Training Elder West

For having very few things happen this week, this email is surprisingly long. 

We were able to meet and pick up our new companion this week. His name is Elder West, he is from Fargo, North Dakota; he wrestled and got 3rd in states, played football, and sang choir. He is super awesome and he is a solid missionary already. 

Elder West's first day here went quite well. We were busy all day long and had lots to do and got to teach a few good lessons. Within his first 24 hours he had the chance to help in a priesthood blessing and to bless an apartment so that was pretty cool for him and a good growing experience Its pretty fun to hear Elder Hohmann talk about "mission life" and all the stuff he has learned in his long 7 weeks here. I'm still just enjoying the ride and trying to be the best example to them that I can be and trying to help them become the missionaries that our Father in Heaven knows they can be.

We had a pretty good lesson with Raul but he still didn't come to church. I think this week we are just going to be really bold with him and ask him what is keeping him from coming and ask if he ever plans on coming to church. But it was a good opportunity for Elder West to teach an investigator. He is already a super solid teacher and knows a good amount about the gospel.

On Thursday when we went to the Bahai devotional for a less active young man in the ward we got a new potential investigator named Javier. He was there with Jerry, the less active young man. Javier is 14 and trying to seek truth about religion and God so he is looking at a lot of faiths. We talked to him about our church and about the Book of Mormon, I actually gave him one a few months ago, and he had many questions similar to Joseph Smith prior to his experiencing the first vision so we shared that with him and answered some of his questions. We even got Jerry to testify of prayer and answers to prayers to him so that was cool. Javier was super interested in learning more because he really like what we shared. I love to see young people sincerely seeking to know their Father in Heaven, when they except the gospel, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for them and can really change the chances that generations to come will have.

The other pretty crazy event/miracle happened yesterday. We got a call from a random phone number and it ended up being a ysa aged girl who had gotten drunk to numb the pain and sadness of her brother dying in the towers on 9/11 and she somehow had our number and for whatever reason the people that she felt like she needed to call were the missionaries. She is a nonmember who learned just about everything that she would need to know to be baptized and confirmed and she has even read the Book of Mormon in its entirety and could quote passages like Alma 7:11-12 and Alma 36:19-21 while drunk. Through out the course of the conversation she asked if she could be baptized if she doesn't drink anymore and requested that I baptize her. So we are going to pass her off to the YSA sisters so they can teach her and so she can get baptized. I think the coolest thing in the whole experience was seeing the power of prayer and scripture in action, she was sobbing and distraught and after I had her say a prayer on the phone she was able to breathe and think more clearly and to talk about the gospel and how much she loves it. Heavenly Father truly loves his children regardless of the mistakes they make and even when they are in the midst of sin and doing things that separate them from Him he still gives them the spiritual nudges that they need to find help. I also learned that talking on the phone with a drunk person for 5 hours is exhausting.

Through all of these experiences this week my testimony of the divinity of our nature as children of a loving Heavenly Father was hugely strengthened. Throughout my mission I have found great comfort and strength in that knowledge and I have truly come to see God as my Father in a greater sense than I ever did before. On Saturday I read an article in an ensign from 2008 called "Our God Truly is God" by Elder Douglas L. Callister of the Seventy, and one point he talked about the importance of knowing we are children of God and the importance of teaching that, here is a quote from the article (sorry that this is going to be another one of my long emails but I feel that this is important to share today)

"The same God who brings such order to the universe and inspires the prophets designed the time, place, and circumstances of your birth. Said the Lord to the Prophet Joseph, 'Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less' (D&C 122:9). God’s love for you and awareness of your circumstances are of equal measure. Our relationship with Him is not that of Creator and created thing. It is of personal Father and child.

I had the privilege of being present when President Gordon B. Hinckley was interviewed by editors of the Los Angeles Times. An editor inquired about the rapid growth of the Church. President Hinckley chose to respond by emphasizing the miraculous transformation in the life of each individual who joins the Church. He spoke of a girl in Australia who was employed serving ice cream. She seemed inattentive to the message of the missionaries until one of them said, 'Do you know that you are a child of God?' She replied, 'Nobody has ever said that to me before. I had no idea that I might be a child of God.' Thereafter she went to her room, got down on her knees, and inquired: 'Are you there? Am I your child? Please let me know.' Then she said, 'There came into me a surge of feeling that brought me the conviction that was the case.' She joined the Church.

Two weeks later she was asked to give a talk in a Church meeting. Her first impulse was to run from it. Then she thought, 'If I am a child of God, I can do anything.' With this enlarged vision of who she was, she became a stalwart member of the Church.

Our entire perspective of ourselves, our worth, and what we can make of our lives is altered for good when we come to understand that we are God’s children and that we can become like Him."

I love this. Its truly humbling and amazing to see how important and impactful it can be to know the simple truth of our divine heritage. Then yesterday when I was talking with Chloe, the girl who called us and wants to be baptized, she started reading from a book written by a pastor somewhere and that talked about how too often when people try to teach about the gospel they start at Genesis chapter 3 and begin with the fact that we sinners and that we need a Savior, which is true, but that then the idea that we are evil and doomed for evil creeps in and people get stuck on that belief. The pastor said that we need to teach from the beginning, with Genesis chapter 1 and teach that we are children of God and that He loves us and knows us (I think that's just another point in the Church's favor seeing as the very first point we are told to teach is that God is our loving Heavenly Father). She then talked about how no matter what status we may have or what title we use to identify ourselves the one that is most important for us to remember and use is the fact that we are children of God and that as we no that nothing can stand in our way. I know that everybody here on the earth truly are Heavenly Father's children and I know that He knows each and every one of us and will help us through the trials that may arise in this lifetime. I know that I'm a child of God and I'm grateful for the chance to serve as one of His chosen missionaries and to help invite the people of Laguna Hills to come to know Him better. I love this gospel and I know that this is Christ's church here on the earth today and that Jesus Christ truly is our Savior and I know that there are good people here in this area that I need to be with and help and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love
Elder Cheever