Grateful for President and Hermana Christensen!

This is President and Hermana Christensen's last week!

Ambato Ecuador Zone

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately I don't have any crazy food stories this week. Hopefully these food stories will only come maybe once a change haha I think the worst thing is when I am sick and we go to lunch and there waiting for us is a chicken foot or the head of what we are about to eat staring right back at us lol All I want is just a nice plate of chicken nuggets from McDonalds! lol Its all good. Experiences are the best out here. Oh I did learn something about eating fish. Every time we would eat fish of course we would eat the eyeballs too. Until the other day my comp asked me why I do that. "Do people in the US eat the eyeballs of fish?" And I said "no...." Then he said "oh because here you are just suppose to suck on the eyeball, not swallow it." I said "Man...... how many times have we had fish and why did you not tell me that?!!!!" haha Maybe my vision will get better or we can hope at least.

So this week was a good week. We didn't have any investigators attend church but we did have a lot of menos activos (less actives) attend! I kind of see them as investigators too because they are a little bit lost and just need a bit of a push or a guide to get them back on track. The asistencia (assistance) of the barrio (neighborhood) is going up too so that is a good thing! This ward is a lot different from the other ward I was at. Even though there are fewer people, this ward feels more like a family. It is funny because we have the noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) as a ward and it is basically like another sacrament meeting because the whole ward attends! lol And yes the games we play are very competitive! I can't believe how involved and into the games everyone gets regardless of their age! The mission is getting a lot more enjoyable as I am conversing more with the members. I used to have a lot of fear because of my limited Spanish and my Spanish still is limited, but they are so patient with me. Sometimes I use that to my advantage hahaha Like if they ask me to give a talk I just say I don't understand.. No hahahaha But that is a great idea... lol We have a great ward here in Ambato. I love it here. The weather is so cold though. The coldest months of the year are June, July and August.. Of course! haha

Our mission president is leaving!! This is his last week here and he sent out a mass email about how he is going to miss us and everything like that. It was kind of sad but really an eye opener to me because I remember starting the mission and him saying he is leaving in July! I thought July is never going to come and here it is!! Wow.. how time flies. But the next president is President Barlow. It is going to be interesting to see how the mission changes or if it changes. But I definitely have a testimony of revelation. Man how tiring it must be for Presidents of the Missions! I cant even believe how much work they put in! I am very grateful for all the leaders and their example. Well until next week! I love you all!
Elder Reynolds

Time is flying by!!

La Casa Del Arbol (The Treehouse)

Banos, Ecuador

A tourist attraction, also known as "The swing at the end of the world!"

Hello everyone!

This week was a great week! Although we didn't have any investigators attend sacrament meeting, we had a great week full of great lessons! It is weird the trade off we have.... Because some weeks our numbers are horrible.. yet we felt like we did all we could. And then other weeks were simply great and our numbers showed it! Not saying that we worked any harder or any less hard than the other weeks.. It is just weird to me. But this week was when our numbers were great, but felt like we didn't have a lot of success. We have a lot of success with finding people, but having a follow up lesson is where we struggle. Don't know if its our fault or simply just their agency... Also this week seemed like it flew by! Each day while we were climbing into bed I would look up at the ceiling and just think wow another day has come and gone!!

We had an interesting lunch this week. This lady that usually feeds us opened up a restaurant so now we go to the restaurant when we eat with her. Its funny because you know when you are eating something funky when the person giving it to you is staring intently at you waiting for your reaction.. And of course as a missionary...you cant say no!! haha So we had this soup and I could tell it was a little weird and then they gave us this shredded meat looking thing. So of course we ate the soup. I think the key is you just have to eat it like you have eaten it before and not think about what it could be... But we ate it and it wasn't that bad. Then we had the other dish and it was tripe or cow stomach. Actually wasn't that bad either. So of course the lady that was feeding us was trying to hold in her laugh the whole time while we ate the dish. She told us the soup was pig intestines and a bunch of other stuff I didn't understand haha As we were about to leave this other couple came and sat down and ordered what we had. We were saying goodbye and then the couple asked if there was any more blood.... My comp and I looked at each other and was like Hermana!! What did he say?!! She just started laughing her head off and looking at our expressions. So that shredded meat stuff was cooked blood or something like that!! Luckily our stomachs handled it well and we are all good! It was kinda nasty afterwards because just thinking about it made it seem like our stomachs were hurting ha. So that was a crazy cool experience we had. It was also funny this week as we always pass by this dog and as 20 year olds....we taunt it a little. Well we were passing the dog and we were about to do our regular ritual and taunt it and then we realized....this time it wasn't chained up!!! It ran after us and....... licked us! haha Man I though we were going to die because of the way it was running after us! But it was all good! I guess the dog liked our taunting or forgot all about it haha But we lived!

I hope all the fathers had a wonderful Fathers day! It was kind of weird thinking of this Sunday as a holiday because the last holiday we were able to call home! But unfortunately Fathers aren't as important as Mothers.... haha just kidding. It was a hard long Sunday because NO ONE wanted to meet with us. We barely got fed on Sunday because everyone was going out of town or having a party haha. I felt like the dogs on the street looking for food and then someone with a soft heart throws them a part of their meal lol but it was a good day. We mainly spent it with members of the bishopric lol. But we took advantage of the holiday as we invited people to church! People said they couldn't come because they were inviting people over to their house. We used the tactic that our Father in Heaven is doing the exact same thing...Inviting people to His house to worship on His day! Unfortunately no one came...but I thought it was a pretty good idea! haha Man people and their agency is sometimes no bueno (good) lol

For P-day we went to a really cool swing thing called la casa del arbol! It is a swing and even though we went on the worst possible day, it was still a beautiful sight.

This work is definitely not easy but it is worth it. One of our lessons consisted of Mateo (Matthew) 14 when Peter was walking on water with Jesus. It is interesting that in that miracle and also in Lehi's dream, the Savior always invites us to come with Him into the dark and dreary waste or out into the crashing waves of the sea... I love that. I love that the Savior invites us to enter into this crazy life. And at the moment we ask for help, He will always give it to us. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are just waiting for us to ask them for help. All we have to do is humble ourselves. And for some people....me.... it is hard! haha But I have gained a testimony that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are literally just waiting to bless us. I love you all!!! I hope this week is great!!

Elder Reynolds

Deep in the Ecuadorian wilderness is a seismic monitoring station in a tree known as Casa del Arbol. Its purpose is observe Mt. Tungurahua, the nearby active volcano, from its precarious perch. While the treehouse itself is a sight to behold, the real attraction is the crude swing hanging from one of the tree's skinny branches. With no harness, net, or any other safety feature the swing (nothing more than a plank suspended by two ropes) arcs riders out into the air over the canyon.

A swing to dangle you off the very edge!

A beautiful sight!

Elder Marquez and I are a great team!!

Elder Reynolds and Elder Marquez

Hello everyone!!!

This week was a very hard week... haha Like every week! But lots of blessings have come from this week. I was sick yet again this week. I don't know what is wrong with me!! ha Last week we studied patience as an attribute we want to develop and man was it a challenge last week with our investigators and with our no success streak... In preach my gospel it talks about patience as not only accepting the will of the Father, but also being happy about it! We have been trying but as you all know how difficult it is to develop patience! lol So this week we studied diligence. Man... maybe we should stop trying to develop Christ-like attributes because it seems the mission keeps getting harder! haha But I got sick this week and I knew Heavenly Father was testing our level of diligence. I can say we conquered it and hopefully Heavenly Father trusts us a little bit more!

This week there was a lot of rain. It reminded me of my days in Quito. (I love how I can finally say I have 2 sectors and can compare the 2!) But each day from Wednesday on there was rain and it wasn't too fun. haha Rain makes me want to stay in and watch a movie. haha But no rest for us! We finally found an investigator who is golden! We have been praying hard for everyone of our investigators but we don't know what we are doing wrong as it seems our investigators aren't progressing. But we found Fabian Saturday afternoon and taught a great lesson about the Restauracion (Restoration). He took it extremely well as he considers himself Catholic but doesn't practice it. He understood everything we taught him and was quite intelligent. He is the same age as us and is studying at an University. But we invited him to church and he accepted! And when we went to get him in the morning before church he was all ready! Man was that what we needed. We have been working hard, but maybe not working with the enthusiasm we should be having. But that really lifted our spirits! We have another lesson with him this week so we are hoping he stays on schedule with his baptism for the 1 of July. Man time seems to be flying by! We are encouraged to invite people to baptism in the first lesson. And to be baptized they at least have to attend church 3 times, and when planning it is so crazy how we are planning for the middle of July for invitations!!

Elder Marquez and I get along great. We are a great team and luckily changes came and we stayed together! I say luckily because this change is going to be 9 weeks instead of the regular 6 weeks. Because this change is when the new mission president comes in! We are sad that President Christensen is leaving, but we are excited for a new greenie to come in haha!

Not much to say... Just working our tails off! We are trying to change our mode of teaching. We are really trying to listen to what the investigator is telling us. And that means not thinking of what to say while the investigator is talking! which is so scary! But we are trying that and we will see how it goes! It is always so nice to hear an investigator say how good they feel when we teach. Not that it was us, but the spirit. I can definitely tell when I get prideful because my Spanish goes down hill and I cant teach for nothing! haha Heavenly Father always has a way to keep us humble. Especially Elder Reynolds.

Thank you all for your prayers! I really appreciate them! Keep on working diligently. I know this is the work of the Lord. May the Lord bless you all. I love you all! till next week..

Elder Reynolds

Bunnies!

Something has moved, 4 blocks and is diagonal to the Mormon church!!

I think haha

Missionaries in Ambato, Ecuador

Through Trials we are taught Patience!

~Cotopaxi Volcano~

It is the 2nd highest active volcano in the world!!!

19,347 feet

Hello Everyone!!

This week has been a really good week!!! Although we haven't had a lot of success...We have been working hard! ha This week has been really good like I said, but definitely really hard. As a companionship, we have a goal to try to develop Christ-like attributes. There is 9 listed in preach my gospel so every week we study 3 attributes. Since this change is short we have to do 3 a week to accomplish them all. But this week one of the attributes we were studying was patience.... And we all know when we ask to have more patience and to help us develop patience... The trials come and don't seem to stop!! haha We were actually teaching these less actives and she also wanted to have more patience with her family and kids and she told us that but didn't want to commit to trying to develop this attribute because she knew trials would come! ha But then we asked the question why do they come? We came to the conclusion that they come because that is the only way we learn. It is like working out, if we keep doing the same things not pushing ourselves, we are not going to grow muscle. We have to push ourselves to a new level in order to ganar (win) something we have never had. It is the same exact thing with the gospel!! I love how the gospel can apply to all phases of life.

We have had so many good lessons this week with our investigators...but it is frustrating because none of them showed up to church!!! You begin to wonder did we do something wrong?? Are we really not following the spirit?? But then we talked it out as a companionship and it is simply just patience on the will of the Lord. Sometimes agency is a bit frustrating... I know out of all people, Mom's know that best! haha But we have to remember that that is the very principle of what we fought for in the pre-mortal life. That was the most profounding difference in the plan of Satan and the plan of God. Our investigators are really great people. I love being able to visit them and help them in any way we can. We actually have a lot of service projects this week so I am excited for that! Washing dogs, help build a wall, do some concrete stuff....

Elder Marquez and I are becoming really great friends! He is a really great guy with great ambitions. We like a lot of the same things. My Spanish is getting a lot better and his English is getting better too! It is funny to hear him speak sometimes hahaha But that is exactly how I probably sound as a gringo trying to speak Spanish!! We went to a volcano today and it was probably the worst day to do so lol But it was fun. It was SO cold! It was snowing or hailing, I don't even know what it was doing but we had to ride back in a packed van with other missionaries for an hour and a half soaking wet.... haha But it was a great experience.

I am loving the mission. It is a great opportunity to learn what is really important in this life. We can get sucked into our jobs and other things but just like our dear Prophet once said, families are what is most important. I love you all! I hope you have a great week and continue to move forward!!

Elder Reynolds

Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains!

Last eruption: August 2015

It was a VERY COLD day there!

Love these Missionaries!

Doesn't he look great!?!

Feeling and Recognizing the Spirit!

Elder Reynolds and Elder Marquez

Ambato, Ecuador

Hello everyone!!!

This week has been SO exhausting! There is so much work to do here in Ambato! It is so much different than Quito. Obviously the missionary work is still the same but here there is a lot of focus on the less actives. I guess there is something like 300 people on the registro (registry) for how many members there are...but our tiny little ward consisted of 29 people at the start of church!! Isn't that crazy?! So there is sooo much work to be done! And there are only 2 missionaries..Elder Marquez and I in the ward. So we are so busy from 10:30 am to 9:00 pm every single day. The members here are so nice though. Less actives or active members everyone treats the missionaries like Kings! haha Don't worry I wont let it get to my head. haha...as I just talked about humility in my last letter.

We have investigators but as I said above that we have a ton of menos activos (less actives). Sometimes it is hard to balance out who gets priority but it is so nice because we always have something to do! I really love serving here. Ambato is a lot more like America I feel like. ha It is still Ecuador haha but this is a nicer part of the mission. Elder Marquez and I are getting along great!! He is such a hard worker and we have a lot of the same interests. Both of us like sports and working out. My Spanish is getting so much better because I am trying to literally fail. ha That sounds weird but I feel like every time I talk I always use the wrong conjugation or pronunciation... But he is super patient with me.

I also like this sector of the mission because of the climate and the layout of the land. There aren't as many hills so I am super happy about that! ha The climate is always cold in the mornings and then a little hot in the afternoons then back to cold in the nights. It is a little frustrating because you can never guess what is going to happen in the day! It may look like it is going to rain but then it all the sudden clears up! Crazy, crazy Ecuador...

The people we teach are just amazing. They are so acceptive and they love learning about Jesus Christ. That is kind of our "in" when we contact people here... We say we talk about Jesus Christ and if they want to learn more about Him.. who can say no to that?! ha We had the opportunity to give blessings to people who were really sick and man the Priesthood is real. The priesthood keys of old have been restored and can be found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The people here in Ecuador have so much faith in the Priesthood. It really helps me because my Spanish is obviously far from perfect, but through their faith and the spirit I am able to get across as to what Heavenly Father wants to say to them. I have felt the spirit so strongly this week in our lessons. I finally feel I am making progress in learning to recognize the spirit. I have always had a hard time with that but after studying a lot about it I have learned that if it is a good thought or impression...it doesn't matter if it's your thought or an impression! Just do it! ha NIKE!! Nike knows.

It was also really cool this week because we got to teach a person that knows a lot about the Bible. And as we were teaching the first lesson and about the end of our lesson we got into a big discussion about a whole lot of things... Tangent after tangent.. ha But then we finally said how about this, you ask God tonight and then when we come back we will see and talk about what happened. It was really awesome because we have been encouraged to make promises in the name of Jesus Christ. So we said, "As representatives of Jesus Christ, we promise you that if you ask Heavenly Father for an answer, He will give it to you." Elder Marquez and I talked a little bit afterwards about how we both were feeling and we were both so excited!  So we have an appointment with him this week and we are so excited to see Heavenly Father back us up. It just made us realize also the worthiness and the highness of our calling as missionaries.. That we are literal representatives of Him... I keep saying that throughout my letters in my mission but it just still amazes me that Heavenly Father and the Prophets and Apostles would put that much trust in 18-25 year olds... But we always have the promise that He provides a way. This gospel is true. I know it with all my heart. Through our faith and humility, He can work miracles through us. I love you all!!!

Elder Reynolds

First Transfer!

These families happily offer Elder Reynolds all they have because they feel so blessed that he found them and brought the gospel to them. He is so blown away by the generosity of the people he encounters. They don't have much and what they do have they want to share. His heart could not be fuller. He truly loves the people there in Ecuador!

Hello Everyone!!

So changes were today and I got changed to Ambato!! It is a city about 2 and a half hours away from where I was from. It is nice to get out of the city that you were born in! But I do have to say I miss it. I miss the people there and the investigators that we had. We have a family that is getting baptized this weekend and I really wish I could be there.. But whether I am there or not.. They are going to reap the amazing blessings of baptism!! Ahh I am so excited. No doubt my first baptisms were very special and I love the people so dearly.. But there is something about baptizing a whole family. When a whole family is listening to you as you testify that families can be together forever. That is something special. This gospel and the Plan of Salvation is perfect. There is not one person on this earth that is not worthy of receiving all the blessings of the Plan of Salvation and everything that HF has to offer. Everyone through the atonement of Jesus Christ can receive these blessings. My companion is Elder Marzua. He is from Peru. He seems really cool!! I am super excited! Finally get out of Quito and start to know more about Ecuador. I don't know much about Ambato but I know it is a lot flatter than my sector so I am excited! hahaha My companion says it doesn't rain than much here so that is a relief. Although that means it is hotter so that kind of sucks lol I would rather it be cold than it be scorching hot.

We had interviews with President and he always has us study a concept before we have the interviews so that we can talk about them. This time the concept was repentance. More than anything else, as I studied repentance, I learned that it is all about our humility. It is all dependent on our humility whether or not we will be forgiven. When we truly want to change and truly want to follow Jesus Christ we will do anything and everything to follow Him. And when we show that to our Heavenly Father, He blesses us with ways we can change. Help in stopping some things that maybe is hard for us to stop, or start doing things that are hard for us. Everything can come down to being humble before the Lord. To be honest that is hard for me! To be honest with everyone, while playing sports I enjoyed how I was able to receive some glory. But now it is all about getting the job done not caring about who gets the glory. I had a glimpse of that in High School and College as I could say I was team oriented. But as all men do, YES ALL MEN haha, we have a little bit of pride. We want to be praised of men. I can't say now I am totally changed, but I am seeing improvement in that my humbleness and humility is taking role rather than my pride. The mission is awesome and helps us learn so much as crazy 18 to 24 year olds. But I testify that it is not the mission that changes us. It is the choices we make and how truly humble we are for us to change. I listened to "We Are All Enlisted" and "The First Great Commandment" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland this week and man am I pumped!!!!!! Through accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can have the spirit in our lives again and become Christ's disciples. Be his hands down here on earth to build his kingdom. How lucky I am to have this calling. We are all in this together. We need everyone! I love you all!!!

Elder Reynolds

Elder Reynolds and his past companion, Elder Saldana

The Scriptures and the Gospel can help everyone in every single problem!

Mother's Day Skype!! Love our Elder Reynolds!!!!!!

Hello Everyone!!

Man it was so nice to talk to you guys, that is my family haha. It truly was a special blessing and opportunity to be able to talk to you guys!!! It was nice too see everyone is still alive! lol Seeing pictures and writing every week kind of turns into just a thing I do. It is hard to still imagine that the people I am writing to are real! lol that sounds weird....

So this week was a long one. I think it was because I was so excited to call!! We had a lot of appointments with our investigators though and they are all progressing very well! Not at the pace I would like... but it doesn't matter what I would like! I was talking to a missionary the other day and he said "how long did it take you to become converted to the gospel?" So I said about 20 years. And he said exactly. Now we as missionaries visit our investigators about 4 times a week with an hour at the most. And we get changed every 6 weeks so we have about 24 hours to convert an investigator... wow!!!! That really opened my eyes. And we also have to remember that we need to respect their agency. That we can force them to partake of this wonderful gospel, only lead them and guide them and then they have to make the decision ultimately. How are we to do this?!! Through the spirit...that is the only way to do it. And I don't mind doing it that way because then we will be baptizing converts rather than just people!

One of our investigators came to church for the first time yesterday. His name is Moises. He hasn't come to church because he is a little intimidated. So we actually went and got him and brought him to church haha. Along the way he was so extremely nervous. So we asked him why he is so nervous and he said because I don't want to mess up! haha It was a little funny to me because I thought about how could you mess up while at church?!! I really don't know how other churches run, but I guess he had bad experiences with other churches. I thought how sad it is for these people that they really have a desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ, but they just don't know where to find it. Or something else that is impeding them that is in my mind so easy to fix. Moises is a guy who has a lot of questions. He asked an interesting question the other day, he said that it says in the scriptures that Hyrum Smith said about Joseph Smith that he did more than any other man besides Jesus Christ himself. he said how is that possible? If you go to someone on the street and ask him who Jesus Christ is, they will say yes, I know who He is. But if you ask him who is Joseph Smith, they will probably say they don't know. And so he had a hard time with that.... I loved responding to that because that is exactly why we are here!!!!! To help people and to invite them to know of Jesus Christ and that the true church of Jesus Christ came through Joseph Smith. I love that through teaching and trying to help others, our own testimony is strengthened so much. 

The more I study about Jesus Christ, the more I am so amazed. I am just in awe of His sacrifice and how not one single bad thought was thought by Him. While he was being whipped and nailed to the cross.... It is crazy because he just got out of Gethsemane. He just suffered for the sins of those people that were spitting on him and doing all those horrible things. And He still suffered in hoping that maybe they would come to Him in some future point in their lives. Love. Charity. How powerful is that? How unworthy to be able to become whole through the atonement... But how lucky I am!! I love the conversion of Alma in Alma 36. That is one of the chapters we always leave our investigators that are struggling with repentance. Man the scriptures and everything about this gospel can help everyone in every single problem. I truly believe that. I love you all!!! Keep on keeping on!

Elder Reynolds

Best Mother's Day!!

Zone Conference