Sister Kendra Reynolds: Episode 28: Good-bye Lynchburg, Virginia and Hello Spencer, West Virginia AND SHE IS HALF WAY DONE!!!!

Good-bye Lynchburg, Virginia!

Hiiiiiii,
Oof what a long long long loooooong week. Anybody feel me on that?? I have been transferred so all week I have been packing, saying goodbye, packing, cleaning, packing, teaching, packing and more packing! Why do I have so much stuff???? It's ok! I'll get rid of it all come time I leave the mission but it really was a stressful week for me. I felt very anxious about moving and had to say a lot of tears-filled goodbyes that I wasn't expecting! But thanks all be to God because I got through it. I love my Savior, dang what would I do without Him (probably stuck in some mud deep in a holler).

SO...
I have been transferred to Spencer, West Virginia!! Very, very, very close to my first area Parkersburg! :) So that was pretty dang cool! I have had a couple of companions who served here so I know it enough to have become nervous about coming here :) but again...here came the Lord to brush away my fears and calm my troubled soul! It's been an Elders area since the beginning of time and just last year Sisters started serving here. As we all surely know, Elders get some of the rougher areas and so this was one of them! Don't worry Mom, only tough Sisters get sent here!!! But it's a very small town that has a branch filled with a whopping 8 active members!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO I was so pumped when I heard THAT!! Seriously though, I thought that was pretty cool haha. My new companion is Sister Piekarski! And you say it exactly how it looks! Pie-kar-ski. She is so sweet and has a solid testimony of our Savior. She looks timid and mild and sweet but watch out she has a killer testimony that will put anybody in their place! I'm so blessed to be comps with her!

So bring it way back to Appotmattox, we had put Lauren on date for December 14 before I left! She is the 17 year old I have been working with since I got there and bless her soul, she is ready! Funny thing, I never actually got to meet her. She is very social over the phone though so don't worry haha. We were teaching her through phone calls and is just shy about meeting new people. Hopefully Sister Harrison and her new comp will meet her soon! Lauren will have a special place in my heart because she was the reason I came to serve. I knew it the moment I taught her the first time. It was a hard goodbye. BUT thankfully she is just as willing to move on with the crazies of life as I was!

Saying goodbye to the missionaries I served with was pretty hard too. Fun fact: one of the Elders I have served with has served in the wards with me my whole mission! He had a birthday and some members took us out to Olive Garden for dinner and had cake and gave him a little gift, so that was awesome! And of course saying bye to Sister Harrison was so hard but he she was probably excited to get rid of me. No just kidding but I love her and miss her but so excited for her to move the work along with her new comp.

So my first day in Spencer, we went to gold ole Taco Bell for lunch and I was waiting outside the bathroom holding a Book of Mormon and this (I think, looked like it but who really knows?) homeless guy taps it and says "You got your sword there?" And I said "yes sir, I do!" I had a good laugh of it but it made me ponder, do we have our armor of God on? The sword of the spirit (WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD) really to cut any false doctrine or evils of the world into pieces? Wow, I just was amazed that people are so ready for the gospel and don't even know it?? Unfortunately he walked off and I couldn't follow him outside because my comp was still doing her business, so that was a bummer. But...one day that man will have his own sword and be able to fight in God's army. I don't think we realize the power that the Book of Mormon holds. My new transfer goal is to see the tears on the plates. I got this idea from Hank Smith! I for the life of me can't remember the talk but I will find out because it's a good one! But essentially it is to see the work and effort and sacrifice told in the book itself and to gain a deeper conversion of this gospel. Our mission focus is to utilize this amazing tool/gift in furthering the work. Guys I hope we can all realize that what we have available to us, all in 531 pages. This book contains our salvation, our exaltation! Why are we not wanting to read it every spare moment we have? Why are we not wanting to know how to gain eternal life and everlasting joy? Most of all why are we being selfish with it and not sharing it with the world?? Clearly I'm finishing it up and I'm in the final moments of Moroni's life, as he is pleading with each of us to understand and to find the truth, to find everything!! If you haven't received that then start over because it's there!! You have to be willing to look for it and see it and accept it. I love this book and I am so deeply grateful for its influence in my life. Let's also start thinking of this wonderful season coming, it's Light the World time baby!! WOOOOOOOOOO
3 Nephi 18:24 "Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold--that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed."
Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
Let's get in the groove and use this time to share our love for our Savior and His restored gospel here on this earth today! By the way, there is a new Light the World vide released called The Christ Child.....OH MY NELLY to say it's incredible is an understatement. We missionaries have access to it now and so my recommendation is to have them over nd share it with you! Otherwise, patiently wait until November 24 when it is released to the public. Either way you NEED to see it!!
I love you all!! Have a blessed week!
Sister Reynolds