A happy healthy missionary am I!!!

Dear family and friends, 

 

This last week was really good! I had a meeting for the District Leaders and it is really weird to think that I have been District Leader for 8 months now! I really enjoy doing it so that's great! 

 

Last week we did have a tender mercy while we were on exchanges. I was with Elder Garry who only has 4 weeks in California. He and I went to one of our investigators house. We taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He then said he would prepare to be baptized on the 30th of this month!! So we are praying and doing every possible thing that we can so that he can make his date. We also asked him to offer the closing prayer and he did and then he started to cry so it was a very touching experience. 

 

We also taught more lessons this past week and we are inviting everyone to be baptized because that is how we are going to baptize every month  I also ran into some of my old investigators from San Gabriel. They made a U-turn and pulled off on the side of the road while I was on exchanges just to say hi to me! So I gave them my address and told them to write me. It was really cool! They still haven't been baptized but one day they will! 

 

We had Stake Conference yesterday and I was able to see all of the people from Rimgrove. That was cool too! We had a member of the Seventy at our conference and he talked about missionary work. He gave some really cool stories about miracles in missionary work. It was awesome! 

 

Other than that we have just been trying to find. This last week being graduations and all that fun stuff nobody has really been home to talk to us so we are hoping this week will be better and that we can find new people to teach. I know that good things will come if we continue to put our trust in the Lord.   

 

I am doing so well! I am MRSA free and sickness free I am happy and healthy and I am doing my best to purify myself. I think I want to be a Zumba instructor when I get back! We also had zone training which President Becerra came and blew all of our minds!! He talked about stuff we could do in the first lesson so we can get it centered on baptism and really set expectations and explain our purpose so they can know from the get go what we are all about. 

 

Anyway, that's all I have for this week.  

Love, Elder Reisner

Purifying myself

Hey everyone!

So everything is going good just my companion has been sick for the last few days  :-( We have been working really hard finding and teaching as many people who want to be baptized when my companion has been feeling well.

We had a Zone Conference in which we were told that we aren't asking people to be baptized as much as we should be and I am guilty of that.  We also learned that we need to purify ourselves which means get rid of all the things that are causing us not to dedicate ourselves 100% to the work. This last Sunday what I did is I fasted and made a list of all the things that were distracting me. Now I am taking that list and I am fasting from those items for 40 days in order to purify myself and really serve the Lord with all my heart might mind and strength.

As for all of our investigators we didn't have a chance to meet with any of them that we found last week due to sickness and canceling their appointments. We did find new investigators to teach so that is always good. When I left the Zone Conference it made me really think about what repentance is and how to be a pure missionary who can teach with power and authority. I want to be more humbled and repentant than ever before.

We also had our soccer activity which was quite successful. We had investigators, non-members and less actives so it was good! This next week we won't have soccer but the 15th we will play again against another ward. We also helped move some people and we found a family that is having some problems but we know that the gospel can really help them out in their lives!

I think that's all I have this week. 

Love, Elder Reisner 

Things just keep getting better!

Hola everyone!!

Sounds like things are going good over there! It's so weird to think that some of my friends are already coming home from their missions! The other day I was talking with some of the youth from our ward and they asked me how long I had left. I told them a long time then they started guessing and then it hit me that I only have 8 months left  :'-( ! Holy cow has time passed by sooo quickly!! I'm just barely understanding what it means to serve the Lord with all your heart might mind and strength and to really just get out of the way so that the Lord can do His work!

We had an AWESOME week last week! I did an exchange with the Zone Leaders and well we didn't really have anything planned so I got to learn from Elder Johnston. We had a miracle happen! We went to get to know this apartment complex and right as we walked in there were two ladies sitting down talking. So we just started talking to them and we said we were going around leaving blessings on homes. We asked if they would like one and they said yes but that they wanted to actually have blessings for themselves because they were having a hard time. The ladies were a mom and the girlfriend of her son and they said they wanted her son to be there so that he could get a blessing too. We came back later that night at 6 and gave the mom, her two sons and the girlfriend a blessing. It was really cool!! Then we set up an appointment to teach them on Saturday. So we go to their house on Saturday and they aren't there. Then like 5 minutes later they come home and we have a really good lesson with them! The mom really wants to have her family be in our religion. She already is talking about going to church and adjusting her work schedule so that she can go every week. She's going to get baptized for sure!! Then that same day we found two young men who told us that we could come back and talk to the rest of their families. That was way cool as well!

Sunday we found two more investigators that told us that they would come to church as well! The area is really picking up and I'm super excited for that! We just need to remember that we need to find people and baptize them and help them endure to the end. Not because we want to, but because that is Heavenly Father's plan and we are only the tools in His hands! The couple is doing well that we found last week. They are going to church and learning about the gospel.

The mini mission we had last week was with a young man from another ward. We had him with us for the whole day to simulate what a mission will be like. We had a really quiet 21 year old, I hope he had a good experience so that he will go on his own mission!

I am truly appreciative of all your prayers!!!

Love, Elder Reisner

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