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