Email December 8, 2014

Hello Family! Hope you have all had an enjoyable beginning of December. I know that I have! Things are just going well: Elder Dixon and I get along super well, the ward members are great, the work is getting more focused. It's just going well. When I say the work is getting more focused, I mean that our investigators are starting to understand why we come over. Not that we haven't been trying to help them understand, but that this week things just somehow worked out great and things were understood. Probably because we have been talking with them about things, but we haven't been completely focused on the standard 5 lessons. We have been helping them understand the Book of Mormon, prayer, faith, Joseph Smith and prophets, priesthood authority, etc., but we haven't had a good focus on the regular lessons for a little bit. So it is good to be back instead of having less set lessons. Megan and Heather were sick this week and couldn't meet. Almost came to church, but they had errands that kept them too busy. :( Brad...Brad. We still haven't dropped him because in the process of dropping him we helped him understand that he has been trying to teach us instead of us trying to teach him. Given sometimes we have let him for the sake of hearing some interesting things, but there was some real progress made which was great. He understands that there will be things he doesn't agree with or believe but to pray about them and find it out for himself so that he can know for himself what's true. Hopefully we'll be able to help that work out! Marian Salcedo is still going to be our investigator!!! I talked to President Marston about it and he said that it is best to help them feel comfortable before doing anything like transitioning. So especially since her friend is in the ward we are going to keep teaching her in this ward until she is comfortable enough to go to the ward she lives in. I'm super excited to keep working with her because she has such a great desire to know the truth. We are planning on setting a baptismal date with her for January and hoping that she'll accept it. Upon further review, the ward boundary lines confirm that Shane and Destarta Brown are WITHIN the Grass Valley ward!!! WOOOOT! We had a great lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation. She had some great questions too. We are just going to start from the beginning and go through all of the lessons. I'm excited to work with them. She even said that she wants to be baptized, she just doesn't know what church she wants to be baptized in. The Jehovah's Witnesses have been meeting with her for a while so she is feeling that's where she will most likely go, but she also wants to learn more about the "Mormon Church" and the Rastafarii (Not quite sure what it is...) before she makes a decision. So yeah we are getting pretty focused on the main lessons which is going to be great. Teaching about the other things is very important, but the main lessons are the main lessons for a reason and I have felt that a lot this week. On Thursday, I went with a few other missionaries in our district to an MLC meeting. I know all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders were there, there were a lot of District Leaders there, and then a lot of other regular elders and sisters like me haha. It was a GREAT meeting! We had Brother Hemingway, the Director of Proselyting, and Brother Davis, the Director of Technology, there and it was just great. Brother Hemingway is an incredible teacher. We were all joking around beforehand that when he visited the mission that he was going to baptize tons of people. Basically he did. Okay maybe not literally, but he is an incredible teacher and missionary. He taught us a new way to teach the Restoration with the pamphlets, it is fantastic. I learned so much about planning and teaching and it was sooooo sweet! They talked about the numbers our mission is getting and how we get raise some of the numbers, so that's one half of the title. The ideas and ways we are going to do it are great. And then one night Elder Dixon and I got home later than the other elders in our apartment did and right as we turned on the lights it turned into a massive nerf dart war!!! It was so funny. Elder Dixon and I were fighting in our proselyting clothes and they were in their pajamas. To give the layout of our apartment, you walk into the main living space which is divided in half by a hallway and down the hallway are the study rooms and bathrooms and so we were basically leaning out doorways shooting down the hallway at each other. It was pretty awesome. I loved it. So there's the other half of the title haha. There were some other funny things that happened, but I don't remember what they were. :( But know that there were some pretty sweet things that your life could be better if you knew, but you don't know them. To close, I have a suggestion: Go read the story of Ammon protecting King Limhi's flocks by cutting off Lamanites' arms, but insert these ideas: Ammon = Christ King's other servants = Prophets, Apostles, Disciples, Missionaries Flocks = Heavenly Father's Children Waters of Sebus = the Living Water/Gospel of Jesus Christ/Eternal Life Bad Lamanites = Sin, Temptation, Evil, etc. And that should be it. Go through and read the story with these inserts and it takes on a whole new meaning. It did for me as I had this epiphany during my personal study recently. I love how the Spirit teaches us and enlightens us in ways we could never think of ourselves. I love the Spirit and I love this gospel. I know it is real and true!!! I love you guys, have an incredible week! Love, Elder Cevering