Meeting Sister Sa Gari for the first time!

            My new companion Sister Sa Gari from Sao Paulo, Brazil

Eu Falo Portuguese :)

Ola! It's Sister Reynders here! So I have a new companion and I love her to death! You would all love her too,  I legitimately love her;) Her name is Sis. Sa Gari from Sao Paulo, Brazil! She is 21 and has been in the MTC for 2 months - poor thing! She is just learning English so our main focus is learning the language. We are learning English via memorizing the facts/history of temple square.  The 12 week program is working well so far. We will take things a little slower because of the language barrier.

Our first time teaching on the square together we did a "God's Plan" tour. It was a group of Christians that are starting a church in this area. I asked Sister Sa Gari  if she would bare her testimony  after the presentation and she said yes. In the middle she leaned over to me and said, "I think we need to ask them why family is important to them". I said ok! So afterwards I asked that and it prompted them to ponder and think. She then bore her testimony in her broken English about how she knew she could be together with her family forever and that even though her dad died 2 years ago she would see him again. The spirit was so strong and because of her testimony it caused a man to think of his own mother who had recently died, and he asked if he would see her again even though he is not a member of our church. It was a great experience and the spirit was strong. 

I am impressed by Sis. Sa Gari's desire  to help others come unto Christ. She continues to work hard to learn English. Even though she doesn't know the English language she DEFINITIVELY knows the language of the Spirit. It is a constant effort to communicate with each other but I by no means feel impatient. I am happy to be her trainer and I know there is a lot I can learn from her. If I was learning Portuguese.....phewy....I'd be dying! So that is why I have no problem taking care of her and teaching her English!

The process of how they give us our new companions is really fun. All the new Sisters stand on one side of the room and we are on the other. One by one come the new Sisters come down and tell the whole group what they want to learn from their trainer:) She said, "to learn English." Then they describe their trainer until everyone can guess who it is. It's fun.

That first day I drove some of them to Wal Mart to get food and then took her home and let her unpack and I went on exchanges and went back to the Square. Poor thing was left alone (kind of, she had to have her apt door open..there were other Sisters home across the hall)

I had made her bed and everything and bought her a treat...haha good ol' granola:) All the other Sisters were making fun of me because I was giving my trainee granola...haha. I remember my first day I had a bunch of candy on my bed.....but hey...I want to start her off healthy!

Yesterday was our "explore" day and so that means I showed her everyplace possible on Temple Square. It was fun because it was a Thursday which is the day Mo Tab practices in the Conference Center.  We got to go to that and it was so awesome because they were practicing for their special "Pioneer Day" performance with some fancy guest lady from Wales! Anyways...it was great!

So we are having a lot of fun together and I will send you some pictures:)  I am going to take her to some of the summer concerts in the park they have because our pdays are Fridays.

Ok well I am going to go now, bye.

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Reynders

One of my kindred spirits from the day long tour group - we became real pals!

New Assignment

"Alright Sister Reynders, your are next.  Your companion is a nice girl and... SHE'S COMING FROM THE MTC!!" (Roars of cheering and excitement from my fellow Zone members)  "Your new assignment will be training .  You will living in DA 216 (same place) and you are in Zone South 1 and your district leader is Sis. Lupashka!"

BOY DOES IT FEEL GOOD TO HAVE TRANSFER CONFERENCE OVER WITH!  I was so worried about it. I don't know why, I just kept telling myself, "Trust in the Lord, Trust in the Lord!" I want you to know that I am so excited to be training! I am a little nervous because I think I am a little scatter brained but hopefully she can help me out with that! I am so excited to learn and grow from this experience! Change is so good, so I am grateful to be training! Last night I really got NO sleep! I couldn't sleep...I knew this was coming....I knew I was training and I was freaking out but I feel calm now.

So my P-day is now on Friday, so I'll be writing again Friday:)  On Wednesday all the new Sisters will be arriving and I won't find out who my companion is till after Pres. Gillett and AP's interview them all and we meet all together. Pres. told me that training is a sacred trust from him and the Lord.

What I learned from this transfer was how to rely on the Lord for everything and to love your companion!  I kept a prayer in my heart always and  I know I was doing what the Lord would have me say and do.  This has brought a lot of peace and happiness in this last transfer . I am grateful for my Savior and all He has done for me. I am grateful for my testimony and that I have the knowledge that I can rely on him! Thank the Heavens!  I really feel at peace with all the changes that are going on and I finally feel part of the team here on Temple Square!

This past week the Hospitality Bus Tours have been great! We had the opportunity to take a group around who were from Tennessee from 10 am to 6:30 pm. We did everything possible on Temple Square and ate at 2 different restaurants. By the end the people were exhausted and we were exhausted but we become their friends! I hope they saw us as representatives of Jesus Christ. I believe that there were many that I associated with in the life before and many I will associate with here after.   Oh, and the  bus driver gave me a full on bear hug!

While we were in the Chapel in the JSMB one of the tourists ask me if I had pioneer heritage in the Mormon faith.  I  had the opportunity to share the story of my great, great, great, (hope that's enough "greats") Grandmother Mary Elizabeth Rollins, who saved important revelations and documents of the church as she hid from a mob in a corn field. I bore my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ and the role he's played in my family heritage.

We are struggling with having progressing investigators but I feel things will change as I have the added faith of my new trainee this next week.

As Elder Holland said when he came and visited us last transfer conference "Your mission experience is the closest experience you will have of doing what I do on a daily basis. It the closest you will come to an apostolic mission." May you and I both continue in the Faith and trust in our Savior Jesus Christ and continue to do this great work!

Hurrah For Israel

Sis. Reynders

In the Middle

Wow, Here I am again...TIME GOES SO FAST!!! I don't want to get old! Is this how fast life goes for the rest of my life???? When people ask me how long I've been out...my response is, "I am in the middle"...thanks Elder Uchtdorf.  I was taking a Hospitality Bus Tour this week and the Bus Tour Guide and I got talking and she said something that I think will stick with me for a while. "Life is like a roll of Toilet paper.....It goes faster as you get closer  to the end!" (She was an older, bleach blond, smoker, cowgirl, southern accent, tour guide lady and she was great.)

Oh, so the 4th of July was so fun.  All the Sisters dressed in their red, white and blue clothes. Surprisingly there were a lot more people on the square than I thought there would be on this holiday.  But I was glad there were people to share the gospel with.  At around 8pm the Sisters gathered in the SVC where we partook of the traditional American summer foods...AKA hot dogs and such. Then we all went to the 27th Floor of the Church Office Building and Pres. Gillette and His wife and the AP's had put together a program for us. We went through the history of some of the hymns and old traditional American (patriotic) songs and we all had our Hymn books and would sing one verse of each song.....except "Scripture Power" of course....we did that one a couple times. It was funny because President went on this whole tangent about "down beats" and conducting music...so we all learned how to conduct music. He got a cane and would hit the ground on EVERY down beat.....ahhh good ol' Pres. Gillette. Afterwards we watched the fireworks from the 27th floor but to be honest I didn't do much fire work watching...I was a bit preoccupied hanging with the gang B.E.R.K.(Beller, Eliotte, Reynders, Kyle). It was fun to be able to hang out with them and we've since added souls to our group -  Sister Nixion and Brickley.  Anyways, we were way too hyper for our own good. We started "putting on a show" because there was a mic. We had an announcer and Sis. Brickley did some Mormon rapping and the finale  was the Battle Hymn of the Republic that we performed in Sacrament meeting in the MTC.  Good times:)

We have  had 5,211 souls come through hospitality bus tours in the last two months!  WOW! It keeps us busy but they are so fun. We see so many miracles! I believe the way we teach on Hospitality Bus tours is inspired. It is a lot more warm and welcoming, and the people are so much more receptive to the gospel when they don't feel like they aren't preached to. We just share a lot of history and stories and they ask the questions. We have people all the time saying, if I ever see your missionaries I will invite them in!

It is soooo funny/fun to see pictures our investigators send to us from their baptism. We have been teaching them over the phone for months so we can only imagine what they look like as we talk to them. Boy, I am always way off!

I finally decided to pass off for driving.  I have been avoiding it for so long but I just felt that I should because there are a lot of international Sisters that can't drive that want to go places.

Oh I saw Neil Boyer and it was fun I haven't seen him for years!

Life is Good. I am Happy. I find confidence by trusting in the Lord and aligning my will with his.

I am A Mormon.

Cheerfully do then stand still.

Hurrah For Israel.

Sister Reynders.

                    A visit from my friend Teerah Lopez from BYUI.

 The Dream Team -  Hospitality Bus Tour  coordinators and Elder and Sister Moore

                                                                  The Gang!

                                                   My bedroom wall.

A Visit From Robert and the Schwendiman Family