Awesome Week

Why the long faces, Elders?

December 23, 2013

 

 

Family,


Well this week was awesome for a couple of reasons. Fisrt of all we had a couple of really cool activities in the stake. They were, of course, Christmas themed. The first is that the whole zone prepared a choir to sing in a park. It turned out great. There were microphones and lights and big speakers. Everything turned out really good. The other activity that we had was the whole stake went to an aldea called Sija. We brought 3 truck loads of toys and there was a dance and a singing program. It was really cool.


Tomorrow we are going to do the Zone christmas activity. We are going to make a pizza buffet and we are going to play games like basketball, soccer, and board games. We will see how it turns out. This week was really cool. The zone is suffering a ton so my comp and I planned a really spiritual slash, butt whooping zone conference. We prepared really good talks and we invited the assistants to talk as well and then we shared the missionary work and the atonement video it was so cool. The stats went up so we are happy that the missionaries are working a little bit harder. As for our area we are doing great. I think that we could baptize very healthily in January. We have a baptism on January 5th with our investigator named, J--.


Well I have to go, but Merry Christmas and I promise to write more next week.


Love you guys and thank you for all the support.


Elder Reinhold

 

P.S.  More Photos coming.  Having technical difficulties.

Plugging along....

December 16, 2013

Hey family how is it going? Well here we are just plugging along. We will just say that here in the area of Centro we are doing great. We are finding lots of people to teach and we are having success, but the zone is dying. Literally Dying. We are coming up with ideas to help the zone but I am not going to lie it is pretty hard. The whole zone is working at about 50% and that does not bring success. So we have some work to do. We were going to baptize this week but the brother of our investigator died so that kind of threw a kink in the baptism. The whole funerel and everything will be this week so the next week we should be able to have the baptism. This week was awsome also we found a family of 7 that is really positive. The mom of the family has tons of friends in the church and goes to all the activities that we have. The dad has been a little bit harder to get ahold of but last night we had a lesson with him in his house and he invited us to eat dinner and everything. It was great. Its is really interesting. She told one of the sisters in the ward that they were Catholics to the core but that her opinion is changing about the Catholic church. We are praying lot for this family and for the opportunity to baptize them.

 

Just wanted to share a thought that I had while reading the Book of Mormon this week. I was reading in 1st Nephi, chapter 18...I think it is. This is when Nephi breaks his bow. This is a classic story but over and over in the Book of Mormon we learn the lesson of don't sit on your butt when you have problems. There are a couple of great examples: Ammon when the sheep got scattered and also with Nephi's bow. He broke his bow and all of his brothers were just sitting there crying and he decided to make another bow and a sling to go hunt for food. I love teaching this lesson to the other missionaries. If your bishop does not help you or if your comp is hard or if your area is hard or if you don't have investigators, I always ask them "What are you going to do about it? Because sitting on your butt is not going to get you anywhere." We all need to learn how to act. Also the other thing that I loved is when it is talking about the liahona and how it worked according to their faith and diligence. This is exactly like our spirituality or relation with God. The more we do, the more diligence we exercise the more direction we will receive and we will have more spiritual power. When we do not do that, we cannot expect anything.

 

The quote for the week is, "If in a court of law you were accused of being a Latter-day Saint, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" -Jeffrey R. Holland. I always use this when we share messages with members.  It is a great quote. I love you guys so much and look forward to talking to you in a couple of weeks.


Elder Reinhold

Making Things Happen in Centro...

It was "burn the devil day" this week. This is one of the devils that someone made.
It even has little horns.

Hey Family!

 

How are ya' all doin'? First of all, Happy Birthday Kyler. Man, you are growing up fast. Well everything is going great here in Xela. Other than the fact that I feel like it is colder than Utah!!! I thought that by receiving a mission call to Central America I was safe... I didn't even sleep in a sweatshirt in Utah but here it is a MUST-DO. Well it is so cold sometimes. Last week I went to the market and bought a coat, so don't worry, I am okay now.

 

 

 

Elder Christopherson is going home,

 so we made a piñata for him.

Here in the area of Centro there is a non-baptizing streak not to mention it is a zone leader area and the last zone leader here was an previous assistant. Well this week we are going to baptize.  It is a miracle.  The Lord is so merciful with us. Also, we found a ton of families to work with. We found like 4 or 5 families.  We are stoked and we think we are going to lay down some fire in January. That is a saying that we say down here. "Vamos a echar fuego."  We think that we can maybe baptize 3 to 5 in January. This week the Lord truly blessed us. The zone is struggling a little bit, but we are trying to do all that we can to help it.

 

This week the quote of the week is, "We are told emphatically not to pilfer and profane, prevaricate and fornicate, satiate ourselves in every indulgence or violation that strikes our fancy and then suppose that we are "pretty darn good soldiers." No, not in this army, not defending the kingdom of God." -Jeffrey R. Holland Wow.  That will make you think about the little sins a bit more seriously won't it?

 

 

Well, I love you guys and I am in the coolest mission in the world. The culture is amazing - pure Book of Mormon material. I would not trade it for anything.

 

Elder Reinhold

New Area and Zone - Xela Centro.

Well this week was good and I finally figured out what might be my challenge of the mission - raising or fixing a broken zone. Wow, it is really down right now. I am finally to the point to see if I can somehow turn a zone around.

 

The area of Centro really is a great experience. It is in the heat of everything - all the parties. I see gringos everyday (more than 20). its a little bit weird. I never talk to them and I always greet them in Spanish. I forgot how to in English. The area is a little hard. For example, it is like trying to share the gospel in a small country town or in Times Square. Which is easier?? But we are trying to get the area going again so that we can have some success. We are probably going to baptize in December. We just have to see how the Lord blesses us.

 

This is a project that the Church is doing to encourage self-reliance.
They give all the members the chicken and the coop.

Being a zone leader is good. One thing that I learned about myself in being a zone leader is that I only act according to my authority. Before, I always thought that I was going to have a hard time machete-ing (chewing out if missionaries are breaking rules,) but I have found it to be surprisingly easy. I know when to listen and I know when to talk. It takes courage to talk but it also takes courage to sit down and listen. It's a quote but I can't remember by whom.

 

Well the quote for this week is a good one. "The war is on, and we have conspicuously enlisted. And certainly it is a war worth waging. But we are foolish, fatally foolish, if we believe it will be a casual or convenient thing. We are foolish, fatally foolish if we think that it will demand nothing of us." -Jeffrey R Holland. I like this quote becuase this is what the gospel is about. It is not an easy thing.

 

Well, love all of you guys.


Elder Reinhold

 

This is in Central Park. It is so cool. 
It is like they are giving a blessing in a ring with their left arm on the shoulder of the the other.