Good week back in Santa Ana

Its been a good week back in Santa Ana. Following the assistants into an area is a pretty fortunate thing since they made sure to keep the area book organized and neat so that we would know who we will be working with and what they need to be taught. We have a lot more investigators than I have gotten used to and one of the biggest less-active member populations in the mission so we have a lot of work to do. Its actually kind of intimidating because there is so much and we don't want to lose track of anybody but on Sunday we had Elder Acosta, the area general authority, in our ward council meeting and one thing he suggested to the ward council in their efforts to help people was to have each auxiliary pick 5 people to focus on at a time and to help them as much as possible until they are active again or they tell them to stop and then move somebody else into the "roster". Upon hearing that we decided that that's what we need to do as well so hopefully narrowing our vision will make it easier to do all that we need to do here.  The ward has been super supportive and excited to help us out in any way they can which has also been cool to see. On Sunday all the people that were in the ward when I was here before were excited to see me and happy to have me here again, Brother Harmer, the bishop in the ward last year, joked that I didn't get it right the first time so I got sent back here to try again, which is probably right.

On Thursday we were able to meet with a man named Migel who the last elders were about to start teaching and we read a little in the Book of Mormon and we will go back there again today. 

On Saturday we were able to meet with Ismael, a 17 year old boy that they had taught a little as well. And then last night we had a lesson with Touttou (pronounced to-to) that went super well. We went in with the intention of teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson but we ended up helping Touttou understand the Book of Mormon much better. He had some questions about how the Book of Mormon fits in with the Bible, what its purpose is and how the Nephites and the Lamanites knew about Christ's life and about His Atonement. At first when he started asking questions I wasn't quite sure how to answer them in a way that would help him best so I said a quick prayer for guidance and help and as we continued to talk the verses in 1st Nephi 17 when Nephi is talking with the angel and being shown the future of his people and of the world and he sees the Bible and the Book of Mormon come forth came to my mind and as we read those verses with him he was able to see more clearly the importance of the Book of Mormon. I was grateful that over the last week I had read 1st Nephi over again and as such it was on my mind and available for the Spirit to bring to my remembrance. 

Hopefully today we will be able to meet with another one of our investigators, Renee, a 19 year old girl with a three year old son. Elder Everett and Elder Boggess told us that she is "elect" and will for sure get baptized so look forward to working with her as well.

I'm excited to be back here. It feels kind of like coming home, I enjoy seeing some of the same places and neighborhoods and especially all the crazy stuff that happens up there. I know that there is a purpose to my being here and that there are people I can help.

Love

Elder Cheever