The Garbage Man in the sky, and the Bible Thumper on the streets

Life is great! There has been so much good and so many miracles in them Great Urbana Land this week. I will try and fit it all into one short email, but no promises. #miraclescallforrambling

We have had a few really great meetings over the past few weeks and our meeting on last Wednesday was no exception. We really didn't learn anything different. There was no new doctrine, no crazy new ideas, but my preparation was a lot different. I've really come to appreciate the value of preparation. A five minute prayer, or even one hour of study

can make a 3 hour meeting so much more engaging and it opens your mind to new revelation not just what is being said. You spend more time interacting and being molded, than trying to comprehend ideas. Having questions that I want answered also helps me pay attention to the specific ideas that will help me the most, and listen to what the Lord

wants me to hear. Moral of the story, take some time to prepare for church, or even for your next lecture. Miracles and revelation come from preparation. I learned a lot about myself and it was cool to feel the Lord work with me and change up my brain. I had a reconciling with God, admitted I couldn't do life on my own, and he took my weaknesses made them strong and gave me Strength to fill in the gaps. Life is better when you do it his way (See Matt 11:28-30) So after my spiritual awakening and renewed vigor and zeal, we got a lot of work done. We taught two amazing first lessons to the cutest elderly ladies. We met Rita knocking on doors about a week ago. Last Thursday we met with her. She has been church hopping for her whole life, and admitted she didn't see much difference between the Christian churches. I love when we have answers to people's questions. We were able to explain that phenomenon, and also tell her that the church Jesus Christ established is on the earth again. We don't have to wander, or guess which one is most right. His church is here and we can know if we will read the Book of Mormon. She was very open to the Book of Mormon, and said she would be baptized if she came to know it is true. We set her up to listen to it on CD and we are following up with her this evening. She also got along great with our favorite member of our congregation, Sister Santos, who we brought to help us teach. It was cool to see someone who has been prepared for so Long and we are excited to teach her more! On our way home we made an inspired bathroom stop.(The Lord works in mysterious ways) and we ran into Sue. She was outside the gas station we stopped at, and she had an ADORABLE puppy so we had to stop! As we talked we let her know that God loved her and if she ever needed help she could call us. She asked if we wanted to visit with her right then. We were able to sit down with her and help her understand how the power of the atonement can help us overcome all of our trials, even addictions. We taught her about the Restored Gospel, and she invited us to come back on Friday with a copy of the BiBle and Book of Mormon marked with scriptures that will help her overcome her habits. It was cool to see the spirit soften her heart and watch her accept our help.

Other random miracles of the week include referrals, or people to go see, from the sky. Ok, they actually came from a member of the Springfield ward who moved to Provo, UT, but he called us to give them to us so they were basically from the cell phone signals in the sky. He gave us two of his friends he wanted us to chat with in Urbana. We were able to do some service for them and talk to them both. They also both invited us back to hear more about the Restored Gospel. It

reminded me that sometimes we get stuck in a bubble gum machine mentality. We think , I am working hard at this and I want to achieve this goal, so Heavenly Father will help me do that in this way. I want a bubble gum ball, so I will put in a quarter and then get a bubble gum ball. What we forget is that His plans are not our plans. He knows our goal and will help us get there, but we have to be willing to do it his way. When we set a goal to help one person be baptized in June, and we do all we can to accomplish it, we may assume that we will find someone behind one of the doors we are knocking on, but maybe Heavenly Father prompted a random guy to call us and give us names instead and those people will be baptized. Heavenly Father didn't make it easy but he did make it possible and as long as we are putting ourselves out

there, doing all we can, he will make it happen. Funny moments of the week included our Sunday School lesson on Faith in Jesus Christ yesterday. The Elders taught it, and because they are Elders they explained the concept of having faith by comparing Jesus to a Garbage Man, or Sanitation Engineer. They talked about how we wouldn't put our trash out if we didn't have faith that the Garbage Man would come pick it up. Also, if we had faith he would pick it up, but we didn't put it in a place where he could grab it, he couldn't pick it up. Jesus wants to make all of the garbage (sin, anxiety, troubles, stinky things) out of our lives, but we have to act and trust him and put it all on the curb for him. It works, but it was

definitely one of the weirder analogies I've seen so far 😜 Also, yesterday we were trying to find our last door to knock on when we ran into one of our local elderly bible thumpers Carl. We stopped him and asked him about his Sabbath, he promptly assured us he thoroughly enjoyed church that morning. Then he asked us how we got involved in missionary work. He proceeded to laugh at us and tell us we were very misguided and criticized our belief in the Jo Smith man. We talked to him about the purpose of Prophets. He just kept giggling and reminding us that we just need to follow Jesus. We tried every explanation we could, testified, and he still remained skeptical. Finally he thanked us, but warned us that we needed to see the light. He left us with a prayer. Now, I've had people pray with me. I've had people pray For me to find the truth. But Carl, he prayed against us. Whatever that means 😜 gotta love 'em

The Spiritual Thought of the week comes from my personal spiritual awakening experience. After our awesome meeting I was writing in my journal and reflecting on life. While I had decided I wanted to work A LOT harder, and push myself even more, every ounce of tiredness was gone from my brain and body. Instead of feeling dragged down by the weight of the work I had in front of me, His Grace made me feel strong. It seemed easier to do things His way, even though I set myself up to do a lot more work. I remembered a scripture I read one Tuesday during personal study, Matthew 11:28-30

28 ¶Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

And then I had one of those moments where the scriptures actually come to life. It all clicked in my brain and in my heart and it just was great. I learned for myself that Christ's way will always be the Best way. We can have a lot of good ideas, plans, and goals, but the moment we turn ourselves over to him is the moment where we are filled with strength.

I know that Christ loves us. I know that His Grace is available to all of us if we just look to Him and Live. I know His church is on the earth. I know that the way we get closer to Him is by making covenants. I Know that The Book of Mormon will get us closer to God than any other book on the Earth right now. I know that we can all feel of his love as we read it and I hope you all feel of His Love on a daily basis.

✌🏻️Sister Reynolds✌🏻️

1) Sacred Grove of Ohio Moments

2)Ohio Sunsets for the win

3)Weekly Planning Selfies

4)we try to look professional sometimes #meetingsfordayzzzz

5)Stop and Smell the Roses

6) Summer is HERE ✌🏻️❤️☀️

Pics of the Week