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
No comments:
Post a Comment