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