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