As
some weeks tend to go the best stuff didn't come until the last few
days but the miracles we saw were amazing. On [Monday?] Elder Brown and Elder
Brown switched places for an exchange that went super well. In the
morning we went to the temple with our returning less active Greg so
that he could do the baptism for his grandfather. It was a great
opportunity for him and for the three of us to go and to feel the Spirit
of the temple. Elder Brown had the opportunity to baptize him and Elder
Summers and I got to be the witnesses and then I had the chance to do
the confirmation for him. Its been so cool to work with Greg these past
couple months and seeing him be able to progress and be excited about
the gospel. Later on in the day we had a window that we were pretty
excited for based on how we set it. When we were praying to know where
to have it Elder Summers fell asleep and had a dream that he gave a copy
of the Book of Mormon to a man wearing a red hat who was interested in
learning more so when we got to the street the window was on we went to
where Elder Summers felt like he remembered it happening in his dream
and we started knocking on doors. The second house that we went to had
an open garage and there was somebody inside so we went to talk to him
and we ended up having a really good conversation with him about God and
we were able to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he told us to
come back again so that we could tell him more, after we left Elder
Summers looked at us and said "That was the man from my dream!" Its so
cool to see the Lord work through us for the benefit of his children.
After that we felt like we needed to stop by Greg Donato since he hadn't
responded to us for a few days. When we got there his wife was at home
as well which was something we had been hoping for because we have
wanted to be able to teach them together. They told us that they had
started to pray together and that they could really feel their
relationship strengthening and that they could feel the Spirit more in
their life. We were able to talk with them for a while about the
importance of keeping the commandments and how much that can bless their
lives. The whole time the Spirit was so strong and we were able to have
them commit to come to church together, they didn't end up coming but
we wont give up. They have both changed a ton in the last two weeks and
have gotten so much closer to one another and to our Heavenly Father.
This week we hope to be able to set a baptism date with them this next
week to give them something to work towards and we have faith that as we
do what is required of us that it will all work out. When we left Greg
walked us out the door and with tears in his eyes thanked us for
stopping by and thanked us for the help that we have been to him and
Kathleen. The Spirit was so strong that as we all walked away we
couldn't say anything, we just smiled and chuckled and held back the
tears. It was definitely one of the most amazing lessons I have had in
my mission.
On Friday
we got to teach Ryland again and we were able to discuss more of the
plans for her baptism. Its awesome to see how excited she is and to see
her faith in pressing forward.
Saturday
ended up being amazing as well. We had another exchange but his time
Elder Jones joined Elder Summers and I again. It was a ton of fun to
have all three of us together again, we joked about how we just needed
Elder Wilcox with us and it would be like our room in the MTC. We had
kind of a weird day but at night we went to the stake baptisms with
Ryland which was a great opportunity for her to see baptisms happen and
to get her even more ready for it, the whole ward is getting ready and
you can feel the support that they have for her as she makes this step
in her life.
All of this came to a peak on Sunday. During our window on Thursday
one of the young men in the ward who has been bringing a friend to
church texted us and asked when we wanted to meet up with his friend
Brock to start teaching him. Brock was at church so we planned on
meeting with him after church. I went with Jack and Brock to the
priest's quorum and the lesson ended up covering almost all of the
points of the restoration lesson so when Elder Brown and I sat down to
talk with them Brock already knew a lot of what we were going to teach
so we were able to answer more of his questions about other things. He
told us how much he loved coming to church and learning, he told us that
he had gone to a YSA activity before general conference and that they
had invited them to write down a question and to listen for the answer
when they watched conference so he did it. He asked "Am I on the right
path?" and then when he watched President Monson's talk about choices
and paths he said that he felt like President Monson was speaking right
to him. At the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized and he
said that he wanted to do it because of the how he feels at church and
because of how much sense the gospel makes in his life and because he
wants to be able to be cleaned of his sins.
We have been so blessed in this area and we are seeing even more blessings daily, being a missionary is awesome.
This
gospel is so true and everyday I come to realize that more and more. I
love being able to help people come closer to our Heavenly Father and to
see how much love our Father in Heaven has for all of is children.
There are people being prepared here and all over the world, go out and
share the gospel with them!
Love
Elder Cheever
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