The End.

We didn't get the chance to email yesterday due to the libraries being closed so we are doing it today. It is pretty crazy to realize that this is my last weekly email to you. There were some pretty cool things that happened this week that helped me to realize the good that I have done on my mission and to know that I have accomplished what I needed to while I was out here. Seeing as I'm going home soon I've been getting in touch with people who I taught that got baptized. On Wednesday we had lunch with a man named Ross Carlson, his story is one that has touched my life greatly and that has impacted a lot of people in the past two years. He was taught when I was in the San Clemente YSA ward after a member from the Newport Coast YSA ward referred him to us. When we started teaching him he only had two chapters left to read in the Book of Mormon, after being given it two weeks prior, and before we even said the opening prayer for our first lesson he told us he wanted to be baptized and to serve a mission someday.  Even more amazing than his initial faith though is what the gospel has done for his life. When we first met him he was living on the streets of San Clemente but just prior to his baptism he was able to move in with somebody in the Saddleback YSA ward, and then shortly after his baptism he was able to find a job, then a few months after his baptism he was married to another member of one of the singles wards. Him and his wife Sierra are now sealed in the temple and have a two month old daughter, Ross is in school and progressing to the career he has always wanted, and he is constantly sharing the gospel with those around him and his testimony and his member missionary efforts have even led to the baptisms of people he has met. All of this just proves to me without a doubt that our Heavenly Father knows each of us and He has provided this gospel for us and He is just waiting to pour blessings upon us, all we have to do is accept it and follow Him and Christ faithfully and He will supply our needs.

On Thursday I had the chance to visit Ryland, a 12 year old girl that Elder Summers and I taught as companions in the Lake Forest ward. Her mother is less active and her father isn't a member but she faithfully attended activity days and one day decided she wanted to go to church and then a couple of weeks after that she wanted us to teach her so that she could be baptized. Ryland is still very active in the church and plans on serving a mission when she is old enough. Her family is moving to Utah in June for her fathers work which will provide her the opportunity to have the church present in her life even more and will give Elder Summers and I the chance to visit them while we are at BYU.

On Friday we had our usual soccer night with investigators and less active members and youth. Brock Gieszl, another person who Elder Summers and I taught, was there. He is another great example of somebody who has fully accepted the gospel in his life. Shortly after his baptism, Brock and his friend Jack (who originally invited Brock to church) invited another friend of theirs who was also baptized, and now in a couple of weeks they have another friend who will be baptized, and in August Brock leaves to serve in the Michigan Lansing Mission, under President Brennan, who was just released as the stake president here in the Santa Margarita stake.

On Saturday we were able to have dinner with the other two people that I taught who were baptized while I was in the San Clemente YSA ward, Bobby Baniasad and Cam Saliba. These two are one of the greatest teams of member missionaries that I have ever met. Anytime the missionaries have investigators or less actives they are working with Bobby and Cam make them feel right at home and help them become integrated in the ward.Bobby went received his endowment at the temple just a couple of months ago, and on Sunday he had the chance to ordain Cam to the office of an Elder in the Melchizedek priesthood. Cam plans to go to BYU-Idaho in the fall and is now thinking about serving a mission. There at the dinner with us was Cam's cousin Gio who has been interested in the church and who has been taught a few times, another guy named Brandon who Bobby and Cam helped teach and who Bobby baptized, a guy named Alex who is becoming active in the church again, and Alex's roommate who is going to start meeting with the missionaries. 

I'm so grateful for the chance I have had to get to know all of these amazing people and to be able to consider them as my friends. I truly understand the feelings of Ammon in Alma chapter 26 as he glories in the chance he had to be an instrument in the Lord's hand. I'm so glad that almost two years ago I acted on the testimony that I had to serve a mission and to come out here. I'm grateful for the trials I have gone through and for all that I have learned. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father saw fit to reach out to Joseph Smith so that the Church of Jesus Christ could be restored on the earth today. I know that this is Christ's church, that Joseph Smith was a prophet called to begin the establishment of the kingdom of God here on the earth in this great and last dispensation. I know that he really did translate the Book of Mormon, and that that book truly is from our Father in Heaven, that it bares testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, even the promised Messiah of the Old and New Testaments and that as Joseph Smith once said "A man would get  nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." And I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He came to live to be our perfect example, that He died to atone for the sins of all mankind, and that He lives today, exalted high at the right hand of His Father. He knows me personally and its through Him that I can do all things and that I can be worthy to stand clean and pure before my Heavenly Father again some day. I love Him and will follow Him for the rest of my life. I am deeply and humbly grateful for the miracle that my mission has been for my life, I know that I will never be the same in the very best of ways, and I say this in the name of Him whose name I have borne for these two years, even Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Cheever

We rescued a dog in an apartment complex, some amazing members brought me a little taste of home, and pictures from the temple this morning. Elder Nattress is the short one and Elder Blue is the one who looks like Buzz Lightyear.