Episode 2: First Week in the MTC!

Sister Reynolds and Sister Salter

They were assgined to be STL's-Sister Training Leaders!

February 21, 2019
Hello all!
I almost said Elders and Sisters because we are not allowed to say "guys" lol. Well at least I'm learning!! lol (for once) just kidding but I love this gospel!!! I don't even know where to begin! Everyday has been such a blur and I can hardly even remember what I did each morning lol. I feel like my memory was 100% and now it's at 22% yaaayy haha BUT luckily we have wise prophets who told us to write in journals! Hopefully I can explain to the best of my abilities my week here in the MTC.
WEDNESDAY-February 13
Wow, my first day here, actually half day but it was crazy. Literally went into class 10 minutes after being dropped off. You don't even have time to think of or miss your families! (No offense) But the energy here is so incredible. I feel super blessed to have had a couple of years under my belt and went to Mission Prep (Shout out to Bro. Larson and Bro. Gladden!). I felt almost over prepared haha But I absolutely loooove my companion, Sister Salter!! She is identical to my cousin, Sister Allsup--who is currently serving in the Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission!! That has been such a blessing, having a little bit of home with me all the time. Literally ALL the time. We were talking in our dorm one night and she said "Were you with me when so and so came up to talk about blah blah blah" and I thought about it and then she realized oh wait duh you're always with me! It was a little weird at first to be with someone but now it's so freaking scary to be without her! Like a 5 year old lost in a store without mom lol but she is so awesome. Our District is so awesome! All of us are going to West Virginia! How cool is that!?! We all have come to realize that it was not a coincidence that it happened that way and every day here we realize it all over again. I have been blessed to be with spiritual giants! We learn SO WELL together and bounce questions, answers, doctrine, testimony, anything you could think of, off of each other. They have helped me in my transition here so much. Our District has 3 Elders (a trio companionship) Elder Nibly, who is a big boy haha but so full of love and knowledge of the gospel. He is 18 and was asked to be our District Leader! So cool. Elder Thompson, who reminds me so much of my little brother, Caiden!! It's so crazy! Just his personality and the way he thinks, and has a strong solid testimony of his Savior. Elder Davissss...haha he is such a goofball and little on the quiet side but when he speaks up or when he testifies, you are left in amazement and with goosebumps lol. And then we have 3 sets of the companionship's of Sisters! So 6 of us total. Sister Coombs, so cute and is musically talented and the MOM of the group. Sister Lasike, who is Tongan, I mean how cool is that? She is a great note taker and has a powerful desire to serve. Sister Peterson, who is 18, but got special permission to be here since she will have her birthday in the MTC and is born on leap year! So cool. She is so knowledgeable, it's incredible. Sister Nielson, who is so kind and thoughtful and full of love.
THURSDAY-February 14
You definitely could feel the love today...FOR THIS GOSPEL!! haha Happy Valentines Day! 2nd day and had a bit of trouble sleeping but I'm over it lol. We talked a lot about the gospel of Jesus Christ lol which was pretty awesome because that's what one of my farewell talks was on! It was jammed packed with lots of things to learn and so, sooo many classes!! My head feels like it's going to explode from all the things being shoved in there! I need time to sort it all out haha but definitely learning and loving the concept of Exact Obedience. Never thought that being obedient would be so fun!! haha Just kidding but I have been able to have that testified to me through my actions and examples and has blessed us as a District. I love this gospel!!
FRIDAY-February 15
Today was pretty similar to yesterday but I was looking a little too much inward and not enough outward. So I learned what it meant to lose yourself in the work!! haha Funny thing I hadn't yet received my phone and today I did! But I didn't know it at the time lol sooo our District Leader gets the mail for our District every day and tells us at our meal time. He said I had 3 packages!! I felt so loved! hahaha So I'm all excited and basically fun back to our room to open them aaaand all I see in there are my phone, case, and Chromecast....I was so crushed!! hahaha While all the other Sisters got good packages, I just got my phone! So sad lol but we were all laughing about it :) Still haven't gotten used to this crazy schedule though! It feels like school and it's literally been years since I've had this structured schedule and it's killing meeee! I have faith that I can get use to it haha but I love my Savior and I know He lives <3
SATURDAY-February 16
We finally had time to exercise!! This was such a blessing and I felt so destressed...is that a word? lol It is now! But I was able to learn so much today. Specifically in my personal study. I was reading in 3 Nephi 11 and it's the chapter when Jesus Christ comes to the Americas after being resurrected and let me tell you that it really did happen. I felt so strongly connected to this chapter. I know that it happened and the Savior is with us all. I'm sure He visits us all daily and puts something in our life to testify that He is there for us, we just have to look for it. Another thing I noticed was that after He descended from Heaven and testified of Himself and the Atonement, the first thing He teaches is baptism. He immediately ordains Nephi and gives him the priesthood to baptized these people. I LOOOVE that! We are so afraid sometimes that we will scare people off with inviting them to be baptized but we shouldn't be! It is the one thing that can truly bring them closer to Christ! Why should we keep that from them?? If you are holding back from this invitation, please...please do not any longer. Baptism will help them far more than just to be there for them or to not lose a friendship. I absolutely cannot wait to share this message to the world!!
SUNDAY-February 17
It's Sunday!! I have been looking forward to Sunday for so long it seems haha but taking the sacrament was such a blessing! I truly felt the strength to go throughout this week. Brothers and Sisters, the power of the sacrament is real! So today was...a learning day haha but in a different way. Tonight we had a devotional and had one of the members of the MTC Presidencies talk. Sitting in front of me and Sister Salter were some Elders emailing home and chewing gum really loudly and wearing a beanie in the gym, which are all No No's. Sister Salter and I felt weird about calling them out and would ever so often whisper to each other and determine what we should tell our own Zone and District. Oh! I forgot to say that Sister Salter and I were assigned to be STL's...Sister Training Leaders :) So that's why we were discussing what we should say to our Zone, but anyways after the devotional the wife of one of the Presidency members came up to us and asked if she could talk to us and we said "oh of course!" Totally not prepared for what she was going to say to us. She started out asking how we liked it and then with no compassion WHATSOEVER started to tell us that we were being so disruptive and distracting, that she could not stop watching us and continued to tell us that we were not listening at all! Which by the way, we used a lot of what we learned in our companion study and lesson, so we were paying attention lol and we were sitting at the top at the very end of the bleachers so only had Elders in front of us and 2 Sisters in back of us which we apologized about talking and told them why and they thought the same of the Elders. But ya and she continued to say all this negative stuff about our appearance and then said that we were so bad that we were jerks...she literally called us jerks!! Sister Salter and I were...so confused and astonished that she said that?! She kept calling us a bunch of jerks the rest of the time talking to us and said that she did not feel bad about calling us that...I was so mad and hurt and discouraged by this, as was my companion. Then after her basically yelling at us she did a complete 180 turn of the topic and was like oh but I love you and am so proud of your desire to serve, let me know if you need anything and tried hugging us! I later, MUCH later, felt bad about not smiling or hugging back but what do you do in that situation?? So we still had another hour of class and the spirit was totally taken away and we could not concentrate. We said a little prayer to forgive and forget and to try to concentrate on the next thing but it was so hard. That next class actually talked about turning outward and serving one another, rather than letting the natural man take over. Which made it even harder to listen!! haha But I later realized that all it could take is one little incident, one little thing that we may not even think about doing or thinking it being offensive, for someone not to want to join the church or feel loved or connected to us. We as members of the Church have taken on ourselves the name of Christ and need to represent Him. I'm still learning and now can laugh at the situation but I have faith that I can always turn to the Savior for help, I love that power of the Atonement. It is so real and I love the love the Savior has for me.
MONDAY-February 18
We got to teach real people! It was so rewarding to finally apply the things we were studying and learning about! We are teaching a girl named Lindsey and she is so ready for the gospel in her life! We felt that we should definitely invite her to baptism but during the lesson it never came, which was totally ok! We were really able to connect with her and gain her trust. She has such a strong testimony in this gospel! I love it! I love her!!
TUESDAY-February 19
We got to teach another person who was investigating the church and it was going so well!!! haha So we prepared to teach her the plan of salvation which was a stretch for us because we necessarily haven't been taught that and what to specially teach but we prayed and received the answer to teach what we prepared, so we did and as we got into the lesson and we powerfully testified of the love that God has for her and taught her about Christs' Atonement and the spirit was so strong and testified so well to her it brought her and us to tears. It was incredible...then we opened our mouths and instead of listening to the spirit, we taught what we planned...BOTH of us feeling that we should just keep teaching her about God and the Savior but didn't know what to do so we went on with our lesson. It was such a rookie mistake haha but she did learn so much and the spirit was still there to help her about her purpose in this life. It was so awesome and we definitely have learned to always just trust in the spirit lol.
WEDNESDAY-February 20
Today we met with Lindsey and she committed to being baptized!!! The spirit was so strong and she was so happy and you could see the light of Christ in her. We saw her in white. It was glorious! It truly testified to us the power of conversion and baptism. Sister Salter's mind was blown at how powerful it was!! haha I love the constant companionship of the spirit and I love my Savior and I love being His missionaries. The church is true and it will save and bless the lives of all who want to come closer to our Heavenly Father.
Talk to you next week! Thank you for your prayers and love, I have felt them daily <3
Sister Reynolds

Some of the Sisters in my District! Sister Peterson, Sister Nielson and my companion Sister Salter!

I'm so thankful to go to the Provo Temple on my PDay!

I love my companion <3

She reminds me SO much of my cousin, Sawyer!!!

B E A U T I E S

LOVING the mission!

Some bunny loves me!

The Sister doing a kissy face is Sister Lasike (she is tongan, so cool!) and the Sister next to me is Sister Coombs. The other two were our old STL's.

Bent FORKS...a little bit of home...

Sister Reynolds always had forks in her room and car and we would get after her because we were always short on forks. We even bought plastic forks so she can take them and throw them away! One morning we noticed a flat fork in the driveway...Sister Reynolds ran over it and flattened it....

Soooo my luck with forks have not changed lol

The "GIRL" in me! I HAD to get this shirt, it just spoke to me! Fourth Floor Last Door is a talk by Elder Uchtdorf and it's about him meeting his wife. It's so awesome!!!

The MTC needed a sister to go and welcome the incoming sisters who were being dropped off at the MTC. Sister Reynolds jumped up and quickly volunteered! Little did she know that she was a HUGE blessing to the Clark family. This is Sister Ashley Clark from Farmington New Mexico! She is in our stake and was being dropped off by her family. She is serving a mission in Indianapolis, Indiana. Sister Reynolds had no idea who this was when she walked toward the car, ready to welcome a new sister missionary. When she saw who it was they were SO happy to see each other!!!! Ashley's mom, Lisa, knew this was Heavenly Father's hand. She was SO comforted that Kendra welcomed her Ashley with a huge smile and a heart full of love. We all know Kendra, she's so welcoming and friendly! Lisa was so thankful. A blessing for a Mom who is dropping her daughter off to serve a mission for 18 months! She also told us that she knows that these two sweet sisters...Sister Reynolds and Sister Clark ARE IN THE LORD'S HANDS! A tender mercy :)

1st video chat with her. What a blessing!!

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!