Week 33

This week was my first week with my new companion, Elder Hinckley. He´s a good guy. We get along well, but obviously there are always differences that you need to overcome. I´m sure I´ll end up learning a lot from him. We possibly have two baptisms this Saturday. Pedro Betancourt lives in Tijeral. His wife and oldest daughter are recent converts. The first time we asked him to be baptized he didn´t waste a second in telling us no haha. After a few weeks of sharing the gospel and of the Spirit doing its job, he has changed his mind. Now, he has the opportunity to be baptized, receive a remission of his sins, and, in the future, be sealed to his family forever. Mauricio is a 24-year-old who lives here in Renaico. I remember the first time I talked with him that he had no interest at all in being baptized. But, after making some changes in his life, he expressed to us his desire to be baptized. His girlfriend is also listening to us and progressing a lot. I had an experience yesterday that was really cool. We were waiting for a bus to Tijeral for about an hour. With about 10 minutes before church started, I prayed for a bus. Afterwards, I told Elder Marble that a bus would arrive in 30 seconds. 30 seconds later, a bus arrived. I love experiences like that that remind us that God exists, that through faith the Lord blesses us, and that God is still a God of miracles. I´m grateful for all that He has blessed me with, especially my family and for Micaela Morgan Wright. There is no greater happiness than that which comes from our families and this gospel. Everyone deserves that.

Elder Reynolds

Week 32

We had some miracles happen this week. First, we have been teaching a guy named Mauricio since I got here, but we stopped teaching him for a while because he lost his desires to read and pray and go to church. But, a couple of weeks ago, he called us in the morning to see what time church started and then showed up by himself. A few days later, he asked us to come by and visit him, so obviously we did. He now has a baptismal date for the 25th of this month! He is only 24 and now wants his girlfriend to listen to us and has been inviting her to listen. We also have been teaching a man named Pedro. His wife and one of his daughters were recently baptized. For weeks, he denied every baptismal invitation we extended. But yesterday, he finally accepted and has a date for the 25th, as well! God is really working miracles here in Renaico. I will be staying here for at least 6 more weeks. My companion is leaving and I will be getting a new companion tomorrow. His name is Elder Hinckley. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve with Elder Escalante. I really learned a lot from him. I know he will do great things in his next sector. I've officially been with Micaela Morgan Wright for over a year now! I love you, Micaela! Start making wedding invitations to everyone who tells you that we won't get married and I'll start making a list to send you. I love you! Have a wonderful week everyone!

Elder Reynolds 

Week 31

Nothing terribly exciting happened this week. We are working with a man named Claudio and his pareja (the woman who lives with him who isn´t his wife), Evelyn. They are both progressing a lot. Claudio has a baptismal date for the 11th and Evelyn has a baptismal date for the 25th. All they need to do is get married or live in different houses, which isn´t easy. We have also been teaching Evelyn´s litte brother, Mauricio. He has gone to church two weeks in a row now by himself. I´m not sure what happened, because he never did that before, but we will see what happens there. There have been a lot of fires here lately due to the heat and the wind. The light yesterday was an eery yellow because the smoke was covering the sun. I had a really good experience with my companion yesterday. I´ve been feeling really weird in our lessons and I noticed that yesterday when I worked with another missionary and felt a lot more comfortable. I have been trying to figure out why I haven´t been feeling the Spirit in our lessons by looking for things outside of me. But, last night, my companion helped me look inside myself. When I was younger, I was obese and experienced a lot of bullying. I mean, a lot. It killed my self-esteem and it´s something I´ve always struggled with (even though Micaela thinks otherwise ;)). I noticed that I´ve been comparing myself to my companion. He has been in the mission for 19 months and is a great missionary. He´s a great teacher and great with the people. I´m his district leader and do not feel at all capable of being his leader because, frankly, I think he should be my district leader. Instead of focusing on what I can do to improve and being myself, I had been comparing myself to him. Obviously, I´m not going to have the Spirit if I´m doing that. I´m extremely grateful for what he said to me when I realized that and I know that´s why he´s my companion. Our Mission President is truly called of God and receives revelation to guide and direct his missionaries. The Lord puts us with those who are going to help us grow the most. Now that I acknowledge this weakness, I´m going to put Ether 12:27 into practice. I know that we all have weaknesses. Everyone struggles with something. I know that when we recognize it and go to The Lord to receive the strength we need to overcome them, he lifts us up and makes weak things become strong. There is nothing He can´t do and there´s nothing we can´t do when we humble ourselves and put our trust in Him. I have no doubt about that. On the 11th of January, Micaela Morgan Wright and I will have been dating for 1 year! I can easily say this has been the greatest year of my life and that I look forward to spending eternity by her side. I love you, Micaela! Have a great week, everyone!

Elder Reynolds

Week 30

I finally got to talk to my family, and my beautiful girlfriend, on Skype on Christmas Day. I couldn´t have asked for a better Christmas present. I only have to go through one more Christmas away from my family. It was great, however, to be able to spend Christmas and New Year´s with the families here. I´ll never have the chance to do that again after this year. It´s definitely a new experience. We ate dinner on Christmas Eve at the Elder´s Quorum President´s house on Christmas Eve with his family and at Luis´ (a recent convert now!) last night for New Year´s Eve. The people here are great. They make you feel like you´re at home, even though you´re thousands of miles away. This past Saturday, Luis was baptized! I´m pretty sure I already wrote about the miracle that happend with him so that he was able to be baptized. We had been teaching his dad, too. We were working really hard to help him get baptized with his son, but nothing seemed to be working. Elder Escalante and I decided to fast for him. The day we fasted, after having a rough day, we went by his house and he told us that he had decided to be baptized! It helped me realize how powerful fasting is and how little we can accomplish without the Lord. We can´t do anything without Him. This is His work, not ours. The only way that we can become instruments in His hands is by recognizing that we are nothing without Him. If you want to know how that experience made me feel, you can read Alma 26. We are currently working with Claudio. He is living with a woman named Evelyn, who is also investigating the church. Claudio is great. He has changed a ton since meeting the Elders for the first time. He is continuing to progress toward his baptism on the 11th of this month. Please keep him in your prayers. I love you, Micaela Morgan Wright. Have a great week, everyone!

Elder Reynolds

Everyone before Luis' Baptism

Luis' Baptism

Luis' Baptism

Week 28

We did a lot of traveling this week. On Tuesday, we worked with the hermanas in Angol. That went really well. We found 4 people who accepted baptismal dates! We will see how those go in the coming weeks. On Thursday, we went to Temuco for the Christmas Conference. Every zone that was there had to create a dance/song and then perform for all the other missionaries. That was a lot of fun. We also got pillows for Christmas!  The week in Renaico went really well, too. We are teaching 8 people who have baptismal dates and are hoping to see at least 2 this month. We are teaching a man named Luis and his son, Luis. Almost all of their family was just baptized recently, so we are looking to help them complete that. It has made me think about why we are really here. We aren´t here to baptize people. We are here to bless the lives of everyone by helping them become a part of an eternal family. Thanks to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have the same power that the apostles had to bind on Earth and Heaven. In temples, we have the opportunity to be sealed to our families and to our spouses for eternity. I´ve said it before, but that is the #1 goal that I have, to be sealed to my family forever. The peace, hope, and comfort that brings is something that I want everyone to have. Although that´s not possible for me right now, I can help others experience that. There is no greater gift than sharing the gospel with others. I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Reynolds

Elder Martinez from Guatemala, who goes home after this transfer period

Some pictures of Tijeral, which is a little pueblo outside of Renaico

Some pictures of Tijeral, which is a little pueblo outside of Renaico

Week 27

This week was crazy. I can´t remember if I wrote about this, but Elder Carlson, one of the missionaries in Coronel who was training, had to leave early to go work in the office and left his son there with Elder Hill and I. So, I spent the last part of the week with two new missionaries. That was a fun experience, though. Elder Baggs is a really good guy, too. It was a fun way to end my time in Coronel. I think the hardest part about being a missionary is saying goodbye to all the people that you´ve grown to love. It was like leaving home again. On Tuesday, I headed to Renaico. It´s really pretty here. It´s really green, there is fruit everywhere, there isn´t pollution like in Coronel, there aren´t millions of stray dogs and vast quantities of garbage in the streets, and the people don´t yell things at you as much. My companion, Elder Escalante is a great guy. We get along well. We work in two branches. One is in Renaico and the other in a small town called Tijeral. I went to church in Tijeral this week. There are about 26 active members there, but they are all really great and all have the desires to help with the missionary work. My first day, we ate lunch in Tijeral. After, we went into a members backyard and ate raspberries, strawberries, cherries, and other fruits off the trees in her backyard. I also ate a fruit off a tree while my companion and I were walking in Renaico. There is fruit everywhere. We found a lot of people to teach this week: 22 new investigators, which is the most, by far, that I´ve ever found in a week. The people here are really receptive. I look forward to becoming a part of the work here and hope that I can do at least some good here. My new district is great. The two other elders here in Renaico and two hermanas in Angol are in my district. I´ll be working in Angol with them tomorrow. We have a Christmas conference in Temuco on Thursday, so I´m excited about that. That´s way south of here. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE MOST WONDERFUL WOMAN ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH: MY MOM! It´s hard to believe that she will already be 30 years old! WOW! Also, happy 11 month anniversary to my wonderful, beautiful, intelligent girlfriend, Micaela Morgan Wright. She forgot about our anniversary, but I didn´t! Further proof that I love her more than she loves me. Next month will be a full year! Time really flies when you have the most amazing woman in the world, other than my mom, by your side. Have a wonderful week, everyone! 

"Elder Baggs, Elder Hill, and I. My short time as a single mother of two."

Week 26

I found out today that I am being transferred to Renaico as a district leader. My new companion will be Elder Escalante. He´s from Mexico. I´ve really enjoyed my time here in Coronel and have learned a lot. I think Elder Hill trained me more than I trained him. He really helped me to be more humble and to be more patient. He´s a great example for me. He´s a great missionary and I hope to work with him again in the future. We didn´t have a ton of success this week, but we did see a miracle. We were in an area of Coronel called Lo Rojas a few days ago because we had an appointment. We went, but no one was there. We went to our back-up appointment and no one was there either. We started walking around looking for someone to teach when we walked by a woman with a bunch of bags. All she said was "hola," but the Spirit just screamed at us that we should talk to her. It turns out that her family had been taught by the missionaries when she was a little girl. No one in the family was baptized, but many years later she took the lessons again. This time, she was ready to be baptized, along with the rest of her family (her and her 4 daughters). However, she was unable to because she didn´t pass the baptismal interview due to a couple of commandments she wasn´t following. She moved shortly after that to Coronel. This experience goes to show that, even when we think things aren´t going our way (both of our appointments fell and we had nothing else to do), it´s all a part of The Lord´s grand plan for His children. We should always remember how small our viewpoint is in comparison to The Lord´s. He always knows best, even when we are convinced that we know better. Have a great week, everyone! I love you, Micaela Morgan Wright!

Elder Reynolds

Victoria Mendez and her mother, Victoria Bustos with Elder Reynolds

Elder Reynolds and Lienturl 

He couldn't leave the dog out!