Oneida is Booming!!

Like the title states the work here in Oneida is booming! This area has caught fire recently I don't know what it's been but the members are helping out a lot! 

Recently I have discovered the key to a successful area, or mission for that matter, is the members. As missionaries we need to work with members as much as we can. Even if we just get to know them and gain their trust it will set the path for future missionaries. When you have your whole ward/ branch doing missionary work it is 10 times more effective than if 2 full time missionaries do all the work. Each week on Thursday afternoons we hold an Oneida member missionary class and teach the members how to talk about the gospel in everyday situations, share pass-along cards, bring up natural conversation about the gospel and learn about the Atonement because as it says in Preach my Gospel "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the Gospel will increase." I know this to be true because as I have learn more about my Savior I want to tell everyone of the happiness, joy, strength, and change that comes from learning about the Atonement.

I know that Christ suffered for all of our sins and shortcomings. Like Brad Wilcox said in his talk " His Grace is sufficient " “Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us.” I know this is true without the slightest doubt!

I Love you all so much!! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

                  Elder Reyne!

Larry S. Kacher!

So in case you don't know who Larry S. Kacher is, he is member of the Quorum of the Seventy and he came to the mission yesterday which is why I didn't email yesterday. He also gave the second to last talk in general conference titled " Trifle Not With Sacred Things". So basically what we did was he had a list of 10 things that would help us be more effective missionaries and we picked 5 things we wanted to work on. Out of the 10 we picked, changing our mindsets, finding and planning, being  more led by the spirit,  activating agency in others and working with members.

I think that changing our mindsets was the best because a lot of times we say that an area is 'no good', or 'dead', meaning there is hardly any one to teach and you have to find all day long. We need to change our mind set and always say that an area ( or anything for that matter) is good and has a lot of potential to be great. If we put our mind to it anything can become great. 

Finding and planning was good too because he asked us about how many lessons per each key indicator we are teaching and what kind of people each key indicator falls under. So the types of people you can teach are investigators, less-actives, on-line, part member families, nonmembers and lessons with a member present. So we wrote down the average amount of each we teach weekly in order to find where the most potential work it to be done and we lacked the most in part member lessons. 

So the rest of the meeting was fantastic and the spirit was super strong and present the whole time I loved every minute of it!!! 

Our week was really good to! On Saturday we had a Harvest dinner where members brought Thanksgiving food items and we invited a bunch of people to come. I thought we were going to have a small turn out but we ended up having about 60 people!! And about half were nonmembers too! 5 were investigators we invited. It was amazing to see everyone work together from the branch whether the helped set up, take down or bring food. It was a great effort on every ones part. 

Other than that there's not a whole lot to report. I love you all and hope you are enjoying life!!!
       
 LOVE YAS!!

 Elder Reyne

One year already?!?!

So it has been one year since I started my mission and it has flown by!! I have really grown and learn a lot over the past year. Unfortunately I don't have time to write more. I will be sure to have a longer email next week!

 

Love ya!

 

       Elder Reyne!!

Hello! Hello!

Well hey there everyone! We had a great week this week and it was also very busy. The reason why I think it was so busy is because for our weekly planing goals for last week we set pretty high in order to show the Lord our faith to work hard. And because we set them high Heavenly Father was probably like "You set high goals? Okay then lets make your week super busy sop you can try to fulfill those goals!" So we basically asked for it but it was a great learning experience because we learned that we need to set goals that are both realistic and will expand our faith and teaching pool.

Our Halloween was really fun we went to Fred's house (our older Italian investigator) for lunch and a lesson and he made the food and everything this time! Usually he has us make the food and clean the dishes but this time he said "This one is on me, next time you guys will clean and stuff" Haha I love that guy! We finished teaching the plan of salvation because it's easier to teach a little at a time because there is quite a lot of information in it not to mention how deep you can go with it. 

Then we went to Berla and Steve's (some investigators who LOVE missionaries) house and carved pumpkins! It was fun, I carved the I love NY symbol into it because I LOVE NY!!! Then we just hung out at the house because if we didn't have any appointment we were supposed to be in by 6:00. 

So we have been teaching an investigator named Kristina that a member, Brother Woody, introduced us to and she is pretty awesome! She has very minimal gospel/spiritual knowledge but that's what we are here for! She said she will get baptized is she comes to know if what we teach is true!

I am having so much fun here in New York!! The mission changes you and you come to know that the church is indeed true without a doubt, it's amazing how the Lord molds and shapes you into what he wants you to be. 

I love you all!!!!

  Elder Reyne

I have time today!

So I actually have time to send my main email this time!! YAY!! This week was pretty good!

So we have been teaching an older hispanic gentleman named Edwin! He enjoys having us over. He does speak english but he can't read in english so he reads of out of his spanish copy of the Book of Mormon and then explains what he read in english and we talk about it. It's pretty interesting because some of the spanish to english translations are different that what the word really means. For example; wilderness translates to desert and tent translates to store (tienda). That one was is pretty funny. Haha, "And my father dwelt in a store" we had to laugh when he read that verse.

We are still teaching Fred. Remember him? He's the 90 year Italian old guy. We cooked him dinner twice this week. Tuesday we made some spaghetti and Friday I fried some chicken and it was yummy! 

So on Thursday we had to get our car checked at a Subaru dealership and it took like 5 hours. Long story short we didn't get to proselyte as much as we wanted to that day but we did get to walk around Syracuse which was pretty cool. 

We also had 3 investigators as church which was awesome!  

Anyway that was our week and it was not too bad. LOVE YA!!

        Elder Reyne

Member Missionaries to the rescue!

So this past week was really good!! First I will start with a story.

So Brother Fielding, a member in our branch has started coming out with us to lessons which is super awesome because no member has ever called US and asked, "Hey what are your plans for the day?" and then spent a few hours with us and our investigators. So on Saturday we had Brother Fielding pick us up in the area we were working in, in order for us to save miles. So he picked us up and we went to Freds house for a lesson and after we had dinner at Brother Fieldings house and he invited Fred to come too so he did. After dinner he dropped us off at our car. So we get in the car and try to start the car when my companion realizes he left the keys in the ignition for about 3 hours while we were gone!!! We didn't leave the car running when brother Fielding came to pick us up but we left it in position to listen to music/make phone calls while we waited to be picked up. So we turn the key and the car won't even turn over or come out of the ignition for some reason! (we have a Subaru Legacy BTW) So we call our recent convert Dan to help jump start our car because he was closest to our location. We were also parked in a grocery store parking lot and I'm glad that no one stole our car! Thankfully Heavenly Father keeps His eyes on missionaries. If he didn't most of the Elder missionaries wouldn't be alive, haha! 

I'm super grateful for the wonderful members we have in our little branch the help us out a lot which in turn helps missionary work run smoother.

Love ya!!!

            Elder Reyne 

Service all around!

Hello everyone!! This past week was good mainly because of General Conference and because we helped an investigator of our gain a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith!

But before I explain that I'll tell you all about the service we did. So on from Wednesday to Friday we did service pretty much the whole time. Wednesday we helped some investigators move. I wonder if people ever think that the Mormons are a moving company because of all the moving we help people do, haha! Thursday we helped out at the YMCA gym by cleaning out the dirt from in between tiles. We also helped some more investigators stain their deck in the back. Friday we were in service clothes literally all day probably the first time on my mission I wasn't in missionary clothes for at least a few minutes. First we helped a member clean out her garage and organize it. Then we cleaned the kitchen of a 90 year old investigator named Fred who's stubborn but really funny! His wife passed away about 6 months ago and she did all the cleaning so his house is pretty messy to say the least. I spent at least 2 hours washing dishes while my companion, Elder Hatanaka, clean the counters and floor. Afterward we did weekly planning because we wouldn't have time on Saturday because of Conference. 

So now onto the investigator!!!! So on Sunday after conference we stopped by Fred ( the one who's house we cleaned) to show him the full version of the restoration. Because he loves to watch TV and doesn't really do much other than watch TV we figured that watching the full restoration video would be great for him. So throughout the video we explained things that he didn't fully understand. At the end we asked him if he believed Joseph Smith was a prophet and he said yes, and we bore testimony that he is a prophet!!! The spirit was so strong it was amazing. 

I love you all this church is truly Gods church and Jesus stands at the head of it!!

Elder Reyne