Positive experience for the Castillo family

This was a good week. We met with the Castillo's on Thursday and read the Book of Mormon with them more. This weekend there was a baptism of a 15 year old girl and her mother in one of the wards in the stake. The girl's father and step-mother were baptized in September which led to the baptism this weekend, its a really cool story. The Castillo family came to see it and it was a very positive experience for all of them. They definitely felt the Spirit, and Peter, the son, said he is more excited to get baptized now. After the baptism President Clark put his nametag on Peter's shirt and we all took pictures with our "new" president. The whole family really enjoyed it and have begun to consider even more seriously when they will get baptized.

 We tried to meet with the Outhwaites but they were busy. Ever since they returned from their vacation their schedule has changed and it has been harder to meet with them and they haven't been to church. Hopefully we can meet with them this week and figure out what the concern is. 

On Friday we had the cool opportunity to attend the temple with all of the missionaries going home this transfer as well as President and Sister Clark. It was great to see some old friends as well as to be in the temple with our wonderful mission leaders.

Last night the ward had a youth fireside where all the kids shared which talk they liked and why and bore testimony of it. It was great to see all of these kids putting principles from conference into their lives, especially since a few of them will be graduating this year and going off to college, BYU but even there you have to decide for yourself if the whole church thing is really as important as you are always told it is. Its so wonderful that we have modern day Prophets and Apostles who can lead us and inspire us through the pitfalls of life. 

Well that's about it for this week.

Love

Elder Cheever

Glad I still have a couple months left

We had a pretty good week here. The most exciting things were our lessons with the Castillo's and the Outhwaite's. When we visited the Outhwaite's we taught the restoration directed towards Brendan. He hasn't been taught that yet and we started noticing that not knowing some things was slowing his progress down. He asked really good questions about prophets and he told us that Joseph and the first vision all makes sense to him. We hope that we can keep having good lessons like that with May and Brendan together so that they can progress as a family. We had dinner with the Castillo's and then we read the 1 Nephi 1 with them. Pedro really enjoyed being able to get the beginning of the story and he told us that now that he knows how it starts he is going to get into more so he can see what happens with Nephi and his family. During church yesterday the primary kids did a musical number and before they sang Peter quoted John 3:16 from memory. Its so amazing to see how much the ward has welcomed them in and to see how the friends they have has led them to accept the gospel and build a greater testimony of Christ. We had a zone conference on Tuesday. It was crazy to hear the departing testimonies of a lot of my good friends and to realize that next transfer I'm going to be one of the people bearing a departing testimony. Its crazy how fast this has gone but I'm glad I still have a couple months left to work hard and invite others to come unto Christ.

Love

Elder Cheever

Craziness to the week but mostly good things

We had some craziness to the week but mostly good things. The Outhwaites are back in town so we were able to have a good visit with them. We shared the Prince of Peace video and talked about Christ and how He can bring us peace. They have had a few changes in their work schedules and in other aspects of their life that has been pretty crazy for them so the video came at a good time to help them know how they can maintain peace while dealing with the changes of life. We were also able to visit with the Castillo family as well. We brought President Brennan, the former stake president, with us and we watched the talk by Elder Joaquin Costa entitled "To the Friends and Investigators of the Church." In the talk he outlines four things that investigators need to do and then he boldly invites them to be baptized. The four things he suggests are take the missionaries seriously, go to church, read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and to repent. Pedro told us that they have done all of that except for reading the Book of Mormon so now they will focus on that so that they can be ready to be baptized. We have high hopes that it can happen by May 13th so that Elder Mann and Elder Tree can still be here when it happens. We got a referral for somebody in Coto de Caza, which is the largest gated community in the country if not the world, and when we went by they told us they weren't interested. On our way back to the car we were talking about the principle in Preach My Gospel that suggests knocking on doors around the place you just visited a referral to see if maybe somebody else near there was the reason that you were directed to where you were. Unfortunately since Coto is gated we can't just knock on doors so we just drove past the houses that we wished we could visit. Then the next morning we got a text from the elders in a ward in the Mission Viejo stake giving us a referral for a lady who lives in Coto that is the sister of their investigator. When we went to visit her we discovered that she lived in one of the houses that we had wanted to knock on the previous day while visiting the other referral. It was amazing to see that Heavenly Father will provide a way for us to visit those who are ready even if they are in a heavily fortified gated community.

Since Elder Mann and Elder Tree go home soon and I go home not too long after them we have all been thinking about the future and home a little bit more than usual and its a little scary to think about the future. I'm so grateful that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and has a plan for my life and I'm glad that I can rely on Christ to help me feel at peace and to carry me through. The other night at dinner we were sharing the prince of peace video just after my younger brother did my class registering so I was pretty stressed about that and while the video was playing I had an overwhelming feeling of peace hit me and I felt that even though I'm scared right now and that I have no idea how things are going to go that it will all be alright in the end. I'm so glad that Jesus really does live and that He does fill that role as the Prince of Peace and that I can ask for that help whenever I need it. I'm grateful to be here in Rancho now and to work with these great people, they are good and I need to be with them.

Love

Elder Cheever

General Conference

We had General Conference this week so of course it was a good week. I was very grateful to hear all wonderful talks and to gain guidance and answers to things I have had on my mind. On Tuesday we helped down at the Modjeska house in the canyon and then we helped a member in our ward to move out his old dental office and into his new one and then we picked oranges with the youth for mutual. It was fun way to get to know the young men better and to build a bond with them. After the orange picking part they had all of the young men and young women get together and we sang the EFY medley in preparation for one of the boy's mission farewell. The Spirit is always so strong during that song and it was especially powerful to sing about being the Lord's missionaries as a missionary. Saturday morning we helped a single lady and her son move and it ended up causing us to miss the morning session of General Conference but we were happy to help the member in our ward and we are going to watch conference tonight with the family we are having dinner with so it all works out. Pedro and Peter Castillo both made it the Priesthood session of conference. I don't know quite how much each of them got out of it but the Spirit was there so if nothing else they felt that. Last night we went by a potential investigator who has a boyfriend who is a less active member and in the course of our discussion we were able to ask her if she would be interested in learning more and she told us that she would like to know more and then to our surprise her boyfriend actually voiced his support of us teaching her so hopefully we can begin seeing miracles there. This week we are hoping to get in with the Castillos to watch a couple of the talks from conference that we feel would have a good impact on the progress of the family. Saturday night was also transfer calls night. Elder Mann goes home at the end of this transfer (May 16) and I go home three weeks later (June 6th) midway through the next transfer, so we figured we would end up with a third companion so that our area wouldn't end up with two people who know nothing about the area. We weren't wrong about the third companion, but its not at all who we would have guessed. We are going to be joined by Elder Tree, my former companion from the Laguna Hills 3rd ward. Besides the fun of getting somebody I have already been companions with, he also goes home with Elder Mann so that means that when they go home things will get crazy for me and the area. But we are excited and its what the Lord wants so we are going to do it.

In addition to a challenge for each of you to take a chance to watch or listen to General conference (you can find it at this link https://www.lds.org/general-conference?cid=HP_SU_2-4-2017_dPFD_fGC_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng) I would also encourage each of  you to check out this year's Easter initiative #PrinceofPeace (you can find this one at https://www.mormon.org/) It is a powerful video that talks about the role of our Savior Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace and how His Atonement can bring us peace. Watch it, apply it, and share it with others. I'm so grateful that Easter is coming up and that we will have the chance to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. I know that He lives and loves each and every one of us. I know that because He lives no problem we face needs to stay a problem. Through His Atonement we have the ultimate source of strength, hope, and of course peace. If we follow Him and strive to be like Him we can have true happiness in this life and a fullness of joy in the life to come!

love

Elder Cheever