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.