Post Office Miracles

This week was another good one! Last pday we had the chance to go to the Color Factory with the east side sisters! We took tons of pictures and it was a good time! We also went to a sushi place after, and anyone who knows me knows I hate sushi😅 but now I don't haha. I actually really liked the sushi and I think the mission has changed me when it comes to foods I like and don't like. 

We also were able to meet with some cool people this week! We had lots of member lessons so that was good and we are starting to get to know some of the ward finally. We got to actually have a lesson with a guy we pass on the street all the time as well! We have passed him a million times and always kind of talked about the Gospel, but we were able to set up a real lesson with him this week! We aren't sure how engaged and interested he is yet, but it was good to have an actual lesson with him! We met with our amazing friend Megan and started teaching The Gospel of Jesus Christ and she came to church and loved it! After church she said she really wants to keep coming and that she knew it was where God wanted her to be. She also had an amazing fellowshipper at church so we're super grateful for that! 

Thursday morning we were at the post office because I had somethings to do and Sister Rasband was just there so she wasn't waiting in line with me and she had this guy walk up to her and say, "Elder?" She explained to him that she was a Sister but same idea and he said he used to meet with Elders and they just quit coming and he wasn't even able to get baptized. It was a super huge miracle because we were like 20 minutes earlier than we actually needed to be and he was heading out when we got there. 

Church was good yesterday for sure because of Megan, but we also had another friend named Elaine come! She is someone we have been doing service with and we gave her a church and art tour a few weeks ago, but promised us she would come to church, so she did yesterday! We aren't sure how interested she is in coming again or really meeting with us but she had a really good experience at church! 

We also have a friend named Cathy who we were helping prepare for Baptism who moved back to Colorado a few weeks ago and she was baptized last night! We were able to watch over zoom which was awesome and we are so happy for her! She is planning to move back to New York in a few months so we are excited to help teach her the recent convert lessons! 

Spiritual Thought: 

Alma 42:29

"29 And now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance." 

I really liked this scripture when I read it this week. I think it's so important that we are troubled by our sins, because that's what allows and helps us want to repent. But after we repent is when we need to not let them trouble us! The Atonement of Jesus Christ is there for us and when we truly repent the Lord remembers our sins no more and we need to do the same for ourselves. I invite all of you who may struggle holding onto things of the past, to remember them no more and know that the Atonement is there for you! ❤

Love you all, have the best week! 

**Pictures:

1. Color Factory! 

2. Some cake that our friend Megan brought us! 

3.Sesame street! 

4.There are rats everywhere here😂

Hurricane?

Last Monday we went to the MET! It was pretty cool, but we didn't get through like even half of the museum because there's so much to see and we didn't have enough time. We also got some pizza at Mamas with a few of the other sisters! 

We were able to meet with our most progressing friend Megan this week so that was good! We taught her the plan of salvation and she loved it! She was also planning to come to church but we had a hurricane warning so sadly church was moved to zoom. So yesterday we didn't leave the apartment all day and it rained all day. 

There also was a wedding reception at our church and we were invited to go and eat some Olive Garden so that was probably the best thing that happened this week, I love Olive Garden! 

We decided one day to go on the roof of the apartments by the temple because we heard that a lot of missionaries have gone up there. It's 37 floors, so that was pretty sweet and had a way good view of the whole city! 

That's about all that happened this week! 

Spiritual thought... 

This week as I was reading in Alma this verse is one that I loved! 

Alma 26:16 

"16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel."

Have a good week! Love you all! 

Sister Reynolds (:

**Pictures:

1.The MET

2.Temple apartments roof top view

3. My name in Japanese! 

4. Us getting rained on.

                                        

Locked Out🙄

This week was a little tough. We had 2 of our friends drop us within 2 days. One of them, the first lesson we met with her mentioned that she really wanted to be baptized! So the next lesson we had, we had a member present and it was a super good lesson and we put her on date because we felt like it was right. She was super excited and so ready to keep meeting with us so she could be baptized next month. We gave her a Book of Mormon too and she was super excited to start reading. 20 minutes after the lesson she texted us and said she can't meet with us anymore and can't be "baptized mormon". It was super sad, but hopefully she'll have the desire to meet with missionaries again soon 🙏 Then yesterday we had one of our friends we were trying to help come to church tell us that she had talked to her sister about it and would keep us in mind but was going to stick to Jehovah Witnesses for now...

But the Lord has brought us miracles! Last night I had someone from my mtc district tag me in a post for someone looking for missionaries in our area and the person seems super interested! We also called a former last night who had previously sent missionaries a text saying that he was clearly not interested, but we decided to call him and he said he couldn't talk. We ended up texting him and this morning he texted back and said he is going through a lot but has been praying everyday and is sorry for what he said to the missionaries before and would want want meet again. The Lord really does know his children❤

We also had a miracle this week when we locked ourselves out of our apartment, and not because we didn't have the key 🤦‍♀️ Sister Rasband and I do service and we have carts we use to do it, but we have to switch them with the elders so they can use them as well. We didn't want to forget the carts so Sister Rasband put one of them leaned on the front door so we wouldn't forget to take it to the elders. Then we decided we wanted to go on the roof of our apartment for personal study because we had been told some of the other sisters have, but when we left we let the cart fall back onto the door so when we got back from the roof, our door only opened a few inches. We tried everything we could think of to get the cart off of the door knob, but it wouldn't move. So I eneded up climbing the fire escape and prayed that our window was unlocked 😂 it ended up being unlocked and we made it in, but it was an adventure for sure! The fire escape was a little sketchy, but I'm grateful we were able to get back in!

We also had exchanges this week and I got to exchange with my trainer sister Barnum! And we had zone conference this week which is always super good!

Spiritual thought for the week...
Alma 11:24
"24 Believest thou that there is no God? I say unto you, Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but thou lovest that lucre more than him."

Are you in your life more focused on the things of the world? I invite all of you to assess your lives and take those things that are distracting you from the Lord and His Gospel out so you can more fully focus on the Lord ❤.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Reynolds (:

Pictures!
1. Exchanges!
2 . Another picture of the temple!
3. Central park and the city

Manhattan Week #1

 This week was a tiring, but good one! My new companion is Sister Rasband! And yes she is related to Elder Rasband so that's pretty cool! This week we had fun on the subways and trying to figure out how to find people to teach on them 😅 we also have been trying to get to know our people here as well as all the members. The wards here are huge and there are always so many visitors so that makes it even harder, but hopefully we'll be able to start getting to know people!

We met a few of our friends this week and the ones we are the most excited about are our friends Megan and Melissa! They are both so prepared to learn and we mentioned baptism to Melissa and she said it may be something on her path so that was great to hear! We also have a friend who is ready for baptism but has to wait until December, so we are excited for him! 

We also don't live too far from Central park so we have been there quite a few times already and it's beautiful! We have been able to be at the temple a lot which has been awesome! 

The other day we went to the YSA activity and I ran into the one and only McCall Andersen so that was super fun! It's been so different to talk to people so close to my age now, I'm so used to talking to older people from being in Staten Island. 😅

I just wanted to share a quick spiritual thought as always. 

Alma 1:26

"26 And when the priests left their labor to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left their labors to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labors; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength." 

I read this verse the 2nd day of training a new missionary and it made me realize that whatever calling we have in the church or even in life, we are all equal regardless of our role and we should do our best to use our strengths for good because they're needed! 

I love you all and hope you have the best week! 

**Pictures!

1. The New York Times! 

2. The globe! 

3. The temple! 

4. McCall! 

5. Trump hotel 😅

Transfers.....Manhattan.....Training.......Blinding in......

This week was a crazy and eventful one for sure! I got a call from President Holmes on Tuesday morning asking me if I would be willing to take an assignment and then the next day I joked with Sister Jensen that we hadn't gotten any unexpected calls and soon after that we started personal study. Not even seconds later my phone starts ringing and it's the AP's... I'm training! So the next day, on Thursday we had to drive to Woodside for the train the trainer meeting which was so good and I learned some things that hopefully will help me be able to help this sweet new missionary. Then on Saturday we found out the transfer news. I figured I would just be staying here in Staten Island to train but I am blinding into an area in Manhattan! I'm super nervous, but excited because I will be meeting in the Manhattan Temple chapel for church and I will also be over President Holmes ward I think! So lots of exciting things! The area I am going to is Lincoln Square and is where my trainer, Sister Barnum is currently serving. She will be my STL so that's for sure comforting and I'm gonna need a lot of help from her haha. 

On Tuesday we also had the most powerful district council, the spirit was SO strong. We all shared what we had learned that transfer and had a discussion on prayer. It was cool to be able to hear everyone share their experiences with prayer, and feel the Spirit that strong. 

We also saw the coolest miracle on Wednesday! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but a few weeks ago we went street contacting and ran into this guy who recognized us and started telling us about how he had been to the Sacred Grove and knew a ton about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. We tried to get his number but he wouldn't let us and we didn't leave him with a pass along card, so we were kind of kicking ourselves after we left the park for not doing more. But on Wednesday we were supposed to meet another friend at that park and he ended up wanting to meet us at the mall instead but we were already at the park so we decided to street contact before heading to the mall to meet our friend. Not even seconds after being at the park we heard someone yell hey from behind us and lone behold, IT WAS LUIS! We were able to talk with him again and get his facebook and he started sharing all of the pictures from his trip to the Sacred Grove and he said he would start reading The Book of Mormon again and we're gonna set up a lesson with him soon! 

We also got to go to a ward BBQ on Saturday which was so nice! Grilled hamburgers are for sure something I missed! 

I also have officially been a missionary here in New York City for 4 months which is super exciting!! 

That's about all for this week, we saw many other miracles and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary here in New York City! 

I just wanted to share another scripture I read this week... 

Mosiah 29:12 

"Now it is better that a man should be judged of God then of man, for the judgements of God are always just, but the judgements of man are not always just." 

This just reminded me that we really should not be judging others, God is the only one who can truly judge righteously and justly and we should leave it up to Him to judge justly. How can you judge others less in your life? 

Love you all and can't wait to tell you about my fun adventures in Manhattan and on the Subway! Please pray for me and my new missionary, we may need all the prayers we can get😂 Have a wonderful week! 

Sister Alison Reynolds (:

**Pictures!:

1.The district! 

This is sadly the only picture I have for this week, but I'm sure I'll have lots next week!