Elder Kyle Reynolds: 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