Sister Savage's (the mission president and wife) house. They asked me to join. We finished our lesson with Sarah and then ran on over! We discussed some things concerning Meet the Missionaries. I was finally able to offer a lot of my ideas on the table about what should be done, and my companions were in the room next door just hanging out. The Savages know little about stage hand and sound, but the two Elders know a pretty good amount. I felt super special to be in such a small group discussing my passion and really being heard. Somehow, we were only there until 10:15 and didn't go way over. As missionaries, we get up at 6:30am, have to be outside doing missionary work from 10am-9pm, and then lights out by 10:30pm. This week, the musically talented missionaries will meet 4 days and have practice for 3 hours one day, and 5 hours the other three. There's a pretty big likelihood that I can really join them. I've been waiting to be apart of this since the middle of October (that's when I talked to President and he said I could be in it), and I've heard about missionaries doing this since even before that. First the two Elders that I was with last night were called to be in it. They created all the songs. Next I was asked to be in it. Then just pretty recently, 2 more Elders and 4 Sisters (who are mostly extremely new to the mission) joined in. It's been a fun and interesting process!

Shout-outs;
-At MLC they told us to be like a lion.
-I contacted someone in Spanish!!

-Sister Reynolds :)

I just got here!

My brain is totally fried for all that has happened this week and a half, I can't even remember what there is to report on.

Over a week ago, we took a little trip to the mission office so my companion could pay a fee, we could return some bug spray, and so I could say by to the wonderful Elder and Sister Etherington. I remember when they came into the mission for the very first time. I met them in the mission office, and then the very next day I was in Georgia. When I came back, I became very close to them, and they really mean the world to me!

At the beginning of last week, we had an event change our life.Wednesday morning we took our car into the shop. Tuesday night our Malibu was beeping at us and saying that our Engine Power was Reduced. We contacted our car coordinator and asked about what we should do. He told us to take it in and have people look at it. We called ahead of time, and they wouldn't let us schedule an appointment. We took it in to a guy who goes by the name Tall Tom (yes, he actually is pretty tall). Anyways, we asked him how long he think it'd take, and he said that he'd just contact us when it's done. We expected that it would take about two hours.... and now it's been over a week. As a result, we've been walking everywhere, including through different weathers where they have actually grounded cars because of how unsafe it became. We rode the bus once, hurt our toes, carried many hand warmers around, slid many many times (it's a new talent that I'm calling Slippery Trickery), walked half an hour one way on multiple occasions, became really dizzy, on the verge of becoming sick, was uncontrollably shivering inside for over four hours, I think my pinkie toe is broken, I somehow was bleeding from a nice big space on my leg onto my tights, etc. I love these random adventures. I think it's super fun and funny!!

Meet The Missionaries: I don't have much information on this, but I know what songs are being sung and the dates of it all going down. They let me listen to everything on Monday, the first day the missionaries were practicing on the stage, and it was pretty good. I also joined the practice that was on Wednesday as well. There's been a lot more practices, but I was just popping in. There are a lot of ideas that they're thinking about implementing, but nothing seems to really be making sense. I'm not too positive on all they want me to do yet, but I have totally blocked the whole thing and have created different set and prop lists. Hopefully I can start being more involved, but right now I haven't done much. However, I am excited to be able to follow these missionaries around the mission and do whatever they'll let me do!!

Other stuff from this week is included as follows. We were kicked-out of our apartment, even though we don't have a car, for 8 hours so people could spray anti-bug stuff. Went to a talk about institute by John Bytheway. Did service at a Food Bank. Had a lesson and a church tour with Tony, and he didn't end up coming to church. Got stuck in the middle of our area, with no car, far away from our apartment and church building, and couldn't get a hold of anyone for a long while. Skipped going to one of our wards because we didn't have a way to get there, now we don't cover that ward anymore. Met some of the greenies when the music missionaries sang to them after practice. Got a ride from basically everyone we know. Experienced near death. Most importantly, had fun and partied!

Transfers were today, and I saw a lot of my old Elder friends. I reconnected with so many of them, and they helped let me know that the clock is ticking. My reality is so shaken-up. My companions, Sister Christensen and Sister Pease, were making fun of me and telling me that I'm in the denial stage. The truth is, I'll be a missionary forever, the end.

Shout-outs;
-I taught the less active member twice since last time I emailed. He's about 61, plays golf about every weekend, and he lived off of Andrews street (at a house that used to be owned by his family) in Edinburgh.
-Thanks for the black gloves to keep my hands warm!
Special Shout-outs;
*I thought about you almost every day to try and figure out what should go here. Now I can't remember anything I thought of..*
-At these one members house, they had 4 little girls, each girl had completely bleach blonde hair.
-Ummm... something about make-up or hair..
-Other things and stuff.
-More stuff because I love ya!

Sister Reynolds :)