Email June 17, 2014

Hello Errybody! How's it going, everyone? I hope you are all doing well and that you are finding joy in the journey. Finding happiness is a stretch sometimes, but we truly can if we search hard enough and hold on long enough. I know that for a fact. :) So! This week we had a few great things happen. :D First thing in the week: we had a lesson with Anthony Monday night. We were able to set him on date to be baptized! He has been fighting a lot of big addictions to heavy stuff but has been clean for over a month now! I think the only one that he is still fighting is cigarettes, but we all know that if he has been able to overcome what he has so far that he can overcome this one too. He has a ton of faith and has been attending the Bethel church ever since he started to try to become sober. He talked about his baptism at Bethel and said that it was televised! We don't know how far it was broadcasted, but apparently there were cameras and everything! Kinda crazy. He said that he felt that baptism should be a more sacred thing and we agreed. He said he would try to come to church this week and we set up a time to pick him up with a member before church, but when we stopped by he had a lot of other stresses that he needed to deal with. Like, he was meeting with his girlfriend/wife and daughter and his family and it's really stressful for him because his girlfriend/wife isn't quite into the whole sobriety and faith thing like he is and so she wants to go back to it when her time in her sober house is over but he doesn't. But he doesn't want to separate from her because he doesn't want to have the daughter have to deal with that. So they were meeting on Sunday and trying to figure a lot of things out. It has got to be so rough. So since he didn't come to church, his baptismal date has to be pushed back a little bit but we are sure he'll want to keep working towards it. Second thing: we had dinner and a lesson with Ben and Mary Tuesday night. Side note, the food was awesome. And after dinner we sat down and talked with them about anything that might be holding them back from coming to church or taking the necessary steps to working towards baptism. We had a GREAT discussion. We got her to open up so much more as to why she isn't coming to church, the reason being that growing up Baptist she feels like going to the LDS church would be like admitting she has been wrong her whole life. And now is where I testify that the scripture found in D&C 84:85 ("Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.") has been made most visibly manifest to me in my missionary service. With the guidance of the Spirit I was able to help her understand that coming to our church isn't saying or admitting she is wrong and that she needs to re-learn everything, but that it just has the complete truth. That the Baptist church, and just about every church out there, have parts of the truth just not everything. That the Baptist church gave her the solid faith in Jesus Christ and knowledge that He is the Savior and Redeemer and that coming to the LDS church would only continue to strengthen that conviction. And shortly after a Spirit-filed silence she committed - she gave her word - that she would come to stake conference this coming weekend. AHHHHHHHHH! FINALLY! SHE'S COMING TO CHURCH! Hahaha I am sooooooo happy! Thank you all SO SO SO much for the prayers in either her behalf, my behalf, and/or both! They were felt this week. Thank you so so so much. :) And the last thing was that we finally had an investigator come to church! We talked with Pao and set up a ride to come and pick him up with a member (Pao and Anthony live in the same sober home so we were going to pick up both of them for church). So we showed up and he came! :D Finally. It has taken eons, but it has happened. :) Unfortunately, he made some obligations with other people at another church so he left ours right after sacrament meeting...but he came for the most important part so that counts for something, right? We are trying to figure out what could be holding him back, other than Word of Wisdom issues, but we aren't sure. He has a baptismal date and is still on date because he made it to church, but we don't know if it all is going to work out quite yet. He has been attending another church and so even though he said he feels that the LDS church is true, he goes to the other church as well. :( But we are continuing to meet with him so hopefully he'll be able to gain an even greater testimony of the gospel and come to know the truth for himself. One other quick thing that happened was that we were able to start setting up lessons with 2 former investigators! :D They were both seeing success and neither one had a reason why they were dropped, so Elder Rosenbaum and I stopped by and they both said we could come back so that's great! Alright, title/bike story time: There Misty (my trusty steed/bike) and I were, gallantly riding along a dusty, gravel and dirt road. The air was dry, the hour was early, and the heat was coming on. My companion, Elder Harris - for we were on exchanges - was riding a little ways behind me. Up ahead was a sharp, paved turn after which becomes a 3 foot tall bridge over a dry creek bed that I had taken many times. I knew how to take it. "You're going a little fast," whispered something in the back of my mind. "Nah, you'll be fine. Just ride the inside of the road closer," I thought back. So I pressed forward, gaining a little speed. Not very long later, "Slow down, you won't be able to make the turn," the quiet prompting returned. "Just be careful, lean into it a little more than normal and you'll be fine," I continued to respond. Dusty, rubber tires hit warm, black pavement. "Hug the inside and lean, you won't need to slow down," I thought confidently. I hovered closely to the inside of the road and leaned off the side of the bike as I began the turn. Slowly, but surely, I began to pull away from the inside and move toward the middle of the road. "You should have slowed down so you knew for sure you could have made it," came that voice again. Yet still boldly pressing forward I continued the turn without applying the brakes. Slowly I drifted from the middle of the road farther and farther to the left. I saw the bridge coming, the end of the turn where the bridge starts. The edge of the concrete foundation of the bridge stuck up an inch or two above the dirt on the side of the pavement and scoping my current drifting course out as I went into slow-motion mode I knew deep within that the ETA of the bike and the concrete was short. Too short. Impact. Tire blows. Rim crunches. Bike recoils. Knee hits frame. Rear hits pavement. Bike falls off of bridge into dry creek bed, tire hissing. Hand scrapes. Rolling, standing up, assessing. "Whoa dude, are you okay??" comes Elder Harris riding up beside me. Me? On the bridge. Hurt knee. Sore bum. Small road rash on my left palm opposite the index finger's main knuckle. And the worst, a bruised ego. I'm fine. Bike? In the creek bed. Front tire's flat. Rim is crunched. Fork is bent. Front derailer is a little misaligned. Not as fine. So I replaced the tire tube and got a new bike fork. So Misty is now (and I don't mean this disrespectful in ANY way) an amputee. But she and I are both completely fine. :) Thank goodness nothing worse happened!!! The Lord was with me, protecting me! He tried to warn me, but even though I didn't listen He still didn't leave me completely unprotected. I know that He is there constantly guiding and watching over us. He loves us and I know that is true! :) The Spirit is always working in our lives and we are all in God's watchful and loving care. What happens is meant to happen and I have definitely learned a lesson from what I have experienced. I know you have all told me to be careful and I know that I wasn't, but from now on I know that I will be more careful and I will try to listen to the promptings from the Holy Ghost given from a loving Father in Heaven who wants to help us. :) He loves us! And I love you all as well! Love, Elder Jacob Cevering :D

Email June 2, 2014

Hello Everyone! This week has been pretty exciting! This week was the week the actual transfers happened and Elder Rosenbaum didn't get here until Tuesday night. We did have a really, really good lesson with a man named Pao (sounds like "pow"). He has been taking lessons for about 8 months from a bunch of different missionaries because he was moving around from ward to ward a ton. But he has been in our ward now for substantially longer than anywhere he has been in the past 8 months so we stopped by and had a great lesson with him! He believes everything we teach and loves the gospel! We were able to set a baptismal date with him for June 21st and he accepted! WOOO! (so that's part 1 of the title story) So we set up another lesson, set up a ride to church, and headed out. And later that day we were suuuuuper guided by the Spirit to a less-active man who just barely earlier that day had been doing something with people and they reminded him of his youth in the church and it made him want to meet with us again! It was so cool! He said, and I quote to the best of my memory, "I want to meet for real this time." (because in the past he had not shown up to lessons or wasn't home when he said he would be. And that was the success of that day. So Thursday we tried to stop by Bonnie who we haven't been able to contact in FOREVER and she was home! Oh yeah! Haha. And we set a return appointment so that'll be awesome too! And we were able to pick up 2 new potential investigators. Crazy thing is that when we started to talk to these people, and mind you this is just talking to people in neighborhoods and whatnot, they were not interested at all. So we just started talking with them about them. And soon enough when we reintroduced our purpose and what we do, they invited us back! It was crazy awesome! The Lord definitely blessed us to talk with them about what was needed to be talked about, see connections with ward members who could connect with the potential investigators, and softened their hearts! People who didn't want to hear from us from the beginning invited us back! And one of them was a strong Methodist whose family has been Methodist since their grandma! hahaha, it's amazing to see what can happen out here. We also stopped by Pao's house again that day, had a lesson with him, and actually moved the baptismal date to the 14th because, if he keeps the word of wisdom for 2 weeks then he can be baptized because he has attended church multiple times. So the 14th was set for 2 weeks away. We started talking with him about the baptism, like who he would like to baptize him and confirm him and say the prayers and stuff, and he said he would like me to baptize him!!! :D Which was followed up with, basically, "Because he has been here longer." Haha I don't care, it means a ton to me! So that was super amazing. And well from that point on not much else happened, that was good anyway. Part 2 of the title story is that the ride we had set up to pick up Pao for church (which he said he wanted to come!) went to his house and Pao wasn't there...that is the second time this ride went to pick him up and since he hasn't shown up both times that ride isn't going to try to pick him up for church anymore. So we have to find a new ride for him. And that frustrates me. I know that it's frustrating and annoying to go try to pick someone up and they aren't there, but come on, really? Especially since this man says that he is always willing to help people out. I don't know how to feel about it. But since Pao didn't come to church, he has to push his baptismal date back again. And to make matters more interesting we got on Facebook while waiting for the Gospel Principles class to start and I saw that Pao was at a different church, his caption on the post sayinig "home now". I was like -> :D -> :) -> :/ -> :( -> :'( True story. Minus the crying. But I kind of wanted to, because I'm getting so super frustrated that NO ONE IS COMING TO CHURCH. They have all felt the Spirit super strong, want to receive the ordinance of baptism, but for some reason they don't want to take probably the easiest step of the process. It's so, so, so, so, so, so sad. :( I want them to come to church, to be able to receive a remission of their sins! But they just aren't committing and it's getting so old! I want them to be able to find the full happiness that can come from the gospel, but they can't without taking the steps to reach it. It makes me so sad because so many times people say they'll come and they don't. GRRR. :( But hey, it's all in the Lord's timing. That's all I can say. I have great hope in that, that it'll be their time sometime. I love this work and I'm very grateful for the opportunity I have to be out here. Every time I look at a picture of me with my name tag on, I think, "Whaaaat? No, I'm not a missionary. There's no way. This can't be real." But I am! And it is! And it's sooooo amazing! :D It's tough for sure, but trying to rely on The Lord, especially when it is all you can do, brings happiness sooner or later. I know it does. Scripture stories show it all of the time. So I'm just waiting and hoping for my time like all the rest of us do in times of hardship and trial. :) I love you guys! Rely on The Lord and all will be well! Psalms 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God" :) Love, Elder Cevering 2!