Merry Christmas!

Christmas is in a week and that is just insane. Time flies. I am so glad for the opportunity to share the spirit that Christmas brings into our lives with others. It is so fun to watch people grow closer to it! Everything in Green Bay is going great! We have a mini transfer this week, and I am not going anywhere, but we are getting another set of Elders in the Green Bay 1st ward until at least Jan 3! So I am really excited for that! Our ward mission leader has been begging for that for a long time so he is really excited too! It will be fun!

This week was pretty normal, we got a whole ton of snow! We have about a foot on the ground still, but on Wednesday it snowed literally all day until like 7. So it was super sketchy on the roads but we are safe so no worries! We had to drive for like 40 minutes to our interviews and that would usually be a 20 min drive. So it was fun! Everyone said that it was a pretty average snow storm for here, and that scares me.. It felt HUGE! I like the snow, but driving in it is not as fun... But we just have to leave early so we can be on time to places.

Here is a spiritual thought for you all-
Mosiah 3:5-11
This talks about a lot about Christ and what he can do for us and what he did do for us. During Christmas we need to remember the reason that we celebrate. Christ did so much for us, and without him we have no chance to do anything. There is no other way that we can get back to our Heavenly Father. Just keep that in mind during this Christmas season and throughout the year! Love you all!

Merry Christmas!
Elder Reynolds

Snowy and cold!

It finally snowed!! ​So this week it snowed on Thursday or Friday... not sure what day it was! But it was only like an inch tops. This morning we got a little more but not even an inch this time, so it has been fun! This weekend was awesome! We took some time on Saturday and went to a park and handed out Hot Chocolate! It was cold, but totally worth it! You could see that the people really appreciated it! We did it with another set of Elders in the area so there were 4 of us! But it was really fun! So hopefully we effected some people and they open their hearts to the message we have to share. The Christmas season is also helpful!

We have a lot of work starting to go on! We were struggling to find new people and we get this referral from the sister missionaries. And we go to talk to her and the first thing she told us was that she wanted to join the church!! Miracles happen people! There are people being prepared to learn about the Gospel and accept it!! Missionary work from the members is how this happened, and there is nothing more important than having the members doing work! I promise that when you work to help someone else learn about the gospel it will be easier for them than if just the missionaries teach them! So do it!!

Here is a spiritual thought:
"The greatest gift ever given was of infinite value but no price"
This referring to Jesus Christ and his Atonement. But at this Christmas season we should strive to give gifts that have a lot of value, but no price. We can serve, forgive, and love. These gifts require us to pay no price, but they do require sacrifice of ourselves for others. Jesus Christ did this for the entire world, and if we can do it to just one person we will feel the love that Christ has for all this Christmas season.

Love all of you! Have a great week!

Elder Reynolds

Creche event

Click on link below to view the video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/188mhD18esmNg5s6x8lswPJCNhSPtJRlQ/view?usp=sharing

Week 2 with my boy

Well this week was a great week! We did a lot of work leading up to our ward Christmas activities and stuff like that. Our ward puts on this event that they call the Creche event. So when I heard it the first time I was super confused, but basically there are a bunch of little nativities set up around the gym, and then they also have choirs and stuff sing! It goes for two hours tomorrow and Wednesday night. I am really excited! There has been a big push for people in the ward to invite nonmembers to it, and so we are excited to see who is there and hopefully get a couple new people to teach! We have also been inviting like everyone we tract into, meet on the street or anyone to it, so hopefully we will find some cool people that want to talk with us this week!

Then there was something else really cool that happened this week. We were trying to contact some less active members one day, and we knocked on this door and a guy named Chris answered. We told him we were looking for someone, and he was like "she's right here want to talk to her?" And for some reason we were just like, no we can talk to you. So we set a return appointment with him and he is an investigator now! So God works in ways that you would never think of. It is really cool to see how he helps us everyday. I promise that if you look for it, you will see something he does for you every single day!

We also had zone conference this week! That was really good, our zone has 2 more companionships then it used to. So it felt like the whole mission was there, but really just the Green Bay Zone. It was good to see all of the other missionaries, get to know them a little better, and learn from each other. President Williams was also there, and it is always good to hear from him. He knows how to make you feel loved and motivate you. I have loved getting to train Elder Record. It has been a blast so far! Thanks for all the support from everyone! Love you all!

Spiritual Thought:
In the Christmas Devotional the theme for me was all about Love, and how we need to start to love like the Savior and Heavenly Father love us. They have an infinite amount of love that we can't even comprehend. I love the phrase that Pres. Uchtdorf used, "You won't be forgotten". God's love is huge, he will not forget about you no matter what. Christ is the same way, no matter what you have done, he is always there waiting for you to come back. I love how important that is to all of the world that knows about Christ. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to share that with others, and at Christmas we notice that love more, and people are much more charitable in general. The love that Christ has is not describable. But it is always there for us!

Love,
Elder Reynolds

Email we received from the mission office

Thanksgiving/Greenie

Well this week was a blast! We left on Monday to start all the transfer stuff. We drove to Madison and got there and said goodbye to Elder Nielson. He is serving there now. But then we drove to Milwaukee for the night and stayed there until Tuesday about 2. I found out who my trainee is, his name is Elder Record! He is from Clearfield, and he is super cool! We get along really well! He played the cello in high school, so he is much more musically inclined than me. But we had a really good week! It has been a little bit stressful training. We have a lot of work to do, and we stayed really busy. So his 2nd full day here was Thanksgiving, and that is a super weird day as a missionary. We were with members almost the entire day. But we had a really good dinner at one of the members homes. It is a little different just being in a companionship, but it is fun. After our dinner on Thanksgiving we went to our ward mission leaders house for a little bit and his brother was there. It was a really good time! Thanksgiving was for sure the highlight of the week, but we started singing Christmas hymns in church so that was good too!

Spiritual Thought: This talk came up twice this week and I really enjoyed it the first time as well. It was Elder Holland's talk in this last conference titled "Be ye therefore perfect, eventually" If you don't remember it or haven't listened to it I strongly suggest it. He talks at the end of it about how we shouldn't judge how people are walking along the path. There might be a drunk man wavering in his journey home, but at least he is getting home. We are all stumbling and wavering in our own way, and as long as we are striving to get back to our Heavenly Father we will be just fine. It is a great talk all around! Listen to it! https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/be-ye-therefore-perfect-eventually?lang=eng

So everyone thinks Wisconsin should be really cold right now, and it is cold, but not that bad. Friday was super warm, it was like 60 I think. So it feels about the same as I remember Utah for now. I am sure it will get there, but no snow yet here! Thanks for all your support! Have a great week!

Elder Reynolds

Greenie Companion - Elder Jadon Record

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone!

This week has been very eventful! We knew transfers were coming, and we were pretty sure that at least one of us was going to leave! So basically we were just waiting for Saturday to see who was leaving. Saturday morning we got the text that told us... I am the only one staying in Green Bay! Elder Thies is going to Milwaukee, it is called Parkway ward, it is the sketchy part of the mission! But he is really excited, and then Elder Nielson is going to a place called Richland Center and it is kinda close to Madison! It is a little sad that they are leaving, but I am even more excited for what is happening here in GB. I am getting a brand new missionary from the MTC! It will be super fun! And so we are driving down to Milwaukee tonight to pick him up in the morning! It is exciting times. I just barely finished being trained and now I am training! So we will see how that goes!

So before that this week, we went to institute. It is at the teachers house, and they live right on the shore of Green Bay, so it is a gorgeous house! And they fed us, and then invited us to stay for the class. We talked about ways to study the scriptures and that was really good stuff! I thought that the way I was studying was really good, and it is good, but the things we talked about at institute really helped. But then after institute we were invited to sing a couple disney songs just for fun, and that was super fun!! It sounds like it would be lame and not fun when I say it, but we jammed out to some Lion King and Frozen! The institute teacher, Sis. Seiber, is super good at the piano, so she plays and whoever wants to stay after and sing does that. So that was really fun!

Here is a spiritual thought for you.
In church yesterday our sacrament meeting had one of Pres. Uchtdorf's talks as the theme you could say. One of the speakers repeated his line "Faith always defeats fear" I really like this quote. When we have faith, we shouldn't be afraid of anything. It really helped me as I am getting ready to do something new. There is nothing I should be afraid of because I have faith in Jesus Christ, and he will help me no matter what I need and when I need it. He is always there!

Hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Elder Reynolds

Elder Bryce Reynolds.....swingin'

Tracting in the rain

Mission District

Mission District

Mission District

Cool looking leaf

funny name of a road we knocked

Sign we saw on a door - we didn't knock on this one.

Lunch one day with the ward mission leader

Big white thing on the burger is butter....super unhealthy

Snow has fallen!!

Well this week was pretty good! We did a whole lot of freezing! The high is usually in the 30's now, so that is pretty cold. On Saturday we woke up to the snow! It was really funny. One of my comps, Elder Thies, is from Arizona and he was excited and cold at the same time! We went and raked/shoveled/blew one of our investigators leaves for her that day. And Elder Thies couldn't stop playing in the snow, it was funny to watch! Elder Nielson finally started to admit that it is getting cold when the snow started to come. It was weird to be raking leaves in the snow, that was a first for me. It was just a light dusting that was mostly gone by Sunday morning, but it made the raking a lot harder!

Other than that the coolest things that happened this week was getting some referrals from headquarters. One of them is a part member family, and they were at church this week after we visited them! So I am excited about the family and them coming back to church or being baptized! We also have one that wanted a blessing, I think her brother contacted the church and asked us to help her, so we haven't been able to visit her face to face yet but have talked to her on the phone a couple times. It seems to be pretty promising!

The pictures this week are mostly from the snow day, but there are a couple others. One of them I was playing with the effects on my camera, and it made Elder Thies look really funny. We also got some really nice cheeses from one of them members, so there is some explanation on them! I can't wait to eat it!

Spiritual thought: This came from a talk in our sacrament meeting yesterday. "There is a difference between being worthy and having worth" I really liked that, because we should strive to be worthy, but no matter what we have done, God still loves us, and our worth doesn't change to him based on what we have done! So no matter what you do, remember that you are worth it to God, and that no one can change that, not even your own actions! He cares about you and loves you eternally!

Hope you all have an amazing week!
Elder Reynolds 

Halloween!!

Well first of all, Happy Halloween!! Almost a week ago now, but that's okay. This week was pretty normal for a week in the mission. For Halloween we were asked to treat it like a normal day until about 6 when it got dark. So we ended up having a lot of time at the end of the day, and we went to members homes. It was really fun! But we were knocking doors about 4:30, and we didn't think anyone would be trick or treating yet, so we were okay. But then this guy answers his door and the first thing he says is "You're a little old for trick or treating aren't you?" So at that point we decided it wasn't really worth it anymore! Haha it made for a good laugh. The rest of the week wasn't super eventful. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders so I was with Elder Van Orden again. It is fun to be around him again! It is starting to get cold enough that if we are outside no one wants to talk to us, so it makes campus and just talking to random people a lot harder. So we have been knocking quite a bit more than the last few weeks. We had interviews with President Williams on Wednesday. It is always really good to get to meet with him and get advice. He is an amazing man, and super smart. And then on Thursday we got to meet with one of our new investigators, his name is Rob. But he is super prepared! He came to us, so we didn't even really find him, he found us! He came to church this week and we will meet with him again this next week! I am excited for the work that happens here in Green Bay. We had the chance to go to a baptism this weekend for a guy that I taught a couple of times. He ended up living in the second ward, so they taught him the rest of the lessons but we got to go to his baptism on Saturday and that was really cool! Watching people make the changes in their lives brings so much joy into your life as well as theirs. So it was really cool.

Hope you all have a great week! Make time for your study of the scriptures! Especially the Book of Mormon! It is so important to get the time in them every day!

Elder Reynolds

Such an exciting day! Elder Bryce Reynolds  and Travis Heling

Exchanges with Elder Van Orden

Elders Reynolds,  Thies and  Nielson

A white squirrel....weird

A really old McDonald's sign

LDS means Let's Do Something

Well this week there wasn't a whole lot of stuff that happened. The big thing I can think of is something that happened with one of our investigators. He was on baptismal date for this last weekend, but we knew it was too soon for him so we were going to try and reset it. But we went to the lesson with him and he told us that he hadn't read the Book of Mormon that we had asked him to, so we decided to read it together. After we read the chapter that we had assigned him he told us that it seemed like he was reading a fairy tale. So he is no longer on date to get baptized, but we encouraged him to really read and pray to find truth, and to see if what we had taught him was true. Basically we all ended up bearing our testimony on the Book of Mormon, and hoping that he would read for himself and set an appointment with him for this week. Hopefully he has read a little more and is thinking a little more and making it to the point that he knows for himself. So that was a little rough, but the week goes on, and there were some good things. One of our other investigators has no Christian background at all, so we are trying to give her some basics before we get into it too much. And we had the chance to just read some of the Book of Mormon with her yesterday, and she seemed to believe that what it was saying is true. It is really cool because she is a Native American, and her stories from the tribe and stuff relate a little bit to the Book of Mormon. Her son has a copy of the children's Book of Mormon, and he really enjoys reading it.
It has started to get a lot colder, and I have started to wear a jacket or sweater almost every day. The high is usually in the 40's, but it doesn't seem too bad yet, winter is going to be really cold. I think sometimes the members and people exaggerate it to make us scared, but then sometimes I think it is really that cold... So I don't know for sure.
But two cool things that happened yesterday at church. One, there was a musical number done by the women of the choir and 3 little primary girls. They sang a combination of I feel my Saviors love, and I know that my Redeemer lives. It was awesome. And number 2, we have to act and do our part first, and then the Savior can help us. So LDS, means Lets Do Something. Our third hour was combined for a 5th Sunday, and that was the message that one of the members taught. I thought it was pretty cool!
Hope you all have a great week, Love you all!

Elder Reynolds

Ward Halloween Activity -Elder Reynolds, Nielson and Thies

Zone Conference/ Lambeau Tour

This week was awesome! We had a lot going on and stayed really busy everyday! To start off we toured Lambeau Field on last Monday and it was sick!! We got to go clear to the top, which is the highest point you can stand in all of Green Bay, and also down into the field. We walked through the tunnel the players came out! It was a pretty cool tour, lots of history around it too, so I will send some of the pictures I took! It was super cool, best P Day yet! So in one of the pictures you will see the weird looking things on the grass, that is the artificial sun they use to keep the grass alive for the whole year. So it is pretty weird. But the field looked amazing, I just wanted to play soccer on it in all honesty... Haha. But it was nice!!

Then we had Zone Conference on Friday! It was a super good experience! We had some really good trainings on the worth of souls, and how we can better use the Book of Mormon in our missionary work. It is amazing how the Book of Mormon truly can answer any question that we have. Whether it is by a story or a direct answer it has something for every question we can ask. My goal is to get familiar enough with it that I will be able to answer any question that people have using it on the spot. That will probably take me my entire mission but that is what I am striving to do! That is what the Zone Leaders gave a training on, and President gave a training on the worth of a soul. Every soul is great in the eyes of God, and we should all be looking at souls like they are. He told us about the definition for a worth of a soul that was given in a seminar or something a long time ago, "The worth of a soul is its capacity to become as God." We all have the potential to become like God, and we need to be able to look at it like we are! I really liked that!

Something else that happened this week, we had a referral from the Spanish elders, and we went and stopped by. It wasn't the person we thought was going to be there, but we got to sit down and teach the guy that answered right there. He was super friendly and didn't come to church, but we are planning on meeting with him tomorrow, so that will be good! Miracles happen in small ways every day! It is fun to be a part of the work and get to see them daily! 

I hope you have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Reynolds 😎