The Adventures of Elder Reginato Serving in the Texas McAllen Mission (2019-2021)

"Heavenward" by Yongsung Kim Merry Christmas! And a happy new year!!!!!!! This past week was very interesting. I was sick. Pretty much all week. It started kinda on tuesday, but we went to the doctor on thursday. Long story short, they gave me some steroids, a pat on the back, and said, "just stay in until sunday."  So that's basically what we did. We tried to go out and visit a few people here and there but I had a really bad cough and I was super congested, which meant that i had long nights where i couldnt sleep very much, so I was always exhausted during the day. Being sick aside, on christmas we went to the Hernandez' house! They cooked a TONNNN of meat and it was SO good. They let us spend some time with them and we played a few games, they gave us a stocking, we gave them a present we had for them, and then we went back home. Christmas was okay but, very different from what I'm used to. We had one of our investigators...

The Christ Child Hi everyone! Sorry I was planning on writing a big email but I'm not feeling very good right now... Um, sin city! The big boy Sinton... where do I start. We cover three cities. Taft (population of about 3000), sinton (population around 5600), and saint paul (maybe five people I dont know). Missionaries have been here for a very, very long time and since it's a small city, they're actually pretty well known overall. I'm technically the "group leader." We dont have a ward, or a branch. We have a group of roughly 10 people that comes to our little ward. The explanation as to why is a bit long, but basically all of our active members up here actually go to a different ward further south, stake presidents orders. That makes our job a bitttt more difficult, but it's alright I guess. Elder Fonseca, my companion, is from costa rica! Hes a nice guy, and hes currently learning english. Hes doing a really good job so far honestly. He...

"Peace Be Still" by Yongsun Kim I dont have too much time today, but next week I'll be able to email a bit more. Holy guacamole, I'm finishing transfer 6. Crazy. I'm being transferred to a little city named Sinton! Its north, above Corpus Christi! It should be fun, and I'm going to try my absolute hardest! There arent very many members there right now, so my job will be to change that. Wish me luck, Merry Christmas yall, be safe I love you all! Keep the Faith, Elder Reginato

"The Prodigal Son" by Walter Rane Why hello there. Not too much to say this week, I'll keep it short. We had interview with the President again! Things are going well. I'm proud of my son and how far hes come. President talked to me a little bit about repentance and a few questions I had about the sacrament. As well, there is a member here who has decided that he doesnt like the changes happening in the church and he elected to go and start complaining to other members and he has since stopped coming to church. One night, we were out rather late because I was answering questions and explaining things to one of the members who had a lot of questions, both on his own, and because of things that the apostate brother had been complaining about. Down here I have seen time and time and time and time again that some members get "offended" or that they "dont like how different" things are, and so they decide that now the church is false. Or that...

"Where are the nine" by Walter Rane Hi! This week has been really good all things considered! Tuesday: we had zone conference! We talked about a lot of different things, including about "numbers". A lot of people have decided that anytime anyone talks about "numbers" that they're dehumanizing the work. It's really annoying and quite frankly they're acting like kids, but Ocampo set them STRAIGHT during the conference. He said that the first presidency has set things this way for a reason, and that we need to make sure we're setting goals and doing our best to measure how and what we're doing. Dont remember what happened wednesday I'll keep it real with yall. Thursday was Thanksgiving!!! We had a ton of meal appointments with Members, and it was a ton of fun. I had the best sweet potatoes I have EVER had. I ate until I almost threw up hahaha It was an interesting experience spending all day with other people's familie...

Alrighty, its been such a fast week! I've been amazed time and time again how quickly the days pass and how even though I wake in the mornings tired and unsure how I'm going to stay awake a whole day, I blink and its night again. I'm just trying my best to get as much done as possible. Elder Cannegieter and I have been switching up our teaching styles and it's been really, really helping. This week alone we picked up 10 people. For reference, our average is 4! I'm trying my best, and I think I've really seen the truth in one of the scriptures I had sent to me. Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." We've been trying our hardest to just keep on chugging, and luckily we've finally started reaping. I'm learning Hebrew. Have I already mentioned that? I dont have the extension to write Hebrew in this email but aleph-nun-yod nei-mem-lamed-dalet. (Anee amalehj.) Its j...

Alright I'll keep this email short so as to waste as little of your time as possible. (Just kidding kinda) 1. I now have a cane. "Oh where from Elder?" That's not important. It has a metal eagle head. Its sooooo awesome and I use it to defend myself from dogs. "Wow that sounds crazy Elder." It is. Honestly? More effective than my taser. Would rate 10/10. 2. I got to sit on a horse and hold a sword! It! Was! So! Cool!!!!! (Maybe a little on the iffy side of the rules but hey just look at how cool the picture is) 3. We had a cold front this week and it was freezing. Freezing I tell you. 4. Our area has really had some struggles finding new people, but lately we've just been grinding and finding! The Lord has blessed us with family after family, person after person. It's been so nice to finally have a bit of a break. We're really excited to teach them all about this message that can change their lives. 5. Ahh I dont even know. With ...

Well. Tomorrow is transfers. I'm staying here in La Joya with my son, which is going to be great. Elder Ferguson is being banished to Kingsville, which sucks, but hey that's where the Lord needs him! President Ocampo is really cracking down and making sure the leadership is really obedient, so,  on the list of things I'm not excited for,  1. That. This week was fun though. We did a lot of stuff, so I'll just be going in bullet point form to list them lol: lol: -I are kidney for the first time this week! Not sure what was worse: the knowledge that I was eating kidney or the kidney itself. -I went to court! (I wasnt in trouble.) We were supporting someone who we were teaching... it was fun though! -ummm we finally had some success picking some people up! Finding new people to teach has been a little bit of a struggle. -Im getting good at chess!!!!!!!!!!! chess!!!!!!!!!!! -I can also shuffle and bridge a deck of cards really well now. -We h...

"Walking on the Water" by Julius Sergius von Klever Maybe it's just because I'm not good at writing emails but I always stall writing them Haha sorry about that. Soooooooooooooooo much happened this week I dont know where to start. Halloween! Was fun? But also kinda sad because I miss holidays with the friends and the fam, but hey enjoy this picture of me with the LDS Cemetery lol. Nate had surgery, so I got to call my family during the week! That was fun. (Thanks nate) Um, what else. Our investigators are doing awesome!! We went to a remembrance party for one of their parents who just passed away, as well as we just had an interview for some other investigators so they COULD be baptized next week!!!! We'll keep yall updated. I dont know what else to say. I've been really excited to be here and I'm really enjoying it. I hit 8 months tomorrow. Crazy, right? I remember getting to the MTC like it was yesterday. I think something I've ...