Completely Exhausted, but Super Happy!!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!!!

Hello Everyone!
Another great week that flew by! We had splits with other Elders from our zone and we are super tired. I don't know what it is about divisions but they take a lot of energy out of you...But it's all good!

The thing that I learned about this work is it's always just enough. It's never more or less. It's always sufficient. When I get home at night, we get home super tired and drained and we have just enough energy to fill out a few things and call some people and then to the bed we go. It's hard to understand that principle sometimes. I wish I could have more but that's just my pride lol. I had a pretty cool experience about this principle I learned. We were on divisions and we had set some inspired goals. We were to find 2 news that day and put 2 with a baptismal date...FOR THE MINIMUM. We felt it was a great goal and we prayed and thought it was a great goal too. So we went at it. Of course, as always, appointments started falling and it made us contact a lot. We first found the family that we were going to put a date on and they accepted! It was an awesome lesson. Although pretty short, it was really good. After that I am pretty sure we had one more lesson but then just tried to find people the rest of the day. In a usual day we have around 15 contacts. We almost had 40!! It was getting pretty late, I think it was 8 pm and there my natural man started getting the best of me. It was cold, raining a bit and there was no one in the street and I was beat. My comp was like "Are you okay?" I said "Yeah! Why?" He said "You look like you just ran a marathon." haha What a nice companion lol. But we said a prayer and we went looking for those 2 people that were prepared. At 8:30 we contacted this farm looking house by yelling to see if anyone was home. An old man came out and as I prepared for the worst, he said "Hold on." He came to the door and let us in. He started telling us that he had listened to previous missionaries and they gave him some sort of book. He went looking for the book and found it! We looked at the old worn out Book of Mormon and there it had the names of two Elders and a date of 1997!! I just thought to myself, wow...how long has this guy been waiting??! We had a great lesson explaining what this book was and we have high hopes for him. We went back home completely exhausted but super happy. We met the goals of barely having 2 with a baptismal date and 2 news. I was hoping for 5 or 6 to impress the other Elder haha...there's my pride again! But like always, Heavenly Father always comes through. Sufficient as always. No more no less. After all we can do, it's always enough.

Just a quick funny store. In the pictures you will see the difference between authentic Columbian cooking and then two gringo Elders cooking. One of our lunches was with these recent converts and we made Arepas. They were super good. We were trying to learn all of it and for the most part we did! Then about two days later our lunch appointment fell and we cooked for ourselves. As you can see, we are getting the hang of cooking...hahahahahaha who knew tuna, eggs, cream cheese, onions and tortillas could be so good!! lol The mission...surviving with the sufficient. I love you all! Have a super great week!
Elder Reynolds

Cooking Arepas with a recent convert...super good!!

Professionals

Authentic Columbian Cooking!

Us...

learning to cook!

We are getting the hang of cooking...tuna, eggs, cream cheese, onions and tortillas!

Normal day in Ecuador...cloudy, rain and flooding!

Elder Mansell and Elder Reynolds

More cooking!

The Mission is so EGGciting!

Families Can Be Together Forever :)

Elder Reynolds and Elder Mooney

Zone Leaders-Chillogallo

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for it they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."  Ether 12:27

Elder Reynolds' favorite scripture

LOVING THE MISSION!!

Completely Exhausted, but Super Happy!!!

Are We Listening?!?

~Chillogallo Zone~

Hello Everyone,
This week was an amazing week! I am still alive from the worm so all is good! haha My new companion and I are getting along great. Elder Mooney is such a great missionary. He has a little bit more time than me on the mission but he isn't trunky, thank goodness haha. He is such an inspiration to me. We read a lot about our purpose and we talked a lot about what we can do to help the zone and to help our sector. As we read and search more, more ideas keep coming and coming! It is awesome how the influence of the spirit can really take the mind to a next level. We are so lucky to have the spirit in our lives.

We had some pretty crazy contacts and lessons this week. I am studying meekness and how I can be more meek. I feel like the correct definition, from my point of view, is that it is being in the right even though everyone is against you and accepting it humbly. That sure is a hard thing to do! And thanks to Heavenly Father, I have had MANY opportunities to develop this attribute haha. I know that God answers prayers. I know that He is listening and He answers but we as humans don't listen. We were contacting one day as all our citas (appointments) fell and we came upon this house and knocked the door and a man came out and said "don't bother me, I am fasting." So we said "what are you fasting for sir?" He said "it's none of your business." So then we gently invited him to listen to our message as it is centered on Jesus Christ and will bless your life tremendously. So he let us in and we started teaching him a bit and getting to know him. He told us that he was fasting for direction in his life. He has belonged to his church for 20 years and is in training to be some sort of leader. He feels he needs something as if something is missing and he wants to know where he should go and what God wants from him. So obviously we were pretty excited to share the message and we expressed to him that we were representatives of Jesus Christ and we are here to share what God would want from him. We started with lesson #1 and it was gong really well! He was interacting and it seemed he was understanding! We were super happy and the spirit was strong. We then invited him to pray for himself to see if these things are true and then he started asking a lot of weird questions. Like not really interest questions, rather questions to try and prove us wrong. Finally after a while of going back and forth we asked "Are you willing to ask God and read the Book of Mormon to see if it is true?" He said "No" and sadly we left. We were talking all the way back to our house and how said it was that Heavenly Father answered his fast so quickly and how he didn't accept it! I look back at my life and see the same thing...It's not that God isn't answering, its that we aren't listening. It's something that has impacted me ever since that happened this week. God works in mysterious ways for sure, but these mysterious ways are the best ways possible. The ways that will get us to not only change our behavior, but our being too. We have a Heavenly Father who loves us. He listens. He answers. I have such a testimony of that! I love you all and hope that we can all be more humble in order to receive direction from Heavenly Father in our lives. Have a great week!
Elder Reynolds

*Here is what he said about his worm experience:
It was fat little sucker! I don't know if you can tell in the video but I got light headed and sweaty just looking at the worm right before I ate it...but I knew I had to do it at least once! Good thing I got that over with lol! It's kind of nasty because I could still feel the worm moving around in my mouth because the first chew I didn't quite get it so it was all trying to crawl for dear life! lol It was a once in a lifetime experience definitely! My stomach was paying the price a little bit after but I heard it is super healthy for you because I was getting a cold at the time and I ate that thing and then the cold just disappeared! They say it actually helps with that haha! Blessings in disguise...I guess lol.

RETURN WITH HONOR!

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings

ye are only in the service of your God"  Mosiah 2:7

Hello Everyone!
Wow another change has flown by. I will be staying in the sector I am at right now (Chillogallo Zone) and will receive a new companion who is another gringo!! haha His name is Elder Mooney. We have known each other throughout the mission and he is the best. We are going to have tons of fun and tons of success.

This change has been an amazing one. In just 3 weeks, the sector went from being dead to being super alive! When you put in work, results will always come. I know that with complete faith. Elder Mansell has taught me so much. He has a superb knowledge of the gospel. Every day I like to write down a quote from one of the Apostles or General Authorities. So I would literally just choose the first Apostle that would come to my mind and Elder Mansell would give me a quote. It was amazing!!haha I am going to miss him a lot but the work goes on!

So just a crazy experience that I am sure would be amusing...I ate CHANTACURRO!! haha or in other words a big worm lol. It was one of the experiences I will not forget. We had a meeting with President Barlow in his house and so we stayed with the assistants and a couple of other Elders in their house. Yeah you already know that things are going to happen! ha But we have a sector in our mission that is in the jungle and obviously there in the jungle the food gets a little bit more interesting and creative. The other Elders brought some "munchies" for us...After a 6-hour bus ride, they arrived! Still alive and well. haha I honestly didn't expect to be eating one of those suckers...but when you with the boys, you gotta go all in. Right as we arrived I already knew...I'm going to be consuming a small live animal. There they were...squirming around. Ahhh just to look at them made my stomach turn. And come to find out, these aren't the ones that you are supposed to eat. I guess they were over ripe or something, like overgrown!! They were massive!! I think the hardest part of the process is picking them up. I know right, there comes the little girl that is inside of me because they are still squirming around and it just feels so disgusting. Man, after holding the chantacurro, fear overcame me...faith left...and all there was was me and the chantacurro eye to eye. It's so funny, in the video I can see that fear!! Ahh but finally after bathing it and putting it in my mouth and biting the head off, which by the way is a lot harder than you think, all was said and done. Almost lost it a few times but kept it in! Thank goodness I got that experience over with! Man, the mission is awesome, isn't it?
I love the experiences on the mission. Spiritual or physical. All are unforgettable.

This week in the meeting with President Barlow, I learned so many things. One of the things that I loved was about hypocrisy and how to lead. President felt impressed to share about hypocrisy...such an essential subject to learn about but also a bit awkward I would imagine to actually share it! It is such a privilege we have to all be leaders. As people with the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and by taking on HIS name, we are called. Whether we like it or not! ha We are counted on. I love being counted on. That is one of the favorite things I enjoyed while playing sports. I love when the game is on the line and everyone is looking down at the team and how we are going to react. I just love looking at my teammates with that vigor and faith in each other thinking WE GOT THIS! Ahhh I love that feeling!!! Elder Mansell only has a few months left in his mission so obviously the subject came up about how he is feeling. He said he feels good. He shared a talk with me that I think is by Elder Hales and I love it. One of the quotes in it said something like "I imagine our Heavenly Father, upon leaving home to come to earth, hugged us and said RETURN WITH HONOR...With each one of my missionary kids, I said the exact same thing, hugged them and said RETURN WITH HONOR." Such a powerful statement!! Elder Mansell then talked about how his whole mission he has strived to never lose a second and its not just the fact of enduring these two years so that he may receive the RM title (Return Missionary), rather take advantage of the time that he has allotted to him. I thought a lot about that. Obviously as a missionary, I take that to heart because sometimes I feel like I am working towards that all glorious RM title but behind that title, only one knows if he earned it. I am so grateful for repentance. I am so grateful to be able to be forgiven and strengthened by the atonement of Jesus Christ. Then thinking about how I can apply it in the group email, of course, we are all going to be RM's in the next life--Resurrected Mortals haha but only one will know if we earned it. I love the quote that says "There are two pains in this life, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret." I promise to each one of you that as we live the gospel, with exact obedience, we will never have regrets. Nor here nor in the life to come. I love you all! Press forward and never look back!
Elder Reynolds

Are you waiting for the bus?!

Giving service with a smile :)

Wishing he had a bike on the mission...

Maybe not...

~Quito Ecuador~

Chillogallo Zone

Sowing and Reaping!!

We have been Sowing for quite some time and are beginning to Harvest!!

~Quito Ecuador~

Hello Everyone!

This week went by super fast! I guess all the weeks go by pretty fast when you think about it. This week was full of miracles! Elder Mansell and I are working super hard. I love the promise that when we sow, we will always reap! We have been sowing for quite some time now..haha and we are beginning the harvest! I compare it to working out, whenever we push ourselves and eat right, there is always going to be results. It's easier said than done especially being a missionary lol. I love the scripture in Ether 12:4 that talks about hope..."Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." When we are following the commandments, we really can have a hope for a better world. We have every right to expect that good things will happen. No matter what may be happening in the moment, we can and should expect good things in the future. Immediately or later, it's all the same.

So one experience that I had this week was we were again doing divisions with a companionship that has been struggling a little bit with finding news to teach. We went into the divisions with the goal of finding news...not really knowing how many just that we need to help them find!! So it was about 3:00 in the afternoon and door after door and appointment after appointment, we were having no success. I felt the impression that we would be able to find 2 news today. So we decided to pray. At the beginning of my mission, it was a bit weird to pray on a public street but I have gotten a little better at that. So we decided to pray and then my companion was like "shall we kneel?" I thought he was kidding but when I looked over, there he was kneeling!! I was like "what are you doing???!"I just looked at him for a second or two and looked around..then followed his example and knelt. It was one of the most heartfelt yet fastest prayers I have ever said! So then we went to work. I love a quote I heard from another missionary..."After a prayer like that, you have to contact EVERYONE that crosses your path." So actually that's what we did! Every movement or creature we contacted haha. It was 7:30 and we still had not found the news that I so sure felt that we would find. We had an appointment with a convert that night so there wasn't much of a chance to find news. So I was kind of losing faith but I still had that feeling of certainty that we would find. We went to the lesson and we started teaching them. Then all of a sudden the dad walks in who has never wanted to listen to the missionaries and we invited him over along with his other son and booom! There was the answer to our prayers. I was amazed to see the hand of God in the work. It makes me realize every time that God has His own ways. Like it says in Isaiah 55 that His ways are not our ways. I love love love how Heavenly Father works. Whenever all the odds are against Him, He always comes out trumphant! He always complir (comply) with His promises. Isn't it great to always be right and always be on the winning side??! I love you all!!!! Have a great week!

Elder Reynolds

"Sowing"

(LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!)

"Reaping"

The graffiti here is cool!!!

~Chillogallo Zone~

Leadership Conference