Oficina week 16 - Cynthia´s phone call

Hello mi querida familia
I loved the stache that Eric has grown. And Jon i didn´t know you were such a fanatic for tattoos. I dont have a lot of time so I´m gonna get straight to the story this week.
A miracle was from a recent convert, Cynthia, that we visited this last week. She was so strong before and doing everything right since she got baptized in September but then in January, she moved pisos and just disappeared. We got a letter from her saying that she cant be a member anymore because her family doesn´t want anything to do with the church. Even the other Filipino members couldn´t get her to answer phone calls and no one knew where she moved to. We kept trying to call her every once in a while and we would always send texts to her. This last sunday she called us! She told us she wanted to meet with us and gave us her address. We went to her piso a couple hours later and had a visit with her. We asked her how she has been and asked how we can help her. She told us that it´s been hard because her aunt, who was living with her, is completely against the church and her husband, who´s in the Phillipines, isn´t a member. We invited her to come to general conference and we promised her that she would know what to do. In her closing prayer, Cynthia prayed so humbly that her family would come to know that this is the true church. I know the Lord will answer her prayers and she will receive an answer in general conference. And I know that we can receive the answers that we´re looking for this weekend. Go to the conference with a question in mind and pray for that answer. It will be answered. Love you all,
Elder Reeves

Oficina week 15 - BOM blessings

WOOOOH!! Pool party at Julie and Brett´s!!! It´s lookin good! Send me pictures when it´s finished. How´s the cruise Jess and Reid?? Did David end up being able to go? You know it´s great sending pictures all the time, but it´s better getting some from the fam... so feel free!
Our fecha with Jonathan fell through. He started to doubt how prepared he was for baptism and he felt like he has some other things he has to change. His uncle has also been telling him bad things about the church and making him doubt. We´re trying to get him to have another momento clave and really know the truth of these things. He will be baptized soon though.This miracle I want to share is a little personal miracle that I´ve had with my Book of Mormon reading. These past weeks have been hard to get investigators progressing and the fruits of our labors have not been showing like I´ve been hoping and praying they would. Things just have not been going our way. Our fecha with Jonathan fell through and we didn´t have anyone at church this last sunday. We always have room to improve and we´ve felt like we´ve been doing what the Lord has asked us to do but we just haven´t seen those blessings. I was feeling pretty down and exhausted from the work but I knew one of the best ways to find the direction and the guidance from the Lord is through the scriptures. I was continuing in my reading in the Book of Mormon and I came up to Alma 32, a chapter I´ve read over a hundred times in my life. I wasn´t expecting anything special in this chapter because I know exactly what it says but as I continued reading, I found it was exactly what I needed. Faith is so important in the work of the Lord. The power of faith is amazing and as we work with diligence and patience with that eye of faith, the fruit of our labors will come. The Book of Mormon was written for us in our days and God´s treasures are contained in them. Any question or problem we face in life can be solved through prayer and reading God´s words. I love the Book of Mormon.
Keep being amazing fam. Thanks for your prayers and support. Love you

Elder Reeves

Oficina week 14 - Silence

CRAZY week this week. Well last week we had all the old missionaries go home and this Friday all the new missionaries are coming in. There´s only a couple of them... 17 to be exact. 13 missionaries and 2 couples. So it´s been a pretty stressful week so far and it´s just getting crazier. But it´s been nice because I´ve had an assistant with me! Haha no actually one of the zone leaders from Hospitalet, Elder Morrison, has been sick for like the last transfer and a half. They thought it was appendicitis but they weren´t sure so he just chose to wait it out instead of surgery. So President brought him into the office last week so he can rest and he´s been in a trio with Elder Krasnoseslky and I. I´ve been learning a TON from him. I´ve realized how bad of a teacher I really am. He´s really an incredible missionary. Anytime I have to do some little things in the office, i just make him do it haha it´s been nice.This week we went to visit a menos activo from the Phillippines who lives with other investigators who haven´t been progressing, but we thought we´d give it a try to see if we could have a momento clave with them. We rang their timbre and asked if Corazon, the menos activo, was there. She wasn´t there but the girl who answered was Geraldine, one of our investigators. We asked her if we could go up and talk to her for a couple minutes just to see how she was doing. She let us in and told us that she only had 5 minutes so we started right away with a prayer. We asked her how her reading was going in the Book of Mormon and she said she hadn´t even opened it. We explained to her how important the Book of Mormon is and asked why she didn´t read. She told us that she´s so comfortable in her church and she sees no need to change. Elder Morrison taught a perfect example about how Peter had to get out of his comfort zone (the boat) and show his faith to be able to walk on water. We re-invited her to pray and to put her faith in God. She then looked down to the floor and didn´t say anything. We waited for a couple of seconds for her to respond and she still didn´t say anything, and we realized that she was praying. For about 10 minutes we just sat there in silence with her bent over in her chair looking at the floor. The whole time I was praying and praying that God would touch her heart and let her feel of the truth of these things. The Spirit that was there was SO strong and everyone in the room could feel it. We finally broke the silence and asked her how she was feeling. Still she said nothing. Probably about 2 minutes later she put down the Book of Mormon that was in her hands the whole time and said something I totally wasn´t expecting... "I don´t want to do this anymore." She stood up and walked out of the room. We sat there for a little bit not really knowing what to do, so we just wrote her a note and a part to read in the Book of Mormon and then left. I know that she felt the Spirit and she knows the truth. There is no doubt in my mind that God is part of this work. He sends His Spirit to teach us and testify to His children. That silence allowed the Spirit to teach. Even though she doesn´t want to accept the truth right now, she will always remember that experience and one day will come out of her comfort zone and come to the fold of God.
Jonathan is doing so good. He understands everything we teach him and is reading and praying daily. This last Saturday we did a fast with him so that he could feel more prepared for his baptism. He LOVED it and said he didn´t even feel hungry during the fast. He has a couple of doubts and still has some work to do before the baptism, but he is so prepared. We´re still working with him for the 24th.
I love you fam. I hope you enjoy the pictures. They´re pictures from this morning taking Elder Morrison to the airport because he´s going to Ibiza (the island) to do a baptism interview. Also a picture of when I led the music for the singing for the angels (when missionaries went home).

Elder Reeves

Oficina week 13 - Heaven-sent questions

BROCATION??? Oh man i´m so sad to miss it. Where is it going to be this year? Who´s all going to be going? The next brocation will have to wait until the summer when I get back! Eh, that makes me sick thinking how fast this is going. I cant believe that was already a year ago since we went to Zion´s. Eat a lot of candy and enjoy smelling like campfire for me!! You´ll for sure have to send me the pics.
Tuesday was transfers! Elder Hadley left to go to Zaragoza (my old zone) for his last transfer and Elder Keeler is the new AYUDANTE!! He´s from Texas and has been out for about a year and 4 months. He´s so good. Also Elder Fica from my district in Provo came to the office! He´s going to replace Elder Hastings and be the new President´s secretary. It´s fun being back together.
This last sunday we went and visited this investigator named Jorge that we met in the house of our other investigator Jonathan. He´s also from Ecuador and has a family of 4 kids. He´s believes a lot in his religion but he´s super open to listening to what we have to say. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it and how our families can be blessed from the gospel. The 2 times we´ve taught him he´s tried to make up answers about how every church is the same and everyone will be saved. As we were teaching him, we were trying to ask him heaven-sent questions that would touch his heart. Then we asked him, "what do you think God requires of us to become eternal families?" He made up some answer, kind of stumbling over his words, then finally said, "No lo sé" We testified of eternal families and how only through the ordinances of the gospel we can be eternal families. We know that he felt the Spirit and that he knew the importance of the gospel. We then invited him to come to the family night in the church the next day and he said, "yeah maybe i´ll come." I really didnt have much faith that he would show up, but then... he came. He loved it and said he wants to keep coming. I know that the heaven-sent questions that we seek from the Spirit can and will touch the hearts of our investigators to help them grow in their desires to receive the blessings of the gospel.
We´ve finally set a fecha for the 24th with Jonathan!! We met with him after church on sunday and set up a conversion plan with him. He´s so excited to keep learning and to keep progressing for his baptism. Thank you so much for your prayers fam, i know they´ve helped Jonathan progress and have more desires to receive the blessings of baptism. He´s so prepared and I know he´ll keep progressing and he´ll be baptised on the 24th.
I have the best family in the world. My love for each of you increases every day and I miss you all like crazy. Keep being the greatest family ever. Loves

Elder Reeves

Oficina week 12 - Quick one

Hola familia,
I dont have time this week to write because its the week right before transfers and i probably wont have time next week either. But just wanted to share a quick story about Jonathan.
It was a sunday night almost 2 weeks ago, Elder Krasnoselsky and I were walking to go pass by someone´s piso and have a lesson with them. Luckily, Elder Krasnoseslky´s bowels said otherwise. We stopped at a KFC (we were praying that there would be no members there so as to not think that we were breaking the sabbath day). While waiting for my companion, I saw this kid sitting at a table waiting for his mom who was ordering food. I started to talk to him and his name is Jonathan, from Ecuador. He´s 16 and has lived here in Spain for most of his life. His dad also lives here but his parents are separated. He said he wants to go to the states and learn english so i told him that we teach english classes in our church! And they´re for FREE! He was super excited and said he would love to come. We got his info and told him we would call him. We called him that tuesday and he couldnt come to the class but we set up a visit for that thursday. We visited them and gave him a Book of Mormon. The next day we had another visit and he had read the intro and the first 3 chapters of Nephi. We asked him how he liked it and he said that while he was reading he kept wanting to read more. He explained the story of Nephi and his brothers almost word for word. Him and his mom came to church this last sunday and are progressing. We havent been able to set a fecha with him because his mom is pretty convincing and tells him that he needs to wait longer. He was a miracle and is so humble and so prepared. Pray for him and for his mom, Gina, that they can find the truth and have the desires to be baptized.
I love you fam. Hope you all have a good week.

Elder Reeves