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