Email April 14, 2014

Hello! First off...OOPS! I guess the email didn't send last week. Last week changed my life and now...you guys won't get the whole story. It's a shame. Well I'm just kidding about last week being life changing. It was good, and conference was INCREDIBLE, but unfortunately it wasn't quite life changing. I'll add as much as I remember, but I'm sorry that I won't be able to remember everything...anyway, I'll talk a little about conference and my favorite parts and I hope you guys re-watch or read your favorite talks, we can't pick everything up the first time we hear it so going back over it is very effective! Since entering the MTC, I have gained 25 pounds!!! Crazy! Haha, wow crazy things happen out here. Everyone says all I've gained is muscle. May be true because my jeans are getting super tight around my thighs and my slacks are too! But 25 pounds of only muscle on my legs? That means that I would have had to gain 12.5 pounds of muscle in each leg. Maybe, I don't know about it though. All I know is my legs are getting pretty big, haha. And so is my appetite. Next on the agenda is an apology for not sending pictures home often. Since we all have iPads, there's no reason to go use a computer so we never use them. And since I seem to be the only one who wants to send pictures home...yeah. Everyone here is way more interested in playing sports and stuff than emailing home. Not that I don't want to play sports with them, but I enjoy emailing home and want to hear what's going on and let home know what's up over here too. I pictured missionaries being a little more understanding, haha. I also pictured more missionaries liking their leaders, but that doesn't seem to be popular out here either. There is definitely a division between missionaries who like the leaders and those who don't. The ones who don't are kind of frustrating. Understandable that sometimes the leaders don't understand our perspectives of what we really need and seem to expect more from us than we are sometimes capable of, but that doesn't mean that we mock and make fun of them when they're doing the best they can to be obedient and be the best missionaries they can be. This has started to bother me with my companion and district. Elder Solomon is my companion and district leader, but he doesn't really give President the respect he deserves when he talks about him and also our zone leaders. It bothers me because he and the other elders in our district mock the zone leaders and assistants for trying to be as obedient as possible and be like President, who is an incredible man. I bite my tongue a lot. But I don't know if I should or not. I feel like it would keep peace better and then I would be able to make sure I don't get made fun of for standing up for them, but if I don't stand up for what is right then I'm obviously not doing the right thing either...I'll be thinking about it and praying about it. I'm kinda frustrated with my district, haha. Elder Solomon is pretty quiet when it is just me and him but when we are with members we joke with them. I feel like he talks more with them than me and when I am doing something at their house that he doesn't like he voices it more than when I do something good. I don't know, we do get along well he is just kind off starting to get on my nerves. He just seems to only voice the negative. Eh. I don't know. He's a good guy, but some frustrations are coming up. Just gotta work through them. The Lord is helping me learn patience, because I didn't learn it before my mission, haha. Elder Solomon is also really different when it's just us and when we are with other missionaries. When we're with other missionaries he's rougher, talks more, gets almost mean at times, he's sarcastic and yeah. Things are coming up, but I just have to deal with it. I'll get through it and learn something or some things that will help me out a lot. Well one good thing about this last week that we didn't really do much is that now I don't have to write to much more in this weekly email. One really funny story that happened two weeks ago: So Elder Solomon, Rose, Volle (sounds like volley without the y), and I went to Denny's for lunch and while we're waiting for our food some teenagers from a booth a couple away from ours get up to leave. They're all huddled up, talking quietly, and laughing and then they start to walk out. The last girl from that group picks up her orange juice and DUMPS it all over a girl sitting on a different table directly behind Rose and Volle then starts going off on her about everything that this girl has apparently done to her. Then the dad of the girl who got the juice dumped on her and is now being yelled at grabs his orange juice and throws it on the girl yelling at his daughter! It splashed all over the place, I only got just a tiny bit on my shoes but Elder Rose got it all over his suit pants and shirt. The girl walks out and this other innocent bystander starts yelling at the dad, "Nice! Dude you were righteous, if she had done that to my daughter, I would have floored her!" and stuff all like that. It was definitely an interesting/scary/funny situation. Welcome to Denny's, haha. So General Conference was incredible. My favorite testimony by far was Elder Holland's testimony of the reality of priesthood keys. How incredible!!! If you don't remember what he said, he said that he is more sure that the priesthood keys and ordinances are real than he was sure he was standing in front of the entire body of the church! WHAAAAAT?!?!??! Yeah, it was so cool. I loved conference. One thing that I have learned just a little bit about is being prepared for conference. I wrote down a list of questions and actively took notes and suddenly we were adjourning for 6 months. It wasn't fair, haha. I can't wait for next conference! This has been my favorite ever so far, and I bet the next one will be even better! So last week we almost picked up a new investigator. Our bishop gave us a referral who wanted to be baptized so we went and visited him. It was a grandma and grandpa who are members who want their grandson to be baptized. When we got there, we talked to the boy a little about what we do and talked a little about the gospel real quick. We set up a return appointment, talked to his grandparents about how soon we could have him baptized and left. Then the next day between conferences she called us saying she doesn't want him to be baptized yet...it's so sad! But that's okay, it happens... Rick came to conference last week and church this week!!! WOOOOO! It was awesome. He is so close to being baptized, he just isn't sure yet...unfortunately. But it's okay because he is so willing to meet with us and do what we invite him to do. He's so close, it's crazy. And now that Solomon and I are staying together for another transfer we will have plenty of time to work with him! That's good. :) Oh yeah, transfers are in and Solomon and I are staying together for another transfer. It'll be all good. :) Well...I think that's about everything. But I want to close up with a spiritual thought, of course. :) There is a big thing going around for Easter this season put out by the church. Its a video called, Because of Him. I bet you can find it on mormon.org, lds.org, youtube, and a lot of other sites with videos. FIND IT. WATCH IT. Because think about it, because of Him you will live again. Because of Him, you can overcome any trial. Because of Him, you can be forgiven of your sins and be relieved of guilt, shame, embarrassment. Because of Him, you can do anything. I encourage you to watch the video, it is very well made and brings to light many things we can do because of Him. And also, share on your facebook or twitter or whatever a statement that starts, "Because of Him..." and ends with whatever you want to add that has personal meaning to you! Your message will touch the heart of someone out there, trust me! Your posts are seen by way more people than you think. You might touch a life, who knows? I love you all, I apologize whole-heartedly for not having an email sent last week but I hope the length of this one makes up for it! I LOVE YOU!!!! :) Love, Elder Jacob Cevering :) P.S. Happy Easter week everyone! Remember the Savior and what He did to allow you to do what you can do!