Letter from November 26, 2012

   Thanksgiving was great but unfortunately the work was pretty slow with the holiday. Both our wards on Sunday were near empty (I guess Vegas isn't the place to be for Thanksgiving) and for sacrament meeting one of our wards just sang hymns. We weren't able to meet with Kendal, Dray or Gina and Micah for the interview. We were however able to visit the Ha'o family and help them with their Christmas decorations! Also random side note while we were out making visits we saw our mail lady with her kids putting up lights so we now know where she lives. The Turkey Bowl this last week didn't end up going in our favor as our team tied one game and got creamed in the other two, and it certainly didn't help that we were playing against a zone that had a BYU football player on it who was 6'8" and could catch anything they threw his way.

 

   This transfer has been flying by for me and it's crazy to think that I could be in a new area in less than two weeks. I've grown attached to Red Rock and it's going to be hard to leave, but if I do get transferred I'm hoping they send me out to the boonies. I love Las Vegas but I feel a bit claustrophobic not being able to drive out of our little bubbles, and it's going to be weird not having area boundaries I have to stay in after the mission. I hear that there are some farming communities in our mission so I'd be pretty down for being sent out there for a while.

  

   The work is beginning to really pick up as we approach December and everyone is feeling the Holiday joy. The last couple of weeks we've been focusing on inviting people to the Nativity which has been really successful for us. We have a number of investigators and less actives who plan on attending and we'll be there to help usher on two of the four nights. Just last night we stopped by an investigators home to invite her out to the Nativity and we ended up getting even more than we hoped for. Our investigator had a friend over who had stopped coming to church but really opened up to us and wanted to come to the Nativity and to sit in on the lessons we'll be teaching. This just testified to me that there are many people in the church who are ready to come back into activity but just need someone to help them back.

 

   We had a temple trip today which is why our P-Day was moved to Wednesday rather than our usual Monday P-Day. The temple was a great experience and I love the spirit that the visit brings into our lives even as missionaries. I also discovered some neat features to the Las Vegas temple that I did not know about from my last visit. Throughout the grounds surrounding the temple are these brick patterns along the walkway, well every now and then you come across a circle of bricks on the ground. When you stand in the center of the circle and speak it sounds like your voice is being magnified by a dome or speaker system which is pretty neat! Well anyways it was a good day and we've got a couple of lessons set for tonight. I hope that you are all doing well and recovering from any injures that might have been brought about from ward Turkey Bowls. I love you all and keep you in my prayers! Love,

Elder Keller Reeves

Letter from November 19, 2012

   Well this last week has been a long one for us between the many meetings we had, and the contention that has been arising in the apartment. I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving and hope that we can all feel the joy with this holiday season. I did loved the opportunity that we had to hear from Elder Echo Hawk and loved the stories that he had to share with us about his conversion and about his childhood. We learned a lot about his life and about a few of the many blessings he has received through faithful church attendance. We also learned about the exciting campaign that the church is launching this holiday season. Starting November 26th the church will be launching ads on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and other websites inviting people to remember and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Their is a link now (Mormon.org/Christmas) where you can send people for free copies of the Christmas story, e-card downloads, and Christmas music downloads. It's pretty awesome and I would encourage you to go check out the link. It's amazing how much more friendly people are around the holiday season as Christians unite in celebrating the birth of Christ, and makes it very easy to reach out to people and invite them to a Christmas event.

 

   Well enough about Christmas since it's still a month away and lets focus on the missionary work here. Mimi has been having an excellent week and all her family is in town to celebrate Thanksgiving with her. We're looking forward to our next visit with her especially since the family will be there for it. In our last discussion she was having a problem with coffee and we challenged her to pray about it and at least try giving it up for a time. She has a great spirit and I know that she will come in time. Dray texted us this last week that his back has been doing better and he wants to meet sometime this week. Kendal was supposed to make it out to church this week but last second some family matters came up which kept him away from us. Hopefully we can meet with him this week and continue to prepare him for baptism in early December. We're supposed to be meeting with Gina and Micah either Friday or Monday so we can do the baptismal interview and hopefully baptize them next week. We also got a hold of John this week who was the Compton cop who had a book written about his life. He let us into the door and we had a pretty good discussion and invited him to a live production of the nativity that the church is putting on out here. Speaking of the nativity it's supposed to be super awesome and have live animals, actors, and music. A lot of the members in our ward council are going to be in it and have been growing out their breads for the last month so it's been interesting attending a sacrament meeting where the person conducting has a full beard growing. Anyways it should be a great show and makes our door to door approaches much happier visits as we simply invite people to attend the event.

 

   You'll have to tell Elder McKay hi for me and let him know that I really appreciated that they took me with them to make visits. How's his new companion fitting into the ward? I really hope that the ward doesn't change to much while I'm away cause I really have come to love that ward. Oh and we did receive some exciting news from the Zang family who we had taught and then turned over to their missionaries when we found out that their in another ward. The son Sunny is getting baptized in December and the mom will surely follow soon after. We miss having them in our ward but I know that the other ward will take good care of them. I'm really excited for the Turkey Bowl this week and for being able to celebrate with some members in our ward!!! Oh and make sure that Elder McKay and his companion have a place to go for Thanksgiving. Also I had sent dad a letter the other day for his birthday and it should hopefully get their by tomorrow. Well sounds like you guys are having an exciting week you'll have to let me know how it plays out. Thank you every one for the support you give the missionaries and the love you show them while their away from their families during the holidays. I pray for you all and wish you the best, Happy Thanksgiving!! Love,

 

Elder Keller Reeves

Letter from November 12, 2012

So today my zone will be practicing football for the up coming mission turkey bowl! We submitted our T-Shirt design on Saturday and are excited to get our team jerseys for the game on Thanksgiving. I'm also really excited for this week and the mission tour from Larry Echo Hawk who spoke in this last general conference. It should be a great meeting and I'm sure that we'll all learn a lot. As for the mission we received some great news about the increase in missionaries... since our mission split in July we dropped down from 190 missionaries to about 110-120 and have since increased to around 160 and are working our way back up to 190. Well our mission president received a letter from the first presidency shortly after the announcement in October telling him to prepare to have 250 missionaries in our mission!!! I would imagine that this will be the same for many of the missions here and throughout the world bringing the number of missionaries in Nevada to about 750 between the 3 missions and many more else where. We will have a set of missionaries for every single ward and no longer have to run from one ward to another giving us the ability to really get to know the area and the ward. It also means I will very likely be on bike before to long and probably a good part of the rest my mission....Oh well. I'm very excited for the changes being made and we should begin receiving the new missionaries in February. Also this last week the bishop of the Hillpointe ward announced that both his daughter and son received their mission calls and one would be going to Buenos Aires North mission and the other to the Buenos Aires South mission...that will be a neat experience for their family!

 

   Well not to much happened this past week for me to report on just that our investigators are doing well. We ran into Kendal early in the week while we were cleaning out our car and had a good conversation about his life. He's doing really well and personal shared with us that he had been praying for a date and told his grandmother that he wants to get baptized in early December. I of course was thrilled to hear this news and seeing as how I might be leaving the area on December 9th I'm grateful to still be here to be a part of it. He also told me he wanted to make sure we stay in touch and we'll probably invite him our to some of the zone activities we have on P-Days.

 

   We received some sad news from our investigator Dray who threw out his back and isn't doing to well as of right now. We hope to see him sometime this week and possibly give him a blessing. On the brighter side of things we did meet with a new investigator this week named Martin. Martin is a very bright older man who translates English-Spanish-and Armenian. He has a great knowledge of religions and love to discuss religion. While we have high hopes for him and feel very welcome in his home I fear that he is set with his faith and isn't very likely to change. We did leave him with the Book of Mormon to read and a pamphlet to ask questions about next time we come by so my fingers are crossed.

 

   Well my roommates and I continue to improve the status of our apartment as we cleaned up, moved the furniture around, and had the carpets shampooed and cleaned. We can hardly recognize the place now and it looks drastically better than when I arrived. Also I got very tired of ramen a while back and I'll admit that I began doing slim fast to keep the weight down and because it's super cheap! Now please don't send me junk food for the Holidays!!! We already have way to much sitting around our place all the time and way to many dinners with desert every night. Well I'm excited for all the new changes in the mission and for the up coming holidays and mission tour. I love you all and wish you the best,

Elder Keller Reeves

Letter from November 5, 2012

   Good morning!!! I hope that everyone is feeling extra refreshed from the added hour of sleep we all got this weekend. It was strange being able to wake up to the sun filling our bedroom with light on Sunday morning, but definitely a welcomed sight. My companion and I had a pretty good week and were able to hear some very exciting news. So the week began with transfers on Monday where we got to meet our new roommate Elder Millar. Millar is a pretty neat guy and fits right in with the rest of us in the apartment. Since meeting him we taught him a bit about our apartment culture (Card games, Inside Jokes, "The Apartment Rules") and he introduced a bit of his culture into the apartment as well. We've now enjoyed some intense hacky sack tournaments during lunch and some funny/depressing new missionary music to enjoy. One that especially hit my other roommate hard was about getting a Dear John which he had received just last month.

   As the week continued we had our mission talent show which was pretty good for the most part. I loved getting to see my MTC district again and hear about how their experiences have been so far. The talent show itself was the more interesting part of the night with many borderline appropriate skits being perform but many good ones as well. My companion and one of our roommates did an awesome drumming act in which I had a very small part where I ran out briefly on stage. One of the other great acts was a play off of American Idol in which a zone combined American Idol, with characters from The Testament, The District, and Finding Faith in Christ. It was was really good and had us all laughing pretty hard throughout the show.

   On Friday my companion and I received a very sad message from a new member in the ward who had a very close nonmember friend in the hospital. Her friend was in critical care after giving birth to premature twins and the member asked if we would be able to go and give her a blessing. So after receiving permission from our zone leaders to go to the hospital which was out of our area we headed down and began to make our way in. As we walk toward the entrance we were stopped by a man with a woman in a wheel chair who ask if we could say a prayer for the woman. The faith of this man really touched me and I nearly cried as the woman was overcome with gratitude toward us in praying for her. When we got into the hospital we had to give a password to see our patient and be escorted to her room. The woman was hooked up to dozens of tubs and looked to be in horrible condition. She couldn't talk but gently nodded her head to give us permission to give proceed with a blessing. It was a tender sweet moment of my mission for me and I doubt that I will ever forget the feelings I had that day.

   In terms of progress with our investigators we had two great experiences. This week we challenged Dray to come to church to which he replied he wouldn't commit to a day but he did promise us that we would see him at church sometime this year. Sunday's are his only days off and he doesn't like making plans for the day. He then asked us to come to one of his yoga classes he teaches and promised that he would come to church if we come to one of his classes on a P-Day. We accepted the challenge and he said that if he comes to church now he's going to approach us and remind us that he'll see us on Monday. Dray really is a great guy and I've loved the opportunity that we've had to teach him so far.

   The other investigator with very exciting news was Kendal. We weren't able to have a lesson with him this week since he was out of town but I was excited to hear from our neighbors that he had come over and told them that he wants to get baptized before December. We're going to really push him now on coming to church each week and I hope that we'll be able to hold his baptismal service by the end of the month.

   Oh and to end my letter this week I'll share a brief fun story from the weekend. So we saw one of Keanu's sisters on Saturday holding a sign at a street corner to advertise for one of the local businesses, and the next day we went to church and were pretty disappointed to see that his sister didn't make it. Well as we drove back after our meetings we saw her out by the curb with the sign again and decided to turn the car around and park. We then grabbed our scriptures and walked down to the sidewalk to see how see was doing. She informed us that she had requested not to work weekends but because of an art show that was right next door they told her they would need her to work. So we got to stand their and teach her a brief lesson and urge her to continue to read, pray, and attend church!!!

   Well hope all is going well with everyone at home and I wish you the best!

Love Elder Reeves

Letter from October 29, 2012

Well we received our transfer calls on Saturday and the good news is that my companion and I will be together for another transfer which will be a blessing for me since I'll be able to see many of the people I've been teaching get baptized! We currently have 5 people we've extended baptismal commitments to who've accepted and should be getting baptized this transfer. Tehani, Mimi, Gina, Micah, and Kendal all accepted our invitation and are praying for a date. We just taught Kendal the 3rd lesson yesterday and I was so happy to hear how excited he was about baptism and learning more about the church. Kendal is a senior in High School and is just now beginning to look into colleges, so naturally I brought up BYU after the lesson and tried to do a little recruiting. It'd be so awesome to come back from my mission and go to school with a kid that I baptized!!! He's such a great kid and has never had a religious back ground so my companion and I have had the privileged to start from scratch. In talking about the Holy Ghost it was amazing hearing him share his experience and recognition of the Holy Ghost in his life with us. He's had a pretty rough past and is living with his grandmother in the apartments right next to ours which makes it easy to get a hold of him and keep in touch. I can definitely tell that the church will greatly help him in his life and I can't wait to see him get baptized.

   As for the man and his children that we had been teaching... well things have really slowed down. He's still going through a lot of drama with his wife and the whole divorce situation and so it's been hard to get a time where he and his kids can sit in. Things are beginning to look promising for him though and it looks like he and his wife might be getting back together and taking the lessons as a complete family.

   Now Dray (the awesome Yoga instructor, and DJ) that we've been teaching had to unfortunately cancel on us this past week but we're really looking forward to meeting with him this week and hopefully ask him to pray about baptism. It's been great teaching him and it really warms my heart to hear people tell us that they already believe the things that we are teaching to them. I know that their are great blessings in store for him as he continues to progress and build his testimony of the Gospel.

   This last week I was excited to attend two of our ward Halloween parties but a little bumbed that we had to leave both of them early to make other appointments we had scheduled. It's amazing how many people who you spend months trying to contact end up finding their way to these church activities so we we're blessed to spend our time getting to know new people.

   Oh and with transfers today we are getting a new roommate which is really going to change the feel of the apartment. I'm excited to meet the new missionary on whom we already have a few harmless jokes we are planning to play. I'll have to let you know how those go in the next letter. Well Halloween is drawing near and mission rules are that we can't be out. We do however have a mission get together that day and a dinner that night. It should be a lot of fun and I can't wait to see the whole mission together at one time!!!! That's a lot of spiritual power right there! Well I'm glad to hear things are going well and you were able to view the pictures I sent. I wish you all the best, Love

Elder Keller Reeves

Letter from October 22, 2012

   Well this wasn't the best week for my companion and I in the field. The work was pretty slow this week but we still had some great experiences. After changing a members flat tire on Monday we enjoyed the rest of our P-Day and made our way to dinner that night. Following dinner we still had some time to go make some visits and figured we should stop by the ward fish fry that was going on. Well lets just say I'm really glad that we did! From the half hour that we were there we set up a couple lessons, placed a Book of Mormon, and received a new investigator!!! So the current standings with our main investigators are as follows.

 

Gina and Mika - Just finished the lessons waiting to find out what Saturday they'll be available to hold the baptism on.

Tehani - Keanu's 17 year old sister, Just finished the lessons asked her to pray about a date.

Amanda - New investigator from fish fry, 1st lesson went really well and I have a feeling she's going to get baptized, have a second lesson set for this week.

Mimi - Agreed to be baptized, working on a date.

  -  And the rest are at the same spot as last week. 

Guy and Maluhia - Keanu's dad and 19 year old sister we've taught the 1st lesson to and are meeting with them when ever their available hope to set them for the end of November.

Kendal - Looking to set him this week to get baptized early November

Dray - Set for mid to late November

Goyeau family of 6 - Not certain yet but we should be teaching them the second lesson soon and I hope they'll be ready between late November and early December.

 

   Well our zone all had interviews with the mission president this week which I thought went really well. The president was really up lifting and told us that he had received some complements about my companion and I from a member whose in charge of stake public relations. Our transfers are in a week and I think I'll still be here another transfer but one of our roommates already knows he's leaving so we've all been speculating on what the new guy is going to be like. I'm excited to see some of the work my companion and I have been doing turn into a number of baptisms in the upcoming month!!! We've been privledged to teach so many amazing people who all have strong testimonies of the gospel of christ. Everytime I see the Warburtons I can't help but smile and state again just how grateful I am to know them and be part of their baptism. Coming from the priesthood meeting last night he walked by us as we drove a way and yelled "Ask the missionaries they can help you". Also I don't know if I told you but we have brother Corbridge in our ward whose father is in the Seventy got the Warburtons some awesome tickets to general conference up front....AND...they got to go through the tunnels and have lunch in the Seventy's cafeteria!! I'm so jealous but happy for them at the same time!!! When they got back from Salt Lake they gave my companion and I gifts that they bought at Deseret Book of two plastic missionaries! Ha man their awesome!

  

   Well I hope you were able to go through all the pictures that I sent you guys! And I'm really excited for this election to end cause I'm tired of all the dumb political junk mail that we get every single day! One of the people running for Senate here is in the Stake Presidency and we got to here from him last night. He gave a great talk and a big focus of the night was about missionary work. It's crazy to think how many poeple are going on missions now, but I can't help but be excited. At the same time I'm glad that I'm on my mission right now cause I don't know how I'd be doing with all the drama going on at home and college!! I'm really glad that I'm able to focus on the mission and really not worry to much about the things going on in the world around me. I hope you all are doing well and I'm sorry to hear about Daniels game! Tell Harris that I love him and will be praying for his health. Best wishes!!! Love,

Elder Keller Reeves

Letter from October 15, 2012

   All went very well this past week and I feel that we made some great progress with our investigators. With our 3 new investigators we taught the second lessons to this past week all of them went great and we are ready to set two of them with dates in our next meeting. One investigator Kendal began asking us how he can become Mormon and about baptism so I would say that he is pretty ready. The second lesson with Mimi went great as well and we are hoping to set her with a date sometime in November when her kids are in town so they can come attend. Then Dray our 3rd new investigator received the second lesson far better than I could have hoped for! He said that the Plan of Salvation made perfect sense to him and he all ready believed in a lot of it just with his personal beliefs from before. Though he hasn't come to church yet he thanked us for teaching him and is looking forward to our next lessons! So here is our current standing with each of our investigators I see getting baptized either this transfer or next.

 

Gina and Mika - We just recieved permission to baptize Mika and are going to shoot for the 27th of this month.

Tehani - Keanu's 17 year old sister we're hoping to teach her the last two lessons this week and set her for the 27th as well.

Guy and Maluhia - Keanu's dad and 19 year old sister we've taught the 1st lesson to and are meeting with them when ever their available hope to set them for the end of November.

Kendal - Looking to set him this week to get baptized early November

Mimi - Looking to set for mid November

Dray - Set for mid to late November

Goyeau family of 6 - Not certain yet but we should be teaching them the second lesson soon and I hope they'll be ready between late November and early December.

 

   Those are all the people we are teaching who I think will get baptized within the next transfer. I really hope I can stay in the area and see all this great work play out! We were also excited this week for the Palo Verde ward as we received 3 new investigators at church yesterday. We meet a family two weeks ago and asked if they'd be interested in coming to church, so we were naturally thrilled to see them actually there on Sunday and to see the members do a great job with fellowshiping them right in. Another sister who we've been trying to contact for months finally just showed up at church and we're working to set up lessons with her at a members home. Kevin who we found tracking the other month still hasn't had a weekend we could meet with him but I still have very high hopes for the man!!! I feel that he's a pretty solid investigator and it's just a matter of time for him.

 

   So in typing this letter we came to the library this morning but I received a call from Keanu's mom asking if we knew how to change a tire...So my companion and I looked to each other logged of and headed over there, with our roommates who gave us a ride to the library, to help her family with their car. While we were changing the tire 3 people stopped and asked if we needed any help and one asked us how many missionaries it took to change a tire (we had 4 working on it). Well we got it changed but I was on the ground and got myself and my whites pretty dirty. What's important though is that I remembered how to change a tire...I mean that we helped the family out!!! Ha ya after getting stranded for a while on the farm this summer with a flat I was able to get right two it in a fraction of the time!!! See I told you my job this summer did a good job with preparing me for the mission! I love all the service we get to do though at times I feel a bit like a moving company seeing as how I've done at least 5 moves in the past two weeks.

 

   It really is crazy to think that Harris is already 17!!! Hope you guys have a great party oh and look out for a little something in the mail sometime this week. Thank you for sending me that list mom it really helps me with writing them in on my calender so that I'll remember. I'm excited to hear how Noah and Daniel's games play out and if their going to be facing off in the Super Bowl game! Also you'll have to send me some pictures of Wilson's new home that they just moved in. This last week was pretty interesting weather for Vegas as we experienced some serious flash floods that turned the streets into rivers within seconds. It was fun though and we got soaked coming in that night. Well I love you all and wish the best, Elder Reeves.