Email April 20, 2015

Hello Everybody! What a week! I'm going to kick it off with talking about someone we met last Monday. She came walking into the church as we were getting ready to start emailing and asked if there was someone she could talk to for spiritual help and we were like, you can talk to us! So we sat down and had a good talk with her for over an hour. She told us her story of how she became homeless and how she was looking for a place to stay and how she knew that spiritual help was what she needed the most. So we helped out as much as we could (which sadly isn't much) and after we gave her a Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet she went off to look for a phone to call our bishop for more help than we can offer. Then we end up running into her again that night, at the church again. She had hunkered won on a couch that was left behind by the DI trailer and when we came to the church we stopped and talked with her a little more. Eventually we again parted ways saying that we'd see her again the following morning. So we stopped by and sure enough she's there. She had been trying to find places to stay but was unsuccessful. We talked with her a little about the Book of Mormon and she said it was helping her a lot, spiritually speaking, and it has been really good for her. She was going to check another place to see if she could stay there that day so we again parted ways and again met up with her that night as we were getting to the church for a meeting with the 1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency. The place she tried was again unsuccessful and so we pulled her into the meeting and after she talked to another bishop in the building, we went with the bishop to drop her off at a hotel just around the corner and that's the last we saw her. She was so grateful. You know how most homeless people don't really have an aim or that if they do, they don't really have plans to get there? She was totally different. It was actually kind of cool. So she has our phone number and a commitment to contact missionaries where she goes so that'll be super cool. She's awesome and I really hope that she makes it! The rest of our week was a little less eventful, but it was still really good. We've been really busy and I love it! We were able to pick up two new investigators, and potentially even their mom, and they really want to learn! We taught them the Restoration and it went really well! They are so ready to learn, when we told them the story of the First Vision they were like, "Whoa, what? That's cool!" And when we taught them about the Book of Mormon they were like, "Well that makes sense. That's cool!" They're awesome! Super nice guys who truly want to learn about the gospel! We helped the a family with their lawn and that was really good. We have a lesson with them this week finally!!! We're actually going over to have dinner with them tomorrow and then have a lesson following. So that should be really great! On Saturday we had a zone blitz over in the 6th ward and HOLY COW MIRACLES HAPPEN. Just to share one: on the LDS Tools app you can plot on an interactive map where members live in the area, so we did that and we went to visit a man just down the street from the church. We pull up, knock on the door, and it turns out that he hasn't lived there for a long while. The person we talked to was a young woman going to high school and she said that she is religious and would want to learn more about what we believe. WHAT! That's awesome. But wait, it gets better! We get her schedule, tell her missionaries will back by soon, and go back to the car. We write down the info, pull up the map again and the pin showing where the man lived was gone. GONE. It wasn't showing where he lived. I mean, we were already there so it wasn't a problem, but if we hadn't gone there first we wouldn't have been able to find his house. And more importantly, we wouldn't have been able to find Martina, the young woman the sisters are going to go back and visit. The pin was there before we stopped by but afterward it didn't show up. But we were able to find a potential investigator, and potentially even a family of investigators! How incredible!!! Oh man, it was so cool. That whole day was chuck-full of miracles for everyone. Incredible. The Lord's work is real and He executes it perfectly. He knows all of His children's needs. And He knows exactly when and how the gospel will best come into their lives. Miracles are real! They happen all around us, every day (every day, every day! Conference quote, tell me who said it and you win)! As for transfer calls: Elder Jones and I are staying together for a third transfer in Roseville!!! This is Elder Jones' last transfer on his mission, so in missionary lingo I'm going to "kill him." Hahaha. Meaning I'm his last companion before he "dies" as a missionary. Stupid missionary lingo. :D I'm super excited! We've had some awesome meetings focused on missionary work recently and it got both of our wards excited to do missionary work. So we're setting up times to have weekly meetings with the Ward Mission Leaders and ward missionaries in both of our wards and it's going to be awesome! We're pumped to work hard these last weeks of Elder Jones' mission!!! It's going to be awesome! I love the work. I'm excited to work hard and hard work can get us excited so it works both ways. Sweet. The gospel is true, there's no way it isn't. I know that my Heavenly Father lives. I know that He loves each of us. I know that our Savior is the Redeemer of the world. I know that heaven is a real place where we can live forever in happiness with our Creator and our Reclaimer if we can just do our best to keep our covenants and to do what He has asked us to do. Shall we not go on in so great a cause? I love you and I pray for you! Have a fabulous week! Love, Elder Cevering