July 27th

Dear Family,
So much has happened in one week. We’ll see how much I can get down in one letter.
First of all, I met a Brother that served the mission with cousin Jared in Buenos Aires North. Brother Gerry (“Herry”), now bishop Gerry in the Ward that shares the chapel with us, asked me, “Did you have a relative that served in Buenos Aires North? A Jared Reynolds” When I told him we’re cousins, he replied: “you look alike, especially in your smile. Jared was my Zone Leader. He was a good missionary and very well organized.” He spoke very highly of Jared, and was happy to have a little catch-up on his life. Bishop Gerry also said he thought he had Jared on Facebook—oh the wonders of Internet.
So I got transferred. I’m in Cuadro National, not Cordon National, which is a small little village on the outskirts of San Rafeal, the second largest city in Mendoza. Cuadro is just to the east of San Rafeal.
Transfers were really crazy. I had to be in the offices at 7:00 in the Morning, which meant I had to catch a bus at 5:20 in the morning. I ended up going solo, because my companion was going to San Martin to pick up his companion, not to Mendoza. To make the situation even more unique: it snowed. It’s been about 3 years since it snowed like that in Mendoza. There wasn’t a lot, less than an inch, but in Mendoza, that is a lot. The City isn’t constructed for snow. Most of the sidewalks are paved with tiles, which become like a giant ice-skating rink when covered with a light snow.
When I arrived in Mendoza it was still pitch black, and in the dark I slipped and slided my way from the bus terminal to the Bus stop where I needed to take the Bus to the offices. The bus I needed to take passed right as I got to the bus stop, and I didn’t realize it was my bus until it was too late. I was running late, so the next bus that stopped I asked the driver: “do you pass the Hospital Español?” because I knew that was close to the offices. He answered: “we pass behind it.” I boarded.
I wasn’t sure what “behind it” meant, or if I would be able to find the offices, but I figured at least I could get closer to the offices, and then maybe hail a taxi for the last little bit. As I sat down in the Bus I offered a silent prayer, “Father, please help me get to the offices on time. I’m not really sure where I am. Please help me.” The bus seemed to be going in the right area, closer to the offices, so I was happy, I only didn’t know where to get off. We came to a stop light, and as we were waiting the bus driver called out: “who was the person who wanted to go to the Hospital Español?” I raised my hand, “Get off here.” He said as he opened the door. “¡Muchas Gracias!” I said as I descended the stairs. From where I got off I could see the street I needed to get to, and I felt so grateful that the Lord had made it all work out so that the Bus Driver remembered that out of all of the passengers, there was one who needed to get off at the Hospital. The bus turned for another street, and if he hadn’t told me where to get off, I easily could have gotten lost.
I got to the offices where I went with the Newly arrived Missionaries to the Civil Register, “registro civil”, to get my name-change document cleared and finish my visa work. It all went very smoothly, and we finished by 10:30, the fastest Elder Swainston from the offices had ever seen it happen.
After that the office Elders dropped me off at the Bus Terminal to take a Bus to San Rafeal. Once again, all alone. I found a few other Elders in the Terminal who helped me buy my ticket, but then they had to go, so I was left all alone in the terminal waiting an hour and a half for my bus.
I was hungry, but had very little money and didn’t dare leave my bags to go buy something, so I just waited.
The bus came and I boarded. I sat down next to a young Gentleman, and after a little while we began to talk. I asked him about his work, and he told me he owned a Cellular Telephone shop. He asked me about my mission, and I explained a little about the mission and the church, and about our belief in a living prophet. He was interested, but said he wasn’t ready to change his religion. His girlfriend lives in Cuadro Nacional, and he said: “I’m sure we’ll see each other.” His name was Martìn.
After a three hour bus ride I arrived in San Rafael. I walked up and down the terminal looking for Elders—not one. So I waited. Now not only was I hungry, but I had to go to the bathroom, but I couldn’t leave my bags, so I just waited.
I called the elders from a phone booth, and they said they were on there way. So again I just waited. I talked with another man waiting at the terminal, and he began to tell me about his health problems, and all the doctors who have been trying to “help” him, but have prescribed medicine that hasn’t worked. He wasn’t interested in hearing about the gospel, but I think he felt better having someone to vent all his problems to, and I felt happy to have been able to help him.
Finally the Zone Leaders came with my new companion, Elder Carrasco, an Elder from California, who spoke English and Spanish before the mission, and also was a Lexus auto mechanic. He’s really awesome. He’s very quiet, but very loving, and very good with people.
Cuadro Nacional is very small, and right now we don’t have any really progressing investigators, we’re going to be focusing a lot in finding new investigators this week.
Church is back to normal, which will help us. The Swine Flu has reached it’s climax and is going down.
It’s been a good transfer so far. It will be a very hard-working transfer, but a rewarding one too I hope.
I love you Family,
Sincerely,
Elder Reynolds

Jul 20th

Hey Family,

So every week as I sit down to write my emails in Microsoft Office, the first thing I have to do is to click on the tools button “herramientos” and change the language to English, so that all the words don’t become underlined in red.

I found out transfers. I’m going down south, where it’s very cold, but supposedly very pretty, to an area called Cordon Nacional, or something like that. I’m going to be sr. companion and district leader. So I’m slightly overwhelmed. I’m not sure how it will all work out. But supposedly I’m getting a really good companion, who is about 26 or 27 and is from Los Angeles California.

So I had a really neat experience with prayer this week. I’d been very stressed out with a problem I was dealing with. I didn’t know what to do. It was early in the morning, I hadn’t slept very well the night before. I felt full of fear and uncertainty. I felt as if I was in the middle of a thunderstorm. I picked up the Liahona to try to find some peace.

I began reading the talk by President Uchtdorf about the power of Prayer to lift us above life’s thunder storms. I felt as if it had been written specifically to me. I didn’t really feel like I had the energy to say another prayer. I’d said my nightly and morning prayers asking for help and council, but I didn’t seem to be able to concentrate and really find an answer. I then read a part where president Uchtdorf wrote: “If you ever feel that you cannot pray, that is exactly when you need to pray.”

I decided I’d try it. I began to pray, trying to pray from my heart and not just vain repetitions of what I’d already asked for. And this time the result was different. As I prayed and plead with my Heavenly Father, a peace began to feel me. It was miraculous. I felt exactly like the plane President Uchtdorf mentioned that passed through the storm clouds to the bright blue sky. I was filled with an indescribable peace, and I knew that everything would be alright.

I learned that morning that God does listen to our prayers. He loves us enough to try us, but as He tries us He will help us overcome our trials through the prayer of faith. The help we can receive through prayer is very real and very powerful. I’m grateful that God answered my prayer and gave me the peace I needed, and I think I’m also grateful as well for the trial that brought me to my knees so I could gain this testimony.

I love you Family. Remember to say your prayers! Daily prayer and scripture study really do change everything.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

July 14th

Dear Family,

Saturday Alejandro was Baptized! I’m going to try to email photos of the Baptism. Alejandro is 13, his Mother was baptized when she was a little girl, but hasn’t been active for over a decade, his Father isn’t a member, but has been listening to the lessons, and I’m pretty sure eventually he’ll be baptized. “Ale” also has a little brother Nicolas, who is 11, and at first wanted to be baptized, then changed his mind, but still likes to come to all the young men activities and to listen to the lessons. I think he might have peer-pressure not to get baptized—I’m not sure.

About a week ago Alejandro asked us, “so do I get to choose who baptizes me?” “Yes”, we told him, “you can choose”. “Would you baptize me Elder Reynolds?” he asked. There are few feelings greater than someone asking you to baptize them. “Of course” I told him.

Alejandro is a really awesome young man. About a month ago during our first visits with him, he pierced his ear. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to tell him that as members of the church we don’t pierce ourselves, right after he’d spent time money and pain to get his ear pierced. Time past, and I kind of forgot that I would have to tell him, until last Wednesday we showed up at his house, and Alejandro had taken out his earring and it was sitting on the book shelf. “Elder, why didn’t you tell me I couldn’t wear and earring?” I was surprised. “Oh, I didn’t know how to tell you. How did you find out?” “Last night at young mens, Marcos (an advisor) told me I couldn’t wear it.” “Hey, That’s awesome!” I said. He had given up his earring without any complaints—it was just the thing to do. He also gave the lesson Friday in Mutual, even though he wasn’t even baptized.  He’ll be a great missionary, we’ll just need to work so that he gains a strong testimony now so that he’ll stay firm, no matter what happens. And baptizing his family so he has support would be awesome as well.

Yesterday I learned how many pizzas, 12 hungry missionaries can eat. As a zone we met to go to an All-you-can-eat Pizza restaurant. I thought of Chris a lot as I was sitting there eating pizza. In between 12 missionaries we ate 18 large pizzas, and 2 giant stuffed pizzas, which is a pizza with one crust on the bottom, with the toppings of two pizzas in the middle, and then a crust on top; it was really big. I was so full.

Besides that, we’ve been making home-made pizza Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’re almost at Pizza capacity.

Transfers are coming up again, and I’m pretty sure I’m going. I’m also sending a photo of out last district meeting. Elder Wise, the big elder to my right in the photo, is finishing his mission next week and going home.

I think that is about all for this week, oh, wait, not quite, I forgot about church.

So because of the “gripe porcina” or Influenza A, they have cancelled church for a month to try to prevent spreading the flu. As missionaries we received permission to have a small sacrament meeting for our investigators. In church there were 12 in total, including ourselves, and Elder Rogel and I both had to give impromptu talks. But we had it better off than some elders, who had three in church: themselves and the Bishop. Oh well, things will get better, I guess that’s what the gospel is all about: things will get better, because this is the gospel of happy endings.

I love you all family!

  You’re in my prayers!

Elder Reynolds

P.S. Remember: Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty

June 30th

Dear Family,

If only you knew the story behind this email. Although it is the first and only you’ll have received this week, it isn’t the first I’ve written—it would seem as if the adversary has all technology conspiring against me.

Yesterday, at the Internet café I’d written 4 beautiful emails in Note Pad, some of the best I’d written in my mission, I’d even composed an Eagle Scout rap for Chris in honor of his Court of Honor, I was working on my 5th email when—ZAM—Note Pad closed, deleting forever all the hour of emails I’d written. We had to leave the café, so I quickly wrote to President Lindahl and we left.

Since it’s a rule to write your family weekly, we left this morning to finish what was stared yesterday. I wrote another beautiful email to the family, explaining in dramatic detail what happened yesterday. This time I was smart and wrote the email in Word, so if it accidentally closed, I might have a chance of recovering the document. I thought that would solve my problems, but I was sadly mistaken. As I was finishing up my email with what I’d learned from church, when none of our 5 investigators showed up—CRACKLE, POP—sparks began to fly from the electrical hub of the computer and—ZAM—the computer closed down. The screen went deadly black.

I couldn’t believe it. Could it really be possible that my 2nd laborious email had just been killed in such dramatic fashion? Sadly, yes. Providentially, the sparks didn’t start a fire, and the very kind worker gave me a new computer without charging me for the time on the first.

So that is the story behind this 3rd-times-the-charm email.

Oh well. Such is Life. Like Elder Worthlin talked about in his last conference talk, learn to laugh when things like this happen. Who would have believed that 2 consecutive emails would be eaten like this?

Last week in church I learned a lesson about counting the roses not the thorns in life. We’d committed 5 investigators to come to church, 0 showed up. I was pretty sad, even frustrated. So much so, that for all of the reunion all I could think about was “they didn’t show up, what did we do wrong?” I guess you could see it in my face because one member asked “¿Qúe te pasa?” or, “What’s wrong man?” I realized that there were good things too that I could focus on, and after wracking my brain for a while I came up with two great blessings: 1. The Branch President organized the first branch council that the branch has had in almost a year. 2. In Priesthood, we had Hot chocolate and cake. Sometimes it’s hard to look for the blessings. But we have them.

I love you family.

Sorry the email is late.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

Jun 22nd

Dear Family,

Elder Rogel, my new companion, loves photos and cameras  and was shocked when I told him I'd only sent a handful f pictures home.

I 'm repenting right now and sending home a dozen. I hope you enjoy the photos!

Everything is going well. With Elder Rogel we've been teaching and working above the mission average , which has been a miracle because he's been fairly sick , and has been having knee and back problems, which has made us stay more time in the pench.  But we're going onward and upward!

Sad News. Panchito, our recent convert, ran away from home. He was living with his Dad, but ran away to his mom's house, and according to his aunt that is not a good environment. So if you could include him in your prayers. This week we're going to try to visit him with the young men's president.

I love you family!

You're each in my prayers!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

June 8th

Dear Family,

So here is the news about transfer: I'm getting a Latin Companion. I don't know who and I don't know where, but President Lindahl emailed me and said "I'm giving you a Latin comp." I'm almost positive I'll still be in Rivadavia, which is just fine with me--there is a lot of work to do. I was hoping to baptize last week, but we didn't. Last week I was praying with my companion and I was about to pray "Please Father help us have the miracle of a baptism this Saturday." But for some reason I couldn't say it, instead I prayed, "please Father, help our eyes to be opened to the blessings that you have given us and you will give us this week." The Bible Dictionary says that prayer is the changing of our will to the will of the Lord, I guess sometimes the miracle we want isn't the miracle the Lord wants for us.

Here are a few of the Miracles I was given these last two transfers:

-Elder Ortiz. I learned a ton from Elder Ortiz, sometimes it was very, very hard--we are so different--but I learned lessons about love, patience, listening, speaking up if I disagree and taking initiative that I don't think I could have learned in any other way. The Lord does choose the cruz we're tried in, and chooses it with love and concern for us.

-A Baptism. We worked so hard to try to baptize, and all of the people that we helped the most, ended up not getting baptized, but the baptism we did get was a miracle--Panchito fell into our lap. We just met him in the house of a member, and three weeks later he was baptized. All we had to do was set up a couple of lessons. And within a month he became one of the most faithful Aaronic priesthood holders in the Branch.

-Elder Wise and Elder Smith, our pench-mates. They made life so much funner, they helped us laugh, look on the bright side, and keep plowing along.

-Ward Missionaries. We were blessed with two ward missionaries who want to work and with whom we can do visits almost every day.

-A million more daily miracles and blessings--I can't write them all.

The Lord is watching out for us, He will bless us. I'm learning to look on the bright side, to count the blessings, not the problems, to count the sunbeams, not the rainclouds. We can make our lives a lot happier by learning these concepts I am sure.

I love you all Family!

Sincerely,

June 1st

Dear Family,

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. By looking at our numbers you might think we were playing golf, 0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0. But in spite of poor numbers, we have seen miracles.

The one lesson we did have was a miracle. After a rather long and overwhelming day we had a missionary activity where we invited our Branch missionaries and our Investigator Sulma, we had also invited some non-member boys, but didn't have a lot of hope they'd show up. The branch Missionaries showed up, but Sulma didn't. In stead, the youth did come, first just one boy, than another and another, until we had 5 young men ages 12-15 learning the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to pray. It was a remarkably spiritual and fun lesson. Sometimes we can't get the boys together, or we can't find them, but that night, they were able to show up and learn. They started to get excited about learning. They are such good boys that really want to learn and grow. They'll get baptized I'm sure.

Another Blessing was church. All of the classes seemed to be directed for us, one about faith and the other about Adversity. The spirit was powerful in church, and I realized why it is such an important part of the Gospel to unite weekly to renew our covenants, to learn, and sometimes more importantly, to feel impressions of the Spirit that we couldn't feel in any other place.

Elder Ortiz and I have one more week together, at least. Transfers are the 10th, and he is pretty sure he'll be getting transferred and I'll be getting a Latin companion here in Rivadavia. We'll see.

I love you. One thought from Sunday's class on Adversity: Sometimes it seems we are meant to live lives of suffering and tribulation.We my ask, "will all my life be filled with trials?" "Will I ever just have peace?"  Yes. Someday we will rest from all our trials. But until then, know that Christ suffered everything we feel, He knows us intimately and knows how much we can handle, He will not give us more than we can bear; for some reason in His infinite wisdom, He allowed us to be tried right now, knowing that this trial or these trials would prepare us in the way we need to be prepared.

Once again, I love you, You're in my prayers. Down here in Argentina there is a little missionary praying for his family.

Have a very fun week!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

May 26th

Dear Family,

Happy Birthday Jefferson, Hillary, Anna...and now Duncan. Duncan did a good job at choosing days: he was born on my companion's birthday. I know Anna would have rather had him been born for Megan's B-day, but if he's going to take his time, he might as well choose a significant day to be born. Congratulations Anna, Grant and Jeff! Good Job Anna at bringing another beautiful Nephew into the world.

So this last week went well. We finally found someone who wants to get Baptized, her name is Sulma Gonzalez, she is a single mother who has been divorced, she has had a lot of trials in her life and she really wants to get baptized, she keeps asking: "what else do I have to know to get baptized". Right now she's working on overcoming a smoking addiction, so if you would pray for her that would be great.

It's amazing to see how much the gospel can change a life. Even in just the two weeks that we've been working with her, she has changed a lot; when we first entered into her house, she was very sad and confused. She has a lot of faith in God, but she's had a lot of very bad experiences in other churches, and she became so confused how people calming to represent God could have such bad fruits. This confusion has begun to leave, like a huge Ice cube beginning to melt in the warmth of the Gospel light. She is beginning to smile more, to focus on the good parts of life; the gospel has changed her, every time we leave she asks, "when will you be coming back?" There will still be a couple of hurdles before she gets baptized, but the Lord has been blessing us, and I expect we'll see her baptized on June 6th. Yeah!

Oh yes, Sorry this email is late. Yesterday was a huge holiday here, may 26, basically the Argentine 4th of July, and all of the stores were closed, we couldn't find an Internet cafe open, so we got permission to write home today.

I love you all!

sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

May 18th

Hey Family,

The computer was abnormally slow today so I don't have very much time, but I wanted to say Hi and I love you. Thank you so much for your prayers, I've felt uplifted, encouraged and inspired over the last week especially, and I think a lot of it has to do with your prayers.

We haven't been seeing very mush success here in Rivadavia, it's been three weeks since we've had an investigator in church, and we've only taught 5 lessons last week, but I've felt peaceful as if everything will be okay, if we can just weather this storm, Elder Ortiz and I will find success.

The Mission is teaching me so much about faith. hope and patience. When you don't have numbers, you don't have investigators, you don't have baptisms, or even the hint of baptisms, all you have to hold on to is hope, we have to be patient and weather the storm with faith, and when you do, the blessings of the Lord are made manifest in our lives, and we gain more hope to face even greater challenges with greater faith and patience, until we have a "perfect brightness of hope", where we know that whatever challenge we are given, we can overcome it, that no matter how dark the tunnel is now, there is a light on the other side.

So that is what I've been learning, how to trust God, even in the mist of a baptismal wilderness. How to be happy, regardless of circumstances.

I love you all, you're in my prayers!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

May 11th

Dear Family,

Since I just talked with you yesterday, I thought I'd spend a lot of my time uploading photos. So I hope you enjoy them.

I need to write down in the week the stories I want to email home, because when I get to the computer, I sometimes get a mental freeze and can't remember any good stories, when I know that something inspiring or funny must have happened during the week. I'll work on that.

Oh yes, Yesterday night we cooked a Carp. One of the members went fishing and gave us a carp. We didn't know how to cook a carp. So we put it in the oven with butter, vegetable bullion, and Salt. After about 20 minutes it was cooked, so we took it out to enjoy it; it wasn't very good. It was very fishy, and after a few bites nobody wanted any more. SO our nice, big Carp became food for the Dogs.

That was sad.

I love you! and I'll send more photos.

Love

Lucas

May 4th

Well, I've already talked with half of you this week. I was only going to be able to call 3 times from argentina in my whole mission, but I ended up calling 3 times in one week, and I'll talk with you in one week. Oh, don't worry about these calls being disobedient, because in the Missionary Manuel, where it gives the rules about calling home, says that all the rules are under the discretion of the Mission President, so when he says to call your family, you'dbe breaking the Missionary Manual not to call. So I was given the blessing of being an obedient missionary and calling home.

I love you all and will be praying for you all this week during the funeral. Say hi to all the family for me.

As far as the work here. We're teaching Fransisco, the father of Panchito, as well as a lady named Gloria and her son Luis. They don't have a Baptismal date yet, but this week we'll try to set dates with them this week. If you could pray for them, that would be awesome. I have a testimony of the power of families' prayers for missionaries, I felt their power.

I love you all, thanks for being the best family in the world.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

April 27th

Dear Family,

(Oh, I almost just killed the computer, there is this funny button with a moon on it. right above the up button on the keyboard, and foggetting that curiosity killed the cat, I pressed the button and the coputer screen went blank....all my emails I'd written in note pad were lost...I was almost ready to panic...but I decided nothing worse could happen if I pressed the moon button again, so I did...and it restored the screen again...phew).

Anyway, this week was pretty crazy, we didn't get to teach hardly anything (only two lessons the entire week) because we were spending all of our time preparing for, and inviting people to an Obra Misional fireside on Thursday. We were going to have one of the Mission president's councilors some and speak, but last minute he couldn't, so we had to fall back on two ward members. We had invited nearly a hundred people in the streets, and nearly all the active and semi-active members, and we had an audience of 25ish, with only one street contact, but  it still went well.

This week we need to focus on finding new people and teaching lessons. In the last three weeks we haven't found a single New Investigator, and we should be finding 5 per week. So if you could pray for that I'd appreciate it.

Transfers are this week, we haven't found out anything yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll be staying here, we'll see.

Well I love you all, I've been trying to think of a funny story that happened this week, but my minds drawing a blank. Besides that yesterday I started talking in Vos to a street contact on accident, "¿Como es tù nombre?" which is taboo for missionaries, but he didn't notice, everyone else speaks in Vos, so that was good.

Well, I'll be sure to have a funny story to write about next week.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

P:S. Appreciate washing machines. Washing your clothes by hand is kind of fun, but not as effective and nowhere near as fast.

April 20th

Hey Family,

Finally, a real letter.

I heard about Jeff, and will keep him in my prayers. My companions have loved hearing the funny stories of Jefferson, so I'm sure they'll pray for him too. I was glad to hear that he was doing better, but I guess I'll have to wait a week to find out how it turns out:-(. In the meantime I'll keep praying for him.

We baptized again! A boy named Francisco. His nick-name is Panchito,(little hot-dog), he is 14 years old, and a great kid. He is counsin with a member family, and started coming to church a couple of weeks ago. He became an instant friend with all the boys in the branch, which is awesome.

The members told us that he wanted to be baptized, and we set a date with the president before even talking to Pancho. The next day, the first time we met with him, before teaching anything my companion straight out asked him, "so, would you like to be baptised?", He nodded his head, "yes". And that was that. We taught all the lessons in two visits, he understood everything, and got baptized on Saturday. We also had 11 non-members come to the baptism,everyone loves Panchito. We're going to talk with his friends and see if any of them want to be baptized.

Oh about Mother's day. I'm pretty sure you will call me. We have a cell phone as a companionship, and we'll send you the number and you can call that day. I'm three hours ahead of Salt lake (we don't have daylight savings, so it changes from three to four hours).

The Lord has blessed us, there is still a lot to do, but I'm hoping we can finish off this month of April with a Bang.

I love you all, thanks for your emails and lettes! I'll be better at writing back. I'm beginning to master the secret arts of Missionaty email.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

Mar. 19th

Hey Family,

So Erin emailed me and told me about Jefferson asking "do happy giants eat oatmeal?" I read that to my companion and he thought it was hillarious, so if Erin hasn't told you the story of Jefferson's oatmeal, "appeal to her native sense of magnanimity" (quoting the dec of ind.) and ask her to tell you.

Anyway, the work in Rivadavia continues. The branch is stuggling a little bit, there are about 35 active members (which is pretty good for most branches), but there are like 500 members or something crazy like that. The good part is that there are quite a few members that want things to get better and are willing to work.

Okay, so my favorite part of the week: Church. Last Sunday I spoke in sacrement meeting on Profets and General Conference. It is still pretty tough sometimes to speak in spanish, but the people are forgiving.

It was the fifth Sunday so we had Priesthood combined with Relief Society.  During the opening hymn, Ivana, a sister in the ward, came up to me with her opened cell phone in hand and said "It's Ariel, he wants to talk to you." Ariel is the 2nd councilor of the Young mens. My companion was leading, so I took the phone hoping I could understand and walked out of the sacrement room to take the call (it felt wierd to be leaving a meeting to take a cell phone call). I must have been blessed, because I understood what Ariel needed: "Elder, my Dad is sick and I have to take care of him, why don't you and Elder Ortiz teach the Young Men?" "Ok Ariel, we can do that". So we taught the young men. It was so much fun. There were 3 members and one investigating young man, but all were awesome. We taught about mission prep talking about Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah using Alma 17:2-3 where it talks about how they studied, prayed and fasted to be filled with the Spirit and teach with power. It was so much fun. Now I want to teach Young Mens every week.

Oh, also, there are two 11-year-old twins, a brother and a sister, Heber and Shela, ride their bike 30 minutes every week, all alone, to get to church, riding through a neighborhood that is very dangerous. But they do it every week and are always so happy to be there. Yesterday they followed us around after church because their Mom wasn't going to be home for a while.

Well, that's about all. I'm super excited for conference (oh, super is a spanish word too "estoy super animado por la conferencia general").

I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

Rivadavia

Hey Family,

I think in my last email I spelled Rivadavia wrong, but here you have the updated and corrected version: Rivadavia.

Rivadavia is a city to the south-east of Mendoza central by about 1 hour ( kind of like provo to Salt lake). In the city there are about 23,000 I heard, I don't know if that is true, but it is a fairly large city. We aren´t living in Rivadavia, though, the old pench (apartment) fell through, and the elders have been living in San Martin, about a 45 minute bus ride. That makes it a little inconvenient, especially today on Pday when we are supposed to work from 6:30 to 9:30. We'd only have about an hour of work, so I think we'll just work here in San Martin with the San Martin Elders. I think we have a pench that we'll use, but it won't be available until the first of next month, so until then, we'll have to grin and bear it.

Oh yes, mail. Yes I have been getting the snail-mail and the dearelder.com letters, and there is a difference in speed. The last time I got the mail I got Dear Elder letters from march 8th or 13th, alongside an envalopes of valentines from February 14ish. By the Way, a big Thank you to all of you, and all the extended family for the valentines. So I think there is about a three-four week differece. I've heard it's sometimes faster, sometimes not.

I don't know, but now that I'm farther away from the offices I might be getting mail less frequently.

Oh, in spanish, they don't have the word "to get", and I've been thinking of how much we use it: get up, I went to get something from the store, I got the flu, I'll get you... and so on. Apreciate the multi-purpose word get, because when you learn Spanish you won't be able to use it.

The work in Rivadavia has gotten off to a rough start. With travelling and finding a pench our numbers were horrific this week. But I'm expecting that this week things will get a little better. Elder Ortiz is a good missionary, he's obedient, wants to work, and is a suppurb teacher. He's very good at using analogies and applying the gospel to what the people are doing right then. I want to learn to be more like that.

This week we're going to be trying to talk to a lot of people and teach 16 new investigator lessons, and we'll need help to do that.

Thank you so much for your emails! I love hearing from you. I'll keep you all in my prayers, let me know if there is anything special I should pray for.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

P.S. Did you know how dificult the name Reynolds is to Latin Americans?

Transfers!

Dear Flia. Mia,

I got a call last night from Elder Pederson, one of the Assistants to President Lindahl, and he told me that I'm getting transfered, "You're the best new missionary we have, and the Lord needs you and President needs you in Rivavaria". If I'm the best nuevo they have, we must be heading for some rough times. I'll be transfering Wednesday, and my new companion will be Elder Ortiz from Hawaii (maybe he'll be from Honalulu and know Hillary's friends).

I'm a little sad to leave this apartment. I sent a picture of our "pench": Elder Berezay, me, Elder Smith and Elder Riggs (Elder Riggs plays the violin very well and knows Uncle clive, he has travelled with Bonnie's cloggers to europe a couple of times, and Bonnie and clive went to his farewell music party). Elder Riggs is the taller and skinnier one, I think on the far left of the photo. These Elders are great missionaries and a lot of fun to live with, we're always laughing and having fun.

I also sent a picture of our milk like I promised to Megan. Milk comes in pouches or bags, kind of like a capri sun that doesn´t stand up on its own. You have to find a container, like a used 2 liter pop bottle, and cut off a corner of the bag and then you have Argentine milk, which tastes slightly like goats milk, but you get used to it.

We were hoping to get 8 people in church on sunday and only 1 came. Sad ;-(... Oscar. But there is always next week. With the transfers, I do´n't know our new area or what our goals will be, probably get adjusted to the new area will be my number one goal.

I've been thinking about how will I adjust to my new area and I found a scripture that helped me, 2 Nephi 31:29 maybe. "And therefore ye must press forward with a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men...and if ye shall endure to the end, ye shall have eternal life."

When we don't know what to do we can always just press forward, keep walking, keep the hope that it will all be okay, that happiness is just around the corner, and just love and serve those around you. If we can do that it will be enough, the way will be shone and we can gain Eternal Life, or a successful transfer.

I love you all, thank you so much for your emails, love and prayers. I'll write you next week and inform you regarding my new surroundings and companion. So far Mom's prayers for good companions has worked.

I love you!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

Mar. 9th

Hey Flia. Mia,

So, me and my companion have done that which BYU hasn't done in a long, long time. We made it to the elite 8 of March Madness; if Elite 8 doesn't mean very much to you, ask Chris and he can explain it. But if you can imagine the 8 best college basketball teams playing, that is where we would be. All we have to do to "win" in the Elite 8 is bring 8 investigators to church this week. So that is our focus all week long. Last week we had one, so it will be an adventure to see what happens. If you could remember that in your prayers, that would be awesome.

I think I'm begging to get used to Argentina a little more. It is so different and foreign, (hence foreign country, I guess), but the people are great, for the most part, and I'm enjoying it more and more every day.

One thing that is different here is that they ask how you are about 4-5 times. It threw me off at first, we were in a lesson and my companion kept asking Maria how she was, and I thought "Elder, she has already said three times she is good, why do you keep asking her." But I soon relized this is normal. If there is any lol (not laugh out loud, but lol as in gap) in the conversation, somone asks "¿y comó anda usted?", "Bien, todo bien..." and maybe they'll think of something that happened and they pick up a new subject for the conversation. So when I get home if I keep asking you how you are, you know why and you can remind me I've already asked once.

Oh, I thought you'd like to know. The milk here isn't in cartons, or jugs, it's in bags. It reminds me kind of like a Capri-Sun, except that it doesn't stand up, you have to put the bag in another container, like a 2 liter pop-bottle bottom. then you cut off the corner of the bag and pour away. Next week I'll try to send a photo, it's awesome.

Thank you so much for your prayers! I feel your support. I love you so much and will keep all of you in my prayers.

Con cariño,

Elder Reynolds

aka

Luky duke

Mar. 2nd

Hey Family,

So, we baptized on Saturday. Maria and Jonaton were baptized together and were both so happy and excited. I baptized Maria and Elder Berezay baptized Jonaton, which was good because Jonaton is a lot larger than I. It was a neat experience. They asked me to play the prelude music and the music durring the changing, so after I baptized I had to change quickly and run back to the chapel to play the music for the guests. The Organ Lessons have paid off immensly. Every week in church I play the clavanova on Organ setting and at the baptism I played a relic of an organ that I'm sure was twice or three times my age.

I was a little nervous at the baptism, I'd never done a real baptism before. In the temple, those being baptized know more or less what to do, but Maria didn't know at all where to stand or where to put her hands, and I was hoping I could remember the prayer in Spanish and pronounce her name correctly and baptize her without any problems. I was preocupied as the Argentines say, but everything worked out. I said the prayer correctly, I got her name right, and she went all the way under and back up the first time. I was relived.

Right now we don't have any other investigators with Baptismal dates, but our goal is 4 baptisms in March, so we'll see what happens.

"¡It's March Madness Baby!" my companion likes to yell out once or twice a day. In our mission we're holding a Mission Mendoza March Madness. It's the Big Dance for missionaries. Every companionship is a team and you're playing against yourselves. The goal is to make it to the Final 4. The leves are as follow: Thorough 32: 32 open the mouths for 5 days straight; Sweet 16: 16 new investigator lessons in one week; Elite 8: 8 investigaors in church one week; and Final Four: 4 baptisms. Elder Berezay and I are excited for this and we've been praying and fasting that we'll be able to find a family of 4 and baptize them this month. We'll have to get to work and see what happens.

Well, that is the rundown of things so far. I'm doing well. I haven't lost hardly any weight since the MTC, which suprised me because we walk so much.

I love you all!

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,

Lucas

February 16th

So, my second week in Argentina is over. Our numbers have been tought: Baptisms: 0 Confirmations: 0, Investigators in Church: 0, Lessons with a member:0, Investigators with a baptismal date: 0, New investigators: 0, Lessons: 15. The amazing part about the gospel is that even when we have numbers like this, we can still have hope and we can still be happy. The Power of Hope as Pres. Uchtorf calls it. And Hope is powerful. I´ve been so blessed to have Elder Berezay as a companion. He won't get discouraged, he's always optimistic, always hopeful, and thanks to him, we're happy and hopeful. We're going to find and teach someone. As Elder Berezay said, the Lord is preparing us for a miracle. Sometimes it seems like everything turns as bad as possible right before the lord 'shows forth His mighty hand'. Now we just need to keep working and watch for the miracle.

I've learned so much. The Castillano (spanish) is getting easier to understand every day, but still I'm a long way from fluency. I feel so blessed though because I had a foundation before I came on the mission. Elder Berezay told me that in his transfer he just didn´t speak because his spanish was so weak. My Spanish is very weak too, but I feel blessed that I know enough that I can start conversations with people in the bus or in the street, and then nod my head as they talk and pretend i know what they're saying.

Argentina is more open than the US I decided. People drive with their windows open, their houses windows are open,they're more open as far as they'll talk with you more, and they're not afraid to speak their mind. The people are poor, spend a lot of time out of doors, and are happpier and healthier than Americans for the most part. Definitely healthier. People (at least in my area) walk everywhere. and if they need to go far away, they walk to the bus stop. Most of the everyday grocieries are sold in 'kiosks', someone in the neighborhood who sells bread, food and pop out of their house, so people just walk to the kiosk for their food. Also, for desert we'll eat watermelon, grapes, peaches, pears, or some other fruit. The one unhealthy part is Gaseosa, 'pop'. The water for the most part is safe, but never cold and never tastes very good, and pop is often less expensive. So everyone drinks gaseosa. In the last week, perhaps in the last three days alone, I've drunk more pop than in the privious year of my life.

Well, my time´s almost up. I'd better go shop. I love you all. Thanks for your prayers, you're in mine as well!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

First E-mail from Argentina!!!

So, my first p-day on the mission, myldsmail won´t work. I´ve spent a half hour of my hour trying to get in. Elder Morgan, one of our zone leaders let me use one of his extra addresses.

I´m sad though, because I have so much to write about, but only a few minutes now to do it in. Also, I don´t have anybody elses email so if you could send it to the fam, that would be awesome.  So here is what I was told about emailing friends. If friends want to email me, they should send a short message to you, and then you can forward it onto me, you can scan it as well to make sure that nothing will distract me, like a querido juan, or something like that.

The first week has been crazy, but good. My companion is Elder Beresay from southern Alberta (he thinks he knows Robert Burton, so that´s awesome). He is great, he´s optimistic, he´s a hard worker and he helps me a lot when I´m completely lost in a conversation.

We have two solid investigators, Maria and Jonathan, they´re boyfriend and girlfriend, and they´re awesome. They came to church yesterday and have a lot of questions so we´re going to visit them tomorrow to talk. They are so kind to us, we teach at Maria´s house, (she´s 18 and lives with her family) and she´s always prepared some food for us or something to drink. They´re progressing well and they have a baptismal date for the 21st. YEAH!

A little about Argentina. Our meals are like this: breakfast, something light, cereal, bread or nothing; lunch: An overwealming amount of pasta or rice and meat, with Tomatoes, Fruits, and dinner, cereal otra vez, or nothing. I remember Dad talking about the one meal life in France, now I´m leaving a one meal life in Argentina--all the food for the day in one meal, it´s different, but fun. Also, there is a siesta after lunch. During these couple of hours we don´t prosalyte, but we practice the language, we serve, we plan, or other things like that.

A fun story, yesterday, Elder Beresay and I went to an evengelical church in the evening. We wanted to share our beliefs and testify to this congregation, kind of like Wilfurd Woodruf or the Sons of Mosiah. Elder Beresay asked the Pastora, ¨could we have a little minute to talk and share our beliefs?¨ A resounding no was the answer. We were a little sad, but Elder Beresay said, ¨Maybe they´ll let us sing.¨ We were  given permission to sing. The meeting was loud, all the music and worship was very loud, and we both prayed to be filled with the spirit. It was actually a neat experience, when the meeting was almost over, they turned the time over to us. We sang nearer my god to thee. It was so quiet, so peaceful compared to the guitars and drums, we could hear the crickets outside in the peaceful calm. We left and I learnded once again that the Spirit isn´t in the storm or in the fire, but in a still small voice.

I have to go.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

Saturday the 10th.

This week has gone so well. I've learned a lot and felt the Spirit powerfully.

The snow is falling heavily outside (it's been snowing since yesterday.) The Mountains are so beautiful in the snow, and the whole MTC looks beautiful in its winter covering. Most of the sidewalks are covered, which makes it safer for us and easier for the shoveling crews.

I fell very blessed with my companero, Elder Bishop. One of the companionships has been having a very tough time (in fact, today I'm on temporary splits with one of the elders while they wait to work out their differences with the Branch President tonight.)

It's sad because they're both good missionaries, but they've just had a hard time adjusting with each other.

Last Sunday was fast Sunday, and one of the happiest Fast Sundays I can remember. Our branch is a Spanish advanced/intermediate branch and last Sunday I understood 95% (okay, well maybe only 87%) of what the native Spanish speakers said (well, maybe even 87% is too generous) but I understood a lot, more than ever before. It was nice to know I was learning Spanish. I know it's the gift of tongues. Preach My Gospel says the Gift of Tongues (like all spiritual gifts, I think,) comes as we work diligently to receive it. I'm so grateful that my insignificant and blundering efforts to learn Spanish have been rewarded with such wonderful blessings.

Another tender mercy was revealed to me on Sunday. My companion stood and bore his testimony. He told of the struggles he'd been having adapting to the MTC, his feeling of inadequacy and personal doubts (none of which I knew about) and about how the Lord had helped him overcome his fears. For some reason the Spirit touched me and I learned a lesson: It's important to love and support your companion all the time; he's fighting inward battles that I have no idea about. I was grateful for the Spirit which had helped me show love and patience and support which he'd needed when I had no idea. It made me want to constantly be striving to be more patient and loving with my companion.

I have an awesome story about my Spanish: On Sunday I was teaching Sister Perez (from Honduras) how to lead music. I don't think I told you but I've been called as the Branch Music Coordinator, which entails choosing someone to play and lead the music on Sundays and to teach each district how to lead the music. Anyway, I tried to explain some musical term to Hermana Perez in my broken-at-best Spanish, and completely failed. It was fairly funny, especially for her I bet it sounded hilarious how I conjugated, misplaced words, added nonsensical words, and lost important ones. She bean to laugh – really hard – and said, "Please, please, talk in English. It hurts my ears." She was joking, but in fact I wasn't offended at all. For me it signified a great miracle that will take place. Me, with my painfully poor Spanish, will be able to go to Argentina and become a tool for the Lord. It was kind of like when Gideon sent his last troops home – it was all in the hands of the Lord then, and my Spanish is all in the hands of the Lord now.

Thank you so much for your letters, they make me smile! Good luck with violin, Mom! I know you'll do well. I'd better go change my laundry. The gospel is powerful. It is the Power of God unto salvation – unto becoming like God.

I love you!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds.

PS I lost 12 pounds – maybe it was from cutting back on my servings from 3 – 2.

(He had earlier said he'd gained about ten pounds.)