Well for the past week since I've been here it's been averaging 110. So it's pretty darn hot! I'm definitely thankful that we have a car to drive and are not on bikes. The culture here in Vegas is really strange and interesting. Every house you stop at, whether they're members or not, generally offer you water so it's nice cause I'm staying really hydrated. In fact it's the law here to give water to someone if they ask for it! Crazy Right? But definitely needed! The short sleeve shirts are great! I honestly don't know what I'd do if I didn't have them.
As for the investigators and baptisms I was telling you about we have a 12 year old who is getting baptized this Friday! His name is Keanu and he's got an awesome family. I've been spending lots of time at his house since we give him reading assignments every day and then go and check up on how he's been doing. He has a younger sister and two older sisters. His 14 year old sister was baptized not too long ago as was his mom. His 16 yr old sister and his dad aren't though. His younger sister usually comes and listens when we visit and we were excited to see the whole family at church on Sunday. The family is from Hawaii and are super sweet I just hope we can baptize the whole family before I leave the area.
Another two of our baptisms are these investigators who just randomly showed up at church a couple weeks ago. The husband came and took notes during the sacrament meeting and then went up to the missionaries after the meeting to ask how he and his wife could become converts!!!! Ha what an amazing story! Right now they are out of town so I haven't met them but I look forward to meeting them and they are set to be baptized in two weeks!. The last set baptism we have is for a 15 yr old named Jordan. He self referred to the missionaries a couple weeks back and we've been teaching him the lessons. So far the only problems we've been having with him is getting him to come to church each week. His parents’ aren't interested in the church and no one in his family is a member so each Sunday he's either sleeping or hanging with friends. Hopefully all goes well and we can get him to start coming again!
Since I have been here we found a couple more awesome investigators that we're going to start working with this week. One is the Mark family. The father of the family's name is Alex who ordered some church dvd's and we've been trying to get a hold of him since. We finally got a hold of him on Saturday and he wanted to send us his schedule so we could come and meet with him. He was very clear in that he really wanted to meet with us and it was something that was very serious to him. It's just been hard to get a hold of him because of how much he works....which according to his wife is in the Wine and Spirits business haha but it should be a good meeting.
We received some more leads at church and a few more investigators that showed up! I really do love the area! We are over two wards here, the Hillpoint ward and the Palo Verde ward. The members are super sweet and really take care of the missionaries! We had a delicious dinner last night with Brother Palmer of the Palo Verde ward and had some amazing steak, chicken, potatoes, and salad. As if that weren't enough as we were leaving he told us that he was going to be out of town for a bit and unloaded his fridge and cabinets to us. We literally went home with three large trash bags completely filled with food!! Yeah! We don't have to go grocery shopping for another month or two.
Well here is a little bit more that I've learned about the Las Vegas area since I've been here.
1. Cash is king. People will do anything to get money here which is often stealing and pawning for cash. The crime is horrible and since I live in a nicer area, there is security everywhere! A lot of the parking lots here have security guards walking around and almost every neighborhood is gated and has security. This makes it especially hard to visit members and to go tracking which luckily we don't even have much time to do since we're so busy with work.
2. Looks are everything. People in my area are extremely worried about their looks. The rule of thumb here is that any one under 20 is generally three yrs younger than they look and any one older is older than they look. I was shocked by our sacrament meeting when the bishop called up girls that were only 12 but looked like they were at least 15. Ha it's really confusing.
The 3rd thing I have learned here is that Vegas is really the melting pot of the U.S. There are all sorts of people that live here from really really weird to some amazing individuals. We've been working with a couple in our area that's super involved in the shows that go on in Vegas and with the celebrities. Mike is in charge of building the stages and everything else apperance wise for huge car displays, shows, and whatever else comes his way. His wife Yo sews costumes and outfits for celebrities and theatre performances. She's currently working for the Phantom of the opera show that's in town but has worked with Justin Timberlake, Justin Beiber, N sync, and many other big names! Ha there such a crazy fun couple to talk with! Well my time is running out but it was great hearing from you as always and I wish you the best!
Elder Keller Reeves
P.S. I'll try and mail you the pictures I've been taking about as soon as I get a chance.
Here's my apartment address, Also I can always receive mail from the MTC offices which address you should have.
1350 N Town Center Dr Apt 1007
Las Vegas NV 89144
Love you!!!
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