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