Email September 21, 2015

Greetings once again! I hope y'all had a splendid week, I know that we did! To kick it all off, we visited a less active who owns an Australian hat store. He's an older gentleman. He and his wife are both super nice and love to talk, but we haven't been able to have a sit down lesson with them until this week. He took us into his house and we talked with him about his conversion and about church and it was a pretty good talk. We invited him to church and he said he might come, but the problem he has is that he will come a few weeks in a row, intending to become fully active again, but a few weeks into it he will have to stay home to help with some stuff and he won't come to church again after that for some reason. So we are going to see what we can do to help him stay actively coming, even if he has a week he can't come. We had a great visit with a family that is starting to go less active. We don't know much of their situation or why they are choosing not to come to church other than that there are some personal struggles, so we figured we would go over, get to know them, and share a message all about Jesus Christ, His atonement, and His love for us. So we did, and it was a really great night! The Spirit was there so strong. I love feeling the Spirit because it is just so peaceful and wonderful. It's unlike anything else in the world. To continue, the only fully active family member is the 16 year old daughter so we already know her, so we were happy to see the dad and one of the sons there the following Sunday! Given, the son is really into art and was asked to bring something artsy in for his class. But still it was a stellar night in their home. I know they felt the Spirit and I know we need to go back, we are just trying to find an excuse because we don't want to make it seem like they're a project. But they are an awesome family! With another person this week we got talking a little bit about 2 Nephi 4 when Nephi is lamenting because of his imperfections but follows it up with trust, confidence, and glory in God because of the atonement. This was so perfect for him because he feels like in the last 30 years of his less active life he has done things he can't be forgiven for, which we know for a fact he can be forgiven for. So we are trying to help him understand the atonement, the love of God, and mercy and grace. I can tell you it's so amazing to see people start to understand and apply these four simple gospel principles. They go from having no hope of making it back to the Celestial Kingdom to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again and being okay to make it just to the Terrestrial or even the Telestial Kingdoms, to having a knowledge of "the greatness of God," as Lehi puts it in 2 Nephi 2:2. I love seeing peoples' faith and hope grow as they come to understand the gospel. They become so happy and peaceful. He is still working on getting there, but he has taken some great steps so far! He read out loud for us this week which he hasn't done yet! He is honestly making some big steps, even though they are small things. It's so amazing! And then after the lesson he made us some stellar milkshakes! So good. One of our investigator's came to church this week! If I haven't told you about him yet then shame on me. He's the investigator who gave us a bunch of watermelon. Anyway, he has studied the Bible on his own for basically his whole life and has come surprisingly close to believing what we believe. However, he gets stuck on the small details sometimes instead of looking at the big picture. We have been working with him to help him understand what we believe and have invited him to church in the past, but he says he has gone a lot already and doesn't really like the big groups of people. So we talked about the reason we go to church which is the Sacrament, and he hadn't been taught that before! So after we finished talking about the importance of the Sacrament and invited him to church he said he would give it some honest thought. And look what happened! It was such a pleasant surprise to see him walk around the corner of the chapel! He's a really great guy, I'm glad I have to opportunity to work with him. We had dinner with a returning member and his family who are not members. He's a super nice guy! And it was a wonderful dinner! He is really hoping to have us over to his house more often to see how his wife takes it. She's supportive of him going to church but she isn't interested personally. But we can work with that! While we were over for dinner, we find out that her only son at home, who is 19, is going through a really tough time in life right now. So we talked a little bit about our purpose as missionaries and how we have seen peoples' lives change because they accept the gospel and it seemed like she really wanted us to try to talk to him. Unfortunately we weren't able to that night because he kept wanting to go back to his room and wouldn't stay out for very long even after we talked with him a little bit about how the gospel can help him. But he and his wife want us to try to come back soon to try again. So hopefully we will be able to and will be able to help him find where he can get the best help - from Heavenly Father! The last two are awesome miracles that have happened recently! One is a girl, I don't know how much I told you about her, if anything at all. We found her while she was trying to move a desk into her garage. There were three pieces so we pulled over and offered to help and after a second of persuading she said okay. We helped move the other two pieces and got talking and she said she and her fiancé would be okay with us coming back! Woot! So we set up a time, but it fell through. We made contact with her in person again this week and set up another time, but that fell through again. But it seems like she really wants to meet with us, so we aren't giving up yet! And finally we come to a man named Dylan! We were trying to contact a family with the last name of Wroe, but when he answered he said he didn't even know who we were talking about. Wrong number. However, we got to talking with him and it turns out he has a ton of stellar questions!! We were able to give him a Book of Mormon, teach quickly but powerfully of the Restoration of the gospel, and set up a return appointment. It was so awesome! Heavenly Father truly provided a miracle for us there! I love it when that stuff happens. He has a wife and two kids who might be open to learning as well, so hopefully that will work out too! Please keep all of these wonderful people in your prayers! Prayers absolutely work!!! Never think you aren't being heard! It's often when you feel you aren't being heard that Heavenly Father is really listening the most. He knows our trials, our pains, our challenges, and so much more, and He is closest to us when we go through them and ask for His help. He may not show His help immediately, but I testify it will come! I love you guys, have a stellar week! —Elder Cevering— - Exodus 14:14 -