Oficina week 20 - Surprise visit

Congrats Jess on the 3rd bebe!! I´ll be praying for you and your fam. That pool is lookin nice and really tempting. Good thing I dont like swimming anymore!
So I was here writing my emails when in walked this lady that looked SO familiar. It took me about 5 seconds until she finally said, "I´m looking for an Elder Reeves!" And then i thought, "wait... is that really Matt Clegg´s mom here in Barcelona??" Haha weirdest feeling ever!! So yeah i just spent like 20 minutes talking to Sister Clegg! Too bad Brother Clegg was in a meeting so he wasn´t able to come. She told me a lot of good things that are happening in Bountiful. That really was such a crazy experience. I love the Cleggs and I love my life here in the mission and back home. I feel bad because Matt wrote me a letter a couple months ago and I haven´t written him back yet. Dont worry i´m doing it today!!Wow I cant believe I´ve hit 20 weeks here in the office. Things have been going crazy here in the mission. The mission has grown so much that every area in the mission is open right now. The last area that was closed was La Seu/Andorra and we got Elder Krasnoselsky and Elder Morrison up there last weekend. It´s been so amazing being able to buy pisos and help open up the areas in the mission. Elder Garces and I are still working hard but having to balance a lot of office work too. We found this new Filipina lady this last week. We were at church this last sunday and I was talking to Marlon, another Filipino member. We started talking about his menos-activo brother and then he said, "actually there is a less-active member that you can go visit. Her name is Nining." That night we didn´t have a set visit so we passed by their house. There was Nining and another lady named Abegail. Nining said, "Thank you so much for coming! I had been praying that you would come over." and even started tearing up. Abegail is the niece of another member Aurora who´s in the Philippines right now. We didn´t have a man with us so we pulled out some chairs and taught them through the door. Abegail has been to church before but hasn´t had contact with the missionaries for about 3 years. We just started teaching immediately about baptism. Abegail loved it and is set to be baptized for the 5th of May. She´s doing great and we have another visit with her tonight. Pray for her!!
Fam I always say this but i cant say it enough... I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Keep staying close to the Spirit and listen to that guidance daily. Til next week. Oh yeah I just realized we´re going to be skyping again in a couple of weeks. Crazy. So i´ll see you then.

Elder Reeves

Oficina week 19 -

Bon día my fam,
Mom you sound super busy!!! But that´s good you´re learning more Spanish. If you ever have some extra plane tickets to Asia again when I´m back, don´t be shy to ask me. And it´s only 5 years? I thought it would be at least 10! Have they always had the assignment for only 5 years?
Tuesday was transfers! 12 new missionaries came in and only 3 left. Next transfer is going to be even more insane. There´s going to be 21 missionaries that are going home and 17 are coming... We´re already making plans on how we´re going to do it. Because the mission is growing so much, President is going to send missionaries up to Andorra where I went to a couple of times. It´s the only area in the mission right now that isn´t open. Elder Krasnoselsky and Elder Morrison are going up there!! I´ve been working on getting a piso up there and it´s still in process. President just told me about it about a week and a half ago so i´ve been trying to get it done quick. Hopefully they´ll be up there this weekend.
I love being with Elder Garces. We think alike and know what we have to do and we just do it. I hope I don´t get transferred soon because we know the Lord is starting to pour out blessings upon us and our area and we´re going to have success. This last week we´ve seen a ton of miracles. We had a lot of goals set up and we knew if we worked our hardest and did our part, the Lord would make up for the rest. Saturday morning we started with 6 lessons for the week just because of a busy week in the office and we didn´t take as much time to plan out our days during the week. Sunday night we ended with 20 lessons. Obviously it´s not about numbers, but the more lessons we´re teaching, the more people are progressing. I know that the Lord blessed us with those opportunities because He knew we would be willing to do it. We were dead tired at the end of the weekend but it was the best feeling ever knowing that we were well used by in the Lord´s hands.
The reality of this gospel becomes more and more true for me every day. The companionship of the Spirit is real. We are entitled to the guidance of the Lord if we are worthy and willing to do His will. Pray for our investigators. Pray for our area. I love you all

Elder Reeves

Oficina week 18 - Filipino branch

Wow it was amazing to see those fotos mom and dad. That would be an incredible experience. You´ll for sure have to forward me that setting apart. Do you know how long the calling is going to be for? Are you going to have to live the law of consecration? Are you going to be travelling all the time? You might have already answered some of these questions in your emails but i havent read them yet.
I love my new companion Elder Garces. He is sooooooo good. He´s so bold and so loving and he knows exactly why he´s here. We´ve been completely starting our investigator pool over and we´re finding a lot of potentials. We went to visit Homer and Aida (the Filipino 1st counselor of the bishopric and his wife) this last sunday and a couple of other Filipino members were there. We taught them about missionary work and the importance of sharing the gospel with our friends and family. We read with them out of the Book of Mormon about the sons of Mosiah and how the thought of any soul perishing caused them to quake and to tremble. The spirit was strong and they understood the importance of their roles as members. We even told them that if we could get enough Filipino members that maybe we could start a Filipino branch here in Barcelona. They went nuts. That visit we got 8 references. We´re starting to see a lot of miracles and set baptismal dates. I know that as we keep working with the members and their friends and families, they´ll be able to enjoy the happiness of bringing their loved ones into the gospel.
I love you all fam. Keep being the best ever.

Elder Reeves

Oficina week 17 - MOM???

Alright. Time for my story....
So because of the time change here in Europe we dont get to watch the saturday afternoon session on saturday because it´s already 10 at night when it starts. So sunday morning we watch the priesthood session and then they replay the saturday afternoon session and we watch it after priesthood. During the Priesthood session, about a half hour in, the Bilbao Zone leaders call me. I knew it had to be Elder Pericle (he got transferred there this last transfer) but i figured it could wait because I was watching conference so i just ignored the call. Once again, Bilbao calls me but i blocked it for the second time. I thought, "it must be something important because they called me twice." But i stayed watching the conference and decided to call him afterwards. After the session ended, i called him back and the first thing he asks me is, "have you heard the news?" and i asked him "what news?" Then he says, "what´s your mom´s first name?" "Linda", i said. "Is it really her??" he asked me. I replied, "what are you talking about? why did you want to know my mom´s first name?" now getting a little frustrated. He said, "your mom was just made the 2nd counselor in the relief society presidency." I just laughed and i knew he was joking because it was April fool´s day and i had already had some little jokes played on me that morning. I told him i didn´t believe him at all, and i really DIDN´T believe him, not for even a second. So he just said, "you´ll know." and then hung up. I just laughed inside and thought that was the worst april fool´s joke I had ever heard. Then the next session comes around, the saturday afternoon session. President Uchtdorf starts releasing a ton of 70´s and then releases the bishopric and then....... releases the relief society presidency. My heart sank and i thought, "oh no." But then I realized that Elder Pericle had to have seen the saturday session that sunday morning while i was watching the priesthood session and he knew i was going to see it. I still wasn´t convinced though. I started thinking that he actually played a pretty good joke on me because it scared me when i first heard the presidency being released. Then President Uchtdorf calls all of the 70´s and then calls the new bishopric, then the relief society. "President, Linda Burton". (when i heard "Linda" for the president i almost had a heart attack..... little did i know) "1st counselor", i cant remember her name. "Linda Sheffield Reeves, 2nd counselor". I just stared at the screen my eyes wide. "There has to be another Linda Sheffield Reeves", i thought. Elder Krasnoselsky turns to me and asks, "is that your mom?" I looked back at the other elders sitting behind us, their eyes wide open, smiling. My whole body was shock, still just staring at the screen trying to process what had just happened. Then everyone took there new seats and there was mom walking up to her new seat with the rest of the General Authorities. I didn´t see your face mom but i saw the back of your head and i knew it was you. I turned back to Elder Krasnoselsky and said, "that´s my mom". I dont remember much of what was said in that session.
So, CONGRATS MOM!!!! I don´t really know what that means for the future but i´m so excited for you!! How long is the calling going to be for? Are you going to be travelling all the time? How many Apostles are we going to have over for dinner every week? Haha just kidding, but not really. When it all sunk it i really wasn´t surprised that mom is in the presidency. I always knew that one day it would happen. But i just didn´t know it would happen so soon. Especially while im on my mission. All the missionaries in the mission are saying that dad´s going to become the prophet one day. President and Hermana Hinckley were super excited when i told them.
So a little bit about what´s going on in our area... I have a new companion!!! Elder Garces, from Lindon Utah. His mom is from Peru and his dad is from Venezuela but he was born in Utah and has lived there his whole life. He´s going to be replacing Elder Krasnoselsky, who´ll probably be leaving next transfer in 2 weeks. So as of right now we´re in a trio until Elder Garces is trained by Elder Krasnoselsky. He´s hilarious. His funny side reminds me a lot of Courtney´s personality, Courtney Bronson.. or used to be Bronson. So we´re getting along perfectly. He´s so bold too. He just teaches it how it is and nothing else matters. I´m loving it. He´s been out for one more transfer than me and was also born in Lleida but left after one transfer. We´re going to start seeing a ton of miracles in our area.
Well I have to get going. I love you fam and especially mom!! I´m praying for you and cant wait to hear more about the calling.

Elder Reeves