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