1/12 Done! Time Flies!

July 21, 2014

I just realized something. My mission is almost 1/12 done. I JUST GOT HERE!!! I guess that time flies when you are doing good in the world.

This email is going to be really, really short this week because we have to write a long report for the mission pres concerning an emergency transfer that I was involved in. (Don't worry. I am all good.) 

So basically my week has been tracting, tracting, tracting again, but this week we decided that the members need to start helping us so we can teach some people. So now we are teaching this guy (R--) that has taken the lessons before but the missionaries didn't keep any records of his teaching so when two Elders whitewashed in they had no idea he even existed. But now he is good friends with our Ward mission leader and we are teaching him again and keeps telling us that "we teach too slow and that he needs to know more now!"

Also I felt inspired that we should visit some of the former investigators in our area book and we found another investigator that was forgotten about due to poor record keeping, all that we had to go off of was a name and a street, but we found her and she said that she wanted to have a lesson right now but she had to go to work in like ten minutes. It turns out that she was taught everything that was needed to get baptized and was just working over some hurdles with the WoW that she now has under control, but once again the record of her lessons weren't kept, and the Elders that whitewashed in just overlooked her.

So things are very slowly progressing in Ewa Beach.

Love,

Elder Reinhold

Walking Through the Desert....

July 14, 2014

So this week we haven't gotten any new investigators, well there are a few that are new to me. R-- is one of them and his wife is LDS but I guess he has been taking the lessons for like two months or something. Anyways he is super into it so we will see where that goes.

So the stars aligned and every one of my investigators were out of town, so this week has been finding, finding, and more finding. We don't have any "official" new investigators, but I have handed out tons of BoMs and pamphlets so hopefully our efforts with bare some fruits.

This week has been tough physically because I have been sick all week but I can't stop just because I feel under the weather a little bit. 

This week my comp hit his one year mark so we burnt a shirt! We did it at "The spot" so it was super cool (sorry no pics, my camera is still broken)

I did a ton of service this week. It totaled up to 9 hours. So on Thursday, we helped move out a house and after we saw these kids throwing rocks and stuff into a tree so naturally we checked it out. turns out that it was a massive mango tree! so we knocked some off and got to eat mangos right off the tree.

Sorry for the short letter but I don't have a lot of time today.

From

Elder Reinhold

***This boy has always been crazy about mangos.  So the mango tree was probably pretty exciting! 

Lots of Tracting!

June 7, 2014

Aloha!

 

Well this week was not easy. I didn't teach a single lesson and I didn't get any new investigators. Also my camera is broken.

 

This email isn't going to be as long as the others.

 

So this week has been pretty much the same everyday except for a few times. It has mostly been just tracting and finding, but I did get to drop off a missionary (Elder Humphreys) at the airport because the mission president was busy all day. It was an interesting experience sending a missionary home when I have only been out a month.

 

On the 4th of July we had a "P-Day" after 5pm because in the past there has been an unusual amount of freak accidents involving missionaries on the 4th of July, and our mission president doesn't want us trying to teach during a holiday.  Apparently we get a ton of space concerning holidays. Like on Halloween we spend all night in the stake center and we play games and I have heard rumors that on Christmas instead of teaching and annoying people that day (cause they are with their families) we get to have an extra p-day and we get to watch a movie!  Last year it was How to Train your Dragon. So, we went up to this stake center that is on a hill and played volleyball and we could see the fireworks from there too. But they have placed super strict bans on fireworks here so it was kind of lame.

 

This Wednesday I got a "mini-missionary" which is when someone who is preparing for a mission spends like 3 or 4 days with a companionship. Sometimes we'd look around and he was gone.  Nice guy, but we dropped him off yesterday.

 

This church is true, and I know that it blesses families and us individually.

That is all for now.

 

From,

Elder Reinhold #3 :P

 

An Unplanned Week....

June 30, 2014

Aloha!

About to eat poi.

So this week has been super crazy and busy. So on Tuesday we had our zone interviews with the mission president. So he got there late, and it threw off the rest of what we had planned, so we decide to spend the day tracting and visiting investigators that we haven’t heard from in a while. So we tracted for three solid hours, and only four people opened the door, and of those four only one of them didn't close the door on us when they found out who we are. But even that one person who was kind didn't want to take the lessons. Elder Humphrey has a heart problem and the only way to combat it is by exercising twice a day so we needed to get some sort of exercise for him so we played rugby in the park (two-hand touch). On our way back we get a call from the bishop and he has a referral of a lady who is pregnant with twins and needs help paying her rent form the church, but that is only available for members. We will be teaching her.

             

Wednesday, I met some dude while we were parked in the church parking lot. His name is “Chaplin”, He has PTSD and was wearing a long sleeve leather jacket and jeans on by far the hottest and most humid day since I've been here.  Apparently he has a long family history of war ministers.  (Idk what they are actually called, they are the people who are soldiers, but represent a religion.)  Also we had lunch with the P-- family…I ate some interesting stuff. I ate Poi, it was brown and thick, yuck! Also I blessed someone for the first time with oil; it was Sister P--’s son (Little D--). He has an infection on his lip. Big D-- was there also (he is the D-- I told you about last week). He is still super awesome.

Elder Peterson and I got a referral from Mormon.org.  Someone named Susana requested a bible but she wasn't expecting us to hand deliver it. She has been searching for good in the world and she looked up the Mormons on the internet right off the bat! So I taught my first lesson on the restoration! And she wants us to come back but she has to check with her husband if it is alright.

                

On Thursday we didn't get much done. We had to take our car in to get the brakes checked and while we were there we met like RMs. But the big thing is that Elder Peterson got a bloody nose and it just wouldn't stop! He lost so much blood! He was super delirious. So I offered to drive (even though I'm not approved to drive yet, but it was the only other way to get home) but he said "No I am perfectly the bestest to drive the car"....Pretty much in the top three scariest car rides of my life. When we got back to our pad I made him eat some food that was super high in iron (cause I thought that's what helps the body make blood :P I'm still not sure on that fact), and we chilled in the pad while he slept. The zone leaders came over and "relieved me of my post" so that I could go out with the trio of missionaries that cover the other half of the ward (I actually need to correct something that I said in my last email. Elders Humphrey, Kichiro, and Gleaves are actually the Eva Beach 2nd as well.) So the four of us split up and went tracting with no results. After that I went back to the pad and watched him sleep for a long time while I read the entire "Our Search For Happiness".

On Friday I did something that no missionary has done before!!! Tracting...for a full two hours. But before that I had my first district meeting. It was basically a party but we learned how to more simply teach doctrine, so when we are at the door of someones house we can give a simple version of the gospel. we played tons of games to "practice" this skill, that included taboo and sureraids ( I don't know how to spell it! Don't Judge me!) anywho! back to tracting! While tracting I met a Jehovah's Witness and a Muslim, the JW was not very friendly and the Muslim was super nice. I also got a death threat today while we were walking from our car to where we were having dinner the first car that yelled at us said the worst possible expletive, but the second car to yell at us said "I'm gonna kill you Mormons!". He was just talking big because Elder H-- yelled back "I'd like to see you try!" and we haven't heard form him since.

Saturday started with a ward party at the beach although we were confined to this little tiny grass area for the whole thing. Also got my first baptism commitment form a dude named J--, but it is because his records got lost and he needs to be re-baptized before he can go on a mission, so it doesn't really count. I also taught the S--s on Saturday, C-- works for the military doing Intel stuff and he used the old "if I told you, I would have to kill you" line on me when I asked for specifics. Anyways C-- and A-- are super cool and super interested in the church. but unfortunately they are going on vacation for two weeks soooo. I told C-- to look up Patterns of Light online, because he has been expecting a sudden revelation that this church is true, but that isn't how it works every time.

Not much to report on for Sunday other then the fact that not a single one of our investigators showed up to church.

During my studies this week I came to realize all the little acts of God's hand in history that made it possible for the restoration to come about. If you have time you all should do some research on that. It is super sick!

Love,

Elder Reinhold

***I love the chaplain and the "sureraids".