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