Email May 26, 2014

Everyone! Hello and Greetings from Redding, California! First news first, this week was transfers! I'm staying here in Redding 2nd ward, but Elder Solomon is leaving and Elder Rosenbaum is coming in to be the District Leader in Solomon's place. So again I am District Leader Buddy! That's not an actual title, it's a term made up by the missionaries haha. I hope Elder Rosenbaum is ready to work because this coming transfer I want to work harder than I've ever worked. I want to go finding a lot this transfer to increase the number of investigators and, therefore, increase the possibilities of helping someone receive the ordinance of baptism! I haven't been blessed to have an investigator progress to baptism yet so it's getting really discouraging and it is really hard...but I know that I'm doing what I can and I'm happy with the progress that I've seen some people make so far. Including myself. I mean, again, I haven't been blessed to help anyone receive that sacred ordinance which is really sad and so hard when I see so many others around me having that success, but I've been able to stay positive and happy by seeing the growth I've been blessed to experience. I've definitely become more reliant on my Father in Heaven and I have grown so much closer to my Savior and I will continue to do so because those are both so key to receiving the happiness that we all need and want in our lives. I've never seen so much growth in myself and I know I will be able to continue to grow a lot because of my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. It's awesome. :) So I look forward to working hard and growing so much more! As to investigators' progress: Rick: Still in the same situation, and we weren't able to meet with him this week. :/ But there is still hope! Keep him in your prayers that he will be touched somehow and desire to be baptized for the remission of sins! Jim: We were able to meet with him and finish up the lesson on the Restoration and taught him a little about the Book of Mormon and answered questions. He said he would come to church, and didn't come to church. Still not quite progressing...but there is still hope! Just keep him in your prayers that he'll commit to come to church! Kyle and Brenda: We weren't able to meet with them this week again. He is so busy and his only day off of work is Sunday so we tried his door a couple of different times through the day, but to no avail. Hopefully he's still interested next week, haha. He has got some good potential so keep him in your prayers! Kevin and Nicole: Weren't able to meet with them. She is wanting it more than he is, so it's kind of just waiting for him to start progressing. Well, to finish up with a couple of stories: So last Saturday morning we had a service project helping replace some fence posts for an 80 year old man. There were only 6 people who showed up and we did what we could to the best of our abilities, and it looked pretty good when we had to leave after a couple hours. So Elder Solomon and I are biking past that house on Wednesday and we see the 80 year old man out sitting by one of the posts hammering at the concrete we poured a few days earlier. We pull up and ask what he's doing and he said he's going to take the post out and re-put it in because it was crooked. So we look and sure enough it was crooked, and we asked if we could help. He said no, and we talked a little more and were able to get him to let us do the work instead. So we spent another 2 hours sledgehammering concrete, digging a hole, mixing more concrete, and re-setting the post all in proselyting clothes and 95 degree weather. It was hot. I was literally dripping sweat off of my nose and chin constantly. So we finished up there and made sure it was as straight as possible and went on our way. Then we bike by again the next day and ALL OF THE POSTS WERE PULLED UP. We were like, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! And a little later we got a call from our bishop who said we were going to go rebuild the entire fence that night. So we did. For another 2 hours in the hot weather (service clothes this time, woo!) we re-destroyed all the concrete from off the posts, re-re-dug all of the holes, re-re-set the posts with cement, and called it a night. It was absolutely crazy. It was the never ending service project! Haha but it felt so good to finally do some more service. It was great. Last and title story: We were biking after having worked on the fence the past two days and I was exhausted, it was hot, and it was kind of miserable. I just kept thinking about how tired I was and how not cool the situation was. And then in the middle of biking down the street, I had this thought run through my mind in my voice, only it was silent...? I don't know, I can't really explain it that well. Anyway, it said, "You know, I bet Jesus was tired too..." and I proceeded to think of all that Christ had done for me, and it was so humbling. I had the thought that I will try to never let the hardness of the mission get me down, and I hope that I don't. I know that I can rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ to help me through the hard times, and that's why I have been so happy despite having to pour my soul out to Heavenly Father in a plea for help to stay positive and happy in spite of seeing so little success and so little progress in the investigators, how they are all so uncommitted to the gospel. It has been so helpful in buoying me up and I am so grateful for that. I know this gospel is true! You can always count on Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Plan of Salvation to keep you happy! Love ya! Love, Your Favorite Elder Jacob Cevering