Amazing week

We had an amazing week over here. We have spent a lot of the week going around to visit various members of the ward to introduce me and to unveil the ward mission plan to them. We were able to have some awesome visits with our investigators as well. We are teaching the Castillo family, Pedro the dad, his wife Nelly, his daughter Kayla , and son Peter. They are an amazing family who really knows that this church is true. Our ward mission leader came with us and we were able to have a good conversation with them that eventually led into a very direct conversation about baptism. The Spirit was crazy strong and I could tell that everything Elder Mann, Brother Johnson, and I said to them was directed by the Spirit. We attempted to set a baptismal date with them and Pedro told us that they will be baptized as a whole family when everybody is ready and that when it happens it will be a bigger deal than his wedding day. Their daughter Kayla is the last member of the family to be 100% in but she is going to come to mutual on Tuesday, she wants to go to Mormal (Mormon prom), and the whole family is going to come to church next Sunday so we are pretty sure that after this week she will also be all in. Its a super exciting time for them, the ward, and us.

We also had dinner with our other investigator family, the Outhwaites (Brendan the husband and May the wife and their two year old daughter Olivia). May is progressing super well and is just eating up everything that we have taught her and that she has heard at church. Brendan still has some hesitations but he is very supportive of his wife. We talked with her about baptism for a little bit and she wants it to happen. We went over the baptism interview questions to show her that she is almost ready and she said she would talk to Brendan about it because she wants them to make the decision together.
Its amazing to have people to teach who are so genuinely committed to finding the truth and who have the faith to come to church and keep the commitments that we extend to them.

This week I also had the amazing opportunity to FaceTime my brother Sully as he opened his mission call. It was so cool to see the excitement on his face as he read that he would be going to the Spain Madrid mission and even better to see his best friend run up to give him a big hug since he also opened his call to Madrid the same day. I have been so grateful to have one of my good friends in my mission and I know that Alex and Sully will be a huge support to one another. 

We also had the chance to call Elder Mann's family to listen in as his younger brother opened his call. It was cool to support him in that and to see our brothers following in our footsteps.

I'm so excited to be here in this area to finish out my mission and to work with the members as well as the investigators that are here. These people are good and I know I need to be with them.

Love

Elder Cheever

Transferred to Santa Margarita

We both got super sick this week so that severely handicapped the amount of work that we could do this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday we tried to visit some of our investigators and we tried to set up appointments with potentials or hunt down less actives but none of them were available or responsive which was a bummer.

On Thursday I had to go to a mission leadership council meeting. Usually its just the zone leaders and sister training leaders but this time they invited all of the district leaders for some reason. We received trainings from a couple of instructors from the MTC to help us be able to help our investigators progress better so it was a pretty good meeting, even though it went from 9 am until 3. After MLC Elder Ahlstrom and I went to dinner with the less active man that we met last week, Robbie, again, despite both of us starting to feel sick. He took us to a really nice Chinese restaurant called Din Tai Fung and then he took us to the Lego store and bought us Lego keychains and then we went to the Godiva chocolate store and he got us super good chocolate. By the end of our time with him he asked us what he should read so we were able to help him download the Gospel Library app so that he could begin reading the Book of Mormon again. Hopefully as he reads it he can find the desire to return to church. By the time we got home I was miserable and could barely breathe I was so congested and I could hardly see because my eyes were watering so much. We were still sick on Friday and Saturday so we just rested at home. I'm still not sure if the fever from having a cold or the cabin fever that I developed from being inside so long was worse. I'm just glad to be able to work again. 

Saturday night was transfer calls and I found out that I would be getting transferred and going to the Santa Margarita ward in the Rancho Santa Margarita stake with Elder Mann. I spent the rest of the weekend packing and then this morning I met up and I am now with Elder Mann. I like Rancho and I know Elder Mann pretty well so I'm excited to be here and to work with him. 

I know our Heavenly Father answers our prayers and that He knows our need, our wants, and what is best for us. I'm so grateful for this gospel and the perspective that it brings into life.

Love

Elder Cheever

A Tale of Exchanges, Super Heroes, and Service

On Tuesday I got to go to the Costa Mesa 1st ward with Elder Rubon for exchanges. He is an awesome missionary and it was fun to spend the day with him again. We had some good lessons with people and got to talk about a lot of things which was super good.
On Wednesday we had a good district meeting and then at night we went to try to visit our investigator Steven, the one who randomly called us that one day. When we got there we saw shoes on the doorstep that looked like missionary shoes and when we knocked the Vietnamese elders from Anaheim were there. He had requested books in Vietnamese to send his family so they were there to drop them off and then they thought they were going to teach him too but he doesn't speak any Vietnamese so he decided he would stick with us teaching him. We had a really good lesson about the Plan of Salvation and he really liked all the parts of it. He still wants to get baptized but he doesn't respond to our texts and calls in a very timely manner so we still haven't been able to get him to church which is a bummer.
On Thursday Elder Gibb came to my area for exchanges. He is one of my favorite people to be around out here because he works hard and is an awesome teacher but he also knows how to have fun while doing what he needs to. In the morning we had a lesson with Touttou, it was about the same as usual, just answering lots of questions that he has about different things. After that we tried to visit some less active people from our ward list to see if they were still there. We tried to visit a man named Robbie but when we knocked on the door we heard people inside but they didn't answer so we left a card in the door and went on with our day. A couple of hours later we got a call from Robbie saying that he would like to meet up sometime and that he had been wanting to get in touch with missionaries but that he hadn't known how to do it. We were pretty excited because that was one of the only times in our entire missions that anybody has actually called us from a card. Later in the day we went up to Tustin, which happens to be outside the mission, so I could interview their Marshallese investigator for baptism (that's why we were allowed to leave the mission). After the interview we were driving home and joking around in the car while drinking Powerade and Gibb started laughing super hard which caused him to start choking on his drink. He spit it out the window and I kept laughing and then a couple of seconds later I realized that he was throwing up outside the window too. It took him a little to recover and breathe again but it was probably one of the funniest moments I have had in a while, and what made it even better was the fact that he was the driver so while trying not to die he also had to try not to crash the car. It might sound kind of gross but had you been there you would understand how funny it was.
On Friday Elder Gibb and I ended up together again for a little bit and we got to visit a less active man in my area named Jimmy Garcia. He is blind and has one leg so he is in a wheel chair. When he was originally found by missionaries he was in a wheelchair, which both legs, and was blind and as they taught him he began to see just a little bit and then after he was baptized he was able to walk out of the font and had his sight back completely. Shortly after he was baptized though he started to fall back into old habits and then he stepped off a curb the wrong way and broke his leg in a way that it had to be amputated and then he went blind again when he stopped going to church. He has a lot of faith and wants to do what's right, he has just been sick for a while. As we talked to him we learned that since going blind again he has developed "super powers" akin to that of the Marvel character "Daredevil" a blind attorney who has enhanced senses that allow him to fight crime and stuff. He told us that he can hear every thing that goes on on his block and down the street, that he can hear people's heartbeats, and that he can tell the difference in the way the air hits him when people move around him in such a way that he can tell what they are doing. Of course we had to test his powers out and see what he could do. He was able to tell us the various actions that we did and then even told us what his neighbors were doing. Apparently one time he save a woman' s life because he heard something down the street and called the cops to have them check it out. It was pretty cool to be able to meet a real life super hero.
On Saturday we had the chance to go to Emily's baptism, it was cool to see such a young person making such a big step in their life and to see her family there supporting her. After the baptism we went to help with a move for a nonmember lady, (thats why we left in our service clothes) and we did that until dinner time. The less active man, Robbie, from the other day took us out to dinner and we had the chance to get to know him better and to hear a little of his past. He is excited to meet with us more and re learn about the church so hopefully sometime soon he comes again. After dinner we went back to the move for the rest of the night. The lady we were helping was very grateful and ended up giving us $50 dollars for helping, we did try to reject it but she wouldn't let us. The six of us who were there decided to go get dessert of some sort with the money as a good way to finish out the day. We first went to a Yogurtland but after we got there none of us were really feeling that anymore so we went to the Target right next to it and we all just got different treats or drinks that we wanted. As we were leaving Elder Gibb saw a deal on Lunchables so he grabbed a few of them and then right before we checked out I saw some juice that I really liked and decided to grab that as well. After all six of us got what we wanted we were walking back to the car and a man came up to us. He seemed to be homeless or something like that and he attempted to ask us for help but had a very bad stutter. Before he even asked us anything Elder Gibb just started handing him his Lunchables and then I felt like I should give him the juice I got on the way out and then I also felt like I should give him the $20 that we had left over. He was so grateful that he started to tear up and tried to say thank you. As we walked away from him the first things that came to my mind were Matthew 25:34-40 and Hebrews 13:1-2. It was a pretty eye opening experience for me because I realized that I can have way more charity for those around me than I do, but I was extremely grateful that we were inspired to buy things that helped us to help that man out.

I'm so grateful for all of the things I have learned throughout my mission and for the person I have become through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for this gospel and for the opportunity to share it with others. I know the people here are good and that I need to be with them.

Love

Elder Cheever

A lot of service

We didn't have that to email on Monday and we were on exchanges yesterday so that's why this isn't coming until a Wednesday.  We ended up doing a lot of service helping out at the 2nd Harvest Food Bank and cleaning the temple on Saturday, and on Monday we spent the morning helping the South Coast sisters move as well (hence the not having time to email.) Its cool to see how many opportunities we have to serve those around us and to feel the joy that comes from helping our Father's children. Unfortunately our teaching appointments were rather slim this week, it seemed that every time we tried to set something up with somebody or we tried to go by they were busy so we didn't have much luck in getting in with them. We are still having a good time and working hard here and we have faith that things will work out with our investigators.

It was neat to be in the temple in a less formal setting and to have people joking around as they worked but to feel how strong the Spirit was still there. It just goes to show that in even in the temple, Heavenly Father still wants us to be able to enjoy ourselves and that He is okay with having a good time.

I don't know what else to talk about so until next week...

Love

Elder Cheever