Week 4

I cant believe ive already been out for a whole month.  Im already running out of time left on the mission.  Everyone says that time doesnt exist on the mission because it never seems possible how fast time goes.  Im sure everyone who´s been on a mission can agree with that.  This week has been an awesome week!  Last saturday we got to go to a park in the middle of Madrid and talk to people.  This park is huge!  They switch up all the companionships each trip to the park so i was in a trio with Elder Wilson and Elder Rigtrup.  The first lady we talked to, I think i understood maybe a total of 3 words... and we talked to her for about 20 minutes.  Haha but each person we contacted, i started to understand more and more.  It was hard to think of what i wanted to say when we were talking to people but us three missionaries worked together to get the message across.  We got one referral on the way to the park in the metro which was a really cool experience.  The girl couldn´t really understand spanish very well but we talked to her about the Book of Mormon and tried to give her one but she said she couldnt take it right then.  She wrote down her number and gave us her name, Nana.  We dont know if it was her actual number but we were excited anyways.  We contacted about 12 different people in the park but every single person shut us down and wouldnt listen about the Church.  It was definitely a learning experience and it was good to practice listening to Spanish and speaking it.  It was awesome.

Today we got to go to the temple again.  Yes mom, we get to go every week while we´re here at the CCM which is a huge blessing because i wont be able to go at all once i get to Barcelona.  A temple worker came up to me and Elder Hardiman after the session and asked if we wanted to be witnesses for baptisms.  We said we´d love to and we witnessed for at least 450 names and it was all in Portuguese (or however you spell it).  Each person was baptized for about 40 people.  It was way cool.  I felt bad for the guy who was baptizing because he was the only one there to baptize.  I think his arm almost fell off by the end.

 Elder Hardiman is a great companion.  We work really well together when we´re teaching.  He gets homesick a lot though and he thinks about home all the time.  Im trying to encourage him and help him and i think he´s getting better.  I love him.  We´ll only be together for about 2 more weeks though because there are 10 native Spanish Elders coming and President said he´s going to try to put all of us with a native companion which im SO excited for.  It will help a ton with spanish.  There were 4 Elders and a Sister who left the CCM today.  They all got here last week with the rest of us but they could already speak Spanish so they all left out to the field this morning.  Elder Tirado (the one i traveled with) was one who left so now im the only one here going to Barcelona.  I cant wait to get there.  But i would probably die if i left the CCM right now because i still have so much to learn with Spanish.  This CCM is so sweet.  Oh by the way, did Jon and Leah move here to Spain??  Because there´s a teacher here that looks like Jon´s clone.  He´s just a little shorter but its pretty weird when i see him and i almost call him Jon and give him a hug. Haha im just kidding but its crazy how much he looks like Jon.  I´ll try to get a picture of him and send it.

 Mom and dad im glad you guys are adjusting to real life but im sorry you had to leave this awesome full time missionary work.  Val and I are the lucky ones now being out on missions.  We got to watch a video last night that was a talk from Elder Holland last year at the Provo MTC. He talked about how the work isnt easy and it´s not supposed to be easy.  It wasn´t even close to being easy for Christ, so why should it be easy for us?  He said we have to go through a little bit what He went through because we his disciples and his representatives.  The talk made me just want to go out and talk to every single person i see.  I love this work so much and im growing to love Spain more and more every single day.  I know this is the Lord´s work.  I feel His love and His strength every day.  Love you all.  I´ll send some pictures throughout the day.  These emails take forever to send pictures so you have to do a couple at a time.

Elder Reeves