Breaking in a new companion

Hi to all my friends and family!

I am doing well. My week was really long this week for some reason and I don't know why. We did find 3 new investigators and we have a lot of appointments set up for this week so I am excited about that!

Things with my new companion are good. He has been on the mission for 5 months and he is 20 years old. He has been in the military so he talks about that a lot. All I know is that grandpa and Uncle Stephen were in the military and that's it. He's a good missionary and we get along well. 

My health is good! I am letting Elder Steffan drive to learn the area and get the hang of driving in California. We are going to start having soccer games the 1st of June. This has been a really good weekly activity for our members. It is a great place to invite their friends and get to know us! We wanted to start it this Saturday but we are having a mini mission.

This week we just have been teaching less actives a lot and meeting with members to try and find new investigators. More members are now having referrals for us which is really good! We are hoping to be teaching now more than ever before!  We also had the opportunity to move some senior missionaries this last Tuesday while fasting. That was a really interesting experience.

Have a great week everyone!!
Love, Elder Reisner

The rest of the pictures Elder Reisner sent at Christmas

Me with one of the bishopric counselors and his wife

Elder McIlwain's birthday

Talent Show - Toga Time!

More dance

Talent Show dance

My sisters

Pilgrim missionaries

Obra for Thanksgiving

Temple Christmas lights

Snowmen for the Christmas Obra!!

L-R Elders Carvajal, Vight, Porter, Hermanas Poulton, Zamola, Anderson, me, Elders Rauckhorst and Vance

Other District

District L-R first row Hermana Brown, Jordan, Elder Mendoza, Elder Knight 2nd row Elder McIlwain, Mostert, Johnston, Smith, me and Elder Eddington

My district - this was after me not having any sleep and being in a lot of pain. They were great!

Elder Mostert - I love my "son"

2nd Temple Trip!

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear family and friends-

 

I had a great surprise when I got to Skype home yesterday!! My Grandma and Grandpa Obe were there!! It has been awhile since I have seen them and so that was fun to talk to them!

 

The teaching this week was with a sister by the name of Chantal. We also got to teach the Delfin family which was cool. We had a really good Zone Training where we learned about how we need to align our will with the Lord's will and serve him with all our heart might mind and strength.

 

So this week was transfers. I am staying here continuing to serve as the District Leader. My companion Elder Chadwick is being transferred to my first area - San Gabriel. My new companion is Elder Steffen. We are ready to teach, testify and baptize!

Sincerely, 

Elder Reisner

Finding and teaching - the GREAT life of a missionary!!

Dear family and friends,

I am feeling so much better now! :-)  I didn't get a package from home yet but thank you!! :-) I will hopefully get it today maybe or Thursday.

But anyways so this week was pretty good. We are still teaching Elida and now she is reading a lot more so that is good! She also came to church with us this week! We have been doing quite a bit of knocking this week so we can find more people to teach. We have had to drop a lot of our investigators because they aren't progressing.

We also moved an Hermnao which was a lot of work as moving always is but that's ok.  Also, Ashley's baptism was yesterday!!! It was soooo cool! She has changed so much since me and Elder Markham started teaching her! The Rimgrove members still miss me and told me they are going to ask President Becerra to send me back to the ward including the Bishop!

We found a family to teach! They are people from the Zumba class that we go to. She is a single mom who is either divorced or separated not sure which and her three kids of 14, 10 and 7. We are so excited to teach them and we are going to actually eat with them today!

We will for sure be able to Skype on Mother's Day. I can't wait to see and talk to you all! I have no idea when I will call  I've just been so engrossed with a lot of things lately! I am excited for this week! By the way transfer calls are this Saturday. So Sunday I can tell you whether I'll be transferred or not. I'm 98% sure that I am staying unless they whitewash my area which I don't think they will.

Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Reisner

Mormon Helping Hands

Dear family and friends,

I did have a pretty good week! This week we did an exchange and I had Elder Wight come to my area we had some really good lessons and it was good being with him. We also had some more lessons and an overall good week.

The highlight was definitely Saturday when we got to do Mormon Helping Hands service project for Arbor Day! It was fun and I got to see my peeps from Rimgrove :-) so I was really happy about that!  We helped the kids make projects and cleaned up a park and directed traffic for the event that they had at the park. It was a good day!

We also had an activity called busca la piedra preciosa. I'm not going to tell you what it is because I'm going to see if I can do it in our ward when I get back. It's a really spiritual activity that is super helpful for those people who can't go to the temple quite yet. It also helps those people who just need a spiritual boost!

I'm feeling better but Friday I did go to the doctor because I felt soo much pain! I thought I had an appendicitis but it turned out that I just had a blockage. So, we got that taken care of and the doctor said no spicy food for the weekend. Now I have to eat Activia yogurt to regulate my digestive system. I promise you that I am completely fine now so please don't worry! 

Elida is kind of progressing. She needs to understand the gospel better so we are kind of going through the lessons again so that she can understand more. Juan didn't come to church but the Carranza family did! I think they can be baptized here pretty quickly if we can get the 10 year old daughter to come to church! :- ) That's exciting of course!

We went to the temple today it was a good session and I'm really glad we got to go!

Have a good week everyone! 

Love, Elder Reisner

Have faith!

Hi to all my family and friends,

So my p-day is Tuesday today and next week it will be on Tuesday as well. I hope they can find out what's going on with Conner. I will definitely keep him in my prayers and look forward to next week. I hope that they will be able to figure out what is going on. 

This last week was really good! We were able to find a bunch of new investigators! Elida came to church with us again this week  We actually had a Zumba class on Saturday for all of our investigators and members to go to. We are doing good with our Insanity workouts!

We also had interviews with President Becerra yesterday. We are going to now baptize every month! We need to have the faith to do so which is something that I have been lacking. I have the faith to find and I know that I am going to find but I have always been unsure of whether they will get baptized or not. So we are now working as a mission to increase our faith to baptize every month! We have to think it and feel it in our hearts. He also told me that I'm doing good and he gave me a talk to read. He also answered some other questions that I had.

This week we had 2 investigators at church and one of them is from a part member family that we are going to start teaching today.  We also found this guy from Guatemala and he was going to church for 2 years in a row over there but never got baptized because his parents wouldn't let him. Now he is ready again and we are going to start teaching his family this week as well! Everything is really looking to go up which I am really excited for!!

An investigator that I was working with in Rimgrove is getting baptized! Her name is Ashley and she is getting baptized May 5! I hope that she invites me to come! President Becerra is talking about moving our boundaries to be roaming in two areas so that we can help the west area pick up in the ward. That will mean that I can have some contact still with members in Rimgrove so that will be cool if that happens!

I am doing great and no MRSA! Have a great week everyone!
Love, Elder Reisner 

Adjusting

Dear family and friends-

I am getting better from the infection or MRSA or whatever it was. I am going to try and eat some honey every day and see if that will help with the problem.

That is really good news about Conner. I am glad that he is doing well. Hopefully the physical therapy will go well for him.

So, everything is going good here! We started Zumba here last Wednesday and it was a great contacting opportunity!  Elida the Zumba instructor came to church on Sunday so that was really awesome!

I had the opportunity to do 2 of the 5 exchanges that I need to do. I got to go with Eder Mostert again that was fun! He was my companion when I first got to Rimgrove and I finished his training. Now he is a zone leader! I'm proud of him! In the mission we call the missionaries who we train our kids so I'm a proud dad haha!

We went to a Quincenera which is like a wedding reception except its for girls turning 15. It was kinda weird being there but the family that Elder Mostert and his companion are teaching were really happy that we were able to go.

Also, Juan our investigator read 8 chapters of the Book of Mormon in 2 days so that was really exciting! He didn't come to church though but we will get him there sooner rather than later! Of course we have also been doing a bunch of finding.

My clothes and shoes are good! The only thing I need is your love and support which I am getting! So I'm good :-)

I was also able to go to a baptism in Rimgrove because it was a family I helped Elder Mendoza teach. We had a good relationship with them. The mom and the daughter got baptized while I was in Rimgrove but the son got baptized yesterday! The ward told me they missed me and it's not the same without me which made me miss them so much!! I'm still adjusting to the members and style of the area here because it is a lot different. I know I can do that really soon. It will come with a little bit more time!

Have a great week everyone!
Love, Elder Reisner