Fear not little flock

This week was good. I got to leave the mission on Monday to go to Oceanside to help Elders Toland and Losee serve one of the Chaplains from on base. He was so thankful to have our help and he was a really great guy. We helped them move out another lady the other day and she said we were true men of God. I love serving people and seeing how happy it makes them and how thankful they are for it. On Saturday we got to go to dinner with Cam, his sister, a family friend of theirs and her daughter. They were all super thankful for the work we are doing even though they are Catholic but we had the chance to give Cam's family friend a copy of the Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and that she wishes she had sons who could do this and that we are angels so it felt really good to know that even nonmembers are so thankful for the work we are doing. The main focus of this week for me I think is overcoming fear. As you know I usually hate talking to people I don't know so I made a goal with Elder Christensen this week to get better at contacting and it has helped so much. I have talked to just about everybody I see on the streets. In three days I got like 70 contacts which was super awesome. And then today, while reading the Book of Mormon in Moroni 8:16, Mormon tells Moroni, "Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do" This was super cool to see because we need to not fear what man can do to us because we need to share the gospel with everybody and if we do so with Heavenly Father on our side he will protect us. So to go a long with that share the gospel, tell your friends, post on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, share conference talks or Mormon Messages. Its not hard and Heavenly Father will strengthen you against whatever the adversary has to throw at you, as my Mom's favorite scripture says "Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail." So fear not little flock

This work is so great and so much fun. I love working with all the missionaries here and finding people who are ready to hear the truth. I know this is God's restored church on the Earth today and that the Book of Mormon is true and that by reading it and praying for that confirmation anybody can come to know that truth too. These people are good and I need to be with them.

Love,

Elder Cheever

Little Miracles

This week was really quick. Jose Martinez, Jose Camargo, and Omar all ended up cancelling their appointments with us, which was disappointing, but Omar at least is keeping up his commitments and reading the Book of Mormon. We got to finally have a lesson with Cam and we had Elder Hook come down. Elder Hook was one of the missionaries who found him so I think that helped him. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom because its something he has had an issue with. He said he would try to keep it because he wants to get baptized but its a very social thing with his family since he is from Lebanon. It will be hard but I have faith that he will be blessed with the strength he needs. I got to go on an exchange with one of my zone leaders, which was really fun. He's a redneck from Utah so we listened to classic George Strait songs and  other wholesome country music, which was really fun. We did six hours straight of service, which was good because it was kind of a break from regular missionary work but was still doing good. 

This week we set what we call a window of Heaven, which is where we pray and ask to be guided where to go on what day and what time and we go to that place for an hour and talk to everybody we find there. When we got to the park there were no people so for a while we just walked around hoping to find somebody but then towards the end we saw a man sitting at a table so we went to talk to him. He had gotten out of the hospital three days earlier and then went home and got kicked out of his house by his parents because he was drunk and a drug addict. He told us a lot of what he has been dealing with and how he just wants to be a better person and to have his family want him. We were able to teach him about the Atonement and about God's love for us and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and told him that by reading it he could find the happiness he was looking for. He doesn't have a phone or a car though so we can't really contact him but I know that Heavenly Father wanted us to find this man, Pablo, and to help him. I have faith that Heavenly Father will help him somewhere down the line. Right after this we tried to find a member in our ward but when we knocked on the door an older lady opened up and asked how we found her. We explained we had a list and just chose her apartment. She then said she had moved in only a week before and that the day before we found her a man installing her cable was Mormon and explained some about the Book of Mormon to her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and then told her about how we are the restored church of Jesus Christ and she told us she would read them and learn more so we plan to tell the sister missionaries in that area about her because she is definitely somebody who has been prepared, which is something that Elder Nielsen and I pray for every day. 

So that's my message for this week is little miracles. We don't know where these contacts will go but they were boosts to us and sometimes that's what we need is little boosts to keep us moving.

I love it here and I love being a servant of the Lord. These people are good and I need to be with them.

Love,

Elder Cheever

Feel the Prayers

This week was really good. Monday and P-Day was fun, our zone just hung out at the stake center and played volleyball or basketball and just relaxed. Later in the evening we got to go to the ward's FHE and we had ice cream right by the beach and I got some cool sunset pictures over the peninsula. This week was kinda crazy with meeting investigators. On Tuesday, Jose M had to cancel on us because his friend's cat was dying, then on Wednesday Jose C had to cancel on us too, which stunk. On Thursday, we got to talk to Omar about faith. He hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon so we committed him to do that again and gave him some good chapters to read and told him to make sure to pray to know the book's truth and he seemed excited to do this. On Friday, we met with Bobby and figured out where he was in relation to baptism. He is so ready, we showed him a Mormon message form Elder Anderson that says you know enough then we challenged him to pick a day and pray about that specific day. He should be baptized in early August so he's almost there. On Sunday, we finally got to meet Cam. He's really close too except we still need to teach him the commandments, especially the Word of Wisdom, but he really wants to be baptized.

On Wednesday, I got to go to a new missionary dinner at President Orgill's house. Sister Orgill is an amazing cook and real food was great for a change. It was so awesome to see all my brothers from the MTC and be able to catch up and share stories from the first week in the field. They are all doing so great. After dinner President shared a story from his mission that was really cool. He served in Tonga and at that time they were allowed to go in the ocean so he was surfing on a log with his companion but then his companion went to shore (can you see the first problem) President then tried to get farther out to catch bigger waves and ended up getting pulled into a rip current. He jumped off the log thinking it would be better on his own and just got pulled farther out. He said that he started running out of energy and so he prayed that his mission president (the same mission president from "The Other Side of Heaven") would know how to tell his family that he had died and immediately he had a feeling that said, "wrong prayer". He was then guided what to pray for and began to get inspiration how to get to safety. He had been carried over a reef and when the waves would pull back he would catch them but then get slammed into the reef and was badly cut up but the second time it happened he realized he needed to grab the reef. Through doing that and kicking off of it he was able to eventually make it back to shore where his companion and the branch president and branch members were waiting for him. He said he was angry that nobody had tried to save him but they all told him lots of people had died in the same place and all they could do was pray that he would find a way. I love President Orgill a ton and it will be sad when he leaves next year. He has such a strong spirit about him and is a great leader.

This story really helped me to feel the prayers of all those who love me and helped me to know that when it gets hard out here I will have people on the "shore" praying that I can find a way as well. Prayer is a huge opportunity that we have been given by our Heavenly Father and we should use it all the time. He wants to hear from us even if its just little things like how our day went. We can also always ask him for help and anything we might need and he promises us he'll answer (just don't ask dumb questions like when Joseph Smith asked when the second coming would be since the Father will answer even if it is with an answer like "if you live to your 80th birthday you'll see Christ come again" even though both God and Joseph knew he wouldn't make it to that point;))

I finished the book of Alma today and can now say that it is my favorite book in the Book of Mormon. The examples of missionary work from Alma and Alma the younger and Ammon the other Sons of Mosiah are so poignant and powerful. They're testimonies are so great and they love the Lord with all their hearts. Captain Moroni's faith is unmatched and I hope I can live my life like him that the very foundation of hell can be shaken just a little and I commit all of you to make that your goal to. And like the Stripling warriors I will not lose hope even in the darkest circumstances because I know that God will help us overcome our personal opposing armies of Lamanites, whatever they may be.

I love being here and serving God to bring his children back to him. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ and I can truly testify that they both live and love us all. I know that the scriptures are their words to us and that they want us to obey. These people are good and I need to be with them

Love,

Elder Cheever

I know through him all things are possible

The weather here is perfect and the people are rich! The stake president has an elevator in his house! I'm in a YSA ward and the ward mission leader lives right next to the Ritz-Carlton, right along the beach and supposedly has a plane in his house. I have seen so many Teslas, Mercedes, and BMWs here. And even a Lamborghini and a Ferrari and I'm not even in the rich part.

Tuesday was super long and I was pooped by the time we got to our apartment. I'm in the San Clemente area in the San Clemente YSA ward. I live in a bummy condo in a city called San Juan Capistrano but it's not too bad. My trainer, Elder Nielson, is pretty cool and he's helping me a lot

On Wednesday and Thursday we drove around the whole  area all day trying to talk to less active member but none of them were home. We got white washed so it's kinda hard figuring out what to do at first.

Those days killed me. I hated it so much and wanted to go home. I guess I got lucky in the MTC and wasn't homesick until I got here. Alma 17:10 really helped me though, in it I think Ammon asks for comfort and straight away the Lord says be comforted and I felt like that was meant for me. I also read this really great talk called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary". It really changed my perspective and helped me a ton so I recommend reading it for anybody.

We have five investigators after getting whitewashed which is pretty cool. One, Jose, is really close to baptism he just needs to stop getting drunk and smoking weed. Another, Cam, was going to be baptized just for the past elders but now he keeps getting drunk so we need to work on that too (people are dumb but we still love them). We have a guy named Bobby who is super awesome. He has been around the church for like 20 years and loves it he just has a hard time committing but we'll get him baptized. He says that even when he isn't investigating he always helps the elders he sees. Another is a kid named Omar who is super cool. Elder Nielson and I actually picked him up and he understands us but isn't sure about baptism. He's a crazy good artist though. These last two are the most interesting. Their names are Jose and Manuel (Manny). Manny is a less active member and Jose is investigating but they both want to come to church, here's the plot twist though, THEY ARE MARRIED TO EACH OTHER. So at some point Jose is gonna have to be informed that if he wants to be baptized they will have to be divorced so that will be a great conversation. The work is great though and I know that the Lord and his atonement will help them all understand what they need to do.

I'll close with a passage from Alma 26. In it, Ammon is talking about their time with the Lamanites and Aaron calls him out for being boastful and Ammon gets mad and says "I don't boast of myself I boast of my God" (that was paraphrasing, read the chapter for more detail) but that's my goal now is to always boast in my God because I know through him all things are possible

This work is so great. Even if it's hard, I still love it

These people are good and I need to be with them.

Love,

Elder Cheever

Leaving the MTC and Arriving in California

Monday, July 6th (Before leaving the MTC)

This week just felt like a lot of class time and teaching investigators but it was great. Selam still wants to be baptized and is so amazingly accepting of the Gospel, Elder Jones and I love talking to her every morning. We also had another couple of investigators named Jonathan and Aaron. They're both really cool guys who just want to know more about God and Jesus Christ and whats so important about our church. In our first meeting with Aaron, Elder Jones and I both kind of struggled because he already knows so much about the church, his best friend since fourth grade is a member and he goes to BYU, and we both ended up giving pretty firey testimonies. We decided after that that we would find out what he wants to know and learn because that would be much more effective. The rest of our meetings went amazingly. We were able to answer questions he had like "is the laying on of hands in the bible or did Joseph Smith just make it up?" or "Did Jesus actually visit other people like he said he would?" It was so uplifting for me too to be able to search the scriptures and find those instances he needed. In one lesson we talked about Nephi and other great men in the Book of Mormon because he wondered how Nephi was so good all the time and thought of him as a goody two shoes so Elder Jones got on him about that but in a good way. In our second to last meeting with him we invited him to commit to be baptized but he said no but that meant we had something big to talk about when we met with him next. Elder Jones and I decided to fast on Friday to have the Spirit with us and to be able to help him come to a realization of the importance of baptism, but we didn't meet with him till 6:45 that night so we had to skip all three meals. It ended up being totally worth it, when we talked to him his major concern was his wife. She is also taking discussions but not with him because she comes from an atheist background, we actually talked to her our first night here in a big group setting. He said he wants to be baptized with her but he doesn't want her to do it just because he is which we understood. We counseled him to talk with her and tell him how he feels about it and see where they are then. He also wondered why, if its a covenant between you and God, that he needs to have somebody baptize him. Elder Jones and I got thrown off by this at first but we were able to explain why the priesthood authority is needed and help him understand. It has been so cool to see him progress and build his faith; he started off so closed off but was eventually able to open up to us. We left him with our emails and hopefully he lets us know how things are going with the rest of his life. 

I have to go eat breakfast now but I love this Gospel and I know that the scriptures are the word of God to us in these latter days and that the power of the priesthood can bless lives. I can't wait to go and meet the people raised up and waiting for me. These people are good and this is where I need to be!

Love,

Elder Cheever

Tuesday, July 7th (after arriving in California)

I made it safely to the California (thats so weird to say) and everybody is so loving. President and Sister Orgill are awesome and he's so nice. The flight was a whole hour and a half so not much else to tell but were just going through all the opening processes and getting ready to eat some food finally. Its so weird to think that after today it will be just me and one companion and not my whole band of brothers as we've become. We already lost Elders Boone and Robinson since their going to South Carolina and I'm gonna miss all these guys but I'm excited to begin working. I want to eat and take a nap so there's not much else to add. I love you all lots and can't wait to share my stories with you. Oh and here are some pictures of us.

Love, 

Elder Cheever

The first day was a whirlwind of getting raced in while constantly having "Welcome to the MTC!!!" yelled at us. I got to meet my district then we went to meeting on meeting all day basically. The rest of the days kind of blur together honestly because we do so much stuff; my journal entries are so long now from trying to remember all of the great spiritual and also fun stuff that goes on here. 

On the second day we got to meet our branch presidency and Elder Jones (my companion) was made district leader which was pretty good since he already took charge, even though it makes me responsible for stuff since we have to be within "Sight and Sound" as they say here. We've grown really close over the past week which can be expected when you spend all day together feeling the spirit and drawing people closer to Christ. That night after the meeting the zone and district leaders of the "older district" who had been here for a whole week more than us took us new zone and district leaders on a jog around the campus for a little while and then we stopped at this tree in the corner of our classroom building. We all held hands and then they talked to us about how great it is here and how much of a responsibility it is to be the leaders, then they told us that they love the opportunity to teach us while they were here. They're all great guys even thought they're a little goofy. They told us that the run and the tree was a tradition that has been passed down in our zone for a while so we're all excited to share it with the new leaders in a couple days. Then we all said a prayer over our zone and our district which was really neat. 

On day three Elder Jones and I got to teach our first investigator. Her name is Selam, she's from Ethiopia and was brought to us because she went to a church building one day because she said it felt right. We talked to her about the love God has for her individually. She told us about how her mother died of cancer back in Ethiopia and how she always wonders where she is so we told her a little about the plan of salvation. We invited her to be baptized in that first meeting but she wasn't quite ready. This day was our first gym time which was great because we all needed to just unwind after all the hours of just straight studying and hardcore spiritual experiences. 

On day four we got to do service, which was basically cleaning the toilets in our building, but it was a nice break and as we're told "When you're in the service of your fellow men you're in the service of your God". Then Elder Jones and I got to teach Selam again which was awesome. She has so much faith. She had questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and we were able to tell her about the first vision and the restoration. As we told her we could tell how much she felt the spirit and she told us that it made complete sense which is amazing since most people don't agree. 

Day five was Sunday which was really good. It was a nice break from our regular schedule but was still really spiritual. I got to go to the branch leadership meeting which was really cool to tell the needs of our districts and zone. The older district is so great and they're such a good example. One of them, Elder Cazier apparently was ready to go home a little after he got here and they all talked to him and were able to help him feel like he belonged and helped him want to stay which was really good because he has come to be one of my favorite elders here. After that we had sacrament meeting and Sister Cook, who is in my district, and Sister Pope, in the older one, both gave great talks but despite my best efforts I fell asleep. After that meeting we got to go on the computers and spend time watching Mormon Messages while we waited to be interviewed by the branch presidency. I was able to find one that helped me a ton and I felt the spirit very strongly during it. It was called "The Hope of God's Light." It told the story of a man who had a great life but it all came crashing down and when he was ready to end his life he heard to girls talking about fasting and prayer and he decided to try it. When he did he didn't get any answer he was expecting but he no longer wanted to be dead. He told how over the next years he prayed every day to know if God was real and eventually met members of the church missionaries. After more time he was at a ward picnic prior to being baptized and while they were blessing the food he got the strongest impression "That these people are good and I need to be here". This hit me so hard and I immediately started to cry as I looked at my district around me and felt so much love for them and I'm so glad they're who I have been placed with here and I know it wasn't a coincidence. At the same time I felt that this would be something good for me to remember as I am in California and people reject me or even when they're nice. In our priesthood meeting we talked about faith and how the it differs from knowledge. The Brother of Jared and his story shows this perfectly, had he seen the Lord's finger the first time he illuminated a stone it would have been a knowledge and not faith and he wouldn't have had the same trust in Jesus Christ, but instead he got to see each one light up on its own and have his faith grow with each one until it was powerful enough to where he could see Christ's finger and he could have that confirmation. We went to a devotional after dinner and the guy who talked gave us good advice telling us it would be hard but completely worth it to serve our mission, and that when it gets the hardest we can have faith that it will be right before our greatest success. After that we got to watch a recording of Elder Ballard and how he talked about the Character of Christ. The most important thing I got from it was that nobody but the natural man cares what I want and that I need to forget myself and serve the Lord by serving others just as Jesus did no matter what he was going through. It was such a powerful talk and I'm so glad I could see it. 

Yesterday was day six and we got to teach our new investigators. Our first one is named Jonathan. He knows about the church already from friends but wants to learn more which is really good. We just got to know him and touched a little on how God loves us before we had to leave. Right after that we got to teach Selam again and it was amazing, we talked about how through prayer the spirit can testify all things to us and about baptism and I bore my testimony too her and the spirit was so strong. Then we asked her to commit to baptism and she said yes! Which is so exciting. At gym time we played basketball and volleyball with the other district for some of their last day which was a lot of fun. Most of the day was just a lot of classes. At one point we combined with the other district that came in at the same time with us and did role playing teaching the Plan of Salvation and that went really well considering how little time I've spent studying it here. 

Today has been made up of laundry and some well deserved rest and emailing. While I wrote this there were some Elders practicing their Norwegian making me so glad that I'm going English speaking because that would be so much more work.

Overall this experience has been so spiritually uplifting. Everyday I get to spend so much time studying the scriptures and discussing with my new family and my understanding has increased tenfold and I already feel like I have been out for years so I can only Imagine how the next two years are gonna feel. This work is so good and its what God wants me to be doing right now and honestly I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. One thing that has been really great to see here is the progress of myself and the other elders and sisters I have become so close with, some of us have struggled but through power of the priesthood we have been able to help them feel great about being here. Specifically, on Sunday, the two sisters in the district, Sisters Cook and Rhymer wanted priesthood blessings and Elder Dallin who has been struggling the most with homesickness and wanting to be here was able to do one of them and all the words he was prompted to say were about comfort and the need to be here and you could tell that it touched him almost as much as it helped the sister. I know that God loves us and knows us individually and that he wants whats best for us. I can't wait to get to California and bless the lives of all those waiting for me. 

-Elder Cheever