5 months deep, WE WON, THA MISSION THO! Now at 6 months..(this mom is behind) and other amazing messages from Elder Reynolds in Denver North Reporting

Jan 11 2016

Hey fam.

     I had another interesting week. jake our top investigator got out of the hospital and hes on his way to baptism. That guys a freaking stud. Except his friends came over to his house with somebad drugs like.. meth and they spilled on the floor and his dog ate some so it got really sick and almost died... Our other top investigator went to jail... so we had to drop him... and we started teaching his mom in the process.... god really does work in mysterious ways.

We have this guy in our ward that ive never talked about but hes famous to all the missionaries becauase of how unique he is. hes an "investigator" that weve never taught but really wants to be baptized. Weve had to ask our mission president to interview him haha. His name is greg let me tell you a little bit about him. He is a hermaphrodite and hes very confused. hes on a lot of medication. so he says really weird things. When elder arevalo was my companion he would call us for 2 weeks straight and say that oddest things about the roadtrip he was on. apparently he was filming some nature video in cali. When he would call us we wouldnt answer because we were scared to talk to him. so he would leave us voicemails. he would say stuff like this. these are actual quotes ..."with all do respect i would like to let the devil speak through me, ......Hello this is the devil" haha then the next message "i, the devil, repent. there is no more hell." next message "hello this is jesus, this is the second coming of jesus christ, there is no more hell. the devil hath repented." he for real said this stuff. now, we feel bad for him and the ward hates him because he used a testimony meeting to ..."come out" but elder nelson and i have talked about it. Were baptizing him. haha so we had to sit down with him to figure out his knowledge and see his motives. when we asked hi the law of chastity question he said he cant do bad things because "i gave my agency back to god. so im a puppet" im sorry world but i laughed when he said that so hard that i had to leave the room. anyway were baptising him.. e en though the ward doesnt want us to haha everyone needs to be baptised. 

     on a serious note. i ripped my pants at church yesterday so that was akward. these dress pants are not made for hard working fun loving guys like myself. it was pretty funny my companion was face down on the floor laughing and i was laughing pretty hard too.. but i need more pants.. again..  But my testimony of having fun while you work was strengthened. i cant explain the week i had. but i know heavenly fathers watching out for us.. or laughing at us..idk

Anyway, this email isnt very serious because my week was anything but serious. But remember the church is true, and nothing but it.

Elder Reynolds

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January 19, 2016

momma!!! IM GOING DOWNTOWN!!

i was just at the mission home dropping off an elder who is going home and i had the oppurtunity to talk with my mission presidents wife shes so cool i love her. and they have a daughter who livwes in spanish fork and another who lives in springville and im excited!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom! Sorry. ts been a bomb week! we usually teach around 8 to 10 lessons this week we taught 18 thats hard to do in this area

guess what i walked 38,800 steps on wednesday this last week. its been snowing so we cant ride we have to walke

momma

      i want you to know that i am in downtown denver i proselite in the areas that are shaddowed from the sun because of the large buildings around me. im very not at home. i feel like im gonna get hit by a car all that time. its very loud here. and i feel uncomfortable because i could get my bike or wallet stolen. but i find peace in the work. i notice that the world around me is crazy and loud , but inside of my body i feel happiness and confidence. its an odd feeling i cant really describe. well kinda .. its like being in a fishbowl sorta.. but i realized that a place that wouldve made me feel insecure and miserable such as this. now is just another place to me. wherever i go i know that i am loved. Im so happy to be here. theres so much work to do and fun to have. My companion is a boss too. hes really chill

Love, Elder Reynolds

January 26

WE WON!

Hey Fam.

This has been the coolest week of my life. 

I got transferred to the only ward that covers all of the downtown area. There's like a billion people we could potentially teach. They're all Broncos fans. This city was LIT last night when we won... i didn't watch the game but it was hard to not know whats going on from all the cheers and large tvs in the streets showing you the game and updating the score. Also the stadium is like a couple of blocks away haha I think god wants me to be a broncos fan. Why else would he send me downtown during the playoffs and super bowl. Unfortunately ive noticed my focus has been in doing gods work so i really dont care too much even though its pretty dope.

There's also Lamborghini's and Ferrari's and homeless people everywhere.

My companion is also a real cool dude. He has quite the conversion story.

The first night here a member hands us 100 bucks for dinner and we were like... woah thats like our whole months income haha... also i woke up to 12 voicemail's from one of the poorer members in the ward who was drunk.. he said lots of bad words in the voicemail and he really hates me hahaha. This place is extreme. We hear the neighbors every night.. and smell weed everywhere we go..anyway theres lots of stories to tell but you simply would just have to be on a mission to understand how ridiculous they are.

We like riding our bikes at night through the busy streets and tall buildings but we are fortunate enough to have a car which is a blessing because ive been on a bike my whole mission which is rare here.  

Anyway, its pretty cool to be here. I feel safe even though theres gangs and stuff everywhere... maybe im just naive. But god watches out for us. Other then the aww im constantly in because im not used to the city... everything is going really well we are teaching almost all the homeless people here and a couple of rich people.. they are harder to get to humble themselves and listen.

Until next week. I gotta leave because the parking meters about to expire..

The church is true. I know

Love, Elder Reynolds

February 1 2016

Hey fam.

Yet another wonderful week here in downtown Denver.

Um i really cant remember too much about the week..

The superbowl is coming up... they announced it in sacrement haha

Its snowing.. My bike needs repair,need donations.. haha ive been around homeless people so much im starting to turn into one.. In fact im sitting next to one right now. his smile is brown and toothless yet heartwarming. 

Ive been eating real healthy too.. 

The other morning we woke up real early to go to catholic mass.. all i have to say is that their church is simply not true. they have parts of the truth but not all of it. if you wanna argue.. read the book of mormon thats all i can say haha we get in battles sometimes about our church... we always win because we have jesus at the head of us.

My companion is real goofy. we are bros.. i say that about all of them but this guy has my back and i feel that. 

thats about it...

 the church is true. rep it. 

February 8 2016

Hey fam.

In the shower this morning, I had the opportunity to reflect deeply on my lifes decisions. I came to the conclusion the god has had his hand in my life from the beginning. This may seem like a depressing start to an email home but its not. I realized that ive been blessed to know the truth for the entirety of my life. Now this statement sometimes brings me sorrow because if people only knew what happiness they could find in the gospel, they would drop their distractions and flock toward it. Members and non-members alike.

As of today im starting a 40 day fast, instead of food im putting other things aside. Things that are holding me back from being the best missionary I can be. For example. selfish thoughts, things that remind me of home, and things that distract me such as thinking about football. I feel like its time to "drop my nets" so to speak and fully be a consecrated disciple of Jesus Christ by following his example and laying everything on sacrificial alter for him.

I challenge you to do this as well. What are things that keep you from growing closer to god? social media? Money? Friends? Video games? lets rid ourselves of filth.

We cant outwardly speak of Christ if we arent inwardly heeding his counsel. 

I hope something cool comes from this. Im gonna write a brief weekly letter home and i hope you still keep me updated on things going on. But I wont read or respond to emails until my fast is over. 

The church is true. Dont believe me? ask god.

PS yes i know about the broncos winning and yes the streets were crazy. you didn't think i could go without saying that right? haha 

talk to you in 40 

Love, Elder Reynolds

February 18 2016

Hey fam.

This week was pretty neat I got to sit down with my president and his wife separately and tell them about my progression as a missionary and how the work is going. I have to admit they both love me... 

Yesterday I met a guy in another ward while i was on exchanges with another missionary. this guys son is Andrew George. if you dont know him ill tell you. he played as a tight end for BYU and later played professionally for the buffalo bills. I sat and talked to his dad about how i remember him and Ryan Denny (another former byu player who lives here on Colorado too) and also we talked about good memories that we both share of byu football. that was really neat. In fact he called Andrew and asked if he knew my dad and Andrew said he sure did.  The reason why I met Brother George is because we were sent to check on him because his wife passed away from cancer and he isnt taking it to well.

As always we offered our spiritual assistance and it was a real neat experience.

In my personal study this week i have been catapulted in spiritual strength. I have been reading in the short books of the book of mormon and i notice how prophets have personalities. like Jarom says he wasnt the most obedient to gods commandments but hes still obligated to write about his genealogy. i loved that because of his honesty haha. When we really dive into the scriptures it doesnt take long for the stories to come alive off of the page. Also the powerful witnesses of god from the mouth of prophets is so powerful that no one learned, can deny them.

This week in my pursuit of self mastery has been good. I know im not gonna be perfect ever but im glad to say im doing the best i can. ive also realized that when everything is put into perspective, mundane day-to-day problems melt away and ive turned into a genuinely happy dude.

Sorry nothing too funny happened this week. wait haha no im wrong. we went over to a less actives two days ago and there was a bike cut in half outside of his apartment haha. i asked him randomly in the lesson if it was him that did it and he said yeah it was his neighbors and they hated each other. haha... thats a story no one will ever understand because you had to be there. It was cut clean in half. 

God is great beer is bad and people are really freakin crazy.

Love, Elder Reynolds

February 22 2016

THE MISSION THO

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Hey fam,

This week was good. Time fly's when you work hard. Im kinda exhausted from all the hours were putting in. Its worth it though. 

I heard a story listen, there's three mormons visiting a foreign country that's pretty hostile towards their beliefs. One was a stake high counselor, one was an elders quorum president and the last was a deacon. they were captured and put into torture camps. When they were ready to be executed, they were asked what was the last thing they wanted to do before they died.

The Elders quorum president said he wanted to help someone move one more time. Especially someone with a real heavy piano....they let him, then killed him. then the asked the next guy.

The high counselor said he wanted to preach, uninterrupted to a congregation of members of his church, for one hour. They executioner nodded and moved on to the deacon and asked him.

The deacon said.. I just wanna be killed before the stake high councilman speaks.

Yesterday sacrament was great. I took the time to counsel with heavenly father and see if theres anywhere I can improve. Then the talk was about spiritual gifts. I realized as I listened to the talk that god blesses us with specific tools, so were allowed to use them. But they are hinged on our faith and obedience to the commandments. So I was compelled to exercise my gifts. Last night after church we met a less-active guy who was legit. Unfortunately he had been hit with all the anti Mormon bull crap in the world. He tried to pass it on to us but we shut him down with our firm immovable testimonies haha I told him i was anti-ed pretty hard early in and before my mission but I kept the faith and counselled with god. We concluded with him committing to ask god the truth. I came away from that realizing that I was literally prepared in sacrament for that lesson. 

I realized that working hard in the service of god directly blesses us. 

I've almost been out 6 months. 1/4th of my time on a mission is over. Its going too fast.

The doctrine within this church is true. Nothing but it. 

-Elder reynolds

The Dyreng's from Gunnison went to Denver to visit family and took time out to visit a 

sweet member of our own family.