Every one of us is a son or daughter of God

This week was another busy and good one. We have continued to meet with Brianna every day to be able to prepare her for baptism and to ensure that she is really ready for it. We came upon a speed bump, however, due to her being paraplegic and overweight. Because of this baptizing her conventionally is out of the question so we have been trying to think of ways that we can go about doing it that are still approved, we asked President Lutz (one of the counselors to President Orgill) for ideas and then one night while discussing it before we fell asleep we started wondering if we would be able to baptize her by proxy even though she is still alive. We asked President Lutz if he could look into it for us and amazingly it is actually allowed! We have to make sure that she is super ready and that she truly desires to be baptized for the right reasons, then we have to get a doctors note saying that it is the best way, and then somebody from the mission presidency has to interview her, and then all that will be sent to the First Presidency for their approval. It's a lot of work but will be totally worth it and to quote President Lutz "It will be something cool to write in our journals" Our other investigators are doing good as well, Greg is progressing more than he has in a long time and now he is at the point where he wants to be baptized so he can have the Holy Ghost with him and so he can feel better but the only thing holding him back is the possibility of his wife leaving him if he does so. Because of that we have been praying a lot that her heart can be softened to allow him to be baptized so it would be awesome if y'all could help out too. On Friday we played soccer at night with the zone some kids at the park who were playing there and from this we hope to start doing it more often and invite the youth to bring their friends and to invite all of our investigators and less-actives to come and join as a way to fellowship and to potentially learn more. It was super fun to do and so far a lot of the youth in our ward are excited for it, its cool to see how playing soccer with the missionaries at home helped me and how now by doing the same thing I can help people out here too. Gladys Knight is coming here in April and doing one of her big fireside things so now our big push is to invite members and investigator to invite people to it so that they can feel the Spirit and then to be given a much more casual way to begin learning about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love being out here so much. I have come so much closer to my Heavenly Father and I have come to know my Savior as the older brother and friend that He can be so much more than I ever have before. It has been amazing to see how perfectly the gospel can fit into our lives and how everything can be related to it. I know that each and every one of us is a son or daughter of God and that He loves all of us. The Plan of Salvation has been provided so that we can each learn and grow and someday return to live with Him again. These people are good and I know I need to be here serving them and my Heavenly Father. 

Love

Elder Cheever