Monday, July 31, 2017

I know that miracles happen

Hey everyone! We had a really good week here. Transfers were Tuesday so I got a new companion. Elder Allen is way awesome and I love the kid to death. This week we worked really hard and had a lot of fun. Being there is only 2 of us now in the ward it gives us the freedom to go wherever whenever. Which means that we just knock all day and we actually find quite a bit of success. This week was really good along the line of teaching and helping people prepare to be baptized.

On Sunday we had the baptism of Veasna Up for us and Elders and the Sisters baptized someone that I have worked with a little bit because we knock on her door quite often and I had the chance to teach her. So we had the baptism on Sunday night! Veasna was a miracle. We have been working with him for a couple of weeks but it's been hard to contact him because of his family situation. So we stopped by and didn't catch him during the afternoon because he was taking a shower. So we went to stop by again at night and we saw him walking down the road. So we pulled over and talked with him and asked if he still wanted to be baptized this weekend! He said yeah sure so we set up a time to go over the next day and talk to his mom about it. The next day we went over and talked with him and his mom and we went over the baptismal interview with him and got that taken care of and filled out the baptismal record with his Mom. She was very supportive and he was able to be baptized this weekend. I know that miracles happen and that God has a plan for young men like him to be prepared now to become servants of him.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week! I love it up here! Here are a few pictures from the week! Love you all!
Veasna's Baptism- Elder Reynolds and companion Elder Allen

 Sister White sent these pics to Tammy's cell phone on Sunday night.  Her texts said, "They are very busy today as you can see he said his hair is messy.  This picture was taken right after the baptism tonight.  We were in the Relief Society room greeting the newly baptized members and he came and said, Sister White let's take a selfie and took the picture right away before he said he'll fix his hair.  We looked at the pic and he said it's okay, that means we are really busy."

Monday, July 24, 2017

Happy Pioneer Day

What a good week! Happy Pioneer Day to everyone today!! I hope that you all enjoy it. This week was really good. We worked hard and since it was Elder Turley and Chacon's last week and transfers coming up we had lots of "party" type activites if you will. On Tuesday we had the cool opportunity to have dinner at Old Country Buffet with some awesome members. Old Country Buffet is the BEST! After that on Wednesday we all went to a district meeting where there are 5 missionaries going home so we just enjoyed our time together and shared testimonies. It was weird to be around a group of dying missionaries and only have a few weeks left myself. Then on Thursday Elder Chacon and Turley got invited to go out to lunch with one of the senior couples and it was weekly packing for them. So I got to drive around and we went out to lunch and got some Panera Bread. Friday was way fun. We went on exchanges with the AP's so it went by super quick. Then Saturday was going to be a work day but Elder Chacon found out about a baptism that was up in Port Angeles (An hour and a half away) so we went to his baptism up there and right as we got back we had planned to go Old Spaghetti Factory for our final dinner together so we went straight there. After finishing that up we knocked doors and then did some church round up to get some of our investigators to church.

MIRACLE! During our regular knocking time we knocked on a young man's door who was supposed to be baptized but he wasn't home so we weren't planning on being able to contact him. Two of the 4 of us went back to his house and talked to his mom and told her that we had the baptism planned. We got things together for his baptism and he was baptized yesterday!! Alex Worth is such an awesome young man. It was cool to see companions have a baptism their last week in the mission.


I hope that you all have a great week this week! Love you all!

Elder Trevor Reynolds

Monday, July 17, 2017

Decisions in our lives are all acts of faith

Hey everyone! Hope that you have had a great week. This week was a little bit slower work wise but it went by super fast! We got out and worked every day and it was super successful. We had a pretty cool baptism this week. Heleman Faamausili was baptized on Sunday. He was kind of a miracle for us, but kinda sad... Heleman is 13 and he was baptized when he was 8 in Samoa but his records were lost so we were able to teach him and have him baptized again this week. Their family is really cool. Someone told us a story while at the baptism that there was one of their family members that was baptized 3 times because they kept losing the records or not taking care of them...so my friends! I've learned the value of keeping records and doing things right the first time..that's for sure! Other than that this week was just pretty fun.

We are teaching one of the most prepared people that I've ever met! Her name is LaDeisha Browne. She's pretty dope. She's on date to be baptized next weekend so we should be able to work with her this week and help that happen. She knows that she needs to and that this is true, it's just a matter of taking the leap of faith. But with faith you have to experiment or it doesn't work out. So taking a leap is the most important thing that you can do.

All members of the church have to do it at some point. For a lot of young men who grow up in the church it's taking the leap of faith to go on a mission. For others, it's taking on a new calling and being in charge of the Relief Society or another group. For young women it's deciding whether to go on a mission or to stay home and head to college. These decisions in our lives are all acts of faith and when we choose righteously and with faith, the blessings don't stop coming our way. I know it because I've seen the blessings in my life now. I know the church is true my friends. Hope you have a great week!

I love the WATAC and I love all of you!!

Elder Trevor Reynolds
















Monday, July 10, 2017

I love the Gospel of Christ and the plan that is there for each of us

Happy 4th of July my friends! This week was a whole lot of fun. It started off with the 4th! We still worked all day except in the evening. We went over to a members who lives on the lake and was having a family reunion type thing and we had some really good food. Then we knocked from 5-7 with the AP's because they just wanted to come split knock. After that we went with one of the districts in our zone to a members home and had burgers and hung out with a group of like 10 missionaries. It was a good time! We had a lot of fun. There were some children who had Pop It's...so we had a Pop It war..it was way fun!

After the 4th of July on Wednesday we had the chance to have a little meet and greet with our new mission president! He's such an awesome guy! Love him to death already and it feels like He's been here for a lot longer than he has. Then Thursday our companions went to the Temple so we just worked and planned and then Friday was MLC so we were in a meeting until like 3:30 and then we headed out for the day. It was a lot of fun. Then we had work the next two days and yesterday we finished the week off with the Baptism of Joshua Lumley. It was a really cool baptism. Our Mission President was there and he really enjoyed it. A pretty cool spiritual experience.

I love the Gospel of Christ and the plan that is there for each of us. It's so much fun to see others grow and come closer to our Heavenly Father. As we do the things that we are commanded we're blessed. So...do what he has commanded. This week we also were shown a pretty cool talk from Elder Holland that was given at the training for New Mission Presidents.

 Here is a copy of "The Missionary Speech of All Time"

Elder Holland closed by relating a story—being careful to protect the privacy and anonymity of the participants—of a young man from southern Idaho. One night the young man stormed out of the house and set off to join an infamous motorcycle gang. He succeeded in that resolve and for 20 years became immersed in a culture “of temptations yielded to and degradations explored,” never contacting his parents, who feared that he was dead.

Eventually ending up in Southern California, he one day was sitting on the porch of a rented home when he saw two LDS missionaries making their way up the street.

“With a rush of memory and guilt, regret, and rage, he despised the very sight of them,” Elder Holland recounted. “But he was safe, because he kept all visitors at bay by employing two Doberman pinschers, who viciously charged the gate every moment that anyone came near.”

The dogs startled the missionaries as they passed by and continued on, “our man on the porch laughing at the lovely little drama he had just witnessed, wishing only that the gate hadn’t restrained his two dogs.”

Then, the two elders stopped, looked at each other, conversed a little, “likely said a silent prayer,” then turned around and approached the gate.

“The Dobermans on cue charged the gate again, hit it, snarling, frothing, and then stopped in their tracks,” Elder Holland said. “They looked at the missionaries, dropped their heads, ambled back to the front steps, and lay down.”

The man on the porch was speechless as the missionaries opened the gate, walked up the path, and greeted him.

“One of the elders said, ‘Are you from this part of California?’

“The man said, ‘No. If you want to know, I’m from Pocatello, Idaho.’

“There was a pause. ‘That’s interesting,’ the elder said. ‘Do you know the [such-and-such] family in Pocatello?’

“With a stunned look, our biker paused and then, in very measured words said, ‘Yeah, I know them. They are my parents.’

“‘Well, they’re my parents too,’ the missionary said. ‘God has sent me to invite you to come home.’”

The younger brother had been born after the older boy had left home. The elder brother did not even know of him.

“Mom and Dad have been praying for you every morning and night for 20 years,” the younger brother said. “They were not sure you were alive, but they knew if you were, that someday you would come back to us.”

The wayward son invited the two in, and they talked for the rest of the day and some of the night. He did return home, returned to Church activity, and, in March 2015, was married and sealed in the Boise Idaho Temple.

Commenting on the account, Elder Holland said, “This is a story of the role of Almighty God, the Savior of the World, and the Holy Ghost involved in the work of the ministry to which we’ve been called.

“The Holy Ghost prompted those parents to keep praying, to keep believing, to keep trusting. … The Holy Ghost inspired that rebellious boy to come to himself like the prodigal he was and to head for California. … The Holy Ghost influenced that younger son to serve a mission and be willing to accept a call to Southern California. … The Holy Ghost inspired one of my brethren in the Twelve, who was on the assignment desk that Friday, to trust his impression and assign that young man for service not a great distance from his native-born state. The Holy Ghost inspired that mission president to assign that young missionary to that district and that member unit. The Holy Ghost led those missionaries to that street, that day, that hour, with big brother sitting on the porch waiting, and, with Doberman pinschers notwithstanding, the Holy Ghost prompted those two elders to stop, talk, and in spite of their fear, to go back and present their message. …

“And through the elders, the Holy Ghost taught repentance and brought true conversion to one coming back into the fold.”

Elder Holland said the young elder, without realizing it, gave the missionary speech of all time, when he said to his brother, “God has sent me here to invite you to come home.”

“We are sent by God to invite His children home,” Elder Holland concluded. “We do that through the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, on the strength of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Welcome to the divine companionship.”

Love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Elder Reynolds (:







Monday, July 3, 2017

NEW PRES!!! BAPTISM!!

Hey everyone!

This week was a super good one. We had an awesome miracle. This week Leanne was baptized. She's been a little bit of a slow roaster and has been thinking about quitting smoking for a long time. Her Mom is a big influence on her continuing to smoke but this week in a sad way, but a miracle, Leanne left her house because of abuse from her Mom and because of that she didn't have a lot of money or funds and she made the decision to purchase anything so she didn't. She called us on Tuesday of this last week and said, I left the house and was going to be homeless, I went over to the Lakewood town center and was at the bus stop when I saw an old friend who I started talking to. As they talked Leanne shared the experiences that she was having and how she was going to be homeless. Her friend welcomed her to come and stay at the hotel that she was staying at...yes kind of interesting but it happened. They stayed there for a few days and then on Saturday we had her come to the baptism of a convert in another ward. We had a member pick her up at the church because they at the time were homeless...so they put all their stuff in the church and we helped them get to the baptism. At the baptism the member found out that they were homeless and took them out to lunch, after finishing up lunch the Bishop met with them and got them a place to stay for the next couple of days and that's where they are now. The members stuck with them all the way through and ended up buying them a bunch of groceries and helped them out a lot. Then yesterday comes around and she has a ride to church, then she was baptized last night at 7:00. What a cool experience to be a part of. Often times we work really really hard for something and we feel like we aren't going to get it. We plead and pray and hope and work and sometimes it doesn't come in our timing, but I learned that it comes.

We also met our new mission president this week! He flew in on Friday and HE IS DOPE!! I love him so much. I had the chance to meet him at a baptism on Saturday and then he came to our baptism last night. He said on our conference call that him and Sister Leishman attended 5 baptisms this weekend. That's pretty sweet for only being in the mission for like 72 hours. They are the greatest people. It's really sad to see the Blatter's go but I've learned that the mission is in good hands. (: Other than that the week was pretty normal. Just a lot of hard work and finding the most we can. I hope that you all have a Happy 4th of July!!

Love,
Elder Reynolds