A New Opportunity

This week was packed. No pictures because my camera's battery just died. So last Monday all the missionaries in the district went out to this all you can eat sushi place. It is awesome: you order food on IPads and they just keep bringing it. And they only charge you for what you eat! I liked the raw salmon on rice...didn't care much for the tuna though:)

Tanner wrote this and I exploded with Joy:):)

Guess what! Yesterday as I was saying goodbye to our investigators Gabriel & Nicole, Gabriel wanted each of us to say a prayer to close out our final meeting. For his prayer he was just talking about me and how much he loves me, and wishes the best for me....and then he brought YOU into the prayer. It was so funny. "I just pray that you keep Charles' friend safe in Toronto...help her become the woman of God that you want her to become. And......let them be together and let it work out for them in the end, if it's your will." I've talked about you like twice to them. I thought it was super funny. 

Okay, so I guess I haven't told you much about Mordecai. I found her a couple months ago in the subway. I asked if the missionaries could come teach her and she said yes, that she was looking for a new church because she didn't feel the spirit at her church anymore like she used to. (It is so cool to meet elect people and talk to them; it MAKES your day). So I get her info and pass her info off. A couple weeks pass and the Elders still haven't contacted her!! Grrrrrr But finally after me reminding them they meet with her and she is so legit still. Anyway, she was baptized two Sundays ago. The YSA elders tell me her baptism was AMAZING! Everyone was crying. Mordecai said that when she told her mom she wanted to be baptized her mom looked at her and walked out of the room. Mordecai thought that her mom was mad. She came out two hours after. Turns out she had been crying; she was so happy that her child had found God. Her mom gave the opening prayer at the baptism. When Mordecai came out of the water she was smiling and crying. She said "Mom! I can feel it. I can feel it now!" (the spirit) ahhh I almost want to cry while typing this. Mordecai bore an amazing testimony and after her mom came up and gave her a hug and they cried. Now her mom is a potential investigator!!!

The Gospel is true. There is nothing else in the world that can bring YOU, you're friends, strangers more joy. Share the Book of mormon. Study it. Develop a strong relationship with Christ so that having joy and sharing the gospel comes easy.

Okay then on Thursday I was sent to a leadership meeting in  Brampton (where the mission office is)!! Sister Mendenhall stayed and Sister Coleman, one of the YSA sisters, went with me. It was SOOOOO exciting!!!! Ah I was pumped to share the gospel. Some changes are happening in the mission: The way we teach and work with less active and active members. It is so exciting. It is super hard to tell you how it is changing but basically it's supposed to be guiding them through the Pamphlet, giving a brief overview, and testifying of what they read and comment on from it. Then we have them read the rest on their own.

We had a really cool experience Thursday night of teaching in this manner of simply testifying of what the investigator was reading from the pamphlet. We cut down on really defining things such as apostasy, priesthood, etc ad had HIM read definitions and boxes on authority and just directed his learning. By the time we got to Joseph Smith receiving the Melchizedek priesthood he knew exactly what was going on in the picture and told us that "the authority that had been lost from the earth was on the earth again." It was so cool to see this method working out so well. We invited him to be baptized (3rd time we have done it) and he said yes. They are changing a lot of things in our mission so that we can be "full purpose missionaries" helping EVERYONE come closer to christ (Less active, Recent Convert, members, ad investigators). By the way, his name is Jerone.

Have I told you all about Kent yet? So sister Mndenhall opened her mouth at the dollar store a while ago and that is how we met. Kent: 50's, has young kids, recently  separated from a wife that cheated, strong family values and faith, recently had a stroke, buses a 2 hour bus ride one way to his kids Saturday and Sunday, oh ad he's a real yapper;)

He is so prepared for the gospel and says he feels so good when he reads the pamphlets. He talks quite a bit...haha it is really hard to control where the conversation is going. Our most recent lesson he told us of a concern he had: He is having a hard time fitting in yet another thing into his schedule. We brought a member with us who shared an amazing experience of how the gospel has blessed his life and all though it didn't make sense to convert and live it in the worlds eyes, he pressed forward and it has blessed his life immensely. He is such an amazing member: is name is Brother Bristo ( I'll tell you about him another time. Remind me.) I shared an experience of how reading the BOM blessed my life in college and actually lifted the burdens I felt and I was able to accomplish everything I needed to. Bro Bristo offered to drive him to Stowville on Sundays so that he could at least come to sacrament meeting. Kent came last Sunday. (If Kent rides the bus he has to leave at 9 so that he can enjoy most of the day with his kids and bring them back to Toronto. However, church starts at 10, so brother Bristo offered to drive him and give him the chance to see if this was something he really wanted to put into his life.  It was so awesome. So charitable).

Every time we bring a different member to a lesson with Kent, he retells his WHOLE LIFE STORY. It is kinda funny. We really have to set hard core expectations and help him understand that we only have 45 minutes!!!!!!

Funny experience: So we teach this girl named Anisa (9) and we taught her the restoration and then had her teach us. While she was teaching us and asked us to read a passage I took the passage, turned to sister M and said "here honey". Then I ERUPTED with laughter. Her father (a recent convert) got it and sister Mendenhall started laughing. Anisa was yelling, WY ARE YOU LAUGHING?! I couldn't stop. I died.

Okay. So this week was the last week of the transfer and even though I was invited to that random but cool meeting, I was convinced that we were staying together. So I was writing in my journal at 10:15 (usually the call comes between 8:30-9:30 if we are leaving) and describing my feelings about saying together another transfer when.......THE PHONE RINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM TRAINING!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH  I am so excited. So nervous. I haven't even taught majority of the lessons because we haven't had any progressing investigators for a long time. I am staying in the area. I really want to do things a little bit differently with my companion. I want her relationship with Christ to grow so much this transfer. I want her to be totally comfortable to talk about anything with me. I WANT to laugh all the time. I want to actually call our potentials.

I am so excited! Time is running over. ahhhh

Love you alll!! Sister Reeves

Open You Mouth: Crockpot Food and Baptisms!

Here is our crock pot creation. So good!

Okay! Here are the highlights.

This week we had an investigator come to church! And someone who I had bus contacted and then referred to the YSA Elders got baptized! She was so cool. When I was talking to her that first time, she was saying "Yeah! I am actually opening to learning about you guys. I am looking for a different church because I don't feel anything in mine anymore." (LESSON LEARNED: THE IMPORTANCE OF OPENING OUR MOUTHS TO EVERYONE) I wish we could have gone to her baptism but we didn't have an investigator to take with us. So I was pretty bummed, but apparently it was really cool. And, of course, as Church was finished and we were walking to the bus stop, we saw Brodie who was trying to find the entrance to the Church. I almost ran up and gave him a hug. It was so weird; I was so happy to see him. I had been pretty bummed that whole day. We always see him; It was his first time coming to church! He was pretty late but at least he went AND he went to Mordecai's baptism :) 

On Monday night we saw the power and authority of our calling as missionaries as we saw the Holy Ghost working onless actives. We talked to them about the importance of coming to church and taking the sacrament. It was really awesome to see the Holy Ghost working in the head of the household when he proclaimed "I'm in charge. And we are going to church." The wife did say that we were being to pushy...but the husband said that she was wrong, and that her excuses didn't matter. It was a cool lesson...except for the pushy part (I felt bad about that..Sister Mendenhall told her it was the spirit pushing her not us).

They came to church! And we were trying to help them feel loved by introducing them to people...Sister D.(the LA) was not happy about that and told us that we were being very pushy, and she did not like being treated like a LA and she felt bad. We didn't know what to say. We are going on Wednesday and saying sorry and teaching them hopefully.

The Indian Lady is Hosne. a sweet Less Active Lady. She literally has Nothing in her fridge, but always feeds us when we go over. Sometimes she forgets to take the chillies out of the food. and I explode. ha She feels like she knew me before this life. She tried to find mom on FB. I promise I don't always look this nappy!

We did an instruction for Zone counsel on building relationships with members before sacrament meeting and about asking them go visiting teaching! It was great. The spirit was there.  The zone leaders talked about ALWAYS being a missionary and I thought about Grandma Reeves. She is always being a missionary. Sometimes I stop sharing the gospel with people when, for instance, it's a p-day I am buying something at Walmart, my brain goes in a different mood. But I realized at that meeting that I had to be like Grandma Reeves in Europe. The rest of the day I endeavored to be like her. I found that in my contacts the spirit was so much stronger and my testimony thick.

We saw Eliane last night; she shared with us some of her poetry. The one's she shared were very funny;I am going to get a copy and then send them to you. The best part is that when she was telling them she was dying of laughter. 

Have you guys checked out the site mormonchannel.org? It has a ton of cool stuff!

Here is Helana and her family! We started making scripture boxes 

for them a week ago and they finished them. Here they are! :) 

NCIS Pays Off in the Mission Field

"I am pretending to be cold. It all actuality I am not...haha my coat is actually very nice."

[In response to mentioning that Lisa and I had finally finished the temple for work for a woman the Sam had found]:  Dad! So glad to hear that you got Sarah Hyland's work done. Yep I do remember that name! Which is a miracle, because, on the street, two seconds after someone tells me their name I forget it. I'm working on it! 

So as missionaries we get to go to the temple every six months if we are within an hour of it. We are in an hour of it so if I go out any further I won't get to go! Dad & Mom I love your letters! It's not preachy to me at all!

MOM!!! SOOO Sorry I keep forgetting to say in my emails!! I got the first package a while ago!! And I got the halloween one on the 22nd!! So no need for express shipping!!!! I loved them!!! haah Thank you soooo much!! The granola was the bomb.com Abby's invitation was soo cute as well. I think we will roast those marshmallows over the stove this week:)

[In response to my question about where in the mission the sisters typically serve]:  Dad- Honestly I'm not sure where else they serve, they do serve outside of the GTA though! There is only like 2 area's we know of where the sisters aren't. 

"WE heart attacked a less active door! We came back days later...she LOVED it. 

She went on to say how grateful she was for the people in the ward that wrote on all these hearts, 

that she could tell because of the different hand writing...we nodded and smiled. The awkward thing was that it was just us that did the hearts. But I must say, my awful handwriting has now come in use once in my life;)"

So, there is this guy is name is pronounced Yacob. We met him on the street two times and the second time we talked a bit longer. He likes the BOM and wants us to go preach in his area. But he is selective in the commandments he keeps. He said that we should preach the message but just not to tell people they had to stop making money the way they were "'cause aint no one gonna listen to you then. We all gotta make a living..." "I am in the area from 1-5 watching the money go." In short he is a drug dealer. haha Later I realized Sister Mendenhall had no idea what he was talking about. So It was kind of funny to explain to her. Kudos to my NCIS watching!

We dropped by Daphne on Saturday and ended up teaching the whole apt! Brody answered the door and later Daphne and Matthew joined us. We taught them Family prayer, which they basically committed to do before we extended them the commitment. It was fun. Then we taught them. W.O.W. Daphne ate it up. She only had tea issues; Brody and Matthew are more complex, and the whole time Daphne was saying stuff like"see, I told you i was right...you need to eat vegetables, and quitting smoking will help your heart."   Brody said it'd be really hard...but he can do it. Matthew said he'd work on it. We were expecting them to get the church on Sunday but then they texted and said Matthew was in the ER. 

"We post ESL flyers all around town. Upon posting one we found this card. It says "What is my purpose in life" "Where do I come from?" "where am I going?" It is the pack of one of the cards we pass out as missionaries. 

Some other missionaries must have taped it up a time ago.

We visited Eliane yesterday! She went to sacrament yesterday! She fed us spaghetti. The sauce was homemade and really incredible. I'm getting the recipe! She gave us fruit cake to take home for dessert. 

We started to talk about Ether 12 and then Eliane got talking.  Anyway, she told us of some cool experiences and how after she was baptized the spirit would yank her out of "not elevating situations."  She said, "I used to watch all kinds of movies, but now when I see something that doesn't elevate me it's like God yanks my spirit and says 'what do you think you're doing?!'"

The talking continued and she told us about how the temple really bugs her and how it bothers her that she doesn't feel the spirit there at all; in fact, she doesn't like being there. 

In the lesson Sister Mendenhall mentioned that she had one of her most spiritual experiences at the temple. In my mind I thought that I had not had one of those experiences yet, but that did know temples were important because I felt the spirit of peace there. As I proceeded to tell her this I found myself sharing a spiritual experience that I did have on the grounds of the temple, one that I had forgotten but truly had been a special experience. It was cool to see the spirit reminding me of the spiritual experiences I had. I know I have had many more that I unfortunately have forgotten momentarily or had not realized the significance of at the time...but I am so grateful for the spirit and how it can remind me of these experiences.

Yesterday Sister Mendenhall and I got separated for an hour and a half!! It was so annoying wasting that time. I had gotten off the subway and she had not. It took a long while to get a hold of her. After asking several people for their cell phones and not getting a hold of her, a Filipino man saw me and said "Are you mormon?!" Turns out he is an inactive member! He gave me change for a payphone! I then got a hold of her!

I am learning to love the gospel as a missionary. Work in progress! I am also working on being selfless.

Love,

Sister Reeves

More Progress with Less Actives

Hello!!!!  Okay so this week we met the coolest less active. I love her so much. She joined the church 10 years ago. She is 72 and from Corsica. She is going to teach me how to pray in French. We challenged her to read Ether 12. She feels uncomfortable at church and feels like no one likes her. We told her to think about how the Savior can help her come back. She went to the saturday session of stake conference (WHICH WAS INCREDIBLE) and right when it ended she said, "Now I feel guilty!" 

We asked her why and she said "Becuase I am the one making all the excuses." It was cool to have the spirit teach her and for her to recognize it. I showed her around and introduced her to members of the ward. They thought she was an investigator... she would respond "No I am a less active in your ward and they are draggin me back!" haha she is so cute. I love her! Hopefully she lives long enough so you all can meet her. We are going to have a discussion about Ether 12 on Friday!


Here are some quotes from conference that I enjoyed:

• "Just doing the things on our 'gospel bucket list' doesn't equate to having His image in our countenance." 
• "Pray with extraordinary faith in the morning to be blessed with opportunities to share the gospel" 
• "The bishop didn't have a plan but Heavenly Father had one. Because he listened to the spirit, he was able to be a tool in the Lords hands." 

One man who was a bishop who I LOVED shared a story about procrastination (secretly I want to marry someone like him.  He was so cool! So young yet his heartfelt testimony of how he felt the atonement in his life was beautiful) 

One day all the devils got together and they counseled on how they could get God's Children. One of the devils yelled "Lets get them to lie and steal and cheat!" (All the devils liked that and cheered) then another said "Lets get them to hate each other and kill!" (They cheered even louder). Then one wise old devil in the back of the room got up and said "Lets get them to go to church, pray, and read." The room got silent. Then in an uproar everyone started yelling "Hey! He's not on of us!" "Who does he think he is?!" They went crazy. Then Satan, the king of all the devils, got up and said, "No. I like that. Lets get them to pray and read even attend church and make them feel good about being baptized. Lets have them do all these things...Tomorrow."

Another cool experience we had this week was that we didn't know what to do with the time we had left. So on the street we said a prayer and BAM! a man started walking toward us. We greeted him, and he responded, "Hey! Weren't you girls supposed to meet with me today?" (On exchanges sister Bodine had set up an appointment with a man named Jerone. We forgot about the appointment and realized later in the day, and called him but to no avail.)

We told him about the confusion!  and He agreed to meet us right there at Tim hortons to hear our message. It was great! His name is Jerone. Hopefully we can meet with him this week. #miracles


H.and her family are having a really hard time right now. Her separated husband is extremely verbally abusive and controlling. He will not let them go to church. They feel like they have been praying and reading more than ever but life is getting worse. For a moment I was frustrated at God that he was not blessing them. They prayed so hard that their dad would not come get them for the weekend but he came. They are very upset now. We are seeing them tonight and are hopefully getting some people to give a priesthood blessing tomorrow. We have the COOLEST idea for a lesson though. Sister mendenhall and I feel very strongly to deviate from the original plan and to teach about music and share a pioneer story. We are going to commit them to memorize a hymn so they can say it in their minds in the downest of times.

I LOVE music. It has lifted me when I felt so down. I love writing lyrics. I've been doing so a little more this past week. 

In my nightly prayers while I was praying about them I realized that I did not want to fully accept the Lords will.

Love you all!!!!!!!!

Oh, one more thing.  We have been trying to visit this less active family, the T's, for a while. One day we were with some members and had planned on meeting with an investigator. But they were late and the investigator couldn't meet anymore. So we decided to go to the T's with them and try our luck. As luck would have it we got into the apartment building, stepped out of the elevator there were the T's, carrying groceries into their home! aH HAH!! We caught them and...sort of pushed our way past the excuses into the home. 

At first they were pretty standoffish but by the end of the lesson I KNOW that sister T. felt the spirit and Brother T. gave the prayer. She then invited us over for dinner on Thursday. The members that went with us were super awesome at bearing testimony and inviting them to activities. Mom, dad, jeffrey, Daphne, and Emma! Have any of you been out with the missionaries? Your challenge this week is to get their info, invite them for dinner in the future, and tell the ages of everyone and that you all would love to go out with them for an appointment. (For instance mom and emma could go and visit a less active family with kids, or part member family and it'd be super great!!)


Sister Reeves

P.S. Dad how is that guy at work that you are trying to share the gospel with?

Hearing about your guy's fall break adventures was great! Of course the car broke down! I've been telling you to get rid of that thing for years! How is Bob (my car) doing? Man, thinking about watching all of the Work and the Glory episodes brought me right back to going to the Browns house. That was so fun!

We passed off Brodie to the YSA elders! He is doing good. Hasn't come to church yet though! Satan is working hard on him, he says. We are meeting with Daphne on Wednesday! Hopefully she will understand how the gospel can bless her family, not just brody.

As for Ahab and his family we decided to give him some time because they were "so busy.." We are going to contact him this week!! 

Grandpa:
So my area is North York,  basically Scarborough! We have been downtown a bit for things like the BOM Musical. There are about 85 members who attend. There are 3,500 Less active members in the Stake. I am starting to think that Sister Mendenhall's and my job is not to find a ton of new investigators but rather to reactivate and help ward members do their home and visiting teaching! I love working with the members. The ward mission leader is great! Thank you for all your suggestions!! 

She looks quite domesticated, doesn't she?

Sam with  Sister Gayle, who she refers to as the Don Mills Ward angel.

Sam took this picture, apparently to mock Tanner and me, who, when discussing 

our cooking skills boast that we both make a great frozen pizza.

Sam and Sister Mendenhall