This week was pretty good.
On Monday after our zone
activity we went over to the Awaa's home for dinner which ended up being
one of the more exciting dinners I've had out here. Brother Awaa was
the only one home because his daughter had a baby that day and his wife
was with her so he was there babysitting his daughters dog. As soon as
we walked in I stuck my hand out to let him sniff me so I could try to
pet him and right away he snapped at me and bit my finger. It didn't
hurt all to bad but it immediately started bleeding a lot, like I had a
pool of blood in my other hand from holding it (I wish I had a picture
of it), so we ran into the bathroom and washed it off with hydrogen
peroxide and then we dried it off and threw a bandaid on it and ate the
super good Hawaiian food that Brother Awaa made for us. After dinner we
went to try and find an urgent care but for some stupid reason all of
them closed at like 8:00
so we went back over to Brother Awaa's and he put some liquid bandaid
on it, which honestly was one of the worst pains I've ever experienced,
and threw a regular bandaid on it. In the morning we went to the urgent
care in hopes that they would stitch it up for me but apparently since
it had been longer than 12 hours since the bite they didn't want to
stitch it due to risk of infection, which wouldn't have been a problem
if they had been open later than freaking 8:00. But hey I'll have a cool scar from my mission and who doesn't hope for that;)
We
were able to meet with Raul with one of the young men preparing for a
mission there with us. Raul has been investigating for about 7 months
now, he has been taught all of the "official lessons" so right now we
are working on developing his testimony of the Book of Mormon by reading
it with him. During the lesson I started feeling like I needed to ask
him what he remembered about baptism and what he thinks about it now. He
still wasn't really ready for it and didn't think it was totally
necessary for him to do it but he did say that he does want to know if
the Book of Mormon is true and has been praying about that. After the
lesson Elder Butler and I were discussing how it went and he mentioned
that he was glad I asked Raul about baptism because he wanted to bring
it up too. Its always amazing to see when an idea that comes to mind
during a lesson is from Heavenly Father and not just myself.
We
also had the opportunity to pick up a new investigator. We had gotten a
referral from some members of our ward saying they had somebody for us
to teach. When we got to their home for dinner on the night they set the
appointment with us for we met the person they wanted us to teach. His
name is Evan and he is the boyfriend of one of their daughters. He had
been reading the Book of Mormon and had tons of really good questions
all through dinner and then also during the lesson. As we taught him
about the Restoration he was super absorbed and when we invited him to
be baptized he gladly said yes. When he prayed to close out the lesson
he gave one of the most sincere prayers that I have heard from a newly
taught investigator that I have ever heard. Unfortunately for us he is
only 21 so we are going to have to pass him off to the YSA elders where
he lives, but he will still be baptized and thats what matters.
It
was pretty awesome to receive that referral as well as three others all
in one day following some prayers on my part requesting referrals here
so that we can find some new people to teach who are really prepared to
accept the gospel into their lives.
On
Wednesday Elder Butler and I got to meet President and Sister Clark
before everybody else in the mission! We had to be at the mission office
because we needed a new phone, ours was pretty dead, and because the
mission nurse wanted to check out my finger. It was super awesome to
meet them right away. Sister Clark is super nice and very motherly and
President Clark is just as nice. Then on Saturday we had a zone
conference where they introduced themselves to us and went over some of
their hopes for the mission. It was an amazing experience. Going into it
I had been praying to know for myself that President Clark is who was
truly called by God to lead our mission and the whole time him and
Sister Clark spoke I could feel the same love that I felt in speaking
with President Orgill and I knew that President Clark is meant to be
here.
Yesterday was a much better 4th of July
than last years, a lot of things are better than being in the MTC. In
the morning Elder Butler and I ran a 5k in his last area wearing our
white shirts and American flag ties. Everybody loved it. After that we
got to go to a big lunch in Newport with a family that Butler knew up
there and then we had dinner with one of my favorite families in this
ward and then we went to our zone activity for the night. It was fun to
spend a whole day just doing regular people things and hanging out with
people I love. When the fireworks started we stood outside the stake
center and watched all the fireworks happening in the valley below. Its
weird that this is my last missionary independence day. I can't wait to
see what other miracles and experiences are in store, I know there are
good people here who I need to be with.
Love
Elder Cheever
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