Week 4 of the mission life

Hey friends/fam!

This week was another fabulous one! We had exchanges with the Elder's from Sturgeon Bay, which is like the thumb of Wisconsin. They are super cool! I was with Elder Harris and Elder Manesse. We have started to teach a lot of people on campus. So there is a break off of the University of Wisconsin here called UWGB. We do a lot of contacting there because the priority in finding people right now is young single adults. We have 2 investigators on date from there right now, and one of them was able to come to church yesterday! He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, but he still has a ways to go before he is baptized. So I am excited to see where he goes. The other one on date is a girl, and she is super cool too, but couldn't make it to church this week! They are both on date for the 28th of October, so it is quite a ways out but it will get there. We also had exchanges with the Spanish Elders, and they are both super cool! This is the second time we have been with them, we exchange 3 times with them because Elder Poulson is our district leader. But I was with Elder Flores and Elder Van Orden this week, and we had a super funny experience. So there is this old guy in our ward who wanted to have us over for dinner but he lives in a group home basically. So he took us to dinner at the old folk's home and it was super awkward. We got to talk to him and a few other old people while we were there but it was funny. I enjoyed it. I was laughing basically the whole time! Then yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting for the first time! But it was only 3 to 5 minutes on the miracles of missionary work! I think I did a pretty decent job, and our investigator was taking notes during it, so that was cool! Missionary work truly does show us the miracles that happen everyday, and you can see them too if you just look for them, and have the faith to see them!

Spiritual thought: 1 Nephi 7:12
The Lord can do all things if we have faith in him. This is how we see the miracles that come to us. The bible dictionary says that miracles are not out of the ordinary, they are just divine acts that happen all the time. If we have the faith to see them and to have them happen then I promise you they will! ​

We got fed super well this week, and the next week we have a dinner appointment for all but one day, and that is because we will be in Milwaukee!! So I am super excited for the members here. We have a super high goal for stake baptisms in the year, and we aren't going to hit it, but basically it changed the way everyone does missionary work. The members all share experiences they have had while sharing the gospel. It is great to know that they are there and willing to help, and eventually one of the people they share it with will get baptized because of them.

I hope all is going well for all of you! Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Reynolds

Elders Harris, Elder Manesse, and Elder Reynolds

Lake Michigan

Houghton Blitz

So my companions are zone leaders, and they have to do exchanges with all the Elders in the zone. Most of the people that live super far away come to us and work in our area for an exchange. So the way an exchange works is usually one companion goes to the other area and one stays. But since our zone is massive, it covers all of Michigan that is in our mission, we do what we call a blitz, where we are all in one area. So usually these blitz's happen in Green Bay and we stay at home. But we had to do a baptismal interview in Houghton, which is like a 4 or 5 hour car ride away. It is in the very top of Michigan. It was gorgeous. It sits right on Lake Superior and it causes a lot of fog in the morning and it was super cool! But anyway, we were up there for Thursday and Friday. It was cool! Some of the pictures are on the way there. So that was most of what this week consisted of.. DRIVING. It was such a long drive. But it was gorgeous, so it made up for it.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We had a ton of plans and appointments in the week that worked out pretty well! There is a girl we met one day on campus who is starting to progress and want to know more. We have had a couple appointments with her, and she is starting to read the Book of Mormon and pray! So that is super cool to watch. Last night we stopped by a referral Elder Van Orden had gotten from one of the members in his last area and it turned out super well. She was struggling from something that had happened at work and it was like the perfect way to teach someone. I have started to notice more and more the way God works with us, and for us. He is always there helping us.

Spiritual Thought: The Book of Mormon teaches everywhere that we see miracles because of our faith. I know that to be true, and I know that if we have faith we can see miracles for anything. In 1 Nephi 7:12 it tells us that the Lord can do all things if we exercise our faith in Him. I know that it is possible for anything to happen if we believe in Christ. I know that as we have faith in Him, he strengthens us more and more, and helps us to become better!

Hope you are all doing well! I love you all!

Elder Reynolds

Week 2 in Green Bay

 Well this week was fantastic! So many things happen and it is so hard to remember what to talk about, but since my companions are Zone Leaders we do a lot of exchanges. So I have gotten to meet a lot of the other missionaries in the zone! We also had Zone Conference this week and I met even more of them there! Everyone in the mission is awesome! Zone conference was all about how to find better and do different things to help the people understand why we are doing what we are doing. If someone understands that this message we share means the world to us, and that we as missionaries are representatives of Jesus Christ, they are more likely to want to learn more about it! It was a very motivating conference, and helped me understand how to do the hard work the right way. You can do a lot of hard work, but if you aren't doing it in the right way then it is hard to see results.

   On Saturday we had a totally open schedule, which for us is not that common. We usually have a couple return appointments a day, or at least something we have to do because my companions are zone leaders. So we were worried that we wouldn't know how to effectively use the time. During daily planning we decided that we would do some work with former investigators. Turns out that none of the former investigators we wanted to talk to were home. But we knocked some random doors around the houses or apartments, and ended up finding like 6 new investigators on Saturday alone! It was the coolest thing I have ever seen happen. I know that the Lord blesses us in the ways we need it. We didn't find success like we thought we might, but we found people. And that is what we wanted, and what the Lord wanted for us! I know that there is nothing else that I would want to be doing with my time than finding people to share the gospel with!

  Hope everyone is doing great, I love you all!

Elder Reynolds

Green Bay!

So for those of you who haven't heard, my first area is Green Bay! I am serving in the first ward here, and my companions are Elder Van Orden and Elder Manesse. They are both super cool and also from Utah! Elder Van Orden is from a town of like 250 people called Loa I think, its crazy. And Elder Manesse is from Spanish Fork area! Elder Van Orden played a lot of sports in high school, mostly baseball and basketball. His 1A high school team took state in baseball his senior year! I realized we didn't take a picture with any of us in it, and I don't really even have pictures of me this week, just the area.

So the area is super pretty! It is so green compared to Utah. There is animal life everywhere. You see squirrels running around in the middle of the streets. Green Bay is not a big city really, it has no skyscrapers or anything like that, but there is a lot of people here. The people are usually pretty nice to us! But they are almost always catholic, so they don't care to hear our message most of the time! We knocked doors for about 4 or 5 hours one of the days and found maybe 1 new investigator, so it is a little tough at times, but it goes on.  Green Bay Packers... that is all that is everywhere. Its insane. Their garbage cans are even green and yellow... But people love their team and it is pretty cool. We have to find out things to do during games, because if you start knocking on people's doors they don't really appreciate it. But Lambeau field is like the biggest thing in the city, everything else is pretty much just houses.

The ward here is awesome! They feed us 2 or 3 times a week so it isn't terrible. But we met the Cutler family Sunday night and they have like 8 kids who all play soccer!! It was fun to get to know them and a lot of other families in the ward as well. The members are pretty good at doing missionary work with us, so we get a few referrals from them! This week has been a blast! Hope everyone at home is doing great!

Love, Elder Reynolds

email:  bryce.reynolds@myldsmail.net

mailing address:  2970 Mossy Oak Circle #85

Green Bay, WI 54311

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