Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hey Everyone!!

Merry Christmas to you all and have a Happy New Year this upcoming week. Christmas week here in the WA-TAC was super duper sick! IT was horrible when it came to finding people and working but when it came to hanging and talking with other missionaries it has been the best week ever. It is frustrating that people don't want to learn right now but at the start of the new year tons of people are willing to learn and talk to us so it will be getting really busy really soon. The mission Christmas party was the craziest thing ever and so much fun. I really enjoyed spending time with the whole mission. Christmas day was super fun. I was on the phone with the fam for like 3 hours and you have all seen pictures I'm sure. The best part of Christmas was spending time with Gary Hind who went through a ton of effort to make us a Turkey dinner and helped us out on Christmas day. He is such a sweetheart and really helped me to remember the true meaning of Christmas. He isn't worried about gifts or parties or anything. Just becoming more like Jesus Christ and that is something that we can all work on in our lives. As we continue to go into the new year the best thing that we can be doing is setting goals to improve ourselves and become more Christlike. As we find things that we can do better and make them happen, we will be blessed more than we can imagine. I love this gospel.

On Sunday we saw our first snow of the year in Poulsbo but it didn't even last all day. It is back to the rainy season again. YAY (: Snow was the coolest thing ever. I am doing good and I love this place so much. I can't say it enough. I hope you all have felt the true meaning of Christmas this year and can carry it through the rest of the year. It is such a special time of year and I love it so much. I hope and pray for you all every day.

Much love,
Elder Trevor Reynolds

Christmas Time

Hey everyone!!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas this week! I know that I will that's for sure. This last week we have had some really cool experiences that bring so much joy. The new A Savior is Born video is amazing and brings us all closer to the gospel than we could ever imagine. We have it on a flash drive in our DVD player and we get the chance to share it everywhere we go. We were knocking one day and showed it to a guy and he totally felt the spirit and teared up, (They sometimes have correlation but not always) and he actually liked the idea of the video and wanted to share it with others. I guess he helps with adoption from children from South Africa and things and so it really touched him to see children from all around the world feeling the spirit of Christmas. We show it to families and they all smile and say I wish it was longer. It hasn't led to a baptism yet, but I know that seeds are being planted and that there are others ready to be harvested all over the place here.

We are teaching a pastor name is Buck and he is super duper awesome. He is searching for the truth. He told us that one of us is right and he is actually humble enough to find out. He wants to read from the Book of Mormon and talk to us more, but everyone, including him, wants to wait until after Christmas so we are actively trying to find more. Hopefully we will be able to help him prepare for baptism in the coming weeks and it will be the most awesome thing ever. Thursday was his daughter's birthday but we didn't get a chance to go over there so on Saturday we took her a birthday gift and he loved it and he was very appreciative of us doing that for her. He is realizing that we really are his friends and care about him more than just on a church standpoint and he loved it so much.

I am so grateful for the special opportunities like this one that I have on my mission. They make all the hard days worth it. I am so excited for Christmas and I hope you all have the most very Merry Christmas ever. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that He brings so many blessings to my life. Celebrate Him this Christmas time.

Love,
Elder Trevor Reynolds

Preacher Teaching

Hey everyone!!

This week was a great one here in the Poulsbo Mission. haha We have done a lot and transfers were this week so Elder Quinton and I have other missionaries serving around us now and it is a lot of fun to have new people around and things. It's great. We had the opportunity to teach a preacher and be able to help him learn and he has asked us to come by again and continue teaching him so that will be super awesome if he accepts those things. It really doesn't feel like Christmas here without the snow but it is definitely December now so I'm really excited. I love this gospel and things are awesome.

We have had the opportunity to start teaching and finding more people that will be taught this upcoming week. It is awesome to see how when we changed just a few small simple things how much better things have gone this last week and we are striving to see similar results this upcoming week as we work harder and are more diligent in all that we do. I hope you are all safe and warm with the snow. I am doing great here. Our apartment is safe and we haven't had any struggles with flooding and we haven't heard much about it but we know that a few other people are in need of some help so this upcoming week we may be helping out a little bit more than we have this last week. Things are so awesome here to be able to help people and see the results of service.

I hope you all have a great week and that things are going great. I know that Jesus Christ is such an awesome influence in each of our lives. He allows each of us the opportunity to become better and become like him in the end. I love you all. Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Reynolds

WA-TAC or WA-POUL

Hey Everyone!!

So transfers are on Tuesday and I'm staying and Elder Quinton my companion is staying as well. Hopefully he likes me? I like him a lot and we seem to get along pretty well. This last week it has rained SO much. It rained for 24 hours straight for the first time in my mission. It sucked. We walked around all day Saturday with umbrellas over our head and our feet soaked and yeah..It was fun though. Gotta love Washington! (:

We haven't been able to find very many people to teach, but then we realized through some pondering and talking that we need to do the little things. We need to be exactly on time to our 5-7's and we need to be doing all that we possibly can to find people. This week I am especially working on my thoughts and being focused on the investigators all the time. It is my first week out of the training program. I'm almost not a greenie after another couple months. Oh how the time flies out here. It's great though.

I have learned to be patient and just kind of roll with the flow of things. On Friday we had our ward Christmas party. It was a PARTY!! SO many decorations and so much food and it was just super duper good. Elder Quinton and I were asked to play shepherds in the Nativity scenes and we had like 4 lines of talking each and it was pretty chill. It was fun.

Then after we got to mingle with the ward and we had so many people who are supportive of us. We haven't seen the baptisms or tons of huge blessings come but the little things are what matters in this life. I am realizing that more and more each week.

The little blessings that we receive are the greatest thing ever. It is crazy how much they matter. I invite all of you to take a minute and evaluate how you are doing with the little things. Scripture study, prayer, keeping the sabbath day holy, whatever it may be. I promise you that as you do the little things you will see the little blessings more clearly in your life. I know I am seeing them every single day.

I love you all and miss you so much. I hope things back at home are just amazing.

Love,

Elder Reynolds

Thanksgiving Week

Hey Everyone!!

This week was so crazy long but short and slow but fast. The saying that weeks feel like days and days feel like weeks is so true.

This week we got fired from doing service. Literally fired from doing service. It was quite sad. The food bank where we render service each week is sponsored by Bayside Community Church in Kingston. We have been volunteering there for about 2 months before hearing anything about any of this. We were there doing service and it was so crazy busy with donations and food going in and out and flying everywhere. We were working non-stop when the pastor came and he told us that he would feel more comfortable if we didn't do service there because it was a part of their ministry. We don't go there to proselyte or anything. Purely just to do service and because of the light in our eyes he kicked us out and asked us to leave on the spot. It helped me to gain a strong testimony of the light of Christ that each of us carries with us. I know that everywhere I go as long as I live worthy I can and will carry that light with me and it is for all of the world to see. When people see the light that we have within us, it is inspiring to them, they want the same for themselves and that is when we see change happen.

I hope that we can all strive to live more worthily to have the Light shine from within us for the whole world to see. The quote that is on the front of my planner right now says, "Don't shine so that others can see you. Shine, so that through you, others can see HIM. - C.S. Lewis. This quote was sent to me by Momma Reynolds and I put it on my planner to remind me all the time what my purpose is. To allow others to see Jesus Christ through me and we each have this challenge for ourselves. To let others see and feel of the love that Jesus Christ has for them.

The rest of the week was wonderful. We had Thanksgiving and played lots of football, 8 until 11 in the morning with no water. Dumbest idea ever but it was so much fun. Then we had dinner and just spent time with the awesome members here in this ward who are so good to us as missionaries.

On Friday we had exchanges and Elder Stevens our District Leader came here to the Poulsbo 2nd ward and we were companions for the day. We were knocking and had a guy try to tell us that we couldn't be there on his "private road" that he owned all of it. It was depressing. He told us that we don't believe in the same Jesus Christ as him so I asked him if there are two Christ's and basically he didn't have much to say. There are a lot of struggles with people here. They have different beliefs and aren't humble enough to listen or even give it a shot. It is heartbreaking. We had an investigator who is really solid and was on date for December 6th. Nicole is her name. She didn't end up coming to church so she fell off and that made us really sad and it is frustrating when investigators don't keep commitments or anything. I hate it.

This is the last week of the transfer. I have been out for almost 3 months.I love you all and love hearing from you. Emails and letters are so great. I love this gospel and the happiness it brings me so much. I hope you all had the best Thanksgiving ever and will have a great week!!

Until next time,

Elder Trevor Scott Reynolds

Our lessons come from knocking on doors

Hey everyone!!



This week has been kind of a slow one. But I've learned a lot. We are both really young missionaries trying to figure out how to do things here so that we can be most effective in our activities and things that we do during the day. Our lessons come from knocking on doors. We had a really cool experience that testifies how strong the spirit is.

We were knocking on Saturday evening. We were knocking in this pretty spread out housing area and we got there late because we walked and it was just a crazy day. We knocked on this door and introduced ourselves as missionaries from the church and this guy started talking to us. At first he was kind of like eh...I was like wait a second so what are some of your beliefs. Just a conversation starter for us to start talking to him and getting to know him a little better. He told us he was agnostic if I remember right. He told us he just didn't know if he could know that something was actually true without seeing it. We didn't go into the scriptures to explain faith, we just shared our testimonies that if we read and pray to our heavenly father to know if these things are true then he would testify to us through our thoughts and in our hearts. He felt the spirit and told us to come back anytime and talk to him more about it and that he would come to church and things. So he didn't come to church but we are going back this week and will help him progress towards baptism and confirmation. I love how the spirit changes people. When they feel the spirit they open up and are a lot more willing to talk to us and understand and do the things that our Heavenly Father has asked for each of us to do.

The spirit is so strong and can help us each to become better and better each day. I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and remember to give thanks for everything. It is this gospel that is amazing. I love it so much and I am so grateful for it.

Love,
Elder Reynolds

The Blessing of Silence

Hey Everyone!!

I hope everything back at home in the snow is going good. Or wherever you are, if there is snow or not, I hope it is going good for everyone. Here in Washington it is rainy and wet and dark every day starting at about 4:30 and until early in the morning too! It sucks but isn't too bad at the same time, because as long as we stay dry, which we do, things are so great. This last week has been good. We had a zone meeting on Wednesday that talked solely on Member Missionary work and the things that we as missionaries can do to help members get more excited and for them to do missionary work so that we can focus on Harvesting and helping people to be baptized and confirmed. Qtip my new comp and I have been doing our best to inspire members and we are going to be working extra hard to find people to be baptized in the next month and a half.

One thing that has really stood out to me is the blessing of silence. Elder Quinton and I watched a video about being patient and allowing people the opportunity to let the spirit teach them,. I thought for the last 2 months that I needed to teach people and testify so strongly so that they would be convinced by the spirit. Then I realized, "Where do each of our inspired thoughts come from?" They come from the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost allows people to do that same thing. They have the opportunity to feel and learn from the spirit and I don't even have to say a word. People know that this is true. They know it, they just sometimes don't want to accept it, and that is okay, but my job is just to allow the spirit to be there.

We have an investigator named Nicole. She grew up baptist but is looking for a church. We have met with her twice and are meeting with her again on Wednesday at 3. She is also meeting with the JW's and says she gets this good feeling from both of us. I was talking to our district leader about it last week before we taught her and he said, tell her we celebrate Christmas and she'll be baptized next week! He said it as a joke, but then when we taught her the plan of salvation lesson, she asked us if she can celebrate Christmas and we were like YES!!!! She is on date to be baptized on December 6th! She drinks coffee but she is really interested and so awesome to talk to and to teach. She is the first person that I have taught where I feel like I am teaching her and not a lesson because she wants to know if this is true. My friends and family. If we want to know if something is true all we have to do is ask. If we seek wisdom, ask of God because he will give it to each and every one of us as he has given the answer to me to know that this is the only true Church of Jesus Christ here in the latter days. I love this gospel and the church is true.

Everyone have a great week and starve yourself so Thanksgiving can be full of fatty foods and football! Love you all so much!!

Elder Trev Reynolds