Elder Kyle Reynolds: A Family of 5 Baptized!!! And Elder Cox is a Stud!

The Constante Family

~Latacunga Ecuador~

Hello Everyone!
Well it's a boy!!!!!! haha And we named him Elder Cox!!! lol I am super lucky to be able to have him as my companion. It is super easy to break the ice with people because they are so amazed at how tall he is and what size of shoe he wears! It's funny because they view him as some sort of experiment that went wrong and that's why he is so huge and I just chuckle because of how many people say the same thing every lesson.

We had a baptism!!! Elder Cox is a stud!! A family of 5 his first week here! He is a legend!! They are so awesome. I love them. The family Constante. I love seeing people make covenants with God. Probably the best sight is being in the font with them and seeing them come up out of the water...pure...just so pure. That's the only word that describes it. I sure am a lucky guy.

Even though I am suppose to be training him, it seems like I am learning more from him than me! One of the things that has hit me more than anything is the fact that Spanish is SO irrelevant in this work. I thought that wow, it is going to be hard to teach a lesson because my companion won't be able to talk and that will cause that the investigators won't progress, etc. But man was I wrong! I was reading in Ether 12 and I feel like that chapter explains very well how we can deal correctly with the weaknesses that we have. I love this chapter because for me it says that without weaknesses, we couldn't have charity and we wouldn't be able to be made whole. So thanks to the many weaknesses that I have, I can be made whole. It made me think of the talk by Elder Holland and how he talked about grudges and how it takes up space in our soul...and what are we filling it with!? For me...well I probably shouldn't confess sins...hahahaha just kidding but for me I feel like I have a lot of weaknesses that are just gaps. But as I take advantage of these weaknesses, they can be filled with the good ole grace of God! And then will my soul be filled and be made whole! An example of this, obviously Elder Cox is still struggling with Spanish as his 1st week in Ecuador but we went to this lesson where it was pretty heated. Everything. we said was refused by a personal opinion and it seemed like we were getting nowhere. And that's when I kind of realized that I was trying to take this on myself and what I knew about the scriptures instead of letting the true teacher take his place in this lesson. So I turned to my companion and he just had that gringo smile as to say I have no idea what's going on but I am going to nod every once in a while to make it look like I do.....been there done that! And so I just told him DO IT! And he was like what??? Do what??? And then...HE DID IT! Man he testified of the Book of Mormon with such power that I teared up and couldn't talk for a bit. I loved it! I love that Spanish or language in general is so irrelevant! I often lose track of that as I gain more experience. But I am grateful for him and his pure testimony in order to save that lesson.

On a lighter note, we were able to eat Cuy!!!!! Man was that an experience...and well...it tastes like a rat. I thought it would taste like chicken but we concluded that yeah, it tastes like a rat hahahaha. One of the hardest things to do here is not laugh while trying to eat a cute pet. Man life is good here. I love being a missionary. I absolutely love it. I love you all!!!!
Elder Reynolds

Elder Cox is a stud!

Super blessed to have him as my last companion in the mission!

We found a fighting chicken!!!

Awesome haha!!

The Baptism!

Ether 12:24

"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 if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."