Little Miracles

This week was really quick. Jose Martinez, Jose Camargo, and Omar all ended up cancelling their appointments with us, which was disappointing, but Omar at least is keeping up his commitments and reading the Book of Mormon. We got to finally have a lesson with Cam and we had Elder Hook come down. Elder Hook was one of the missionaries who found him so I think that helped him. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom because its something he has had an issue with. He said he would try to keep it because he wants to get baptized but its a very social thing with his family since he is from Lebanon. It will be hard but I have faith that he will be blessed with the strength he needs. I got to go on an exchange with one of my zone leaders, which was really fun. He's a redneck from Utah so we listened to classic George Strait songs and  other wholesome country music, which was really fun. We did six hours straight of service, which was good because it was kind of a break from regular missionary work but was still doing good. 

This week we set what we call a window of Heaven, which is where we pray and ask to be guided where to go on what day and what time and we go to that place for an hour and talk to everybody we find there. When we got to the park there were no people so for a while we just walked around hoping to find somebody but then towards the end we saw a man sitting at a table so we went to talk to him. He had gotten out of the hospital three days earlier and then went home and got kicked out of his house by his parents because he was drunk and a drug addict. He told us a lot of what he has been dealing with and how he just wants to be a better person and to have his family want him. We were able to teach him about the Atonement and about God's love for us and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and told him that by reading it he could find the happiness he was looking for. He doesn't have a phone or a car though so we can't really contact him but I know that Heavenly Father wanted us to find this man, Pablo, and to help him. I have faith that Heavenly Father will help him somewhere down the line. Right after this we tried to find a member in our ward but when we knocked on the door an older lady opened up and asked how we found her. We explained we had a list and just chose her apartment. She then said she had moved in only a week before and that the day before we found her a man installing her cable was Mormon and explained some about the Book of Mormon to her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and then told her about how we are the restored church of Jesus Christ and she told us she would read them and learn more so we plan to tell the sister missionaries in that area about her because she is definitely somebody who has been prepared, which is something that Elder Nielsen and I pray for every day. 

So that's my message for this week is little miracles. We don't know where these contacts will go but they were boosts to us and sometimes that's what we need is little boosts to keep us moving.

I love it here and I love being a servant of the Lord. These people are good and I need to be with them.

Love,

Elder Cheever

Feel the Prayers

This week was really good. Monday and P-Day was fun, our zone just hung out at the stake center and played volleyball or basketball and just relaxed. Later in the evening we got to go to the ward's FHE and we had ice cream right by the beach and I got some cool sunset pictures over the peninsula. This week was kinda crazy with meeting investigators. On Tuesday, Jose M had to cancel on us because his friend's cat was dying, then on Wednesday Jose C had to cancel on us too, which stunk. On Thursday, we got to talk to Omar about faith. He hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon so we committed him to do that again and gave him some good chapters to read and told him to make sure to pray to know the book's truth and he seemed excited to do this. On Friday, we met with Bobby and figured out where he was in relation to baptism. He is so ready, we showed him a Mormon message form Elder Anderson that says you know enough then we challenged him to pick a day and pray about that specific day. He should be baptized in early August so he's almost there. On Sunday, we finally got to meet Cam. He's really close too except we still need to teach him the commandments, especially the Word of Wisdom, but he really wants to be baptized.

On Wednesday, I got to go to a new missionary dinner at President Orgill's house. Sister Orgill is an amazing cook and real food was great for a change. It was so awesome to see all my brothers from the MTC and be able to catch up and share stories from the first week in the field. They are all doing so great. After dinner President shared a story from his mission that was really cool. He served in Tonga and at that time they were allowed to go in the ocean so he was surfing on a log with his companion but then his companion went to shore (can you see the first problem) President then tried to get farther out to catch bigger waves and ended up getting pulled into a rip current. He jumped off the log thinking it would be better on his own and just got pulled farther out. He said that he started running out of energy and so he prayed that his mission president (the same mission president from "The Other Side of Heaven") would know how to tell his family that he had died and immediately he had a feeling that said, "wrong prayer". He was then guided what to pray for and began to get inspiration how to get to safety. He had been carried over a reef and when the waves would pull back he would catch them but then get slammed into the reef and was badly cut up but the second time it happened he realized he needed to grab the reef. Through doing that and kicking off of it he was able to eventually make it back to shore where his companion and the branch president and branch members were waiting for him. He said he was angry that nobody had tried to save him but they all told him lots of people had died in the same place and all they could do was pray that he would find a way. I love President Orgill a ton and it will be sad when he leaves next year. He has such a strong spirit about him and is a great leader.

This story really helped me to feel the prayers of all those who love me and helped me to know that when it gets hard out here I will have people on the "shore" praying that I can find a way as well. Prayer is a huge opportunity that we have been given by our Heavenly Father and we should use it all the time. He wants to hear from us even if its just little things like how our day went. We can also always ask him for help and anything we might need and he promises us he'll answer (just don't ask dumb questions like when Joseph Smith asked when the second coming would be since the Father will answer even if it is with an answer like "if you live to your 80th birthday you'll see Christ come again" even though both God and Joseph knew he wouldn't make it to that point;))

I finished the book of Alma today and can now say that it is my favorite book in the Book of Mormon. The examples of missionary work from Alma and Alma the younger and Ammon the other Sons of Mosiah are so poignant and powerful. They're testimonies are so great and they love the Lord with all their hearts. Captain Moroni's faith is unmatched and I hope I can live my life like him that the very foundation of hell can be shaken just a little and I commit all of you to make that your goal to. And like the Stripling warriors I will not lose hope even in the darkest circumstances because I know that God will help us overcome our personal opposing armies of Lamanites, whatever they may be.

I love being here and serving God to bring his children back to him. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ and I can truly testify that they both live and love us all. I know that the scriptures are their words to us and that they want us to obey. These people are good and I need to be with them

Love,

Elder Cheever

I know through him all things are possible

The weather here is perfect and the people are rich! The stake president has an elevator in his house! I'm in a YSA ward and the ward mission leader lives right next to the Ritz-Carlton, right along the beach and supposedly has a plane in his house. I have seen so many Teslas, Mercedes, and BMWs here. And even a Lamborghini and a Ferrari and I'm not even in the rich part.

Tuesday was super long and I was pooped by the time we got to our apartment. I'm in the San Clemente area in the San Clemente YSA ward. I live in a bummy condo in a city called San Juan Capistrano but it's not too bad. My trainer, Elder Nielson, is pretty cool and he's helping me a lot

On Wednesday and Thursday we drove around the whole  area all day trying to talk to less active member but none of them were home. We got white washed so it's kinda hard figuring out what to do at first.

Those days killed me. I hated it so much and wanted to go home. I guess I got lucky in the MTC and wasn't homesick until I got here. Alma 17:10 really helped me though, in it I think Ammon asks for comfort and straight away the Lord says be comforted and I felt like that was meant for me. I also read this really great talk called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary". It really changed my perspective and helped me a ton so I recommend reading it for anybody.

We have five investigators after getting whitewashed which is pretty cool. One, Jose, is really close to baptism he just needs to stop getting drunk and smoking weed. Another, Cam, was going to be baptized just for the past elders but now he keeps getting drunk so we need to work on that too (people are dumb but we still love them). We have a guy named Bobby who is super awesome. He has been around the church for like 20 years and loves it he just has a hard time committing but we'll get him baptized. He says that even when he isn't investigating he always helps the elders he sees. Another is a kid named Omar who is super cool. Elder Nielson and I actually picked him up and he understands us but isn't sure about baptism. He's a crazy good artist though. These last two are the most interesting. Their names are Jose and Manuel (Manny). Manny is a less active member and Jose is investigating but they both want to come to church, here's the plot twist though, THEY ARE MARRIED TO EACH OTHER. So at some point Jose is gonna have to be informed that if he wants to be baptized they will have to be divorced so that will be a great conversation. The work is great though and I know that the Lord and his atonement will help them all understand what they need to do.

I'll close with a passage from Alma 26. In it, Ammon is talking about their time with the Lamanites and Aaron calls him out for being boastful and Ammon gets mad and says "I don't boast of myself I boast of my God" (that was paraphrasing, read the chapter for more detail) but that's my goal now is to always boast in my God because I know through him all things are possible

This work is so great. Even if it's hard, I still love it

These people are good and I need to be with them.

Love,

Elder Cheever

Leaving the MTC and Arriving in California

Monday, July 6th (Before leaving the MTC)

This week just felt like a lot of class time and teaching investigators but it was great. Selam still wants to be baptized and is so amazingly accepting of the Gospel, Elder Jones and I love talking to her every morning. We also had another couple of investigators named Jonathan and Aaron. They're both really cool guys who just want to know more about God and Jesus Christ and whats so important about our church. In our first meeting with Aaron, Elder Jones and I both kind of struggled because he already knows so much about the church, his best friend since fourth grade is a member and he goes to BYU, and we both ended up giving pretty firey testimonies. We decided after that that we would find out what he wants to know and learn because that would be much more effective. The rest of our meetings went amazingly. We were able to answer questions he had like "is the laying on of hands in the bible or did Joseph Smith just make it up?" or "Did Jesus actually visit other people like he said he would?" It was so uplifting for me too to be able to search the scriptures and find those instances he needed. In one lesson we talked about Nephi and other great men in the Book of Mormon because he wondered how Nephi was so good all the time and thought of him as a goody two shoes so Elder Jones got on him about that but in a good way. In our second to last meeting with him we invited him to commit to be baptized but he said no but that meant we had something big to talk about when we met with him next. Elder Jones and I decided to fast on Friday to have the Spirit with us and to be able to help him come to a realization of the importance of baptism, but we didn't meet with him till 6:45 that night so we had to skip all three meals. It ended up being totally worth it, when we talked to him his major concern was his wife. She is also taking discussions but not with him because she comes from an atheist background, we actually talked to her our first night here in a big group setting. He said he wants to be baptized with her but he doesn't want her to do it just because he is which we understood. We counseled him to talk with her and tell him how he feels about it and see where they are then. He also wondered why, if its a covenant between you and God, that he needs to have somebody baptize him. Elder Jones and I got thrown off by this at first but we were able to explain why the priesthood authority is needed and help him understand. It has been so cool to see him progress and build his faith; he started off so closed off but was eventually able to open up to us. We left him with our emails and hopefully he lets us know how things are going with the rest of his life. 

I have to go eat breakfast now but I love this Gospel and I know that the scriptures are the word of God to us in these latter days and that the power of the priesthood can bless lives. I can't wait to go and meet the people raised up and waiting for me. These people are good and this is where I need to be!

Love,

Elder Cheever

Tuesday, July 7th (after arriving in California)

I made it safely to the California (thats so weird to say) and everybody is so loving. President and Sister Orgill are awesome and he's so nice. The flight was a whole hour and a half so not much else to tell but were just going through all the opening processes and getting ready to eat some food finally. Its so weird to think that after today it will be just me and one companion and not my whole band of brothers as we've become. We already lost Elders Boone and Robinson since their going to South Carolina and I'm gonna miss all these guys but I'm excited to begin working. I want to eat and take a nap so there's not much else to add. I love you all lots and can't wait to share my stories with you. Oh and here are some pictures of us.

Love, 

Elder Cheever