Email November 3, 2014

Hello Family! First things first, Happy Halloween! And with Halloween begun the "lasts" in the mission. Last Thanksgiving, last Christmas, last New Year, last Birthday, last Easter, etc., etc. Man...that's sad. :/ I mean, I'm super excited to come home don't get me wrong! But it has gone by so incredibly fast. I was saying to Elder Raab the other day how fast it has gone and the words of a scripture actually came to mind: Jacob 7:26, "our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream." But yeah, my mission "life" has most definitely passed away like a dream - it has gone by so fast. I love it out here. My mission has been the best. I'm excited for this last year. It's going to go by so much faster than this last one and I'm going to do everything I can to make it count. :) In other/outdated news, a couple weeks ago I forgot to mention that our zone, and probably most of the southern part of the mission, was put on lockdown. There was a shooting that happened in Northern Sacramento and ended up trailing into the city of Auburn where they caught the two suspects. So we didn't have anything to worry about up here in Grass Valley because we are a 30 minute drive from Auburn, it was just a safety precaution for us just in case they came up here. But yeah, that was fun. We hung out in our apartment and planned for the zone blitz. Fun stuff. Speaking of the zone blitz, that happened this last Thursday! It was pretty great! We were able to hit probably 90% of the less active members in the ward, which is great because now we know just about everyone who has moved, who is not interested, and who is interested so that we can not waste our time and just go visit those who want to be visited. And then we found a bunch of potential investigators as well! One of whom we visited yesterday and had a great lesson with! Their names are Shane and Destarta Brown and she is looking around for a church she wants. She likes a lot of things we believe and we had to clear up some stuff she had questions on but she wants us to come back! And we committed them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I can't wait to start working with some of the less actives and potentials that were found. But seeing as we get transfer calls next week AND that I've been here for 4 1/2 months AND that I'm finishing up training Elder Raab this transfer, I most likely get the boot. Which makes me sad because I really want to see these brand new people we are starting to work with progress more and more. But it's whatever the Lord wants. And what He wants done, I'll strive to do! Halloween night we spent indoors from 6pm to bedtime. I didn't get to carve a pumpkin this year. :( Haha but that's okay, we had a fun night anyway. That's one thing I'm looking forward to when I get home, being able to celebrate holidays the way I'm used to doing it haha. I do enjoy holidays out here, don't get me wrong, but I can't wait to go back to having 'normal' holidays. Well I think that's about all for this week. Most of the beginning of the week was preparing and planning for the zone blitz, then Thursday was the zone blitz, then the rest of the week was getting the information all put together and starting to visit new people. Oh and stake conference was yesterday and Saturday. Elder Zachary Smith of the Seventy and his wife spoke. It was really great. Sister Smith is a huge ball of energy! Hahaha! I wish I could remember off the top of my head some of the things she said. But yeah. The mission is the best! Since next week is transfers and because I live with my trainer, Elder Hazleton, and because his mission ends next week, I'm going to see him go home! That's weird to think about. A year ago I was just barely starting and he was barely over a year out and now a year later he's going home and I'm barely over a year out and I'm training someone who is just barely starting. The Lord works in mysterious ways. :) I love you guys! I hope you have the best week ever! Love, Elder Cevering