Ripped pants won't keep me from the work!!

Dear family and friends,

I am doing great! Everything is going better now. Ignacio didn't get baptized this last week. We haven't been able to meet with him so its been tough on us this last week. However, we have a lot of stuff set up for this week so it is looking good! Hopefully we can find Ignacio at home. He has been coming home late like 11 p.m. which is too late for missionaries and been leaving at 6:40 a.m. which is 10 minutes after we get up. We might wake up early one of these days to try and talk to him to see what's up.

Two missionaries this past week had their bikes locked up with their U-locks and somebody came and cut the locks and stole the bikes! I fell again and ripped my pants but at least the only thing I did this time was rip my pants! I need to get to the goodwill store so that I can buy some new pants since I have ripped like 3 pair from all my falls!

Let's see honestly this last week was really weird. Like nobody was home. We didn't teach much and we didn't really find because we have been trying so hard to teach Ignacio and our other investigators aren't progressing. We are trying really hard to get the members to invite their friends to go to the taco night. So hopefully things will all work out and the work will progress along! I'm not sad or discouraged I just don't like weeks like this. I know that sometimes we have less success when we need to learn something so I am trying to figure out what the Lord is trying to teach me!

One of the things that I have learned this week is that in missionary work we can't just spend all of our time with people who won't progress or grow in the gospel. We have to be constantly sifting the wheat from the tares and helping them progress as we progress. We can only help somebody be as converted to the gospel as we are. Because as we know conversion is a process and not an event. We are constantly trying to become like our Savior.

This week I want you to read the article in the February Ensign about the hesitant missionary. Then I would invite all of  you to share the gospel with somebody. I promise you that if you do you will be happier, you will receive the same joy that I feel each and every day and you will really learn the love that our Father in Heaven has for us!



Have a great week everyone and pray for missionary experiences!

Love, Elder Reisner

The work rolls on!

Dear family and friends,

 

Unfortunately the last 2 weeks we have been passing sickness around in the mission. I was no exception, of course!  I was sick on Saturday and had to stay home :-( I was not feeling good at all so I bought some tissues and drugs to help. I think it was just a bad sinus cold so nothing too bad I just know I was not well enough to go out and work which made for a day of sleeping. I am feeling lots better now! 

 

The taco night we are working so hard on is the 16th of February. We are planning and asking and recruiting all the members to go and bring their friends so that is going along good. I kind of wanted it to be bigger but I have to remember that there are budgets and stuff. :-) 

 

Ignacio is a freaking miracle!! He went to church this past week and said he had some doubts about getting baptized this next week. I asked him if we could pass by that night to talk about them and he said yes. He also told me that he stopped drinking coffee!! Then he told us that night that he wasn't sure if the Book of Mormon was true or if he was ready to be baptized this next Sunday. We talked to him and told him about the promised blessings from being baptized. Then all of the sudden he's like OK lets do this!!! He asked after the appointment so where are they going to baptize me? It was just AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 

So I learned from my companion this week that it's better to take a day off than to be sick for a month! I hope I taught him that weekly planning is important and that all we need to do as members and missionaries is to open our mouths.  

 

Everything is good with me and Ignacio is looking to be baptized this Sunday!!! WOOT!!! So pray for him please!  We contacted a LOT of people this week and taught a lot of lessons as well. I hope that everyone has a really good week! 

Love, Elder Reisner

Things are looking up

Dear family and friends-

 

It has been an interesting week. I am doing good and the area is looking to be on the up and up! This last week everybody including my companion was sick so it affected the work a little. But this week is looking to be a better week and we are excited about that!  

 

This last week we didn't get to find anyone but we did teach some lessons and we learned a lot of things personally through some hard trials. We also had a bunch of changes in the leadership in our ward. So we started working with the new leadership in order to get the missionary work rolling in this area. 

 

Something that we are going to do to help ignite the work is have a taco night!  This will be a HUGE ward activity that the missionaries are putting together. We have been busy making flyer's and really trying to get the word out. We are going to give people a tour of the church, do a raffle and give them free tacos! We hope that this will bring us many more people to go visit and to teach. We are getting the whole ward involved and hopefully everything turns out good! 

 

This has also been a week of learning for me. I was glad to learn a lot of things from my own experiences and from President Becerra. We are getting an influx of approximately 50 missionaries February 18 so I am hoping to train again. That would be super cool!

 

That's really all I have for you this week. I hope everyone is doing well!

Love, Elder Reisner

Keep on finding!

Dear family and friends, 

 

Not too much is new this week. I got MRSA again last week because I wasn't able to take all my antibiotics last time. The vicodin from my bike accident didn't mix with my other antibiotic. I got on some more medicine and it is gone. So I am back on track and doing good! The only thing sad is that Ignacio didn't come to church. He had to work so we don't blame him because he is desperate for work! We did have 1 investigator that came to church and so that was good! We also found some more investigators they are doing good. We have a lot of progressing investigators too so we are excited about that! I hope everyone is doing well!

Love, Elder Reisner

Since no letter today enjoy some pictures!

Remember awhile ago when he was caught in the rain?

Alvarado family

Soaking wet!

Reyes' I went to the the temple with them!

Hno Alvarado

Schleske family

Hnas Flores y Marquez

Patty and Sergio on the left and the De Los Santos family

Hermano Lopez and his fiance' Hermana Marquez

Reyes family I love them so much!

The golden contact, the great investigators and the end of the transfer

Dear family and friends,

 

The transfer just ended and I am staying here in Rimgrove. I am really happy about that because I did not want to leave! We have been having a lot more success and have been finally finding people who will progress and be baptized! I am keeping my same companion and also remaining District Leader. Transfers will be in 5 weeks this time instead of 9 and so it will be interesting to see what happens then!

 

I'll start off with the golden contact we had this guy was unreal! We were waiting to cross the street on our bikes when this one guy makes an illegal U-turn to come and talk to us(we found this out later). Then he says I don't know why but something told me that I have to come and talk to you guys. We asked him if he knew who we were and he said yeah your the Mormons. Then he asked so what are you all about? Then we told him a little bit about the restoration. He said well that's cool so when can we study? Of course we said when can you? He said well before 2 tomorrow but I see your name tags are in Spanish so are you teaching English to people who speak Spanish or work in a Spanish congregation? We said yeah we work with a Spanish congregation and he said well I don't speak a lick of Spanish. We were a little bummed but we told him that we had friends who worked in an English congregation and we would contact them and they could set up a time. He said cool, then he asked us you wouldn't have a Book of Mormon on you would you? We said yes and we had ONE in English! We gave it to him and he said that he would start reading it. So then we got his information and we were on our way. Then he texts us like 5 minutes later and asks if he can meet with the English elders that night! We gave him their number and he sets up an appointment with them for 8 o'clock that night. We met him at 5. Then the English elders told us that in that space of 3 hours that he had read all the way up to 3rd Nephi!! It was crazy!! Also, he had already prayed about it and was considering baptism! So that was really cool! 

 

The other cool things that happened is we have 2 new investigators. A sister and a brother (not from the same family) they have great potential! The sister is 13 and is a foster child of one of the members. She hasn't been baptized so we are working with her and she has a desire to be baptized. The brother just moved in with some other members and he has desires to be baptized as well. The first lesson we had with the brother was probably the best lesson we had the whole transfer! The spirit was so strong and it was just over all good! 

 

So with those things happening it was a great week and we are looking forward to having another successful transfer!

 

Les Quiero mucho!

Love, Elder Reisner

New Years, Three Kings Day and Progression

Dear Familia y amigos, 

 

This last week was super great! We did a lot of things. These two priests in our ward are super excited to do splits with us! We were able to do that for two days and had a lot of success by double working the area! We also re-found Angel and he is reading everyday because his mom makes him read from the Book of Mormon. They are in Alma he also went to church!! So we are going to continue to work with him and help him and his mom get baptized! Also, we met a guy who is living with a member and has really good potential of getting baptized and has even came to church! We are still finding and it seems like the people that we are finding are more willing to progress which is super awesome! Also, I did an exchange with Elder Eddington that was cool he really helped me to see a different way to do missionary work.  We also started teaching this guy in a part member family that had questions and he went to church as well!! So everything is on the up and up and its really exciting to see the area picking up again! We are working to get referrals and to just keep talking with people and helping all of them! Anyways, se cuidan!

 

Love, Elder Reisner