God is a God of Miracles

Family, friends, and missionaries, if there is one email I would love for you to read...it would be this one!

19.And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he
ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.
20.And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust. (Mormon 9:19-20)

Oh, what a week! It has been raining on and off for the whole week now, which has discouraged my companion and I a little, especially because we spend a lot of time finding. But we truly saw a HUGE
miracle this week, I hope I can express this experience in a way that you can follow and I pray that the spirit will be able to testify to your heart, as it has to mine, the truth of the church and the power of Gods love in our life. My companion and I have been going through the paper Area Book for the last 4 weeks, contacting EVERY potential and former investigator in the book.. Even if the Elders dropped them fairly recently, we are doing what ever it takes to get a teaching pool. This week we contacted a lady named Investigator "C" on Tuesday and she invited us in, she was as nice as can be. We talked with her for an hour, topics ranging from cooking, to how she is taking a religion class, how she is attending a variety of different churches weekly, to her son's suicide last April. We had the wonderful opportunity to share with her the plan of salvation. She invited us to come listen to her give a talk about suicide awareness, but we weren't able to because it wasn't in our area, but we invited her to come to the General Woman's Broadcast with us this weekend. She agreed to come, but we didn't have the address for the stake center, or the invitation, so we told her we would drop the invitation off. Thursday my companion and I were driving in town, and we felt prompted to take the invitation to Investigtor "C", so we drove to her home, knocked on the door, and she wasn't there. We were confused why God would send us there, but we wrote down our names and number, and the address to the church and we stuck it in her door. We didn't think anything about it...

Saturday---- we were sitting at the dinner before the broadcast, enjoying our time getting to know the ladies who were sitting around us, when the Stake President walks up, and asks if there is a Sister Rever in the mission, we tell him no, that there is a Sister Reber, and he tells my companion and I that there Are 2 ladies who are looking for us, we look at each other all confused and we get up and walk over to the table, not recognizing a single lady who was sitting there... But then I see her... Investigator "C" came..And I was SOOO happy! She brought a friend from her religion class that she has been going to different churches with, Investigator "S"! We make small talk, and tell them we are going to finish eating but that we will save them a seat and find them before the broadcast began..so we left, and found a place to sit and we all began watching the broadcast together. Investigator "S" is telling me how the broadcast is making her want to go to sleep, and I got SOOO sad, I couldn't believe they hated such a sacred and spiritual event!  But I kept a silent prayer in my heart. Pleading with Heavenly Father to allow them to feel something..One of the speakers spoke about the Celestial Kingdom and this caught Investigator "S"'s attention, she looks at me and says with a huge smile on her face.. "Did he just say celestial kingdom?" I said, "Yes, he did:)"  We enjoy the rest of the broadcast and we get up and make our way to the dessert table, in between the dessert table and our seat in the broadcast, " I have the opportunity to talk to Investigator "S" one on one about how she felt about the broadcast. And guess what? SHE LOVED IT! I was blown away, she told me that it was making her so tired, and that only happens when there is too much truth for her spirit to handle.. Then she asks me what the celestial kingdom is and I briefly taught the plan of salvation.. She looks at me and tells me "I've been there in a dream. Do you think that's possible?" I tell her she is entitled to receive revelation for herself, and that if it was Gods will for her to have that experience, then that is exactly what happened.. She told me how she felt there, how she felt Gods love so powerfully she wished she could touch me and give me the feelings she had. She said she has been waiting for a church to teach about the celestial kingdom, she has been waiting for someone to teach her what her dream meant, and we were the first church that was able to do that.she said she was immediately interested..
So we kept talking and I kept answering the questions she had. I was about to talk about the Book of Mormon when she looks at me and says.."I know Jesus Christ saw the Native Americans when he was on the earth". I couldn't believe it..I couldn't believe it, I asked her if she had ever heard about the Book of Mormon before and she told me she had one, at one point in her life. But she never read it. She said that 2 boys would ask her if she read it, but it was always no. So they stopped dropping by. She asked me why the Book of Mormon was so important to our church and what would happen if she read it, so I was able to bear my testimony to her, and go over some of the things it says in the introduction! It was an amazing experience..."
-(experience of Investigator "C" from sister Brewster)
In the meantime----- I am talking to Investigator "C". Less than a year ago, "C" met a lady who was in her math class. They didn't talk much, just saw each other in class a few days a week. Well, Saturday morning  rolls around and they reconnect with each other again while they are both playing tennis at the same place. "C" recognizes her and they start talking when "C" notices a tattoo on her arm. It was a tattoo of a date. "C" asks what is the significance of the date and the lady explains that it was the day her daughter had committed suicide. Unbelievably, "C"'s son had passed away within 2 days of her daughters death.. They talked for a while, and went there separate ways. Well, Saturday night, they see each other AGAIN. The lady with the tattoo comes up to "C", puts her arm around her and they reconnect for the second time, in one day.. They talked about how it was weird they met that morning and then they were seeing each other again at church tonight. A little later "C" says that she believes God places people in our paths for a reason, that there is a reason her and "S" were there, a reason we showed up on her door step, and a reason they decided to come to the activity that night and she thinks this is right. 
So my companion and I walk them to our truck, to give them some pamphlets, and a Book of Mormon. We are standing outside our truck and Sister Brewster is explaining the pamphlets and a group of women from our ward walk passed, we stop them and introduce everyone to our new friends, and the members from our ward invited them to church on Sunday. "S" looks at "C" and asks if they are committed to do this and "C" says she thought they were going to try and go to another church this week. "S" immediately says, "Why look when we have found the right one already??" They committed to come to church.. After a long discussion, we say our goodbyes, and we are about to head out, just then from across the parking lot "S" yells, "I figured it out... I know what this church has that the other churches don't have... You HAVE THE LIGHT IN YOUR EYES.. I CAN SEE  IT.. AND THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE"

Family and friends MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! Things just aren't coincidences! Well to add to the story! Sunday night we are at an older couples home, I decide to tell the story of this miracle. As I start talking about the lady with the tattoo, the man and the dinner table starts to cry and says "that's our daughter!". The spirit was so strong. I told them of "C" experience being with her and how much she felt the love of their daughter. Coincidence? I don't think so!

Family & friends, this Church is true! There is NO doubt in my life that it is! I pray that we can all remember our Heavenly Father's love for us! I know that our Heavenly Father has put you each in my path for a reason!
May you all have a blessed week!

Love,
Sister Reber

Miracles!

Family & friends,

What a beautiful day it is here in Palo Cedro! I am so blessed to be here in the country. I just wanted to share a miracle that happened this week.

We have been having a really hard time finding investigators so we decided to fast one day this week. It was super hot outside and we were tracting, we felt like we were going to pass out but we knew that because we were doing the Lords work we would be fine. That afternoon as we ended our fast, the NEXT house we went to, the lady opened the door and was very interested in our message. We now have a new investigator.

Last night we were able to go to a fireside with the youth of the ward. I felt the spirit so strong there as they talked. One of the speakers works for CHP (California highway patrol) in the helicopter . He told a story of a time that he got called out and to keep the story short. The man was not living the life he should have, he kept
screaming "don't let me die!", this man was flown to the hospital, still screaming "don't let me die!", he later died at the hospital. The speaker related this to the Atonement. Are we ready to meet our maker? We never know what is going to happen in our lives, we could get in a crash tomorrow and die. Are we ready if that happened? Our Savior, Jesus Christ, made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins, all we have to do is repent! "Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you; (Alma 34:17)"

This gospel has blessed my life is so many ways! I am SO thankful to be out on my mission right now, meeting these amazing people of California, and teaching the Gospel to those I meet! May you all have an amazing week! I will keep you all in my prayers!

Love,
Sister Reber

PS - As a missionary in the Roseville Mission, we have the opportunity to use Facebook to teach the Gospel. Please follow me on Facebook and if you like something I post please share it, the more shares, the more
people see, the more missionary work is going on! Keep up the good work! Also, if you know anyone that would like to hear the Gospel I can answer any questions on Facebook.

I'm sure loving this country setting! Animals all day long! Except the cats....i forgot to tell the cat story....here it goes! So I'm sitting in a lesson this week, and there cat walks over to me, jumps on my lap, starts walking up the front of me, and starts digging into me, here's me "uuuuhhhhh UUUHHHHHH um this thing is gonna kill me!"
Finally as it goes to grab my face, as I try rip the thing off of me, the lady pulls it off of me. Ya, I can do without the cats! Hahaha.

 This is the road that we take up to one of the town we teach in. The Elders are in front of us.  This is the     reason that we need a truck around here.

I love being in the country! 

Our Search for Investigators

Good afternoon family and friends,

What a beautiful day it is here in Palo Cedro! It's only rained once since I have been here. I am loving this mission and the missionary life. I don't have much time to write but here is a couple miracles from this week.

1. Investigator “T”. She is from a media referral. He daughter was taken away from her when the daughter was 5. After 12 years she got to see her daughter for Christmas this year. She found out her daughter was adopted into an LDS family and now “T” wants to learn about what her daughter has been learning. We taught “T” 1 lesson this week and we are so excited to keep teaching her.
2. Investigator “M”. She came up to us at church last week and asked us to teach her. He husband died two weeks ago. She is such a strong lady.

Our teaching pool is nothing, we are starting from scratch. We have been working our butts off trying to find people to teach. We just met the bishop Saturday night. He is super awesome.

There are 5 companionships in our district. We see them once a week at district meeting in Anderson and then the whole zone gets together on p-day and plays games. Like soccer....pretty fun actually.  We aren't allowed to go to Redding but we go to Anderson to Walmart on
p-day. ....and Panda Express :)

Oh me and Sister Brewster are tight! We get along awesome!!!

The church is true! I couldn't be happier in my life, than I am right now.
I love you all and you are in my prayers
My challenge for you this week is: give a referral to your local missionaries! They will love you.

Love,
Sister Reber

Sister Reber and Sister Brewster

Beautiful Palo Cedro, CA!

Good morning my friends, 

What a beautiful rainy day it is here in Palo Cedro, CA! I have made it and am doing fabulous! So Wednesday was transfers and I got my new companion, Sister Brewster, she is pretty awesome! She is from Victor, Idaho, so we are both small town girls....and that explains why we are here. So Palo Cedro is a beautiful farming community. Our area is 100 miles radius...so we put a lot of miles on the truck everyday. It is like Gunnison Valley (lots of little towns) but more spread out. Sister Brewster and I were called here to open the area for sister missionaries. We feel like celebrates here! It has been a lot of work, because we are starting from scratch but it has been great. Yes we have a truck....and the only sisters in the entire mission to get one!! We feel pretty cool :) 

My first day here was awesome. The elders took us around  to meet a bunch of members. We went to dinner at the Paris home and we walked in the door and they had a bummer goat....felt like home. There is a lot of animals out here. I got to play with some pigs this week too and everyone has chickens. 

One of the towns we cover is Shingletown! It's in the mountains. Not to make you nervous for my safety but it has a super high shooting rate. We definitely always have a prayer in our hearts while we are up there. There are some good people there though! We are working with a really fun lady there right now. 

Last night we went to the Houranys for dinner! They are a super cute family. The only young family in the ward. They have two little girls that just love us! They are recent converts and we are so excited for them to go through the temple in October. They are part Irish and are big into meaning of names. Who would have thought that Elli means "devoted to God!" In Hebrew. I thought that was pretty sweet! 

One of many miracles from this week: Sunday at church we had a lady come up to us and asked to be taught. Her husband died 2 weeks ago. We are excited to start teaching her this week. 

My new address here is 

Sister Elli Reber

8650 Leonard Drive 

Palo Cedro, CA 96073

We are living in the Palo Cedro Palace" is what the Elders call it. It's a super nice apartment above a member's garage. 

Well I hope and pray that you all have an amazing week! Love you all!

I am Here!

Hello:),

Well I am here at the Mission Home doing great. I just got out of my interview with President Weston and him and his wife are so awesome!! They are super young. They have 4 kids here with them. 2 senior girl twins, a 15 year old boy, and a girl that loves animals...President Weston already told me how much she is going to love me. 

Anyways...we are going through training today, the sisters get to sleep at a hotel tonight...and get to go to bed at 8pm! yaaahhhh!!:) Then we get our trainers at noon tomorrow, then we go back to our place....wherever that might be.

Anyways I'm doing great. It is GORGEOUS here....I may not want to ever go home after this! 

Love,

Sister Reber

Sister Reber and Sister Van Duren - California Here We Come!

We left the MTC at 3:45 am.  Ready to get there!!!!