Carmen y Isaac's Wedding Me and Hermano Schleske

Accidental Beach trip

Hula Hoop at an investigator's house

Human Stirring Stick

Me and Elder Budd at the Mission activity

L to R Elder Bowes, Me, Elder Resbala, Elder Alworth, Elder Chadwick, Elder Vance

We are Dorks! :)

Showing off my suit

This is us

District meeting, I can have a normal picture sometimes

As you can see, Me and Elder Bowes have the most unity.

Flashing the badge

Playing with Elder Bowes Camera

I love missionary times!!

Dear family and friends,

This last week was great! Monday we had a lesson and a tour! The tour was with the Mancilla family and the lesson was with some really great new-ish investigators named Ericka, Estella and Yair (pronounced yeah ear).
Tuesday we did service with Hermano Reyes and taught a new person that wasn't really interested in our message. Then we taught the Mancilla family again.
Wednesday we went finding and we taught a few lessons. We also had correlation and it was a very good meeting.
Thursday was District Meeting and we learned about diligence. It was a great District Meeting that made me want to be even more diligent then I am being right now! We also taught a bunch of lessons and we went on exchanges. Elder Wight and I stayed in San Gabriel and Elder Carvajal and Elder Rauckhorst were in the other area.
Friday we did weekly planning and we also taught Felicitas' son Johnny and the Trejo family.
Saturday we went finding and we taught the Mancilla's and some new investigators! We also had a mini guys night out where basically we just ate dinner with an hermano while his wife was at the General Relief Society Meeting. Elder Carvajal ate some chili cheese fries for the first time in his life!
Sunday was a great day but we ate sooo much! We were blessed to have Felicitas, the Trejo family, Patty and Sergio at church! We also had a lunch at 2, seviche at 3:30 and then a dinner appointment at 5:30! Let's just say I was feeling it and it was a good thing we were on our bikes so that we didn't throw up! Then we had correlation because Hermano Schleske is going out of town to Utah for General Conference.  This week we have set up a BUNCH of appointments!! I am really excited about that but we will continue to keep finding as well. We really think that Felicitas could be baptized very soon! Ever since we started to teach her she has been walking a mile or two to church for the last 2 weeks! Which definitely means she's interested and likes church! Something that I learned this week has really got me thinking about my missionary service. It's that I'm here to serve Heavenly Father and to invite others to come unto Christ. I should really refine and shape myself and chisel out all the things that are making it so that I'm not a fully committed servant of the Lord. So that is my new goal to focus even more on the work, to be more diligent and to get rid of all the little things that make it so I'm not as much of an effective servant. Just to dedicate even more than I was already but yeah I hope you all are doing well and have a good week!

Cuidense mucho! 

Love, Elder Reisner

Well, a normal week!!

Dear family and friends,

Nothing too exciting happened this week. We just taught Monday and Tuesday and did some service.
Wednesday we taught and we did the WalMart booth again. We found some people who were really ready! We found this lady named Felicitas and she came to church and it was so exciting!! We think she could be baptized pretty soon! She is a member referral from Hermana Cabrerra and so she has some great potential! The WalMart booth wasn't so successful for us. We just ended up giving out like a billion cards and getting some referrals for the English elders. We also had to drop Juan because he keeps leaving for Tijuana and says yo les hablo which means I'll call you.  Usually when people say that it means I don't know when I'll be available and I might call you so we'll just wait to see what happens.  It's ok we will still be here whenever he is ready! We also found a small family of 4 that we are teaching and that have some great potential as well!
Something I am noticing is biking takes a lot of time! I keep forgetting that it takes time to get places. I have got to plan better and not go all over the area so I don't come home so tired and exhausted!  On the upside I am a lot more healthy! haha
Anyway, we also had a good church meeting and I learned a lot in our priesthood class. Elder Carvajal is doing good and he is learning a lot and it's funny that when he doesn't know something in English he says it to me in Spanish so I can translate it into English. He needs to learn and study English for an hour which I have no idea why. I guess they just want people to be bilingual.
The Trejo family are doing good except they aren't coming to church :-(. The Mancilla family are going to take a tour of the church today so we think that will make them want to come to church this next Sunday!
We are doing good and still teaching a lot of lessons! So yeah the work is still good what can i say?  I hope you all are doing well!

Love, Elder Reisner

Training it's AWESOME

Dear Family and Friends,

It was a great week in San Gabriel and a great week for missionary work!
Monday we had a noche de hogar and had some members bring some of their friends that were not members. It was really great and we did an activity and lesson on albedrio I mean agency! While this was happening I was with Elder Vance. We had to wait until Wednesday to get our companions (trainees). Tuesday we did some contacting and did our WalMart booth and gave the sisters the car.  So now every day I am riding the bike and we usually ride between 20-30 miles per day. We are still teaching lots of lessons and it's really good therapy. It makes you happy and keeps you awake! The WalMart booth was really good and we found some really prepared people but they didn't speak Spanish sadly. We did it at an hour where there were not very many Latinos so next time we will do it a lot better and know what to expect.  We also had some lessons that day.
Wednesday we had a meeting for the trainers and trainees. We started by being separated and they told us that the trainers are who they look for first when they are doing transfers. They look for the best of the best missionaries and who is obedient and can help these missionaries be ready to train by their 3rd transfer. They said the best kind of trainers are those who can have their trainees replace them and do a good job of training as well.  So that made me feel really good to know that! They also talked about the 12 weeks program and that we need to let our trainees help us with the work and then right before the meeting ended we got our companions. We picked up my companions bike and we went to work. We got rides all day Wednesday because my companion has to borrow a bike from the mission. He is from Mexico and it is too expensive to ship a bike internationally. The bike they gave him was bad so we just asked members all day for rides. We also walked a little bit and we had some lessons it was a good day.
Thursday we switched the bikes and had district meeting and the new bike worked and was a good bike. We also had some lessons and it was a good day overall.
Friday we had a 6 hour meeting for trainers and trainees. We talked about a lot of stuff like how we as trainers were called but we need to also be chosen and do the things to deserve that title. We also had a Q&A with President Becerra about how we could train better. President Becerra's son who just came home from a mission gave us some instruction too. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot of stuff! Then we biked and had some lessons it was another good day.
Saturday it was 105 degrees and hot! We did weekly planning and studying now we study for 3-4 hours a day and we taught a less active lesson.
Sunday was a good day. We had great church meetings and we had some lessons. We did some service and scheduled some more appointments to teach some new people. It was a good day! So we are doing really great over here and I am excited because my new companion Elder Carvajal (car va hall) is pre-trained. He is probably going to teach me more things than I will teach him but it is going to be great! Oh also something funny that President Becerra keeps saying when missionaries are disobedient. He says the Lamanite in me just wanted to go over there and bash him on the head! It is super funny! Anyways, I love you all and I hope your having a good week!

Love, Elder Reisner

 

G-Reat Times in San Gabriel!

Dear family and friends-

This last week was good again! So, we had some appointments on Monday and we invited our big family to read the Book of Mormon and they said yes!  So basically this week we have been teaching and we found some great investigators! One of them is Felicitas and she was a referral from one of the members. She has been going through a hard time but she wants to meet with us and she accepted an invitation to be baptized when she receives a testimony.  That was cool!
Also, we found these ladies Estella and Ericka and they were also prepared to hear the message and accept a baptismal invitation.  We also have found some great potentials to teach this week.
Tomorrow we have the opportunity to do the Walmart booth so we are going to see if we can find lots more investigators through doing that.  (They have permission from WalMart to set up a booth to contact people)
We also just finished the transfer and I am staying in San Gabriel so my work is not done here yet! (Elder Reisner's companion Elder Bowe's has been transferred.)
Something else that happened that was pretty cool is that we had a zone meeting and we talked about asking inspired questions and it really made me think and want to re-evaluate the way that I teach and ask questions.  I also read this talk by Elder Gene R. Cook and it was called qualifications for the work. In the talk it said we need to have more faith as missionaries and always have a goal to get in the house to share our message and be bold it was a great talk!
Well, this week we are looking to teach a lot and get some more baptismal dates so I am very excited!! Also, I have the opportunity this transfer to train a new missionary!!!! So I am really excited about that!!!! (Things are so busy and they have so many investigators to teach that they have assigned 2 more missionaries to the San Gabriel mission!  2 new sister missionaries should be arriving soon to help with the work!)
Well I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Reisner

San Gabriel A lot of good things are happening still!

Dear Family and Friends,

Things are still going good here in San Gabriel and we had a lot of cool things happen this last week! We started off with finding the Latino's in the neighborhood we live in. We thought we only had Chinese neighbors but then we heard a helotero (basically a guy that sells helote and other latino foods). So we went to go figure out if he knew where the Latino's are. Sure enough he said this apartment complex is mostly Latino and a few other places on a street right behind where we live are Latino too! It was really cool! 

Then Tuesday we had interviews with President. It is always good to talk to President Becerra he has so many good things to say. He told me that there is definitely another set of missionaries coming in this next transfer! We also went contacting in a park and had a lesson with some less actives. 

Wednesday we went and we had a BUNCH of less active lessons and also investigator lessons it was a really good day of teaching!  

Thursday we had district meeting and we talked about how we need and can do better about being obedient.  We also had a lot of member present lessons which was really great!  

Friday we found a new investigator and we had a noche de hogar with the Ruiz family that went really well! We also taught a man who was visiting from Mexico and he said when he returns he'll call the number that we gave him to get missionaries to come teach him! It was just sad that we couldn't continue to teach him.  
Saturday we had to look at apartments because we need a place for the other set of missionaries to stay so we spent most of the day doing that.  We found some really nice apartments for them. We also had a lesson and tried to call and visit all our investigators so that they would come to church the next day.  

Sunday was a good day we were blessed with 7 investigators at church again! We also had a lesson with Patty and Sergio who are just so ready to be baptized they just need to get the divorce and the marriage. They also want to get sealed in the temple and they were the only ones out of their family that came to church. They were one of the earliest ones to church too! We also had correlation meeting and we had lessons with Juan.  

Yesterday we found some great potentials and we also had a great lesson with the Trejo family, they really opened up. Then we taught the huge family but only 6 of them were there that time with their sister who is a member so that was a pleasant surprise! Anyway, things are looking good here in San Gabriel and I hope things are going good for all of you too!

Love, Elder Reisner

Great week in San Gabriel!!

Dear family and friends,

This last week was a super great week and I learned a lot of things!  First we set up an appointment with Karen one of our investigators and went by a few other people's houses. Then we had a noche de hogar and we tried to invite the Trejo family but they were not able to go. Then we taught this HUGE family with like 14 people! It was super great! 

Tuesday we went and tried to find and get people to come to our English class and we had Hermano Reyes come but he was the only one. Then I had to go to the doctor.  (Elder Reisner has a case of MRSA) Then we had some lessons with Maritza, Juan, and the Perez family.  

Wednesday we basically were everybody's home teachers for the ward! Just because we did finding and had 3 lessons with some less active members of the ward.  However, something really cool happened on Wednesday we were tracting in an apartment complex and this guy was just visiting from Mexico. We were going to lend him a Book of Mormon and pick it back up but when he said he was just visiting and wouldn't be able to return it we just gave it to him. We started knocking on other doors and right after that he went and sat on the stairs and just started reading the Book of Mormon right then and there!! He looked really interested in what it had to say I hope he'll go and find missionaries in Mexico and learn more!  

Thursday we had district meeting and talked about having  more effective companionship study. It was really good and now Elder Bowes and I will have more effective companionship study.  Thursday also was the day to interview Patty and Sergio. So, President Becerra said he wanted to come out with us from 6-9 at night. Then he called and said he wouldn't make it until 7 so we taught our lesson at 6. We were going to have a different noche de hogar that night.  We invited Juan and the Trejo family but neither of them could make it.  President said he needed to go get gas and the Elders Quorum President was there and he told Elder Bowes to stay there with Hermano Lopez and for me to go with him!! It was pretty cool!! He asked me some questions and whether I thought  there could be another set of missionaries in our area because we have been having so much success.  He was telling me that this area hasn't had this much success in years!!  I told him yes for more missionaries as long as the area wasn't divided. There is a higher concentration of Latinos in other parts of the area so if it was divided one side would have more success then the other.  He also asked me about my companions I had and about my strengths and weaknesses.  We then drove back to the church and picked up Elder Bowes.  Then we went to interview Patty and Sergio at Hermano de los Santos' house. He interviewed Sergio first then called Patty in.  We thought they were married, they told us they were married but not really. Then Patty said to him I told you we should have been married a long time ago!  It was super funny.  President Becerra had to probe them for a bit before he found out that they weren't married. He told us elders you didn't do anything wrong in Latino culture they'll tell you 3 lies before they tell you the truth, I know because I am Latino!!  Then he was thinking of who could help Sergio get a divorce. ( I guess that's why he and Patty aren't married!)  I told him that I have a cousin in L.A. who's an attorney that could help us.  (Terry Higham)  President Becerra gave me permission to call him so I did and now he's helping us with the divorce.  

Friday we biked and we had a few lessons and it was a good day.  

Saturday we focused on getting everyone to church. We stopped by, called and did everything we could to have people come to church. It was really effective because we actually had 7 investigators at church!! We also taught Patty and Sergio they are ready to be baptized they just need to get married! Same with the Trejo family. They need to get married and come too church then they will be good to go! We are looking to have 8 baptisms in September! Patty, Sergio, Trejo family (4), Juan, and Karen! Things are going really well and this week also looks really good already! I hope you all are doing well and have a great week!

Love, Elder Reisner