Christmas

Dear family and friends,

 

This last week was really good! We got a lot of things done and we were able to learn a lot of things. 

We had to drop a lot of our investigators and start over because they weren't progressing also I did two exchanges and had the opportunity to talk with my family! Also, we were able to receive a ton of referrals from members and we ate a ton of tamales!  We are almost done with this transfer and of course changes are on the horizon. As we head into the new year my goal is to be even more dedicated to the gospel to be even more hard working and to not be distracted. I want to truly grow and progress in the gospel and I invite all of you to do the same. When we are able to do this then we realize the important things of life and why we are here and who we should be serving. 

I love you all Happy New Year!

 

Love, Elder Reisner

Christmas party week!

Dearest family and friends,

 

This last week nothing too exciting happened just our mission Christmas party. There were a lot of great talents and I actually participated!

 

The work is going really good! We are finding new investigators and lots of good things are happening. We are finding new things to do to find and teach and it's working great! We aren't having anyone that is really progressing, but we will keep our efforts strong to keep finding people!

 

We also had our ward Christmas party where we dressed up as the three wise men and pastores (shepherds) and we danced to some really catchy Spanish Christmas songs!

 

Then on Sunday I got asked to speak at the last minute about how the mission has changed my life. I took a minute to think about that and it really has changed my life for the better! I know that I am much more patient and loving and more humble and a lot of things. I can definitely still improve but I am noticing that I am progressing in the gospel and it is very exciting to see! Umm really other than that nothing really happened just still doing the Lord's work and I'm happy to do it! I hope all of you are doing well and are having a great Christmas season! 

 

I love you all!

Love, Elder Reisner

The ninos the navidad and the new companion

Dear family and friends,

 

Well this last week was really great! We started with a really good noche de hogar with the Gonzalez family. The other elders are actually teaching them but Elder Mendoza was waiting for his new companion from the MTC so the three of us taught together. It was really good and the mom actually told us last Sunday that it was a good noche de hogar so that was cool! 

Tuesday, we got Elder Mendoza's new companion and met members so that Elder Markham could get to know them better.

Wednesday, we taught a bunch and we found these 4 ninos who are the non-member grandkids of an hermana in our ward. We showed them an object lesson about faith and they were hooked! It was really cool and they wanted us to come over every day! haha! 

Then we are practicing to be in the Christmas program in the ward. We are going to be shepherds and the three kings.

Thursday, was a really great zone meeting. We learned that we have been teaching the wrong way. We need to focus on the atonement and on baptism every lesson. We need to help people feel Godly sorrow so they can feel the need and know the why to get baptized. That was really inspired. Then we taught some more and put that into practice and it worked really well! 

Friday, we taught the ninos again. They waited for us to come which was pretty great! Then we did splits with some of the young men in our ward.

That's what happened to me this last week. It was really good and we are using what we learned and applying it. It is working really well; it is really showing people the why and making it so that we really teach people a principle and not just a lesson which is really cool.  

Well, I love you all and I hope your having a good Christmas time!

 

Love, Elder Reisner

 

Elder Reisner is feeling much better! He injured his rotator cuff and is doing some exercises to recuperate. Thank you all for the many prayers offered! 

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