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