Wow the little nieces and nephews have changed so much. Sorry I wasn´t able to talk for long with all of you. I would have loved to talk longer but i guess that´s the curse of huge families huh? Mom and dad, hope things are nice and hot in Mexico. Oh by the way, ask uncle Robert if he knows a couple named Angel y Maite Lizarralde. They were some of the first converts in Bilbao back in 77 and Angel is now the stake patriarch. They´re so good!! They said they met an Elder Reeves back in the day.
The miracle that I want to share was the incredible experience that we had today in concilio with President and Hna Pace, the ayudantes and the Zone Leaders. Because it´s the end of the year (we ended up with 484 in the year of 2012!!! Didn´t break 500 and didn´t reach our goal but really we feel so blessed for the year that we´ve had and the souls that we´ve helped come into the fold of God.) we were talking about this next year and what was going to happen: what was our goal for the year, how we were going to get there, what we need to focus on, etc. As we talked about the goal for the year of 2013, we went around the room, every zone leader giving their comment and their feeling to what the goal should be. 750 was talked about A LOT and we really were leaning towards it. I also felt good about it and thought of the vision that Pres has for the mission of 1000 baptisms. I talked about how it would be good for us to be able to catch the rhythm this year and hit 750 and set us up for next year to hit the 1000. Then, the turn came to Elder Archibald to talk. He´s the new ayudante that replaced me that has more faith than any other missionary that I´ve ever met. He´s incredible. He sat there for a second and then with tears in his eyes said, "President, when you announced your vision of 1000 baptisms in this last conference, I knew we could reach it. And I know that THIS year we can hit 1,000 baptisms." There was silence in the room for a little bit and the Spirit was so strong. After Elder Archibald, other missionaries began to talk about their personal experiences and the excitement they had when Pres Pace announced his 1000 vision. It became very real to us that the Lord wanted us to set the goal for 1000 baptisms. It was something that everyone could feel and it made me really know that we are in a hastening, that the Lord NEEDS His work to go forth and that He is preparing people with His angels all over. I´m so grateful for the faith of President Pace and for the faith of Elder Archibald. I had lost my focus on the vision thinking that this year we could work hard and then next year accomplish the goal... But why wait??? If Heavenly Father needs His children saved and entering into his path right now, there´s no time to waste. I know that we´re going to reach 1000 baptisms at the end of this year of 2013 and I thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to participate in this second harvest of souls here in Spain. We are going to see miracles.
We talked about some things that we can focus on this year to be able to accomplish this goal and some more revelation that President Pace received was that the whole mission needs to do the 12 week program for new missionaries again in every companionship. There are about 15 visa waiters in other missions right now and with the change of the age of missionaries there´s going to be an explosion of new missionaries in our mission and every single missionary is going to need to train. We´re going to become even more dedicated preach my gospel missionaries and be able to help more people receive testimonies of the restored gospel and want to be baptized.
Seriously, I cant tell you how excited I am for this new goal. It´s going to take a lot of faith and a lot of hard work. We´re litterally going to have to become missionaries that we´ve never been before and do things that have never been done before. But nothing is too hard for the Lord.
Family I love you all. It was soooo good to see all of you and talk for a little bit. I know Heavenly Father has so much in store for me, Elder Prieto and for the wonderful people of Bilbao. Pray for us. Pray for our goal. And pray for the people that God is preparing so that they may be able to recognize the spirit and have the desires to change and dedicate their lives to God and His gospel.
Agur (i think that´s how you spell goodbye in Euskera. Sounds like "ahguhr"),
Elder Reeves
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