Mi familia!
Thats good that the basement is all dried out. Just so you know mom
and dad, you better still be living in that house when i get back
because i love that house. And tell your missionaries they can just
record the game and watch it later because honestly who cares about a
game when you can spend time with Pres and Sis Reeves at the reunion!
Haha oh man i cant wait for general conference this next weekend. And
we should have it in english which is all the better. I love spanish
but i would much rather not suffer trying to stay awake by translating
everything in my head... sad it might be a while until i get passed
the translating stage.
This past weekend has been the best. We had Frank´s baptism and
confirmation and another kid named Jeisson who the other elders have
been teaching got baptized too. It was a pretty amazing story what
happened to Jeisson too but i dont have time to write about it so i´ll
write about it later. But pretty much he was supposed to get baptized
on the 17th and he was interviewed and all ready to go but then
decided he wasnt ready. We visited him this last friday and he had no
plans to get baptized but we had such a good visit with him and the
spirit was so strong that he decided to get baptized the very next
morning with Frank. It was incredible. Now im going to tell the
whole story of Frank because he´s the best.
Elder Pericle and I met Frank more than a month ago just from a
contact on the street. We saw him and started to talk to him and we
got his information but for some reason we weren´t able to set up a
visit. We didnt see him for a couple of weeks and honestly we pretty
much forgot about him. But then one day we were walking to one of our
visits and we saw him with one of his friends. We talked to him again
and he told us he had never been baptized in any church before and
said he would love for us to come by and teach him because he needed
to be baptized. We had our first visit with him about 3 weeks ago and
in the first visit he agreed to be baptized and to read and pray. The
next visit we had with him he had read, i think it was 3 Nephi 11, and
he said he liked it but he still wasnt sure about the Book of Mormon.
We found out that he had been being taught by the Jehova´s Witnesses
and he wasnt sure what to believe. We invited him to pray
specifically about the Book of Mormon that night and he would receive
an answer. I think the next day was sunday and we went to go pick him
up at his barber shop so we could meet with him and walk to church.
We got there to his barber shop and he wasnt there. So we called him
and he told us that he was going to his other church that day. We
were pretty bummed about it but we just told him we would come by on
monday. The next day we went and saw him and he said he hadnt
received an answer... so he really wasnt progressing at all. In that
visit, we asked him to kneel down with us right then and to ask God if
this truly is His church and that the Book of Mormon is true. He
prayed and gave the most amazing prayer ever! He seriously poured out
his whole soul to know if it was true. After the prayer we asked him
how he felt and he said he felt so happy and at peace and he knew he
had gotten his answer. After that momento clave every other visit was
so easy and he accepted everything. Almost every single day since
then until his baptism we´ve stopped by and had a visit with him. He
always read what we left him to read and he always prayed every
morning and night. He loved the second lesson and especially about
the spirit world. He asked us, "do our spirits go back to God after
we die?" we read with him in Alma 40 and it was like a billion pound
weight was lifted off his shoulders. He said, "good! The Jehova´s
Witnesses were trying to teach me that they dont. They were trying to
deceive me!" It was great. Every commitment and commandment we
taught him about he kept. He always said "I will do what God asks. I
trust in Him." He was baptized and confirmed this last weekend. He
cant wait to see General Conference. I love Frank. It was so neat to
see him change his whole life from being a big smoker and drinker to
all the sudden a complete follower of Christ. The Gospel is
everything. Everyone needs to hear the good news and change their
lives to receive salvation and return to live with God again.
The Bolivia family is doing good but they still havent come to church
and we still can only see them like once a week so its a slow work.
But José, the father, is from Cochabamba, dad. And the mom, Doli, is
from Santa Cruz. When do you both come to Spain again?? Next month?
Alright love you fam.
Elder Reeves
Mom can you also send this to Elder Child (i think its
adam.child@myldsmail.net) and Elder Seamons?
(keller.seamons@myldsmail.net)
My Elderes around the world.
Elder Marsden youre so right about the field being white already to
harvest. Why waste our time with those who arent ready when we can
just be focusing on people who want to just swan dive into the faunt
and get baptized? That´s something im figuring out more and more
every single day. Elder Mossito talk to me baby. Elder Child and
Elder Seamons....... WHATS GOING ON IN NEW MEXICO AND PERU??? Im in
Spain in a city called Lleida and im loving every second of it. The
vineyard is going good. Write me back through your fam emails. I
love you boys like crazy. Hasta luego mis hermanos.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Lleida week 6 - traslados
TRANSFER WEEK! Dont worry fam im staying here in Lleida with Elder
Pericle. We have preparation day on tuesday during transfer week so
thats why i didnt write yesterday. But Elder Tirado left us this
morning to go to Santander which is the farthest corner northwest that
you can get in our mission. Elder Rasmussen is staying here and he´s
going to be training again and guess who it will be... ELDER KANE!!
My companion from provo! Crazy huh? He´s been serving in Los Angeles
for the past transfer but he finally got his visa. I cant wait to see
him! Its going to be a party. He doesnt get here till next tuesday
though because he´s off track of the transfer. So we´ll be in a trio
until he gets here next week.
Alright a little miracle story... 2 sundays ago, Elder Pericle and I
were walking to a visit and we passed a Bolivian couple who had 2
daughters with them (yes dad you would be proud). We said hi and they
said hi back and the mom smiled at us. We kept walking for a second
and then Elder Pericle immediately turned around and said we need to
talk to them. We went back and introduced ourselves and told them
that families can be together forever. They said they´d love to talk
to us and they set a time to meet with us without us even asking for a
visit. We visited them last monday and yesterday. They are some of
the most prepared people to hear the Gospel. José is the dad, Doli
the mom, and Salene (15) and Chenia (11) are the daughters. Its hard
though because theyre busy every day so we can only see them like once
a week and they havent come to church yet and we havnet been able to
set a baptismal date. But we know that we were guided by the Spirit
to go back and talk to them and theyll eventually get in the waters of
baptism.
On tuesday we had zone conference with Pres and Sis Hinckley.
Actually Sis Hinckley wasnt there because she was in Barcelona with
some sisters who are sick. But it was so good. Pres Hinckley shared
a quote from Elder Bednar who was talking about how they decide where
missionaries go to serve their missions. He said something like this,
"we dont think of the next 2 years the missionary is going to have...
we think of the next 30." It just blew my mind how much revelation
they get to decide where we are going to serve. They really do see a
glimpse of our futures and thats how they decide. Anyways, after zone
conference Elder Pericle went up to Zaragoza with one of our Zone
leaders Elder Rhead and Elder Estrada, our other zone leader, stayed
here with me for intercambios for a couple of days. I was pretty
scared because i was going to be in charge of the next 2 days on the
intercambio with Elder Estrada. By the way, Elder Estrada´s little
brother lived right underneath our apartment at BYU and we became way
good friends with him. So its been neat to get to know Elder Estrada.
We went to visit this one lady who Elder Pericle and i received her
as a referral from some other missionaries who met her on the street.
Her name is Maria from Ecuador and is about in her 50´s. She isnt
married but we´re pretty sure she has been married before because she
always talks about her kids. We taught her the restoration and when
we shared the story of Joseph Smith she started to cry. She committed
to be baptized on Oct 8th and is way excited. She said she´s always
been searching for the full truth of the Gospel and now she is finding
it. It was pretty amazing.
Frank is doing amazing. Every prayer he says is like he´s talking
face to face with Heavenly Father. He has completely stopped smoking
and drinking and is keeping the ley de castidad. He is just having a
hard time understanding that he still needs to keep the law of
chastity after baptism too. But we´ve taught him everything and he´s
going to have his interview tomorrow to get baptized this weekend!
Danny was baptized and confirmed this last weekend. The service was
so good. He loved it and is going strong. We´re going to try to keep
meeting with him but it´s going to be hard though because he´s
starting school and he wont have a ton of time. But he is going to
keep coming to church every sunday and he´ll receive the preisthood
next sunday.
Sorry we´re locked out of our apartment right now because we forgot
the keys... so i dont have my thing to put on pictures. so next week
i´ll send more. Love my family. Keep praying for me and for our
investigators. We all need the help
Elder Reeves
My boyyyyyys out in the field.
Elder Mossito, where are you?? i havent heard from you forever.
Elder Marsden, keep working hard my brotha. Shelby sent me pictures
of our powell trip... oh man they are classic!! good times. Les amo
mis hermanos. Mandenme mas cartas electronicas. Me encanta a oír sus
experiencas en el campo misional. Chao
Pericle. We have preparation day on tuesday during transfer week so
thats why i didnt write yesterday. But Elder Tirado left us this
morning to go to Santander which is the farthest corner northwest that
you can get in our mission. Elder Rasmussen is staying here and he´s
going to be training again and guess who it will be... ELDER KANE!!
My companion from provo! Crazy huh? He´s been serving in Los Angeles
for the past transfer but he finally got his visa. I cant wait to see
him! Its going to be a party. He doesnt get here till next tuesday
though because he´s off track of the transfer. So we´ll be in a trio
until he gets here next week.
Alright a little miracle story... 2 sundays ago, Elder Pericle and I
were walking to a visit and we passed a Bolivian couple who had 2
daughters with them (yes dad you would be proud). We said hi and they
said hi back and the mom smiled at us. We kept walking for a second
and then Elder Pericle immediately turned around and said we need to
talk to them. We went back and introduced ourselves and told them
that families can be together forever. They said they´d love to talk
to us and they set a time to meet with us without us even asking for a
visit. We visited them last monday and yesterday. They are some of
the most prepared people to hear the Gospel. José is the dad, Doli
the mom, and Salene (15) and Chenia (11) are the daughters. Its hard
though because theyre busy every day so we can only see them like once
a week and they havent come to church yet and we havnet been able to
set a baptismal date. But we know that we were guided by the Spirit
to go back and talk to them and theyll eventually get in the waters of
baptism.
On tuesday we had zone conference with Pres and Sis Hinckley.
Actually Sis Hinckley wasnt there because she was in Barcelona with
some sisters who are sick. But it was so good. Pres Hinckley shared
a quote from Elder Bednar who was talking about how they decide where
missionaries go to serve their missions. He said something like this,
"we dont think of the next 2 years the missionary is going to have...
we think of the next 30." It just blew my mind how much revelation
they get to decide where we are going to serve. They really do see a
glimpse of our futures and thats how they decide. Anyways, after zone
conference Elder Pericle went up to Zaragoza with one of our Zone
leaders Elder Rhead and Elder Estrada, our other zone leader, stayed
here with me for intercambios for a couple of days. I was pretty
scared because i was going to be in charge of the next 2 days on the
intercambio with Elder Estrada. By the way, Elder Estrada´s little
brother lived right underneath our apartment at BYU and we became way
good friends with him. So its been neat to get to know Elder Estrada.
We went to visit this one lady who Elder Pericle and i received her
as a referral from some other missionaries who met her on the street.
Her name is Maria from Ecuador and is about in her 50´s. She isnt
married but we´re pretty sure she has been married before because she
always talks about her kids. We taught her the restoration and when
we shared the story of Joseph Smith she started to cry. She committed
to be baptized on Oct 8th and is way excited. She said she´s always
been searching for the full truth of the Gospel and now she is finding
it. It was pretty amazing.
Frank is doing amazing. Every prayer he says is like he´s talking
face to face with Heavenly Father. He has completely stopped smoking
and drinking and is keeping the ley de castidad. He is just having a
hard time understanding that he still needs to keep the law of
chastity after baptism too. But we´ve taught him everything and he´s
going to have his interview tomorrow to get baptized this weekend!
Danny was baptized and confirmed this last weekend. The service was
so good. He loved it and is going strong. We´re going to try to keep
meeting with him but it´s going to be hard though because he´s
starting school and he wont have a ton of time. But he is going to
keep coming to church every sunday and he´ll receive the preisthood
next sunday.
Sorry we´re locked out of our apartment right now because we forgot
the keys... so i dont have my thing to put on pictures. so next week
i´ll send more. Love my family. Keep praying for me and for our
investigators. We all need the help
Elder Reeves
My boyyyyyys out in the field.
Elder Mossito, where are you?? i havent heard from you forever.
Elder Marsden, keep working hard my brotha. Shelby sent me pictures
of our powell trip... oh man they are classic!! good times. Les amo
mis hermanos. Mandenme mas cartas electronicas. Me encanta a oír sus
experiencas en el campo misional. Chao
Monday, September 12, 2011
Lleida week 5 - Prayerful Frank
Hola todos,
Mom and dad how does it feel to have that homecoming done?? im sure
you two did amazing like always. Did you have it recorded or typed up
or something? Because i would love to hear it. if not its totally
fine. And thanks for sending that card. Sorry i forgot to email you
the address last week but im glad you sent it to the office because
that will be easiest. That was such a good story about finding your
passports. Heavenly Father always hears our prayers and never forgets
to answer them. But theyre always in His time and His way. He
definitely has been hearing our prayers here in Lleida. We´ve had 5
people at church for the last 3 weeks in a row and we´re seeing tons
of miracles each day. Its insane.
Frank from Nigeria is doing so good. We see him almost every day and
this week we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of
Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. He struggles with the Law of
Chastity but has completely stopped smoking. He came to church
yesterday and loved it. He said he felt welcomed and everyone was
friendly to him. We had a miracle with him this past week on
Wednesday. We went to go teach him and we aksed him if he had prayed
to know if this was the true church and that the Book of Mormon is the
word of God. He said he hadnt so we invited him to pray right then
during the lesson to ask. We kneeled down and he began to pray. The
whole time he was praying, I was just praying and praying that he
would feel the Spirit and get an answer. He literally poured out his
whole soul asking for an answer. I definitely felt the Spirit and I
was hoping he would. He finished the prayer and we were just kind of
silent for a little bit and then we asked him how he felt and he said
that he felt a ton of peace and happiness. We told him that this was
the Spirit testifying to him that the church is true and that he needs
to get baptized. He said he knew it was the Spirit and is progressing
more and more each day towards his baptism on the 24th. I love Frank.
We will be having a baptism this weekend with Danny! He is from
Colombia and has been being taught for almost a year. He has had like
5 different dates to get baptized but now he finally is doing it. He
is way excited and ready. Also on saturday we get transfer calls... i
dont know how i´ve already been here in the field for a whole
transfer. We´re pretty sure that Elder Pericle and i will stay
together just because of the new training program but you never know.
So i´ll let you know next week. Chao!
Love, Elder Reeves
Mom and dad how does it feel to have that homecoming done?? im sure
you two did amazing like always. Did you have it recorded or typed up
or something? Because i would love to hear it. if not its totally
fine. And thanks for sending that card. Sorry i forgot to email you
the address last week but im glad you sent it to the office because
that will be easiest. That was such a good story about finding your
passports. Heavenly Father always hears our prayers and never forgets
to answer them. But theyre always in His time and His way. He
definitely has been hearing our prayers here in Lleida. We´ve had 5
people at church for the last 3 weeks in a row and we´re seeing tons
of miracles each day. Its insane.
Frank from Nigeria is doing so good. We see him almost every day and
this week we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of
Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. He struggles with the Law of
Chastity but has completely stopped smoking. He came to church
yesterday and loved it. He said he felt welcomed and everyone was
friendly to him. We had a miracle with him this past week on
Wednesday. We went to go teach him and we aksed him if he had prayed
to know if this was the true church and that the Book of Mormon is the
word of God. He said he hadnt so we invited him to pray right then
during the lesson to ask. We kneeled down and he began to pray. The
whole time he was praying, I was just praying and praying that he
would feel the Spirit and get an answer. He literally poured out his
whole soul asking for an answer. I definitely felt the Spirit and I
was hoping he would. He finished the prayer and we were just kind of
silent for a little bit and then we asked him how he felt and he said
that he felt a ton of peace and happiness. We told him that this was
the Spirit testifying to him that the church is true and that he needs
to get baptized. He said he knew it was the Spirit and is progressing
more and more each day towards his baptism on the 24th. I love Frank.
We will be having a baptism this weekend with Danny! He is from
Colombia and has been being taught for almost a year. He has had like
5 different dates to get baptized but now he finally is doing it. He
is way excited and ready. Also on saturday we get transfer calls... i
dont know how i´ve already been here in the field for a whole
transfer. We´re pretty sure that Elder Pericle and i will stay
together just because of the new training program but you never know.
So i´ll let you know next week. Chao!
Love, Elder Reeves
Más fotos
Dialogue by Elder Reeves
 |
| Us at the church with a member's grandson |
 |
| Frank and his friend Nicholas at church yesterday |
Monday, September 5, 2011
Lleida Week 4 - The cast outs
This week has been incredible. Elder Pericle and i have been working
ourselves to death and we´ve been blessed with tons of visits and new
investigators this past week.
On friday, we were walking on the street to one of our visits and this
gitano (gypsy) family who we´ve met before drove up and wanted to meet
with us again on saturday. The mother (Sara) is the sweetest lady
ever and her son (Gabriel) is amazing, but the dad is a complete drunk
and smoker. He is CONSTANTLY drunk and oustide smoking. It´s so sad
because the mom and the son are so nice and good. But anways we went
to go visit them on saturday and everything was going good. The dad
was drunk like always but he was treating us nicely and was respecting
us. We started teaching the 2nd lesson and the dad stayed for about 5
minutes and then he had to go out for a smoke. Then about 5 min
later, the dad walked back in with his brother and they told us to
leave. The brother didnt like us at all and said that everyone in the
gitano neighborhood knew that their family was meeting with the
mormons so he didnt want us there. Luckily we had a member with us
who was backing us up and helping us out and we said we were sorry but
we were almost done with the lesson so they let us finish. The Spirit
was completely gone and the dad was being dumb saying that he was the
boss of the family and that we need to talk to him if we ever wanted
to come back and visit, even though 10 min earlier he was all happy
and excited to see us. So we left and we dont know what´s going to
happen... but Sara and Gabriel totally want to learn more and could be
so ready for baptism.
We lost track of Dayo in the beginning of this last week and we didnt
know how to get ahold of him because he doesn´t have a phone or a
home. Elders Tirado and Rasmussen found him one day but he didnt want
to talk to him. Then we saw him in the street and he was acting
really weird and didn´t want to talk to us either. We told him that
we still wanted to meet with him and that we would meet him on
saturday at the university. At first he didn´t show up and we were
afraid he wouldn´t come, but we were praying that he would... and then
we saw him. We met with him and asked him what was happening and he
told us that everything he has was stolen: his clothes, money, and
even his Book of Mormon. His faith is really being tried right now.
We invited him to come to church yesterday and told him if he didnt
show up that we would meet him at the university again at 4 yesterday.
He didnt show up to church but he came to the university. He says he
still has desires to be baptized but he´s just going through some
really hard times in his life right now. We promised him blessings as
he continues to have faith and is baptized. We´ve set up more visits
this week and we need to teach him the 3rd and 4th lessons and he
needs to come to church twice still.
Yesterday Elder Pericle and I went to teach one of our new
investigators, Pilar, the first lesson and as we were beginning to
teach her, another guy walked in named Chaz. We invited him to stay
and listen so he said he would. As we continued to teach, we invited
both Pilar and Chaz to be baptized and they both said yes. Chaz
shared with us how he hadn´t been to church in a while but he decided
to go yesterday to the Catholic church. He said, "I know it´s not a
coincidence that I met you 2 elders today. I´ve been waiting to find
the correct way of baptism." It´s amazing to see how when people
begin to put their faith in God and have the desires to change that
Heavenly Father puts us in their path or puts them in ours.
Family i grow to love the mission more and more every day. Yeah its
hard and we sweat bucketfulls every day, but i love it. Love you.
Elder Reeves
ourselves to death and we´ve been blessed with tons of visits and new
investigators this past week.
On friday, we were walking on the street to one of our visits and this
gitano (gypsy) family who we´ve met before drove up and wanted to meet
with us again on saturday. The mother (Sara) is the sweetest lady
ever and her son (Gabriel) is amazing, but the dad is a complete drunk
and smoker. He is CONSTANTLY drunk and oustide smoking. It´s so sad
because the mom and the son are so nice and good. But anways we went
to go visit them on saturday and everything was going good. The dad
was drunk like always but he was treating us nicely and was respecting
us. We started teaching the 2nd lesson and the dad stayed for about 5
minutes and then he had to go out for a smoke. Then about 5 min
later, the dad walked back in with his brother and they told us to
leave. The brother didnt like us at all and said that everyone in the
gitano neighborhood knew that their family was meeting with the
mormons so he didnt want us there. Luckily we had a member with us
who was backing us up and helping us out and we said we were sorry but
we were almost done with the lesson so they let us finish. The Spirit
was completely gone and the dad was being dumb saying that he was the
boss of the family and that we need to talk to him if we ever wanted
to come back and visit, even though 10 min earlier he was all happy
and excited to see us. So we left and we dont know what´s going to
happen... but Sara and Gabriel totally want to learn more and could be
so ready for baptism.
We lost track of Dayo in the beginning of this last week and we didnt
know how to get ahold of him because he doesn´t have a phone or a
home. Elders Tirado and Rasmussen found him one day but he didnt want
to talk to him. Then we saw him in the street and he was acting
really weird and didn´t want to talk to us either. We told him that
we still wanted to meet with him and that we would meet him on
saturday at the university. At first he didn´t show up and we were
afraid he wouldn´t come, but we were praying that he would... and then
we saw him. We met with him and asked him what was happening and he
told us that everything he has was stolen: his clothes, money, and
even his Book of Mormon. His faith is really being tried right now.
We invited him to come to church yesterday and told him if he didnt
show up that we would meet him at the university again at 4 yesterday.
He didnt show up to church but he came to the university. He says he
still has desires to be baptized but he´s just going through some
really hard times in his life right now. We promised him blessings as
he continues to have faith and is baptized. We´ve set up more visits
this week and we need to teach him the 3rd and 4th lessons and he
needs to come to church twice still.
Yesterday Elder Pericle and I went to teach one of our new
investigators, Pilar, the first lesson and as we were beginning to
teach her, another guy walked in named Chaz. We invited him to stay
and listen so he said he would. As we continued to teach, we invited
both Pilar and Chaz to be baptized and they both said yes. Chaz
shared with us how he hadn´t been to church in a while but he decided
to go yesterday to the Catholic church. He said, "I know it´s not a
coincidence that I met you 2 elders today. I´ve been waiting to find
the correct way of baptism." It´s amazing to see how when people
begin to put their faith in God and have the desires to change that
Heavenly Father puts us in their path or puts them in ours.
Family i grow to love the mission more and more every day. Yeah its
hard and we sweat bucketfulls every day, but i love it. Love you.
Elder Reeves
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)