Email February 24, 2014

Greetings from Yuba City! This week. Wow. Nothing happened this week. Haha. We had five lessons set up this week. For Hillcrest, that's doing pretty well! However, as missionary works goes, all but 2 cancelled... :( dang it agency! Haha just kidding, but it can be frustrating sometimes! We had a great zone conference this week! President talked on obedience, high expectations, and hard work. It was awesome! (Title story) At one point he shared a scripture, Alma 26:28-29, "28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world--not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God. 29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again." He drew the parallel that we, as missionaries, do what we can to spread the gospel and we go through rejection and disappointment and a bunch of other discouraging experiences. He said "Now I'm sure none of us have been stoned and I'm sure none of us have been cast into prison - If you have been in prison, we need to talk. But the worst thing I can think of that has happened, since I've been here, is a missionary being shot in the face with a pellet gun." I turned to Elder Perkins and told him, "That was in our area." To which he replied, "Shoot. I guess we really do have the hardest area in the mission!" Well, to explain, a missionary who went home just a little while ago was serving in the Hillcrest ward a while back. His name was Elder Beck. He apparently had a car pull up next to him and his companion when they were out walking around, roll down their windows, and shoot them with pellet guns! Hahaha! Crazy! I haven't had that happen to me but it was so funny to hear President Weston mention that on conference. And not only to hear it, but to know it happened in MY area! Haha it was great. Don't worry, if I get shot in the face with a pellet gun, I'll let you all know. :) Investigator Updates: Barbara Raade: We had a lesson, but she continues to tell us about the religious beliefs from around the world instead of listening to a lesson. She is a great lady and has righteous desires to stop smoking and come closer to God, but she knows about so many other beliefs that she has kind of chosen what she likes from each religion and follows that. We just need to teach pure and simple truths of the gospel. Seth Hasegawa: Had a great lesson with him on Alma 32 - faith! He is opening up a lot more and seems to be understanding better as well. He is a really funny kid, cool guy. He plays doubles tennis in high school and is a junior. He still doesn't have permission from his mom to get baptized, but he wouldn't keep taking lessons if he didn't want it anymore so we are hoping to talk to his mom soon! Augustine Haro: Had a very short and simple lesson on scripture reading, prayer, and baptism. I invited/committed him to reading he Book of Mormon every day and he said he would sleep with his bible. I told him that he should read the Book of Mormon because that is when he is really going to feel God in his life. We stopped by again later in the week and, instead of the lesson we planned to give, helped him mow and weed whack his yard - in our proselyting clothes. Needless to say, I need to shine my shoes haha! Chris Flores: Had a lesson set up, had a member there, and he couldn't meet... :( Trying again this week. Still a cool guy, but really busy with a new work thing he's doing. Jill: Had a lesson set up, had a member there, and she couldn't meet... :( again, trying again this week. Kind of a mystery haha apparently she was working so that's understandable. Elise: Had a lesson set up, had members there, and she wasn't home. :( again, again, trying again this week. She is always home when we stop by randomly, but she always says the time we set up to meet will work and she said she wants to learn more about Jesus Christ. Hopefully she truly means it. Jay: Had a lesson set up, had a member there, and he wasn't home. :( we tried back later that day and he came up the stairs a minute after we knocked on his door. We had a short talk - very little was about the gospel - but we were able to set up another time to meet. He is a cool guy, but very busy. Anyway, on with the updates. Perkins has been sick for most of this week, which is really unfortunate. It's been really annoying during studies too. He coughs all the time and clears his throat really loud after most coughs. I don't know how I haven't gotten sick yet...*knocks on wood* maybe it's because I got sick for a really short time a while ago and so I've already had it? I don't know haha. But yeah, I feel really bad because he is coughing all the time, his nose is suuuuuper stuffed or suuuuper runny, and he just feels nasty. But he still wants to work. It's good that he wants to, but he needs to rest too. And the members give us strange looks when he won't shake their hands because he is sick but he still comes to dinners and lessons. Love Elder Perkins, but this has been an interesting few days haha. Don't worry, we still get along great there isn't a problem in the companionship, I've just been annoyed, confused and frustrated these last few days he has been sick. Another update: transfer calls are next Sunday. As you all know, I really, really, really like this area. I don't want to leave, but that is lost likely what is going to happen. I really don't want to leave because 1. Elder Perkins and I are getting along great and working hard, 2. We're starting to see more success and investigators are starting to pick up and I want to see at least the beginning of their advancement in the gospel, and 3. I just love the area. If I get one more transfer I know I'll be that much more heartbroken to leave, but at least I'll feel like I helped out a little instead of being just some forgotten missionary that didn't do anything in the area. So I have a request: please pray that Elder Perkins and I will be ale to stay one more transfer together here in Hillcrest! If you would, I'd appreciate it very much. :) Last story. This happened a couple of weeks ago, but I have forgotten to tell it the last couple weeks too haha my bad. So! Elder Perkins and I had a lesson set up with Seth and we were trying to get a member to come with us. We couldn't find anyone and it was only about 30-45 minutes before the lesson when we texted a recent convert to see if she could come. She texted back saying yes and sure enough, she showed up. It was a good lesson on tithing, fast offerings, and the law of the fast. She didn't tell us, she told some sister missionaries in our zone, but apparently she had been thinking about getting a tattoo and was set on getting one. Then we texted her. She came to the lesson and the whole time she just kept feeling like she shouldn't get the tattoo because it would be hypocritical and whatnot. So she has decided against getting a tattoo and sounds happy that she decided so. Nothing against tattoos, but the prophets have counseled against them and told us not to get them. Crazy how he Spirit guides what's going on. We found her name in the phone and were just like, we need someone so let's give it a shot. Brothers and sisters, the church is true! There is a plan for us and he Holy Ghost does guide us if we are doing what we should be. Most of the time, we won't realize that the Spirit is actually guiding us, but as long as we are doing what we should be doing, we will always receive the guidance we need for ourselves and, sometimes, it will help others as well. I am not boasting of myself in this experience, I'm boasting of The Lord and His love for us - His children. I love you all, The Lord loves you all! I am doing so great. :) Love, Elder Jacob Cevering

February 17, 2014 Email

Hellooo :D How is everyone? Good? I hope so! I do have to say that it both seems like forever since I last emailed home, but it also feels like it's been a super quick week. I hope I'm not the only one that feels like time speeds up and slows down, is fast and slow all at the same time. EXAMPLE: Four month mark yesterday on my birthday. WHAAAAT?! Holy cow. It's probably just because I'm so used to others being on their missions so I only knew what it felt like when they were gone for so long, but from the perspective of the missionary it goes by soooo fast. Only 20 months left. Scary. I feel like it's going to go by too fast and that I won't have achieved all that I wanted to. I also worry that I'll look back sometimes with too many regrets. And I worry that I won't become the person/missionary that I want to be by the time my mission ends. However, don't let this email worry you: I am loving it, I am doing everything I can to have no regrets (and I know that I probably will have regrets, but if what I hear is correct just about every missionary has at least some regrets so that makes it a little better), and I'm doing the best that I can to become who I feel I am destined to be and who my Father in Heaven wants me to become. It's taking a massive amount of faith, but I know that if I keep pushing forward, striving to do what I know I should be doing, that I'll learn and become what my Father intends me to become. Man, faith isn't as easy as they say it is. ;) So, that was unexpectedly deep. If you remember anything from this email, remember this: If you are doing your best and trying to do what you should be doing, then you will become who you are meant to become. Now on to the rest of the week. Less important things first, thanks for all of the birthday wishes to anyone who may have written on my Facebook wall or sent me a package or letter. I also want to thank anyone who may have given my little sister birthday wishes as well! And I want to wish my little sister, Mikayla Cevering, a happy birthday, so...Happy Birthday Mikayla! I hope it was a great day! I know I'm a day late, but I feel it's more appropriate a day late than 6 days early. :) My day was pretty good, partaking of the Sacrament is always great especially as I come to understand its significance step by step. We did a lot of finding, most of which didn't turn out like usual, but that's alright! We had dinner at a member's house and had a pretty good dessert, so no need to worry about a cake. Plus, my family may or may not have sent me 27 1/3 pounds of candy for Valentine's and my birthday so yes I had a great week and birthday! Oh, and Sister Weston, President Weston's wife, gave me a call to wish me a happy birthday so that was pretty great too. :) I love my mission president and his wife! They are amazing! No onto the title story, which will be wrapped in quite nicely with another, overarching tale of a small town called Robbins. This last week we went down to a very small town called Robbins, population about 100. This little niche IS in our area, as I'm sure I've mentioned too many times, and is probably under 2-3 miles in circumference/perimeter. Maybe almost under 1 mile. Anyway, Elder Perkins, Devin Hungrige, and myself all went down (in Devin's car) to Robbins to tract and street contact. Anyway, we go tracting and in a few houses we are able to place a Book of Mormon, woo! And he said that if we come back and he's home, we can stop by to share more of the message. Woot. So we keep tracting and we ran into a Hispanic man who speaks hardly any English. One of those people who knows enough of a language to say that they don't know how to speak that language. So, Elder Perkins knowing I speak a little Spanish, looks at me and awkwardly chuckles. So I try to explain that I know very little Spanish and I give the Spanish introduction as to who we are, what church we're from and what our message is about, "Hola, somos missioneros de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias y tenemos un mensaje de Jesucristo. Que interesante?" (For those of you who speak Spanish, I don't quite understand how to ask if they are interested. :)) So he replied saying Spanish words at light speed. Needless to say, I reinstated that I didn't speak much Spanish. So in my broken Spanish I tried to communicate with him about what was going on and by his body language and tone of voice I figured he wasn't interested and so I asked if he was Catholic, he said yes, I said that was good (wishing I knew how to say that any faith in Christ is good, in Spanish) and tried to ask if anyone else they knew was interested. He said no and we were on our way. Well, this happened at AT LEAST 3 different doors, my Spanish limping along with me. However, one of them I was able to communicate well enough with that she seemed interested, wanted a pamphlet that was in Spanish, and wanted to hear more. My dying on the wayside Spanish worked! Referral for the Spanish sisters! WOOT! Hahaha it was truly amazing. I love speaking Spanish and I do wish I had been called foreign speaking, but it looks like I'm getting enough of an opportunity already! Haha. Brothers and Sisters, it was awesome. :) To begin something sort of new, I would like to introduce: Investigator Insights! A new section of this email which will cover stories/updates we had with the investigators in the last week. So, here goes: Jill: Jill was on our list of potential investigators. When we went to visit her initially she said that missionaries had offered to mow her lawn about a year ago, she told them no, and that was the only contact she had with them. Interesting that she was on our list of potential investigators because nothing of our message was mentioned to her and she only saw the missionaries when they asked to do that simple service for her. However, when we went over with she invited us back to hear about our message! Our initial approach was the Plan of Salvation so we gave the Plan of Salvation lesson, gave her a Book of Mormon, invited her to read the introduction, and we have another lesson with her for tomorrow which will be the Restoration. Woo! Awesome. Jay: Saturday night, we were on our way home from the Ward Mission Leader, Brother Martinez's, house when we ran into a guy working on his car. We asked how he was doing, he said he's done better, so of course we're going to start talking. He was replacing the spark plugs in his car and since both Elder Perkins and I don't know much about cars and since he offered to teach us how to replace spark plugs, we went over to watch. It was 9:20ish PM when we started talking to him. We talked about his car, car parts, and cars in general (he got his 1968 Camaro to run a quarter mile in 9 seconds. That is insane!), and at about 10:10 we had talked a little about his religion and finding out he is Christian and looking for a church because he's here in California on military duty, we told him our message is aimed to help build faith in Christ and asked if he would be interested. He said yes and we set up a time for this coming Saturday! He's a super nice guy and we're excited and hopeful! Barbara: We had a lesson with her Wednesday but it had to be cut short because she was heading out to see a friend who was in the hospital. We read in Mosiah 3 and 4 and shared the mormon message called The Will of God. Look it up, it's great! It was an alright lesson, Barbara has been investigating for 13-15 years. Yeah, it's tough to teach her because she knows just about everything about the church and also about tons of other religions. Yeah. Pretty nice though. Seth: Taught the 10 Commandments this week. His Mom doesn't want him getting baptized so we've had to cancel his date. I've probably already told you guys that, but in case I haven't. :) So, unfortunately, he isn't getting baptized yet but he is still taking lessons and coming to church, even if it is with his friends in the other ward. That doesn't necessarily matter until he has permission to get baptized. The biggest news with him: He actually talked with us! Wooooooo! He is actually a really great and funny kid. We're hoping we can figure things out with his Mom and hopefully see if she would be interested in the message too. Only time will tell. We generally meet with him on Thursdays. Augustine: He cancelled on us again this week. He supposedly likes us a lot, but we haven't been able to meet with him for a while. Dang it. :/ We keep trying though! Chris: Suuuuper nice guy, we taught the Plan of Salvation this week, I believe. He has really good questions, but when we invited him to church he said he feels it's more meaningful to do it on your own time. He thinks he'll try it out sometime, but isn't sure about it yet. We have a meeting with him again this Wednesday, we've had REALLY good lessons with him so it's just a matter of time hopefully. Elise: We tracted into Elise last week and after our initial blurb about being missionaries from the church and sharing a message about Jesus Christ she said that she wanted to learn more. It caught Perkins and I off guard so we left her with our number to try to contact us and set up a better time for a lesson because she is usually busy, but when we went back to the door again we left her with a Book of Mormon, invited her to read the introduction, and set up a time for Saturday. Saturday's lesson fell through, so we're going to try to stop by again this week and set something up again. Well, that's everything for this week. I hope you guys have all had fantastic weeks and I wish the best for you this coming week! The church is true. One thing I have started to learn is to look forward with faith. Let go of the past sins and believe that Christ can and will help you. Just look forward to the future with faith and put your trust in God. Something that we all know we should do and something I have been working on and I'm starting to see its effects, even from the little I understand and am actually doing. It's amazing! I love you all! Love, Elder Jacob Cevering

Photos from Elder Cevering

Email February 10, 2014

Greetings Everyone! I hope all is going well back home. Things over here have been going pretty well. I'll get to that soon. But I have to share a cool experience that has to do with the rain (snow where you are all at). So I've heard from my Mom that Utah fasted for rain/snow and also parts of Nevada did as well. And, as I'm sure most of you probably know by now, California did too. Yuba City is actually one of the biggest exporters on a lot of different crops and the lack of rain was/is really hurting the agricultural pursuits over here. So there is a lack of both city water and water used for farming in Yuba City and some of the water from Yuba is actually ported to Los Angeles and some other big southern cities as well. Needless to say, there was a huge need for water. *Cue testimony of fasting and praying* IT WORKS. It has rained here for the last 4 days, and should be raining again by Friday. Amazing. Yeah, it's been a pain in the butt to bike and work in, but I'm just glad to see rain come to such a drought stricken land. Plus, the title story actually has to do with working in the rain. I'll explain soon. :) In other news/funny stories, Elder Perkins and I are getting along really well still. We both tend to quote movies or videos and the other person is able to guess them, continue quoting and then we end up laughing because it's so funny that the other person knows the quote haha. Another fun thing happened this week that I want to tell you all about. I think in past emails I've explained how big my area is in the Hillcrest ward. If I haven't, someone tell me and I will explain next week. Anyway, we got a member named Devin Hungrige (he's about 20 and has recently turned in his mission paper and is waiting for his call, super awesome guy) to drive us around the southern edge of Yuba City. It's a good 30 minute bike ride to these houses and probably 15-20 minutes to bike between each house as well (and that is still only the southern edge of Yuba, our area expands to a city called Robbins and beyond - a good 25-30 minute DRIVE). Anyway, so we are with Devin and driving around and visiting these houses and none of them are opening their doors to us. It's a rainy/overcast day and since we busted through all of the names and ideas we had to visit in about 30-45 minutes, we decided to go see a road real quick that was on the west side of our area. It's called Moroni Road and so we HAD to get a picture with it. Picture is coming soon! So we went out, it's suuuuper muddy and wet and we're taking pictures with this street sign and it was just awesome. We all had a great time and we did our best to do some missionary work as well. Nothing turned up, unfortunately, but at least we tried! Title Story: So, like in weeks past, Elder Perkins and I have been trying all day every day to find a door that will open and hear our message. Whether it be tracting, knocking on Less Active Members' doors, knocking on Part Member Families' doors, or just Active Member visits, we do our best to be out and about trying to spread the gospel and find referrals. As in weeks past, we have had very little to no success. However, this week as the rain began to fall, we saw success! *Narrator changes into the third person* It was a cold, rainy day. Two Elders biked down the wet pavement, spraying mud and other wet and nasty street leftovers onto their slacks and coats (and this because they hadn't bought new fenders yet). Nevertheless, they biked on through the contrary wind and biting rain to visit a man with whom they desired to deliver a lesson to. To the Elders' dismay, the man was not home and had left these two young men nearly three miles from home, a 20 minute freezing bike ride to the south-western corner of Yuba City, with a backup plan that didn't seem too promising for they had tried it before to no avail. Nevertheless, they pushed and biked on. With wet knuckles, they knocked on a white door a little ways down the street. This was a door that was fabled to hide an LDS couple, a referral having been given them by an older, Catholic man living next door. The door opened this time, and the residents invited the young men inside to escape the bitter rain and temperature (I was drenched by rain!). *Narrator changes into the first person* They let us in!! And they talked to us about how they aren't LDS, but they have family and friends who are who have been great resources to talk to when it comes to religious ideas and questions. They feel like it might be time to start looking into religion and they want us to come back! They have been prepared, brothers and sisters! Thank you for the prayers in behalf of our missionary work! They have succeeded! Not only with these two people (the Filby's), but we also visited a potential investigator who we have a lesson with this Tuesday. Her name is JIll and we shared a short blurb about the Plan of Salvation on her doorstep and she invited us back as well. And also, yesterday we spent some time tracting and we ran into Elise who flat out said that she wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ when we told her who we were and what we do. Amazing things are happening down here! Thank you so much for the prayers, they have succeeded. This week has been amazing. And I hope this coming week is the same. The church is true, everyone! I know that for a fact. I love you all and thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you, never forget it! Love, Elder Jacob Cevering

Email February 3, 2014

Hello. As for super quick information on this week, Elder Perkins and I worked super hard again all week. We are usually out working all day, don't get in for the night until 9 and then we plan and get distracted and plan and get distracted for the next hour and a half so we basically need to go to bed right as we finish. I haven't been able to write in my journal at all for the last week and a half :( and I have hardly had time to reply to letters. So to those who have written me in the last little while and do not yet have a reply, I'm sorry :) I'm trying haha. And for a quick note on the same tone as trying, I'm sorry I haven't been sending pictures! Reason is that since we now have iPads, there's no need to go to a computer to email. So the pictures I take on my camera I can't send through the iPad so every once in a while when I go to the real computer I'll try to send some! :) Another really quick note to make you all jealous: this entire last week and a half, Perkins and I have been eating FRESH PICKED oranges and tangerines. Extremely good. You're all jealous. :) ;) I'll get to the few spiritual stories at the end because I like ending on a spiritual note, it's just...better. So yeah. But for now, here is a story about a Elder Perkins dressing up like a ghetto guy who was trying to pawn off "organic" grapefruit: So the Spanish Elders were coming to our apartment to do their laundry. It was dark outside and we wanted to play a small joke like the nerf guns joke we would play on Elder Correa, so Elder Perkins found a bright orange traffic jacket with silver reflectors, got in his jeans, put on some big black sunglasses, put a hat on backwards and had a red backpack with a white plastic sack full of grapefruit. He was going to be chilling outside our apartment and was going to offer the other elders some organic grapefruit like this, "Hey you. Want some grapefruuuuiiiit? Izz organiiiiic." And saying it in a really chill relaxed voice. Haha you had to be there, it was awesome. Title story! So we've been kind of struggling to find people to teach, as you all know, and in district meetings every Wednesday we talk about how our areas are going. Well, some of he Spanish Sisters texted us about a referral we had given them and we got into a short conversation about how our area is coming. They said something along the lines of, 'don't worry, if you're doing what you can then the investigators will come to you.' and Perkins and I were thinking of a response and the first thing that came to my mind was the popular song which lyrics include, "my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard!" So, I said, "We should reply saying 'well our milkshake doesn't bring all the [investigators] to the yard like yours apparently do!'" I thought it was funny and we had a really good laugh, but didn't send it haha. Now as a post-story disclaimer, I don't know if that song has any innuendos so, as such, I do not intend any innuendos to come across in this story. I strictly keep this to the literal meaning of milkshakes. :) So we had some pretty great spiritual experiences. We were visiting with our bishop about the progress record and he asked us if we could come to a youth fireside yesterday and present a little blurb about youth member missionary work. So we accepted and we only expected to talk for about 5-10 minutes and then bishop would present his portion of the fireside. Well, come the night of, we shared amazing experiences both of us have had in our lives about how member missionary work, although we didn't think we were doing a lot at the time of the experience, affected so many lives. It was incredible as the Spirit testified to me so strongly that the message we have is completely true. I wish I could share some of the other experiences but I am out of time. You guys, I know that we have a Father in Heaven who wants the best for us. If we do our part as either a full time missionary or a member missionary, we are affecting lives for the better and are helping our brothers and sisters come to a knowledge of their true potential and of a perfect love that a heavenly family has for them. The church is true! Love, Elder Cevering 2