Email August 25, 2014

Hello! :D How is everyone doing? I hope you are doing great because that's how it's supposed to be! :) So the last few days have been VERY interesting to say the least. It seems to be a normal thing for new missionaries in the field to have a crazy first few days. To explain, we have done a TON of street contacting and we have ran into a lot of very...nice and...interesting people who ask us about our beliefs on multiple subjects. It has been great, though, considering we have found a few less active members who want to return to activity AND handed out more Book of Mormons in the last week than House and I did the whole transfer. More people talked to + more Book of Mormons handed out = more possible investigators both now and in the future. I heard that Elder Dube of the Seventy, who spoke a couple conferences ago, was given a Book of Mormon in his youth by some missionaries but didn't read it until many years later, at which point he converted to the Church. So who knows? One of these less active members who unfortunately DIDN'T want to come back to church actually approached us. Well, more like jumped up from the curb and offered us a plum, "DO YOU GUYS WANT A PLUM?!?!" holding out her little bag full of 'fresh picked' plums. We took one, but didn't eat them haha. And we talked with them for a little while and gave out a Book of Mormon, but they were headed to the coast (mind you these people were homeless. No, I'm not kidding. Sorry I left that detail out haha) so wouldn't come to church the next day. But a couple of awesome things happened regarding investigators. We started working with a guy named Brad who reads a BUNCH of 'ancient texts.' Like the Lost Book from the Garden of Eden, the Book of Adam and Eve, the Book of Enoch, the Prophecies of Nostradamus, the Book of Secret Magic (keep that one in mind) - a bunch of 'ancient' texts. And he wants to learn about the Book of Mormon. So we went over and we talked with him about it, but the whole time he was drunk, smoking, and yelling to someone across the street how to fix their car. And he would bring up books he had read before and how they said the same things and all that jazz. When we talked about the Book of Secret Magic, he said "I would let you guys hold it, but you're not worthy to. It was honestly the only book I ordered online. I don't order things online, just that book. And my cell phone." Haha it was a funny moment. We talked about the Book of Mormon, set a return appointment, and left haha. Nice guy though. And lastly a lady named Jennifer. I may have talked about her already. If not, in brief, the first contact I made with her was with Elder House at her work where we gave her a Book of Mormon and she asked us to help her tar cracks in her trailer's roof. So we did, Elder House and I the first time, and gave her a Restoration pamphlet and told her to write down any questions she had. We set up a time for the next week and when Elder Raab and I showed up she had been having a terrible day, but was happy to see us. We helped tar her roof a little bit but mostly talked about the church and the gospel which was amazing. Nick and Steve's baptisms came up and we said they would be our first baptisms and she said, "Well you can add another!" And we were both like, whaaaat...? Confused. Obviously. And she said, "I'll do it, I'll be baptized." We were both happy and excited, but we don't think she quite understands all that needs to happen haha. But we had a great talk with her about baptism and how it cleans the slate and right as we talked about it, she said she was getting goosebumps. BOOM! Spirit was telling her our message is true. It was awesome. So we are going to continue teaching her and she is a new progressing investigator. Miracles, miracles! I love the mission! I love training! I don't mean this in a bad way, but I love it partly because when we are doing the 'training' hour of study, it has helped me see how far I have come since getting out on my mission. Not that he's a bad missionary because he is a GREAT missionary. But there are just things that you learn in time while you serve and it has been amazing to see that I have reached a point I was worried that I might never reach. So it has been a huge blessing to be Elder Raab's trainer and companion. He's a great missionary and helps me to be my best, just like I'm helping him be his best. The gospel is true, the mission is awesome, the church is true, the Book of Mormon is really what it says it is and I know it with all my heart and I cannot deny it! Love you guys! Love, Elder Cevering