Gabriel finally came to church

Not much happened Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday started a whole new round of excitement when we got into a car accident on the way to the Newport Beach Stake Center for a missionary surprise birthday. We got t-boned but luckily nobody was hurt, all that stinks is that we no longer have a car so now we have to walk everywhere but maybe because of that something miraculous will happen and we will come across a golden investigator or something like that.

Christmas eve was rough because contrary to the advice of the white handbook, holidays are not the best days to proselyte because people are with their families and don't want to be harassed by a couple of goofy looking kids wearing white shirts and ties. 

Being able to Skype home on Christmas was awesome, it was super good to see my family and talk with them. It made it feel a little bit like Christmas since the weather definitely doesn't feel like Christmas. We got to spend the morning at our Bishop's house and hang out with their kids and talk and play games with them which was a ton of fun. At night we got to have a zone activity and play games as missionaries and we had a white elephant gift exchange made up of the random stuff we all could find in our apartments which was pretty fun because missionaries leave behind quite the assortment of stuff. 

The best part about Sunday was that Gabriel finally came to church and liked it and said he is excited to come back! Our plan is to set a baptismal date with him for mid-January, which should go through and will be awesome.

Hopefully next week will be a lot better and we will be able to visit all of the potential investigators that we have and begin teaching them. I hope all of you had a great Christmas and that you will have a Happy New year. These people are good and I need to be with them.

Love

Elder Cheever

Christmas time as a missionary is totally different

We ended up doing a lot of service this week and visiting a lot of less actives and in between all that we managed to find a couple good potentials and continue working with our investigators who are slowly progressing, in some cases. I was also in my first California earthquake, it was only a 3.1 so it wasn't too exciting but now I can say I've been in one.

We had a really good lesson with a less active man in our ward named Jimmy. He got baptized a few years ago and had an amazing story. Prior to his baptism he was in a wheelchair and was blind so they had to carry him down into the font but after he got baptized he was able to walk out of the font and then the next day was able to see again. For a while he was able to walk again and was able to see and he started working towards getting the Aaronic priesthood but began having issues with the word of wisdom again and then tripped and broke his leg badly and after a series of events it had to be amputated so he was back in a wheelchair and then he went blind again when he stopped going to church. Sister La, one of the ladies in the ward who is coming back into activity set up a lesson for us with him and when we met we just talked with him about what he wants to do. He plans to start coming back to church and he wants us to go through all of the missionary lessons with him again. While we were talking with him a man walked by and then was standing against the wall of the building we were by and I felt like I should give him a copy of the Book of Mormon, at first I kind of brushed it off because I figured it was just me being a missionary and wanting to give everybody one (which isn't a bad thing I guess) and since we were in the middle of a lesson I didn't want to just leave. As I sat there I thought about it more and then remembered that Ross got baptized because somebody listened to a prompting to share the Book of Mormon so while Elder Greenberg and Sister La were talking I got up and went and talked to him. He seemed pretty cool and took the book and I was able to get his phone number so this week we are going to try to meet up with him and start teaching him. 

On Saturday we were contacting in a park and talked to a man named Misha right before we left. He was there with his son and he talked about how he has been following different religious practices to find the best life for his family so when we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon he said he would gladly read it because he loves reading anything that is about Christ. We got his number too so we are going to try to meet with him this week as well. This one was cool for me because when I saw him I wanted to just leave so I was ready to go but Elder Greenberg stopped me and we went to talk to him. Its always amazing what can happen when you listen to your companion and you push to do a little more than you really want to. On Saturday we also had a really good lesson with our investigator Gabriel who wants to be baptized. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved learning about the Spirit World and the Kingdoms of Glory. His faith is so strong and his commitment to actually read the Book of Mormon and to pray about what we have taught him is amazing, its so cool to think that all of his progress has come about simply because some sister missionaries stopped to show him the Christmas video and it goes to show how powerful of a tool that can be. 

Christmas time as a missionary is totally different because my focus is so much more on the Savior and helping others. It brings a completely different Spirit to the season that I wish everybody could experience. Truly the best way that we can feel the true Spirit of Christmas is by finding ways to help those around us even if it is just by holding a door or smiling and saying hi, I know that  sometimes that may be all that somebody needs to brighten their day.

Love

Elder Cheever

This week flew by and definitely had its ups and downs

This week flew by and definitely had its ups and downs. On Tuesday we went out to go tracting and it ended up being super good. As some background, in one of my blessings I was blessed with is the ability to discern those who are seeking to learn more. My whole mission I have wanted to study that out and begin praying and trying to listen to the Spirit better so that I can use it to help bring people closer to Heavenly Father, so lately I have been thinking about it and reading about gifts in the scriptures and praying for opportunities to bless others through it. When we were driving and going to park to begin knocking doors we drove by this one house and when I looked at this symbol/design above the door it caught my eye for some reason but we kept going because where we planned to start was around the corner, but I couldn't stop thinking about it so I told Elder Dallin to turn the car around so we went back and parked across the street from it and went and knocked on the door. We waited for a little but as often happens, nobody answered the door but we did see an old man walk in front of the door so I left a copy of the Book of Mormon with a note inside and our phone number and one of the "A Savior is Born" cards. At first I was a little discouraged because I felt so good about that house but the thought came to me to just be patient and it might be somebody around him who needs it so we started tracting from there. When we finished the street we were doing and getting ready to get back into the car we talked to a lady named Dimitria who was super nice and super open to meeting with us to learn more so we got her address and then right after she left a guy went running by so Elder Greenberg chased him down and started talking to him and it turns out that he had just moved up here from Mission Viejo and that for a little while he had been playing soccer down there with the Saddleback YSA ward so he said he would like to meet with us and learn more too so we also got his contact information. After we talked to them I looked up and realized that we were standing directly across from the house that I originally felt we should knock on. It was so cool to have the chance to meet those people who we probably wouldn't have met had we parked down the street and I was so grateful to have the opportunity to help the Lord in such a way. Tuesday night was the mission Christmas party and was tons of fun. It was great to see all my friends from the San Clemente zone and hang out with them and catch up and also to sing Christmas songs together as a mission. At the end of it President Orgill read a letter from a convert to the church to a Bishop and told of how a Christmas play he saw in a chapel in Hawaii led to his reading the Book of Mormon and feeling the Spirit and getting baptized. As he spoke I felt the Spirit so strongly and I had the strongest desire to be able to have the chance to see the Christmas initiative from the church and the general spirit of Christmas open somebodies heart to the message of the gospel so that was something I began praying for. 
After Wednesday night everything went downhill. We had dinner at a member of the wards house and while I was eating I started feeling really sick and ended up throwing up and then Elder Dallin and Elder Greenberg both got super sick as well so we had to stay inside on Thursday which was miserable, not only do I have a testimony of the gospel but also of the reality behind cabin fever. As much as it gets tiring and can be hard working and grinding every day I would so much rather do that than be trapped inside even if I am sick because it was so boring and I felt like we were doing absolutely nothing. On Friday we went to ZTM but still felt really sick so we didn't get that much done then either. On saturday we decided we needed to work super hard to make up for doing nothing so we sat down and made a list of all the people whose contact information we had gotten over the past couple weeks and started calling them and planning to visit them. One of them that we called was a referral named Gabriel who seemed super excited to have us come over so we went right to his apartment. He told us that he came in contact with the church while he was doing a roofing job in Riverside and two sister missionaries showed him the Christmas video. He told us that he had felt the Spirit before but that he had never felt it that strongly in his life. As we taught him he sat and listened and absorbed it all in and seemed to really like it as he mentioned that he has always trusted in God when times have been hard for his family and there has been nobody else to turn to so he knew that this was something God wanted him to follow. We ended up even committing him to baptism on January 1st and he was really excited to decide that and have the first day of the new year be the first day of his new life so hopefully it all goes through. We may have taught him a lot about gospel, but during the lesson he taught me a huge lesson about faith. As he prayed to close it out he gave thanks for all the that his family had and was especially grateful that they could all be healthy physically and also financially and then he said he was grateful that they could finally have a good Christmas. When he said this the Spirit was so strong and I could tell the love that Gabriel has for his Heavenly Father and Christ and the love they have in return for him. I know for sure that this is the opportunity that I was hoping for to be able to bring somebody closer to our Heavenly Father through the true message and reason of Christmas so hopefully everything goes well with him. 

Last night it rained for the first time in a while and it rained a lot. The streets don't have drains like they do at home either so huge puddle would form which became a pain to deal with. At one point we had to try to jump over one to get into our car and Elder Dallin ended up ripping his suit pants doing so. I just got tired of trying to keep my shoes dry so I just took them off and rolled up my pants. As much as I love being a missionary and love helping others, its nice to occasionally have some good fun that makes me feel like myself again so it was a good thing for me to have that happen. Elder Dallin is being transferred on Tuesday so I will miss him a ton but I will still have fun working with Elder Greenberg. Hopefully the two of us can keep working hard and can bring to pass much righteousness in the South Coast ward and in Santa Ana because the people here are good and I guess God wants me to be with them for another 7 weeks;)

Love,

Elder Cheever

I know that the Book of Mormon is true with all of my heart

This week kinda stunk. We didn't do very much because Elder Greenberg made me sick and I was miserable and then Elder Dallin was super sick and achy (I dont know if I spelled that right) so we spent a lot of time sleeping between tracting and appointments. On Wednesday we had "Zone 24's" which is where everybody on the zone exchanges for a day and supposedly it helps a lot and miracles happen. Our companionship likes being able to do our own thing and work hard in our area and not have to deal with other missionaries so we were less than enthused about this whole thing. I was put in charge of the area with Elder Putnam, one of our zone leaders, and Elder Payne who has been out for 4 weeks now. In the morning we did some service and Elder Dallin and I both ended up there and we both felt sicj and tried to get permission from Putnam to exchange back but he didn't let us so the day started out rough. It kind of dragged on for a while but when we were tracting at some apartments we weren't having too much happen but then we were walking on the sidewalk and out of nowhere this lady asked if we had a Bible we could give her and we just happened to have one in our car so I ran to grab it while Payne and Putnam gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon then started talking with her. When I gave her the Bible I discovered that she is an atheist who used to be catholic but she is going through some hard times so she had tons of questions for us so we stood there on the sidewalk in the cold (it was probably like 60, so yes you can make fun of me for adjusting to this wimpy California weather) and talked with her for about an hour. The part of this chat with her that struck me most was at one point we mentioned that a mission costs $10,000 so she asked us if doing all this is worth the collective $30,000 between us and instantly I knew that despite the times that stink it is totally worth the money and everything else that I lose or go through just to be able to make one person's life happier so it has been completely worth it since I have helped more than just that hoped for one person, whether it be investigators who have gotten baptized, less actives, or ward members.

The Christmas devotional was kinda cool last night. It was pretty boring here too, as you can tell. We only had one lesson with an investigator which is annoying. She doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon because "its not talked about in the Bible" so I went through and showed her where it is talked about then I showed her in the Book of Mormon where Christ says that people who say they have a Bible and don't need more are basically denying God (it wasn't as harsh as that sounds I promise, she just needed some boldness),then I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. I don't know how much it did for her but it helped me a ton because as I looked at her and said "I love the Book of Mormon, I know that it is true" I teared up and had to struggle through the rest of what I said. The only other time I have cried bearing testimony during a lesson was at the MTC when I invited our teacher pretending to be Selam to be bapitzed and I told her that the church was true and that it would help her. I love being a missionary, even when it stinks. I know that the Book of Mormon is true with all of my heart and I love to read from it each and every day. It has helped me so much through things that I have gone through and I know it can help anybody who reads it and prays for guidance. I love this gospel so much and I love helping God's children come home to His open arms. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Mentor, and Mediator with God and that He was born, taught, suffered, died, and was resurrected for each and every person who ever has lived, who now lives, and who ever will live. I know that His love for us is unconditional and that as we rely on His Atonement for us we can be carried through whatever trials we may face. He is the reason we celebrate so heavily at this time and it is important for us to remember Him in all that we do all year long, not just around Christmas. Every body should watch the "A Savior is Born" video at Christmas.Mormon.Org and share it with a friend because the Spirit felt during it is amazing. I love being here helping these good people and I know that I need to be with them.

Love

Elder Cheever

Outside the Ghetto Circle K

A favorite taco truck

Wearing his Samoan lava lava

70 degrees and sunny in December

Giving out 63 copies of the Book of Mormon

This week was pretty awesome. Monday was one of the worst days of my mission so far but on Tuesday we all worked hard. Our main goal for this week was to set the mission record for copies of the Book of Mormon placed, we got our inspiration from the movie, "The Best Two Years" where they set the record for their mission by placing 62 so we decided we wanted to do 63. We did a ton of tracting, which is actually one of my favorite things, and a ton of contacting and hit 63 exactly by Saturday. From all this work we picked up three investigators just from the tracting alone, which is extraordinary and then got referrals for three more people. One of the people we met tracting is a 17 year old boy named Ernie. He is the student body president at Mater Dei Catholic High School, which is this huge nationally ranked school here. When we first knocked on the door we noticed a sign on it that looked a lot like a paraphrased version of Mosiah 18:9 so we wondered if maybe they would be members. He opened the door with this huge smile his face and immediately started talking to us like old friends, which worried us at first because usually when people react like this it means they want to bash with us. It turned out to be an amazing lesson, he was super humble and super open to what we taught him and wants to keep learning more, especially because he has an uncle who is a member. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it and was excited to do so since he is on Thanksgiving break. I got to have a meeting with President Orgill Sunday night. He is so loving and it was awesome to be able to sit down with him and just talk. It will be a sad day when he leaves next year. From all that has happened this week it has been a huge lesson to me about how when we trust that God has a plan for us that things will work out. As we worked we didn't see much success at first other than being able to give out huge amounts of the Book of Mormon and being able to talk to a lot of people but then in the last couple days all sorts of people popped up who wanted to learn more. It just helped show that when we do the work that Heavenly Father asks us to do no matter our situation in life He will bless us and give us the extra strength we need because He loves us with a perfect love and wants what's best for us. I love this new area I'm in, I love the ward, my companions and especially the people we are teaching. I know this church is true and that it is Christ's restored gospel on the Earth today. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that through it we can come to know the love of our Savior and our Father in Heaven better than through any other book and I'm happy to share it and bear testimony of it to the people I meet everyday out here, because they are all children of God and they are good people and I need to be with them.

Love

Elder Cheever