Email December 30, 2013

Hello to all! How was everyone's Christmas?! I hope it was as AMAZING as mine was. It was truly fantastic to be able to see my family at such an incredible time of the year. I loved talking to them and i had a great time hearing about all kinds of things from home and telling them about my mission as well. I think they liked listening to me too, haha. I want you all to know that I love my family so very much and want to especially thank them for their love and support, as well as express my thanks to all of you for your love and support as well. Thank you all so, so much. :) it really means a lot! Title story! Thanks to my grandparents, we got snow in Yuba City! Woo! It was this little package of "instant snow" which you mix with water and it puffs up and makes this fluffy, cool white stuff! It was so cool! And since it was 65 degrees in Yuba City, it was the closest to a white Christmas we could possibly get. And it was fantastic. I miss the snow at christmas time. It doesn't feel right without it haha. And apparently I look, sound, and kind of act like an actor named Michael Sarah...? If someone would look that up and confirm that for me I would much appreciate it. :) So I heard at zone meeting/conference a couple weeks ago that there are 90,000 missionaries!? Is that true!? Ah! Haha if so, that's so crazy. We will be at 100,000 before we know it. Well, me and my companion are still having trouble getting along, and it's getting harder and harder... It's kind of a conflict of opinions. And one thing before I go too deep, he is really prideful about his opinion, basically it's his way or the highway. Christmas week was pretty slow, unfortunately. With all of the traditions families have and all of the family that travels to visit, it's hard to get people to want to visit and hear a message about the true Spirit of Christmas. But We did have a really good lesson this week though. It was on Christmas Day with a less active member, Don Perry. We visit him once a week and read from the Book of Mormon with him and share a message every time. So this week we decided we would shake things up and read from the Bible, Luke chapter 2 - the nativity story. So we were reading through the story that we all read at Christmas time, but this time I wanted to see and feel something new about it besides the feeling of boredom and anticipation before opening presents, right? So we were reading and when I read verses 11-12 which say, "11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." I was thinking about how Christ is the Son of the Almighty God and how He created all things in this virtually infinite sized universe and how He gave the ultimate, infinite sacrifice - the most incredible gift to each and every one of us, but how incredibly humble His birth was. How humbly He lived His life as opposed to one of the most awe-inspiring powerful beings there is. Thinking about this while reading the true story which tells the true meaning of Christmas brought such an incredible feeling of the Spirit and it testified to me of the infinite love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It was phenomenal. Ah. This church is true. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us all more than we can comprehend. I know that for a fact. I love you all and I hope everything is just fantastic over on that side of the map! Love, Elder Cevering II

First Christmas Tree in the Mission Field...Cute! Haha

Jacob with his first companion - Elder Hazleton

Pictures from the MTC

Email December 23, 2013

Hello Everyone! Hey how is everyone doing? Good? Good. :) Well. If you haven't heard yet, IT'S CHRISTMAS WEEK. Woo! That means I get to call home to my family! I'm so excited to see you! Ah. Can't wait. And for the rest of you...Merry Christmas! And a happy new year! :) Well, now that the obvious is out if the way I'll get to the rest of my email. We started off this week on Tuesday with zone leader exchanges. I was with Elder Holbrook who is from Idaho. Anyway, The exchange went super well and it was sooo awesome. I loved it. But we had one very weird experience. We went up to the door and knocked, no answer. Rang the doorbell and heard two quick footsteps but no answer until finally his guy answers the door just a sliver, tells us to please go away, and shuts the door. We look at each other and walk back to our bikes. When I was about to get onto my bike there is this girl who walked around the corner of the garage and just came from the front door. She looked really confused and I asked her if she was Ashley, one of the people we went to go contact. She said no and I asked her if she had ever talked to missionaries before and she said no, still looking super confused. So then, before the conversation could go any farther, the same guy from the door came out and asked her to come back into the house, came out and grabbed her arm and pulled her in. It was really weird. Like. Creepy weird. But we couldn't do anything and we were so confused by what just happened that we just awkwardly looked at each other and biked away in silence. It was weird. So weird. Another thing that happened this week: we got our iPad mini's!!! Woot! Oh man. They are so sweet! There are a list do approved apps that we downloaded and one of them is Gospel Library. Basically, we can download almost anything that the church uses to teach classes or aid teachers or missionaries or investigators in any way. Preach my gospel, the scriptures, pamphlets, videos, etc. it is so sweet. So convenient and efficient. And also, the area book and daily planner have their own app as well, aptly named the area book app haha. The area book is completely digital and the planning is all digital as well. We have a complete list of members and their status (inactive, less active, active, etc) and we can input investigators Nd how they are progressing. Everything you did in the area book and daily planner is in this app, all in one place. It is SUPER efficient. I love it. So we picked up a few new investigators this week! Woot! One is Seth and one is Chris. Seth is brand new, Chris has been previously taught. But we had some really good lessons with both of them. Especially Chris. With Chris, we read from the scriptures and started into the lessons. The Spirit was so strong as Hazleton and I bore testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and of the Book of Mormon. Chris didn't understand what the Book of Mormon was last time he was being taught, he said it made a lot more sense this time around and Said he would read it because of that. So we committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and he said he would...WOO. So awesome. We had the restoration lesson with Seth and the Spirit was really strong there as well. As a member bore testimony of the blessing that the priesthood is in their family life and then following testimonies if the truthfulness of the gospel, the Spirit just really strongly testified to me that this church really is true. That the Book of Mormon is the word of God. That Jesus Christ really did and does what He says He did and can do. That has been amazing lately. We had a zone conference Christmas devotional this week. I got to play the piano, a medley of What Child is This, We Three Kings, and Carol of the Bells, at the devotional and there were a bunch of other musical numbers as well. At the end of the conference President Weston challenged all of the missionaries to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days, the same amount of time it took Joseph Smith to translate the gold plates into the English language. He wants us to highlight everything that has to do with faith and everything that has to do with mentioning The Lord. Anything that deals with any of those two subjects is to be highlighted in our Book of Mormon. It is a hecka lot of highlighting!! But it is amazing, I've never seen how much faith has played a role in the life of Lehi's family. It is awe-inspiring. And one last thing that I learned really quick before I close. At the very end of the spiritual devotional, President shared a thought that was amazing to think about. He said, to the best that I can remember: "Jesus Christ was the perfect example of exact obedience and look at what he accomplished." Boom. Incredible. I love the gospel. I love each and every one of you and I know that our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ love you too. Love, Elder Jacob Cevering

Email December 16, 2013

Greetings from Yuba City, California! This last week has been pretty good, but things can always improve! On Tuesday the 10th, we had a pretty full day planned and everything - everything - fell through. But that's okay, such is missionary work. :) Two weeks ago we were able to make contact with a less active and non-member family and they were glad to see us! It was cool. We set up a time to meet with them, but unfortunately they've had to cancel on us both times we set up an appointment. :( So we're going to try again this week. We also were able to meet with Ricardo this last week! I don't remember if I've said anything about Ricardo in the past...so briefly: Hazleton and Correa met him at the library on exchanges. Ricardo saw their helmets and asked where their bikes were so they got onto a conversation with him and asked if he wanted to learn about the gospel. He accepted and they actually visited later that day. In that first visit, he swore a ton and told them he is a heavy drinker and smoker, but he has met with us 3 times including the first visit/later visit that day. The next time Hazleton and I visited with him he didn't swear at all and mentioned that he was trying not to smoke or drink and was doing well until his brothers and cousins were pressuring him into smoking and so after some time he gave in. Well that wasn't brief...anyway. We met him and taught the Plan of Salvation and we felt the Spirit pretty strongly. So at the end of the lesson when he seemed interested and like he wanted it, I invited him to be baptized. Unfortunately, he was hesitant but we were able to get a soft commitment if he comes to know that the church is true. That was a really cool experience because I could feel the Spirit telling me to invite him to baptism. Even though he's not on date yet, he very well could and it would be amazing to see it happen. Some interesting facts about the Hillcrest ward area: - We have members in two or three other cities that come to the Hillcrest ward. Those cities are in our area, but we can't reach them because we are on bikes. :( We have tried to talk to President to see if we can get a car even part time, but he doesn't see it happening soon. Bummer. Those areas could really be fantastic for missionary opportunities. But it's okay, President receives revelation for the mission so he knows what's going to be best. Speaking of the other cities, we had dinner in one of them two weeks ago. Robbins. Look that up on a map. Robbins is in my area and our apartment is in Yuba City. Haha, it is a 20-25 minute drive. Really far away for us on bikes. We can't and won't even try to make it out because the road out is a 2 lane highway with no bike lane. :) - There is a city right outside of our area that is outside of our mission. Not just outside of our area or zone, but our mission. It's called Knight's Landing. Just thought that was cool. - Yuba City has apparently been voted the worst place to live in the United States two times. TWO times! hahaha! The members I've asked about it for have all said that that was a long time ago and they've really cleaned it up since, so yeah. I just thought it was funny. It's really not too bad of an area though. One of the Sisters in the zone is from Finland and I've been learning very simple, random words from her. That's been fun. And there is a language in the mission called Hmong. It's spoken natively over in the Laos, Vietnam, Thailand area and there are enough people here that speak it that it is a mission language. It's super cool and interesting. I've been trying to learn random, simple words in both Finnish and Hmong and it's fun. :) Quick note: There is a little restaurant in the area called El Centro. It's very small, a hole-in-the-wall kind of place to eat. But it's really good Mexican food. Random note, yes. :) Now you know where I've eaten the last few P-Days haha. Every week at least once a week, Hazleton and I go out with a less active member, Brother Perry, to his ranch to feed his cattle a few bales of hay and afterward we go out to lunch. We usually go to Panda Express, but two weeks ago we went to a place called the Dancing Tomato Caffe. Funny name haha! It's always fun to help and I think it's great help to him, especially because he's getting really old so it's hard for him to do it himself. So that is always a good weekly experience. We also meet with him weekly to read the Book of Mormon and every time we meet I learn or see something new in that part of the scriptures. It's so cool! I love how the scriptures have different applications and different times of our lives. It's amazing. I love this gospel, this week I've come to start understanding how big of an influence I have as a missionary and as a person in general. I've just barely begun to scratch the surface of not only how important my calling is as a missionary, but also how important our calling is as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I've started to understand how powerful the Priesthood is and starting to scratch the surface of how incredible of an opportunity it is that I am blessed to hold the same power that Heavenly Father does. I've rededicated myself to always living worthy to use it at any time or place. It truly is an unspeakable and indescribable honor. I love this gospel and love learning about it and challenge you to choose a topic and study it specifically for a couple days, even weeks. It'll be an amazing experience! :) I love you all and hope all is well on your side of the map! Love, Elder Cevering #2

Email December 10, 2013

Hello everyone! First off, I apologize for making you all wait a day to hear about my fantastic life in Yuba City, California! ;) But really, I do apologize fully! Especially to you, Mom! ;) Yesterday was transfers and the library where we usually email was working on fixing its internet. So we went to a different place to email, but I forgot my planner and list of things to write home about so I had little time to write plus nothing to write about for my regular mission email so I waited until today's half p-day because of transfers. I hope that's okay. :) One funny story from this week: On Thursday we had exchanges. So I was with our District Leader, Elder Correa, in my area, Hillcrest Ward, and we were out visiting potential investigators. While trying to meet with a current investigator, we found someone who was house-sitting for them and we talked with her about if she would be interested in taking the lessons from us. She is religious and seemed slightly interested. However, we couldn't set an exact return appointment because her schedule isn't ever really set. :( But we'll work on that. So anyway, after that we decided to tract the neighborhood. One of the doors we knocked on was answered by a short, older lady who literally only peeked around the edge of the door over her glasses. We asked how she was doing and what she was up to. She said "Cooking dinner." at which point Elder Correa and I tried to ask what it was or how it was coming along but before either of us could get a whole word out she said, "Bye now!" and shut the door slowly and firmly, still peeking around the door over her glasses. I don't know why, but I thought it was absolutely hilarious. I guess you could say that I have officially had a door shut to my face. Woot! Haha. Title story that just happened like 2 hours ago! On our (me and Hazleton) way to the library for me to email to do our online proselyting, I was biking and not really paying attention to where I was going and what was in my way. I guess I've gotten too comfortable biking and I took my eyes of the road for a second or two and when I looked back there was this big green waste trash can. For the life of me I have no idea how it got there! I honestly don't think it was there when I looked away and I wasn't looking away long enough to have covered significant ground. I think it magically appeared in my way just to make me have my first legit bike crash. So, SLAM. I had tried to turn out of the way but it still caught the front tire and right handlebar and sent the bike straight left to the ground, my forward momentum carrying me over the right handlebar and onto the ground. However, I was not going to let this inanimate garbage can humiliate me on the road in front of the passing cars, HA! So I decided I would put my James Bond skills to the test: I threw my shoulder under my body and flipping ACTION ROLLED LIKE A BOSS. I rolled over and stood up and could have started running as if in pursuit of an escaping spy, but that wouldn't fit my character as a missionary. So instead I just rolled, stood up and took a second to be proud of myself, then humbly picked up the garbage can and put all the trash back in the trash can. Haha. It didn't hurt very much at all and literally the only place I bled from was a little scuff 1/4 of the size of my pinky fingernail on the outside of my thumb. No idea how that happened, but I'm really happy because it could have been a bad one. But with the Lord's protection and momentary blessing of with a few seconds of ninja-ness I am completely fine with no injuries whatsoever. This week has been eventful you could say. ;) This coming transfer Elder Hazleton and I have rededicated and recommitted ourselves to the work. We're going to pick up where we both have fallen short. We talked a lot and figured out one of the biggest issues was that we weren't communicating enough on either side. We're working on that and have big plans for the future, have already done our best to make changes in our work and in our efforts, and will continue to do our best to carry on with our commitments. Thanks for the prayers, I have felt them a lot recently. I wish I had more time to tell you more about this week, but it'll have to wait for next week. Love you all, I hope everything on your side of the map is going amazing! I know this church is true. I challenge you all to read and study the gospel with real intent and then try Moroni's promise (Book of Mormon, Moroni 10:3-5). It has worked for me and I know that if you do it, it will work for you as well. I love you, wish the best for all of you! Love, Elder Cevering #2

Email December 2, 2013

Hello once again, audience! I have actually written down some of the things I want to email about this week, so we're going to have a few stories! YAY! I usually just ramble and tell an occasional story so this will be a good change. :) This week I have been working a lot on studying better and doing better companion study as well. With my trainer not necessarily doing the best job at training, I feel like I need to take the reins and try to help this companionship and area be the best they can possibly be. One of the days this week I said that we need to do companionship study and so we did. I feel like if I hadn't, we wouldn't have...anyway. I'm trying to do better and, well, basically I feel like I should and need to take over the companionship and basically train myself. I just feel like we aren't doing anything and we do the best work when I am kind of taking the lead. And that was kind of manifest in weekly planning. We were kind of just sitting at the church and not doing much and so I got sick of it and said that we're going to do better this week. I pulled out the area book and looked at the page of potential investigators, made a list of who we were going to visit each day, and planned it. So this week we're going to be visiting at least 2 potential/former investigators each day compared to what could have been a week with no prospects whatsoever if I hadn't done anything. I felt so good that day for knowing that I finally did something and that we will be doing something with investigators this week. I don't want to say that Hazleton hasn't done a good job because he did well at the beginning. But lately we don't do much and so I'm going to be pushing forward to do as much work as possible. One quick, cool thing that happened this week during study: I counted up the total number of chapters in the Book of Mormon, 239. I looked at the total number of pages in the Book of Mormon as well, 531. I thought, "Hmm. I wonder if I added them together and looked at that page in the Bible if there is anything about the Book of Mormon?" thinking that I wouldn't find anything. Well, it adds up to 770 and so I turned there in the Bible. On that page are Psalms 85, 86, and 87. I started reading the verses on page 770 and in verse 11, no joke, it says: "11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven." AHHHHHHHH!!!! IT TALKS ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! That was SO cool! Something that I just had a random thought of doing and was thinking that it wasn't going to happen, HAPPENED. It is too legit. Hecka sweet. Speaking of "hecka," it is one of the Californian slang words. Along with "trip" and "real." And I'm sure I'll hear more. I'll use them in sentences so you kind of understand how they are used: "Dude, that car is hecka sweet!" "The pizza at (insert disgusting pizza place here) is a trip." "I found this awesome scripture the other day, it's so real." Californian slang. I'll be speaking it in two years. :) Subject line/biggest news of the week! Saturday morning, our zone and the surrounding "middle zones" had a conference call with President. After having a prayer via the phone, he announced that our mission will be 1 of 12 test missions for the use of iPads!!!! They will only be allowed for missionary purposes like my facebook page, but they should have the scriptures and stuff like that! We get them the week of December 17th. I'm so excited. It's going to be flippin awesome. And Hazleton has a friend in another test mission for iPads and he said that if they pay for half of their iPad, they can take it home!! If that same rule applies, I'll *hopefully* be coming home with an iPad. So Tuesday of this week we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Personally, I really don't like exchanges because I'm still getting used to my companion and still getting used to missionary work itself. I was worried about exchanging with them because I am constantly worried I'm not a sufficient missionary. Anyway, we exchanged and I wasn't looking forward to it. I would be with Elder Austin who, out of the two ZL's. But we exchanged and we talked in the car on our way to his area and he seems like a pretty cool guy. Then we got to the house and prayed and planned and he said the prayer and it was crazy cool. He was very sincere about everything that he prayed for. He prayed for me and for my family back at home and basically I instantly felt that he does care about me and my family. It was very needed. He taught me so much about prayer, just by example. I felt the Spirit so strongly while he prayed, the strongest I've felt it in a while. I've done the best I can ever since then to make my prayers more meaningful and I've felt some success, but there is still plenty of improvement to be made. At the end of the transfer I felt really close to him and now we're really good friends. It's amazing how prayer and missionary work ripped down a wall I had built up. Super cool. Also on the topic of prayers! Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week I woke up feeling pretty sick. Sick to my stomach, dizzy, no appetite, etc. And they were hindering my diligence in the mornings and I just wasn't doing well. So each day right before we went out the door, I went into the bedroom and said a prayer asking that I would feel better while we were out working. And guess what happened?! IT WORKED! It was SOOOO cool! My testimony of prayer has grown so much this whole week! It's really been an answer to a prayer, in all actuality. I've been praying to have more fervent and meaningful prayers and to have answers to prayers as well and this week has given me two amazing experiences with prayer: Answered prayers and the power of prayer. Prayer is incredible. Heavenly Father wants to bless us! We just need to ask Him for blessings before he can give them to us! I promise all of you that if you ask for something from a loving Father in Heaven, you will get it if you truly desire it. I've seen it happen so many times this week, it's been amazing. Yesterday was fast Sunday and so it was also fast and testimony meeting. DJ Martinez (who is Dan Martinez, the Ward Mission Leader's son) and Hazleton went up to bear their testimonies so I did too. Ever since coming on my mission and even for a little while before my mission, during the Sacrament I open to hymn 112 Savior, Redeemer of My Soul and read/sing it in my head while listening to and feeling the Spirit and partaking of the sacred symbols. I have felt the Spirit incredibly strongly as I have done so and it has nurtured and grown my testimony of the Atonement and the Sacrament and what they do for me so, so, so, so, so, so much. So I shared what I do in my testimony and shared some relating scriptures (2 Nephi 1:15 and Romans 8:39, I HIGHLY recommend these two scriptures when you feel disconnected from everyone, feel like no one loves you, or feel like you need comfort) as well. I felt the Spirit testify to me of the reality of our Savior's love and I felt His love for me. As I sat down in my seat, I prayed to know if this is the true church. With every word that I said/thought, the Spirit grew so much more intense and as I finished the question my entire body was covered with goosebumps and felt like it was filled with warmth and light and I again knew that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ once again on the earth. It was an absolutely spectacular experience. Well, I need to write my weekly letter to President before time runs out so I'm ending it here. I have felt the Spirit extremely strongly this week, it has been incredible. I know that the Lord watches out for His missionaries and helps them out when they need to feel better and comforted. I know the Lord loves each and every one of us and I know that this church is true. I love you all and, more importantly, the Lord loves you all. Love, Elder Jacob Cevering

Hello once again, audience! How is everything back home? Windy? From the pictures of that 5 wheeler...I'd say windy is an understatement haha. That wind sounds super crazy. It's amazing the power it has. I feel bad for the Riley's! Hope everything gets better for them! It really is a miracle that the trailer didn't plow into our deck and house. Those are missionary blessings, right? ;) Gotta spice things up somehow, right? Too bad it came at the cost of a 5 wheel trailer though, that's so sad. :( I hope everything else is going well for all of you! :) Yuba has been kind of windy, but not 80 mph haha. It's windy enough that it's a major pain to bike in though. Especially when it's going against you. It rained pretty good for the first few days this week too, so we biked in the rain and that was fun/cold. I had to buy some fenders for my bike, so another 45 dollars spent toward my bike...but that's okay. Thank you for buying and mailing the bike for me. That wasn't just a new clamp or set of fenders. Thank you so much. My week was overall great! I am enjoying California, but it's not as warm as you think it is. ;) It is warmer than it is over there, but it's still kind of chilly. Especially at night when we're riding our bikes around the area. A little more on Yuba City, the total population is around 60,000 I think, but it's pretty spread out. It's a lot like Ogden. Most of the houses are single story, kind of small. But with most of the members here I've seen that even though they have smaller houses, they have pretty nice interiors. It's kinda cool. I don't think a day has passed that I have not heard sirens of one kind or another. There are always fire truck sirens going off. It's crazy. I hear sirens at least once a day. The Yuba City area is also the world capital for rice production/exports. Surprised me a lot! I would think China or Thailand or Vietnam or somewhere over in eastern Asia. But nope. Yuba City. It's great haha. Yuba City also has the Sutter Buttes: the smallest mountain range in the world in both height and length! I thought that was awesome and hilarious. I guess I'll just go through the week day by day! This week wasn't as exciting as last week, we didn't get as much done as we did last week, unfortunately. :/ But it was still a good week. Monday, P-Day, was pretty boring because most missionaries were cleaning their apartments for apartment checks that were going to be held on Thursday so not very many people showed up to play basketball. And we didn't really do much afterward so...yeah. But it's all good. Tuesday was probably even less eventful because, even with my planner right here in front of me, I don't remember anything that happened. Other than reading the Book of Mormon and Bible with a recent convert named Maria Gandara, we weren't able to find much to do. Dinner was dropped off at our door so we didn't even have a family to visit for dinner. We also may or may not have helped out with the dinner for Young Women's in Excellence. I don't know if it was for sure Tuesday, but it was sometime this week. :) Wednesday I also don't remember much of. Man I really need to bring my journal to help me email haha...but I did find some cool scriptures: D&C 49:27 which says, "Behold, I will go before you and be your rearward; and I will be in your midst, and you shall not be confounded." I thought that was helpful, especially as a missionary. Many of you have probably known that scripture for a while haha I'm just barely finding it. :) Oops. Oh well haha. Thursday was Zone Conference. Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the First Quorum of the Seventy was here and it was awesome! He was a great speaker and I got some great notes! Which I left in the apartment so I can't remember enough to share...sorry! :) Also on Thursday, we had dinner with the Allred's. They are grandparents to Max and Brock Strassi. Any baseball fans out there? Max and Brock are playing pro baseball with the Houston Astros and the Phillies! And they were over for dinner that same night! It was so cool! My companion and I found out beforehand when we called to make sure our dinner appointment would work fine and so we went and bought baseballs for them to sign...yeah I know it's probably not the most missionary like thing to do...but it was still sweet. Our dinner thought was on Faith and they seemed kind of interested. They've had friends who have served missions. At one point, one of them told my companion and I that he really respects us and what we do. For the time we serve away from our family to be (for the most part) turned away for trying to share the gospel and what makes us happy. That was really cool. I was able to play the piano for the Allreds and the Strassis and the baseball players said I was amazing. Haha. That was super sweet. Thursday was the bomb. Friday was great, especially dinner. We had dinner with the Reiersen family and the Rider's (a recently converted older couple) came over for dinner as well. I LOVE THE RIDERS. Sister Rider gave my companion and I some really nice scripture markers. I tried to pay her back but she wouldn't take it. Haha, typical grandparents. ;) Anyway, the dinner thought was on Faith again that night and it was even better Friday night than it was Thursday. It was amazing because the Rider's shared their experiences with faith before being baptized and whatnot. It was incredible. The Spirit was so strong. SO strong. Incredible. Right after that we went and played volleyball with the Spanish speaking elders and some of their members. It was great. Saturday we did service and gave a lesson to a man named Anthony Rosul. He was supposedly in our area, but upon further inspection he is right outside of our boundaries and is in the Sisters' area. But before we found that out, he basically invited himself to church! It was amazing. He didn't end up showing up, but it was still pretty cool. We're going to give him to the Sisters so that he can go to the right ward. But the situation with him is awesome. I don't have much time to go into detail, but it was really cool how it all happened. Sunday was good, not a ton to report on though. Church was awesome and I read about the Urim and Thummim and was really intrigued to learn about them. I've been on this big Bible Dictionary binge lately. It's freaking amazing. I love the Bible Dictionary. So much information and it is incredible. So before I close, I have some closing remarks! In the Topical Guide under the heading "Objectives," 2 Nephi 2:25 (Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy) was there and I put it together that one of man's biggest objectives is to have joy! That was awesome. And one more scripture, 2 Nephi 1:15 talks about being encircled eternally in the arms of love. That hit me pretty good on Sunday in Sacrament meeting. It was super cool and I felt the Spirit so strongly as I had just finished reading/singing (in my head) hymn 112, Savior Redeemer of My Soul and found this scripture. I know that we are ALL ETERNALLY circled in the His arms of love. My neck is in perfect working order again! It's amazing how it healed so quickly. I pray for thanks every day. I'm being careful with it, and so far it's been great. No problems. Elder Hazleton (my companion) is great. I just asked him if he knew Spencer Jones and he was like, "What about him?" haha and I told him that he's Colby's friend and he was like, "Dude that's my cousin!" haha it was great. He's a cool guy. I notice you like a lot of my stuff on my facebook page haha. Try to share some of the things so that the word can be spread even farther! :) That's one of the biggest things about online proselyting: they want us to share and like and comment on gospel related stuff so that more people can see it. So yeah, share some stuff if you want. :) It'll help me fulfill my purpose too. ;) Thanksgiving sounds fun. We're having a meal at a member's house. He is the Ward Mission Leader here in Hillcrest. Brother Dan Martinez. He is incredible. He is a retired gang member who has converted to the gospel. He's so awesome. I know that this church is true and I know that we are all eternally in the tender care of our loving Father in Heaven. There is never a time when we are not loved by Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and therefore always loves us. Isn't that phenomenal? I love you Mom! Let the whole (cousins too!) family know that I love them and are SO grateful for their support! Love you all, Elder Cevering II

November 18, 2013 Email

Hello once again! This week was GREAT. Oh my goodness it was good. We set our goals during weekly planning last Thursday/Friday and we nailed almost all of them. We DOUBLED our goals for "lessons taught to Recent Converts and Less-Active Members" (these will be referred to as LARC's from this point forward). Our goal was 4, we got 8. Our numbers here in Yuba City are sort of low, the area isn't too active in missionary work right now. But we've pulled out some good numbers the last two weeks, so someone back home must be praying for us! Either that, or it's because my Mom just turned in my tithing. ;) So thank you very much for your prayers. They are very much appreciated. :) We met just about every other goal, minus one or two. But that is okay because we did really well overall. Speaking of numbers, at Zone Meeting this week, our Zone Leaders (referred to as ZL's from this point forward) had information from Mission Leadership Conference with President. President had a meeting with 29 other West Coast, North American Mission Presidents and Elder Ballard gave them all quite the charge: The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve have felt it is appropriate to charge those 30 missions to DOUBLE their convert baptisms per month. Let that sink in. Double our convert baptisms per month. Right now, California Roseville Mission is getting 7 per month, on average. So the double is obviously 14. And then, the next bit of information was that if our baptisms will double, so will EVERYTHING ELSE. Boom. That means that our entire mission will go from: 115 new investigators each month, to 230. 236 Investigators w/ Member Present Lessons to 553. And so on with the rest of our numbers. Man. This is crazy stuff. But my look on it is if the Lord charges us to do it, He will provide a way for it to be done. So it's going to be insane, but somehow we're going to do it. It's gonna take a lot of work and a lot of faith. One more quick mention about numbers: The California Roseville Mission is apparently the highest teaching mission in the nation. Oh snap. :D Haha I love it here. Anyway, also mentioned in Zone Meeting was that we are to try to avoid using analogies when we teach. I don't know if that comes from the Brethren or not (What I understood of it was that it did), but I am not too sure about it. I know I am going to try to just teach the simple doctrine and testify because that it was brings the Spirit most powerfully, but it is going to be hard to avoid using analogies - especially when that is such a huge way to help people to understand. Hazleton and I talked with the Zone Leaders about it and kind of talked about how I felt that they came across as not using analogies ever at all anymore. What we all (the entire zone) ended up agreeing on (after this debate between Hazleton, myself, and the ZL's) was that based on the promptings of the Spirit, you should share analogies. But ONLY when you feel prompted to. Which I feel is good, but I have this feeling that I'm going to be prompted to use analogies a lot. Yeah. Haha. So. In other big news, in soccer on Thursday I was running up the court, turned around the look at the ball in the air, and something in my neck just started to hurt like crazy. There wasn't any snap or click, my neck just started to hurt. It was weird. I kept playing for just a little bit, but I couldn't turn my head very far in any direction or else it started to hurt really bad from just at the base of my skull on the back right of my neck, down to right above where it levels out to the shoulder. It was not good. I sat out the rest of the time and asked for a priesthood blessing after studies. Needless to say, I was still very stiff and it still hurt very badly. But yesterday it was basically completely healed. I can look in any direction I want to with no pain! Wahoo! Haha. It was a big deal because it impeded a lot on our work for those 2-3 days. But everything is totally fine now, I am in no pain. The Church is true and there is major power in Priesthood blessings. Title story! So we left the church after practicing the piano for a little bit, and we decided to "get lost" in our area in order to become more comfortable with the area. We've done this a few times and will continue to. So anyway, we took this road and at the end of the road there was this convenience/liquor store across the road. When we went to turn left at this store, there was a lady yelling at us from the front of the store. We couldn't understand her and we thought she was just yelling at us to go home because we're Mormon. As we crossed the street, we heard her asking for one of our pamphlets. So, of course we gave her a pamphlet! This lady, Darla, was smoking a cigar sitting in a wheelchair with BOTH of her legs in casts. And boy was she something. She had apparently broken both of her heels jumping off of a 7 foot tall, barbed-wire topped fence trying to run away from a demon. All of these details kept coming in from the multiple times she retold the story. She was apparently sent from God to let His children know that He loves them. She had some songs for little kids (all of which she wrote), she sang a couple for us and one was actually kind of good. Anyway, she was super high and she was talking about how she saw demons and was being chased by them and stuff. My time is about to run out, so I'm cutting it short here. Sorry! We had an investigator meeting. Her name is Dianna and she has accepted Christ as her Savior, but isn't of the LDS church so when we met with her to teach her the gospel she kind of related it to a Bible study type of thing. We said yeah and we hope that we can get our message to her in these Bible/Book of Mormon study classes. We're going to try to meet with another investigator named Ricardo. I'll talk more about him next week, but he's an interesting story as well. I love you all, I love this gospel SO much. I have seen miracles and they are amazing. Small and simple things are incredible when added up together. Again, I love you all. I thank you with all of my heart for your love and support. I pray for you every day and I hope the best for each and every one of you! God loves you, and most important of all, He always will. Never forget that. Love you! Love, Elder Cevering II

Email November 11, 2013

Hello Everyone! This week has been pretty good, we're getting referrals and hopefully from those referrals we'll be able to get more investigators! We tried to contact one of the referrals, but she wasn't home. We left a pass-along card in her door and put our cell number on it and later that day, she contacted us through text and said she wanted to meet with us, so we have an appointment this coming Wednesday. Hopefully she'll be interested and want to keep taking the lessons! Everything has been really slow since we got here because we have no investigators. Another thing that's bothering me is that it gets dark at 5:30-6 pm. We're not supposed to be in until 9 pm, but they don't want us knocking doors and contacting after dark, so we have NOTHING to do except go to our dinner appointments and visit members. So basically we go back home a little early after dinner and visiting other members. We generally get home around 8-8:30 pm, which is good, but sometimes we get home right after dinner and have nothing to do all night. So we sit around for a few hours. And that is not good. It's not good because we don't have any investigators. Since there are no investigators, we have nothing to study and no needs to try to meet. Since we don't have anything to study and no needs to meet, we have almost nothing to do that is related to missionary work besides studying. I'm not saying studying is bad by any means, but since we have no one to study for, it becomes personal study. Which we do every morning already. So (and I'm working on getting better at this) I get bored after studying for more than an hour. So I started writing letters and whatnot. So yeah, I need to get more focused. I'm not very homesick, but it's needless to say that I'm glad we have referrals to contact. :) But one really cool experience I had was going on splits with the Spanish speaking missionaries. Woo. It was great, actually! I kinda wish I had learned a language because I love speaking what little I can of Spanish. But I know I'm here for a reason speaking English for a reason and that's all I need. :) Anyway, so I went on splits with the Spanish missionary and we went to a lesson with a lady named Tammy. She speaks both Spanish and English so the lesson was in English, thank goodness! It was great, she is a golden investigator. We taught about the Restoration and tried to help her overcome any issues she might be having. She has some problems with grudges. She has what she calls a "soap opera life," which is understandable because she's been through some REALLY rough stuff. We shared Ether 12:27 (weak things become strong unto us) and it seemed like she got some pretty good vibes from that. We also talked about how Christ helps us become strong and overcome our weaknesses and she seemed to grab onto that. It was great to see her faith and hope and she is such a good investigator! The Spirit was felt really strongly and she is amazing. It was fantastic. Also on splits, we had FHE with the Pendrosa's and I LOVE that family. They are hilarious and awesome. The kids all speak English and Spanish and the parents speak Spanish with a little bit of English. They were so cool haha I love them. I wish they were in my teaching pool! They are members not investigators, and they were awesome. One of the investigators we have picked up is kind of hard. Her name is Jasmine and she's solid, but her family is the issue. Her older sister, Maria, is a member but the rest of the family is all having trouble with Jasmine. We've only met with Jasmine once and it was on exchanges, so I haven't even met her! But we're doing what we can to meet with her again because she wants to take the lessons, but her Mom and Brother are holding her back. It's really sad! On Saturday we went up to Redding because one of Hazleton's former investigators up in that area was getting baptized and she wanted him to perform the baptism. So we went, and it was great! I saw Sister Kimura who was in my zone at the MTC! It was awesome because I've been missing my MTC zone like crazy. We got to talk a little bit and she was going to see Sister Jackson, who was also is my MTC zone, later that day at another baptism. I told Sister Kimura to tell Sister Jackson hello for me, so that's always fun. Everything is going pretty well. Slow...but well! With the referrals coming up and the investigator(s) we are trying to work with, hopefully things will pick up! As for time markers: This Wednesday I will have been out for 1 month entirely, with only 23 months left. ;) Since I will have been out for 1 month, I will have been out for 4 weeks which means there are only 100 weeks left. ;) And since there are 7 days in a week, and there are only 100 weeks left, I have about 700 days left! ;) HAHAHA. I'm not counting down, I just know those numbers haha. Promise. :) Glad to hear you went to and liked West Side Story! I got to see the (unfinished) stage before I left, but what I saw was awesome. I wish so bad I could have been there for one night! But it's okay. :) I love the work and I love the people. I love the gospel and I'm working more towards a deeper personal testimony and conversion to it so that my teaching will be more powerful. I love all of you and hope and pray for the best for all of you as well! God speed! Love, Elder Cevering #2

Email November 4, 2013

Hello! How are you? Good? Good! :) First email from California, woohoo! I bet you're all dying to know where I am at! ;) No, probably just my Mom and Dad haha. Love you Mom and Dad :) I am in Yuba City, California serving in the Hillcrest ward. This ward and stake is so great! My companion and I have had dinner with members every night. Literally. Our dinner calendar for November is only missing five nights and apparently there is a calling for someone to get our dinner calendar filled. So. Basically, I will be having dinner at a member's house every night. It's great. I've gained 10 pounds since entering the MTC. :) Good thing I'm on a bike! The missionaries are awesome and I have another great district. 4 Sisters, and 6 Elders. Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday some of the missionaries and ward/stake members play soccer in the Stake Center gym at 6:00 in the morning. I hate getting up that early, but it is so worth it! First week has been good so far. President is such an amazing guy, and I'm sad that he's actually not going to be my mission president for my whole mission. He and his wife are amazing people, super caring and just awesome. I saw about Kellee's mission call to Detroit, Michigan (Kellee is Jacob's cousin) when we were going through my Facebook profile, that's super awesome! She's going to do amazing and I bet she'll love it there! That is a scary place, but I know that she'll be protected for sure! That's awesome for Audrey Chugg too, hopefully the tornadoes aren't a huge hazard down there. She'll do great, I didn't even know she was going to serve a mission. Haha about Michael and Me being gone, Dad actually mentioned how there are two Cevering's on the church program instead of just one. Either way, it's super cool. I wish I could see it for myself because, to be honest, I don't think it's hit me yet that I am actually a missionary. I always held missionaries in such a high standard that they know so much about the gospel and teach everything so perfectly. Not that I don't hold them to a high standard any more, I still do for sure! ESPECIALLY knowing how much they do. But it's weird because I feel so...unprepared I guess? I know that's normal, so it'll come eventually haha. I'm just going to keep working and I'll get there someday. :) It'll hit me when I have to take the badge off for the last time. Speaking of which, there was a really cool scripture shared at District Meeting! D&C 75:2-5. It talks about "those who have given their names" to serve the Lord. THAT'S ME. I currently don't have a first name anymore and I'm serving the Lord! It was really cool for me, it applies so differently now and I loved it. Yes, I do have a missionary Facebook page to be used ONLY for missionary purposes. I will not be able to contact any of my friends or family about basically anything, sorry. :( I'm trying to figure out my camera and pictures so I can get a profile picture. How do you know who my companion is already?! What the heck! I haven't even mentioned him haha. His name is Elder Calvin Hazleton and he is from Monticello, Utah. He's cool, lenient...haha. Yes I am on my bike, and my first day here we rode 7 miles haha. And we had an issue with the front wheel's brake so we took it to the shop and I accidentally got my finger stuck between the disc and the brake so I got a really nice looking cut in my finger :) that was fun. No biggie though. I might be able to get a picture to you haha. Speaking of bike problems, I accidentally broke the clamp that holds the seat steady when we were putting it together, so the whole first day I was riding with a rotating seat. Blech. But we got it fixed that night so no biggie! The first week has been insane! All of the days blend together, I have no idea what has happened what day and I forgot my planner at the apartment so I'll just name off a bunch of things that happened. Saying goodbye to my MTC Zone was really hard and I actually miss them all a ton. Haha, it's sad. Not distracting, but I just feel like there is something missing haha. Before I forget, here is the subject line story: So Elder Hazleton's last companion had Seliac's (Did I spell it right? Allergic to gluten? Something like that haha) and so when the dinner calendar person asked me if I had any allergies, I don't know why but for some reason I was thinking about Justin and his allergies to peanuts so, without thinking, I blurted out "Peanuts." Followed by an awkward silence in which my companion, the ward mission leader, his wife, and the calendar person just stared at me. I was legitimately confused as to why they were looking at me so weird. And then I realized what I had said. So, with what pieces of my shattered pride I could pick up off of the cold, hard, carpeted ground, I said, "Oh wait, no. I'm not allergic to peanuts." And everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was embarrassing! Especially because the ward mission leader is such a funny guy, he was joking around with me and so was my companion haha. It was great though. I'm the one doing the stupid stuff, not my companion haha. Well, I need to get going. I'm sorry that I didn't really have a lot to say about my week. I'll have more to say next week I'm sure. But for some concluding information, basically all of the investigators in my area were just baptized before I got here so we have no one new. No one. Not one. So we get to go contact some referrals and find new investigators. We might have a family that the Elders before me helped move in down the street. We helped them move their friend out and hoping to build a friendship and sit down with them and start giving them lessons. The father seems slightly interested in the missionary thing, but he's not big into religion either so we'll see. I'll have more to report on next week. I know this church is true. I have seen it bless my life this last week and I know that it will continue to do so as I continue to work hard and do the Lord's work. Again, I know this Church is true. I love it and there is no place I would rather be than out here serving the Lord. Again, D&C 75:2-5. Gave my name to serve the Lord. I love you guys so much! I hope everything is going well for all of you out on the home front, I'm praying for you! I love you guys! Love, Elder Cevering the Second.

Phone Call from President Weston

We received a phone call from President Weston letting us know that Elder Cevering has arrived safely and had his interview with President Weston. He has been assigned to serve in Yuba City which is 50 miles north of Roseville. His companion is Elder Hazleton. It was WONDERFUL to get a call from his mission president! He sounds like a wonderful man. Can't wait for Monday to hear how Jacob's first week was in the mission field!

First Email from the Mission Field - October 29, 2013

Hi Mom & Dad, I made it to Roseville safe and sound! I survived the MTC and the one hour flight from Salt Lake to Sacramento. It is great here! Of what I've seen so far, it looks a lot like the valley, minus the mountains. Still waiting to see those mountains. I'm sure I will soon. President Weston is SO great. He will be my mission president for my whole mission, if I understand correctly. He and his wife are super cool and I can't wait to serve under their direction. Also if I understand correctly, my P-Days will be on Mondays. So I have to wait one more whole week until I can email again...ugh. But it's okay, because that just means more time to serve the people and the Lord! We are allowed to proselyte via social media. I am pretty sure that means that I will be able to proselyte via facebook, but I'll let you know later on. I'm sure there will be more to tell you later on, but for now I think this is all I have time to say. I don't know my trainer yet, I just barely got out of an interview with President Weston and he is going to assign trainers. We are in the mission office right now and will be getting our trainers tomorrow afternoon...? Sometime tomorrow haha. I can't wait to get started! I love the Church, I know it is true. I love you and miss all of you, but there is no place I would rather be than right here in Roseville, California the best mission on the planet! Love, Elder Cevering #2 (Jacob signs his name this way because his older brother Michael is serving as a missionary in Puerto Rico - so Michael is Elder Cevering #1 and Jacob is Elder Cevering #2....what a funny boy!!! I love it!)

Email October 26, 2013

GREETINGS! This week has been great! I have seen Kimball Heaton, Minroy Choi, Minsey Choi, Tanner Marriott, Hayden Hartman, Kiley McCann, Cody Child, and I'm pretty sure more I just can't remember. The MTC is an amazing place, it's filled with an amazing spirit of shared purpose and it's just great. And there have been some amazing experiences that (thank you for the journal Grandpa!) if I hadn't had my journal, would sadly be forgotten. Sunday was pretty good, nothing super special. I got to pass the Sacrament with Elder Jones to our entire zone and branch presidency so that was cool. I have always loved having small sacrament meetings, I just feel like they bring the Spirit so much more and I love that. We studied...a lot. We also went on a Sunday temple walk. That's pretty self explanatory. But it was great. Sunday night devotional by the head of the missionary department or something. I don't remember his name though...sorry :) Then after that we watched MTC films and my district watched Elder Bednar's Character of Christ talk. Wow. It was incredible. I encourage you to try to find and watch it because it was amazing. Monday was a good day, nothing really exciting happened other than our first time teaching what we call a TRC Investigator. Basically, TRC Investigators can be any of the following: Real investigators, less-active or inactve members, or members that are acting as investigators. It was cool. Her name is Jessica and it was a pretty good lesson. I don't know if she is a member or investigator and the person isn't supposed to tell us if they are or not because it breaks the illusion and whatnot. I think she is a member, but I guess I'll never know. Tuesday was a pretty good day as well. Eating, learning, studying - the norm. But we also taught another TRC Investigator named Jose Meza. Not sure if he is a member because we got together with the Sisters in our zone that are teaching his wife, Hely, and they think that the Meza's aren't members so that is interesting. But the lesson we taught Jose was really powerful. It was on the Atonement and Repentance and how if we fall in this life or don't make it to the Celestial Kingdom on our own because we are imperfect, we can use the Atonement to help us repent of our sins and get to the Celestial Kingdom. There was an analogy used about a marathon: Some of the runners in a marathon don't make it to the end by themselves, they just can't. But it doesn't matter if they don't because in the marathon we call life we won't make it to the finish line by ourselves either. It is only when we allow Christ to pick us up and carry us across the finish line that we are truly finished and done. We can only give everything we have, but in the end Christ will cradle us in His arms as He brings us across the finish line. It was really powerful. Then we had exercise time, service time (setting up the chairs for the devotional) and the devotional. Wednesday wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as Tuesday. Food, classes, teaching, repeat. Gym time we went and played basketball in the gym and I surprised everyone in my zone, and myself, with how well I did. People are saying I can jump really high. Haha. It's pretty great. Had another lesson with Jessica that night and taught her about forever families through the sealing power in the Temple and she shared that she had lost a brother to meningitis when she was 5 (we already knew that from the bio we were given about her) but it was still a good lesson. Thursday we had an amazing experience with Jose. We were planning on teaching about the Restoration but he ended up talking about his son and how kids don't appreciate their parents these days and things like that. So I was inspired to share the story of the Prodigal Son. That really touched him. My companion also related really well because he shared that he hadn't been the best kid to his parents either. He shared a really touching experience and the Spirit was just so strong. Jose was crying and my companion and I teared up and were about to cry. And that's showing something because Elder Tils is a boxer. He doesn't cry. Haha. We invited Jose to be baptized if he came to know that the Book of Mormon is true and he said yes he would. WOOT. I can't wait for it to be a real situation!!!! Subject line story: we had gym time on Thursday, but we had personal study time before gym. So we decided to study together as a district. We were studying, but soon we were talking about how we were going to beat each other in basketball or volleyball and soon the scriptures got involved in talking about lying about being able to beat each other and about all kinds of things eventually. There was a scripture thrown out about seeing a gnat but eating a camel. It's in Matthew. Look it up haha. It was really funny because we all just ended up sharing really funny scriptures if you don't look at the symbolism and what it all means haha. Bible Bash over Basketball. Friday was...long. In Field Orientation. It was good, but it was 9 1/2 hours long. Learned a lot of good and helpful things about being out in the field, but it was just so long I was dying at the end. But it all got sooooooo so so so so soooooo SO good after dinner and after district classes. Tils and I stayed in the classroom building and were waiting for 9:30 so we could go back to residence. The other district in our zone asked us if we wanted to read scriptures with them and so we did. They were ready Enos and we only got 4 verses in until we started sharing really personal feelings and experiences about prayer and the atonement and being forgiven of sins (don't worry, no one said anything about sins they had committed, just talked about how they know the atonement is real and truly works). Sister Jackson (she reminds me a little of Liz Passey. She is awesome.) shared her feelings and was overcome with emotion. Everyone was. More experiences were shared and we ended the study at like 9:45, having only read 4 verses and sharing experiences. The Spirit was incredibly strong, it was the best. Then as Tils and I were on our way back to residence, Sister Jackson and Sister Kimura yelled "Elder Cevering!" as we went around a corner. We backtracked, met up with them and Sister Jackson asked me for a Priesthood Blessing for Comfort. I said yes, of course, and we went back up to the classroom. Tils and I said a companionship prayer before the blessing and then joined up with the sisters again. I gave the blessing, my very first Priesthood Blessing EVER, and it was absolutely amazing. I don't remember most of the words I said, just basic messages. It was so cool. So cool. As the blessing closed, the Spirit hovered in the room so densely you could almost feel it. You could definitely feel a difference from before. We all shook hands (Elders can't hug or have any contact with a girl besides a handshake and Sisters can't have any contact with a boy besides a handshake. I know why and I understand, but lame.) and she thanked me and said she felt so much better already. I was so grateful for that. And as Tils and I walked into residence we were talking about it and he said he felt power in the blessing and it was just an absolutely unexplainably incredible experience. I love the church. I know it is true. The Spirit has testified of its truthfulness to me so many times in the past week and I am so grateful for that. I love all of you, miss all of you, but I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world. Church is true. Never forget it. :) Love, Elder Cevering #2

Dropping Jacob off at the MTC

Picture of Jacob & his friend Hayden Hartman in high school and then at the MTC! Love it!!!

Jacob at the Bountiful, Utah Temple September 18, 2013

First Email from the MTC!

Greetings from the MTC! Wow. What a rush. A lot of this will actually be repeated in the letter I'm sending home, sorry Mom and Dad. The first day was crazy, the second day was crazy, the third day was crazy. It's just been crazy. ;) There is so much to learn and we haven't had much time to take it in. And we won't have much time to take it in considering we leave on the 29th of October. Travel plans! We got them yesterday, our third day here. We leave on the 29th of October, like we thought. We have to be up BEFORE 4:00 in the morning in order to make it to the Travel Office at 4:30, bright and early. Or at least early. Our flight takes off around 8:34 in the morning. And we have to be there at least an hour or two early for in-country flights in order to check in, have our time to call home, etc. but that will be a fun day, getting up at 3:30 and stuff...and then talking to you guys. Can't wait! So much has happened so far, and I forgot my journal so I don't remember some of it. :( But that's okay because I do remember the story from my subject line! I'm saving it for later though. My companion is Elder Tils, he's 20 from Blue Springs, Missouri.We are going to the same mission. He was an amateur boxer about to go pro but said the Lord guided him to a mission instead. Very cool, considering he went inactive for three years to study other religions and was led back to the church somehow. Really cool. He's not that much taller than me, but I still am the shortest person in our district and (out of the Elders) I think zone... Elder Tils and I are rooming with Elders Jones and Huff, who are going to the Santa Rosa, California mission. They are our zone leaders in the MTC. They heard that they get iPad mini's and can use facebook and stuff. Pff. Whatever. I haven't heard anything about Roseville being able to use iPads or facebook or anything so I guess I still get to find that out. The other companionships are: Elder Sones (just like Jones, but with an S) and Geisler-Zenefski (the F is silent. Not kidding. It's awesome. Pronounced like Chrysler, but drop the R and replace the Ch with a G, and "Zen-ess-key") and Elder Vaughan and Ceslak (not sure if I spelled that right, but it is pronounced like "cease-lack" or "C-slack"). I love our district, we're all Elders and it's awesome. Apparently we're the first all Elder district in a while. Heck yes. Anyway, to hurry and cover at least one experience before I have to go, I'll cover the subject line. So, here in the MTC we create investigators that our companions have to practice teaching. We base them off of real people so that we can make it more realistic and make the feelings more real. My companion has family that lives in Denmark and believes in Norse Paganism. So like, Odin, Thor, Valhalla, stuff like that. Don't think Marvel comics, think REAL Norse Mythology. And I very first taught this guy - (my companion portraying his family member who believes in the viking gods) who believes what the vikings believed about the gods - about prayer. It was super crazy what happened. I was able to relate how Odin, the Allfather, is kind of like Heavenly Father. He supports us in our fights against our enemies and we pray (praise in Norse Paganism) to our Heavenly Father for help in fighting and for peace and things like that. He totally got the comparison and went with it. I compared our beliefs about the Armor of God and how it isn't literal like theirs is, but that it protects us from the adversary just like theirs does literally. It was an amazing lesson, definitely guided by the Spirit in order to be able to relate everything to Norse Paganism and wars and things like that. It was awesome. I invited him to pray to Heavenly Father and he said he would after I did so we said two prayers right in a row, he followed me. It was really cool. He accepted the invitation to continue praying like that as well, to see if the happy feeling he got kept coming back. So, basically, I sort of taught a viking. It was legit. Spirit definitely works to guide the lesson and help the investigator understand and I know that it was there helping me SO much. I had no idea how I would teach a viking about Praying to Heavenly Father - reverently - but it happened somehow. Loving the MTC! I miss you guys a ton, but I haven't had much time to think about it so I'm not very homesick at all. Things are going fantastic. Church is true and I can't wait to share it with the people of the Roseville, California mission! Love, Elder (Jacob) Cevering