Beautiful Raven Black

So....once upon a time I got very bored with my hair. My companion kept putting all these notions of a beautiful chocolate auburn color in my mind so I bought some dye and my hair turned out great! Mostly a lighter brown with a hint of red....yeah! I was happy but I did notice that because I have so much hair not all of it got covered with the dye.  So I bought one more box just to fix it up a bit. Well they didn't have the exact color I needed but I thought this reddish brown dye would be just fine.  Now I want you to picture in your heads the scene from "Anne of Green Gables" when she’s lying in her bed with her newly dyed green hair plastered to her face with sweat and tears. "The peddler on the street told me it would turn my hair a beautiful raven black,” she cried!  This was me at 11 pm on Saturday night. I just sat looking in the mirror at my fiery red roots and cried! I looked like Ariel!  I had church the next day and it was the Sabbath so there would be no way to even try to make a change till Monday.  I didn't know what to do! So I cut some fabric out of my sweat pants and made a nice thick bandanna....I have never felt so humiliated in my life!  I couldn't make eye contact with people. The worse part of it all is despite my bandanna to cover my hair I did not have a bandanna to cover my SOUL! Try as I may, I could not fake it on the Square! I wanted to help people come closer to Christ.  I truly tried but the "Annie orphan hair" really just made every contact a pit of misery.  But the blessings came through even though my heart hurt because of my hair dilemma. We taught 9 guests and 12 members and received 2 referrals! Anyway, sweet Sister Palmer (one of the senior missionaries) had some brown hair dye and with the help of Sister Chamberlain (another senior missionary who is a hair dresser) they were able to get my hair to a normal auburn. So in the end my hair is still weird to me....but I look normal.  I know you're all on pins and needles wanting to see my hair n'all but....sadly I have no pictures for you this week...sorry.  This is why dying your hair on your  mission is a bad idea....it gets you side tracked into thinking more about what’s on your head than what's in it. The end

Despite my "depths of despair" experience I have never been so happy in my life. I love every moment of this experience! I feel so close to my Savior and feel honored to share his love and message with people every day! EVERY DAY! HOW COOL IS THAT! EVERYNIGHT!  EVERY SECOND OF MY LIFE! I love it!!!!!!!!!! I live and breathe thinking, "How can I help others come unto Christ?" 

As missionaries we leave our fears on the "sacrificial" alter and open our mouths with everyone. There are times when we don't open our mouths at all times in all places...sometimes it’s our timid personality, or the fear of people mocking our beliefs, or just plain laziness...but no matter what the reason is it’s never good enough. It never outweighs the Saviors command, "At all times and all places he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump both day and night." And  he promises if we do "and I will give unto him strength such is not known among men!" (DC 42:12) What a blessing it is to put my desires aside and be a missionary, a representative of Jesus Christ, and proclaim that all can find happiness and peace through our Savior! How grateful I am for his infinite atoning sacrifice.

This week I experienced my first group of “anti's”.  I have had individual anti's here and there but I hadn't had a group on a tour yet. Of course they hid their true intentions until later in the tour when they knew they had us cornered. It was tough because my companion is new in the language but I could feel her prayers.  I felt they were "friends of other faiths" (aka anti Mormons) right from the beginning so we told them, "We will not get into any bickering and fighting as we show you around. You may ask us questions and we will show you around and share with you some of history and basic beliefs of our church." When things started to get more crazy towards the end...(they were sneaky and kept pushing us a little harder and harder... next time we'll leave earlier) we just said we are sorry we can't answer your questions. Sadly a member came up to me and got into the tour and was like, “Let me help these Sisters answer your questions.” Bad idea..............it turned into craziness.  Sweet sister Sa Gari bore a powerful testimony and we left. It was a tough situation but it helped me appreciate the character of Jesus Christ. I felt sensitive to the spirit and when it was there and when it wasn't. 

Time is out and I don't have time to do a closing to this letter. Sorry..haha well....write me. Peace!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

-Sister Reynders

 A Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints