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