ONE WEEK LEFT IN THE CCM!!

HOLY DANG! WHERE DID THE TIME GO?! I'm scheduled to leave the CCM in one week! I'm so excited, but I'm so heartbroken to leave my beautiful companions and the amazing elders in our zone. I'm lucky that I get Hermana Howe and 4 other elders to take with me to my mission, but I'll miss the other 3 dearly :( It has been a week of answered prayers though!! I'll start with Tuesday!

TUESDAY - So as I mentioned in the last email, I had Achilles tendonitis. It was really, really painful and to be honest, I thought I would for sure be going home! It was suggested by my branch president that I ask the elders for a priesthood blessing. I asked Elder Bleak to give me one, and he was more than happy to. And let me just say, it was one of the most beautiful and most comforting blessings ever (I feel like I say that about each one though :)). Some of the things that he blessed me with were:

-my foot wouldn't get any worse... in fact it would progressively get better and that the functions of my body (wrist AND heel) would be able to function without problems or delay

-that I am entitled to the Spirit and the presence of Christ in my life

-that everything would happen in it's appointed time

-that I would be able to feel peace and not worry about anything, especially the language... that I may not know all the words in Spanish, but when the time comes that I need to use them, they will be in my mouth and they WILL be heard

-when Satan tries to lead me astray in thoughts, Christ will always be there

So yeah, pretty much... after that I felt really peaceful. And 2 days later, I woke up with my foot completely pain free!! Kind of a miracle, not gonna lie :) I have a recheck appointment on Tuesday and another on Wednesday, so hopefully I will officially get the all clear! Tuesday was also fun because that night, we had a group of international missionaries report to the MTC. As a STL, I was assigned to a sister until her companion arrived the next day. Her name is Hermana Antunes, and she is from BRAZIL! Not too far from where my momma served her mission! It was so fun! She spoke English really well and is such a sweetheart. AND, the speaker at the devotional that night was a guy from Brazil (one of the members of the quorum of the seventy), so it really helped her feel more at home :)

WEDNESDAY - On Wednesday, our zone got to host a bunch of new missionaries that were reporting to the MTC! It was so emotional to see them all say goodbye to their families, and I cried with every single one of them! It is really weird to see myself in that leadership position now, and it helped me to see just how much I have grown in the time spent even just at the MTC! It made me realize that I really do have a love for everyone, or at least almost everyone ;) Another fun thing about Wednesday was that the Zone Leaders and I got to do a little orientation for this new zone that came in. They're right down the hall from our classroom and we LOVE THEM! There are 10 in their zone--6 sisters and 4 elders--and 3 of them are from California! 2 are from northern california and 1 is from southern california! strangely, I get along with the elder from southern california more than the nor cal people.. It's really funny though, because while we were orienting them the elders were going hardcore about rules. I get that rules are important, but it's important to relax and be yourself too! So when it came to be my turn to share some advice, I looked at them and just said "laugh at least 10 times a day, smile at everyone, and be obedient. Also, take advantage of ice cream on Sundays and Wednesdays." Elder Bickmore (the southern CA elder) later told me that I was probably the most chill sister he had ever met, and to be honest, that has been my reputation for the last little while! So I'm glad that I'm no longer coming off as stressed :) 

THURSDAY - On Thursday, Hermana Smith and I had our last lesson with Raul :( I really hope he continues to learn about the gospel. He's such a great guy, and he was our REAL investigator! I feel so privileged to have been able to teach him about what I hold so dear to my heart. Nothing else really happened except for everyone found out I was homeschooled. None of them believed me. The conversation went something like this: 

"Yeah, I was homeschooled all through high school."

"What? NO YOU WEREN'T!"

"I'm not lying."

"But... you're social. And normal. And you don't look like you're homeschooled."

It was kinda funny, not gonna lie ;) OOH OOH! FUN FACT! On Thursday, Hermana Smith and I SKYPED someone that lives in Argentina and taught them a lesson! Coolest experience EVER!!

FRIDAY - Friday was a little rough, so Hermana Smith and I grabbed some popcorn and sat on a bench outside in the sunshine and read the white handbook. It's amazing how much the little things can do to make your day!

SATURDAY - nothing really worth noting for satuday :)

SUNDAY - So on Sunday, I was the lucky human that got asked to give a talk on the fly in Sacrament meeting. In Spanish. Whoop whoop. I made a couple elders shed some tears though, so I'd say mission accomplished! Success! At lunch, JaQ managed to drag his arm through BBQ sauce -_- so I whipped out a tide pen and took care of that sucker! I felt like such a mom hahaha :)

Other than that, this week hasn't been too exciting! I mean, missionary work is always exciting, but week after week gets a little bit... well... the same. Haha. I do love how comfortable I am with God directing my life now! When you think about it... He knows EVERYTHING, so naturally, we should be most comfortable with His will for us rather than ours :) So, that is my "challenge" for the week: DON'T WORRY! Just do what you're asked and God will take care of the rest. One of my favorite scriptures will always be Psalms 37:4-5. Read it :)

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! AND I LEAVE THE MTC IN A WEEK! AN APOSTLE IS GONNA SPEAK TO US TOMORROW IN OUR FIRESIDE! So yeah. Life is good :)

 this is our zone, and I love them!!

 this was from the other week at the temple... soooo beautiful!

my outfit the day I looked like easter!

-Hermana Reeve

CURVEBALLS!

Hi beautiful people!

Man... this week has been crazy. I'll start with Tuesday!

TUESDAY-we had a spanish lesson with words that we needed to learn. We learned the words "infierno" y "infermo"... well, one means "in hell" and the other means "sick". So I told someone I was sorry they were in hell by accident... Ya live and ya learn, right? But overall it was a good, good day :) later, we had our devotional which was good because who doesn't love CHOIR?! Seriously, that may be the highlight of my week :) You know what's weird? Heavenly Father is magnifying my talents! Before coming out here, I could carry a tune, but now sisters are requesting songs for me to sing in the shower... hahaha. My branch presidency is something special too, lemme tell you that!

WEDNESDAY-I had 2 more friends come into the mtc! amber suggs and zack doxey... I went to efy with zack, so it was a totally random and fun surprise. Everyone thinks I'm the coolest thing ever because I've had at least 8 people I know come through the mtc since I've been here ;) FUNNY STORY: during the nighttime additional study (we have personal study, companion study, language study, and additional study every day), I was up at the chalkboard writing things in spanish to practice with our district and all of a sudden elder bleak was like "hey you could totally pull off dreads." and elder chamberlain was like "yeah you totally could." So I guess the elders think I'm that type of person, which really just makes me laugh because if they knew me at ALL, they would know how much I adore my long hair!

THURSDAY-So in our classroom, there's this teacher in training named hermana tuft. She's super cool and I think she's just adorable. Well, she pulled Hna smith & I aside and said that she thought we hated her and that we were really disrespectful and didn't want to be missionaries. We were SHOCKED! We told her that we had no idea and asked what on earth made her think that. She said that she watches us in class and that we look angry all the time. I think the miscommunication was that she was misjudging our faces--half the time, I am staring at the teacher with my brain going as hard as possible trying to translate in my head, that I don't even think about my face! So it looks like we glare at the teacher CONSTANTLY :O we cleared that up and apologized and are working on making our thinking faces look less deadly. haha :)

THURSDAY-we got to teach our members! That's my FAVORITE part of the week! They are nice enough to speak in a little bit of english to us to make us feel more at home :) one of my favorite quotes from the cutest little old man: "we are latter day SAINTS, not latter day AINTS! so get up and go to work!" Also, this week, elder sheen and landon found out they are 2nd cousins in the most random and hilarious way... i guess they both have this cousin named moses that was on the biggest loser tv show, and now their sibling-like relationship makes so much more sense! it took them 4 weeks to find out!! On thursday, our teacher Hna Bennet pulled me aside and kinda gave me a piece of her mind in the nicest and most uplifting way ever! she said "YOU ARE GOOD AT SPANISH! Why don't you think you are?" I guess I have been so critical of myself that I haven't been able to see that I'm actually not bad at it. I get the pronunciation, and aside from conjugating it's actually really easy for me. Lesson learned: don't be so critical of yourself that it hinders your ability to progress :)

Thursday, Hna. Smith and I left the MTC to go to a dr. appointment... I had been having terrible pains in the back of my left heel, and I finally gave in and got it checked out. The mtc doc sent me to a podiatrist and they determined, after some x rays, that I have Achilles tendonitis. Due to me being a figure skater for so long, the impact of the skates and jumps caused my heel bone to become sort of mishapen.. and the bone is now touching and irritating my achilles tendon. WHY it chose now to act up is beyond me, but it's not good. I'm on anti inflammatory, and that has been helping a bit thank goodness.. But the next week will tell whether or not I need to take more serious measures. So, prayers would be appreciated :)

FRIDAY-I was able to play the piano for TWO HOURS on friday! Elder Chamberlain and I are writing a piano/cello medley of our favorite songs: "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul", "I Need Thee Every Hour", and "I Believe In Christ". It's nice to have a music-y person to just sit down and jam with!! It's also nice to know that I'm not the only one that runs into poles anymore--he totally ran into one and it made me feel like I had a friend in the world! FUN FACT: JaQ has started calling me "hermana WEAVE".. and he calls me that because I guess they think I have a nice head of hair. It's pretty funny because the other elders have started calling me that too... I will never get away from nicknames!!

SATURDAY-we thought of disney characters that we remind each other of, and the elders were at a tie between me reminding them of rapunzel or anna from frozen. Elder sheen & landon are mike and sully from monsters inc, and bleak and chamberlain are definitely buzz and woody from toy story. So now, you know what my district is like :D I also found out saturday that since I'm a STL, I'll be training a couple new districts that come in on wednesday with my fantastic zone leaders! Weird to think that i'll be the one showing them the ropes now... We have an international sister coming in on tuesday that only speaks spanish, and she'll be my companion for a day until the rest of her district gets here on tuesday :)

I don't really have too many notes for sunday, other than the fact that I met someone who was dave boucher's companion on his mission! So that was fun to meet someone who was best friends with someone who was close to my daddio :)

TODAY (MONDAY)-so hna. howe needed new shoes, and I kinda did too because the ones i have are all summer shoes... so what does the MTC do? send us to the provo mall for 3 hours! I was able to get a pair of oxfords (never in my LIFE did I see myself wearing those kinda shoes, but they're super comfy soooo...). Since we were going to the mall, we were really nice and asked the elders if they needed anything. We got them some ties, socks, pocket squares (they're really fancy like that), and elder c used to work in one of my FAVORITE STORES (zumiez)... so we exchanged his nikes there for him. I think we won "hermanas of the year" award ;) not gonna lie, it was really odd to be in a mall. even though it was a provo mall and DEFINITELY not as ghetto or gross or wordly at all, it was still weird. But it was FUN!

Overall, I've learned that curveballs can be thrown FAST. But as long as you rely on the Lord, life can still be chill!

-love, hermana reeve :)

A week of opposition in all things :)

Hola familia y amigos! This week was really fun, yet really tough, so I'll just share some stuff from my journal :)

tuesday-the elders in my district have officially knocked my socks off. They're so willing to serve, it's CRAZY! My wirst has been acting up, so I asked for a blessing from Elder Chamberlain. I did not expect that -- I had planned on Elder Bleak giving it.. but I felt prompted to ask Elder C. So I did. It was one of the sweetest and most wonderful blessings :) He blessed me with strength both physically and mentally, and that the Lord knows how hard I'm working and will bless me accordingly, and that my body will be able to rejuvenate as needed... and that God loves me. Finally, he blessed me that I'll have the spirit with me always as I consecrate my afflictions to the Lord. I was actually just studying in 2nd Nephi about Jacob consecrating his afflictions to the Lord, so that was cool! It was really nice though... when I mentioned I needed a blessing, all 4 of our elders jumped up and said "it's your choice, but whoever you want... we are always here to give you one. Whenever you want." I felt so loved!!

wednesday-ok... the last 4 days have literally been perfection (pause: hermana smith is on the bunkbed and just hit her head. hahahahaha). Anyway, just a lot of funny things happened! I was walking on monday and saw myself in jeans for the first time in a while... so I looked to make sure they weren't tight. But the "mirror" i looked in was a window full of elders in the room... so I guess I just gave them a nice view for about 5 seconds. I was soooo humiliated haha, but my comps thought it was hilarious! oh well... later that day, Hna. Smith and I were in the computer lab doing language study when all of a sudden, "Leonardo" walked in! Leonardo was our investigator that we were teaching... and he turned out to be a TEACHER acting as an investigator! We seriously love him. His actual name is Hermano Garcia, and he is at BYU studying English. the best parts? 1) He served in Argentina on his mission, but before that he lived in peru... and HE IS FRIENDS WITH MY MISSION PRESIDENT! He knows him really well! 2) he was like "when you walked in to teach me, I recognized you... were you at byu a couple weeks ago?" I was like "uhh... yes, I was touring campus with my friends!" and he said "I KNEW I saw your face somewhere!" so that was just a little bit funny :) But basically, it was such a spot of sunshine in my day... and i communicated with him in spanish which boosted my confidence :) another thing -- i think my district thinks i'm nuts. I laugh a lot and get scared easily... so I'm pretty sure that even though they laugh, they really secretly think I'm crazy. Oh well.

thursday-we had a really loooong day of class, and Hna. smith recieved a package of COOKIES! we left them by our chair while we went to the bathroom, and when we were back they were GONE. all that was left was a note saying "if you want your cookies, come to the lemon tree with $200,000." ummm... there isn't even a lemon tree here! So we figured our elders were playing a joke on us or something. I stomped into class and put my hands on my hips and said "DONDE IS THE LEMON TREE?!" poor elder landon looked so confused and terrified... apparently some other elders in another district did it to us. I think now they think I'm reallyyyy crazy... talking about lemon trees that don't exist and such ;)

friday-today was SO MUCH FUN... because I got to smoke some elders in volleyball. Hehe. I may be just a little bit competitive... but at least now I have a reputation! That night, Hna. Smith and I taught our subsitute teacher Hermano Norseth, but his name was david and he was investigator. I taught most of the lesson and I taught it in SPANISH! It was another big confidence booster, because I can at least piece together sentences enough to get my point across :) today was also good because I found out that Elder C LONGBOARDS. He worked at a skate shop and everything... may or may not have talked about setups, wheels, decks, sliding, etc. I also found out he broke his wrist snowboarding just like me! Haha it is so weird to get to know the personalities of people... I guess I just classify them all as ''missionaries'' and forget that they're really individual and unique :) We also had a lesson with our investigator named Raul. He is an ACTUAL investigator, which is quite frankly terrifying. but I was able to share my testimony of eternal families in spanish and I think he was really moved :) we were supposed to teach him about the restoration of the gospel but... he was like "so, why do we have to have eternal families in the afterlife? why is that important? what are temples?" and hna smith and I just looked at each other, took a deep breath and prayed that we would say the right things. and we did, somehow :)

saturday-my new favorite quote is "Hola granola!" from JaQ, of course. That kid... I just can't ever be sad around him! Today was a day of opposition in all things I guess. We taught Hno. Brown (who was actually an investigator named Jared). First off, Hna. Smith and I thought he had invited us--HE DIDN'T. He answered the door and was like "umm... necessitan algo?" It caught us off guard, but we introduced ourselves and our message and convinced him to let us in. The lesson was alright in the fact that I talked, but the language barrier is SOOO FRUSTRATING. I CAN'T STAND IT. I left the lesson feeling angry and frustrated and hurt. I knew what to say in English to help him, but I couldn't translate that fast. He didn't think that God loved him because he had trials. I wanted to say "Hey! Let me tell you something about God's love--it's constant! and those trials help us GROW!" but.. i couldn't, because SPANISH. anyway, I was fuming when I walked into class. my fists clenched at one point and my face was all flushed... and I was at that point of being mad that I was so calm that it was scary. Hno Brown said "Hna Reeve, what reason do you have to be upset?" and I leaned forward on my desk smiled through my teeth and said "I. know. the gospel. is. true. But I can't tell anyone that because I. don't. know. Spanish." The elders just thought it was hilarious, but it really was making me frustrated. So Hermano Brown sent us all out to pray for 1/2 hour. I guess it helped a little bit, but I was still lacking that happiness... elders bleak & chamberlain suggested we rent some cellos and go play music. So we did that for like an hour before dinner... and I was literally an entirely new person. I was no longer mad, and I was happy and laughing by the time dinner rolled around :) It's incredible to see the effect that music has on me! I'm so grateful for my talents that God has blessed me with. I got to pick up a violin recently, and I was kinda pleasantly surprised that I could still play without sounding like a dying cow.

sunday-was fantastic as usual! Since I am now a STL, I had meetings allllll daaaayyyy looooong.... and I have a phone now! it only calls the front desk, but still... it feels really weird :P not much to report about sunday, because it was uplifting and nice like every other day! We did sing a musical number in church.. me, another hermana, and 4 elders from my district. another hna from the zone played the flute and hna smith played the piano. We sang "nearer my god to thee" in spanish, and it was the first time anyone had done a musical number in our branch! also, I got to watch the movie "legacy" for the first time in years... it was so nice! These elders were being really dumb and loud during the movie though, so I may or may not have told them to "put a cork in it"... I think kind words will be the next thing I work on.

sooo yep, that was my week... :) a few things i didn't mention in the journal:

**THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTERS! this week on wednesday, I got 3 packages and 3 letters. And I get letters throughout the week. I am pretty much just really loved :) The elders love to tease me when I get letters from boys, so thanks to those guys that wrote me letters this week. keep em comin ;)

**I have officially disappointed my mom and entertained my district... I accidentally have burped in front of the elders at least 3 times :/ I swear I didn't mean to!! And I say "excuse me" every time!! I also snort when I laugh... it's a problem. I'm so unladylike. oops.

**Mom, everyone thinks you're a saint. I told them how wonderful they are and showed them a picture of you and they love you :)

**I was in a fireside last night, and i was trailing a pen across my face absentmindedly. I didn't realize the pen was open. I had black pen marks all over my face. oooh how typical... and embarassing :/

**so the word "raro" means "weird". we were in class and elder bleak said some word and the teacher was like "that's abnormal..." and elder chamberlain was like "ooooohh RRRARORITOOO!" I guess you had to be there, but now we call each other rarorito sometimes. It's a completely made up word, and we find the littlest things to entertain ourselves haha. Also, Elder Sheen has a gollum voice and it's kind of the funniest thing ever to hear gollum talk in spanish.

 the first picture is me (obviously) and it was like the 50th time i tried to take a jumping picture. I finally succeeded!

Elder Chamberlain, Elder Harris (JaQ), me, & Hermana Smith at the temple this mornin!

I basically attacked Brooke when I saw her! I'm so glad I have a friend in the MTC!!

hna howe & I got a picture by our mission on the biiiig mtc map!

I know it's a loooong letter this week, but it was just such a good week! God is good, and He sure loves us all :)

Love,

Hermana Reeve :)

WEEK TWO WHAT WHAT!!!

Hello my beautiful friends and family! i'm trying to type fast, so capitalization is not gonna be a priority. bear with me por favor :)

first off, hermana smith and i get along so well. seriously. today, i walked into the bathroom and she was behind one of the shower curtains. she said "hermana reeve? is that you?" I said "yeah.. how did you know?" she said, "I don't know. I heard you breathing." we were quiet for a couple seconds and I said "umm.. creepy?" we both laughed so hard for like 5 minutes! we already have inside jokes and hand motions and we kinda communicate telepathically. this week, we are writing an arrangement of Savior, Redeemer of My Soul because we both compose music by ear! haha a match made in heaven :)

I just wanna take a sec and say that Elder Bleak is literally the most incredible district leader I could have asked for. he has a huge heart... when I asked him if he was able to give me a blessing, he looked me straight in the eyes and said "that is our duty as priesthood holders. of course I will give you a blessing." I love him and E Chamberlain. They balance each other out quite well, and it helps that Elder Chamberlain longboards and makes Harry Potter jokes. We just get along really well (well, as well as missionaries can get along. haha :)) Elder bleak & chamberlain are now our zone leaders! Speaking of leadership positions... they made me a Sister Training Leader! which I guess is kinda like a zone leader, but it's a girl and her main job is to check up with the sisters in the zone. I think. I'm still learning about it haha :) but for only being here for 2 weeks, I was a little surprised, not gonna lie! But I am grateful for the opportunity to grow :)

Sunday was really nerve racking because I got up and shared my testimony in testimony meeting. IN SPANISH. Granted, it was just our zone there, but still... getting up and sharing it in another language was so odd to me. But at the same time, it made me excited to know I could actually make sense in spanish :)

JaQuavious has been such a huge blessing here at the CCM. He is a never ending source of laughter. We sat across from each other at dinner, and I had been having a rough day, and all of a sudden he just said "HERMANA REEVE?!" (pronounced HER-MAN-UH). I just started cracking up, and then he laughed at my laugh (because I snorted), and then we were both laughing for like 10 mins! I was crying by the time we could control ourselves! the other day, we were watching a devotional on TV by david a. bednar, and elder bednar was being really blunt. JaQ was in back of me and leaned forward and said "oh my goodness, it's like mormon judge judy in the house! preach it, brotha!" hahaha I have a quote book that I started for the mission, and most of the quotes in it are from him!

Overall, I think I've been doing alright adjusting to the mission life. I still catch myself saying "crap" "dude" and other things, but I always catch myself like halfway through the word. Elder Bleak's motto for me is "never give up, hermana reeve" usually followed by a laugh. I'm trying guys, I'm trying :)

On sunday, we had the incredible opportunity to sing with the UVU choir. so imagine a ton of missionaries in the missionary choir, and a way good choir together....? what do you get? CHILLS. especially when the song is "praise to the man". Oh man it was incredible :) I have come to cherish choir twice a week since that's like the only music I listen to here on the mission right now!

On thursday, I was feeling really overwhelmed with the language, and to be honest I kinda missed being friends with boys. we were in our room studying and these two elders from another district came in and said in slow and broken spanglish: "hola hermanas! por favor testimonio en espanol?" so they practiced shared their testimonies with us in the best spanish they could. we began to chat with them and the one elder that looked like he was an islander introduced himself. He came to the US and is required to learn english AND spanish for his mission. he is learning TWO languages. He had been at the mtc for 2 days, and he still had the courage to share his testimony and converse with two people who he barely understood. It gave me courage and determination to know that I'VE TOTALLY GOT THIS! well, technically God does, but yea ;)

side note for everyone: SEND MORE PICTURES! You have no idea how much I love getting pictures! I don't even care if they're selfies! haha I love seeing faces from back at home :)

For all of my seminary people out there from my class.... ELDER BLEAK KNOWS THE MOSIAH CHAPTER 3 VERSE 19 SCRIPTURE MASTERY SONG! I HAVE NEVER FELT SO HAPPY! Matt & Ellen & Sister Topham especially.... you guys will appreciate this. We were studying and Elder Chamberlain popped his head up and was like "hey what scripture talks about becoming as a child?" and I yelled "I'VE GOT THIS!" and proceeded to sing the song so that I could get to the reference at the end. And I wasn't the only one that knew it. It was great :) 

I was playing volleyball with all the elders, and I kinda got a little too competitive and hurt my wrist. Not badly, but the swelling kinda popped up... so today elder bleak is gonna give me a priesthood blessing. so i'll be totally fine :D

overall, this week was the bomb. I'm super blessed to be getting letters almost every day from my mama and a couple friends, and i feel pretty popular ;) letters from home make my week, and I love hearing what's going on in everyone's life!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: this week, we studied the attributes of Christ and were asked to pick one. I began to read through them and was hit like a ton of bricks when I read "hope." Hope is so important. I don't have my PMG on me for the actual quote, but it basically said that hope helps you press on with optimism, confidence, and something else... can't remember what :( BUT! I realized that I had a lot of hope before I got to the CCM, but now that I'm here, it has kinda been something that I'm not focusing on. I had lost my enthusiasm, my energetic personality, all that good stuff... because i was soooo focused on everything else. but since I began studying hope, I have been able to fix that :) I have laughed a lot more, and I feel more confident. I would encourage and invite you all to study the attribute of hope :)

I love you all so much! As always, I love being a missionary. to quote nacho libre, "IT'S THE BEEESSSST! I LOOOVE IT!"

-love,

hermana reeve :)