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