Happy Memorial Day, from the boonies!

Hello everyone, this week was pretty eventful! We had a lot of random stuff happen the first few days and then I opened a new area in the mission called Prairie Du Chien, and it is an hour to the next set of missionaries! So we are out there all by ourselves, well we have a senior couple that lives 30 minutes away... so it works out well to have them there to help us! But it was an exciting week!

Monday we had our p day and elder Hacker and I went golfing!  So that was really fun, cause I haven't done that in a long time. And then we still had time to go hang out at a park with the elders and sisters in our zone! So it made our p day pretty fun!

Tuesday we spent a lot of time cleaning the apartment and packing because we were both leaving and the apartment was going to be left empty! So that was a little bit of an annoying day, but we got to see the refugees one more time and that was really good. It has been a while since I had to say goodbye to a family I had been teaching, and honestly it was hard for me. But I'm glad that they will still be taught and learn the gospel, they are amazing people 😊

Wednesday was transfer day, so that means that I got to sit at the church building for a long while waiting for Elder Mecham, my new companion to come and pick me up. So then I found out that I wasn't even going over to my new area until Thursday afternoon because we had to help move some stuff for our new apartment. So Wednesday we spent the night in Madison again!

Thursday we went and packed up one of the old apartments, and moved almost all of that stuff(with the help of the moving elders and a truck and trailer) to our new apartment in Prairie Du Chien. It's about a 2 hour drive from Madison out there so that was interesting! We missed a turn and the GPS rerouted us on some back roads and that was pretty beautiful! This part of the state is one of the prettiest that I have seen! So we got there and unloaded and then we met the senior couple (the Karrattis) and a member of the branch! We unpacked and moved stuff around and then we had a meeting and dinner with the Karrattis to talk about the people in the branch they were working with and how we could help them. So that was cool to get to know them better!  They are from Hawaii and are turning into my grandma and grandpa out here, just the sweetest people you'll ever meet!

Friday was full of more unpacking and then we went out and tried to visit some of the members that live fairly close to us. So we went out and knocked on their doors, and we met a couple different people! I'm excited for this branch to have full time missionaries again, it will be super helpful for them!

Saturday we spent some tome driving as we went to Boscobel. It's another town in the branch boundaries and we met the members out there. There's actually almost more active members there than there are in Prairie, but the church building is in Prairie, like 30 minutes away! So that was pretty fun to meet the branch president and his family and some of the others as well!

Sunday was great! We had a great time at church and there were more people there than normal because there were some people visiting from out of town for Memorial Day weekend! But it was neat to see the little chapel full! We had a couple of talks from a couple that lives in Madison, who just got back from being a mission president and wife in Argentina! So all of church was on missionary work! That was cool to see for our first time at church!

Well that's my week, this is getting long so I'll just give ya more updates as we go next week! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Reynolds 😎

The refugee family and us Reynolds/Hacker

That guy is standing on what is supposed to be a road... the water levels are very high

bridge that goes over the Mississippi river

Wisconsin river 

Diane from the 1st ward

ELDER SOARES OF THE QUORUM OF THE 12 APOSTLES

Well this week was all summed up by that wonderful title up there. We were blessed as a mission to have the opportunity to hear directly from an apostle as he came to meet with leaders in the area, and invited us missionaries to our own meeting. So on Saturday morning we were with Elder Soares, Elder Wilford Anderson (70), Bishop Waddell (2nd counselor in presiding bishopric), Elder Alvarado (70), and Elder K. David Scott (area 70). So there were 4 general authorities in one building and I was there too! That was pretty neat, and they all spoke to us as the missionaries! I wish I could share all that was said but I'll highlight what elder Soares taught. He basically told us that we need to have a conversion ourselves first. And that it comes through the simple things like reading the scriptures and saying prayers. He talked about all the missionaries he had when he was a mission president, some which are not active in the church and he always asks them, where did it start? And he said that 100 percent of the time the answer is, I stopped studying and praying. So the simple things are what keep us in tune with the spirit!

Well that was a highlight. But we also had some other good experiences this week! I went to the Madison 4th ward on exchanges and managed to get a solid 10 miles in on bikes as we rode around Madison. It's fun to not have a car sometimes! That was on Tuesday and Wednesday that I was there, and then on Thursday we ended up doing our weekly planning, and tried to go and visit Steve because he hasn't been replying. We caught him at home and he was all for us to come back on s Saturday night and then he cancelled. So hopefully we can get back in with him!

Oh I almost forgot. This week is transfer week and I'm leaving! I will be headed to praire du chein. It is a nice little town that sits right on the Mississippi river! Missionaries haven't been there in a long time, so me and my new companion will be opening this area! Wish us luck! Well I'm kinda excited for it, its a small place, the population is only like 5,000.... so we can literally talk to the whole town in the 3 months that I will have there!

Well that's about all I got for you all this week. I know that the apostles we have on the earth are called of God to testify of His son Jesus Christ. And they do that in a wonderful way! I hope that you all can find out for yourself that there are prophets on the earth today, and that Christ has called them to help you. I love you all!

Elder Reynolds

Elder Reynolds, Elder Udy, Sister Nelson, Elder Earnest
all from Box Elder at Mission Conference with Elder Soares

Elder Hacker & Kopp's Custard

Elder Reynolds and Diane

Elder Lamb and Elder Reynolds

Kopp's Custard

District Picture in Madison

Elder Reynolds and a piece of metal they found in the road

Mother's Day

Hello everyone!

Happy mothers day to all those moms out there, especially mine cause shes the best one😉 but for real moms are the best. So if you didn't do something for your mom than at least give her a call and tell her how thankful you are for her and that you love her.

Well for my week it was pretty cool! We started the week with a fun p day, and then went on exchanges on Monday night with the campus elders. I stayed here in my area and was with Elder Chapman! He is a pretty new missionary. so its cool to see how he does things compared to how I used to and how I do now. He is a solid missionary and it was a good time!

Tuesday we had district council, and then elder Chapman and I got to get out and do some finding! We knocked some doors and had some good responses and conversations so that was fun! One guy decided to tell us about all his neighbors when we asked if there was anyone he knew that could be interested in our message! So we had the inside scoop on that street!

Wednesday I was back with elder Hacker and we went down to Dodgeville and exchanged with the Platteville elders! I went with elder hatch, and he is one of the next missionaries to go home. So I went from being with one of the youngest missionaries to one of the oldest overnight! But he is a good guy, and we had a lot of fun doing work down in Platteville!

Thursday I was still there for the first part of the day, and then came back midway through the day! But it was a pretty drive back from Platteville because this place is finally blooming! All the trees and stuff is blooming and the grass is green again, it's amazing!! Then when I got back we had an appointment with a lady named Chanel, and all we had time to really teach her before she had to go was what the book of mormon is and we invited her to read it! So we have our follow up appointment this week! Then we had dinner with the Wilson's, and did some weekly planning for ourselves!

Friday was pretty normal, we had some time to go and find, and then we had some potential appointments that fell through so that was a little rough, but we met some really cool guys playing basketball on the street in our shirt and ties! So that has been fun, hopefully we can teach them soon!

Saturday was interesting. One of the elders that lives close by but doesn't have a car was feeling really sick, so we got to be the ones to take him to the doctor! So that took some time out of our morning, and then there was a baptism of someone the Spanish sisters have been working with, so that was fun to go to! We invited all our investigators but none of them could come... so hopefully they can come to another baptism soon!

Sunday was mothers day! So we went to church and did all our studies, and then we went and tried to contact a few former investigators that it sounded like might need a nice visit on mothers day! None of them were home, so let's hope that they were having a good mothers day party with their family! Then I got to talk to my family that night and it was a good time! I love them, especially my momma!

Well that's all I got for another week here in Wisconsin, next week we will have a mission conference and Elder Soares of the Quorum of the 12 will be here! Then on Monday we will know about transfers and if I am leaving or not, so exciting news all around. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Reynolds

Elder Chapman and Elder Reynolds

Zarahemla-Blanchardville

Hello all!

This week has been a really fun week, we have seemed to have a lot going on which caused us to not have a ton of time to actually do missionary work.... but it was still a very eventful week! We had a good exchange at the beginning of the week with the Dodgeville Elders. I went with a wonderful elder, Elder Hill. And we had a good time in the good ol D-Ville. We went to the most popular place among missionaries there for lunch called Bob's BBQ, it is phenomenal! Good food and good times with Elder Hill. The rest of the week we had meetings, so on Wednesday we had our interviews with President Williams, and then I went over to Milwaukee with one of our assistants Elder Vang for the day! It was interesting for sure.... that was one of the rudest I have ever been treated on my mission! We had a pretty interesting guy answer a door and yell at us to leave his property, then as we knocked on the next 2 doors away from him he continued to yell each time we knocked "Keep it movin"... so that was hard not to reply, but good thing I don't have too crazy of a temper. Pretty sure he watched us for the whole rest of the street, so at least he sacrificed some time to see what we were about(;

Then on Friday we had MLC! Always fun to see a lot of other missionaries and even got to see Elder Udy this time around! Its pretty cool to have kids that I knew in high school in the same mission as me. It's a good time! We had a lesson with our refugee friends on Saturday and it was really spiritual and good! Safarani accepted an invitation to be baptized on June 29th, so hopefully we can help her get ready to be baptized by then! We were also able to help Josephine understand a little better the reason that she needs to be baptized again. So I think it is all going well!

That's the most of our week, it was busy, the weather was constantly changing, and we had fun while we worked! I hope you all have had a wonderful week! I love you all, keep killin it! And enjoy some spring while it lasts!

Elder Reynolds

Oh I almost forgot, this picture of the sign is in a tiny town called Blanchardville. It was originally settled by members of the church and they called it Zarahemla. But they changed the name... sad day, but we still got a plaque!