Laguna Hills

The first week in a new area is always pretty fun and interesting. We are full time bike in one of the hilliest areas in the mission so we get good exercise everyday. We have spent most of this week trying to visit less-actives and potential investigators, and biking up some of the biggest hills I've ever seen in my life to get to some of the biggest houses I've ever seen. The best stories this week come from the weekend, as usual. On Friday we had a whole mission surprise luau for President and Sister Orgill since they leave in July. As soon as they walked in they both teared up and then went down the line of missionaries giving all 167 of us a hug and telling us they love us. Seeing Sister Orgill cry was just like seeing my own mom cry which was super sad. It ended up being what all luaus are, a lot of fun with good food and good friends. We all ate and talked and had a good time and then each zone did a special musical performance to show our love for the Orgills and then each zone gave Sister Orgill mothers day cards since she is our mom out here, it was super touching. It got really sad when they both stood up and talked about how much they have loved us and how they never imagined being able to love so many missionaries as much as they do, I was able to video everything that Sister Orgill said but my camera died in the middle of President Orgill's remarks which was a major bummer. After they thanked us we all sang "God Be With You 'till We Meet Again" just like we used to at transfer meetings and I don't think there was a dry eye amongst all the missionaries and then right after that we sang them "Aloha O'e" which just continued on the sadness, they will be dearly missed in a couple of months.  Saturday was crazy but ended up amazing. All day long stuff was super weird and we almost died a number of times but ended up amazing by the end of the day. The first near death experience was a cloud of angry bees, imagine the plagues on Egypt when Moses was around and how they had clouds of locusts, except with bees and you'll understand why it was so scary. And then while biking in Nellie Gail, right after we turned a corner a jeep flew around the same corner and sped up the hill narrowly dodging us and then when we went up to a gate a HUGE dog came running up barking at us so we just gave up on that house. Fortunately we survived it all and I was able to go back up to RSM again for Brock's baptism which was amazing. I once again learned how much Satan wants to stop people from making that step and how he can use very little things that can even be good to distract and prevent things from happening. We had planned the baptism for 7:45 at night because prior to it the stake was going to be having 8 year old baptisms but they told us they would leave the font ready for us. At about 6:30 we called the Lake Forest sisters who were at the stake center to have them make sure everything was ready and much to our dismay they told us that the font was locked and most likely empty, at this point we started to panic. We had to then wait for the zone leaders in Rancho to bring the key to the font for us, they arrived at 7:15. As soon as we had the key we began filling the font and praying that it would fill up quick enough and that everything would work out. Pretty soon people started coming in and preparing for the service while the font continued to fill, 7:45 hit and they started off the service and the font was still not quite full yet so Elders Summers, Tree, and I were all starting to stress out even more. Just before the person giving the baptism talk finished his remarks we shut off the water and hoped we had done it right. When Brock and Jack stepped into the water it looked really low but at that point it was too late to do anything so they just went for it and there was enough water for Brock to get all the way under on the first try. Then after he changed clothes he got up to bear his testimony and blew everybody away with how much faith he had, and he even memorized a verse from the Doctrine and Covenants. It just goes to show that no matter how hard Satan opposes this work and how much his forces of darkness try to stop it, the light always shines through in the end and our Heavenly Father's work continues on victorious.

On sunday we had a less active member just randomly show up at church and have a great time and participate super well during our lesson in Sunday School which was awesome.

This work continues to amaze me and now matter how much some days suck and make me want to be done, I still want to be here forever and keep changing people's lives with the message that we share because it truly is the greatest gift that we could give anybody we know. I know that the people of Laguna Hills, whether VERY old or very young, and even the horses of Nellie Gail are good and that I need to be here for some reason that Heavenly Father has planned out.

Love,

Elder Cheever

Madsen with President and Sister Orgill

At Brock's baptism