Sister Kendra Reynolds: Episode 22: Expect Miracles!

Sister Harrison and Sister Reynolds

Hello!
Wow Ok I'm going to attempt to give you a run down of the past 3 weeks...bare with me!

So I got sick once transfers came around and my poor trainee did too! My sickness lasted 2 weeks and at the 2nd week, I got pink eye...AGAIN. I'm not petty at all about it though. So it was a slower first 2 weeks for us and I felt so bad but Sister Harrison is so so patient and kind. There isn't a bad bone in her body! She is so mature for her (mission) age and I often forget she is still new lol but she is full of that fire and is ready to expect miracles!

We had Zone Conference this past week and it was so so good. Unfortunately we came to find out it was our mission President's last zone conference with us. Some of you have heard that he was diagnosed with cancer and he will be released within the next 3 weeks. It was a very tearful Zone Conference but they spoke of the many miracles they have seen from having faith in Jesus. When he first told the mission about what had happened, he said his brother called him and told him something that he will never forget. He said "Be realistic. Expect miracles." And boom that pierced my soul! We are a miracle believing people! So LETS be realistic! EXPECT those miracles! They ended by giving us each a pendant of our mission's logo and it was a touching moment to have our last good-byes in person. He took a moment with each of us and wished us well for the rest of our missions. I never knew I could grow to respect, love and honor a man in such a short amount of time. I know he was called of God to lead and guide the missionaries of the West Virginia Charleston Mission. He would teach so boldly and yet full of love and patience, much like I would imagine the Savior would with a bunch of missionaries lol. He fulfilled his calling even without serving a full 3-year call. He and his family will be greatly missed!

Within that same week, the day after I got over the sickness, we went out and just went to work. And low and behold we saw miracles! We picked up a total of 4 new people to start teaching! Two we have met and started teaching and the other two we still have yet to see them again! We are pumped!!! The Davis family was a self referral for wanting a Bible, and we left leaving our testimony of the Book of Mormon, a Book of Mormon (!) And a commitment of them reading some and praying about it before we come back. The spirit was so strong and it truly testified to me and to my companion that if you expect miracles, you will receive them so long as you have the faith. The Terry family is a young family we have yet to see the potential of teaching them but accepted the Book of Mormon and wanted us back! Whoop whoop (fingers crossed!), we hope to see that they have read from it and can feel the spirit as they read from it. We do! Joshua, we gave a Book of Mormon to and is going through some bumps in the road and was seeking some peace and comfort so we boldly testified that so long as he read that book he could feel the joy he is seeking and be able to carry on as he relies on Christ. And Diane was another referral from a member who was a friend of hers and is visiting from Florida. She is a sweet woman and has a lot of potential of progressing in the gospel and has a strong foundation of Christ, so knowing what we have to offer we know that she can gain a deeper conversion to Him and we are so excited to share our unique message this week with her! :)

We have been teaching this less active family, Sister Smith and her grandchildren Shainnen and Eddie. Wow what a wild group!! But we love them so much and we just call them our family now :D Haha Shainnen is 13 and Eddie is 14, both are just soaking up what we teach and we are definitely growing as missionaries from them! They are teens so they have plenty of attitude to go around and they know it haha and just so active so we have had to put our heads together to come up with lessons that keep them moving while teaching doctrine...we've definitely gotten a sweet taste of motherhood!! Haha It's been so fun to get to see their testimonies of the Savior grow and want to push along the covenant path. Their goal as a family is to make it to the temple and it brings tears to my eyes to think about it...I love this work!!

We've had a couple of weeks of just fun adventures and new cars!! Haha We got a new car at Zone Conference and it took me 3 days to get use to the thing!! It was a Subaru Legacy and was so dang fancy and so nice. I felt so out of place haha. So once I finally got use to it, we get a phone call saying we have to drive back to the mission office in Charleston on Monday to trade it in to get a brand new car! Because this one we have is one of the older ones in the mission (came to know that they keep mission vehicles for about 46,000 miles then get new ones) and so now we had to take a 5 hour road trip to Charleston and back to pick up a new car just to get use to it again...yayyy...lol. So we had to move our p-day to today (Tuesday) because of traveling. But we ended up getting a 2019 Toyota Rav4 Hybrid! It's insanely nice and I'm still in the process of figuring out how to drive the thing haha. It's been a wild ride! But we love it!!

Another great thing! Since being here for almost 3 weeks, Sister Harrison and I have had our air conditioner break 3 times!!!! 4 times since I have been here!! It's insane! So...we have had to move our beds in the living room downstairs to try to keep cool. It kind of helped but now it is....halfway fixed haha. It's suppose to be 70 degrees and it's about 77-80 degrees...life is so good lol. We haven't got around to calling them again, mostly because it's been pretty cool so we aren't too worried about it but this week is suppose to heat up again. Not too thrilled to have to call them again lol. So some of my photos will be of us camping out on the floor :)

Ahh I love Sister Harrison, she is such a goof! Haha We get along so well and we laugh so much!! I've peed myself 3 times now...choked 5 times on milk, juice and water because she thinks it's funny to make me laugh while drinking stuff! She is in her own little world and is hilarious. She can not throw a ball for her life and hates hiking. She named and made friends with a spider that lives outside our back door, Jorge, and is devastated now that he has disappeared lol poor thing. But really she is this spiritual giant and will do wonderous things for the lives of others.

I love this place! I may want to come back and live here!!!!! Haha It's so beautiful and I thank God for it. I love this gospel and I love my Savior. My focus has been on Him and His atonement this past week. Its so true, that the closer we draw ourselves to Him, the closer He comes to us. I pray that we will not keep anything from allowing us to receive the blessings of eternal life with Him and our Father in Heaven.
Love you all!!
Sister Reynolds