This is an amazing area

This week has been great. This ward is super welcoming and it is an amazing area. Elder Gunn is a great companion and we get along super well and we feel really good about this transfer and the miracles that we can see. 

We were able to meet with one of our investigators named Jack. He is a high school aged boy who got cancer a little while ago but who is cancer free for now. He has been going to church for the past three years and is working on seminary home study right now. He is an awesome young man and he has a strong testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. Elder Gunn and I both feel really strongly that he is ready to be baptized and we talked with his two best friends about it so they are going over today to set a baptism date with him. The biggest problem though is that he goes in for a bone marrow transplant in the beginning of November and once the happens we wont be able to visit him for about 3 months so we are hoping that it all works out and that he can be baptized this weekend or early next week. We know that if its what Heavenly Father wants it will happen. Hopefully y'all can keep him and his family in your prayers.

On Saturday we did a lot of service at a food bank sort of place that was pretty nasty. They have a rat problem so we were helping them to clean out the entire warehouse so they could deep clean it. We actually had a pretty good time chasing rats as we moved stuff around but we felt pretty gross towards the end of it. Later that day Elder Gunn and I went by a potential investigator family's home. They are a super awesome Jewish family that loves the church so Elder Gunn has talked with them previously about various things. We ended up having an hour and a half long lesson that started off with us teaching them about prayer and the way we pray and then we talked for the rest of the time about Christ and His Atonement and why various parts of it are necessary and how they help us in the life and then we said a prayer with them in behalf of their nephew going through a hard time. When we left we were able to give them a copy of the Book of Mormon and explain to them what it is exactly. They were happy to learn more and to get the Book of Mormon  and told us to come back soon.

We ran out of things to do at night and nobody was available because it was homecoming for the local high school so we ended up walking around for a little bit and go to a part of our area that has lots of wilderness in it and we heard coyotes howling which was a little eerie and but we kept going that way and then they howled a lot closer and we both had a strong feeling that we needed to get out of there so we took off running the way we came and probably ran for a quarter mile in our missionary clothes with our bags before we decided that we should be safe. And then a little later we had our car parked using up a couple of spots at a park so that we wouldn't have to back up and I looked at it from across the park where we were walking and it looked like the headlights were on so we went back to check it out and discovered a cop getting ready to write us a ticket. We got there just in time to explain our laziness and to apologize to him so that we could get out of the ticket. That day made me grateful for the Spirit and the fact that even when we are doing dumb stuff we can still receive help and guidance

On Sunday we had church as usual and after church we went to visit a less active member named Jim. As soon as we got to his house it started pouring rain so we managed to get in. His ex wife was there as well but he referred to her as his wife so it must not be too bad of a situation. We were able to have a super good lesson with them about obedience to God's commandments and afterwards his wife suggested that they need to have us over to dinner sometime to be able to teach their kids, who aren't members of the church so we are hoping that that works out and that we can teach them.

There is a lot going on here and I'm excited for it. I know that through our hard work and dedication we can see miracles here and in the lives of those we are working with as they begin to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. There are lots of good people here and I need to be with them!

Love

Elder Cheever