Email January 27, 2014

Hello! How has everyone's week been? I hope it has been great. :) Well! I guess to get it all started and out of the way: this week was hard No it's not my companion and no it's not homesickness or anything. I love Elder Perkins! He is a really funny guy and we have similar personalities and we get along pretty well. He is a hard worker and has showed me a new way to use the Area Book iPad app. It's fantastic! We are out and about all day, knocking doors, trying to visit less active and inactive members, and visiting members for referrals. So to explain why it was a bad week: we were out all day every day knocking doors and trying to find new investigators, trying to find and visit less active and inactive members, and getting referrals, but despite all of the heat (it's getting in the 70's! January?! Speaking of which, Northern California is in a massive drought, one of the biggest reservoirs is under 15%...) and biking and hard work, we only have 2 people who could become investigators, we had a few less active/inactive members turn us away, and a hecka ton of doors slammed in our face. So I'm loving how hard we work because it is fantastic, but is week was pretty hard because we saw so little success. Blech! But this week will be better! We are both sure of it! So Elder Perkins is originally from Arizona, moved to Price, and then lived in Spanish Fork for about a year before coming on his mission. He is a funny guy, our personalities mesh well, and we enjoy each other's company and work well together and yeah. We are doing a lot of work and being more obedient and we are looking forward to a bright future in the near future...that was redundant. :D anyway, so far so good, prayers answered amazingly. My testimony of faith has grown very much. Title story! So we were trying to visit a less active member and so we knock on this door and the person who answers is a 20ish year old Hispanic guy. He's not the person we were looking for, but he knows who we are because he has talked to missionaries in the past. So anyway, we ask him if he would be interested in lessons again and he said I guess so, so we start taking down his name. "Rigo Orjel." (Sounds like or-hel) and so I say it back trying to sound like him when he said it and he says, slightly disbelievingly, "Are you white?". "Well...yeah, haha. I am white." "Whoa. You are the first white person to ever say it perfectly." "Sweet!" Haha it was suuuuuuper funny. He's a really nice guy, we gave him our names and our number and he said he would call us later. Woo, hopefully something comes from it! Anyway, I have a couple other stories I want to share, but I can't because I have no time so hopefully next week!! Guys. Even though times get hard, The Lord loves us. The Lord loves you personally. Don't ever forget that. I listened to S. Michael Wilcox's "The Fourth Watch" talk this morning. I highly recommend listening to it! Heavenly Father is there, always. I love you, and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you! Have the best week possible! Love, Elder Cevering #2

Email January 20, 2014

To start off this week's email, I need to apologize right up front. Last week's email was entitled "*Insert Hunger Games Whistle Here*" (or something to that effect) and I COMPLETELY forgot to tell the story. So without any further ado here is the story: My companion and I were walking into our apartment after having grabbed the mail for the day and were going to be having lunch. Right as the door opened and we walked in, my companion whistled the Hunger Games theme song/whistle/jingle/thingamabob. Right before the door closed behind us, we heard a reply from down the stairs and around the corner of our apartment building! So we had a good laugh and talked about it for, like, 10-15 seconds and then decided to go back outside and try again. Obviously some time had passed and the person, whoever it was, could have been gone by that point but we decided to try anyway. We went outside and did it again and listened intently for a few seconds. The wind blew the leaves on the trees, the sun shone on the apartment across from our balcony, the shade was kind of cold, but soon came the reply *whistle note, higher whistle note, lower whistle note but still higher than the first whistle note, lowest whistle note*. We ran back inside and started laughing. It was great. SO! Onto this week. Today was transfers. I’m staying here and taking over the area. Elder Hazleton was transferred. My new companion’s name is Elder Perkins. He’s from Utah. Things are going well over here. I haven’t met my new companion but it sounds like he’ll be a good one so I’m excited. On Tuesday we were going to meet with Barbara again to continue with the lessons. However, we got a call from her Mom, who is less active because her husband is basically deaf so he's less active too, saying that her husband, the deaf and less active father-in-law of Barbara, went in for a checkup with his doctor and they found an irregular heartbeat so they sent him to the hospital to be checked on. Sister Raade, Barbara's Mother-in-law whose name is Mary and who I will refer to as Sister Raade from this point forward, wanted us to go to Brother Raade and give him a blessing. Things turned out okay before we could get over to the hospital and so we went to their house and gave him a blessing instead of at the hospital. And Barbara was kind of sick so we gave her a blessing too. And then Sister Raade as well. She wasn't sick but they wanted her to get one for comfort I guess. But either way, it was a really cool experience to be able to give 3 blessings in the same setting with the same people present. I gave the two blessings of the sick and my companion gave the blessing of comfort. But it was super awesome. The Spirit was very strong. So last Sunday a former investigator randomly texted us and called us and asked if we could start meeting again. As I said, he was investigating before but was dropped because he was lying and using the missionaries for free service. I don't remember how long it has been since he last met with investigators, but this time he seems pretty into it. He has a tumor in his head that is pretty much inoperable because it is wrapped around a nerve that controls the entire nerve system on one side of the face and body. So if he were to have it operated on, half of his face and possibly body become paralyzed indefinitely. So he doesn't want to be operated on and is just going to bide his time before it kills him. Super sad. But he was diagnosed with a year to live at the longest and he is coming up on that year so it'll be interesting. He told us that he is sick of feeling bad and down and negative all of the time. And he feels like if he were to come to church that he would find a sense of comfort even in times as hard as he's going through. So, as we all know, we told him that he could do that if he were to study and become part of the church, that it will bring a constant feeling of peace and comfort no matter what one faces in life. It was really cool. He said he will probably eventually be baptized but that it's too early to know when. If he's not lying about any of this and he is truly seeking Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, then he is golden and he is incredible. I can't wait to keep teaching him. Title Story! Alright! We went over to this house in which we were told a less active couple, Brother and Sister Ransom, had recently moved into. They moved from a different ward, so we went to visit and check on how things are going with them. Turns out that he is not her husband and that they are not dating, they are both just paying rent for the house and living together. As far as we know, they don't have any sort of relationship with each other. They are just living in the same house to get by. His name is Augustine Haro and her name is Constance Maines. So the information we were given at first was SUUUUUUPER wrong. Anyway, he was a former investigator so we started to teach him that day. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation, but he got sooooo distracted so easily. He would talk and talk and talk about the same thing over and over and over again. And when we tried to start teaching again, he would find a spot to start talking and would go. At one point, Elder Correa (we were on exchanges that day, Elder Correa is such an awesome guy. Speaking of him, he goes home today. He does not want to go home. He loves being on his mission. I'm going to miss him a ton because he became a really good friend of mine. He's just awesome.) my companion for the day, asked him, "Do you read the Bible?" to which Augustine, the investigator, pauses and thinks for a second. Then Augustine says, "Well yeah. Well, I sleep with it. It's right under my arm the whole night. It can protect you too." We all just kind of go quiet for a minute trying to soak in what he just said. Elder Correa then says, "Well you should probably read it and not just sleep with it. And you should read the Book of Mormon too. It'll protect you more than the Bible does too." HAHAHA. It was the WEIRDEST thing but it was soooooo funny. The weird things people say and do. So I read a poem in my farewell talk called The Blood He Shed For Us. My Grandpa challenged me, just like he challenges everyone who he gives the poem to, to memorize the entire poem. It covers the entire side of an 8 1/2" by 11" page. And I did it! It is completely memorized! I am so grateful for the challenge because now I'll sit down during some downtime and I'll think of different parts of the poem and it makes me think of the incredible sacrifice our brother Jesus Christ performed for us. It indeed was, as the poem says, "a sacrifice designed by God, a wicked world to save." I invite you to look up this poem and read through it and, if you want to, I challenge you to print it out and memorize it for yourself. The atonement is real. It is powerful. It is God's and Christ's ultimate expression of love. And love conquers all. Sincerely, Elder Jacob Cevering

Elder Cevering's New Bike....THANK YOU to the wonderful people of Yuba City!!!

Words cannot express our gratitude to the kind and wonderful people of Yuba City who donated money for a new bike since his was stolen a couple of weeks ago. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!

Email January 13, 2014

Greetings from (slightly) sunny California! Yes, contrary to popular belief it isn't always sunny here. ;) haha but it has been pretty good weather, so don't worry about that. I mean, I don't have to deal with the cold foot or two of snow so that is kind of nice... ;) but for those of you who love the snow, I'm happy for you. :) I hope you have fun in it haha. So! As you all know, my bike was stolen last week... :( not cool. But I know that there were tons of prayers in my behalf because in 6 days (not even a full week!) a member who I will never forget got enough donations from the community to pay for a new bike, lights, fenders, etc. And the coolest thing about it is that 80% of the donations were given by nonmembers! That's awesome because it has now given me the opportunity to have an effect on those who don't quite know exactly what we as missionaries do or what we believe as a church. Brother Gale, who is the member that got the donations all together, gave me an idea to write thank you notes to all of the people and explain what I do as a missionary and bear my testimony. So I'm getting all of the names and then I'll be doing that for a while. It was absolutely amazing. I love the community of Yuba City and especially Brother Gale. He is an incredible guy. So we had a lesson with Seth this week! He is doing well and he came to the right sacrament meeting this time too. He is a complicated situation: he was found and fellowshipped for a good few weeks by the neighboring ward (feather river ward) and their sister missionaries. But then they found out he lives in Hillcrest (my ward) boundaries. So they transitioned him to us. But he is already good friends with the family in feather river ward and that poses a problem because he knows no one in Hillcrest. It's hard...but we had a good lesson and he came to our sacrament and is looking forward to being baptized in February! Woo! Baptism right before my birthday, if it happens. That would be a great present haha. So we went tracting this week, to no avail. I actually like tracting though. Oddly enough, even though we have had basically zero success tracting, I just feel that it is the ultimate face of missionary work and I love it because when I'm doing it, I am looked at as a Mormon missionary and I love that!!! Ahh. Yeah, it's great. I'd like a little more success, but I love feeling like a missionary. It's weird because even though I wear the black name tag every day, I still don't believe that I'm out here on a mission. I can't believe that it's already been 3 months! AH! Scary. Both because it feels like it has gone by so fast, but because it feels like it's going so slow so it doesn't make any sense. Days will be weeks and weeks will be days. Yeah. Already three months...crazy. We also started teaching Barbara Raade (sounded out like raw-dee) who has taken lessons before, but hasn't been baptized because she either 1 felt pushed and didn't like that so she stopped or 2 she has tried to live the word of wisdom but hasn't been able to overcome it. Both are sad, but hopefully this time will be different! For certain people it takes certain missionaries and maybe me and my companion are the ones for her! She has studied a lot of different religions and doesn't know what to believe and kind of picks and chooses what she wants to believe. That is the hardest part about teaching her. But it'll be great. Anyway, to start wrapping up I have found a few cool scriptures this week: Alma 5:49 49 And now I say unto you that this is the order after which I am called, yea, to preach unto my beloved brethren, yea, and every one that dwelleth in the land; yea, to preach unto all, both old and young, both bond and free; yea, I say unto you the aged, and also the middle aged, and the rising generation; yea, to cry unto them that they must repent and be born again. I liked this one because it states my calling exactly and I thought it was super cool. I really like this scripture and need to keep it more in mind as a missionary. The first few lines of Alma 7:15 15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which doth easily beset you... I love how The Lord says to us to come and fear not, lay aside EVERY sin which doth easily beset you. I love it. He tells us this because He loves us and has done everything He can to be able to let us trust and have confidence in Him and in His power. And we can because He has done all He can. It's on us to trust Him. And that is something I am working on a lot right now, trying to trust Him more. D&C 3:3 3 Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men; Pretty self explanatory. But I love it nonetheless. This work is rolling forth into the entire world. It will not be frustrated. Any and every other work will be frustrated. All the wars, the contentions, secret combinations, conspiracies, etc. will all be frustrated. But His work will not. Incredible. I love this gospel. Embrace it and it will embrace you, and you will then be able to feel the warmth, peace, and true power of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all and, more importantly Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you all. Love, Elder Cevering #2

***INCREDIBLE BLESSING FROM THE PEOPLE IN YUBA CITY, CALIFORNIA!!!***

Just wanted post about an INCREDIBLE blessing which occurred last Friday. I got a surprise phone call last Friday from Sister Gale in Jacob’s mission. She gave me some bad news…Jacob’s $800 bike had been stolen. They were at the city library and Jacob had chained it up with a sturdy chain and did everything that he should have done to secure it. While he and his companion were in the library someone stole Jacob's bike! When I got off the phone I was concerned. How many times will this happen during his mission, how much money on bikes will we spend during the next 2 years? We have a $1,000 deductible on our house insurance so it won't cover te bike. I said a prayer in my heart and amazingly I felt calm. I felt that somehow this would all work out – maybe they’ll find the bike, we do have money in savings to cover it if it doesn't show up. Then that night I got a call from Brother Gale. He said he wanted to help Elder Cevering replace his bike so we didn't have to pay for it out of our pockets and that he didn't want Elder Cevering to remember Yuba City California as the place where his bike was stolen. He put a post on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to help this young missionary by donating money to a fund to replace his bike. Can you believe that! I was floored at his kindness and thoughtfulness! I immediately started to cry. Then he proceeds to tell me that he's already had some responses - from people who are NOT members of the Church. What???!!! I was overwhelmed at his kindness and the kindness of others who would do such a kind thing for someone of another religion, and couldn't hold back the tears! He said, "Don't cry,you'll make me cry!". I tried to tell him we could pay for it and not to worry about it, but when he said he wanted to use it as a missionary opportunity what could I say! I even woke up Saturday morning and cried because I was so touched and so grateful! What a HUGE blessing! Whatever they come up with will be such a huge blessing - especially since we have two missionaries out right now. They are AMAZING people! We will never, ever forget the kind, unselfish people of Yuba City!!! We will forever be grateful!!!

Email January 6, 2014

Greetings! How is everyone doing? I hope you are all doing well. :) This week was...well I'm glad it's a new week. Up until Friday, everything was going well. But on Friday, Hazleton and I went to the library to do online proselyting. We locked up both of our bikes together outside, went in for a half hour, and came back out to a broken chain and a missing bike. Mine. Yep. Gone. Probably never to be seen again. Not to mention how much money it cost to buy and get here just gone in under three months. The only consolation is that I did everything I could have done to prevent it. Well, that might not be consolation, but it helps because it was out of my control. Does that help any? Not really. But! I do have to say that because of this, I have been able to see and feel the love from the members and even some nonmembers who want to help get me a new bike. These people are so nice, I can't express the gratitude enough. From myself and from my family. We are so lucky to have been so blessed by having incredible people who want to help. Heavenly Father definitely watches over His servants. Well, one big thing that I can email home about this year because it is now 2014: I have officially begun my Black Year! The Black Year is the one year in each Elder's mission in which he does not see his family. So since I left in October, I will not see my family in person in 2014. On Thursday I was on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Herrador. We went tracting and found a lady who might be interested. We taught Seth, who I may not have mentioned before...? If not, my mom will email me and she'll tell me to explain it next week. :) anyway, we have taught him a couple lessons and this lesson on Thursday we were able to set a baptismal date for January 25! Woo! However, that will have to be pushed back because he didn't come to church this week... :( but that is okay, as long as he is still excited to be baptized then that is what we want! So for the subject line. Yesterday we had dinner at the Kuhnen's house. They are very active, awesome members. Anyway, he served a mission in England and when they were low on money they would get bread, eggs, and beans. Then they would go back to their apartment, toast the bread, cook the eggs however they want, and cook the beans. Then they would put the eggs on top of the toast and proceed to cover it with beans. So he wanted to make it for us for dinner! Haha it was sooooo different. But, honestly, I liked it a lot haha. So that'll be a different snack when I get home. :) anyone wanna try it? Haha. This week I found some pretty good scriptures and I want to share them! 2 Nephi 5:27 talks about living after the manner of happiness. After reading the verses that lead up to this scripture in particular, I understood why and how they lived after the manner of happiness. It was awesome. Romans 8:37-39 talks about how nothing can get in between us the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. I really loved that one, especially with what has happened this week. And the last one which I might have shared before is 2 Nephi 2:24 which says that all things are done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Mmm. How amazing is that? Very helpful to know that all things are done in the wisdom of him who not only knows all things but him who loves you and knows all things. Amazing, Well, I hope this week goes a lot better and I hope that you all have incredible weeks as well. I love you and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you and all things are done for our benefit! I know this to be true and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true as well. Love, Elder Cevering II