A new nephew!! Andrew is a good name. Congrats Julie and Brett! And
Val i love hearing your stories and your successes in France. The
work is amazing.
This week has been a crazy week filled with miracles and hard times.
So on saturday Elder Pericle and i were walking back from a visit we
had with one of our investigators and we saw this chinese guy standing
on the sidewalk with buckets and a bag full of vegetables. We started
talking to him and asked if we could help him take his vegetables to
his piso. He barely spoke any spanish and had a crazy chino accent
mixed in with the spanish so it was way hard to understand him. After
like 10 miles (or it seemed like it because the buckets were so heavy)
we got to his piso and we went inside with him. When we got inside
there was another chino and we hoped that maybe he knew more spanish
and we could talk to him... NOPE! He was even worse than the other
one haha but we found out his name was Jhung Hai or however you spell
it. Anways we tried to tell them that we were missionaries and we
pulled out a pass along card. Jhung Hai figured out what we were
talking about and he quickly ran out of the room and came running back
with a chinese Bible. He pointed to it and then to himself and said,
"Yo... Jesus... por dos años" We realized that they were christians!
We wrote down the address of the church and when it starts and invited
them to come. We didnt think anything would come out of it but then
the next day on sunday, guess who showed up to church.... Jhung Hai
with his wife!! Haha it was amazing. We sat with them and they didnt
understand anything but they could see that we were so happy that they
were there. We´re not exactly sure what we´re going to do now with
them... but we´re going to get a Book of Mormon in chinese and give it
to them.
Speaking about church, we havent been having very much success with
getting investigators to church lately and this last sunday we really
wanted to have a lot of people to show up. Saturday night we
specifically prayed that we would have 5 investigators show up to
church the next day. We got to church and there was only one
investigator there already, Andrés, who comes to church every sunday.
Then right before sacrament meeting started another investigator,
Adriana, walked in with a member. Sacrament meeting started and we
were afraid we would only have the 2 investigators there. But then,
Danny, another investigator walked in and right after him, was Jhung
Hai and his wife that we had met the day before. We had exactly 5
investigators at church. Heavenly Father always hears and answers our
prayers.
This week we met a man in the street who is homeless and has no job,
named Dayo. He is from Nigeria and is about 30 years old. He has no
family here and he barely speaks any spanish. We set up a visit with
him on thursday at the University but didnt really think anything
would come out of it. We got to the University and there he was
sitting on a bench. We talked to him about the restoration and told
him that he can know for himself if these things are true. We asked
him that when he knows these things to be true if he would be baptized
and he said yes! Friday and saturday we met with him again and taught
him more. His date to be baptized was September 10th but he didnt
show up to church yesterday for some reason so we have to push it back
to September 17th. He doesnt have a phone or a house so we´re trying
to find him again but we know the Lord will guide us to find him. He
is definitely an elegido.
Our baptismal date with Mami was on 10th also but she left this
weekend again to go to Barcelona. She had the same excuse last
weekend and we dont know why she goes there but we have to push her
date back to the 17th. We tried to get with her every day this week
and have a visit but she fired us 4 times and we were only able to
meet with her once. We´re working hard with her and trying to help
her progress but we´re afraid that she´s going to keep cancelling our
visits. We´ll see what happens this week.
Love you fam. I´ll talk to you all next week!
Elder Reeves
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Lleida Week 2
Familia!!
Alright to start off i need to apologize to mom for not wishing happy
birthday last week... i totally remembered your birthday last week and
i was going to write you happy birthday but then i forgot. So HAPPY
BIRTHDAY MADRE!!! and happy birthday to all the nieces and nephews and
anyone else! im sorry birthdays are probably the last things i
remember.
Anyways this week has been a great week. I cant believe how fast time
is going again. it started to slow down when i first got here to
Lleida but now its flying by again. something thats hard here in
Lleida is that everyone we teach says they will come to church but
then they never do. And nobody can progress towards baptism unless
they come to church. We´re trying to help people realize the
importance of going to church but its hard for them to understand. Oh
a funny story i just remembered about church yesterday... so Elder
Pericle was teaching our class with the investigadors about the
priesthood and i started to bare my testimony at the end of the
lesson. There´s 2 words in spanish that i get confused sometimes
"olivdar" (to forget) and "odiar" (to hate). I was going to say,
"sometimes i forget the power that we have as priesthood holders"...
but it ended up coming out "sometimes i hate the power that we have as
priesthood holders" hahaha it was hilarious. Luckily there was only
us four missionaries in there with one of our investigadors and
Luciano who just got baptized. gotta love making mistakes when youre
learning spanish... but thats how you learn.
A miracle we had this week was on wednesday we were going to go see
Andrés (12 year old kid, amazing and always comes to church) who has
been ready to be baptized for a while now (Elder Pericle has been
trying to get him baptized since May) but his mom has been being weird
and wont allow it even though she´s a member herself. We decided to
fast for him that day and ask for a miracle to happen so he could be
baptized. That day was SO hot and EVERYONE we visited was offering us
food and water. We rufused all the offers and kept fasting. The
visit with Andrés was our last visit of the day and we brought the
bishop with us. We had a great lesson with him about the importance
of baptism but his mom at first didnt agree. But we continued to
teach and the mom slowly started to change and now she is totally for
having Andrés to be baptized! We know that Heavenly Father heard our
prayers and blessed us with this miracle through our fasting and
faith. His date to be baptized is September 17.
We got a new baptismal date this week with a lady named Mami (mommy).
She´s from Gineau Ecuatorial and is about 50 years old with no job.
She was a referral from the Elders in Hospitalet and we met her on
wednesday i think. She always has good questions to ask while we´re
teaching and she´s willing to change. We taught her the first lesson
and committed her to be baptized on September 10! We were going to
set it for September 3 but she was leaving on a trip to Barcelona
yesterday so she couldn´t go to church yesterday. We´re meeting with
her again tonight. She is an amazing lady! I´ll attach a picture
with her.
I love you fam. I pray for you all every day and i definitely need
your prayers too. Thank you for all your support and your prayers.
Elder Reeves
Alright to start off i need to apologize to mom for not wishing happy
birthday last week... i totally remembered your birthday last week and
i was going to write you happy birthday but then i forgot. So HAPPY
BIRTHDAY MADRE!!! and happy birthday to all the nieces and nephews and
anyone else! im sorry birthdays are probably the last things i
remember.
Anyways this week has been a great week. I cant believe how fast time
is going again. it started to slow down when i first got here to
Lleida but now its flying by again. something thats hard here in
Lleida is that everyone we teach says they will come to church but
then they never do. And nobody can progress towards baptism unless
they come to church. We´re trying to help people realize the
importance of going to church but its hard for them to understand. Oh
a funny story i just remembered about church yesterday... so Elder
Pericle was teaching our class with the investigadors about the
priesthood and i started to bare my testimony at the end of the
lesson. There´s 2 words in spanish that i get confused sometimes
"olivdar" (to forget) and "odiar" (to hate). I was going to say,
"sometimes i forget the power that we have as priesthood holders"...
but it ended up coming out "sometimes i hate the power that we have as
priesthood holders" hahaha it was hilarious. Luckily there was only
us four missionaries in there with one of our investigadors and
Luciano who just got baptized. gotta love making mistakes when youre
learning spanish... but thats how you learn.
A miracle we had this week was on wednesday we were going to go see
Andrés (12 year old kid, amazing and always comes to church) who has
been ready to be baptized for a while now (Elder Pericle has been
trying to get him baptized since May) but his mom has been being weird
and wont allow it even though she´s a member herself. We decided to
fast for him that day and ask for a miracle to happen so he could be
baptized. That day was SO hot and EVERYONE we visited was offering us
food and water. We rufused all the offers and kept fasting. The
visit with Andrés was our last visit of the day and we brought the
bishop with us. We had a great lesson with him about the importance
of baptism but his mom at first didnt agree. But we continued to
teach and the mom slowly started to change and now she is totally for
having Andrés to be baptized! We know that Heavenly Father heard our
prayers and blessed us with this miracle through our fasting and
faith. His date to be baptized is September 17.
We got a new baptismal date this week with a lady named Mami (mommy).
She´s from Gineau Ecuatorial and is about 50 years old with no job.
She was a referral from the Elders in Hospitalet and we met her on
wednesday i think. She always has good questions to ask while we´re
teaching and she´s willing to change. We taught her the first lesson
and committed her to be baptized on September 10! We were going to
set it for September 3 but she was leaving on a trip to Barcelona
yesterday so she couldn´t go to church yesterday. We´re meeting with
her again tonight. She is an amazing lady! I´ll attach a picture
with her.
I love you fam. I pray for you all every day and i definitely need
your prayers too. Thank you for all your support and your prayers.
Elder Reeves
Monday, August 15, 2011
Lleida Week 1
Familia!! I love Lleida! Elder Pericle and i have been working hard
here in the city. A little more about Lleida: i thought it was north
of barcelona but it´s actually almost directly west from Barcelona.
it´s in the Hospitalet stake (1 of the 2 stakes in Barcelona) and isnt
a very big city but it´s still pretty good sized. it´s not very green
or mountainous here but it´s definitely hilly in some parts. right
now we dont have the city split between us 2 companionships so we have
both just been working around the whole city. But President called us
and told us that we have to split the city sadly... so probably on
thursday it will be split.
Mom, Elder Pericle has been out for a little over a year haha i was
saying that he´s been in Lleida for 2 transfers. They have this whole
new program that all the missions around the world are starting with
all the trainers and the trainees. We have steps and goals that we
have to accomplish every week that goes for 12 weeks. Its called "the
first 12 weeks". Pretty much by the end of the 2 transfers with your
trainer, you should be ready to become a trainer if youre called
upon... its kinda putting a lot of pressure on the trainee but the
program is really good and will help a ton for the new missionaries.
it´s weird though because my group that just got to the mission field
is the first one to start this program so we´re just getting used to
it.
Yesterday at church was quite the experience... i met all the people
in the ward and i had to get up during sacrament meeting and introduce
myself to the ward. i love all the members here in the ward, they´re
all really strong and good members but i had no idea what people we´re
saying to me most of the time haha. the spanish is still coming but
im getting better each day. and also Elder Rassmussen and Elder
Tirado had a baptism on saturday with this guy from Romania named
Luciano. He is an amazing convert and it was a great baptism.
One miracle experience that we had this week:
Yesterday all of our visits were falling through and no one was home
that we wanted to visit. Elder Pericle and I were pretty disappointed
but he had a feeling to go visit this family from Dominican Republic.
We walked over to their piso and they let us in. Not only were the
husband and wife there (Eusevio and Janet) but they had 5 other adult
friends there in their living room. We taught all of them the first
lesson and the Spirit was so strong. 3 of the adults werent very
receptive to the message but 2 of them (Francisco and Ana) were very
receptive and both took Book of Mormons. We have another visit set up
to visit both of them and teach them more. It was an amazing
experience for me to teach 7 adults all at once but we could
definitely tell who was ready to here the Gospel and who wasnt.
If you cant tell, im trying to keep the rules and not use any slang in
this email. It´s something that President and Sister Hinckley stress
a ton that all the missionaries are trying to keep. We cant say
anything that´s even remotely close to being slang (cool, awesome,
ect.) its probably the hardest thing ive ever tried to do in my life.
Well we have a visita soon so i have to get going but here´s some
pictures of when i first arrived to barcelona and there´s a picture of
me and Elder Pericle with one of our investigadors Donato from Africa.
Adios mi familia!
Elder Reeves
here in the city. A little more about Lleida: i thought it was north
of barcelona but it´s actually almost directly west from Barcelona.
it´s in the Hospitalet stake (1 of the 2 stakes in Barcelona) and isnt
a very big city but it´s still pretty good sized. it´s not very green
or mountainous here but it´s definitely hilly in some parts. right
now we dont have the city split between us 2 companionships so we have
both just been working around the whole city. But President called us
and told us that we have to split the city sadly... so probably on
thursday it will be split.
Mom, Elder Pericle has been out for a little over a year haha i was
saying that he´s been in Lleida for 2 transfers. They have this whole
new program that all the missions around the world are starting with
all the trainers and the trainees. We have steps and goals that we
have to accomplish every week that goes for 12 weeks. Its called "the
first 12 weeks". Pretty much by the end of the 2 transfers with your
trainer, you should be ready to become a trainer if youre called
upon... its kinda putting a lot of pressure on the trainee but the
program is really good and will help a ton for the new missionaries.
it´s weird though because my group that just got to the mission field
is the first one to start this program so we´re just getting used to
it.
Yesterday at church was quite the experience... i met all the people
in the ward and i had to get up during sacrament meeting and introduce
myself to the ward. i love all the members here in the ward, they´re
all really strong and good members but i had no idea what people we´re
saying to me most of the time haha. the spanish is still coming but
im getting better each day. and also Elder Rassmussen and Elder
Tirado had a baptism on saturday with this guy from Romania named
Luciano. He is an amazing convert and it was a great baptism.
One miracle experience that we had this week:
Yesterday all of our visits were falling through and no one was home
that we wanted to visit. Elder Pericle and I were pretty disappointed
but he had a feeling to go visit this family from Dominican Republic.
We walked over to their piso and they let us in. Not only were the
husband and wife there (Eusevio and Janet) but they had 5 other adult
friends there in their living room. We taught all of them the first
lesson and the Spirit was so strong. 3 of the adults werent very
receptive to the message but 2 of them (Francisco and Ana) were very
receptive and both took Book of Mormons. We have another visit set up
to visit both of them and teach them more. It was an amazing
experience for me to teach 7 adults all at once but we could
definitely tell who was ready to here the Gospel and who wasnt.
If you cant tell, im trying to keep the rules and not use any slang in
this email. It´s something that President and Sister Hinckley stress
a ton that all the missionaries are trying to keep. We cant say
anything that´s even remotely close to being slang (cool, awesome,
ect.) its probably the hardest thing ive ever tried to do in my life.
Well we have a visita soon so i have to get going but here´s some
pictures of when i first arrived to barcelona and there´s a picture of
me and Elder Pericle with one of our investigadors Donato from Africa.
Adios mi familia!
Elder Reeves
Friday, August 12, 2011
Lleida (Week 9)
Fam im in the mission field now!! i arrived to barcelona on wednesday at 11:30 with elders fica and prieto and hermana rejón and we went around the city a little bit with Pres and Sis Hinckley, then after that we ate lunch with them and had interviews. Then we went straight out to the field! we were all put with a companionship that live around barcelona and went working with them for the first night and then we slept over at their piso. thursday morning we went to the leadership meeting with all the leaders of the mission and we met our trainers! my trainer is Elder Pericle!!! all of the elders told me about a thousand times that i was getting the best elder in the mission. everyone loves him. he really is an amazing companion. he grew up in Virginia and he´s been out for a little over a year. he´s always smiling and he works very hard and has a ton of love for the people here. we were sent to serve in Lleida!! Elder Pericle has been here for 2 transfers i think and he´s the District Leader for our district. it´s about an hour and a half train ride north from barcelona and its SO hot and humid here. that was the first difference i noticed when i got to barcelona... its so much more humid than madrid. but i love it. it feels good to sweat so much haha. We live in a 4 person piso with Elder Rasmussen and Elder Tirado!! if you dont remember, Elder Tirado was my travel companion from the provo MTC to spain. its a ton of fun.
im being attacked right now by 2 little kids who are trying to talk to me but i have no idea what theyre saying haha. i still have a ton to learn with spanish but its coming slowly. i love lleida so far and i love the people here. there´s tons of africans and south americans here. this morning we did service with this member family from bolivia and we helped them move from their piso into another piso. it took about 6 hours! but it feels so good to help others in need.
I dont have much time but just letting everyone know that im here in lleida and im loving it. i´m still meeting all of our investigadors so i´ll tell you more about the work on monday. monday is our preparation day. our address here is:
C/ Mossen Reig. 4.3.1.
Lleida 25008
España
Love you all family. until monday! chao!
Elder Reeves
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Week 8 - last week in the CCM!
thanks for all the birthday wishes fam! Elder hardiman had his birthday on monday and then mine was the next day. both of the days they came out with huge cakes after lunch. everyone sang happy birthday and we blew out the candles. it was cool. other than that it was pretty much a normal day haha i love it. its crazy to think that i only have one birthday left in the mission field. this mission is already going too fast. and i go out to the field in 6 days!!!! ahhh im so excited to get out to barcelona!! the missionaries who are going to madrid leave tuesday night, those going to malaga leave at 6:30 am wednesday morning and then the rest of us leave to barcelona at 7:30 am on wednesday. it takes about 3 hours on the train to get to barcelona. It will be me, Elders Prieto and Fica, and Hermana Rejón. so nobody send me anything in the mail until i get to barcelona because it takes about a week for letters to get here and i´ll already be gone! I´ll write as soon as i can with my new address.
This past weekend at the park was awesome as always. Elder Fica and i were put together and we talked to a lot of people. i dont know why the teachers think im good at spanish because they keep putting me with an english speaking companion haha but i like it better than being with a spanish speaker because i have to talk. and it was elder fica´s first time at the park so i had to help him out but he did way good. this weekend will be the last time we go to the park which is sad but it will be good. Pres Earl said that in the barcelona mission they have the new elders do street contacting right when we get to barcelona which im way excited for
We had a member of the area 70 come to visit the CCM on sunday, Elder Lopez. he talked about his conversion back in the early 1970´s and he showed a ton of pictures of different missionaries that helped him during that time of his conversion. i knew that Uncle Robert served in the early 70´s so i went up to Elder Lopez after the devotional and asked him if he knew an Elder Reeves from the 70´s and he said he did! so he wants to email uncle robert. mom and dad if you could forward this email to Uncle Robert that would be awesome. Elder Lopez´s email is: lopezfa@ldschurch.org. i dont know if you remember him Uncle Robert but he said he wanted to talk to you.
Mom and dad i cant believe your back in the house in bountiful. its weird to think of you guys living in utah. im so used to being with you in california but im glad your back. you´ll have to tell me how your first sunday back in the ward is because every time i would go back to the ward, i would barely get out of the church alive. everyone would be asking me about you two in the mission and everyone would be wanting to talk to me haha it was insane. oh and can you find out where jon yates is going for his mission?? he told me he would write me when he got his call but of course he didnt haha. anyways, i love you fam. i´ll write you when i get to barcelona!!
Elder Reeves
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