Interviews and Fun

What's up fam! Hope you all had a great week, I'm excited to tell you about mine! 

Monday we played sand volleyball as a district and that was super fun!! Then we had an awsome lesson with our friends Cidney and Cori. They are the best, we just have to get them to church! Then we swung by a couple of our friends. 

Tuesday we had district council that was all about following up with ourselves on personal goals, and helping our friends be accountable as well! Then we had a fun interaction with some teenagers who thought they were tough by saying, "don't show your face around here again". But after that we had an awesome lesson with our friend Kosh, who we extended a baptismal invitation to for July 20th and he accepted!!

Wednesday I got to meet with President for interviews and he is amazing!! But the first thing he said when I sat down was, "Three more weeks Elder Reynolds you can do it". Then we talked about my area, how we're doing and stayed away from the topic of home lol. Later that day we had a lesson with Micheal and his brother Chris. We also helped a lady move a dresser and she said she wanted to come to our Book of Mormon class! 

Thursday we had an awesome lesson with Luis and gave him a Book of Mormon my sister painted. It has flowers on it and he had daughters who he said would love it! He's down to learn, just busy so it's tough to set stuff up. We also has a ward BBQ that our friend LaMerra came to and she brought her friend Sam which was awesome. They got to know the ward and loved it! 

Friday I was on exchanges with Elder Wood and we had a blast! We had our pass off lesson with Kosh and he seemed to like the YSA Elders so that's a plus! He went to the YSA on Sunday and the Elders said he loved it!! Also on our exchange we met David who is a soccer coach and I chessily brought in the gospel by saying "God is our coach and has a game plan for us". He seemed to like it and were going back on Friday! We also met a cool kid named Fernando who were meeting with tonight!!!

Saturday we went to the baptism of Stephanie who I was able to interview last week, she is awesome!! Then we has a lesson with Kavon and some members from Moorpark. Kavon is just getting into religion and wants to dive into the Book of Mormon! That night we had dinner at the Clevelands and Bro. Cleveland smoked a really good tri-tip!!! 

Sunday church was good, unfortunately our friends that are progressing went to the YSA ward and we'll have to pass them off, but we have some good people we're teaching who have a desire they were just sick... the rest of the day was full of studies and weekly planning, besides a delicious dinner with the Baugh family!! 

"Many of you have witnessed miracles, more than you realize. They may seem small in comparison to Jesus raising the dead. But the magnitude does not distinguish a miracle, only that it came from God." - Ronald A. Rasband 

It's truly amazing the miracles that God gives us everyday and often times we may overlook them because we think they have to be glorious and glamorous. I hope we all may see the miracles that God gives us every day, I’m blessed to be a missionary and have little to no distractions so I can see them!! 

There's my week hope your was great as well!!! 

Pics: 

Volleyball, package(minus the awesome Book of Mormons that Mallory painted), our friend Kosh.

: Temple, Zone Conference, Emergency Transfer...

What's up friends and family!!! I hope you all had an awesome week, mine was full of craziness!!!

Monday we played pickleball as a district and it was fun! We stopped by a ton of our friends, but only one of them was home and we gave them their "comic book" which is the Book of Mormon stories for children and they are loving it!!

Tuesday was great! District council was focused on the importance of seeking Christ's words and the power that comes as we do that! As we seek to obtain the words that gives the Holy Ghost an opportunity to brings things to our rememberance when we need them! Then I was on an exchange with Elder Brian in my area! We had a good comp study with a recent convert and talked about Patriarchal blessings! Had a good phone call with our friend Lily and her friend Emma. Our Book of Mormon class was well attended!!!

Wednesday we had an awesome lesson with our friend Ozzy and set up a church tour with him!! We also had an awesome lesson with our friend Micheal and a return missionary from our ward and that went really well!! Then we had to take a drive to Camarillo to drop Elder Hoschouer off so that he could ride down to the temple in a different van.

Thursday we went to the Temple!!!! It was so amazing, I love the Los Angeles temple, it is awesome! After we went through the temple we got to spend some time in the visitors center and President Rodriguez talked about how temple work and missionary work are not 2 works. Missionary work prepares people for the temple and as new converts attend the temple and do family history more names become available and more work is able to be done!! I then got to do another baptismal interview for a lady named Stephanie who is so amazing and has a strong testimony! Then we had an awesome lesson with our friend Cori and her sister Cindney!

Friday was zone conference and it was amazing! Sister Rodriguez talked about the importance of studying the scriptures, the assistants talked about the different ways we can work with members, and President Rodriguez talked about true conversion and how a testimony is a starting point, but we need to become converted! As well as help others as well by giving them the right tools to become converted themselves.

Saturday we had to drop Elder Hoschouer off with Elder Cutler becuase Elder Glazener needed to go home due to health problems. So our trio is back to a duo... Saturday was also walk day and we WALKED a ton!!! It was worth it, we were able to send 2 people to the Spanish missionaries and found 3 for oursleves! One of them being LaMerra who is super cool and wants to learn a lot. We also met a different Micheal who lit up when we told him we have The Book of Mormon that talks more about Jesus Christ!!

Sunday I gave a talk in church and that seemed to go pretty good! Squeezed in a little bit about fathers day and my dads famous saying he would tell me when I left the house, "Learn something". Then we had a busy afternoon full of studying, dinner with the Bystroms, planning our week, and a mission zoom. On the mission zoom we studied Peter and his conversion. He had a testimony early on, but it wasn't until Peter was asked 3 times by the Savior if he love Him that he was converted.

“I plead with you to take charge of your testimony. Work for it. Own it. Care for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. … “[Then] watch for miracles to happen in your life.” - President Nelson May 2022 Young Adult Conference

It's truly amazing the way our Father in Heaven works with us as we have a desire to grow our testimonies and the experiences we are gifted with! I hope you all take time this week to strengthen your testimony and grow closer to God!!

Hope you all had a great week, love you all, talk to you soon!!!!

Pics:

District, my comps, exchanges, temple, more temple, walk day

Minny Miracles!

What's up friends and family, hope you’re doing well and that you had an awesome week! Here's how mine went:

Monday we played frisbee golf for our district activity! Then we had dinner delivered which was great!! We stopped by a couple of our friends and as we were talking with one of them, he got a call and said, "Yeah, yeah, for real, I got your back dog, I'll be right over" then proceeded to run inside, tell everyone what happened, come outside tell us his friend just got jumped, then get in his car and drive away...

Tuesday district council was focused on diligence and the importance of staying focused, working hard, and helping all come unto christ no matter where we are at! Then we had a really good lesson with our friend Gustavo after the Book of Mormon class! He loved the class then we were able to teach him more about restoration and how important the Book of Mormon is!!

Wednesday we had a great visit with Dorothea, she has a desire to make it back to the temple and talked to Bishop on Sunday so that's big! Then we had a good lesson with our friend Micheal, then caught our friend Ozzy home and taught him the restoration and it all seemed to make sense to him and he loves reading the Book of Mormon!! Then Wednesday night Jesse a member of our ward took us out to dinner and he invited Gustavo the friend we're teaching and Sean so that was really fun!!

Thursday we met a lady named Benny who has family in the Philippines who are members so that was cool and were gonna start teaching her! Then we went store contacting(I am not a fan), but we started talking to one of the workers at the mall and she's been going through some rough stuff, so we were able to help her find peace through Jesus Christ and we have a church tour tomorrow!!!

Friday Curtis a member from our ward took us to Green Acres which is a pretty good tri-tip spot, loved it!!! Then we had a good phone call lesson with our friend Lily! After that while at the park Andrew approached us and wanted to learn more about our beliefs, then he shared a lot about the Eastern Orthodox religion so I got to learn a little bit about that! Then we drove to Newbury Park for a service at the stagecoach museum. Which is a super old hotel they turned into a museum, and we helped set up for a carnival type of thing! Used the little bit of Spanish I know to start teaching 2 new friends for the Spanish area!!!

Saturday I had an amazing opportunity to do a baptismal interview and Diana is super ready and has a strong testimony! Then we met Monique, who we tracted into. She said, "It's funny you came by, I've been feeling distant from God and needing to get closer to him". Super excited to see where that goes! And finished off the night with dinner at our Bishops house!!!

Sunday was awesome. A missionary had his homecoming talk and that was pretty good! Then we planned for the week and thought about our friends and set goals for them and plans for how to help them progress which is always fun. Then we went to the Guidos house for dinner and had a good time there!!

"There has never been a time in the history of the world when knowledge of our Savior is more personally vital and relevant to every human soul"

-President Russel M. Nelson

It's truly amazing the impact of having Jesus Christ is our lives has. I've been blessed to be able to grow closer to Jesus Christ while on my mission and see others who didn't know Him, or hadn't embraced Him do exactly that and their lives have been changed! I hope you all take time to recognize how blessed we are to know Jesus Christ, and if you don't know Him, start reading and praying and your relationship will grow!!

Have a great week, love you all!!!!

Pics:

1. Comp study

2. Free shirts we got from a random guy

3. Cute dog that reminded me of Titan(My brothers dog)

4. We found a swing

5. Frisbee

6. Bees

Transfers and Trio Again

What's up friends and family! Hope you week was good, mime was pretty great! Friday we had transfers and I am still in Simi Valley, still with Elder Hobbs, but we got Elder Hoschouer as our companion as well!!! But here's my week!

Monday was the last preparation day as well as memorial day. So for our district activity we had a nerf war. That was super fun, sadly I didn't remember to take a picture.... later that evening we stopped by our friend Ernie who has a lot of health problems, but still stands and talks with us everything we stop by.

Tuesday we had our last district council of the transfer and that was focused on the improtant of remembering the things that we learned and applying this transfer. Then we had an exchange with Elder Cutler and Glazener. I was with Elder Glazener in my areas and we had a lot of fun! We met Kristian in the park who is super cool, then while knocking we met Andrea who has a young family and wanted to learn more about the gospel! Then we had oir friend Kari come to the Book of Mormon class and it seemed like she enjoyed it!!

Wednesday we found Catarine and Victoria. They seem pretty cool and open to learning. Grew up in a different faith, but are willing to read the Book of Mormon with us! Then we met Linda from a different church as well and we left her with a link to "Think Celestial" by President Nelson! Then we had a good lesson with Gustavo and Sean was able to bear strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. I've never had someone say this, but Gustavo said, "I'm gonna have to pray about going to your church". And ended up going to a different one... but we have something with him this week! Then we filled the font for a baptism for the other elders.

Thursday we found out transfer news, had a nice surprise finding our I'm in my 5th trio of my mission! I must be the troubled missionary lol. But then the day was full of knocking because we has 2 lessons fall through. But we were able to learn from a lot of people about different churches and share ours even though the person wasn't interested.

Friday was transfer day!!! We waited until Elder Hoschouer got to our apartment, he settled in, then we had a mentoring session about extending invitations and promising blessings and the importance and power that comes as we do. Then we had a learn call through, but it our ward mission leader Bro Baker can study us to another visit and hit it off with our friend Vinny!!

Saturday was a day full of service. We started in the morning by moving someone across Simi. Pretty easy move considering that it was only the big things. Then we had time to do our studies before heading to the Guidos to help set up for a surprise party for Bro Guido who turned 70. Then we knocked around and nothing was very successful. Then we went back to the party, had some good pasta and meatballs and met some of their non-member friends! Said goodbye to the foreign exchange students, then kept knocing doors.

Sunday we had an awesome fast and testimony meeting! A great gospel principles class and our friend Cori showed up and enjoyed it a lot. Then we had a stake missionary meeting, dinner at the Mathias's house and enjoyed that. Then went to the Baugh's house and shared a message, then went to the Bakers house and shared a message with their non member friends from Thousand Oaks!! Then finished off the night with a mission zoom.

That was my week, hope you all had an amazing one as well!!!

"The intent of the Father’s plan of redemption is in fact your redemption, your being rescued through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, freed from the captivity of sin and death. It is not to leave you as you are."
- Elder Patrick Kearon
As we turn to the Savior he will heal, forgive, love, and welcome us, because He is the way back to our Father in Heaven!

Pics:
Sunset, Elder Glazener, Filling the font w/ Elder deJong, Baptism Shenanigans w/ Richardson and Slobodian, Amount of times me and Elder Hobbs went up and down our stairs, Goodbye to the exchange students