Hello fam!
CONGRATS JESSICA AND REID!! I think that´s number 3 that has been born since i´ve been gone? That´s a good name, Brynlie! I´m sure her middle name is Ryana or something close to that. Dad, i´m glad everything went well with the surgery and that´s everything´s recovering. Why did you have to get surgery in the first place? sorry missed that part of the story.
The mission is so good. I say this way too much but i seriously love it. I cant believe that some of my friends are already heading home. It scares me. But i´m so glad i´ve still got time and i cant wait to see the miracles that are coming up. We see so many every day i cant even count them. We have 3 people preparing for baptism right now. I´ll let you know what happened with 2 of them...
A week ago, we went to visit our investigator Elizabeth and her 11 year old son André. They had had a date to get baptized before but because of her work schedule, they couldn´t come to church a couple of times and we were´nt able to teach them everything. In the visit, we asked them about baptism and invited them for the 3rd of November. Elizabeth was really unsure about it and didn´t want to commit to the date. We told her to pray about it and ask God if she should get baptized that day. A couple of days later we went back and visited her. We asked her how her prayer went and how she felt. She said "I felt good. I want to keep preparing for baptism on the 3rd." They came to church this last sunday and André even sang and participated in the primary program with the rest of the kids. Prayer is real. God answers prayers. Our other person with a date is Nallely. We contacted her in the metro and she came to the hermana´s baptism in the other ward on saturday and then came to church on sunday. She´s preparing for the 10th.
Nohemy is SO GOOD and she has so many desires to be baptized. The only problem... she´s not married!! That´s the worst part about missionary work here in Spain. About half the people living together aren´t married. Nohemy knows she needs to get married but her husband isn´t too open to it. She´s praying for him so that he´ll change and hopefully that he´ll start accepting us teaching him.
We´re finding new people every day that are prepared. We´re seeing more miracles than I ever thought possible. We have the goal to baptize 600 this year and we´re right at about 400 so we gotta get a move on. I still have complete faith that we´re going to reach our goal as the mission keeps working hard and stays obedient. The Lord and his angels are doing their part preparing people, now we just have to find them and baptize them. I love the mission family. I hope it never ends. I love the people here. And I love you all
Elder Reeves
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Barcelona week 15 - Hermana Nuria´s testimony
Dear familia
Thanks for all the news about the church mom. It´s so incredible being able to be part of the church in the last days and help prepare the way of the Lord. People really are starting to recognize us more and are having more desires to listen and to learn. We see so many miracles every day in the mission.
Fast sunday yesterday was perfect for our investigators. Nohemy showed up with her 3 year old son, Joel, right when sacrament meeting was starting and loved the sharing of testimonies of the members. There´s an hermana in the ward, Nuria, who´s the wife of the 1st counselor in the bishopric and is about 50 years old and has cancer. No one knows how much longer she´s going to live but she´s one of the most faithful members there are. Despite her condition and going through kimo therapy, she still does her best to get to church every sunday. She got up yesterday with her husband at her side and bore her testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel. It was POWERFUL. I looked over at Nohemy and she was crying! Everyone in the chapel felt the Spirit and many other members got up to bear their testimonies after her. It was perfect for Nohemy. She´s been preparing to be baptized for this weekend but because of her work schedule and our schedule we haven´t been able to teach her everything. So we have another visit with her today and we´re going to try and push it for next week. The power of members testimonies is a lot more personal for investigators than our testimonies as missionaries, because they see the members as real people who are experiencing the gospel in their lives and have true testimonies of it. We also visited Victor, our other investigator, after sacrament and he shared with us that he felt the Spirit so strong and received a sure answer that this is God´s church during the testimony meeting. He knows he´s getting baptized but he just has to get married!! Hopefully he and Juana will be able to soon. We invited him and Juana to talk about it again and for him to pray about a fecha when he should get baptized.
The Gospel is real and we have the great privelage of being members of the true church of Jesus Christ. Thanks for all your examples. I´m where I am today because of the incredible family that I come from. Love to my family
Elder Reeves
Thanks for all the news about the church mom. It´s so incredible being able to be part of the church in the last days and help prepare the way of the Lord. People really are starting to recognize us more and are having more desires to listen and to learn. We see so many miracles every day in the mission.
Fast sunday yesterday was perfect for our investigators. Nohemy showed up with her 3 year old son, Joel, right when sacrament meeting was starting and loved the sharing of testimonies of the members. There´s an hermana in the ward, Nuria, who´s the wife of the 1st counselor in the bishopric and is about 50 years old and has cancer. No one knows how much longer she´s going to live but she´s one of the most faithful members there are. Despite her condition and going through kimo therapy, she still does her best to get to church every sunday. She got up yesterday with her husband at her side and bore her testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel. It was POWERFUL. I looked over at Nohemy and she was crying! Everyone in the chapel felt the Spirit and many other members got up to bear their testimonies after her. It was perfect for Nohemy. She´s been preparing to be baptized for this weekend but because of her work schedule and our schedule we haven´t been able to teach her everything. So we have another visit with her today and we´re going to try and push it for next week. The power of members testimonies is a lot more personal for investigators than our testimonies as missionaries, because they see the members as real people who are experiencing the gospel in their lives and have true testimonies of it. We also visited Victor, our other investigator, after sacrament and he shared with us that he felt the Spirit so strong and received a sure answer that this is God´s church during the testimony meeting. He knows he´s getting baptized but he just has to get married!! Hopefully he and Juana will be able to soon. We invited him and Juana to talk about it again and for him to pray about a fecha when he should get baptized.
The Gospel is real and we have the great privelage of being members of the true church of Jesus Christ. Thanks for all your examples. I´m where I am today because of the incredible family that I come from. Love to my family
Elder Reeves
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Barcelona week 14 - Miracle of conference
Seriously i´m super sorry fam for not writing for 2 weeks... I wrote that email last week and didn´t realize that it didnt go through. Hope you´ll forgive me.
General conference was the BEST. I love general conference more every time that i watch it. Crazy revelation by President Monson!! Our missionary numbers are going to fly up! I think so many more people will be going on their missions. Actually here in Spain was one of the countries that allowed boys to go at 18. But now the whole world is going to be going on missions. We were super excited when we heard that. Still dont anything can beat how surprised I was when mom was called as 2nd counselor though... But mom you´re so incredible that i should have been expecting it.
The miracle we saw this last week was the power of God in getting our investigators to conference to hear His words and His servants. Saturday afternoon we didn´t have any investigators able to come but on Sunday we had a lot of investigators that had told us that they were coming. Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to see the priesthood session and as we went down in to the metro stop, there was a strike going on with the Barcelona metro system and the metros were only passing by about every HOUR (not very uncommon on work days, but the fact that there was a strike on a Sunday is almost unheard of). Elder Cerqueira turned to me and said, "wow, Satan´s smart. The most important Sunday and Satan throws out a strike so that people cant get to conference." I realized at that moment that Satan really was trying to stop our investigators from coming. We walked to the church praying the whole way that our investigators would be able to make it and hear the word of God. God heard our prayers. Nohemy couldn´t make it to any of the sessions because of work but she got to the church at 4:00 (during the break in between conferences) and we were able to put a session on a computer and she and other members who didn´t make it on time were able to watch the session of conference they missed. Elizabeth and André got an hour late to the session they were trying to get to but they got there right at the intermediate hymn and were able to hear Elder González, Elder Holland and President Monson speak. Luckily Victor lives pretty close to the church so he was able to come with Juana and the fam and see all the sessions on sunday, including priesthood session. Nohemy, Elizabeth and André all have fechas to be baptized. Every day in the mission makes the battle between God and Satan more real in my eyes. He is real. He doesn´t want us to have the happiness and the eternal life that comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But even more important, Heavenly Father is real. And as He sees our true desires and our faith, He provides the way.
Hope you enjoy this email seeing that you havent received any for the last 3 weeks haha LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Elder Reeves
General conference was the BEST. I love general conference more every time that i watch it. Crazy revelation by President Monson!! Our missionary numbers are going to fly up! I think so many more people will be going on their missions. Actually here in Spain was one of the countries that allowed boys to go at 18. But now the whole world is going to be going on missions. We were super excited when we heard that. Still dont anything can beat how surprised I was when mom was called as 2nd counselor though... But mom you´re so incredible that i should have been expecting it.
The miracle we saw this last week was the power of God in getting our investigators to conference to hear His words and His servants. Saturday afternoon we didn´t have any investigators able to come but on Sunday we had a lot of investigators that had told us that they were coming. Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to see the priesthood session and as we went down in to the metro stop, there was a strike going on with the Barcelona metro system and the metros were only passing by about every HOUR (not very uncommon on work days, but the fact that there was a strike on a Sunday is almost unheard of). Elder Cerqueira turned to me and said, "wow, Satan´s smart. The most important Sunday and Satan throws out a strike so that people cant get to conference." I realized at that moment that Satan really was trying to stop our investigators from coming. We walked to the church praying the whole way that our investigators would be able to make it and hear the word of God. God heard our prayers. Nohemy couldn´t make it to any of the sessions because of work but she got to the church at 4:00 (during the break in between conferences) and we were able to put a session on a computer and she and other members who didn´t make it on time were able to watch the session of conference they missed. Elizabeth and André got an hour late to the session they were trying to get to but they got there right at the intermediate hymn and were able to hear Elder González, Elder Holland and President Monson speak. Luckily Victor lives pretty close to the church so he was able to come with Juana and the fam and see all the sessions on sunday, including priesthood session. Nohemy, Elizabeth and André all have fechas to be baptized. Every day in the mission makes the battle between God and Satan more real in my eyes. He is real. He doesn´t want us to have the happiness and the eternal life that comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But even more important, Heavenly Father is real. And as He sees our true desires and our faith, He provides the way.
Hope you enjoy this email seeing that you havent received any for the last 3 weeks haha LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Elder Reeves
Barcelona week 13 - The Lord does His work
SORRY FAM!!! I sent this email last week but it didn't get sent because it had too many pictures. I´ve tried to send it again a couple of times just barely but it isn´t working so i´m going to try to send it again with just one picture. Still alive and still love you.
Elder Reeves
Sorry i didn´t write last week... didn´t have time. Mom, you are incredible!! I just might have received permission from President and Hermana Pace to watch your talk on the internet because they loved your talk so much. Dad, I had no idea you had that disease. I´m so grateful that you recovered and that you have been able to raise us kids with mom. I love you both.Our investigators with baptismal dates are progressing incredibly well even though we´re not in our area all the time to teach them or follow up with them. Nohemy, from Honduras, has been reading the Book of Mormon and marking scriptures and reading all the pamphlets. She understands everything almost better than any other member understands them. We met her our first week here in this area but were never able to meet with her because we didn´t have her phone number. We remembered about her and passed by her house and now we´re teaching her. Our other 2 investigators, Elizabeth and André (mother and 11 year old son) from Peru were contacts in the street. They are progressing exactly the same. They understand everything so well and they feel the truthfulness of it all. That is such a miracle and such a testimony builder to me that this is the Lord´s work. He is able to do His own work if we let Him and if we are worthy of His help.
Elder Keeler just left home yesterday. It was a really weird feeling driving your own companion to the airport. I loved being with Elder Keeler. He taught me so much and was such a dedicated missionary. After he left, I felt pretty overwhelmed as more weight of the mission fell onto my shoulders. I prayed for the Lord to help me and I read something Elder Keeler had written me right before he left. He said that I dont have to worry about the stress of being Ayudante. All I have to do is love the Lord and serve Him with all my might and He will make up the rest. I´ve definitely seen that, especially with Nohemy, Elizabeth, and André and I´m going to do everything possible to stick to that and serve my Heavenly Father, serve my mission president and the rest of the missionaries in the mission, and especially serve the children of God in this part of Barcelona.
Pray for all of these people, Giovani and his family and Victor so that they can come to general conference and receive their answers. I cant wait for conference. Always take advantage of this blessing of conference. We will all receive answers and the guidance that God has for us right now in our lives. Love you all. Enjoy some pics.
Elder Reeves
Elder Reeves
Sorry i didn´t write last week... didn´t have time. Mom, you are incredible!! I just might have received permission from President and Hermana Pace to watch your talk on the internet because they loved your talk so much. Dad, I had no idea you had that disease. I´m so grateful that you recovered and that you have been able to raise us kids with mom. I love you both.Our investigators with baptismal dates are progressing incredibly well even though we´re not in our area all the time to teach them or follow up with them. Nohemy, from Honduras, has been reading the Book of Mormon and marking scriptures and reading all the pamphlets. She understands everything almost better than any other member understands them. We met her our first week here in this area but were never able to meet with her because we didn´t have her phone number. We remembered about her and passed by her house and now we´re teaching her. Our other 2 investigators, Elizabeth and André (mother and 11 year old son) from Peru were contacts in the street. They are progressing exactly the same. They understand everything so well and they feel the truthfulness of it all. That is such a miracle and such a testimony builder to me that this is the Lord´s work. He is able to do His own work if we let Him and if we are worthy of His help.
Elder Keeler just left home yesterday. It was a really weird feeling driving your own companion to the airport. I loved being with Elder Keeler. He taught me so much and was such a dedicated missionary. After he left, I felt pretty overwhelmed as more weight of the mission fell onto my shoulders. I prayed for the Lord to help me and I read something Elder Keeler had written me right before he left. He said that I dont have to worry about the stress of being Ayudante. All I have to do is love the Lord and serve Him with all my might and He will make up the rest. I´ve definitely seen that, especially with Nohemy, Elizabeth, and André and I´m going to do everything possible to stick to that and serve my Heavenly Father, serve my mission president and the rest of the missionaries in the mission, and especially serve the children of God in this part of Barcelona.
Pray for all of these people, Giovani and his family and Victor so that they can come to general conference and receive their answers. I cant wait for conference. Always take advantage of this blessing of conference. We will all receive answers and the guidance that God has for us right now in our lives. Love you all. Enjoy some pics.
Elder Reeves
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