Letter from August 20, 2012

Well it's been another really eventful week in the Las Vegas West mission for Elder Reeves. Well to start the baptism went great!!! The young man Keanu actually asked me to do the baptism which was a really exciting feeling to perform my first baptism of the mission. I did however have to learn his full name (Ethan Guy Keanu Ha-o' Ka Avoloa) which as you can imagine was a bit of a challenge! I'm excited for the rest of his family and really hope they make the choice to be baptized as well. Our 15 year old investigator made it to the baptism and expressed to us how excited he is for his own baptism that is scheduled for the 8th of September. Our golden couple finally got back in town on Saturday and I was finally able to meet them at church on Sunday. They're super sweet and still seem as excited as ever to join the church! More exciting news is that we came across two more investigators this past week who want to get baptized. It's a single mom and her 13 yr old kid who had friends in the church. We currently have them scheduled to be baptised in September and look forward to teaching them the lessons. So all is well with one baptism done and 5 set for next month! We have yet to get a hold of Alex's schedule so we can meet with him but still have high hopes for him and his family.

   On the celebrity side of things we met this week with a retired cop named John Baker. He's the most decorated cop of America's most dangerous city Compton New York. It was neat to hear some of his stories as a cop and the spiritual struggles he had to face. He lived a pretty sinful life and now that he's retired is looking into our church for guideance. He just recently hade a book written about him called Vice and recieved a call from Hollywood who's flying him out to California to talk with him about making his book into a tv series. So He'll be in California this week and we can't wait to meet with him afterwards to see how things go. Who knows this could be the next CSI/NCIS!! Ha pretty neat stuff.

   For our P-Day activity last week we got to go to the Yamagata Residence in Spanish Hills. He's a member of the church who lets just say is a very very very successful business man worth hundreds of millions. His house had an indoor racket ball court on the bottom two floors, an indoor elevator, waterfalls, a gorgeous view of the strip, and a huge garage with all his very nice cars. The newest edition to his collection was a 2012 258 Italia Ferrari that was less than a week old. We of course all took turns taking pictures of us in and around the car. Brother Yamagata is honestly one of the nicest people i have ever met and has donated millions to the church and BYU Hawaii. 

   Well I'm so happy to hear that the Eagle Scout project went well and the boys are staying busy. You'll have to let me know more about the project and send some pictures. What do the care pakages have? And let me know how the hospital reacts to your very successful donations drive. Well wish you the best and hope to hear from you soon. Love

Elder Reeves