Keep Moving Forward, Little by Little!

Still pressing on and fighting the good fight!!



Hello everyone!

With all the crazy stuff that has been going on this past couple weeks... I am still alive! Still pressing on and fighting the good fight. I have to say I am so grateful for my companion.. He is the nicest person and is so willing to serve anyone that is around him. He is such an example to me...I am so blessed to be surrounded with people that I am able to look up to and learn from. Its truly a privilege to be out here on the mission. I consider myself so lucky to be able to have this great opportunity to learn how the gospel works in lives instead of just reading it in the scriptures.

This week was such an amazing week to work. We of course have been struggling with having people actually progress to a baptism... Buuut as we know that God is in this with us. We have a baptism planned!!!! So so so exciting! She has probably been going to church for 6-9 months but hasn't been able to take that step of baptism due to financial problems. But with the help of the ward we are getting her married this week and she will be baptized either this week or the next! Man we are so stoked for her. It really rejuvenated our feelings. I love her conversion story though. We had a family home evening with her and all of her family along with the bishopric. It was pretty much just like a testimony meeting because the bishopric expressed their love for her and bore their testimony about how their lives haves changed thanks to the gospel. The testimony that really hit me was the one by her sister. She is the first convert of the whole family. She was expressing her great love for her sister and how she is going to be so blessed because of the decisions and sacrifices she is making in order to get baptized. She..the sister..has been a member for 12 years now. It was so amazing to hear her testimony on how God answers prayers. She was telling us that she has been praying for 12 years straight for her sister to get baptized in the church. It is so amazing that she realizes that God answers prayers. After 12 years.... That's a pretty long time!!! How easy would it be to just say that things happen according to the will of man.. And not recognize the work of God in these 12 years. It was just so amazing to hear the story and the events that took place in these 12 years to bring her, Katy, to the place that she is in right now. God surely does work in our behalf everyday. Although we may not see it now, today, tomorrow, next week, a year, 2 years, or even 12 years... God has a plan. It was a testimony builder to hear the story of Katy and how slowly and slowly God has been working in her life. And how grateful we are to be able to reap the seed that has been planted about 12 years before.

 

Man I love this gospel. I love the knowledge and the wisdom we are able to gain from the scriptures. There truly is wisdom in the scriptures. I love how the gospel of Jesus Christ just doesn't have to do with holy praises to the Almighty and religion and what not.. But it is a part of life. Everything is meshed together. My companion and I have long deep talks at night about science and philosophy.. It is so interesting to see that when you really get deep into science and or philosophy, and deep into the gospel... They actually compliment each other. For example,  a friend of Elder Fillmore brought up a point about how living forever actually scares him. Because if  you live forever , that means eventually you are going to have to experience everything.. meaning that you will experience the most pain but also the most happiness and everything in between. If we lived forever, that means you would eventually have to experience every single possibility there is out there... When we discussed it. It makes so much more sense talking about the atonement!!! The atonement is so mind blowing and even though I don't understand a fraction about it, i am so grateful for it. I am so grateful for the opportunity to look to someone that actually knows how I am feeling. I loooooove looooove that the mysteries of God are disponible (available) to each and every one of us. It is just a decision of how much work we put in in order to receive these magnificent answers. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 28:30 "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."...it is all a process. little by little. I love you all. Keep moving forward, little by little. And I promise the questions, concerns, and just things in this life are all eventually going to make sense. Like 2 Nephi 2:24 says "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things."
I love you all!!!!
Elder Reynolds