Blessed for Christmas

Dear family and friends, 
 

It was great to Skype with my family on Christmas Day! The rest of our week was ok. We taught people on Friday but all the other days we didn't teach. It was like literally everyone wasn't home but it's all good this week should be better hopefully.  

 

We are working with 7 investigators right now! One of our investigators is really progressing! He has a baptismal date for the 19th of January and he brought a friend to church it was pretty cool! 

 

I did finally get your Birthday Card and gift card and the letter from Aunt Annette's family. Thank you to everyone for thinking of me. I received many Christmas cards and letters some with treats as well and they were all definitely appreciated!

 

So I have a weird story for you. We had this lady walk up to us and she gave us these suckers that were like kind of caramel. But anyway she yells out mis bebitos mis bebitos my babies she did say that in English and then she walks off it was really funny.  

 

Well that's it for this week. Thank you again to everyone for all your support!

 

Love,

Elder Reisner

Missionary Christmas

Hola-

I got your Christmas package and I opened it, thank you for the giant Reeses and candy! I really loved all of the personal letters that you sent as well. We had our mission party on Friday and it was cool. We had good talents and we participated by doing a skit. It was a missionary parody of The District, John Tanner and Only a Stonecutter. We didn't really have time to practice but people said we did good!

This week was pretty good. My companion is doing good and we are getting along well. This week we found a lot but didn't teach much. None of our investigators came to church and we almost had to drop one of our investigators.

Anyways, I love all of you!

Elder Reisner

Last transfer!

Dear family and friends-

 

I didn't get transferred!  I'm staying right here yay! My companion did get transferred he went to Pomona. My new companions name is Elder Giddens. He is the new District Leader they called for this area. They want me to train him to be a District Leader. He has been on the mission for 9 months.

 

If you have a letter or card that you want to send for my birthday or Christmas just sent it to the mission office. I actually forgot that my birthday is this month! HA HA!! I think the Mission President sent the new address to dad.

 

I heard that the Mission President e-mailed all the missionary parents about Christmas. I bet that lots of Elders got a bunch of inappropriate items last year which is pretty sad. I will definitely pray for dad's speedy recovery.

 

Let's see this last week we found 3 new investigators like in 2 days! But then the rest of the week we didn't really find or teach. We were able to get all our recent converts ready to receive the Priesthood so that was pretty cool!! We also are having a lot of member present lessons. We have an awesome Ward Mission Leader and an awesome ward and well that's really it! The new investigators we found look good. They are a few brothers and a lady who has cancer. She has a fear of churches though so we'll see what we can do there.

 

How's the Christmas Season at home? It's like 50's and 40's over here and I'm FREEZING!!! I think I'm really sensitive to the cold now!

 

Love, Elder Reisner

What a Thanksgiving!

Dear Mom-

All is well in Zion. Love, Elder Reisner :-)  (Imagine my surprise when this was the only e-mail I thought I was getting this week!)

HAHA just kidding! I am really tired so this e-mail may not be so long but to answer your questions;  Our investigators are doing good except we had to drop some people. The lost dog people have fell off the radar. Yes, both hermanos got baptized last week and we confirmed them on Sunday! My favorite family that we baptized last month are still good. I can't ever leave them! When I do I will cry for reals! I don't want to Skype you for Christmas because you'll see me a month after. (That has been changed and he will be Skyping us for Christmas!)  Transfers are this week so we will see what happens. This will be my last transfer.

This last week we found some cool people. We found a family that actually speak Spanish! The missionaries were teaching them a year and a half ago and they are basically members. We just need to help them follow through with the important ordinances! We also found a single guy and he is really cool! He said he would go to church with us on Sunday but unfortunately he didn't show up.

So the family that we baptized we get to still work with them once a week. Our single brother that was just baptized we are working with twice a week. I am glad that we still have the opportunity to have contact with them and help nurture their testimonies.

I ate three Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday! Unfortunately after the second dinner I threw up so the third one was really hard to go down! It wasn't too fun. Now we are entering the tamale season which I love!

In the area that we are in now we are just walking instead of biking or busing because our area is small. It's fun to talk to all the weird people and we found a house that had a guard goose! It was funny!! We just are doing really good. We have a new ward mission leader and ward missionaries so that's pretty cool.

That's pretty much it for this week.

Love, Elder Reisner

Baptizing monthly

Hola to my family and friends!

I am well as we say in Spanish mas o menos but don't worry I will get better it's been a good and bad week.  Our single brother got baptized!!  It was a really great service!! We also remembered to take some pictures so don't worry. There was another hermano that wanted to be baptized that night as well and asked me if I would baptize him. I was really excited to do it for him but then he didn't show up. I found out later there was a big miscommunication so he will have to get baptized later.

The Zone Conference was awesome and I learned so many good things, like talking to everyone and just believe in baptizing monthly. Also that we need to teach shorter lessons and not overwhelm people with too much information too soon! It was just an exciting conference! It was my last one though so I was really sad about that. 

So this week we spent most of it just talking to a bunch of people, finding new people to teach and getting our brother ready for baptism. It was funny though I role played with him how to do the baptism. I told him that I needed to say a prayer before he went under the water and then he said a prayer it was funny!

How's everyone doing over there? What did you learn this week? For Christmas or my birthday I would love to get a hand written letter from anybody who would like to send one to me. If you need my address just ask my mom!!

Love,

Elder Reisner

Happily engaged in the work too busy to write!

Dear family and friends-

 

The couple that we found last week and went to church with us we didn't get to have any contact with them this week. They said they are really busy but we are going to try and go by tonight so we'll see what happens.  

 

The single guy we have been working with is ready to get baptized this Sunday!! It's so awesome!! My camera took a trip down the stairs so it is a good thing that you bought an extended warranty on it. I will try and send it home this week and make sure I buy a disposable camera to take pictures at his baptism!! 

 

This last week we taught a lot more but we didn't find and its because we've been pretty prideful and not trusting in the Lord as much as we should. 

 

Tomorrow is Zone Conference and I am really excited about that!! The bishop in my ward told me that he had a dream about me. He said that I was going to work in the church administration offices so that was cool. I really like him he's really missionary minded!

 

I don't have a lot to write about this week but I hope everyone is doing well!

Love, Elder Reisner

Finding with a dog = great contact!!

Hi everyone!

 

I had a really awesome week! We had an interesting experience we were contacting a referral that we got and all of the sudden this dog comes up to us. So we looked around to try and figure out who he belongs to. We decided to use finding its owner as an icebreaker while we were knocking on doors. We had no luck finding anyone or the dogs owner. We were just going to leave the dog when all of the sudden this lady comes up to us and told us that the dog wasn't going to leave us alone. She told us that when she lived in Mexico her job was to find homes for lost pets. So she helped us find a place to put the dog and then we got talking with her and she said for us to come back the next day! So we did and we thought she was single but when we called her husband answered. He said they could still do the appointment. We taught them an amazing restoration lesson and the spirit was so strong! We invited them to be baptized and they said yes! Oh and get this they said they would come to church on Sunday but all Latinos say yes just to not look bad. But we confirmed with them Saturday night and Sunday and then they came to church! It was awesome!! 

 

So with the Relief Society activity we had last week our area didn't get any referrals but there were a lot for some of the other areas and so that's OK. 

 

I didn't teach the English class this week because we taught the family. We may have to drop our sister investigator because she still cancels all the time and hasn't been to church. The brother that we are working with came to church with us. Things are looking good for his baptism November 24th! We are going to baptize monthly now I am so excited! :-) 

 

On Thanksgiving we will be playing soccer and eating a TON of food! It will be good though and I always look forward to spending time with members and making good contacts when we play soccer!  

 

Also this week we had to speak on Sunday. Every second Sunday they want the missionaries to give a talk. Well nobody was assigned so they said OK now it's time for the missionaries to speak and nobody went up. Then they said missionaries? So I got up with Elder Nielsen and said some words. I had no idea what to say so I really had to be guided by the spirit. Hopefully it was good! Haha anyways I hope you all have a great week!

 

Elder Reisner

Members and Missionaries Working Together!

Hello Everyone!

 

I am doing pretty well. It has been an up and down week. Our recent convert family are still good. They couldn't come to church because their car broke down but they are working on it!  

 

We didn't have English class this last week because we also had a Halloween activity with cute kids and cute costumes! We also had this HUGE Relief Society activity that we had to set up for. It was a lot of work!! The activity was good - we did a play and we sang "Called to Serve" also all of the Hermanas were supposed to bring referrals and investigators and a lot of them did!! So that was really cool!! We have a lot of work ahead!  

 

We are working with a new guy. He hasn't been to church yet but I think he will soon. He is very interested in progressing in the gospel! The single sister that we have been working with kept cancelling on us this week which is always super frustrating. We also taught a man who is pretty staunch Catholic he was a little different and I am not sure that he wants us to teach him anymore but we will see what happens!

 

I can't believe it is November already! All the members are telling me that I am super close to going home but I don't want to think about that right now or at all!!

 

That's pretty much it for this week.

Love, Elder Reisner

Baptism!!

No changes can be good too!

Dear everyone-

 

So transfers were this week and I am staying here with Elder Nielsen! I am glad because I can't leave the  family we just baptized, I love them so much!!!! I am finishing Elder Nielsen's training because it takes 12 weeks. I found out that Elder Mostert who was the first missionary I trained is now the AP here so that is cool! Also, I am still District Leader can you believe it?!

 

One of the investigators that we are working with has a baptism date for the 24th of November! Then this week we found this guy who a member took to church and the first lesson we invited him to be baptized the 24th of November as well and he accepted!!! 

 

I have the pilot program still going for the English class. It was a little rough this last week in class but I talked to the guy who is having me do the class and he gave me some tips for how to do it a little better.  

 

We did have a member of the Seventy come this week. His name is Joseph W. Sitati and he was super cool! He taught about our purpose and he taught it like this:

INVITE others to come unto Christ 

by HELPING them 

RECEIVE the restored gospel through

FAITH in Jesus Christ

REPENTANCE

BAPTISM

RECEIVING the Gift of the Holy Ghost and 

ENDURING to the end.

The capitalized words are the action verbs. We as missionaries and members Invite and Help the investigators and we ask why do we invite? and How do we do it? Well the scriptures tell us how if we read 3 Nephi Chapter 9:20-22; 3 Nephi 27:13-22; Matthew Chapter 28, and JST Matthew 3;43-46 tell us the why and how. I won't share what I know because I want to hear your thoughts before I share mine. I like the scriptures a little bit more in Spanish because it's a little more expressive. Anyone who wants to share your thoughts on these scriptures please feel free to do it and share your responses with my mom.

Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Reisner

 

* Elder Reisner e-mailed me a picture this week but my computer is being weird and says it is too big to download. I will see if Shane can help me share it with you later this week.*

Sweet is the work

Hola to all my family and friends -

This last week we have just been working really hard finding new people to teach. We found a single sister who is a former investigator, She has a four year old child. She has a brother that served a mission and she is really nice! She is from Mexicali and she said she will read pray and go to church to find out about the truth! So yeah she's a really great investigator! We gave her a baptismal date to shoot for this week so we are hopeful that she will keep progressing.

We also had two new  investigators at church so of course that is always exciting!  We also are going to get a new investigator that a member brought to church this last week! So that is cool!

This last week we visited a less active that says it is a commandment from Jesus Christ to feed us! So every time we go over she feeds us! It's pretty funny. We have a seventy coming to speak to us soon! I am super excited about that! Also, transfers are this week I don't want to leave! I know that whatever happens though it is what Heavenly Father wants and so it will be OK.

Love, Elder Reisner

A week full of trials

Hello to all my family and friends-

So this last week was sad with the passing of Elder Page. I didn't know him but he was my companion's companion in the MTC.  We have just been trying to support each other during this tough time. We also had a funeral here in the mission this last week for a hermana that passed away. I did know her and was sad to hear of her passing. I am sure grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that I have the opportunity to teach it and to know that it is true!

So the family that we baptized last week is a family of 6 including the parents. The husband, wife and one of their children were able to be baptized! They have 3 more kids that the dad will be able to baptize when they are 8!! I was super happy for them and it was very spiritual at the baptism it was really great!  The father of the family has been taught by different missionaries since May and the family started in June. I got here in August and things just started to click for them! They are doing so well and they want to start working on their family history so its awesome!!

 We have dropped a lot of investigators this week and we are trying to find like crazy!

General Conference was great!! The things that stood out to me was Elder Ballard's talk about missionary work and also Elder Holland's talk. The other one of course was President Monson's talk! I think the biggest themes were missionary work in the Lords way with members and misisonaries working together. Also,  getting and staying married were the things that really stood out to me.

I haven't been able to get the pilot program going that I have been asked to do. Mostly because of the funeral that we had this week. Hopefully we can get it going this week.

I  love you all - thanks for the prayers!

Love, Elder Reisner    

Baptisms are amazing!

Dear family and friends-

Sorry that this e-mail is so late! I was able to go to the temple today (Tuesday). I did not get to see the new movie however. This last week was pretty stressful. The best part is that we had a baptism!! Also, they are having me start a pilot program for an English class, I am training and still District Leader.

The baptism for the family that we have been working with for awhile did go through at the very last minute!! It turned out that the mom had a problem that she needed to take care of. She is fine now and repented and the baptism was very spiritual of course!! The husband and wife asked me to baptize them! So that was an awesome experience! The best part was I didn't have to baptize them twice! It was really cool.

I watched General Conference in the Stake Center. Another family that we are working with came to church with us!

This week we taught and we found. I really liked General Conference! I'm really tired today and so I'm really short with my letter. But I'm super happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love,

Elder Reisner

Serving and teaching

Dear family and friends-

 

This last week was really good! Monday we taught a new lady and our family that is getting ready to be baptized hopefully this weekend!! They are still doing really well and keep progressing! Then we tried to visit some other people and they weren't home.  

 

Tuesday we had to drop one of our investigators because he wasn't willing to read pray or go to church and then all of the rest of our appointments canceled. I was really hoping that wouldn't happen for Elder Nielsen already so I was sad about that.

 

On Wednesday it was alot better! We taught a new guy we met and we also had a chance to visit with our family as well. Then we went on splits with some members of our ward and visited this less active family that hasn't been to church in 6 months. The hermano comitted and promised to go to church! 

 

Thursday I taught district meeting the theme was we invite they committ we follow up. We ended up eating like 2 times and I almost threw up from eating so much food! It was worth it because we got some referrals! 

 

Friday we did weekly planning and we taught another family we have been working with for awhile. We may have to drop them becaus they didn't go to church again.  

 

Saturday we painted an investigator's garage and taught our new lady again. We also had another new family we were able to teach olga so it was a good day! 

 

Sunday the new lady that we have been working with went to church and so did our family that is ready to be baptized!! Then we stopped by a bunch of people's homes and taught a gentleman. I also went on exchanges with Elder Tovar and it was a good exchange. 

 

So this week we are focusing on our family that is preparing for baptism and finding and dropping the people who won't progress so it's exciting! 

 

I hope you all have a good week!

Love, Elder Reisner

Another great week of missionary work!

Hola!

So on Tuesday we had 32 new missionaries come to the Arcadia mission!! There were 13 new Spanish speaking elders! My new companion is Elder Nielsen from Seattle Washington. He is eager to learn and asks a lot of questions which is great!

(I asked Elder Reisner how much Spanish he is speaking) I speak Spanish a lot with other people. With my companions and other missionaries I speak mostly English but my companion has asked me to speak only Spanish with him. It's just a hard habit to break to speak in English with my companion but I can do it!

Our 16 year old investigator had a change of heart and so we haven't been teaching him anymore. The family that we are working with is doing well except their son is being more rebellious so they are having a hard time with him.

Yes, I got the Gift of Tongues package and I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!

This week we found some pretty cool people who said they'd get baptized! We met our bishop and ward mission leader and they are super cool! We had a meeting and we traveled on the train and the bus to get there. It was fun and we contacted some people it was super neat! We also have been able to teach more with members! It's a good change, I think it's been a really good week. This week we have no extra meetings so we'll get even more work done!!

I am super excited!

Love, Elder Reisner 

Back to Training!

Dear family and friends -

I am feeling fine now from my bike accident. I had to buy a new tire of course but we are back on track now! I did get transferred but I didn't if that makes any sense! The Montebello Ward got dissolved on Sunday and they combined it with another ward. Then they divided that ward and added some of the old Montebello Ward to San Gabriel. So, I am now in the Belvedere 2nd Ward and we finally have a bishop! I'm excited for the change!

I am still District Leader and I am training again as well. I LOVE training!! They tell us on Saturday night whether we are getting transferred or not. Then Monday morning we have to move. Now that we are in a biking only mission we move by bus or ask a member to help.

We talked with one of the families that we have been working with and they have definitely decided to get baptized October 6th! We are super excited!!!!!

It looks like for now you won't be having any company for General Conference but I will keep you posted about that.

I was able to get my temple recommend renewed this last week with President Becerra so that was awesome! We are supposed to be able to go in October and I can hardly wait to see the new movie at the temple!

This last week was crazy with the changes and with my companion leaving. Everyone in the ward was sad to see him go and of course I was too. He is being transferred to San Gabriel!

I don't have much time to e-mail today but lots of love to everyone!
Elder Reisner

Protection from the Lord

Dear family and friends, 

I went to the doctor on Saturday because I kinda fell off my bike... and hurt my leg real bad and had to get x-rays...... I was being a Reisner and was clumsy; hit a hole and fell down. I bruised myself up good and have road rash so it's not too bad.I just hurt real bad up by my hip and so we had to take a day off from the work this week.

I did get a rack for my bike this week to help me even myself out now that we need to carry shoulder bags. That wasn't what made me fall either! 

The family that we have been working with are doing well. We are going to see them and see if we can give them a date for baptism this coming Sunday. We don't want to drag them because a missionary was doing that before. So we are trying to be very careful and not pressure them. The 16 year old guy we have been working with is doing well too. It looks like he will be baptized September 29th! 

We also have a lot of other investigators who are progressing! There is a family of three we are working with and a sister that we are working with as well. The sister we are working with knows some investigators that I was working with in Rimgrove!! So I got permission for them to come over for a lesson but then the sister called and cancelled so I didn't get to see them. Maybe another time.

They called a meeting for this Sunday for the boundary changes finally. It is also the end of the transfer so we'll see what happens. I haven't gotten your package yet but I should be able to pick it up on Thursday.

Don't worry about me I am being taken care of by the Lord. I do appreciate everyone's prayers because I definitely could have been hurt a lot worse!

Love,

Elder Reisner

A biking only mission!

Hello to all my family and friends!

It has been another great week!! We were able to find a lot of people and we were able to teach a lot as well.

We had a Zone Conference and it was super cool! We are losing all the cars in the mission in two weeks!! We are also getting i-pads in the next few months. That will probably happen after I leave. We also talked about what evidence do we have that the investigator is progressing. Another thing we talked about is how we need to continue to be obedient.

We have a lot of things going on right now! I think the family we have been working with are going to get baptized super soon! So that's cool! We also have another baptism scheduled for the 29th of this month! He is a 16 year old boy. He is a cool kid but has some things that he needs to do before he can get baptized. His family is not interested at all right now but they fully support him so that is a good thing. He has come to church with us the last two Sundays so that is AWESOME! I am super excited that our investigators are progressing well!

I did end up buying a shoulder bag. It does make things a little difficult while riding a bike. My back is hurting a lot and so I need to buy a bike rack. It's all good though!

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Reisner

Fulfilling Goals

Hi everyone!

Our week was super good! We had kind of a hard time finding this week. We only found 2 new investigators and we wanted 4 but that's OK.  We are also still working with our current investigators.

There is a family that is super close to baptism! We helped the mom realize that she is ready and that she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and the gospel has been restored. She said she would talk to her husband who is super ready and has been for awhile and they are going to choose a date to get baptized!!

We also gave a new baptismal date for another one of our investigators for the 29th! Then we found a cool new lady who's Christian for now... ;-)

I heard that they have a new movie at the temple! I really want to see it so it's a good thing we are going to go in October!! I am super excited can you tell?!

The experience that stood out to me the most this week is well I lost one of the keys to my bike lock and we were stranded. Then the hermanas missionaries helped us out so that was good.

In reading the scriptures this week I can't always remember everything I learned. This week all my studies are getting messed up so right now I can't think if anything stood out for me.

They are still working on the boundary changes in the ward we are living in. They said that it should happen soon so we will see.

So what I would suggest for you to do to help Conner get ready for his mission is you should watch the Preach My Gospel movies and teach things out of Preach My Gospel and out of The Book of Mormon. Also, be praying for and having missionary experiences that will help him. Think to yourselves what doctrine or principle better understood will help Conner serve a mission and the spirit and studies will do the rest!!

I have also decided that I am going to stay the full time on my mission. I won't be coming home early for school. I still don't have a release date yet but that's OK I don't even want to think about that!

Have a great week!
Love, Elder Reisner

Lots of teaching and learning

Dear family and friends,

(I asked Elder Reisner if he shared an apartment with more than his companion) So sometimes we live 4 of us in a pad but usually it is just two. I think they are trying very hard to not have 4 missionaries living together because it's very easy to get distracted. In Rimgrove we lived 4 of us together but here it's just me and my companion.

Church was good Sunday! There wasn't very many people there but our investigators came so that was super good! All of our investigators are doing well we had 3 go to church. We found some new investigators and also taught some of the ones we found last week. It was really a great week!!

I went on exchanges this week with Elder Febbo. I love to do exchanges because I always learn a lot of stuff. Our 3 investigators are supposed to get baptized this next week! We are going to do all that is possible so that we can help the Lord do His work! Then there is another investigator that has a baptismal date but he isn't coming to church so we'll see what we can do for him.

My favorite experience this last week is that we found new investigators and that we are happy! There isn't a day that stands out to me as any better than the rest every day is really good though! The scripture that impacted me the most this week is D&C 6:36. I need to trust in the Lord more so that we can do the work in the way that He wants us to do it.

Funny experience that we had this week well we went to Ross and this guy just comes up to us and asks us if we are elders and if he can get baptized!!! That's not really funny I would say pretty cool huh? The only bad thing is he doesn't live in our area.

My health is good, I haven't had MRSA in awhile. I think things are great in my new area and I really like my new companion.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Reisner

Change is good

Hey everyone!

So the family that we were so sad to leave in my last area were awesome! We went over all the time and well they had been going to other churches but the hermana prayed for guidance and then we knocked on her door! The hermana was baptized and she is the mom of a member of the bishopric in Rimgrove.

My first week with my new companion was AMAZING!! He speaks better Spanish than I do since he was with a native Latino companion for 4 1/2 months. We taught A LOT!! Like more people just let us in I don't know what it was but we just had a ton of lessons with investigators and we found 6 new investigators and a family which my companion told me is a lot for this area!!

My new district has 6 of us with two hermanas so not as big and not as many exchanges so that's good. Right now we don't have a bishop or a ward missionary in our ward! They are getting ready to change the boundaries before they make all the changes. That means I could be in a new ward by the end of the month.

We actually had Stake Conference this last week and I saw most of the members I have worked with on my mission! I even saw the couple we worked with for a long time from San Gabriel!!! It was awesome!! I was super happy that that happened! All the people from San Gabriel said that I grew but I don't feel like I grew but whatever!

This week I just found out that faith and trusting in the Lord is what missionary work is about! Not saying that you have any skills whatsoever but trusting that the Lord wants you to do his work. Did I tell you part of East LA is in my new area so I am speaking much more Spanish now!!! I also am enjoying riding my bike again!

Have a great week!!

Love, Elder Reisner

Transferred!

Dear family and friends-

Yes! I did get transferred and not only that they actually put sisters in our area so me and Elder Steffen had to go so that was sad :'-( . We had to say bye to a family that I was really close to and I cried a little bit. We said bye to them for like an hour so that was funny.

I have been transferred to Montebello. I am still serving as a District Leader. I am back in a biking area as well and I am super excited about that! This is another area that people have said it's a bad area but I know it can be good :-). My new companion's name is Elder Crosgrove. He has been on the mission for 4 1/2 months. He is cool, I think we will get along very well! He was trained by my trainee Elder Carvajal so that's kind of funny!

Our new members confirmation was a bittersweet moment being the last time I went to the El Monte ward. But hey, it's really good to leave an area with a confirmation right?! Also, on the last day Elder Steffen and I  found a super prepared family that was taught by missionaries before. Oh man mom, I didn't want to go and neither did Elder Steffen. It will all be good! The Lord knows what He is doing and I just have to put my trust in Him!

So with the hermana that has been attending for the past few months she has a baptismal date for the 18th of August! We know that she can make that date so hopefully we can go back for that.

This last week was crazy! We taught like 18 lessons and 9 of them with members! We found 5 new investigators and it was probably the best week because we gave two people a baptismal date! We had a bunch of stuff going on so the sisters are basically stepping into paradise, LUCKY!!!

It was a really bittersweet week!

Love Elder Reisner

Baptisms are AWESOME!!

Hi to all my family and friends!

 

 WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!! :-D  I tried to send the pictures but the computer froze so I will try and get them in the mail for you. The couple that we have been working with we thought she was a member and her husband was not. We could never find her records and so she was baptized again. It was basically a convert baptism because she hasn't been active for 15 years. So we taught her all the lessons again and she gave up coffee so she could be baptized! Her son is a member of the Bishopric in Rimgrove and he was able to baptize her. Her husband that we have been working with has been trying to get his own answer about being baptized. This was definitely a step in the right direction for him. I think he will be baptized soon, he felt the spirit for sure! It was so awesome! A really great baptism service with a strong spirit in attendance!

 

This week was awesome! We found 7 new investigators and we taught a bunch!! So we just have to keep going and let the Lord do His work and just be the tools that get it accomplished.  

 

We have transfers this Saturday. I really don't want to be transferred because there are a lot of great things that are happening in this area right now.  I have only had 3 transfers so far on my mission. It seems like I go to the areas that nobody wants to go to. Then I just pray my guts out, work my hardest and then the Lord lets stuff happen! It is definitely not me - I know that for sure! I just am learning that the Lord wants us to baptize every month and we can do it if we put our trust and faith in Him and then work super hard and with the spirit.

 

It looks like the bishop and his wife and another couple want to come and stay with you for General Conference. They speak enough English so you should  be good.

 

Not really much to say because it was a shorter week. Only thing is now I just feel like I am barely starting to understand what being a missionary is all about. I just want to keep learning growing and improving!

Love, Elder Reisner

Keep the faith!

Dear family and friends-

Our investigator and his wife are doing well. Today we should find out if we have his wife's church records. If we don't she will get baptized on the 28th. Her husband is still trying to find his own answer so we are continuing to be patient with him.

We aren't changing anything about the clothing that we wear and or our backpacks. We haven't really had much discussion about the new guidelines that have come down.

This week was pretty good. We were able to find new investigators! We picked up a hermana who has been going to church for 4 months now and so that was good. Nobody told us about her so we were happy to hear from the bishop that we should go and teach her.

This week I learned that I need to put more trust in the Lord and less in my own abilities. I also need to increase my faith. I learned this through an exchange I had with the zone leaders and my interview I had yesterday with President Becerra. I had an awesome interview with him and he said some nice things about me.

We were able to help move a member family this week. They didn't move out of the ward but it took awhile to do! We had a super good day on Thursday! We taught 5 lessons and found 2 new investigators!! Also this week I did 2 baptismal interviews. It is still a little weird for me to do these but they were good! We also were trying to find a lot this week because some of our investigators were out of town so we couldn't teach them this week.

We only had 1 investigator at church but this next week we are planning to have more! We found a guy that we told him the only way to know if something is true is to ask God. So he gets on his knees and says the weirdest prayer I've ever heard! He says like ya way ya way shalom shalom father of Abraham Isaac and Noe. Then he says God says that the true religion is in your heart and he needs to follow the right things of God. Then he said so now what do we do? It was crazy! We just left and totally dropped him because he didn't want to change. The more we talked to him the more we knew he is not ready for the gospel at this time. 

Some members in my ward want to know if they can stay at your house for conference in October. There would be 2-6 of them and they know how to fit in small places. They said they'd cook for you and everything! So can they come?
  

I'm doing really good, my health is great! I was able to find a new suit to wear because mine is too big! Have a great week everyone!!

Love,

Elder Reisner

Realize your full potential!

Hello everyone!

It sounds like a cool experience that Conner had at E.F.Y. I'm glad that he went and I'm glad you liked the pictures that I sent you for your birthday!

This week was eventful and at the same time not.We had an investigator come to church he is progressing he is just still having a hard time accepting a baptismal date. He is worried about being baptized again. His wife keeps telling him that his baptism wasn't valid and that he needs to get baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God. He wants a sure answer for himself which is good. So we committed him to read and pray and continue to go to church.  We also found out that his wife may need to get baptized again. We can't find her records but we have to try every possible way to find them so we don't have to re-do everything. If we can't find it she said she'd get baptized the 28th of this month!

We did a lot of different things this week. We continued to teach and find. One thing though that we did is we had a mission conference. What I learned is that we have to realize our full potential as children of God and as missionaries. When we have that realization that's when we can have success. Also, that we need to involve and look for families. We also had a mission activity after like last year where we played games and ate lunch and it was tons of fun!

On Saturday we did service for awhile and got super burnt! That wasn't fun the burnt part but the service was! We also were blessed to have 4 investigators at church! We could have had 5 but we didn't pick up an hermana that we found. She has been going to church for the last 4 months! We are going to pick her up this week for sure! We also had an activity where it was a plan of salvation type thing. It was pretty good.

Well that's about all this week. 

Love, Elder Reisner

Ole

 

Yep! Still Me!

Fire Hydrant

Buddhist Temple

Buddhist Temple part 2

Me with some members

Valentine's Day (not alcohol)

Me and my little peep!

Busted!!

 

My companion and I with some members

Celebrating my birthday!

My Zone

Me and my companion being us

Christmas with the members

Silly Rimgrove missionaries

Missionary work at the L.A. Temple Visitors Center

Elders in my district

Mini missionary day

We love to have fun!

Aaaah! A dinosaur!

The cone says it all!

Me and my friend

Me with our investigators

Progress!

Hola to my family and friends!

 

This last week was pretty good. Holidays are hard because everyone goes out of town. So this week we were mainly finding because we had to drop some of our investigators. 

 

We did have some of our new investigators come to church with us on Sunday so that was amazing! One of them brought a lady who lives at their house and honestly we didn't catch her name when she said it!  We didn't know if she would come to church at all but she actually did! 

 

We also found out that they won't be taking away the cars for awhile. All the missionaries in Arcadia are getting mini i-pods to help with missionary work. I don't know if every missionary everywhere will be getting them but hooray for my dad that's 200 sales that will help his company! =)  

 

I was able to do two exchanges with some newer missionaries. They are great and I think we found out what we could do to help their areas to grow and to progress. Also this week we had two meetings. One with the Zone and one for District Leaders. We learned about how we have to be thinking more about the accountability of baptizing every month. We have to have the missionary purpose be our fuel for what drives us and what inspires us and will be the center of everything. We also learned that we need to drop people who aren't going to church with us within the first few weeks of teaching them. If they are really elect then they will start attending church right away!

 

Also funny story for you! We were on exchanges knocking on doors. I was with a new missionary and we saw a sign in Spanish so we said oh we need to knock on that door. We knocked and a member answers! The new elder didn't know that so he starts contacting her like she is just a random person. Then I talked to her because I know her! It was actually a Hermana who I had the opportunity of confirming! The new elder was completely confused then I said oh she's a member. It was so funny! 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM ON THE 11th!! I am going to send you something!! I think you'll like it. If not then I don't know what you like!

 

Love, Elder Reisner

Working and finding to help with the hastening of the work!!

Dear family and friends- 

 

Wow! Lots of changes in our ward! We didn't have a baptism on Sunday, our investigator said he still didn't feel quite ready. We weren't able to meet with him as much as we wanted to last week. Today we are going to go over and tell him that he already has received his answer and we know that he is ready to be baptized! 

 

We did find a girl investigator she has really good potential.  The only thing with her is she has to work on Sundays so we are hoping that she can get Sundays off to go to church.  (side note from mom - I am trying to keep Elder Reisner's investigators names out of his e-mail to protect their privacy. So that is why you see family or guy or girl investigators) 

 

The family we are teaching know why we are there now. The dad of this family is accepting the gospel more and more. His son is a missionary currently serving in the Provo, Utah mission. He sent an e-mail home to let his family know that the missionaries were coming to teach them. He had to return from his mission to get a surgery and made friends with one of the elders here.  

 

So with the transfer this last week I get to stay with Elder Steffen. It is going good with him! I am staying in El Monte and I am happy about that!

 

So now to this week. We had a ton of lessons the first of the week and found a new family! We took a young man that is preparing for a mission and he went out with us like basically all day which was really awesome!! We just have been trying to find people but it has been so HOT in the 100's! Nobody really wants to answer their door. That's ok we all have to keep working and finding. We are looking at ways that we can use the members better to find. We set up appointments this week with some members so that we can do some more finding through them in an effective way. I know that we can find because we have been finding three or more new investigators every week. We just have to have the faith to help them progress to baptism! 

 

Also, another one of our investigator families came to church with us this week so that was really great!  Anyway that's all I have this week!

Love, Elder Reisner  

Wonderful Investigators!

Hola to my family and friends!

This week was a fantastic week! We taught and found and had lots of success! Everything just came together and it was a really AWESOME week where nothing canceled pretty much! We are finally finding investigators that want to progress so we are excited about that!

Highlight of the week is we went to the L.A Temple with one of our investigators and his wife and it was so awesome! They really felt the spirit there. Also, we are still teaching the atheist. He actually came to church this week with our other investigator. That was really awesome! We also had a bunch of members help us with lessons so that was really good!

Another one of the highlights of this week is that a family in Rimgrove that I was working with called me! The mom said she missed me and wanted to see me so she came to El Monte so I could talk to her. Of course we taught her a lesson being missionaries and all :-)

We also had transfers this last Saturday and I am staying in El Monte! I am really happy about that because we are going to have a baptism June 30th! Our investigator said he knows the church is true he just needs to be prepared more. So we will do all we can to help him to feel completely prepared for baptism this weekend! We have faith that we can do it now we just need to do the works part.

We also taught the mutual activity this week which was really cool as well. Other than that we are just trying to do the best that we can so that we can hasten the work.

I loved the worldwide training meeting that we had on Sunday! It was so cool talking about how we are going to use more technology and about how we just need to have the faith and work with the members more. So we are going to do our best effort to work more with members because right now we are finding by knocking on doors. For us that has been the most successful way of finding our investigators. Both of the people that we are working with right now we found that way. We will definitely see what we can do to help get the members involved. 

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Reisner

A wonderful week of teaching!!

Hello Everyone!

This last week was really good! We had a lot of unexpected lessons all of the sudden there were a bunch of people letting us in and referrals and stuff coming out of nowhere! It was really cool! 

It all started on Monday when we get a call from some English speaking elders in the mission who knew this missionary that is actually in Provo, Utah. They told us that the missionary said that his family is ready to receive the missionaries. None of his family are members of our church. They needed the Spanish missionaries because the family speaks more Spanish. So we went over there and they accepted us in and fed us all in one. It was pretty cool!

Then on Tuesday I did an exchange with Elder Morell and we were able to teach a lot of lessons! It was a great day!

Wednesday we taught some lessons and we did some finding. We were able to teach our investigator from last week a lot this week! He had the question of whether his baptism was valid. We asked him what do you think? He said well it isn't right to be baptized like 5 or 6 times and then he said now what can you tell me? So, we did an object lesson to show him that we only need to be baptized once but by someone who has the proper authority. He said OK and that he would pray about the things we talked about. He is reading the Book of Mormon and he and his wife came to church on Sunday!!! That was really exciting! We were super happy he is making good strides to be baptized on the 30th of this month! It would be so awesome because this area hasn't seen a convert baptism in 10 months!

We also found this really cool 17 year old guy who said he was Atheist but only because he didn't know what to believe. Then all of his doubts were resolved through the things that we told him. We sat down for an hour with him and answered his questions and then he agreed to read The Book of Mormon and come to church. He couldn't come Sunday because they had a fathers day trip but he said he'd come next week!

Other than that really just moving and plugging along. We are excited for all of our investigators and pray that they will all continue to progress. Thank you everyone for keeping me in your prayers!

Love, Elder Reisner

A happy healthy missionary am I!!!

Dear family and friends, 

 

This last week was really good! I had a meeting for the District Leaders and it is really weird to think that I have been District Leader for 8 months now! I really enjoy doing it so that's great! 

 

Last week we did have a tender mercy while we were on exchanges. I was with Elder Garry who only has 4 weeks in California. He and I went to one of our investigators house. We taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He then said he would prepare to be baptized on the 30th of this month!! So we are praying and doing every possible thing that we can so that he can make his date. We also asked him to offer the closing prayer and he did and then he started to cry so it was a very touching experience. 

 

We also taught more lessons this past week and we are inviting everyone to be baptized because that is how we are going to baptize every month  I also ran into some of my old investigators from San Gabriel. They made a U-turn and pulled off on the side of the road while I was on exchanges just to say hi to me! So I gave them my address and told them to write me. It was really cool! They still haven't been baptized but one day they will! 

 

We had Stake Conference yesterday and I was able to see all of the people from Rimgrove. That was cool too! We had a member of the Seventy at our conference and he talked about missionary work. He gave some really cool stories about miracles in missionary work. It was awesome! 

 

Other than that we have just been trying to find. This last week being graduations and all that fun stuff nobody has really been home to talk to us so we are hoping this week will be better and that we can find new people to teach. I know that good things will come if we continue to put our trust in the Lord.   

 

I am doing so well! I am MRSA free and sickness free I am happy and healthy and I am doing my best to purify myself. I think I want to be a Zumba instructor when I get back! We also had zone training which President Becerra came and blew all of our minds!! He talked about stuff we could do in the first lesson so we can get it centered on baptism and really set expectations and explain our purpose so they can know from the get go what we are all about. 

 

Anyway, that's all I have for this week.  

Love, Elder Reisner

Purifying myself

Hey everyone!

So everything is going good just my companion has been sick for the last few days  :-( We have been working really hard finding and teaching as many people who want to be baptized when my companion has been feeling well.

We had a Zone Conference in which we were told that we aren't asking people to be baptized as much as we should be and I am guilty of that.  We also learned that we need to purify ourselves which means get rid of all the things that are causing us not to dedicate ourselves 100% to the work. This last Sunday what I did is I fasted and made a list of all the things that were distracting me. Now I am taking that list and I am fasting from those items for 40 days in order to purify myself and really serve the Lord with all my heart might mind and strength.

As for all of our investigators we didn't have a chance to meet with any of them that we found last week due to sickness and canceling their appointments. We did find new investigators to teach so that is always good. When I left the Zone Conference it made me really think about what repentance is and how to be a pure missionary who can teach with power and authority. I want to be more humbled and repentant than ever before.

We also had our soccer activity which was quite successful. We had investigators, non-members and less actives so it was good! This next week we won't have soccer but the 15th we will play again against another ward. We also helped move some people and we found a family that is having some problems but we know that the gospel can really help them out in their lives!

I think that's all I have this week. 

Love, Elder Reisner 

Things just keep getting better!

Hola everyone!!

Sounds like things are going good over there! It's so weird to think that some of my friends are already coming home from their missions! The other day I was talking with some of the youth from our ward and they asked me how long I had left. I told them a long time then they started guessing and then it hit me that I only have 8 months left  :'-( ! Holy cow has time passed by sooo quickly!! I'm just barely understanding what it means to serve the Lord with all your heart might mind and strength and to really just get out of the way so that the Lord can do His work!

We had an AWESOME week last week! I did an exchange with the Zone Leaders and well we didn't really have anything planned so I got to learn from Elder Johnston. We had a miracle happen! We went to get to know this apartment complex and right as we walked in there were two ladies sitting down talking. So we just started talking to them and we said we were going around leaving blessings on homes. We asked if they would like one and they said yes but that they wanted to actually have blessings for themselves because they were having a hard time. The ladies were a mom and the girlfriend of her son and they said they wanted her son to be there so that he could get a blessing too. We came back later that night at 6 and gave the mom, her two sons and the girlfriend a blessing. It was really cool!! Then we set up an appointment to teach them on Saturday. So we go to their house on Saturday and they aren't there. Then like 5 minutes later they come home and we have a really good lesson with them! The mom really wants to have her family be in our religion. She already is talking about going to church and adjusting her work schedule so that she can go every week. She's going to get baptized for sure!! Then that same day we found two young men who told us that we could come back and talk to the rest of their families. That was way cool as well!

Sunday we found two more investigators that told us that they would come to church as well! The area is really picking up and I'm super excited for that! We just need to remember that we need to find people and baptize them and help them endure to the end. Not because we want to, but because that is Heavenly Father's plan and we are only the tools in His hands! The couple is doing well that we found last week. They are going to church and learning about the gospel.

The mini mission we had last week was with a young man from another ward. We had him with us for the whole day to simulate what a mission will be like. We had a really quiet 21 year old, I hope he had a good experience so that he will go on his own mission!

I am truly appreciative of all your prayers!!!

Love, Elder Reisner

Breaking in a new companion

Hi to all my friends and family!

I am doing well. My week was really long this week for some reason and I don't know why. We did find 3 new investigators and we have a lot of appointments set up for this week so I am excited about that!

Things with my new companion are good. He has been on the mission for 5 months and he is 20 years old. He has been in the military so he talks about that a lot. All I know is that grandpa and Uncle Stephen were in the military and that's it. He's a good missionary and we get along well. 

My health is good! I am letting Elder Steffan drive to learn the area and get the hang of driving in California. We are going to start having soccer games the 1st of June. This has been a really good weekly activity for our members. It is a great place to invite their friends and get to know us! We wanted to start it this Saturday but we are having a mini mission.

This week we just have been teaching less actives a lot and meeting with members to try and find new investigators. More members are now having referrals for us which is really good! We are hoping to be teaching now more than ever before!  We also had the opportunity to move some senior missionaries this last Tuesday while fasting. That was a really interesting experience.

Have a great week everyone!!
Love, Elder Reisner

The rest of the pictures Elder Reisner sent at Christmas

Me with one of the bishopric counselors and his wife

Elder McIlwain's birthday

Talent Show - Toga Time!

More dance

Talent Show dance

My sisters

Pilgrim missionaries

Obra for Thanksgiving

Temple Christmas lights

Snowmen for the Christmas Obra!!

L-R Elders Carvajal, Vight, Porter, Hermanas Poulton, Zamola, Anderson, me, Elders Rauckhorst and Vance

Other District

District L-R first row Hermana Brown, Jordan, Elder Mendoza, Elder Knight 2nd row Elder McIlwain, Mostert, Johnston, Smith, me and Elder Eddington

My district - this was after me not having any sleep and being in a lot of pain. They were great!

Elder Mostert - I love my "son"

2nd Temple Trip!

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear family and friends-

 

I had a great surprise when I got to Skype home yesterday!! My Grandma and Grandpa Obe were there!! It has been awhile since I have seen them and so that was fun to talk to them!

 

The teaching this week was with a sister by the name of Chantal. We also got to teach the Delfin family which was cool. We had a really good Zone Training where we learned about how we need to align our will with the Lord's will and serve him with all our heart might mind and strength.

 

So this week was transfers. I am staying here continuing to serve as the District Leader. My companion Elder Chadwick is being transferred to my first area - San Gabriel. My new companion is Elder Steffen. We are ready to teach, testify and baptize!

Sincerely, 

Elder Reisner