Hello:)

What a week! I must say I LOVE being a missionary during the holidays! You truly are focusing on the real meaning of Christmas and having a fun time doing it! Monday night we went out with a family caroling. They are an amazing talented family with a bunch of kids. It made our Christmas season awesome! Tuesday we had a District Christmas Party and made our awesome ugly sweaters...the letters are the initial of our last name. I guess in Harry Potter he gets a Christmas sweater for his first Christmas away from home. I'm not sure the whole deal:) Anyways it was a great time watching the Elders sew their letters and enjoy our hot chocolate. Christmas Eve day we went to our usual care center then, as a district, we spent the afternoon caroling to less-actives and investigators in our areas. Caroling can be so awkward! We had a Blast though! Then that night we ended in Colfax at a members home having a Christmas Eve party and enjoying dinner and the nativity. Christmas Day we went and Skyped our families at our Ward Mission Leaders home! It was really good to see them and hear them! Then we watched their kids open their presents. We went to R's(Recent Convert) for dinner and spent some time with her and her daughter. (cutest family!) Then we went to an investigators home for another dinner. We spent some more time at the Care Center singing carols and having some fun while. We went back to our WML's house and played games with the kids....whoever thought of Ward Fish was a genius! Thanks from the missionaries! Friday was weekly planning! It was so nice and warm outside, and since our heater is broken,it was hotter outside then inside so we planned on our porch, on a couch, and got a nice little sunburn on my face:) #caliweather

We made a goal during weekly planning to see every active family within the next 2 weeks, so that's what we have been doing...gaining ward trust and unity! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a new year! Don't look back!

My new favorite quote!

"The purpose of the gospel is to transform common creatures into celestial citizens, and that requires change" -Elder Dallin H. Oaks

I love you all! May we all become a little better this next year!

Love,

Sister Reber

 

 

Merry Christmas!

It's a wonderful day to be alive here in California! The sun in shining, it's nice and warm, and it's the wonderful Christmas season. This week has been great! Here is the highlights of my week.

~Transfers were this week and although we weren't getting transferred we were right in the middle of it. We had to drive another Sister's car down to the mission office and transfer all their stuff. 

~One of our investigators, Colleen, is doing awesome! She is trying to quit smoking and doing a good job. She is planning on getting baptized in January. 

~We went to the ward's Relief Society activity and had a very fun time. It was fun to spend time in a home environment and do some singing. 

~Lots of service this week. We had our weekly care center fun. This week I helped a lady, that cant hear and I have to write everything on a white board, make one of those window hanging things. That was pretty fun. We also went and helped paint some things for the young women. Went to a different care center with the district and helped them decorate for their Christmas dinner...can you say fancy! We might as well start a decorating service! 

~Our ward party was this week and we had a lot of non-member and less-actives there. We were in charge of the program and that was fun. 

~We had our tri-zone Christmas Devotional! AWESOME!!! We have some amazing talented missionaries. The spirit was so strong and I am so very thankful to be on my mission during this Christmas Season. My favorite quote from President Marston "Our tradition is to get our grand kids pajamas every year...I can't even begin to imagine what sizes you all would wear". We truly all feel like family here and it's great! 

~Sister Phelps tried riding a unicycle this week. With me holding her up and her pulling Elder McGuffy's hair...she managed to get in a few turns. Keep in mind this was in the dark and in the rain. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christ centered Christmas! 

Love,

Sister Reber

It's rainin...not men!

Good Afternoon!

It's good to be alive and I'm thankful to be here in Auburn California! Transfer calls came in last night...and I will be staying here in Auburn with Sister Phelps. We have seven strong weeks ahead of us before I ship her back to Utah. We are excited and ready to see miracles. 

This week has had it's ups and downs. Always more ups then downs though. I have been beating myself up this week about dumb little things but it's a new week and I have a good companion that helped me through it. We saw so much success this week! This is the highest numbers we have had since I've been here in Auburn. 

Here are some of the highlights from my week:

-P-day we took the other sisters in our Zone to Old Auburn. This place is sweet. It has a bunch of old shops and stuff. We had a really fun time with them. 

-There are 2 boys here that have really stood at to me since I have been here. Their mom is a less active member and they are non-members. This week we went over to their house and had an awesome lesson with them! The boys really never talked but this lesson they talked the whole time. They were more engaged then their mom and they kept thanking us for coming. I'm excited to keep working with them. 

-Our district did a service project for a thrift shop. They sell stuff and raise the money for women and children that have been abused. This last week the whole store flooded ,because of the rain storms, so we moved everything in the store to storage units. Service is so fun when you have great people to work with. 

-Zone Meeting was great! We focused all on Christlike attributes. The spirit was very strong and we learned a lot about each individual in our Zone. 

-We were able to go see Dave again. He has his up and down days. Sometimes he isn't completely with it, which is sad, but it's always fun to talk with him. His positive attitude always makes me feel better. 

-We had an awesome lesson with our new investigator Talisia. She is an African American lady and she is a hoot! We went in with the plans to teach the Restoration and the spirit totally told us otherwise. Cool thing is Sister Phelps and I both new what to talk about without even saying anything to each other.

-It has been raining here all week long. Thursday was pretty bad so we got stuck inside and weekly planned. It was fun to watch the rain though. 

-I went on exchanges with the Sisters. I went to their area with Sister Alvarez. What an awesome missionary. Their car got rear-ended last week so they are driving around a minivan! Never would I think I would ride around in one of them on my mission. We had a great time and taught some great lessons. 

-There was an event at the Stake Center this weekend. They set up the gym with all different nativities from around the world, the chapel has music going on from different choirs in the community, live nativity, a room for kids to dress up and take pictures in the nativity, a testimony room, and more stuff I'm forgetting. What a cool idea! We were able to go with the Casey's a recent convert couple. 

Overall a great week!

I'm thankful for this opportunity to be on a mission! It truly is the best thing I have ever done! I love the people here in California and more then anything the testimony I have received. This gospel is true! 

President Boyd K. Packer said "We seek to strengthen the testimonies of the young and old, the married and single. We need to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to men, and children, those of every race and nationality, the rich and the poor. We need the recent convert and those among our numbers descended from the pioneers. We need to seek out those who have strayed and assist them to return to the fold. We need everyone's wisdom and insight and spiritual strength. Each member of this Church as an individual is a critical element of the body of the Church."

God needs you on His team! Join the force! 

Love,

Sister Reber

 

 

Meet Dave!

Hello!

I don't have a lot of time today but here is some thing I've learned this week. 

Meet Dave! Dave is a recent convert that was baptized two days before I got to Auburn. Dave lost his leg and is now struggling with being in and out of the hospital due to strokes. This man is amazing! His positive attitude shines when most of us would sit in the hospital room and cry. If Dave can do it....we can do hard things too! 

In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike—and they will—you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection. They will always be there, these armies of heaven!

 “The fault . . . is not in our stars, but in ourselves” (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar).

Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.[D&C 78:17–18]
I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, . . . and mine angels [shall be] round about you, to bear you up. [D&C 84:88]
The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours. [D&C 78:18]
This week has been great! The director of proselyting and technology came to our mission. What an awesome conference. If I had more time I would love to tell you all about it.
I love you all!!
Love,
Sister Reber

Pictures: Dave and I, Dave...thumbs up!!(Isn't his shirt great!), sister phelps laughed at me because I had to stop and take a picture of this perfect cow, on a perfect green pasture, with a perfect fence...."it's an ag thing..,you wouldn't understand phelps!" Haha

"He is the Gift"

Good Afternoon Family & Friends,

What a great day it is! The sun is shining..not too hot...not too cold! I hope all of you have been able to see the new "He is the Gift" video put out by the church. If not...you better get to it:) This is a great tool in doing member missionary work! You should each have received 9 pass-along cards in Decembers Ensign. I would encourage you so pass those out and watch the miracles happen! I have noticed that it is so much easier to talk about a new video that came out, as to, talking about the gospel in general. People seem a lot more receptive. It's all over the internet! Share it on Facebook! My challenge this week, for you, is to go to christmas.mormon.org and click the print page. Fill it out, put it on Facebook, and you can even tag me in it! I can't wait to hear you miracles, please share them with me! 

 

 I just wanted to share with you some of the miracles we had this week with the "He Is The Gift" video and pass along cards. 
1.On Thanksgiving, we had some extra time where we didn't have a members house to go to so we went to a local park and chalked on the side walk. The next day I had the prompting to go to the dog park close by our Apartment and chalk their. As we were drawing SO MANY people stopped and talked to us. It was amazing because we didn't have to say anything to them, they just stopped to watch us and then we talked to them, gave them pass along cards, talked about our role as missionaries, and invited them to learn more. We even resolved some beliefs about Mormons and polygamy. That night it rained and washed all of the chalk away but it served its purpose for the time!
2. We stopped by a less-active mans home. He have stopped by there a few times but he has never let us in and was quick to getting us to leave. This time we shared the video to him on his door step. After the video was over he asked us to come in and give him the website so he could show his family the video. 
3.We were walking to contact a less-active and as we were walking, there was a man on the opposite side of the street. We said "hello" and he started walking over towards us. We asked him how he was doing and he let out a bunch of concerns he was having! He definitely needed someone to talk to. He went to college in Utah years ago and had talked to missionaries and had member friends. We shared with him the video and we was so happy. He got the website from us and gave us his address to go back and teach him. 
Our ward is taking in all the chances they can get. The ward council decided to give out all 9 of their pass-along cards in 2 weeks. We are excited to see more and more miracles come about this Christmas season. 

Thanksgiving was great! I wasn't expecting holidays as a missionary to be so fun...but they are the best! So our Thanksgiving was a non-proselyting day so in the morning we had a service project. We went to our church building and cleaned it then we went to a local park, with some of the Elders in our district, and chalked about he is the gift, we had thanksgiving with the D family and also our recent convert, R. I must say I was pretty sick after eating two thanksgiving meals in 3 hours! It was worth it to be with their families though. Thanksgiving night we did our weekly planning and that was it. Great time! 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! 

Love,

Sister Reber 

Our District

 CHALKING!