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