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

I feel like Jack Bauer

Hey everyone, I'm sorry but I honestly don't have time to write my weekly email. Today and basically this past week we have been rushing around like crazy to and from place to place. I'm sure that's how Jack Bauer feels in 24 haha! 

I hope you know I love you all!!!

 Elder Reyne

Small Miracles in Oneida!!

Hello everyone! It's that time of the week again! I don't have a whole lot of time so I'll give you the awesome miracle that took place.

So we have two sets of Elders living in our apartment because their apartment isn't ready to be moved into yet so we have been blitzing our area. Blitzing means when 2 sets of missionaries work in one area, so it's been really helpful to be able to work 2 parts of our area because it is so big. There was also a small but testimony building miracle that happened yesterday. So we were going around visiting people and it had been just DUMPING rain for the past 30 mintues. After we drove to the next place we were going to visit my companion asked if we could say a prayer so the rain would stop. So after I said the prayer we got out of the car and starting walking. Roughly 10 minutes later the sun came out from behind the clouds and the rain stopped! It was so cool and amazing that Heavenly Father answered a simple pray to make the rain stop. Prayer is so real and important, but we have to have faith that He will answer our prayer.

I love you all and hope you are enjoying life!

 Love;

        Elder Reyne!!

Is it really Monday already?

So this week absolutely FLEW by I can't believe it. I honestly don't remember much of what happened so I'll give you what I do remember.

So on Sunday there was this event with 5 other churches called the progressive dinner. The churches were the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian and St. Patricks (catholic). On two streets next to each other these five churches gave tours of their buildings and a history of the church which was pretty cool and interesting. All of the buildings had stained glass windows and high ceilings. So how it worked was we first went to the Baptist church and after a little talk about the church everybody got some food which was just a little appetizer. Then to the Episcopalian for a small history of the church then soup and salad for the meal. 3rd was St. Patricks, 4th was Presbyterian for the main course which was just rice and a shish kabob. Then 5th was the Methodist for desert. All but the baptist church did their baptisms by sprinkling water on peoples head. After seeing all the churches my testimony on baptism was increased because seeing that other churches didn't do it by immersion made me think, "How could such an extremely simple truth like that be lost for some churches". It just didn't make sense to me how it could be any other way than by immersion. I didn't even really care about getting food just the fact that I got to learn how satan has twisted plain and precious truths was interesting enough for me. When you think about it where do other churches even get sprinkling baptisms. Anyway I just think it's stupid. We did meet some really cool people and they told us how much they respected what we did and things like that. We even got a pastor to agree to come to a tour of our building some time it was awesome! 

Overall our week was pretty good but I don't remember any lessons we had at the moment.

Anyway I'm loving the area of Oneida and will no longer be in a trio. I should be in this area for a few transfers probably until around January.

Loves Yas!

             Elder Reyne

Oneida Branch Seminar

So this week was really awesome we taught a bunch of lessons in person and via facebook. The highlight of the week was sunday but I will get to that.

So on Tuesday we started doing service for the YMCA (which is just a workout place like Golds gym) we are basically the janitors because there is only one person that does the cleaning and stuff and she can't clean the boys locker/changing room until night when the gym is closed. We also taught this investigator named Fred. He's a 90 year old Catholic Italian who's super funny. He lost his wife a few months ago, and who happened to show up shortly after her death? The Missionaries of course!! We keep telling him she sent us to teach him but he doesn't believe us. Hopefully he will soon, we keep telling him to pray about it.  

So on Friday we had a super long planning session, mainly because we all get distracted easily, but it was good because we had an epiphany ( the spirit, really) about what we were going to teach on Sunday because we were assigned to teach 3rd hour. We decided we were going to combine everyone for third our and pretty much call the whole Branch to repentance for not doing much missionary work.

So we prepared by getting some statistics from LDS.org and learned that we havn't had more than 330,00 convert baptisms since 1990, that's a long time with out that much growth. We are the true church we should have more each year, mainly because we have more members, missionaries and tools to spread the gospel. Anyway we lovingly, but boldly, told the Branch they weren't doing their job and neither were we because we havn't taught them how to share the gospel in every day senarios. So we had every member, roughly 25, role-play a situation where they could share the gospel. We recorded it and I will share it with you once we figure out how to post it somewhere. 

Well I'm out of time but I love all of you and hope you are doing just wonderful!!

Love ya!

      Elder Reyne!

Am I really 20?

Well I just turned 20 today, it's super weird.  And I still have over one year left on my mission. It's crazy how time flies though!

Anyway, not a whole lot happened this week. We didn't teach many lessons mainly because people LOVE to talk and we didn't have time to visit other people. That's something that's definitely hard about the people of New York is that they can just jibber jabber until the cows come home, seriously, I don't know how they do it but they can just go on for days. We have been doing a lot of reactivation work though and that's always fun because they know their stuff but we just need to figure out why they stopped coming to church.

I am still in a trio in the area of Oneida but should be transferred out soon because another Elder who went home for an injury a few months back will be returning to the mission and he and I will double into an area. But I don't know when that will be but it should be soon.

Being in a trio is pretty fun but when members come with us to lessons it feels like we are invading their space because instead of one extra person there's now 2 and it's probably weird for them. 

Well I hope you all had a great week and I hope you know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you! Also I love you!

Elder Reyne

Events all over the place!!!

So this past week in Oneida was very eventful and a lot of things happened making for a very fun week!

So from Monday to Wednesday not much happened other than teaching a few lessons and contacting former and potential investigators. On Thursday we helped another church set up a free lunch that took place at a park. Little Caesers pizza sponsered the event so we got some free pizza which is always good.

Friday we helped an investigator couple decorate for their reception.

Saturday we helped a member move a couch into her house. Then we went to the investigator couples wedding which was wonderful. Then we went to the reception and had a fun time there. Then we went to a baptism that the nearby sister missionaries had at our building because they don't have a proper meeting house in their area. 

Sunday morning the investigator couple that got married the day before got baptized. Then we taught a lesson to this awesome older couple who are catholic but believe in the Godhead and NOT the trinity (crazy right). And that was pretty much our week! It was a lot of fun and a great way to show that missionaries are real people! 

I don't have time for a spiritual message but I hope you know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you and are aware of you!!

Love you all!!

      Elder Reyne

Back In Action

Hello! Man it is so good to be back in New York after a very special, but sad 3 weeks.

 

The area I am in now is Oneida. I am in a trio with Elders Longwill and Hatanaka. They are so much fun and are hard workers. Being in a trio is so much more different than just a regular companionship. Like my first two areas I am in a branch again, but I love branches because you get to know the members really well and fast. We have a good amount of investigators to teach which is new for me because I'm used to knocking on doors all day. The members are really nice and friendly. There is a lot of things happening next week but I don't have time to share them today so next week I will let you all know how my week went!

 

Love ya!!

 

Elder Reyne

Fisher of Men and Fish

I caught some bass the other day!

Hello, hello!

So this last week was pretty tough and discouraging. I won't go into too much detail but we only taught 1 lesson and the other lessons we were going to teach fell through, which is always frustrating. But I always try to stay positive and hope for a better week!!

 Already this week is off to a good start! Just a few minutes ago this lady, who was using a computer next to us, gave us her name and phone number! It was totally out of the blue, I don't know if she really knows who we are or if she wants us to teach her or not but still that NEVER happens here (well not never but you know what I mean).

Elder Neus and I have been trying to work more with the members and less active members instead of tracting every day because that's pretty much the only way to find people to teach in this area and it's not very effective. It's hard to meet with the members though because everyone lives so far away and spread and we only have so many miles per month we can drive.

Well, other than that there's not much else to report. But my testimony of this church grows everyday and I feel the love my Father in Heaven and His Son have for me each and everyday. I know they are always there for me ready to lift me up when times get hard. This church IS true and I love it so much, it brings me so much joy and happiness that I can't express in words.

Love ya!!!

           Elder Reyne 

Not much really happened

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you look back and think, "what the heck did I do all week?" Well that's how it was this week. It wasn't a bad week it just feels like not a lot happened.

 But we were able to teach a few lessons and meet this super nice less active couple. They are hard to get ahold of so I'm glad we were able to meet with them. Sister Ludwig is super nice and bubbly and Brother Ludwig is awesome and has a sweet Duck Dynasty beard! When we knocked on the door no one answered. We knocked three times and there was no answer, so we go over to the other door (because like every house has two front door in upstate new York it's annoying and weird, I never know which one to knock on) and knock and we hear Sister Ludwig scream, because we made her jump from waking up from her nap, it was funny. So she let us in and fed us which we weren't expecting and we talked for a while and they are just super nice people, I don't know why they are less active, but we will change that =).

Then on Saturday we went this super sweet waterfall because we started proselyting early on Monday. I think it is the tallest waterfall or something.

Anyway, I hope that next week will be more eventful. I definitely felt the spirit at zone conference and learned a lot about repentance and obedience. I know we are able to obey all the commandments because why would God give them to us if we were not able to follow them? And I love the scripture in D&C about how the Lord has never given us a temporal law, they are all spiritual. Think about it, every commandment we follow helps our spirituality and when we brake them it results in a loss of the spirit. I just think it's sweet!

LOVE YA!!!!

             Elder Reyne

Miracles in Greenville!

I had a pretty awesome week! Lots of things happened and we have been praying for a miracle and our prayers were answered!

So first we got a new investigator who is pretty solid. Her name is Rachel, and at first she said that she was catholic and not interested, but we asked her if she knew about the Mormons and she thought that the Mormons out west practiced polygamy still, so we explained that there is branch off of the LDS faith that it not apart of the true church. And after a while of talking we took out a restoration pamphlet and taught the 1st lesson on her porch. We didn't ask her if we could come back, she asked US if we could come back I was super shocked because that like never happens!!

Another miracle that happened was that we didn't get eaten alive by some German shepherds. We knocked on this door, left an pass-along card and then walked away to leave when 2 German Shepherds start barking and running toward us from the back yard, that we didn't know were even there when we first walked up. So my companion Elder Neus books is back to the door and I'm all confused as to what was going on so I stumbled and fell over but was able to get back up before they got to us. So me and my comp. are cowering on the porch while the owner is calling them to go back to the back yard. The dogs didn't listen, but didn't come any closer to us. Then the lady goes to the front door takes the card, says "here's your card back" then calls the dogs in, so we cautiously walk away. It was pretty funny afterward but the lady was pretty rude, she didn't even apologize for her dogs that almost ate us. Oh well, welcome to upstate New York!

Other then that we just tracted and worked with the senior couple, but it was a super good week!

Love ya!!

Elder Reyne

June 30, 2014

The waterfall is under a bridge right next to our house

Catskill mountains

Bike Rides = No fun!

So my week was really awesome despite the title (I'll get to that in a bit).

We picked up a new investigator on Monday and he is pretty sweet. The senior couple met with a less active family and their less active daughter few weeks ago. After their visit they told us that the daughter has a 14 year old son and she wants him to learn about God and have good male role models in his life and she thought of the missionaries! So after a week or two of forgetting to call and set up an appointment with them, we called and set up an appointment to start teaching Shawn about God ( the missionary lessons). His mom told us that he has a learning disability and that it might take a while for him to learn and retain everything, so we had to teach very simply. So we taught the first lesson with using the new teaching method ( using the Restoration pamphlet) and he seemed to understand for the most part. We met with shawn and his mom Dawn again on Sunday and taught about the Book of Mormon and committed him to baptism and he said yes! But we will need to work with him more before he is ready.

Thursday we had our zone training meeting and like always the spirit is very strong and I always leave with a renewed desire to work hard and bring many people closer to Christ. After ZTM instead of leaving the stake center and coming back for priesthood leadership meeting we worked with other Elders in there area, it was great! The leadership meeting was good too. It was all about missionaries and members working together and our branch has trouble with that so hopefully our branch leadership will start having the rest of the branch help us.

So now for my bike riding tale of misery! So one day each month in the summer time our mission has what is called a car fast. It's the same as a fast from food only with the car and it's all day long. So Elder James and I decided to ride the bikes because I never have ridden a bike since I've been on my mission. Well let me just say, it was flippin' hard!!!! There are SOOO many hills here. Up and down, and up and down, and up, and up and UP. My legs were jelly!! We rode about 17 miles. I thought I would be fine but I'm used to riding in California where it's flat everywhere! No potentials or investigators came from that day but it was a testimony builder to me that we need to work hard in every aspect of missionary work.

Anyway. I hope your legs aren't killing you!

      

Love

      Elder Reyne! 

Festival Celebrating the countries freedom

Here Comes Summer

So it's basically summer time now and the horror stories I've heard from other missionaries about the heat are true! It gets so hot here and the stupid humidity makes it 5 times worse. I miss the dry heat! It hasn't been too bad just yet but you pretty much start sweating right when you walk out side. It's no bueno. The humidity makes 90 degree weather feel like 110! So these next few months should be fun!

On to my week!

So we didn't do nearly as much service this week has we have been the past 3 weeks and it has been SOOO nice to do some actual finding!! I know it sounds weird but was stoked to do some tracting! We didn't find any new investigators this week, but that's nothing new here.

Elder James and I haven't had luck with finding any new investigators, so this week we made a goal to just find at least 1 super soild investigator. We are both a little tired of doing service, don't get me wrong I apsolutely love helping others but we should be finding more often. So we are going to work super hard this week because every day is basically open. It's going to be sweet! What won't be sweet will be the heat BUT we will work hard anyway!

I'm so grateful to be here in Greenville, there is a lot of work to do and I hope we can find as many people as will receive us. This branch doesn't have the best idea on how to do missionary work so we are working hard to get them excited about inviting others to come unto Christ, I think that is one of the reasons why I am here.

I hope you all are doing well and are finding success in your endeavors!

Love,

         Elder Reyne!!
                            

From left to right; Me, Marissa (brother Vulcanos daughter), Brother Vulcano, Sister Vulcano (got baptized in March) Elder James

You probably think that service is all I do here?

Again we did a bunch of service this week but I love it it's great!! I would like to be teaching and finding more but if this is why I was sent to Greenville, I won't complain! We do some teaching though, it's not completely service.

 On Monday we help an older member, Brother Kruppenbacher, build a ramp up to a shed that he keeps his lawn mowers in. He is so funny! You know how Elmer Fudd (spelling?) from Looney Toons sounds right? It's the guy who says "wabbit" and is always trying to shoot Bugs Bunny? Well picture an old man with a walker who sounds like that and you'll get Brother Kruppenbacher. He is so awesome!

Tuesday we helped an investigator of our plant tomatoes, sunflowers, corn and beans, it was a lot of fun! Because I told her that I knew how to plant tomatoes she made me plant them all, haha! She was shocked when I told her we had a garden is Arizona she was like "How do you plant anything in that dry place!?" Ha ha I thought about it and honestly I have no idea how things grew there!

Then on Thursday I went on exchange to my last area in Hudson! It was super weird, plus I was with my last companion Elder McPherson too, we had so much fun!

Friday we did some more painting at Brother Anastasios apartment house, and the senior couple came and helped too! It's looking a lot better since the tenant who lived there last trashed the place.

 Saturday we had a baptism! But I take zero credit for it because he already had a date set, I was just there. His name is Mike Vulcano, his wife Elizabeth got baptized 2 months ago. They are both super awesome and just the nicest people. I'll send pictures next week.

Anyway I hope you are all doing great! I hope you know that Heavenly Father and His Son love you and are aware of you!

  Love ya!

        Elder Reyne

Some More Service

So like last week we did a lot of service but this time instead of painting we helped the Brittons rebuild a truck. Bro. Britton built the motor but we just helped put it in and lift the cab of the truck onto the frame of the truck. I unscrewed a lot of nuts bolts and it was super fun I love doing things like that! The main reason why we did so much service is because they live close and could give us rides to and from the place where we worked on the truck and also because we hardly had any miles left for the month of may. To explain, each area in the mission with a car (95% of the mission) has a set amount of miles they can use per month. Our area gets 1150 miles each month. With our area so spread out we can't really go anywhere by foot. We did however get a TON of help from the senior couple. They drove us a bunch this week because they have their own car and can drive as much as they want. I don't like how the mileage restricts us from doing the Lords work but it's to prevent Elders (or Sisters) from driving everywhere and costing the mission a bunch of money.

Anyway the week wasn't very eventful but it's a new month so we get more miles yay!!! So next weeks email should be more eventful!

Love ya!

    Elder D 

Helping the Jensen's make bread sticks

                                                                         

My First Transfer!

 So far my new area in Greenville is great! As the name states, it's green! Lots of trees and grass etc. It is very rural and spread out and there's not a city like Hudson so there's a lot of tracting work to be done but I will be able to manage, tracting isn't all that bad!

The District

Before I talk about Greenville let me talk about my last few days in Hudson!

Elder Reyne and his Mission President, his wife and the Elders in his District

Performing Service

So a member of our called us and asked if we could help him put in a pool liner in the pool at his hotel/lodge. So I got to be in a pool on my mission!! Don't worry no water was involved so I didn't break any rules. It was super fun! Umm yeah pretty much all that went on other then packing and cleaning.

Service

Waterfall Near the Hudson River

On to Greenville!! So we have done a lot of service so far which has been super fun On Wednesday we just tracted after I unpacked. Thursday we did a little bit of tracting then we did our weekly planning. We were about halfway done when a member called us and asked for our help to move a washer and dryer into their house. After that we had a lesson with the Vulcanos; a recent convert and her husband who will be getting baptized soon. Then we had dinner at a less active families house (the Brittons), they feed us twice a week and their less active daughter and her family (the Graffs) feeds us twice a weeks as well. They are both awesome families I don't know why they struggle to come to church they don't live that far away. Their house holds are pretty crazy though, but fun!

 On Friday we painted Brother Anastasios apartment that he owns and rents out. He's less active too but he is the coolest!! He had an insurance guy come to his house before we painted, so we had to wait a while, but he owns a flippin' pin ball machine!! So we played that until he was ready to leave. After we painted we ate at a members house ( his name escapes me). We had potato pancakes which I've never had before. Then we ate pizza at the Salvios ( another less active) house and we played with a frizzbee with her sons who are awesome. Saturday we worked with the senior couple, the Jensens, and visited a few people. Then we ate dinner at the Rowzee house, then did some service for an investigator. He moved to the apartment right above his old one so we just had to moved furniture and stuff. Then on sunday after church we ate lunch at the Jensens and visited a less active with them.

So it was a very eventful week!!

Loves yas!!

         Elder Reyne

6 Months in the Field, WHAT?!?!‏

Can you believe that I have been out for 6 months? It goes by so fast! Things are going good in here in the Hudson area, spring is here and the flowers are starting to bloom, and no one even plants them or even waters their lawn, the moisture here is so much that it is very rare to find a water hose because no one needs one. 

So this past week was really good! We were able to go out with some members and visit a few less actives which was nice because they hardly go out with us, but they are doing better, this branch is super awesome I love it! We did an exchange with the Elders in Greenville and we checked a bunch of former and potential investigators but nothing came from any of it, it was sad but not everyone is ready to hear the gospel, even though they should be. We haven't been able to meet with our investigator family the Guldensterns for about 5 week, I don't think they want us to come by again, we even showed up randomly and no one answered even though we knew they were home. I hope we didn't offend them =(. But other than that things are going good. This Saturday I will find out if I am leaving or staying in the Hudson area so I will let you all know when it happens! 

Miracle of the week. Last Monday when we were doing laundry I was short 1 quarter for drying my clothes. I was kind of worried because my clothes would not have been dry enough with only 2 quarters (each quarter gives 6 minutes of drying) So I though to myself, "I know this doesn't matter a whole lot but the Lord will provide for me, either another quarter will pop up or my clothes will be dry enough" so trusting in the Lord I put my 1st quarter in, and when I did, out popped another quarter!!! It was so amazing, I couldn't believe it! But for something as small as 1 quarter, the Lord will provided for me in a time of need! My testimony of miracles totally grew and how if something is important to us it's important to Him. This church is so true I know it and love it!!

Love you!!!!!!

        Elder Reyne

April showers bring....well you know

So it's been raining quite a bit but it's not bad, that all for weather on to the week!!

So last week there was no power in the little town I live in, and it went out literally as we we sat down to email, well there was enough power for lights (barely) but not enough for internet it was lame! So that's why there was no email last week.

But the week before was great not much happened but I don't really remember so I guess it's not worth mentioning. 

So this week was awesome we picked up another new investigator that a member of ours has been working with and this past Tuesday she invited her (Dawn) to a bible study class 3 of out members started 2 weeks ago. Dawn lost her dog and has been having a hard time so the member, Loretta, told her we could give her a blessing of comfort so we did it was a great way to get her to know that we are here to help her. She's really faithful and reliant on God and wants to be spiritually fed and hasn't felt like any other church has been able to feed her as spiritually as she wants.Well, she came to the right place!!! I know she will come to find that this is the true church soon. 

We also had stake conference which was awesome, our stake president is so funny! I can't remember what he said leading up to this but at one point he said " the spirit is telling me one thing, my wife is telling another thing, and they both are usually saying the same thing, so I should just start to listen to my wife more!" Haha it was so awesome. He's Italian and bald so if you gave him a pin stripe suit and a hat he totally looks like he could be in the Italian mob. Anyway that was pretty much it.

Funny story from 2 weeks ago. So we went and checked a name that we resently found in an area book and when we knocked on the door the husband answered and we asked for Jennifer and if she would want to meet with us. The husband said " Jennifer do you want to meet with some missionaries?" We hear from the other room "No thanks, I already found Jesus" Then the husband said "Well there ya have it" So we turned and walked away, as we turned we hear "Wait a minute" So we turned back and Jennifer came out holding a stuffed bunny. She gave it to us and said "Happy Easter!" So we took it and left. It was so random but super funny!!

Anyway I love all of you!!! Hope you had a wonderful Easter and gained a greater testimony of the Resurrection!

Loves yas!

     Elder Reyne!

New investigator!‏

Our prayers have been answered, we have a new investigator! Well she's not 100% new, she met with missionaries for 3 years, the missionaries that were here a year ago dropped her because she needed time to figure things out, but finally we have someone else to teach!

So usually my companion does the planning each night and I agree or give some input, which am I am totally fine with because I'm really bad at planning. But one night as we were about to plan, Elder Mcpherson stops and says " I feel impressed you let you plan the whole day tomorrow (thursday)". And of course I complained and didn't want to because I'm not confident with my plans. So begrudgingly I planned the day in an area we don't visit very often (because we don't have any set plans with people there and no active members live there) while he sat completely quite. So thursday morning I made a list of some people that we haven't visited or didn't think twice about in the area book. After I made the list we left for the day. The first guy we planned to see is a less active who served a mission but fell away shortly after and lives with him girlfriend whos a former Jehovahs Witness. When we past by the house we noticed that most of the apartments were vacant or being reconstructed. Out of about 10 houses 3 of them were not vacant and one happened to be his house! When we knocked I figured no one would answer because that seems to happen with every house we check but he answered the door and let us in because he knows what it's like to be a missionary. Unfortunately his girlfriend was not home so we shared a message with him and left. We then added him to our less active teaching pool. Then we checked another name that I never noticed in one of the area books before. So we knocked on the door and an older man came to the door, and again I thought to myself that he would shoo us away, but very politely we invited us in! He and his wife had met a few times with missionaries so they knew who we were and they really respect us and our religion. He offered us some tea to drink but we told them we don't drink tea and he was surprised and felt bad that it was considered a sin, so we taught them about the word of wisdom. We didn't set up a specific return appointment (I have no idea why!?!) but they said we could stop by any time we were in the area. This was just the tip of the week.

 So on Friday we planned to visit our investigator family who has been avoiding us lately (I don't know why) and not responding when we text them to set up appointments, when a few months ago they would answer right away. Anyway, we still had a few hours left in the day and I had a name pop up in my head that I put on the list I made Thursday who wasn't even in the area we planned on being in that. And miraculously she lived about 5 miles away from our investigator family. So as we headed over I just had the feeling that this name would work out. So we got there and knock on the door and a man answers the door and I think to myself "dang it she must have moved!" but I asked for her anyway and she came to the door and invited us in!! She is an awesome lady, she is VERY spiritual and very musically oriented ( like Abner). So we basically got to know her and she us, and man that lady can talk (most of New York can talk for days but still)!

 It was such and awesome experience to be lead by the spirit to 3 people within 2 days when the previous 5 months we have had ZERO success with finding more people to teach. The Lord is definitely aware of us and it was such a testimony builder to me that we HAVE to listen to the still small voice and when we do the Lord tremendously blesses us!

I love all of you and am sincerely grateful for all of your prayers

  Love!!

            Elder Reyne

Conference!!!‏

So General Conference was super amazing!!!! It was so awesome, my testimony of this gospel has grown so much since I started my mission. It's sweet how as a missionary you are more in tune with the spirit and get so much more out of conference I know all you missionaries can attest to that. 

Well I don't have much time, but not much exciting happened this past week anyway other than general conference. I hope you all enjoyed general conference. I know that Thomas S. Monson is indeed a true prophet of God and that he guides the church in these latter days. I know that Joseph Smith restored the church back to the earth and that he, through the power of Christ and the Holy Ghost, translated the Book of Mormon and that it is the truest book on this earth. I have a pure knowledge that this Church is true and that we can all return to live with our Father in Heaven again. I love this church and gospel so much, it brings me a joy that I simply cannot express with words.

May the Lord bless you all as you strive to live like Him. I know that it is not easy at times but it is possible. 

With love that can't be expressed

      Elder Reyne

Another Transfer in the Hudson Area‏

Like the title implies, I will be staying for at least one more transfer in the Hudson area. This will be my 4th transfer here and by the end I will have been here for 6 months which is crazy!

So this week we were not able to go out as much as we would have liked because my companion has been sick with a sinus infection of some sort and his throat is sore so I most of the talking. So he will usually rest until afternoon and then we will go out and work, but he hates it because he can't stand not working, which is good but I keep telling him that he needs to take it easy so he will recover faster. When we have been able to go out though we have just been tracting more. I'm not going to lie it's pretty dang frustrating doing all this tracting and not have a single new investigator since I started my mission just under 4 months ago! BUT, I always stay positive and take this as a lesson that the Lord needs me to work hard and that I probably need to humble myself. Anyway, now that it's starting to warm up (slowly but surely) hopefully more people will be outside so we can contact that way. 

I hope you other missionaries are finding more success with tracting and what not, than I am. I love each of you and can feel your prayers each day! 

Love ya!

        Elder Reyne!

Picture Update

Some More Tractin'!‏

Sooooo basically we tracted again all week. On Wednesday we tracted (and checked former and potential investigators) from 12 until 7:30, it was a loooong day. Especially since it rained and hailed most the day, but it was great to be out and working all day! But on Saturday we were knocking doors and this lady answered and was ACTUALLY interested in our message. Well she kind of was, she said she wasn't sure if she was but she seemed like she was, so we gave her a Book of Mormon and we will stop by again next Friday. But me and my companion looked at each other afterward and were like "Well that never happens!" Ha ha, but seriously that like never happens here, most people just say they are catholic or that they are not interested. This one guy just opened the door, wiggled his index finger at us and closed the door, it was funny!

Well I know that If we keep trying hard the Lord will give us some people to teach!

Loves Yas!

     Elder Reyne