Elder Cevering's LAST Email!!! October 5, 2015

Hello for the Last Time! So this last week was wonderful! So many great things happened! We had our MLC and General Conference, we got a referral to go see a less active member whose family aren't members, he almost prayed with us but promised to pray with us next week, and more! It was stellar! And on top of all of the spiritual experiences, Elder Bernhisel and I get along so well that we fight just for fun - it's wonderfully hilarious! Like this morning we were talking about how when someone is mad or cranky or annoyed and you ask them if they are mad or cranky or annoyed and so they get more mad, cranky, and annoyed, and just yell back at you, "I'M NOT CRANKY." And we were just sitting there laughing our heads off because it was just such a silly conversation and we were yelling so loud but weren't serious at all because we were just joking about how sometimes that situation happens. Good times! Well, to get on to the good stuff: Our MLC was all about conversion and it was so great to keep learning about how conversion is such a continuous process. It was so good to keep relearning that, and to add more to what I do know! I learned how the repentance process and the conversion process are the same process. They both change us, make us better, and bring us closer to Jesus Christ. They help us come to know who Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are. They help us come to know of our eternal possibilities! Conversion is a change of heart AND mind, and if we are only acting because of feelings from one or the other we are not truly converted. Conversion is change our actions AND our desires. Conversion is what brings us to Christ! And who can overlook Conference?! What an incredible and historic Conference! Three new apostles and a bunch of amazing talks. I don't know if I could pick a favorite because there were so many talks that were perfect just for me! A couple of them even said phrases that I had written down as questions, then proceeded to answer those questions. The prophets, apostles, and general authorities of the church are SO truly inspired! I know they truly are servants of our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that these three new apostles are also called of God because I received my own witness from the Spirit as they spoke. Ultimately, I know this is the true church of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. These past two years with all of their experiences and blessings and miracles have taught me this truth more than anything else. Seeing the gospel bring precious, pure light into depressed, darkened souls has been the most fulfilling work I have ever been a part of. The most rewarding thing I have ever done is help people receive the blessings of the gospel in their lives and oh how truly wonderful it is to see love change a world. Because let's be real, what we do will not change the world. But what we do will change someone's world. And if we change enough worlds, the whole world will change. And oh how sweet it will be! I'm super excited to see you guys next week! I'm excited out of my trousers! Know that I love you and that I love the gospel and that I know Heavenly Father loves us. All of us. My mission has been phenomenal, indescribable. Hard, tough, trying, hilarious, scary, nerve-wracking, beautiful, glorious, and so much more. The single best thing I've ever done has been to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It has led me to become so much more than anything else I could ever do. If you ever want to find more happiness, more peace, more help, read the Book of Mormon and ask God, the Eternal Father, if it is true. I promise you that it is and that the answer will bring more joy than you know. I love you guys! I'll see you soon! Love, —Elder (for possibly the last time) Cevering— - Exodus 14:14 - :)

Email September 21, 2015

Howdy Hey! I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, we definitely had one out here! Plus, IT RAINED! Yep! It was awesome. I love rain. It was freezing that day, though. High 60s, low 70s. It was rough. But no worries, it got back up to the high 90s again so it was nice and warm for the weekend! So to start it all off, we had two lessons with an investigator this week! We didn't intend to, but it was good. The first one we talked about his experience at church (because he finally came, woot!), even though he didn't stay for all three hours. But hey, he came to the most important one so I'm not complaining! He said it was good even though he sat out in the foyer. But this week he came and sat in the chapel! It was awesome! Anyway, we talked more about baptism and ended up talking again about the requirements. Basically just laid it out again that we want him to have a testimony of everything before he is baptized, he needs to be actively coming to church, he needs to be ready to and be living the way he needs to for the rest of his life. So we agreed we would start the lessons over and work with him towards baptism. It's going to be awesome! The second lesson we covered the Restoration and it went really well. He says he already has a testimony of everything, but we want him to be reading from the Book of Mormon and praying and attending church. We want him converted, not just baptized. We went to visit a less active family, and we caught only the wife home the first time. But it was a great conversation! She wants to come to church, but she can't because her husband works on Sundays so our guess is that she has no car to drive to church. Not a problem, we have an older couple who would love to give her a ride so we are hoping to get that set up is week! Funny story, in the middle of our conversation I looked down at her granddaughter who was playing with one of her toys in the yard and all of a sudden the wife says, "I know you. I know you!" And she's pointing right at me and has this very serious face. I was like..."Uhhh..." And she was like, "When you turned your head I saw the gray spot in your hair and something just clicked. Whether it's from here or from the life before this, I know you." So yeah, that was interesting! It was definitely unexpected. She had me super scared for seven and a half seconds, and then I was fine, just a little weirded out. No big deal! We went back a couple days later and met her husband, he's really nice as well. We hope to start getting them back to church soon! It'll be a little for him because he works on Sundays, but it can still happen! Another lesson I went to on splits with a member was pretty great! We were teaching a 10 year old girl who was adopted, and her 9 year old adopted sister, who is a less active member due to their grandma, who adopted all of them, who always says things are so crazy on Sunday mornings that they can't ever make it no matter how hard they try. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation and so we knew we had to keep it simple. We took a whiteboard, divided it into thirds, and in the first two had them draw heaven and then earth. As they drew we talked about what happened in heaven and why we are on earth, and they asked some good questions! And the whole time, there was another one of their sisters, who never has sat in on the lessons before was in the room and listening and asking questions every once in a while. It was super awesome! A couple more quick people. One creepy story. We stopped by an old beaten up house with overgrown plants, shredded window blinds, and just all-around dinginess. It was also around 7 o'clock and overcast. So it was also dark. Well, we knocked. Nothing. Knocked again. Nothing. And then, the curtains on the inside of the door. Just barely. As if a hand grazed the edge of the curtain as it went to open the door. Then the door handle clicked around a little bit. But nothing happened. I'm telling you, it was another one of those absolutely creepy moments of my life where who knows what is about to open the door and eat me. Oh geez. It was just creepy. Well, no one ended up answering the door, but we did end up getting in contact with him later and he's a less active. When we went over the next time it was raining (woohoo!), and when we pulled up he was wearing, I kid you not, a homemade, cardboard Boba Fett costume. It was awesome. Turns out he makes tons of these super sweet, cardboard and plastic models of Star Wars, Star Trek, and tons of other movie ships and characters and stuff. It was pretty sweet. He has won contests and stuff. He does a good job with all these things. Spiritually, he's saddened because his mom passed away in May of this year but he wants to come back to church. So it was a good talk and we will be going back again this week. Lastly, I almost got attacked by my first dog! I'm not sure whether to be excited or worried. Just kidding, I'm obviously much more worried. I didn't get attacked, but as we were walking up to a door to contact a former investigator, this dog came up and was barking at us. Usually that's not that big of a deal because the dog will calm down when you let it sniff you. I tried to, but it went for a nibble. Not cool, so I said to Elder Bernhisel that he's not a nice dog. Each step closer to the door, the dog got more vicious and loud and finally halfway to the door it jumped at Elder Bernhisel and bit his slacks. Immediately we both turned around and got in the car. We weren't about to have anything worse happen. So at was exciting! Well, that's how things are going! I have been really blessed over my mission to see many blessings and miracles. I know God is a personal God. I know He watches over us and blesses us in many ways, even if they aren't good at first. God is always there. I promise! I'm super excited to see everyone again, but I've still got a good three weeks left of wearing he tag and I'm so glad I still have that much time left! It is such a blessing to serve my Lord! I love you guys! Have a great week! —Elder Cevering— - Exodus 14:14 -

Email September 21, 2015

Greetings once again! I hope y'all had a splendid week, I know that we did! To kick it all off, we visited a less active who owns an Australian hat store. He's an older gentleman. He and his wife are both super nice and love to talk, but we haven't been able to have a sit down lesson with them until this week. He took us into his house and we talked with him about his conversion and about church and it was a pretty good talk. We invited him to church and he said he might come, but the problem he has is that he will come a few weeks in a row, intending to become fully active again, but a few weeks into it he will have to stay home to help with some stuff and he won't come to church again after that for some reason. So we are going to see what we can do to help him stay actively coming, even if he has a week he can't come. We had a great visit with a family that is starting to go less active. We don't know much of their situation or why they are choosing not to come to church other than that there are some personal struggles, so we figured we would go over, get to know them, and share a message all about Jesus Christ, His atonement, and His love for us. So we did, and it was a really great night! The Spirit was there so strong. I love feeling the Spirit because it is just so peaceful and wonderful. It's unlike anything else in the world. To continue, the only fully active family member is the 16 year old daughter so we already know her, so we were happy to see the dad and one of the sons there the following Sunday! Given, the son is really into art and was asked to bring something artsy in for his class. But still it was a stellar night in their home. I know they felt the Spirit and I know we need to go back, we are just trying to find an excuse because we don't want to make it seem like they're a project. But they are an awesome family! With another person this week we got talking a little bit about 2 Nephi 4 when Nephi is lamenting because of his imperfections but follows it up with trust, confidence, and glory in God because of the atonement. This was so perfect for him because he feels like in the last 30 years of his less active life he has done things he can't be forgiven for, which we know for a fact he can be forgiven for. So we are trying to help him understand the atonement, the love of God, and mercy and grace. I can tell you it's so amazing to see people start to understand and apply these four simple gospel principles. They go from having no hope of making it back to the Celestial Kingdom to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again and being okay to make it just to the Terrestrial or even the Telestial Kingdoms, to having a knowledge of "the greatness of God," as Lehi puts it in 2 Nephi 2:2. I love seeing peoples' faith and hope grow as they come to understand the gospel. They become so happy and peaceful. He is still working on getting there, but he has taken some great steps so far! He read out loud for us this week which he hasn't done yet! He is honestly making some big steps, even though they are small things. It's so amazing! And then after the lesson he made us some stellar milkshakes! So good. One of our investigator's came to church this week! If I haven't told you about him yet then shame on me. He's the investigator who gave us a bunch of watermelon. Anyway, he has studied the Bible on his own for basically his whole life and has come surprisingly close to believing what we believe. However, he gets stuck on the small details sometimes instead of looking at the big picture. We have been working with him to help him understand what we believe and have invited him to church in the past, but he says he has gone a lot already and doesn't really like the big groups of people. So we talked about the reason we go to church which is the Sacrament, and he hadn't been taught that before! So after we finished talking about the importance of the Sacrament and invited him to church he said he would give it some honest thought. And look what happened! It was such a pleasant surprise to see him walk around the corner of the chapel! He's a really great guy, I'm glad I have to opportunity to work with him. We had dinner with a returning member and his family who are not members. He's a super nice guy! And it was a wonderful dinner! He is really hoping to have us over to his house more often to see how his wife takes it. She's supportive of him going to church but she isn't interested personally. But we can work with that! While we were over for dinner, we find out that her only son at home, who is 19, is going through a really tough time in life right now. So we talked a little bit about our purpose as missionaries and how we have seen peoples' lives change because they accept the gospel and it seemed like she really wanted us to try to talk to him. Unfortunately we weren't able to that night because he kept wanting to go back to his room and wouldn't stay out for very long even after we talked with him a little bit about how the gospel can help him. But he and his wife want us to try to come back soon to try again. So hopefully we will be able to and will be able to help him find where he can get the best help - from Heavenly Father! The last two are awesome miracles that have happened recently! One is a girl, I don't know how much I told you about her, if anything at all. We found her while she was trying to move a desk into her garage. There were three pieces so we pulled over and offered to help and after a second of persuading she said okay. We helped move the other two pieces and got talking and she said she and her fiancé would be okay with us coming back! Woot! So we set up a time, but it fell through. We made contact with her in person again this week and set up another time, but that fell through again. But it seems like she really wants to meet with us, so we aren't giving up yet! And finally we come to a man named Dylan! We were trying to contact a family with the last name of Wroe, but when he answered he said he didn't even know who we were talking about. Wrong number. However, we got to talking with him and it turns out he has a ton of stellar questions!! We were able to give him a Book of Mormon, teach quickly but powerfully of the Restoration of the gospel, and set up a return appointment. It was so awesome! Heavenly Father truly provided a miracle for us there! I love it when that stuff happens. He has a wife and two kids who might be open to learning as well, so hopefully that will work out too! Please keep all of these wonderful people in your prayers! Prayers absolutely work!!! Never think you aren't being heard! It's often when you feel you aren't being heard that Heavenly Father is really listening the most. He knows our trials, our pains, our challenges, and so much more, and He is closest to us when we go through them and ask for His help. He may not show His help immediately, but I testify it will come! I love you guys, have a stellar week! —Elder Cevering— - Exodus 14:14 -

Photos from Anderson, CA

Baptism of Katherine and road trip to Roseville for the baptism

Email August 31, 2015

Hello! Well everyone, so begins the last six weeks! I tell you what, it's a trip to think I've been gone for 98 so far! I know every missionary says it everyday, but it has gone by so stinking fast. The good thing is that it doesn't feel like I'm going home soon. I don't feel like I'm going to be home in six weeks so I don't feel very trunky, woohoo! It's just weird to think that at the beginning of last transfer there were two missionaries leaving in six weeks and they were saying how weird it feels. And now I'm in their shoes. Crazy. Anyway! On to more focused things! We got transfer calls last night, the last call I will ever have to worry about, and our area is being split! But that's okay, because we covered two wards anyway so now there's one companionship per ward. Woo! Elder Bernhisel and I had a goal to have enough work that we would have to bring in another set of missionaries and it looks like it happened! What an incredible blessing! And the missionary who is coming up is a missionary I served around at the very beginning of my mission and I love him! He is training a new missionary and I'm super excited for both of them. They're going to have a blast. So the area that I get to serve my last six weeks in is the Anderson Ward as a Zone Leader. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to be here! It's going to be an amazing last six weeks! I have a goal set for this transfer, and that is to hand out an entire box of Book of Mormons, which is about 40 or so copies. That means I'll have to hand out one a day for the rest of my mission in order to achieve it. But I didn't just set the goal, I feel it was so,etching the Spirit told me I could do. I was in MLC last month and we were talking about finding and something just clicked in my head and in my heart and gave me the idea.my thought process then goes as follows: If I have been called of God to serve in the California Roseville Mission, He is not going to let me fail. If He is not going to let me fail, then wherever I'm assigned to serve I'll see success. And if a successful missionary isn't measured by number of baptisms but by how diligently he serves, then if a missionary can hand out a Book of Mormon a day he is successful. Plus, the goal of a Book of Mormon a day isn't that hard when you really think about it. So I came to the conclusion that I will work my hardest to hand out an entire box of Book of Mormons this transfer. And I am so excited to get started. It is going to be a stellar transfer! Then I extended the same goal/challenge to Elder Raab and Elder Dixon, the two missionaries I trained (and Elder Dixon is training this transfer, so I have a GRANDSON in the mission! Woooooot!), and Elder Jensen, my mission brother (who is also training so I will also have a mission nephew! Hachow!). I am hoping they will do it with me because how amazing would that be? If successful, 120 Book of Mormons handed out in four different parts of the mission! What an amazing vision! I just hope it all works out! Well this week was another great week! We had a bunch of awesome lessons with our less actives and investigators! It's going to be hard, though, because we had more work in Cottonwood than in Anderson and because Cottonwood is a beautiful area, but I'm really excited to just go back to working and focusing on one area. It'll be hard to say goodbye to some of the members in the Cottonwood Ward, especially our WML and family, the Kings because they are awesome! But we have a lot of great people in Anderson too. There was a great lesson, with an investigator who is deaf, about the Plan of Salvation and he understood it all so that was hecka sweet! We invited him to read/watch the Book of Mormon (ASL needs to be watched, not read) and pray to know if it is true and he said he would. Then we invited him to be baptized if he came to know it was true and he said he would be. Yahoo! We are so excited for him! But it'll be hard for us and for him to get another new set of brand missionaries. However, the Lord knows what He is doing and I trust Him. I'm running short on time, but I want to let you in on an insight from my studies this morning: when the Lord commands Nephi to build a ship, we all know that Nephi doesn't ask why and doesn't complain but goes right into doing what he needs to do to construct the ship. Well, just a short time later, Nephi tells us that the Lord shows him where to find ore to molten tools for the construction. Then he continues on to tell us that he made a bellows to blow the fire that he makes by smiting two stones together. Not very significant, right? We all know that will produce sparks. So why did Nephi include it? The phrase that came to mind was "first and forever fan the fire of your faith," a quote from a talk by a Elder Holland. Fire = Faith. So, how do we produce faith? If faith is more than mere belief, then we need two things: Desire and Action. I know Nephi literally meant two stones made fire, but spiritually to make a fire, to have faith, we need to have a desire and we need to act on that desire. Then we have faith. But how do we keep our faith strong? Lots of things! That's why the bellows is a constant thing! We need to be constantly fanning our faith with obedience, diligence, patience, perseverance, and so many more things! And the more we apply these things, the stronger we can make our faith! So the question I leave with you is: what are you going to do to fan the fire of your faith? I love you guys! Love, —Elder Cevering— - Exodus 14:14 -

Email August 24, 2015

Hello family! Well, what can I say? Just another week in paradise! Although, it is a little smoky here. But that's okay! We still do great here in Anderson. We had a couple good lessons. One of them was with an 8 year old boy who is the nephew of one of our bishops and his other nephew who is 14. We taught them about who Heavenly Father is and what prayer is and how we do it. It was a great lesson! And at the end, the 14 year old said the closing prayer and it was an amazing prayer! They might have to go back down to their mom soon, though, and she doesn't nearly go to church anymore. So we are hoping they don't have to go back because they have a really rough life down there with her in SoCal. Another awesome lesson that we were blessed to have was with that deaf investigator! We had the lesson during church because their usual teacher was gone, it was super awesome! Sign language is so powerful. As we reviewed the First Vision, he told it to us in sign and the interpreters interpreted for us and it was just incredible. He said he knows the First Vision is true and that as he was taking the Sacrament he finally felt the Spirit. It was so awesome. The Spirit isn't bound to language! And that is phenomenal. We had a lesson with a man. It was sweet! We talked about repentance and the Atonement and how we can have those restarts when we truly want them. He said he's not quite ready to give up his earthly desires, but that he wants to. It was kinda a weird paradox, but ultimately he ended up to agreeing to read 1 Nephi 1 and asking us to send him scriptures at other times during the week too. It was a powerful lesson! The a Spirit was so strong as we promised him he could be forgiven! It was hecka sweet! We met with another less active who wants to start coming back. He's 25 and a great guy, but has had bad luck for a while with sickness. But he wants to start coming back because he sees a difference since he hasn't been coming to church. It's amazing how big of a difference the gospel makes! And last lesson we had with a guy where we testified of how the gospel can bless his family. He has been talking with some of our members and saying he wants to do,e to church and give up some word of wisdom issues, and so we are going to go over next week and start teaching. We are really hoping he and his family are ready! Please pray for all of these people! I know the gospel is true. As I have reflected in my mission I know I have seen God work miracles. Not just for others, but for me too. Sometimes it's not even something big. Usually miracles are brought to pass by the small and simple acts we choose to do every day. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. I know this is true. Never worry about choosing to do one small right thing not being enough. That could lead to another. And then to another. And soon enough, you've got a lifestyle of righteous living. And righteous living produces miracles. Why? Because we are always acting in faith! And God works by faith! Remember to always act by faith, and not by sight! The Lord is on your side whether or not you see Him. And my quote of the week: "Sin is always weakness, but weakness isn't always sin." Have a great week! I love you guys! Love, Elder Cevering

Email August 10, 2015

Hello from smoky Anderson, California! I hope you have all had a great week! Boy did I have a fantastic week! I'm going to start off by saying we had so much more success than I thought we did. Don't you just love that? When you take a minute and really reflect on everything that you did and you realize how much you really did do? I love that! These last couple of weeks have been awesome at that. It catches me by surprise every time haha. We were able to get into contact with a few more people in our teaching pool who we haven't yet been able to contact, and that was awesome! At one lesson with a man told us that he wants to be baptized and he's just waiting for his best friend in the church to baptize him, but he's not ready. He doesn't want to come to church because he doesn't like being around other people and because he focuses so much on each and every word that he really loses the meaning of everything. I mean, yeah it's cool to know what the words mean, but if you focus too much on the little details you're going to miss the grander scheme of everything. So we will continue working with him, he can make it! There is another couple we work with and they are a less active older couple. They're super nice people and they love the gospel. We go over once a week and read out of the old gospel principles manual with them and they always enjoy it. They are really sweet and kind. Another man we're working with has this amazing 70's hair and is just kind of stuck in the 70's all around. It's pretty awesome! We went over and answered more of his questions. He was really stuck on a lot of the deeper things he has been reading in the D&C and in the Pearl of Great Price, so we ended up just talking about how we need to have faith first and then everything else will fall into place. We will be able to know these things are true because we already know that everything else is true. So we spent a lot of time on the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a really powerful lesson. He is really emotional about the gospel because he knows the blessings he can receive through it. It's so awesome. And one of the greatest parts of this week was the blessing I had to go down and attend and be a part of the baptism of Kathryn Wise from Roseville! She had asked me to baptize her and I got permission to go and it was this week! We went down Friday night right after dinner, so we left between 7 and 7:30 and got down to Roseville at 10pm. We stayed the night with Elder Wilding and his new companion, Elder Poulter, and had a great night. Then the next morning we got up, showered, and went straight to the church to fill the font. It was so good to see people from Roseville again! I got to see one of my bishops and his wife, Rick and Kathryn obviously, the stake president and his 1st counselor, and my ward mission leader. And all of the missionaries there too! It was so awesome! It was an incredible, spirit filled meeting, like baptisms always are. And I'll tell you what, it was such a blessing to be able to be in the water and baptize Kathryn. She has such a great faith in Jesus Christ and it is only going to continue to grow. After the ordinance, I walked into the bathroom to change and just dropped to my knees and thanked my Heavenly Father. For everything. For the opportunity I have to have the gospel in my life, for the opportunity to be a missionary and to have taught Kathryn, for the opportunity to hold His priesthood and perform saving ordinances, and so many more things. I had a burning in my bosom that I cannot deny was the Spirit confirming to me the truth of all of these things. I know the gospel is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. Tomorrow morning I will be finishing the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission. I have taken my time and I am so grateful for it. I know for a fact that it this book is true and that without it I would not be who I am today. This gospel has changed my life. I don't know where I would be without it. I know I wouldn't have nearly as much hope or peace or comfort. I know this church and gospel have brought me so much more help and it will only continue to do so. I know the gospel can and will do the same thing for you, but you need to let it. The gospel changes not only our lives, but also our eternities. Don't let your current situation drag you down. Accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. Live it. Love it. It will change your life. I love you guys! I can't wait to see you in 9 weeks! Single digits, you guys! I love you! Love, Elder Cevering

Email August 5, 2015

Greetings from a warm and sunny Anderson, CA! It was a warm 115 degrees here last week! Anyway, this week was a pretty stellar week! We are still kind of figuring out our area, but we are getting our head back on. Slowly but surely. But we had a great week! It's a good time having two missionaries brand new to an area haha. We were able to meet more of our investigators and less actives and ended up having a lot more lessons than we thought we would! One of our investigators wants to be baptized. But her husband is less active and doesn't want her to be baptized and neither does her nonmember dad. She is kind of waiting for them to soften their hearts a little bit more before she makes the decision to be baptized. Plus, from the way she was talking it sounds like she doesn't quite understand some of the commandments just yet. So we will be working with her on that. She's super awesome though! She bought us Razzlicious frozen yogurt at our lesson this week! And on every third Sunday, she helps with the sign language in sacrament meeting! Wow! Haha! Another investigator lives in an old veterans home. It's a suuuuuper nice facility. He's super hard of hearing, so you almost have to yell at him to make sure he hears what you say. He wants to be baptized, but more out of respect because he has been coming to church for a while. And I get the feeling he doesn't quite get the necessity of prophets either, so we are planning on teaching him about both the reasons for baptism and prophets. It's amazing how those both happen to fit under the Restoration lesson! Haha. But he's a really nice, funny old guy. We also met with a part member couple. He is the member and his wife is investigating. We were able to get to know them and start to help them understand the blessings that come from reading the Book of Mormon. They have a recently newborn son and they just love him to death and he's adorable. Our focus is to help them see the blessings he gospel can bring to their family and we are hoping and praying they will have a desire to act from there. Another less active man we are working with has a pretty sweet story too! He fell away when he was in his late teens or early twenty's and married out of the church. His wife suddenly passed away a while ago and it has left him in shambles. He said one day he just got this random impression to go to the temple and get the work done for his wife and him so they can be sealed together. So he followed through. He is an amazing example of receiving a spiritual prompting and immediately doing it. And his love for his wife is incredible as well! He is an awesome man doing great things, all out of love and desire to receive the blessings the gospel can bring to him and his family. I know I have said it before, but it's a miraculous thing to see someone's life turn completely around and change. So there are just a few of the people we are working with, I'm sorry if it seems short haha. I don't have much time. I wanted to let you all know some stellar news! I got permission to go down to Roseville and perform Kathryn Wise's baptism!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm so stoked!!! As far as I know it's still on and we will be heading down Friday night for the baptism Saturday morning and then driving back up afterward. Please continue to pray for Kathryn that she will stay strong in her commitment! And lastly, funny story for the week: we went and had dinner with the bishop of one of the two wards we cover and his daughter and her fiancé are there as well. After we tell them our names, Bishop Jones (mom, dad, grandma and grandpa heiner - he knows the Rule family who live in our stake!) tells them that I am from the northern part of South Africa and that Elder Bernhisel is from Germany! Immediately they start asking if it's true and we just thought we would play along. It was soooooo funny!!! Elder Bernhisel played it off that his family was in the Air Force and they lived there for years and I said that because I had been out for so long I had lost most of my accent. They were asking us what our reaction was to getting our calls to California and what our homes were like and we even got them to show us pictures of Yosemite and Yellowstone because they really believed we had never seen these places before! It was sooooooo hilarious! Oh goodness it was so funny. Y'all should have been there! Good times! Well, everyone. I hope you all have a good week. Know that God is truly watching over you. No matter what. He can't control the choices of others, but He can help us have the strength to make it through the tragedies of life. Faith is not something that will act upon us, Faith is something we need to act upon. And faith, when acted upon, Brings miracles into our lives and we truly see the power of God helping and guiding us. I know it's true. I know this gospel and the Book of Mormon to be true. I know these things because the Holy Ghost has testified to me through powerful witnesses and through small and simple assurances. I love you guys! Have a stellar week!! Love, Elder Cevering

Elder Cevering's District in Roseville

Email July 20, 2015

Good Afternoon! Unfortunately, I don't have a ton to report on this week. I really wish I had more, but we had to do a ton of zone leader reports, plus we were preparing for a mini missionary (a boy who lives in our area and will be serving a mission in the future - it gives them a chance to see what a mission is really like by living the mission life with us for a few days) to serve with us this weekend, and this was the final week of the transfer so we were trying to get ready for some of that, plus we had to attend all of the zone's district meetings - it was just a lot of stuff. However, we did get to have a few choice lessons so that was wonderful! We were blessed to find 3-4 potential investigators with good promise, so Elder Wilding and his new companion will be able to work with those and that will be awesome. He and Elder Poulter, this missionary replacing me, will be blessed to see a lot of work come! And Elder Wilding will be keeping me updated on things, so I'm excited for that. We had a lesson with a potential named who has some friends in the church and started coming to church because of the happy feeling he gets whenever he is with them. So he figured there was something to it, and we had a lesson! It was really great as we talked about the Restoration and he had a couple awesome questions as well. We ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and testified how all of the questions he had could be answered by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We testified of the awesome blessings that can come into our lives as we find this truth and promised he could have that happy feeling all of the time as he is able to have the Spirit with him when he keeps covenants with Heavenly Father. It was a really good lesson! Hopefully something comes out of it because at the end of the lesson he said he will need some time to think about it all. So we're praying he will read and pray with real intent. Should be great. He is super ready for the gospel. We had a lot of lessons with less actives in both wards and those went well, although only one of them came to church this week. Dang it. :( But the one who came to church has made a complete change in her life ever since she started meeting with us. And I would have never known it if she hadn't talked about it. So it was super awesome to hear the changes that the gospel has made in her life. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has used me as an instrument in His hands and that is one of the greatest feelings ever. And due to a combination of lack of things to talk about and lots of things I need to do still here, I have to cut this pretty short. Transfer calls are in! I am heading up to a small town about 10 minutes south of Redding called Anderson! I am going to be a zone leader there and I am doing something called "shotgunning," which is when the companionship is brand new to the area. So this ought to be fun! There are also two other companionships who will be shotgunning, so over half of the Anderson zone is going to be brand new to the area. It is going to be a lot of fun. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve! I'm pumped for the chance to shotgun and it is going to be a blast. My new companion's name is Elder Bernhisel (sounds like burn-high-zull). I'm just so pumped. Out of the 10 missionaries in the Anderson zone, six of them are going to be brand new to the zone. So that will be very interesting. I have had the APs and President tell me that they are sending me up there to help with the entire zone because they haven't had a baptismal date in the whole stake for months. It's a huge compliment. I don't want to let them down. I'm going to work real hard and hope to see some success there before I come home. It's going to be so awesome!!! I love the gospel, I love the Book of Mormon, I love my Heavenly Father. Stay true to Him at all times, even when it is hard. It will bless your lives more than you know. I promise you that. It's going to be hard to trust in Him, but I promise you will never experience more happiness than when you act in faith. I love you guys, have a safe week! Love, Elder Cevering

Email July 15, 2015

Good Tuesday! (Now Wednesday...) I am so sorry to have to write today. I wish I could have written yesterday, but our pday was kind of stolen from us. Story time! We got a call about 9:15am from the mission office that someone needed some help moving 3 big pieces of furniture io storage. They would meet us at the storage place and we would move it in and be done, no big deal. We get there at 10, when we were supposed to, and they don't show up for another hour. We get into the storage unit and there's an entire 26' Uhaul truck there. They open it and it's full. And instead of just moving 3 big furniture items, we move the entire truck. Almost by ourselves as well! Not that I don't like providing service, but something we figured was going to take 20 minutes ended up taking 4 hours. It took literally half of our pday. But now since our pday was moved to yesterday, we had to squeeze it in between all of our appointments so I didn't have a ton of time to write, this is all just a bunch of little pieces put together. On Tuesday we had a great opportunity to visit a former investigator. He's pretty awesome! He was asking us questions left and right and gave us a lot of opportunity to bear our testimonies of the gospel, of why we are out on our missions, etc. and it was super awesome! We were blessed to talk about a lot of different things that mean a lot to us and he said he's pretty open and loves to hear about different religions and says if he were to find what he feels God is telling him is right, that he would join himself to it! So that was a great experience! We are going to be seeing him again soon! Also on Tuesday, we stopped by and tried to see another former. He had a baptismal date in the past but never made it and the teaching appointments randomly stopped for no reason. So we decided we would go over and see him, which we are glad we did because he still has his Book of Mormon and said he would start reading it! So we left him to read 3 Nephi 11 and got his phone number and we'll be stopping by this week to see how he liked what he read! He wants to meet up this week and seems pretty excited to do so! We had a lesson last Monday with a lady we've been teaching and talked about the second half of the Plan of Salvation and it went super well! The Spirit is so strong every lesson we have with her and her husband. It is so amazing, I love it. She already has such a strong faith in Christ and it is so cool to see it in action! Whenever we teach something she has never heard of before, she always says "That's new, but I like it," or something similar and she is always willing to try it out! She and her husband are on a cruise to Alaska for a honeymoon and they get back this week so we'll be able to have a lesson with them this week! It's kind of funny, though, because after we taught her about the word of wisdom, the husband said something along the lines of, "Well, we have been trying to figure out if we should get a new coffee machine. I guess this is our answer." Haha! It was awesome. It was an opportunity for me to see God's hand directing me because I felt at the end of the lesson that we needed to discuss the Word of Wisdom, and so I acted in faith and brought it up and it was a big blessing! One lady we are teaching has pushed her baptism off indefinitely. Which I am okay with because she is not ready for baptism. She could be, but she hasn't been doing anything for herself to gain a testimony because she is so sidetracked by all of the crazy things that are going on in her life right now. So I am okay with her saying she wants to wait because it's going to help. She just needs help to meet her temporal needs before we can meet her spiritual needs. So that's our plan! We talked with Ali - the girl we baptized a few months ago - after Sacrament meeting and she said she has been looking at the papers for serving a mission!!! ALI MIGHT SERVE A MISSION. Ah!!! That would be so incredible. She would have to wait a year, but it would be so amazing to hear if she serves! And that's about everything I can say for now! I love you guys! I know the gospel is true! It changes lives. That I have seen time and time again on my mission. If you are dissatisfied with your life in any way, use the gospel of Jesus Christ. Live it. Live it fully. Blessings and miracles will flow into your life from heaven. I love you guys! Have a great week! Love, Elder Cevering

Email July 6, 2015

Goooooood afternoon! Happy late 4th of July & Independence Day!!! It is so amazing to know that God is watching over us. It's really sad to see everything that is happening because we are slowly losing our freedoms. But I know that if we are faithful, Heavenly Father will keep the promise that He made to us that we will be able to stay a free people. I am so grateful for all of the people who have given their lives and who still give their lives in defense of this country and all of the rights and privileges that we enjoy. This truly is a God-blessed land! I was really blessed this week to be able to have an interview with President Marston! It was time for the quarterly interviews and mine was super awesome! We had a really good talk. One of the subjects has been something President has been talking a lot about lately, the Good/Better/Best spectrum. He said something that really made me feel so good. President said he trusts me because he feels I will always choose the best. That came as a huge compliment to me because I constantly worry about how good of a missionary I am. And when he said that it made me feel so good. I love President Marston!!! So on to the missionary work! We were able to have some good lessons this week, although we had so many people out of town so it was hard to have lessons. It's like it was a holiday week or something. This week was really good though! We had a really good talk with an investigator last night. She is getting the gravity of everything! And that is super awesome! We talked with her and decided, with her, to move her baptismal date back one more week so that she has more time to pray and to study and ponder. Things that we were telling her over and over to do, but that she wasn't doing. One of her close friends really got her thinking about what this all could mean and it has affected her so she is really thinking about it now in a way that she hasn't before. Pray for her that she will find the answer that baptism is what Heavenly Father wants for her! We also had a great lesson with another investigator. And, as of this last week, she is married! She and her member fiance got married! We had an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation and most of it is stuff she hasn't heard or thought of before, but she feels it is good! She is praying and studying and she is excited for a baptismal date that we set with her for August 1st! Please keep her in your prayers that she will pray and study and come to know that these things are true! August 1st is going to be an amazing day! Transfers are coming up in two weeks and I only have 2 more so I might be going somewhere! It will be crazy to see because 2 transfers isn't a long time to spend somewhere, but it is enough to still be transferred to a new area. So I have no idea what will happen! I'm honestly fine with whatever happens. I think it would be super awesome to train again because that's how long the program is to train a new missionary, but I have no idea what will happen. Again, I just honestly want to do whatever Heavenly Father wants me to do! I love you guys and I know that the gospel is true! I have been super blessed by Heavenly Father this last week to see a lot of different ways my testimony has grown and become stronger since I left on my mission. It makes me think about the blessing it is to have a testimony and really truly how much stronger our testimonies are than we often think. I have been reading in 3 Nephi, it's where I am in my personal studies. And I absolutely love how the Book of Mormon shows Jesus Christ's love for His people. I know Jesus Christ is there, He is real, and He loves us. He loves everyone, no matter what. He is perfect and His love is perfect. It's always there! I love you guys! Have a fantastic week! Love, Elder Cevering

Two good looking missionaries!!! :-)

Email June 29, 2015

Hello! It's hot! Supposed to be a nice warm 111 on Wednesday! It has been hot all week! 100+ every day if I remember correctly. Warm. :) We spent a lot of time trying to contact former investigators and updating their information and haven't seen much success with them yet. But we will keep on trying because I have faith that former investigators are a great resource for finding new investigators! Plus, a good number of them have had testimonies at one point so all we would need to do is help them find it again. Harder than it sounds, but it provides great opportunities! We were able to have some good lessons! We were finally able to meet an investigator's son who is less active and he's super cool! It's really sad that he and his older brother had a bad experience at church and aren't willing to give another ward a shot. We invited him out to church and he said it is a 50/50 shot. Didn't come. Neither did our investigator. They need your prayers!!! She has started to read sporadically from the Book of Mormon, which is good, but it's not quite enough. Keep them in your prayers. We had an AWESOME lesson with one of our investigators! We were able to get some things out of him that are concerning him. It's all based around his family too which is super cool because it shows he loves his family. We had the lesson at his girlfriend's home like usual and her mom sat in and shared her conversion story. She shared how it was important to her that she converted for the right reasons, not just for her husband (boyfriend at the time). I think that was really good for our investigator to hear. He and his girlfriend are starting to read more and have committed to being more committed to their studies and they committed together at the end of the lesson to study more deeply and to pray more to know if these things are true. I know that if he does, he will find the answer that it is! And that will bless his life so much. We were able to talk to him about sealings and how his family, if they aren't able to accept the gospel in this life, will have the opportunity to accept it in the next and he felt really good about that. It was a great lesson, definitely very guided by the Spirit. Please keep him in your prayers that he will read and pray and receive the answer that will come to him! There was a lesson we had with a less active YSA who moved in not too long ago. The lesson was about prayer and how it is essential to gaining our testimonies. We shared the story of Enos and he really liked it. We talked a lot about how Enos describes his prayers and how he receives his testimony and it was a great lesson! The Spirit was strong there as he shared his desire to be fully active in the church again and gain his testimony again. He works with another YSA member who has gone less active recently and he said that he is going to try to get him to come back to church as well! How awesome is that! Alex is super cool! At our lesson with an investigator and her daughter we found out that they watched the Book of Mormon movie, the one that covers 1 Nephi through part of 2 Nephi, and they loved it! The coolest part is that it was shortly after we invited her husband into the lessons and HE was the one who looked it up! It got them excited to keep reading! They really wished there was another movie, but there isn't. :( However! We had a good lesson! She had some concerns about Joseph Smith because she heard that some of his prophecies haven't come true yet. So we are a little worried about potential anti stuff, but we had a really good talk about reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it yields an answer that man cannot give nor take away. It is a God-given answer and what is given by God overpowers what humankind says. Basically saying that no matter what you read or hear, if you read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and get the answer that it is true, anything anyone else says about it doesn't matter because you know, from God, that it is true. They really liked that too! So they committed themselves to reading and praying about it every night as a family!!! Please, please, please keep them in your prayers that they will keep their commitment! And also please pray that their daughter will be able to make it to Girls Camp! We did see a few other choice people with good lessons, but I'm running out of time so I'm going to tell why this week was so crazy: like I said earlier, most of the first few days of the week were spent knocking on formers' doors and either getting no answer, finding out they had moved, or hearing they aren't interested. It yielded no fruit. :( So over the next few days it got a little better, but it was still pretty unfruitful when it comes to finding new people to teach. Friday right after our prayer for weekly planning we get a phone call from a guy who needs help moving. So! We went. And then when we got back we got stuck in a conversation with our missionaries about some stuff going on in the zone. And we had very little time to plan so we got almost nothing done before we needed to leave. Then that night after a lesson we got a phone call from a companionship saying they're stranded and needed help getting home because their bike tires popped and were on the opposite side of their area and it was 9:30. So we went and rescued them and didn't get in until around 10, 10:15. Then the next day we had to take them to the bike shop and then take them home and we decided to help them fix their bikes. But it took forever. Then we had to have a talk with them because they have been struggling within the companionship lately and it's getting really visible and so we wanted to help it get better ASAP. Then we find out that our quarterly interviews with President are taking place on Wednesday, district meeting on Tuesday, and we have our weekly MLC meeting on Thursday. We have to talk with the whole zone about goals and a number of other things. It has just been thing after thing! Nonstop this week was crazy! But I loved it. I love the gospel. I love how the gospel gives us hope and help. I know there was an Atonement performed for all of us. I'm glad to know that the Atonement can strengthen me and can cleanse me. I'm glad to know that the Atonement gives us both the enabling power, or the strength and ability to overcome struggles and challenges in our lives, and the cleansing power, or the ability to be forgiven and purified. I'm glad to know that repentance was and is the first plan, and that it was never the backup plan. Repentance and change are real and they are made possible because of the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior. How amazing is it that even though we make mistakes, there are two perfect People out there saying "Look, you made a mistake. But that's all it was. It's not the end of the world, it's not the end of your life, it's not the end of your test. You've still got plenty of time to make it right. And with Our help, we know you can overcome this. We know that you don't have to always feel the guilt and shame and embarrassment of past choices. We know you don't want to feel those things. We know you're not perfect and We are willing to work with that because We love you and We want you to be with Us, forever!" The Atonement is real! Change is real! Repentance, change, and perfection in Christ are real! I know this is all true. I love you all! I hope you have an incredible week! God loves you! Never give up! Love, Elder Cevering

Email June 22, 2015

Hello! Email coming at you live from Roseville, CA! It's a brisk 90 degrees out there and not a cloud in the sky! Today is a nice, cool day! We had a great last few days! Last week as a whole was great, but you already heard half of it since I emailed on Wednesday last week so that saves me some time! Last Wednesday after Pday was over, we went on splits to go see an investigator and her daughter and when we were about to start the lesson the member with us, Brother Perry, invited her husband out the join us. She readily accepted, invited him, and he came out. Then Brother Perry had a beautiful monologue on why we want him to sit in on the lessons with his wife and stepdaughter. After a little bit of conversation, he opened right up and told us a lot about his past. He has been through so much. We were able to talk about how the gospel can bless him and his family. I was able to bear testimony of one of my favorite doctrines of the church, families being together forever. Come to find out that he has an adopted sister. It was an awesome lesson and he committed to coming to church, on the weekends that he doesn't have things going, and sitting in on the lessons with his wife and daughter. Please keep this whole family in your prayers, the gospel can bless them so incredibly much! We met with another person, I don't know how much I've talked about him. He's a member trying to become active again, but he has some learning disabilities so it has been tough. He asked for a blessing, so we gave him one, and had a good talk with him about some different things he wanted to know about. His progress is slow, and please keep him in your prayers! We visited another investigator for a short time also. She and her daughter are struggling with some things. Not spiritually, but physically. It has been tough on them. They say they are going through some family struggles. Please keep them in your prayers! They could really use some peace from the scriptures we left with them, so pray that they will read the scriptures we left! ! We had a great lesson on the first half of Plan of Salvation with another investigator. When we read Jeremiah 1:5 about God knowing Jeremiah before he was born and talked about the premarital life, she said that was something she had never heard or thought about, and that was really neat! We have her praying about that and about the rest of the Plan of Salvation we taught as well. She says her mind and heart are open and her member fiancé says the same, so that's good! She feels like this could be good, we just haven't been able to get much else out of her. She and her fiancé are getting married this week and heading out on a cruise right after, so we won't be able to see them for a week. Pray for her that she will pray and come to know these things are true! She's basically there, just needs to pray! Here comes the title story! We weren't in attendance, but we heard it after the YSA Ward block was over from a reliable source. Apparently there was a returning member who came into one of the classes and instead of sitting down just immediately made an announcement that he had a vision where Angel Moroni visited him and told him that he was supposed to save the corrupt government and a number of other things and he was so confused why the President of the church hasn't called him yet. So the bishop tries to kindly tell him to sit down and listen to the lesson and they can talk about that later, which brought the reaction to start cussing and threatening the bishop with a chair. The counsellors, two bigger gentlemen, got up and walked over to the member and escorted him out. Next class, the member was laying down on all of the chairs so no one else could sit on that row and created another little fuss and so the bishop and his counsellors made the decision to call the police and have them come. They handled it really well, no one was arrested or anything, they just told him to go home and cool down. They said he was welcome at the church, but he needed to go home and cool off before he could come back. So he did. And we heard all about it. Wild stuff happening! One thing I have been learning about recently is having confidence. Not necessarily confidence in ourselves, but confidence in Heavenly Father, in His guidance through the Spirit, and in His plan. Confidence in acting in faith. That has been something I have struggled with for a long time. I never know if what I'm thinking about doing is just me or if it is Heavenly Father's will. I pray to know and feel like I get nothing, which is the answer that is absolutely necessary for our growth. Having confidence is hard! Having faith is hard! But it is absolutely necessary. And as we do things that require faith and confidence, we will see the blessings of those actions flow into our lives. Heavenly Father wants us to be confident. Not in ourselves, but in our ability to trust in Him. We can do it. It just takes some time, work, and error, but soon we find the right way. And then if we can stay on that right way, we can know with a surety that our efforts are good enough. Go forward this week and act in faith with confidence! If it ends up being wrong, that's okay! Learn from it and do better next time! That's our whole purpose for being here! I love you guys, have a great week! Love, Elder Cevering AKA Dr Sev

Email June 17, 2015

Hello Family! This week was pretty awesome! Like you all remember, it was transfer week! So this is the first week with my new companion. HIs name is Elder Wilding. He's from Sugar City, Idaho, and he's super cool! We are very alike and we get along really well. It was really weird to see Elder Jones leave. We drove to the mission office five times in two days and then after the last time he was gone. Since he was the first companion I've been with who went home at the end of the companionship, it was weird to see that process happen. But it's all good, he's now in the land of eternal Pdays. Back to that mom who gave him life, haha. With all of our lessons last week, even though we couldn't really start proselyting until basically Thursday because we were figuring out the rest of transfer stuff Wednesday, we still had a good number of lessons. We had a couple lessons with a recent convert, please keep her in your prayers. She is struggling to come to church because of things that have happened between her and others at church and it has been really hard for her. We were able to have dinner and a lesson with an investigator and that was good! We set another baptismal date with her, farther out this time, July 11, and we have a plan with her to help her. Unlike before when we just invited her to do things and not constantly follow up. She's working with one of the members to read he Book of Mormon every day so it will be great! Please keep her in your prayers as well! She was really excited to announce her baptism in gospel principles class on Sunday, so that is super awesome! Things are starting to look good for her baptism already! A big shoutout goes to all of you who prayed that we would be able to meet up with one of our investigators again soon! It worked! Although our next meeting isn't until next week, we were finally able to get into her home and talk with her again. She is doing okay, just has had to be home watching her kids and can't come to church because she can't control all of her kids. It's not that she's bad at it, she's really good with her kids. Keep her in your prayers that we might be able to find a way to get her to church! We have been planning to go see a lot of former investigators and we stopped by to visit a family. The 15 or so year old daughter answered and said, "Oh hi, Elders." That took me off guard! The mom wasn't home and we don't think there is a father living there, but the daughter said that we could stop by after 6:30 to catch her home. So we were super excited! We got back that night to see them and we found a sticky note on the door saying that plans had changed, but hey at least they told us! We are going to try back again soon, please keep their family in your prayers that they will be open to listening again! One funny thing that happened last week was that I taught with a Sister Missionary! Now don't worry, it was totally appropriate haha. What happened was that our last mission leader conference (MLC) meeting happened before the transfer ended, but the zone meeting where we teach and announce everything from MLC didn't happen until after the transfers. But there was still one sister in the zone who had been to MLC last transfer since she had been to MLC, we decided together that we would give the two new missionaries half of the topic to study up on and we would present the other half together at zone meeting. So we did! It was so weird! But it was awesome! I don't know how many other missionaries get the chance to say they taught with a missionary of the opposite gender! Haha, but it was super cool. Her name is Sister Soliai and she's super awesome! She reminds me a lot of Mikayla, actually. She's Samoan, not Marshallese, but she is so much like Mikayla! She'll make a face or something and it'll make me think of Mikayla, it's super funny. But yeah, that was a really good experience! So many other amazing things happened is week too, but I don't enough time to cover it all. I never do! But things are going really well! Please continue to keep us missionaries in your prayers! We need all of the prayers we can get! Prayers really are so helpful because they are answered! You may not see it, but that's where the faith comes in. You've got more faith than you think you do! I promise you that! If you pray for someone else or even for yourself, that is an act of faith. And when we act in faith, Heavenly Father promises to bless us. I know this to be true. Go try it out for yourself! Go pray for someone this week and you will see the blessings of faith. I love you guys! Be safe and have a great week! The Lord loves you, this very day and always! Love, Elder Cevering

Look at all these ties!!!!! What's he going to do?!!!

Email June 8, 2015

Greetings from sunny California! Well it's that time of the year again! That's right, yard sale season has hit California once again! Oh, and it's summer too. Today's supposed to be 105! Woohoo! So this was a really good week! We had a lot more lessons than I was expecting to have, honestly. But it was really awesome! We were able to see one of our investigators again! He hasn't talked to his family yet, but said that he was going to this week. I hope he does but I'm not sure he will. We were able to get the shirts, and they're super awesome! I love mine. Plain white with a tropical pocket. Sweet. I love it. We taught about the Word of Wisdom and he doesn't have any concerns there so that's always good! We met with another investigator this week also. Her baptism didn't pan out for last week and it's not going to pan out for this week either. She just doesn't feel ready and so we are going to keep working with her and help her overcome any of the struggles she is concerned about. But hey, we are wanting to set a date for the end of June or early July so hopefully we can help her feel ready and gain a testimony of these things by then. We were able to have a super awesome lesson with a mom and her daughter!!! We invited them to be baptized and they said that they would! So we tried setting a date and the one we were planning on setting isn't going to work because the main fellowshipper isn't going to be in town. Dang. BUT! We are planning on aiming for the mid-July, aiming to have her baptized before girls' camp because how amazing would that be?!?! That would be so cool! Be baptized, confirmed, then head off to girls' camp. That would be spectacular. Keep them in your prayers! They really are doing so much more than you might think! The mom's heart really has been softened towards the gospel and she even said that she feels like it is right. They recognize the help it is giving her daughter and that is an incredible thing as well. It is really touching their lives and I am so excited for them. Please pray for the husband's heart to be softened that he might have a desire to learn as well! That would be so good for the entire family! Some of the less actives we have been working with have been coming to church a lot, and that has been so awesome! One in particular has been completely active since we started working with her. Blessing! She came to church yesterday and because it was fast Sunday she said to me, "I'll go up if you go up," meaning she'd bear her testimony of I bore mine. I said back to her, "That's not how a testimony works!" In a playful way. But then all three of us, her, Elder Jones, and I all got up and bore our testimonies. It was so great to hear her bear her testimony! That has been one of my favorite things about my mission is seeing peoples' testimonies and faith and knowledge grow. It is absolutely amazing! The best thing I have ever done in my life, no doubts, no questions. I love seeing lives and hearts change. So amazing. And it's all because of the Lord!!! He makes it all possible! We are nothing without Him, truly. Well, as for transfer calls I'm staying here in Roseville and Elder Jones is being transferred to the Taylorsville YSA Ward! He's going home! I say goodbye to him tomorrow morning and he hugs his mom 3 hours later! Haha it has been a privilege and an honor to serve with him. I am so grateful for all that he taught me, both with and without words. My new companion's name is Elder Wilding and I hear he's from Idaho. I'm excited to be his companion! It's his first time being a zone leader so I get to train him on being one, so that's exciting! I have high hopes for this companionship and for Roseville in its entirety! Miracles are going to happen! I love this gospel and I love seeing the blessings that come from it. I know it is true and I know that it is good. I know that it changes lives for the better, that happiness comes from doing what's right. I know that Heavenly Father is a loving god who watches over and cares for and guides all of His children to happiness. It's our part to choose that happiness! It's there for us, we just need to reach out and grab it! I challenge each of you this week to figure out a new way for you to reach out and grab that everlasting happiness. I know each of you can find it! I love you guys! Y'all are in my prayers! Have a great week! Elder Cevering

Email June 1, 2015

Hello Everyone! This week was pretty sweet! I hope you're ready because there is a lot of info! Starting off with one of our investigators! He hasn't talked to his family about his baptism so he's not officially on date for June 20th, but every time he and his girlfriend talk about it it's only a positive thing, so that's a good sign! And a cool thing about them is they are trying to start a clothing line and they were showing us pictures last night before our lesson and they were kinda cool. They're gonna make some for Elder Jones and I and give them to us for free! He and his girlfriend are so cool, haha. Right now they just have shirts because they are barely starting, but they're planning on extending to more. The shirts are a regular shirt that's either a solid black or white with a patterned pocket sewn on. It's really simple, but kinda cool. I'm excited to get mine at the next lesson haha. Lesson-wise, we taught about the 10 Commandments, the Law of Chastity, and Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. They had some good input and we had fun learning the 10 Commandments with the funny little hand signs! But really, those hand signs are life savers. I wouldn't have been able to learn the 10 Commandments perfectly in order without them. They're stellar. He is going to talk to his family about baptism into the church the next time he sees them, so keep him in your prayers! One of our investigators came to church again and, as far as we know, had another good time! She's asking such great questions too! She's going to Sunday school with the youth her age and the teacher is just fantastic at answering her questions! Although he feels kinda bad because he's supposed to be teaching a specific curriculum to the class but wants to answer all of her questions too. But he said she's a golden one and we completely agree. Keep her in your prayers, she's super awesome and really is golden! She even attended the baptism of another family this week and had a great time there too! She feels the Spirit, but doesn't recognize it yet. She said she feels like the church can give her hope and boy did we agree and testify! Haha. Her mom had her heart soften some, thanks for the prayers! She wants to learn what we believe, but doesn't want to come to church until she knows more. But we are just excited to know that she does want to learn what we believe! And she almost came to the same baptism and to church also, but didn't end up coming to either one, it's just a matter of time, though! The only contact we have had with another investigator recently is just a brief conversation as she was heading out the door. She still does want to be baptized, but she doesn't think June 6th will work and to be honest it won't anymore. She has just been incredibly busy and stressed because her autistic child has been acting up lately and it's causing lots of problems. Please keep her in your prayers! Another couple we’re teaching just need to come to church! Haha. We had an awesome lesson with them on Saturday and they said they want to come to church really badly and basically promised they would be there. Their daughter was really sad they haven't come yet and said that she really wants to. We set up a time that we would come see them Sunday morning before church to make sure they're coming and they agreed. Next day (Sunday) rolls around and we get a text from them saying that their daughter is going to be with her dad for the morning, but that they will both make it to church in time! We ask them if they still want us to come by in the morning and they said no need to because they will be coming. Then they don't show up. We get a text halfway through the Sacrament saying the daughter was still with her dad even though they shouldn't have been that long and that they won't make any more promises to be at church but will come when they come. We are going to stop by and talk with them about it. Keep them in your prayers that they will come to church soon! They now have two Book of Mormons on their house and they're excited to read them and they'll be praying too! They said that the "Mormon Church" feels the most natural or all of the churches they have tried, and they haven't even come to church yet! Woo! Another investigator is doing well! She hasn't broken the Word of Wisdom these last two weeks and she sold she doesn't even have a desire to anymore so that's awesome! Unfortunately she's having some big medical problems at are causing a lot of pain. But it's funny because she wanted a blessing to help her stop drinking coffee so we gave her one at a dinner appointment we had with her at the Summers' home and that night her medical problem began, which caused her to not be able to drink coffee or else she would experience a great deal more pain. Blessing in disguise? I think yes! She came to church this week finally! And she should still be able to make her baptismal date on June 6th, this coming Saturday! We are just making sure some of the people she wants there can make it and it'll be set. Pray that it'll work out!!! We had a lesson with another investigator, don't know how much I have told you about her. We picked her up as a potential a few weeks ago for the YSA Ward, but this week became a new investigator! She has asked us some good questions and we have taught her about the Restoration and about the principle of repentance and baptism, how it's a complete restart with a clean slate. She really likes that idea and wants to have it in her life. She is super golden as well! At a lesson this week she said that she has felt more connected with our church than she ever has with her own, Greek Orthodox, and she has only met with us for an actual lesson two times. Holy cow. Pray for her, she is super awesome and golden as well! Well, Elder Jones goes home next week! Tuesday the 9th to be exact. So my next companion will be here then! I'm excited but also a little worried. Haha. Transfers are always exciting! Speaking of going home though, as of Friday I started what's known as the Doctrine and Covenants countdown! Which means at 138 days left, you start reading he Doctrine and Covenants backwards! It's a countdown, but it's the scriptures too! And honestly the four sections I have studied so far I have gotten a lot out of. It has been awesome! And this is for my mom: I'm on section 134, so I've got 134 days left! Hahaha I hope you guys have a great week, things are going really well out here! I know the Lord has a plan and though we might know completely understand it, I have a firm testimony that we will look back someday and know that what happened was for our own good. It's hard in the moment, I know that for sure. But I promise you that there is a reason for everything and that there is a plan in play. There is a method to all of this madness! I love you guys! Have a fantastic week! Elder Cevering

Jacob with his Mission president and with his companion

Email May 25, 2015

Hello from the land of 916! It's nice and sunny here in Roseville, CA! And it has been a great week as well! Well, we had a really great week! I honestly don't remember much of it...but we did have a lot of lessons work out which was super awesome! But the greatest news this week was that one of our investigators attended church! Woo! We are planning on meeting with him this week because they cancelled on us last week...but it should be good. He said he was going to talk to his family about his baptism and think about June 20th for his baptismal date, but we have no information as of yet. :/ I really want to meet with him soon! Keep him in your prayers! On Wednesday we stopped by an investigator's home, but we weren't greeted as well...by one of them, anyway. One of them has some hold ups about the Book of Mormon because she knows in the Bible it says not to add any more words to the book, but doesn't know that it means just those books (the Book of Revelation and Deuteronomy). We told her she isn't the first one to have that concern and that we would love to talk about it and thanks to the member I had with me (we were on splits) she agreed to talk about it again the next Wednesday. We ended up having a much better ending to the visit than it was looking at the start so it was great it ended well! We talked to the daughter as well and she was super bummed she missed church last week. So we set up a ride and a time to meet her Sunday morning to introduce her to the family who would be giving her a ride to church and it worked out perfectly! The Summers, the family who let me use their home for the call home on Momma's Day, came and picked her up and she had an awesome time at church!!! And she really wants to go to Youth Conference AND girls' camp! She is going to love it! I'm super excited for her! She seemed kind of confused and inundated with info at church but she said she felt really good there and so that's super awesome. Keep her and her family in your prayers! That she will continue wanting to learn and that her mom and her family will be teachable. So finally we were able to get some investigators to come to church!!! Again this week we weren't able to see one of our investigators who has been hard to catch. She has fallen off the face of the earth! It has been so crazy and so sad! She wants to be baptized and she doesn't have any bad feelings towards the church, she really likes church! She just has kept having these insane things come up that keep her from coming to church. It's so not cool. We are really worried about her...please pray for her that we will be able to get in contact with her! After trying to contact her one morning we walked across the street to see if another family was home and while we were leaving them a note, she pulled up in her car and we had a good conversation with her. One of the biggest things she told us is that when they missed church on Sunday her daughter was so sad and angry! She was so disappointed that she made her mom drive her over to at least see our church building. So that was AWESOME news! But they didn't come to church this week either...so we're going to stop by again. Please pray for them that they will continue to be open to learning and that they will come to church! Lastly, we had dinner at the Summers' with another investigator and it went really well. She asked for a priesthood blessing which never happens! We had to move her baptismal date back another week because she drinks coffee, but she is really progressing and that is super exciting! We are planning on visiting her multiple times a week to help her reach her goal. We really hope she can be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost so that she can receive His help in dealing with everything better. We have high hopes for her and she will be so awesome! Along with all of that, we had a really good week! We saw the most less actives I have ever seen in one week in my whole mission so that was super cool!!! Something I have seen a lot recently is how much Heavenly Father has a hand in my life. And not only mine, but everyone's! Sometimes it is hard to see in the moment, but it is in reflection that we see how far we have come and how things have worked out in our lives. God has a plan for us. For all of us. Look back in your life and see how the Lord has been guiding you, strengthening, preparing you! We have a great potential, everyone. God has promised us "All that He hath." And we can achieve it! I love you guys! Have a fantastic week! Love, Elder Cevering

The "Cook" of Mormon....Haha!

Email May 21, 2015

Hello! I hope this email finds you doing well. :) But if you're not doing well, hopefully this email can brighten your day because I have some amazing miracles to talk about!!! I know that it truly strengthened my testimony of a loving Heavenly Father who is perfectly aware of every one of His children's cries for help, and who wants to help guide His children in the right direction. And there are some funny things that happened this week too, so those could help as well! I guess to go in chronological order, Tuesday we had a zone conference! It was awesome, super good. Very uplifting, inspiring, and edifying. I love zone conferences. Elder Jones gave his departing testimony because he leaves in 3 weeks, crazy! And that made me think about the zone conference at which I'll be giving my departing testimony. If I have my dates correct, I give my departing testimony NEXT zone conference. Holy cow. Given that that conference is 3 months away. But it's still crazy to think that that will be my last zone conference in the mission! Wow. Time flies! I'm going to start it all off by saying I absolutely love President Marston! Man, President Marston is an awesome man! In our zone conference, towards the end, we were going over some announcements and as part of his presentation he pulls out a fake traffic light, turns it on, and sets it at the side of the pulpit so the lights are flashing from top to bottom. Then bends down again and grabs a school bus the size of a loaf of bread, turns that one on as well, and all these lights start pumping from the inside. Then he sets it down on the side of the pulpit next to the traffic light and it starts spinning in circles and after it almost knocked the traffic light off he grabs it and turns it off again. One of the missionaries in the congregation asks him where he finds all of these crazy things and he said, "If I tell you my secrets they won't be secrets." *Three second pause* "Amazon.com" Everyone lost it again. Man it was so hilarious!!! But don't go thinking President Marston is all fun and games with no work. He absolutely loves missionary work. His testimony of the gospel is incredible. His testimony of the Atonement is powerful. He is an absolutely incredible man and I am so grateful to serve under his leadership. That zone conference was absolutely awesome, it was such a revelatory experience and I learned so much. And recently my personal studies have been really fantastic as well! I am so grateful for the Spirit as well. God loves His children, that is for sure! Well onto the miracles quickly because I gotta go soon! Wednesday was our miracle day. Probably the best day I had on the mission, number-wise. Just to share those numbers, we had 2 member present lessons, 2 lessons without members present, 2 lessons with less actives or recent converts, and 4 new investigators. It was incredible. Miracle day, that's for sure. That morning we had a lesson with an investigator which went pretty well until she had to end early because one of her kids was having troubles at school and she needed to go pick her kid up. So we walked over to a neighbor who was outside watering her lawn the last time we were at Jeanette's and as we were about to knock on the door, she opens it and starts walking out without realizing we were there. She quickly saw us and flipped out because we scared her, but literally opened the door right up, came out, and asked us to sit down and talk with her for a little bit. She called out her 18 year old daughter and we talked about what we believe and it was just so amazing! Miracle find! They have been struggling a lot recently with family things and loss of pets. Then on top of that, they have tried all kinds of different churches in Roseville, but haven't found any they feel are right for them. However, they haven't tried the LDS church yet and they said they really wanted to! So we kept talking with them for a while and had a really good discussion, invited them to church, they said they would come, and we gave them our number and we got theirs and we parted ways. It was amazing! Then we had a pretty good day until we went on splits with the family ward missionaries. Myself and Brother Perry went to contact a media referral we got not too long ago. We knock on the door, they answer, confused faces. They ask us what we're doing and we told them someone referred us to go see them, so there we were. They had no idea who, but soon said that they think it could have been one of their LDS friends. They invited us in and we got talking and they asked us what makes our church different from the other ones. So into the Book of Mormon explanation we went! However, we started with the Joseph Smith story and First Vision and they said that it is an incredible story. We talked about the Book of Mormon a little bit and the wife asked us what our belief is on the Trinity. We told her we believe they are the Godhead, three separate, distinct Beings with one single purpose. She asked us who we pray to, we said God. She asked who through and we said Jesus Christ. Immediately she said, 'Thank you. If you had said anything else I would have been kind and polite, but that would have been the end of our discussion. I believe you always have to go through Jesus Christ to get to God." To which we readily agreed! They asked if we had any youth groups, so we talked about the young men and young women's organizations and she shared how her 17 year old daughter has been struggling for a while with deep depression and so they wanted to help her as much as possible. They have been trying a lot of different churches but haven't felt like any of them were right either. They also said they haven't tried the LDS church yet, but really want to! Then her daughter came out and listened to the conversation for a little. During a brief pause in conversation, the daughter spoke up and said, "Mom, isn't this ironic? Wasn't it just earlier today that we got down on our knees and prayed to God that He would send something to the door to help us?" Heavenly Father loves His children. We had an awesome visit with them, gave them our number, got theirs, gave them the info for church, set up a return appointment, and headed out for the night. I know God hears His children. I haven't had an experience like that before on my mission, but I had heard so many missionaries who did have them. I wanted one so bad and I have been asking Heavenly Father if I'm going to have one. And somehow He found in His infinite love and infinite mercy to give me a miracle like that. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching over me. For hearing my prayers. I know He watches over all of us and He cares about us. He not only wants to hear from us but wants to answer our prayers. And not only does He want to, but He does! I love you guys! Have a great week! Know that there is Someone watching out for you! He loves you! Go brighten someone else's day! Spread the love! Love, Elder Cevering

Photos with Elder Jones, Elder Rosenbaum, Sister Trease, and at MLC