So this last week was a huge blessing. Elder Kent Richards from the Europe area presidency and his wife Sister Marsha Richards came to tour the mission and Elder Cerqueira and I had the incredible opportunity to travel with them and Pres and Hermana Pace. On tuesday we had the conference here in the Hospitalet stake center, then we took a plane to Bilbao and had the conference there on Wednesday, then we took another plane to Valencia and had the conference on Thursday, and then that night we took the train back home. WOW i learned so much from those two. Elder Richards talked a lot about how to teach - simply and powerfully with a lot of questions... something that Elder Cerqueira and i had forgotten a little bit about. He talked about how as leaders in the mission and in the church all we have to do is teach the doctrine and correct principles and then invite others to apply in their lives. It´s like the new youth program they have for sunday school classes that we need the investigators to DISCOVER the gospel for themselves. It was just a spiritual feast the whole week. We were able to talk to them personally a lot and ask them questions and learn from them. Heavenly Father really just blesses me with so many opportunities i literally dont feel worthy sometimes to receive so many blessings.We didn´t have very much time in our area this last week but the Lord just poured out even more blessings upon us. On friday night, the Hermanas from Barrio 1 called us and told us they had a referral of a girl named Elizabeth who came to their ward on Sunday but she lives in our area. On saturday, barrio 1 was having a talent show night and Elizabeth was going to be there so we set up with the Hermanas to meet her right before it started. The next day as we got to the church, the Hermanas came up to us and said, "Elders, we´ve been talking with Elizabeth and she told us that she wants to be baptized! Come meet her!" We went and talked to her for a little bit and set up for her to come to church the next day and then we would visit with her Sunday night. She came to church and told all the members that she wants to be baptized and then when we met with her last night she easily accepted the fecha for the 15th. What in the world? She´s from El Salvador and is 21 years old and has a 3 year old daughter. Turns out that she lived in Madrid before and went to church for like a year but could never be baptized because she was living with her boyfriend. They just got separated and she decided that she needed to change her life and help raise up her daughter in the Gospel. She´s incredible. It was just a pure miracle from the Lord that came unexpectedly. People are being prepared everywhere. We just need to be worthy of the blessings and be able to teach like Elder Richards taught us so the investigators understand and gain their own testimony of the restored church.
We´re still working hard for our goal of 600 and we´re hoping to see a huge jump of baptisms in this last month of December. We´re at 447 baptisms as of yesterday and we´ve got 5 weeks left to see the miracles of the Lord come forth. We´re already seeing them right now so we´re super excited to see how it turns out. Thanks for all your prayers and especially to Mandy and Cambria for your letters!! I loved them. Made my day. Love you all
Elder Reeves
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Barcelona week 20 - Que Viva Stalin
Wow, i´m so sorry to hear about Lesley and the baby. That´s so hard. Send her my love for me. As far as the package, mom, I did receive a notice in the mail saying my package is here in Spain. But they needed my info and some other things to be able to go get it. Well... the office Elders dont know where that paper went. So i´m praying that we can find it before the package gets sent back to the states. Packages usually get stuck like that if it´s a big package or if they think it´s worth a lot.
So in our mission, it´s never been the norm to go and knock doors. I´ve probably knocked like 50-75 doors in my whole mission. It´s just something we´ve never done. Well, President Pace, being a man called of God and set apart to receive revelation for the missionary work here, has asked the mission to focus more on knocking doors. Contacting people in the street or in the metro is great. I´ve done that my whole mission. But it´s a ton harder contacting someone, gaining their trust in the contact, getting their info, setting up a visit and then finding them there at the visit later on (if they give you the right info). On the other hand, if you find a family knocking doors, you already know where they live and it´s a whole lot easier to get in if they accept. So we´ve been trying to do that in our area...On saturday, we saw a miracle from knocking doors.. well actually ringing the timbres. We stopped at a random building and we started ringing from the top of the intercom where all of the buttons are and the first couple of pisos didn´t want anything. We thought about leaving and trying a different building but then thought, "No, let´s finish this building." We kept ringing until we had been rejected by every piso in the building. So, we left and went on our way looking for another building to ring when an OLD, OLD Spaniard man walked past us going about 0.1 mph. He was wearing a hat that said "Viva Stalin" (or in english, long live Stalin). Elder Cerqueira and I laughed to each other and after about a minute of trying to decide if we should go back and talk to him, we decided to go back (we were really hoping to just be able to get a picture with the hat). As we walked back to him and started to talk, he gave us a weird look and then tried to speed up his walk and get away from us. We didn´t want to give the man a heart attack so we let him go. Just then, another younger, latino man walked past us and said hello as we said hello to him. We didn´t think much about him and started on our way again. Then, the man came back around the corner and said, "Elders! Want to come to my house and drink a Coca Cola?" Never in my whole mission had something like that happened to me. But of course we said yes and we went with him to his piso. His name is René from Paraguay and was baptized there about 12 years ago when he was 22. Him and his girlfriend want us to come back and keep teaching them. It just showed to Elder Cerqueira and I that as we do our part to follow the counsel of our leaders that the Lord blesses us, in His own time, and His own way.
I love the work of the gathering of Israel. I´ve learned so much on my mission and i´m still learning every day. My life will forever be dedicated to the Lord and the building of His kingdom. Love you all. Happy thanksgiving!! Nyall, enjoy some turducken.
Elder Reeves
So in our mission, it´s never been the norm to go and knock doors. I´ve probably knocked like 50-75 doors in my whole mission. It´s just something we´ve never done. Well, President Pace, being a man called of God and set apart to receive revelation for the missionary work here, has asked the mission to focus more on knocking doors. Contacting people in the street or in the metro is great. I´ve done that my whole mission. But it´s a ton harder contacting someone, gaining their trust in the contact, getting their info, setting up a visit and then finding them there at the visit later on (if they give you the right info). On the other hand, if you find a family knocking doors, you already know where they live and it´s a whole lot easier to get in if they accept. So we´ve been trying to do that in our area...On saturday, we saw a miracle from knocking doors.. well actually ringing the timbres. We stopped at a random building and we started ringing from the top of the intercom where all of the buttons are and the first couple of pisos didn´t want anything. We thought about leaving and trying a different building but then thought, "No, let´s finish this building." We kept ringing until we had been rejected by every piso in the building. So, we left and went on our way looking for another building to ring when an OLD, OLD Spaniard man walked past us going about 0.1 mph. He was wearing a hat that said "Viva Stalin" (or in english, long live Stalin). Elder Cerqueira and I laughed to each other and after about a minute of trying to decide if we should go back and talk to him, we decided to go back (we were really hoping to just be able to get a picture with the hat). As we walked back to him and started to talk, he gave us a weird look and then tried to speed up his walk and get away from us. We didn´t want to give the man a heart attack so we let him go. Just then, another younger, latino man walked past us and said hello as we said hello to him. We didn´t think much about him and started on our way again. Then, the man came back around the corner and said, "Elders! Want to come to my house and drink a Coca Cola?" Never in my whole mission had something like that happened to me. But of course we said yes and we went with him to his piso. His name is René from Paraguay and was baptized there about 12 years ago when he was 22. Him and his girlfriend want us to come back and keep teaching them. It just showed to Elder Cerqueira and I that as we do our part to follow the counsel of our leaders that the Lord blesses us, in His own time, and His own way.
I love the work of the gathering of Israel. I´ve learned so much on my mission and i´m still learning every day. My life will forever be dedicated to the Lord and the building of His kingdom. Love you all. Happy thanksgiving!! Nyall, enjoy some turducken.
Elder Reeves
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Barcelona week 19 - Nohemy and missionary work
You saw MIKEY TAYLOR in TAIWAN???? What?? Oh man, i didn´t even realize you would be going there! I´m so happy that he´s doing well and going strong. I miss that kid a ton. Valerie and Allyson happy birthday!! Sorry if i had time i wouldve sent you a gift or something. Hope you had a great day and party. Love you bothI wanted to write a quick miracle story about our investigator Nohemy. She´s working on getting married with her husband so that she can live the commandments and get baptized. She understands everything so well and has more desires to get baptized than I´ve ever seen in an investigator before. We´re only visiting her about once a week now, maybe twice, because she cant progress until she gets married. But every single time we visit her, she surprises us more. This last week we went to her house and she had invited her friend, Christie, who was one of our old investigators. We stopped teaching Christie before because she felt pressured and didn´t want to come to church or get baptized. Now Nohemy reads with her in the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets and talks to her about baptism andcoming to church. Nohemy brought her to church a couple of weeks ago and now she wants to come to church every week again. Nohemy is not only sharing it with Christie but with other people from other churches that contact her in the metro or other people that talk to her about the church. She´s already telling everyone she´s Mormon and she loves it. The Lord prepared her so well and she´s so amazing. It´s like people say here that she´s "una miembro seca" (a "dry" member that hasn´t gotten wet in the waters of baptism yet). Once she´s a member she´ll be the most faithful member ever.
This work is true. We´re seeing a lot of trials but I know the Lord is in charge of His work and He´ll make it happen. We´re still working for our 600 baptisms this year. Pray for the mission and pray for our investigators so that we can hit our goal. "Has God ceased to be a God of miracles? I say unto you, NAY." Love you all
Elder Reeves
This work is true. We´re seeing a lot of trials but I know the Lord is in charge of His work and He´ll make it happen. We´re still working for our 600 baptisms this year. Pray for the mission and pray for our investigators so that we can hit our goal. "Has God ceased to be a God of miracles? I say unto you, NAY." Love you all
Elder Reeves
Monday, November 5, 2012
Barcelona week 18 - Some woman´s talk in General Conference
Sorry i didn´t give you much time to write me back anyone but we´re having prep day today because we´re going to have meetings all week with president to do transfers for next week. Sounds like your both loving Asia mom and dad. Take a lot of pics for me. Mom you´ll be happy to hear about this this story...
So we went to our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader on thursday last week and he asked us to go visit Nuria, the one who has cancer and is on her last stretch, and her family. The next day, we called her husband Enrique and he told us to come over as soon as we could. A couple hours later we went with the other Elders to share a quick message. We sat and talked for a little bit and Nuria was there just cracking jokes with Enrique and sharing the huge love that she has for everyone. I was super surprised how good she was looking and how full of life she still was. The doctors had already sent her home because they cant do anything else for her and they gave her about a week to live. We spent the next 20 minutes just talking and having a good time. Then we said a prayer and starting sharing our message about Jesus Christ and how he has suffered and felt all of our pains and sicknesses. Nuria kept sharing her testimony about how she knew that was true and then said, "There was a talk given in the last general conference that really hit me and was perfect just for me. It was from the 2nd counselor in the relief society. I loved the talk so much that I´ve gone back and listened to it a couple more times". I haven´t told very many people about you, Mom, just because i´m not one to draw attention to myself but I just smiled as she said it and all the other Elders were just looking at me laughing to themselves. Elder Ríos turned to her and said, "what a coincidence, because that´s Elder Reeves mom!" She kept talking for a second not really realizing what Elder Ríos said and then stopped and said, "WHAT??" Haha it was pretty funny. But at the same time it was a really sweet experience to be able to connect with Nuria and bare testimony of God´s plan for us. The Spirit was super strong and it was a huge blessing to help Enrique and Nuria feel more of God´s love for them.Other than that, this last weekend was a big learning experience about patience and faith. The Lord blessed us so much to be able to hit the standards of excellence in our mission again but the people that we need progressing haven´t been progressing like we´d want them to. Nallely who is supposed to get baptized this weekend didn´t come to church yesterday and after talking to her on the phone she said that she hadn´t been feeling well. We had another visit set up with her later on last night and we confirmed with her about an hour before but then she didn´t show up. After that she hasn´t answered our phone calls. It caught us way off gaurd because she always does what we ask her to do and she never fires us. We´re afraid because she works in Hospitalet during the whole week and we wont be able to teach her the rest of the commandments until saturday, the day of her baptism. This could be 2 weeks in a row that our baptisms have fallen through. We´re praying that some miracle happens and that we´ll be able to meet with her before then and finish preparing her for baptism. We had 7 people that came to stake conference but not one of our fechas came to church. It was a tough day yesterday overall but it just amazes me how the Lord keeps teaching me to trust in Him. I know He wants us to baptize and I know we will. It´s just a little stressful when we´re at the end of the year and we need to hit our goal of 600. I´m praying a lot and I´m excited to see what Heavenly Father has in store for us and i´m hoping that it comes quick! Satan is working hard to stop our investigators from progressing, but he´s not going to win.
Keep praying for our investigators, fam, we need them all. Thanks for being the best fam bam in the world
Elder Reeves
So we went to our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader on thursday last week and he asked us to go visit Nuria, the one who has cancer and is on her last stretch, and her family. The next day, we called her husband Enrique and he told us to come over as soon as we could. A couple hours later we went with the other Elders to share a quick message. We sat and talked for a little bit and Nuria was there just cracking jokes with Enrique and sharing the huge love that she has for everyone. I was super surprised how good she was looking and how full of life she still was. The doctors had already sent her home because they cant do anything else for her and they gave her about a week to live. We spent the next 20 minutes just talking and having a good time. Then we said a prayer and starting sharing our message about Jesus Christ and how he has suffered and felt all of our pains and sicknesses. Nuria kept sharing her testimony about how she knew that was true and then said, "There was a talk given in the last general conference that really hit me and was perfect just for me. It was from the 2nd counselor in the relief society. I loved the talk so much that I´ve gone back and listened to it a couple more times". I haven´t told very many people about you, Mom, just because i´m not one to draw attention to myself but I just smiled as she said it and all the other Elders were just looking at me laughing to themselves. Elder Ríos turned to her and said, "what a coincidence, because that´s Elder Reeves mom!" She kept talking for a second not really realizing what Elder Ríos said and then stopped and said, "WHAT??" Haha it was pretty funny. But at the same time it was a really sweet experience to be able to connect with Nuria and bare testimony of God´s plan for us. The Spirit was super strong and it was a huge blessing to help Enrique and Nuria feel more of God´s love for them.Other than that, this last weekend was a big learning experience about patience and faith. The Lord blessed us so much to be able to hit the standards of excellence in our mission again but the people that we need progressing haven´t been progressing like we´d want them to. Nallely who is supposed to get baptized this weekend didn´t come to church yesterday and after talking to her on the phone she said that she hadn´t been feeling well. We had another visit set up with her later on last night and we confirmed with her about an hour before but then she didn´t show up. After that she hasn´t answered our phone calls. It caught us way off gaurd because she always does what we ask her to do and she never fires us. We´re afraid because she works in Hospitalet during the whole week and we wont be able to teach her the rest of the commandments until saturday, the day of her baptism. This could be 2 weeks in a row that our baptisms have fallen through. We´re praying that some miracle happens and that we´ll be able to meet with her before then and finish preparing her for baptism. We had 7 people that came to stake conference but not one of our fechas came to church. It was a tough day yesterday overall but it just amazes me how the Lord keeps teaching me to trust in Him. I know He wants us to baptize and I know we will. It´s just a little stressful when we´re at the end of the year and we need to hit our goal of 600. I´m praying a lot and I´m excited to see what Heavenly Father has in store for us and i´m hoping that it comes quick! Satan is working hard to stop our investigators from progressing, but he´s not going to win.
Keep praying for our investigators, fam, we need them all. Thanks for being the best fam bam in the world
Elder Reeves
Friday, November 2, 2012
Barcelona week 17 - The work of the Lord increases
Sorry fam this is going to be a quick one because i had too much fun looking at all the pics. It just makes me mad thinking about how fast the mission is going and i´m not thinking about home at all but seeing these pictures makes me really excited to be with my crazy nieces and nephews again. I love them all so much.We´ve been finding so many prepared people in our area. It´s so amazing to see the hand of the Lord in this work. The miracle that we´ve seen in this last week is that we had 6 people preparing for baptism with a specific date. Sadly, Elizabeth and André that should´ve been getting baptized tomorrow ended up having some doubts and aren´t feeling ready for tomorrow. So we´re going to move them for another weekend. Then we have Nallely who is preparing for next weekend and she is SET. One of the most prepared people that i´ve taught in my mission so far. Then we have the family of Patricia, her 18 year old son Victor, and her 16 year old daughter Michell preparing for the 17th. Patricia is the older sister of Marianela, the wife of Giovani who got baptized in Ecuador when she was like 13 years old. We´ve literally had no time to rest because the Lord is blessing us so much that we´re constantly teaching and constantly finding new prepared people. These last 2 months of the year are going to be the biggest months we´ve seen as a mission!
The work of the Lord goes on and the preparation for our Savior is being made even more evident (im not even sure if that´s a real word) in our days. I love being a missionary and I love my family
Elder Reeves
The work of the Lord goes on and the preparation for our Savior is being made even more evident (im not even sure if that´s a real word) in our days. I love being a missionary and I love my family
Elder Reeves
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