Missionary Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This week was good. The highlights are that we found four really good new investigators! One actually came to us when we were teaching a recent convert and he went to our sports night that we had. There were 3 recent converts and our investigator who came from our area so that was really great! 

I went on two exchanges this last week with Elder Eddington and Elder Knight. These were really good and I learned a lot from both of them. 

On Saturday we were heavily involved as crowd control in a Christmas parade. That was fun and there were a lot of cool floats and things in the parade. My camera broke so I wasn't able to take any pictures at the parade. 

Also, we went to a despedida (farewell) for all the missionaries that are going home. I was able to go because I was finished training Elder Mostert and one of our elders in the district was going home. That was a really powerful experience and we felt the spirit very strongly! 

This last week was transfers and I am staying in my area but Elder Mostert left so I was very sad about that. My new companion seems good his name is Elder Markam I am sure we will get along great. Well I hope all is well with you sorry this is so short but I ran out of time! 

I love you all!

Love, Elder Reisner

 

As a missionary mom and with my Priesthood holders permission I wanted to share more about Elder Reisner's week and really why his letter was so short this time. On Wednesday he fell off of his bike and he thought that he broke something in his arm. He and his companion had an appointment with an investigator so he took some deep breaths and they walked the rest of the way there. After the appointment they stopped at a members home so he could clean himself up and call Sister Becerra (Mission President's wife). She called Dr. Peterson who is a counselor in the mission presidency in Arcadia. Of course the doctor called Elder Reisner right back and had him do a few things with his arm everything was super painful so he thought for sure that something was broken. Dr. Peterson told him he could either go to the E.R. or do a Boy Scout fix and wait for the next day to go to an Instacare. He elected for the Boy Scout fix and waiting for the next day. The Instacare x-rays showed that he had dis-located his shoulder and broke his collar bone. He was then referred to an orthopedic doctor to get everything fixed and back in place. Friday when he went to see the orthopedic doctor he said that he didn't break anything! He even took more and different x-rays but he could see no break!! Elder Reisner joked that he was jealous of his dad and Conner going to the Emergency Room and so he just wanted a turn in California! Of course he is still in a lot of pain and won't be able to ride his bike for a few weeks, but what a miracle!!

He said that 2 days later and I am not sure exactly 2 days later from what day but it all happened this last week, he was bit by a dog! It was a pitbull and it bit him on his hand. The owner was outside and so Elder Reisner asked him if the dog had rabies. They said no and were quite rude about it when it was their dog who bit him! (go figure)

I chose to share these experiences with you because our missionary and all of them are truly blessed. Both of these experiences could have turned out so differently but he is being watched over and protected. He ended his letter to us with "I am not sad or anything or discouraged. Don't worry about me I will be just fine! I know that trials are for our growth and for us to learn." 

Keep praying for all of our missionaries!   

A CRAZY WEEK!

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This last week was super crazy and it just was crazy because a lot of things happened! 

Tuesday we went to the doctor because I got a spider bite or MRSA or both at the same time. My infection was HUGE it hurt a lot but I am doing much better now.  We still found time to talk to some people and did some finding.

Wednesday was pretty normal and we were able to do some service and teach.

Thanksgiving Day was crazy! We had an appointment to see our recent convert Dianna. We had a nice visit with her and helped her family prepare their Thanksgiving dinner. Then we went to our first Thanksgiving dinner appointment. On the way there I got a flat tire so of course we were late because we had to get a ride and it took awhile for them to pick us up. Dinner was good we had all the normal fixings. Then we went to our second dinner which was really really good. We had it with the Gonzalez family and it felt like we were at home with our own families. It was a really good time with them! 

Friday we had a conference with Brad Wilcox who is a well known teacher at BYU and was a Mission President in Chile. We actually have his daughter in our mission right now. She is waiting for her Visa to go to Spain. President Becerra asked him to come teach us and it was super amazing!! We learned a lot!! One thing was about how literally our job right now is no matter what tribe of Israel that we are we need to gather the rest of the house of Israel and their specific oracles will be revealed later. He taught us that as most of us are of the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh that Ephraim is building the eternal things and Manasseh the spiritual things. It was really cool to learn all that he had for us! (On a mom side note I hope that I got this information right! Elder Reisner gets typing so fast and doesn't have time to spell check or re-read what he has typed and so sometimes I have a hard time interpreting. So, if I got this wrong please forgive me!)  Then after that I went on exchanges with Elder Smith who is leaving soon. He taught me a lot!

Sunday we had the primary program at church. It was a great program but really different to hear it in Spanish. The songs in Spanish almost seem better than they do in English sometimes!  

So, that was my crazy week! It was a good one and we had a lot of good things happen but I am excited for this week because I know things are going to start to get even better!

Love, Elder Reisner

2 weeks of great stuff!!

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I'm sorry that I have not written for 2 weeks. Last week I had a bunch of meetings and exchanges and so I was not able to e-mail. I'll try to make up for it by telling you about the two past weeks of the mission! So for the week of November 5 - 11th it was a great week! 

We found some people and on Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Mendoza from Spain. He is a great missionary and he taught me a lot of things. 

The most significant thing that happened that week is that we had Zone Conference which was really great! We focused all about finding and that we don't knock on doors anymore. We rescue and we find we look at everything as a finding activity. 

Sister Becerra taught us about how we can use the baptismal service as a way to find. She said that we should have our investigator invite literally everyone they can to the baptism. They will have a lot of non-member friends and family and that will be a great place for them to have a spiritual experience. She also said there always needs to be refreshments so that we can talk with people afterwards.  

President Becerra taught us about how we need to talk with people and not at people. He said we need to ask EVERYONE for referrals. Who do they know that can benefit from the message? We need to be natural in sharing the gospel. It should be natural when we talk to people and not just teach them a lesson. We also learned we need to build our own faith and testimony. We can only help people become converted to the point that we are converted. We also learned about praying for another witness to what we already know. President Becerra told us that he went to the sacred grove when he was on a business trip. He knelt down in the grove and prayed for another witness. He said I know this is true but please let me have just one more witness that this gospel is true. It was really cool and I learned a lot! 

We also taught Seminary. The kids seemed to like it and we actually had a non-member there! 

This last week was also great! On Monday we had a good day and taught.

Tuesday we had meetings until 3 o' clock. In these meetings I learned the difference of being a good leader and being a popular leader. Aaron in the Old Testament was a popular leader whereas Moses was a good leader. Aaron subjected himself to the people and built the golden calf for them. He knew that it was wrong so he said let's have Sacrament Meeting that will make up for what I did wrong. But the people just started back up doing bad things. 

I also learned more ways to find and more ways to be a better leader and trainer for missionaries. With all the new missionaries coming in we need more trainers!  I also went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and learned a lot from Elder Garcia. We did service and participated in a Thanksgiving play for the ward. We had a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. It was a really good week. We keep finding and teaching, we are hoping to help people get baptized this week. It looks like it is going to be a really good week so I am excited!!

Love, Elder Reisner

November - It's still warm and the work is progressing

Dear family and friends, 

 

This last week was a really good week! We started off by visiting members to get to know them to help us find more investigators. We also taught a Family Home Evening which felt really good.  

Tuesday we taught a bunch and we worked with less actives as well. We also brought a member to a lesson with Brian and the lesson turned out really well! Brian really seemed to connect with the member so that was awesome! 

Wednesday we dressed up for Halloween! We dressed up as missionaries!! We actually taught some people and found a new investigator. Then because of Halloween that night we had district meeting and we were allowed to have a little volleyball activity for an hour. It was a great meeting and the zone leaders taught us a new thing that we can do with members that I think will really help the work to progress in our zone!

 Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Mclwain and we taught some people and found some investigators. We also got lost because he has a huge area! We also worked with members and did some service which was really great! 

Friday was a good day. We had a really good weekly planning session so we could plan how we were going to put into practice the things we learned in district meeting. We also found 2 new investigators! Also, we taught a family how to help us better the missionary work! 

Saturday we taught and found and worked with less actives and had correlation.  

Sunday was a great day. Brian came to church! Also, every single less active except for one that we have been working with came to church too! A part member family that we worked with came to church also so it was really a miracle! We also had some member baptisms. We are still getting to know some more members so they can start helping us to find as well! We also were asked to teach Seminary this Friday I am so excited! We got to teach the youth class for Sunday School that was really fun as well! I am really excited this week because we have a lot of good stuff planned! We are going to work really hard to teach find and baptize! I hope that all of you are doing well!

Love, Elder Reisner

Rimgrove - the first week

Dear family and friends,

 

This week was a great week here in the Rimgrove area! I started getting to know my new companion and we get along super great and we are going to do some good here in this ward!  

We started Monday by visiting some members and building trust with them so they can give us referrals to teach more people.  Just when I thought I couldn't love any other members then I met these families and I know I will be able to love the members of this ward! 

Tuesday we taught Brian and Diana which are our only investigators. (not for long) Dianna was baptized two weeks ago and Brian is pretty close to getting there! We also had appointments with some less actives and we went by mutual to meet more of the members.  

Wednesday we worked with less actives and we taught Brian again. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! We have his baptismal date set for November 11th which is very exciting! 

Thursday we had district meeting which was good. We talked about the area book again. The Zone Leaders announced that we get to participate in a Christmas parade as missionaries on December 1st which is pretty exciting!  We also visited less actives and contacted a bunch of people on the street.  

Friday we studied and did weekly planning and tried to visit less actives but found out that they moved so we just contacted people. We found some great people and we had a noche de hogar with a family which turned out really well! 

Saturday we had a soccer activity and taught some lessons with Brian and had correlation meeting.  

Sunday was a great day! Dianna got confirmed in Church (one of the investigators we had in Rimgrove) so now she is a recent convert who has a solid testimony of the church! We also had a meeting where this family is super excited to work with us. They want us to help get more people doing family history work. Then as they do their family history it will help us to find investigators using that way.  It was out of the blue and cool to see people excited about that! Then we had Maria's baptism back in San Gabriel. It was really spiritual and I was so blessed to have found her and to be able to perform the baptism ordinance!  In the baptismal service Maria bore her testimony and it is so strong and she knows the gospel is true! The ward loves her and has already assigned her visiting teachers and home teachers which is good. We also had 2 musical numbers 3 testimonies and 2 talks it was a lot for a baptism but it was all really good! We had 2 lessons after the baptism so it was a full day. I love this area it's going to be a really great area and I am excited to work with these new members and love them as well! But I love all of you and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Reisner

Rimgrove

Dear family and friends,

 

Well, I got transfered!! Not only that but I am now District Leader of a district with 10 missionaries! So it's a little crazy but I know that this is where I'm needed. I am excited to help all of these elders and sisters! There are 8 elders and 2 sisters so that means I need to do 6 exchanges!! It should be interesting/fun!! My new area is called Rimgrove Central and it's in La Puente California. My new companion is still new so I am also training! His name is Elder Mostert and he is from South Carolina. He seems cool and I think we'll get along great! I was really sad to leave. I was in San Gabriel for 7 1/2 months which is really unusual but I felt like I did all that I could to help the work progress. That area is a lot different from what it used to be when I first got there! I took a bunch of pictures with the members and I will try to send you those as soon as possible! I will be able to go back for Patty and Sergio's baptism, that will be a very exciting day! Also, Maria an investigator that we found and gave to the sisters is getting baptized! She asked me to baptize her and I am super excited!!!  We had a really good week this last week and I'm really excited to be in this new area. It's still a bike area but it's a lot smaller! 

  

Last week was a crazy week and a good week we started off by finding and teaching Monday.  

Tuesday we had our lesson with the Trejo family and President Becerra came with us. They are having some struggles and we are trying to help them as much as we can. Elder Carvajal and his new companion will be working with them on that.  

Wednesday was pretty normal just finding and more finding!

Thursday we had a really good district meeting about the area book and it made me want to update our area book more than I had been doing in the past.  

Friday we had weekly planning.

Saturday was a crazy day! We biked at least 30 miles or more but we had 5 lessons that day so it was super good! We also found two new investigators that have a lot of potential!   

Sunday I said bye to the members and to Patty and Sergio. 

San Gabriel was a really good area and I felt like I learned a lot by being there but I am excited for this new area and all the new things and the new challenges and experiences! 

I am grateful to be serving Heavenly Father and to be a missionary!  I know that this work really cannot be stopped.  I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Love, Elder Reisner

A Busy Week!

Dear Family and Friends,

This last week has been busy! We had a bunch of meetings and a bunch of things that happened!
Tuesday, we had a lesson with the Mancilla family and we were helping our ward mission leader start a business.
On Wednesday we did a bunch of finding and something that we found that is better than knocking on doors is just biking around and getting off the bike to stop and talk to people. This is way more effective because it's harder for the people to run away or slam the door! We talked to a lot more people then we usually do! Then we went to an investigator's house the Jimenez family. They are a family of 7 and we got there just in time to help them move in these brand new couches that they just got which was really cool. They were telling us that we came at just the right time which felt really good! We are excited to teach this family, we  think they could help the ward out really well! We also had dinner with some members and a lesson with the Trejo family about faith that they can have more faith to go to church and do the things they need to do to get baptized.
Thursday we had district meeting and did finding. Thursday was a funny day because it looked like it might rain but we thought it wouldn't rain and we'd be fine. So we left our apartment wearing all normal clothes. Everything was going fine but I felt like we should go to the next appointment we had. On the way there it started raining super heavily and we got soaking wet! We got so wet that we couldn't get any more wet! So we arrive to this appointment and we are soaking wet! The guy wasn't even there but his mom was and she was laughing because we were so wet! We had to take a picture of it because it was that funny! (he hasn't sent me the picture yet but I will be sure to post it when he does!!)  We had to go home and change clothes of course! Thankfully one of the members Hermano Reyes was inspired and asked if we needed a ride we said yes please!! Then we were able to stay dry the rest of the day!
Friday we had Elder Coorbridge of the Seventy come and speak to us it was a long meeting 9-5! The first part was really great and I learned a lot the second part was really confusing and the message that he was trying to get us to understand was super confusing! I tried to get as much as I could from the meeting though. We also taught some lessons after the mission tour.
Saturday we did everything we could to get people to go to church. We called them we visited them and we made sure there were people available to give rides if people needed them. We got 4 investigators to church but we really wanted the Trejo family to come but we don't know why they didn't come!!
Sunday was great we had an amazing testimony meeting!  I taught Gospel Principles and we played Jeopardy about the standard works. Then we checked on our investigators that didn't come to church. We taught some lessons and set up some other lessons but yeah it was a good week!
Something really amazing is that when we went to teach Patty and Sergio they basically taught us! We hardly said anything in the lesson; they are just so ready to be baptized!!! I hope I get to stay here for another transfer. I am not sure that I will because I have been here for 7 1/2 months and usually missionaries don't stay in their first area that long. We will see what happens on October 20th! Anyway, I love you all and I hope you all have a good week!

Love, Elder Reisner