Guy from Peru

Hi hi!

Happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy birthday to the bro Cannon earlier this week! If anyone sees him make sure to wish him a late happy birthday. Hopefully you’re day was a pro one :)

Another busy week! We had two more zone conferences this week. It’s really interesting how different each conference is. President Fermanis is big on going by the spirit and according to the needs of the missionaries. I feel like I’m one who likes to have things mapped out and prepared so I know what I’m going to do and say but I’ve really learned a lot from switching my normal ways of doing things. Elder Mitchell and I show up knowing we’ll be teaching but we never really know what it will be until a few seconds before we stand up haha! as a missionary, trusting in the spirit is a very important thing we must remember. Without the help of the Lord through His spirit, we wouldn’t be able to do this work. But with His help, we are capable of doing whatever it is we’re asked to do.

We went looking for an apartment a few times this week. It’s just been hard because we need parking and cell signal which is pretty much impossible to find here haha. We have a few potentials now so we should be moving in somewhere soon. I still haven’t unpacked since my last area in Las Piñas haha! We’ve been able to make lots of friends throughout this process though and have found a few opportunities to share the gospel as well. It’s kinda funny because we both have no idea how contracts with renting apartments work but we basically just walk in places not knowing what will happen haha.

We had an awesome experience this week! We were walking in our area and we were confronted by a man from Peru! Definitely have never seen a Spanish-speaker here before. He asked us in broken English if one of us speak Spanish and i said “poco.” (a little?) - like the one word I remember from Spanish classes in high school haha. Well that was a bad idea because he then started going off in Spanish and elder Mitchell and I just looked at each other thinking “ohhh whoa.” We had to stop his snazzy Spanish speaking and got him to explain his situation in english. He’s a super active member of the church who is here in the Philippines working at a call center speaking Spanish (I guess the pay here for Spanish is much higher.) He was in a tough situation but had prayed for help and when he finished he saw us both walking down the street towards him. After we helped him he told us he knows that God knows him and sent us to help him. It was a miracle! After helping him we started off for our destination again and realized we had taken a wrong turn. But that wrong turn was what helped us find this brother!

That’s about all for this week! We went on an exchange in Mandaluyong and I was able to work with Elder Pehacek from Vernal. We found a full family who was watching NBA… it was the first time I’ve seen NBA playing inside of someones house! We were able to introduce the Book of Mormon and they seemed to have a great desire to start reading. The oldest works at a call center and their whole family takes schooling very seriously. Such a cool lesson! In our area we didn’t have much time there last week but this week we’ll have a good amount of time there.. we’re really excited!
Love you all. Thanks for all of your support.
Elder Reber

Park busy doing his thing :)

Love the simplicity of this :)

Streets in Coron

Overloaded Jeepney

President Fermanis and a jeepney

Narra Palawan

This week was a nice one! Monday we finished up a project President gave us for zone conferences. We printed, laminated, and hole-punched tons of pictures that missionaries can use when they’re meeting someone new as well as in a lesson. We were kinda factory workers working pretty late some nights but glad to get most of those ready.


Tuesday morning we woke up and caught our flight to Palawan! We had a zone conference down there which went pretty well. The main focus was on switching things up as we work and especially as we find. Rather than trying to catch all types of fish with one hook we’re focusing on using different hooks to catch all types of fish. One thing we’re trying is some days leaving the apartment at 7 to meet people you wouldn’t normally meet at a different time of the day. We also are trying to be more effective when we meet people by asking them better inspired questions. Lots of times as missionaries we just have a quick few moments to meet a person so we’re trying to make the most of each situation! We were able to do some exchanges in Puerto Princesa Tuesday night then Wednesday night after zone conference we took a shuttle across the island to a place called Narra to exchange with some missionaries there. It was my first time over to that side of the island. It was a super pretty drive and it’s pretty remote that’s for sure. The people there were super kind- basically everyone you talk to you will let you in haha! We taught tons of lessons and I was able to learn a lot of new things. A neat thing that happened was we were in one lesson in a hut on the beach with a long-time less active. She opened up to us that she was offended and that was the reason she hasn’t been to church in years. She also said right off at the beginning that there’s no way she’d be going back. But President gave us some good counsel for these types of situations. He said that as missionaries we represent the church and we should simply say, “as representatives of the Jesus Christ and His church we’d like to say sorry.” So that’s what we did. We explained that the church is perfect but it’s members aren’t. We said sorry then just sat and waited in silence. She didn’t know what to say haha. I think she realized that she needed to forgive and move on like our Savior does. Elder Nudalo and I were then able to express our gratitude for Christ’s patience for both of us as we’ve tried to be missionaries for His church. Even though we as missionaries are so imperfect, I’m thankful for God and His Son’s perfect patience and hope for each of us. That lesson made me think all week of how thankful I am for Christ and His example. For His open arms and His hope in each of us.


It was super cool sleeping in my old house in Santa Monica again. There’s a little 11 yr old kid who lives next door who I became really close with back when I was assigned there and we got to see each other again. He got some iron man masks for Christmas so before walking into the house one of the nights we were there I had a pretty sweet fight with him. I’d say I took him down pretty good. There’s also a new 5 peso coin here that just came out but only people in the city have seen them. When we were using them to buy things in Palawan kids were freaking out haha it was fun to see.


We had P day over in Palawan which was super sweet! We took a 2 hour jeepney-bus ride to a place called hundred caves. I think I loved the drive there more than anything else! There were no glass windows so we had a nice fresh wind coming through as we drove through the forest and near the coast line. The caves themselves were pretty cool because hardly anyone goes there- we were the only two there for the tour haha. In the cave we saw these huge scary creatures that were half spiders and half scorpions. These caves are in this super remote barangay (little neighborhood/town place) and after we finished we walked through a little and talked to school kids and people from there. It was soo fun because they were in a spot that hasn’t seen missionaries before and the people were so friendly. Most of them were natives so it was cool talking and understanding people who haven’t really left that little spot of the island their entire lives. They had no electricity or cement homes it was really interesting and I don’t think I’ll forget interacting with people over there.


I love being a missionary and I know that this church is Christ’s church restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that you can continue to trust in God in all things. Have a nice week! :)

Elder Reber

Zone Conference

Bowling fun!

The smolder continues

Poor Elder Mitchell getting teased by Elder Burdeos

Palawan

Hundred Caves

Not your Typical Tourists that speak Tagolog

Yuck

Coolest house in the mission from what we hear

Awesome views!

Mission tour with Elder and Sister Schmutz 

Mission home knows how to feed the missionaries

Obligatory fast food pic

I have no idea but thought it was funny he took pics- yes multiple pictures of these keys :)

Transfer week

Well these last two weeks have been kinda crazy. We've done some things I never thought I'd be figuring out as a missionary haha. One example was finding myself running through a few inches of water stopping a flood in a sisters' house. The mission keeps surprising me with new experiences and often times I'm not sure what to do (in this instance I think my dad has showed me tons of time how to shut off water but yeah it took me a little bit to remember haha.) Even in some teaching situations I'm still learning the best way to control some situations! I always feel just a little unqualified like any other missionary but it's amazing what the Lord is able to to further His work. That's the important thing to remember- it's His work, not ours.

Elder Fiesta is now in Busuanga, Palawan! He left earlier this week on transfer day. There are now 4 missionaries over there trying to start up a branch. If you've ever seen "the other side of heaven" from what i've heard they're basically experiencing the same thing over there haha. Living in a nipa hut sounds pretty sweet to me though. He will do some amazing things over there training his cousin. Elder Cibuco (my trainer) is also over there training a new nice american from Bingham high. It will be cool to see what happens there and in a few weeks we might be over there for a few days to continue helping them get established over there. My new companion came in last week. We were roomates in the MTC and honestly were super close in the MTC. Never thought we'd be companions ha! It's definitely cool as a missionary to see the people you came in with grow as a missionary. I've already learned alot from Elder Mitchell and we've had lots of fun times- even though he's from the lame state of Georgia ;)

Back two weeks ago when it was elder fiesta, elder mitchell, and I together in the area we were able to teach lots of lessons. We kinda got a feel for who we need to focus on. The main people we're working with now is Kathy's (our recent convert) best friend Christie as well as Kathy's brother Patrick. Christie is looking to be baptized the first week of February and Patrick will probably be later in the month. Lately in the mission it's a goal to start every lesson with the Restoration and tying it to the lesson we will teach. I think i've mentioned that in the past weeks? But anyways i've seen such a big difference since we've started doing this. In the past we'd teach the Restoration in a lesson or two and then that was about it. Once we got to the point with the investigator where we were practicing the baptismal interview questions they would hardly remember who Joseph Smith is. Constantly focusing on the first vision, restoration, and Book of Mormon helps them really understand their importance in knowing if this church is the true church of Jesus Christ and if this is what God wants for them in their lives. It reminds me of the scripture in D&C 88:118 "And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith." In real life we should read and focus on the pure things that will bring us closest to God. Staying close to the words of God's prophets will keep us close to the powerful source that will help us endure any trial we are facing much better than opinions of men. As we've relied on the most powerful tool God has given us as missionaries (Book of Mormon) we've seen many amazing things happen as a mission.

On pday we had a meeting where Elder Mitchell and I were able to teach the new ward missionaries how to introduce the Book of Mormon to a friend. All of the priests in the ward are ward missionaries now. It's been really fun working with them and remembering how i felt back when i was a priest. They're all really nervous to work with us but excited at the same time. They all gave us their schedules so we know when they can work with us. I'm super excited for that!

Hope you have a great week! This week we will be in Palawan from Tuesday to Saturday for zone conference and exchanges. It will be my first time to the Narra side of the island so I'm super excited to see what it's like and meet the kind people there.
Love Elder Reber

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone happy new year!

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and made some fun memories! I won’t ever forget my 2 Christmases and 2 New Years here in the Philippines. The filipinos are so thoughtful- they’ve looked out for us missionaries lots these past weeks. I’m happy to be here!

We’ve kinda been jumping around to random houses these past few weeks. There were 6 of us in a tiny apartment but this week we got a set house at least until transfer day on Jan 10 haha! We are super blessed. There were a few sisters who headed home to start school so an area got closed until transfers so we’ll be staying over there for the time being.

Elder Fiesta had to head to get his license renewed the day after Christmas. It was soo PACKED! If you think the DMV is slow in America you should see it here in the Philippines haha. We were there for hours but as he was doing his thing I was lucky to be sitting next to super nice people every time we moved to a new spot! There are so many people ready for the gospel here it’s just really important trusting God will help us find them.

An elder in our mission had their mom pass away last week so Elder Fiesta has been with him a lot lately traveling to Quezon City for funeral services and things. It has been awesome to be updated about them though because the Elder has really helped the non members and less actives of his family feel the peace the gospel brings the past few days. They also did a temple tour which sounded like a huge help. I worked with an awesome missionary named Elder Palmer from Panguitch for about 2 days while Elder Fiesta was gone. It was fun to learn from him and work with him. We taught a member family in his area the Restoration- a message I think most members don’t mention enough! I’ve shared the story of Joseph Smith hundreds of times here but it never get old ;)

On pday we went to Mall of Asia to eat some lunch and go bowling. We bowled last week as well haha it’s starting to become our favorite thing to do. I’ll try to send some pics this week. Got a few pictures with some random people haha. On Sunday the ward used chocolate bread for the sacrament so I can check that one off the bucket list. Haha! New Years E ve was last night and it was super insane. People were starting to party pretty crazy at about 3pm and it went through the night. At about 10 I was doing some follow ups in the alley way by our house because there’s service there and our neighbor who I’ve never met just walked up to me and gave me a full cake! Haha the people here are so kind. I’ve had a cold this week so luckily I was pretty tired and slept through the craziness. Everyone else in the house was having a hard time though haha. I guess people were banging on our door most of the night trying to get in but they failed to do so.

Have a great week! I’m excited for our investigators to come back to the city this week- most of them went to their families in the province this week. We should be able to make some good progress in the area this upcoming week :) My goal this upcoming year is simple- to read the Book of Mormon every day. I know that as we do this God will be able to help us in anything we are working towards doing. With His help, we will do so much more than we’d ever be able to do on our own.

Love elder reber

*Looks like most of the pictures this week are from pdays. It's fun to see pics at the mall-I think Park will miss the three months of celebrating Christmas next year! Although it appears they do a lot of playing, I still think they have plenty of time to work!