It can only go up from here...

Hey guys!!

Sister Reynolds and Davis are alive and semi well here in Urbana. The weather has been crazy, it was 60 degrees on Saturday and 28 degrees yesterday, and I think it's playing tricks on our bodies. We have both been fighting off nasty colds on and off, but we've had a few days to lay low and not go too crazy so hopefully recovery will come. Besides the achy muscles and coughing we have actually had an AMAZING couple of weeks here in the Great Ohio Land.

It all started with a wake up call from President Daines and Sister Daines last Monday. They began our missionary meeting with a call to repentance. President talked about the importance of helping the people we teach understand the need for repentance, and the repentance process made possible by the atonement of Jesus Christ. He admonished us to look for ways that we could continue to repent and come closer to Christ daily. Then he smiled at us and said, "Well it's Monday morning, I dragged you out of bed early, I took away your preparation day, and you have already been called to repentance for the week! It can only go up from here Elders and Sisters!!" Gotta Love him. He is not afraid to be bold with us, and always chases his bold declarations with a quick pick me up. The rest of the meeting was full of rapid fire trainings on how to find people to teach. We spent 3 hours role playing with each other on how to talk to strangers, it was very entertaining. It's funny exactly how many social skills we lose when we step off the plane with our official missionary tags on. Some of the more funny practices included lines like:

-Two Sisters pretended to play volleyball and some Elders approached them. Elder Taggart started off the conversation with "How long have you been playing volleyball?" Then President interrupted and said "Why is it ALWAYS how LONG have you played? Nobody cares how LONG, try again!" Then Elder Taggart saw that one of the sisters was "holding

the volleyball" and he tried "Is that a volleyball?" 😂😂😂 President quickly took the microphone and said, "You've been told all of your life that you are winners, you've never lost anything, and your parents told you that there are no dumb questions... Elders and Sisters, there are no winners and losers in life, you only fail if you give up, and THAT was a stupid question!"

-one set of Elders pretended to play catch and another set approached them. Elder Davis then asked "Do you come to this park often?" That earned an eye roll from president, then the elders explained they were brothers playing catch. Then president jokingly added "How Long have you been brothers?"

And sooooooooooooo many more awkward conversations and dumb questions...

Then  we spent 1 hour setting goals for the week. We set goals on how many people we would contact in the week, how many lessons we would teach, how many times we would invite people to be baptized, how many people we would help come to church, and some others. Then we had to report the goals we set, and yesterday we had a follow up meeting

where we accounted for our results. While we were sitting the goals, Sister Davis and I really focused on making it an inspired process. In Preach my Gospel, it talks about how goals should be the desires of our hearts and a reflection of what we can do with the Lord on our side. Because we focused on this, we walked out of the building confidently knowing that Heavenly Father was going to help us accomplish our goals. We set contacting goals that would stretch us, because neither of us are the most talkative Sisters on the block, and focused on talking to EVERYONE and their cute dogs❤️ (Random side note; I got to pet 5 pugs this week. I miss you El Vira!! 😘) We were able to meet some really interesting people... Angie just moved here from Springfield. We found her while looking for a former investigator I had a nagging spiritual impression to go visit all week. She was very nice and open with us. She has also already interacted with some lovely members of our church in Chilicothe. We talked about the Book of Mormon, baptism and she invited us back to

come talk about the church. She is looking for a church here in Urbana and the spirit is going to help her find the right one!!

Bud was swingin on his porch swing on Saturday. He had my favorite reaction when we asked him about baptism. He gave this jolly laugh/shriek thing and said in his 80 year old voice, "Of Course!! I wouldn't be talking to two young respectable church ladies if I hadn't have been baptized!!" He was cute! We also ran into Theresa on the street, she saw us and yelled for us to come over. She told us how she had been studying the" Book of the Mormons" before and she asked if we needed anything. We had a really fun conversation and she told us to come holler at her if we were ever

in trouble in Urbana. Jeff was outside with his friend Bill and Tanya when we stopped to have a conversation with him. Tanya was going to be late for work and Bill had dropped a fuse somewhere under the hood while he was trying

to help her fix her car. Jeff immediately began to tell us his whole life story while Tanya and Bill were struggling over the car laughing and swearing. I let Sister Davis handle Jeff's life story while I tried to distract and serve Bill and Tanya. I helped Bill and Tanya find the fuse and talked to Bill about church. He was kind of drunk and spent most of the time laughing but he was a good guy. Sister Davis taught Jeff about the plan of salvation and invited him to church, and the whole time Tanya just wanted her poor car fixed. It was an interesting but fun 20 minutes on railroad street. Hopefully we get to go back and see Jeff again sometime soon!

We also made it out to Plain City for some Amish food this week! One of our amazing less active families in the church offered to take us after we stopped by to meet them last week. We got along really well, tried to help them bring the spirit back into the home, and even got the kids to church this Sunday. In return Sister Logan bought us sooooooooo much food, we got rolls, doughnuts, ham, cheese, and a night at the Amish buffet. It was delicious! We also got to hold their puppies who are just barely 1 month old. They are SOOO cute. I am excited to continue to work with the Logans and help them get their family sealed in the temple!!

We worked hard all week, and on Sunday when we were putting our totals in Sister Davis laughed and said, "Why can't every week be like this?" I laughed right back and said" I think that's what President is trying to tell us! In the end we ended up reaching and exceeding most of our goals. We had solid contacts with over 70 people, found so many new investigators, and taught so many lessons. It was a week full of fun solid energizing work and we were excited to see so many miracles.

I learned a lot about goal setting this week. I think in the beginning of my mission I though goals were just nice high numbers that we would maybe hit if we were exactly obedient and did all we could but probably wouldn't reach. This week I learned that goals can be much more than numbers, or ideas. They are our hopes and dreams and if we are working for them earnestly with Heavenly Father we can accomplish them. Goals are ways of measuring progress. They can help us stretch and push us to become what Heavenly Father wants us to become, not just what we think we can do. Take some time this week to set some meaningful, INSPIRED goals for yourself. Have a one on one with God and talk about what you need to work on to align your will with his. Then make plans and go accomplish those goals!! In the Book of Mormon

Heavenly Father admonishes us, "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." (Mosiah 4:27) The way to find that order is to work with him to set goals and make plans to accomplish them!! Goals are great, go out and accomplish them!

Well it's a long one today. Sorry for the rambling, it was just a great week full of great people, and fun times. I hope everyone is living life and loving it!!!

Love ya 😘

✌🏻️Sister Reynolds✌🏻️