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