Second and Final Week

This is my last Friday here in America for a while. I’ll miss this country, but I’m excited to see if Canada is any different.
This past week has not been the easiest of weeks; I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but that’s all part of the learning. I will attempt to make the email sound organized, but I will likely just type thoughts as they come to my head.

First of all, our Branch President, President Laney, is a scriptural genius. He can name a verse for almost every sentence he hears. It’s almost inhuman.

My time as the Branch Music Coordinator has been fun, but I am responsible for finding a musical number for sacrament this Sunday, which is difficult, given the fact that nobody in our district has any musical talent, or at least doesn’t want to tell me about their musical talents, so we’ll see how that goes.

Our district was able to go to the Provo temple today, which was a really cool experience.

If you get the chance, I suggest looking up David A. Bednar’s “The Character of Christ.” I’m not sure if it’s on Youtube or anything, but we watched it on Sunday, and it is phenomenal. Also, a good pick-me-up for missionary work is a Youtube video called “Missionary Work and the Atonement.” That really helped me out when I was down.

Yesterday, we had an all-day lesson called “In-Field Orientation,” which was a fun event where we learned how to apply what we learned to the actual mission field. I was able to have a short chat with Brother Christensen, formerly Elder Christensen from “The District 2.” I was also given the chance to be a part of the play at the end of the Orientation; I played a very dry, monotone Elder’s Quorum President with no facial expressions. Within the context of the show, that character received some of the most laughs; it made me miss doing all those comedies at school.

I am not able to upload pictures from this computer, but I have been taking pictures and will send them once I’m in Canada. I leave Wednesday morning, and I now have everything I need in order to get my visa once I arrive. I’m still very nervous about entering the field, but I’ve come a long way in the past week, so at least I’m not totally unprepared.

Anywho, I’ve never been a man of many words, so I’ll leave it at that and keep everyone posted. My next email will be from Canada!

-Elder Reynolds

(This is a photo of the missionaries at the MTC. The elder on his right (our left) is his companion.)