Full of excitement and disappointment

We had a pretty good week over here in Talega, full of excitement and disappointment but still a good week.

On Monday two of the young men who the best friends of our investigator Jack talked with him about baptism and committed him to pray to know when he should get baptized and then on Wednesday they told us that he had a decided he wanted to do it before his bone marrow transplant that is happening tomorrow. We got super excited about that and started to try and figure out how we would go about doing all of it. On Thursday when we had our lesson with Jack our plan was to discuss his baptism and figure out exactly what day to do it on and to figure out all of the minutia of it; this is where the disappointment comes in. We told him that we had heard that he wanted to get baptized to which he laughed hesitantly and then said that he had done some more thinking about it and he decided that he isn't ready for it yet for a lot of things. We continued on with the lesson and went over the commandments we were going to teach him anyways and I think in a small way we were able to address some of his concerns but for now we will have to wait until his treatment is over, which will be another couple of months. But thanks to technology we are going to have lessons with his friends and him over skype/facetime since he will be in a hospital that's an hour and a half away from here. 

That was the biggest thing that happened this week. Besides that we just had a lot of service. We helped out at FAM again and then we helped to take down a haunted house from a fall festival in the area and then set up and work at a fall festival all day on Saturday. As tiring as service is its one of my favorite things to do. There is just something fulfilling about helping others.

On Saturday night we also had the chance to go up to Santa Ana for a little while to meet up with one of my former companions, Jordan Dallin. He was in the MTC with me and he ended up going home in January. He got married on the 28th and was in the mission before heading out for his honeymoon on a cruise leaving from Long Beach. It was a ton of fun to catch up with him and to meet his wife. 

One of my very favorite things about the mission is the relationships that I have built. I have made friendships with other missionaries, with members, and investigators that I hope will last for a long time and I have gotten to know people who I will never forget. I truly do love all of Father's children no matter where they live or who they are. The people here are so good and I very much need to be with them!

Love

Elder Cheever