August Emails

August 29, 2011

Hello Family.

Another week in Raymond come and gone, no new investigators, no progressing investigators, nada. I feel like I am really trying to give my all and then some. I guess I can't say that I haven't seen any results because it's only been one week, but I just feel so frustrated. On the positive side, we were able to visit with six less-active members/recent converts this week, the most we've had in this area since I've been here. We had eleven appointments cancel (five of which were with less-active members) but we were still able to get 17 lessons this week, so that's awesome. On the other hand, we didn't see any results from our 7-Day challenges, I still have to be the motivating force for missionary work, and still nothing.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with the zone leaders out in Cardston. That was pretty fun. Our zone leaders are work horses, which is awesome, but man, I was so tired afterward hahaha they like run from appointment to appointment, it's crazy. The zone leader that I was with had to e-mail some stuff to President, so we went to the library and pretty soon this native man walks in and sits down next to us. He starts talking about how he doesn't believe in God because science has proved that God doesn't exist and bla bla bla and I just sat there talking with him. He said that the Bible was just made up, somebody who was really smart a long time ago wrote it so that he could scare people into being 'good.' He said, "We are here, and then we die, and there's nothing any more. Nothing. It's over. What do you believe?" I had the opportunity to tell him that we are here to become like God, just as Jesus Christ says in the book of Matthew. This man then says, "If there was a God, wasn't that Satan's plan in the beginning? I read the book of Revelation one time, and it says that Satan wanted to be like God and that's why he was cast down. Plus, it says Satan was into music." First, what does Satan being into music have to do with anything? Hahaha. Second, I'm pretty sure it doesn't talk about Satan being into music in the book of Revelation. Third, Satan's plan was to dethrone God, which is more than just becoming like God. God will always be God to us, and our becoming gods will not bring Him down in any way, but will add glory to Him. He can then say, "Look what My children have done! I am glorified in them because they have chosen Me and they have reached their full potential, for which purpose I created them." It was a pretty funny conversation with this native hahaha.

Thursday we were supposed to have an appointment with that kid I told you about last week, the one that I felt like we should go back and ask him if he was planning on serving a mission. Well, they called and cancelled, but rescheduled, and then our next two appointments fell through. That was a long day. Friday morning we did a little bit of service, some planning, then did some stop-bys and had appointments for the rest of the evening. Saturday we went on exchanges with the elders in Magrath. That was a long day too. I was with Elder Duckworth, he's been out for two weeks now, and that was sweet. He's a cool kid, and we got a lot done. Kind of. We did a lot of stop-bys and nobody was really home, but that's more than I can get my companion to do. It was a long day, one of those days where I gave my all and gave some more and saw no results.

So then yesterday we went to church and none of our investigators were there and three of our appointments cancelled. We had one appointment go through with a family. Their three daughters are all going less-active, so they wanted us to be in their home and help them come back. It was a pretty good lesson, I felt like the Spirit was there very strongly, and at the end one of the daughters committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Whether she does or not, we'll see, but she said she would so we'll hold her to her word. We're going over there again on Sunday to teach the second discussion, so even though we're not teaching many investigators, we ARE trying to bring others back to the gospel, and that's just as good as a baptism.

That's pretty much it for this week, thanks for your letters of encouragement :)

I love you,
Elder Cevering

August 23, 2011

Hello Family!

THE FRIESENS GOT SEALED THIS WEEK AND CHRISTINE RECEIVED HER ENDOWMENTS!!!! Wow, that was so awesome. All Friday morning I was so nervous that we were going to miss it, but we didn't! Holy cow, there were tons of people there from my past areas, that was sweet. The coolest thing was walking into the chapel and seeing the three of them, Christine, Christina, and Jeff, sitting there on the front row, all dressed in white, ready to receive their endowments. In the terrestrial room I sat directly across from Chrstine, all dressed in her temple clothes, and I just thought about how awesome this moment was, about to enter into the celestial room with three converts. Wow, totally sweet. The sealing was awesome too. The sealer took like twenty minutes and talked about some things that I thought were kind of irrelevant, but when they brought Cathan and Rhiannon up to be sealed to their parents, that was awesome. As I sat and listened to the promises given in the sealing ordinance, I thought about how incredible they are, and how awesome it will be to have that experience in a few short years myself :) At the end of the ordinance "prayer" the sealer said, "That's it! You are now an eternal family!" Cathan stands up and says, "...that was fast!" Hahaha it was pretty funny. It was so great to see them, holy cow.

One or two days each week we meet with a recent convert. He was baptized back in January, four years after he ran away from his Hutterite colony. Hutterites are similar to what we know as Mennonites, but they are not to be confused with each other. Anyways, he is such a solid kid, he's gonna go on a mission some time soon and he has a solid testimony of the gospel. Lately he has just been feeling like he doesn't have a true appreciation for the gospel, so he is considering not going to church or reading or praying or anything so that when he DOES come back, he feels the way he did when he was baptized. We are trying to help him see that is NOT the right way to go, and he understands, he still does all those things, he just is experiencing some opposition. He's solid, I love him.

We had some pretty cool miracles happen this week. We were finally able to meet with a part-member family and teach the wife. I can't tell if she is very sensitive to the Spirit or if she just gets nervous talking to us, because it seemed like she was going to cry the entire time, she was always right on the verge of crying. The lesson went really well, though, and she understood the need for priesthood authority, although she was pretty crushed when she realized that her baptism wasn't performed by that authority. She also didn't think it was right for us to ASK God for things, but when we showed her James 1:5 again after the lesson, she said, "I guess I never really thought about it that way." Hopefully things will continue to progress there.

We were able to meet with a couple of auxiliaries this week, relief society presidents, bishops, ward mission leaders, stake presidency members, elders quorum presidents, and others, hopefully we can get missionary work going here and bring more people into the fold of God here in Raymond. Our bishop in sixth ward, Bishop McMullin, asked us to go visit a man. We stopped by to see him but his son answered the door and said he wasn't home. We left our number then climbed back in our car, but I felt that I had this strong impression to go back and talk to the son about serving a mission. I debated for a couple minutes but then got the courage to go back and do it. I was really glad that we did! He opened the door again and the smell of weed came pouring out. But, I felt we needed to do this, so we talked to him a bit about his plans for school and then invited him to meet with us and prepare to serve a mission. He said yes! We have an appointment with him on Thursday, so hopefully that goes well. Then yesterday we were able to make an appointment with two families that have less-active missionary-aged sons and one of them is a part-member family that I have been feeling strongly we need to visit with. Hopefully we continue to see success there. I am really trying to focus on following the Spirit in this area. With nine wards, that's all we can do, pray over the ward lists and ask who Father in Heaven wants us to go see and then go and do.

So then yesterday we met with Elder David S. Baxter of the Seventy. It was great! President asked me to do a musical number so I found someone to play the piano for me and I sang my arrangement of "O My Father." As I was walking off the stand Elder Baxter said, "Thank you, that was exquisite!" That was neat. President called me out a couple months ago on quote-unquote "hiding [my] singing talent" and since I had enough days' notice I thought I would show him that really it's just about having time to find an accompanist, not about me hiding that talent at all. Towards the end of the meeting Elder Baxter had all the new missionaries stand up. One of them was standing in the back, Elder Tuahivaatetonohiti, obviously from some Polynesian island. Elder Baxter asks all the new missionaries to share with him why they chose to serve a mission. When it was his turn, Elder Tuahivaatetonohiti bore his testimony of the gospel and said that was why he was here, and Elder Baxter looked at him, noticed the two missionaries sitting next to him who were from Mexico and the Philippines, and said, "Excellent. I see you're sitting with all the other brown people." Hahaha the whole room burst into laughter. He was pretty funny and he taught a lot of good stuff, he said some things that I needed to hear, and it was just good.

I am loving being able to testify of Jesus Christ and to prepare others for His second coming. I love feeling and following the Holy Ghost as He prompts me. I don't know why, but I have been feeling kind of down lately about the first half of my mission, maybe just like that I didn't give it all that I could have or what, but I feel so good about the past eight months of my missionary service. I feel like I really came to know Jesus Christ when I was serving in 6th ward, I have fond memories of the Spirit that I felt in that area. Fetch now my computer screen is all blurry hahaha it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it. Creston was incredible, that's where I learned that the Lord can make me an instrument in His hands to strengthen an area and leave it better than I found it. Here I am learning how to really rely on the Spirit and to just give myself totally and completely to the Lord's work. It's great! There are still tough days, days I want to be done, but when I look back at all the positive experiences, the times when I've felt the Spirit, I know that I only have short time left in this experience and I have to work hard! Thanks for all your love and support. I love you!

Elder Cevering


August 15, 2011

Hello Family!

Well, what a week. To be perfectly honest, it's almost been as rough a week as it was my first week in Claresholm. My new companion is from Idaho Falls.

Nothing is going on here in Raymond. We have one investigator that I haven't met, another that is out of town and has a crazy work schedule, and two that don't want to meet until school starts again. It's hard to go from having an investigator lesson like every day to none all week. We are the only missionaries in Raymond, so we cover the entire stake, all nine wards. The district includes Magrath and Cardston, but there are other missionaries serving there. Each of them covers a stake. Raymond is kind of like Claresholm, but I would say it's smaller. The population might be about the same but the biggest restaurant we have in town is Subway.

Raymond is a HUGE sports town. What are we supposed to do when the high school football team is playing and all the businesses are shut down at 5:00 and everyone is at the football game and it's against the rules to go to the football game? Who are we going to teach?

All we did this week was service and member lessons. There is a family, the Bartsoffs, who own a ranch just outside of town. We went out and helped them build a fence this week. They are sweet, I like them a lot, I just think that it would be more effective to help them maybe once a week and spend the rest of our time either doing service for other members or trying to contact people to have lessons with them.

And I'm so stoked to go to the temple with Christine and the Friesens on Friday!!!! I can't wait. You will have to wait until next Tuesday to hear about it, Elder Baxter from the Quorum of the Seventy is coming to speak to us on Monday, so P-Day will be Tuesday instead.

That's all I can think to share with you right now. Thanks for your love and prayers!

Love,
Elder Cevering