Email March 2, 2015

Good Morning Family! I'm just chilling over here in sunny Roseville, California hoping you have all had a wonderful week! Reasons I say sunny: 1. It's sunny. 2. It's supposed to be raining. 3. Yesterday, basically all of Northern California was fasting for rain. So hopefully it's NOT sunny soon. :) I mean, I enjoy the perfect weather (yes, perfect, it has been absolutely beautiful weather here!), but how's not the time we need it. Right now we need rain and snow haha. And the Lord will give that to us because we are fasting and praying for it. Hopefully Utah is going to get some soon as well! I hear you need it over there pretty badly too! This week was a pretty amazing week! We met with most of our investigators and even had dinner with one in a member's home! With one couple, we talked about the 10 Commandments. It was really cool because right now they are reading from the Book of Mosiah, but they have been getting really confused with all of the different groups of people and the time in history - they are just confused. And it makes sense because the Book of Mosiah jumps around a lot and doesn't offer a ton of explanation. So we helped them clear up what was happening from chapters 5-11 and then they asked us if we could go over the next few chapters with them to help them understand what's going to be happening next. PERFECT. Led RIGHT into the 10 Commandments in chapters 12-14 when Abinadi is teaching the wicked King Noah and his priests the same 10 Commandments given to Moses that the priests were pretending to live and teach, but really weren't. So it worked out really well! Heavenly Father's plan is the best. We talked to them about church attendance because that is their big problem right now, they just don't come. They said it's not because they don't want to because they do, it's because they stay up really later (like between 2 and 4 in the morning) and miss church because they are sleeping. They said they have been working on coming to church and so they should be coming soon. But other than that they don't have anything holding them back from coming, that we know of. Actually, now that I think about it we did have a lot of lessons this week, but most of them were with one of our other investigators. So I'll get to those after I tell you all about Zone Conferences this week! Zone Conference was so awesome! The topic was conversion and boy was it amazing!!! Go read the talk given by Elder Bednar a few General Conferences ago entitled, "Converted Unto the Lord." It sums up everything that we talked about in our zone conference. I know that my testimony and conversion were strengthened because of the meeting. It was long, but it was incredible. A few of the biggest things I got out of this conference, and Elder Bednar says this in his talk, is that testimony is NOT a final destination; it is the point of departure. Gaining a testimony is one of the first steps to conversion, but once we have a testimony does not mean we can stop working. Conversion itself is a lifelong process, one that comes and goes as our obedience to the principles of the gospel comes and goes. It must always be worked at in order to always be strong. And one of the last things I'll share is that deeper conversion doesn't make things easy, but it makes things easier to bear. Read about all of the prophets, were their lives easy? HECK NAW! But what got them through it? Their conversion to the gospel. It is incredible! I don't remember if I have told you before, but I received information from Elder Dixon in Grass Valley that a less active sister that I started working with when I got there, is going to the temple this week! She started off not even wanting to come back to church but when she came for the first time she loved it and kept coming back and kept loving it! We invited her to start working toward going to the temple and she said she would never go back. Then on my last Sunday there she told me how grateful she was for sticking with her. And now I got the info that she is going back!!! I am so excited and happy for her!!! I hope I can make it! So to tell you all about how amazing one of our investigators is: we met with a single sister on Tuesday and had a great lesson with her! Basically right at the beginning she told us that she was in the beginning of the Book of Moroni. And we were like, huh? And she was like, yeah. And we were like, what? And she was like, mhmm. And we were like, really? And she was like, stop it, yes. And we were like, speechless. Okay it didn't happen quite like that, but the last part was true and it was so flippin' incredible!!! I have always dreamed of having that investigator who apologizes for only reading 200 pages since we last met and the Lord blessed us with her!!! The Lord is so incredibly good to His children!!! So we had an incredible talk with her about the gospel and where the Book of Mormon came from, what it is, what it means for us, we talked about the restoration, the first vision, prophets, etc., and she had some really, really good questions for us. But we were able to answer them all and committed her to praying about it. At the end of the lesson, she asked if we could meet more than one time a week and we, of course, were like, Yeah! We can do that! Then we met with her on Thursday! :D It was kind of a rough lesson, we started off asking how she has been since Tuesday and ended up getting pretty off topic for the first half hour...she can talk for days. And then we had a prayer and got started with the rest of the lesson. She finished reading the Book of Mormon! It was super cool to hear! She likes it and thought it was good, but isn't quite sure about it yet. We asked her if she prayed about it and she said she hasn't yet because she wants to make sure she would believe it if she got the answer that it was true. Fair enough. We promised her she could come to know it is true and after talking about that for a little bit, we started into the Plan of Salvation. She has heard so much about death recently, because she very well could be terminally ill, and doesn't know what to believe about it. She said that now when she hears someone talk about death she kind of distances herself because she has heard so many different versions and ideas and doesn't know what she wants to think about it because it is so close to her right now. I'll be honest, but sensitive, when I say that we are literally working with her with a timer in the background. None of us know if she will survive...so we figured sharing the Plan of Salvation would help her. She seemed to get some strength and help from it, but still has the ultimate question of "Why do bad things happen to good people?" So we testified and talked about this life being a test and how bad things that happen to us aren't because we did something wrong in this life or in the premortal life, but that they are meant to help us grow and become so much better than we could have ever been without them. She isn't sure about that yet because she, quite honestly, has never really had much go right for her in her life. But she is one of the most incredible people I know. Seriously. And as we talked about that question, we were able to testify of the reality of the atonement and of God's love for us. It ended pretty well, even despite being a little tough throughout. But after the closing prayer, we all wanted to meet again before Sunday to talk more about the Plan of Happiness, we set up a time for Saturday night! Saturday night came and we had a really good plan to go in and still talk about the atonement and why bad things happen to good people. It was an amazing lesson! The Spirit was so strong! We shared the Mormon Message, "Mountains to Climb" with her. It's taken from one of President Eyring's recent General Conference addresses and it is absolutely incredible. If you are ever going through a hard time or ever want something incredibly inspiring to watch, WATCH IT. In fact, just go watch it right now! Go to LDS.org, type in the search box "Mountains to Climb," and look under the videos section. It's the one with a family in a cemetery as its thumbnail picture. Spectacular. Anyway, it was such a good lesson. We were able to help her understand why bad things happen in our lives and it was so perfect. We asked her if she has been praying about things and she said that she has. And, that morning was the first morning in 5 YEARS that she got out of bed without taking her medication. And not only that, but it was also the first morning in 5 YEARS that she was happy when she woke up. I don't know about you all, but that is an absolute miracle. That is what the gospel can do. It can take the absolute worst situations and make them not easier to do, but easier to bear. It can take negativity and make it positivity. It can push darkness away and fill with light. It replaces doubt with hope, distress with peace, and sorrow with joy. She has changed so much since we first met with her. I can't quite put it into words, but it is completely noticeable. I would best describe it as the Light of Christ is flowing into her life as she has been coming to church and reading the scriptures and praying to our Heavenly Father. She just looks and is so much happier and brighter and it is just amazing. The gospel changes lives. I know it. In closing, she came to church, two other investigators came to church, and one brought her 7 year old daughter and it was so amazing to see them all there! One of them even invited a friend to come along! But she wasn't able to make it. :( But that's okay! I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week! I'm praying for you! Elder Cevering