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