The Work and Privilege

Hey everyone hope your all staying warm and enjoying the snow if your back East :) 

This week has been incredibly busy but it also flew by so fast!

We picked up a new investigator named Randy and he is HILARIOUS! He was a referral from some elders who had taught him. Well, we have been trying to contact him and he never answers the door. One day while we were contacting it was freezing outside and I just screamed "Randy we know your in there, OPEN UP." My companion ended up running to the car while I was on the porch yelling. He didn't end up opening the door… but we went to contact him again one day and we left a note explaining that we had lost his number and had been trying to get in contact with him. Well … Randy called us! My companions were doing something so I was talking to him on the phone and he basically told us that he already knew what he needed to do to get baptized and he was good. I started asking about what was keeping him from meeting with us.. and mid sentence he asks where I'm from.. Come to find out Randy is from Salem, VA and knew where I went to school. We talked  for a while and he asked if he could meet us this week. We met with him this week and he told us he is basically ready to get baptized he is just working on something. We had an awesome lesson with him this week. He kept asking us "Why are we here?" “What are you gonna tell your kids that you were in Caldwell, ID?" It was an awesome opportunity to testify of the importance and privilege of missionary work and the miracles of serving the lord and being a representative of the Savior. 

We also had a HUGE WORLDWIDE missionary broadcast and it was awesome. We were fed spiritually so well and learned so much! One of my favorites things that Elder Neil L. Anderson said was "Speak of the Savior, Speak of the gospel and he will speak of you to the Father"  What an awesome promise. We received training on SOOO many things. The theme was "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" which was awesome because as we had the broadcast it clicked that the lord wants his children that we are privileged  to teach to be converted before they enter the waters of baptism and we want repentance and baptism to be evidence of their conversion. We have been working with tons of investigators and our investigator Stacy is getting baptized on Saturday we are so excited for her :) She has been having a hard time lately actually quite a few of our investigators have been. I feel like the theme of the week was trusting in Heavenly Father and Elder Jeffrey R Holland's talk "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence". It talks about when we have enlighten experiences or when a big change is about to come in our lives and we start to face challenges, but Elder Holland's counsel it  that "The Lord will fight for you" "If it was right when you prayed for it and trusted in it, it is right right now" Don't give up when the pressure mounts, Face your doubts, Master your fears Cast not away your confidence Stay the course, see the beauty of life unfold for you!" I love this advice of course its gonna be hard but the lord will always prepare a way for you if you place your trust in him.

Lastly we went to a middle school basketball game to watch a little boy who we are kinda teaching how to play it was super fun and he did awesome! Also we were super spoiled and went to Olive Garden this week with a member I can't resist those bread sticks and salad… maybe I should be, anyway it was delicious :) We also lost power on Tuesday and were not prepared when we got home but, I had a candle (Thanks Mom!) anyway we survived and the power eventually came back on! 

This has been an awesome week, to sit back and see the hand of the lord. I am always grateful for those moments when I think about the privilege it is to be a missionary. To be able to speak of the Savior and testify of the love he has for his children and the plan for all of us to return to our father in heaven. Each of us have a divine destiny we are children of a heavenly being who of all the names to be called chose "Father" I testify that the blessings he has in store for all his children can be found through the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been restored again upon the earth! 

Have a great week everyone :)

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland 

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Hey Everyone!

Well first I must give tribute to Alan Rickman who passed away :( I'm sure ABC FAMILY had Harry Potter Weekend! He was an awesome Severus Snape! 

This has been a super awesome week. We got loaded with referrals from the Spanish elders who have been tracting a ton looking for investigators and because they are Spanish they refer most of them to us. We have been busy contacting and working in the two areas which has been filling our schedules which is awesome. We are currently working with someone who has been investigating the church for a while. We set a baptism date with her for the 30th! We are super excited and feel she is super ready. We also had exchanges this week, interviews with president, meetings coming out of our ears!  It's been crazy but we are grateful for the work that continues to move forward. 

This week we met with a less active who was just spitting questions at us about the gospel and he wanted to talk about Judas and pre-ordination. He said he wanted Judas to be the "Professor Snape of the New Testament" we laughed. He had a ton of quick responses. My companion said "Sometimes it stinks when we don't have the end of the map" and he replied "Not if you know whats under the X" He's pretty quick and it was a fun visit. Probably one of the craziest things we've heard. We've spent tons of time contacting and we always come to find a crazy story. This transfer we set a goal to have ten people progress to baptisms. We are on number 9! We continue to pray and found miracles around every corner its been amazing.

This week I spoke about whether we are "Spiritually out of shape" in our lives. Are we prepared for the challenges that come our way from life? Or are we slacking in our workouts such as prayer, scripture study, church worship are we  listening to our "trainers"?. I know that it is always something we can work on, in our lives. 

Hope everyone has a great week :))

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

Transformation

Hey Everyone!

Hope everyone had a great week :) This has been a week of awesome blessings and tons of missionary work which is great. We are actually now in a trio one of the missionary whose companions left the missions so we are covering 4 wards and it has been non-stop go go go . But we are loving it. We picked up three new investigators this week and we feel so blessed to receive member referrals and their willingness to fellowship. Our investigators and recent converts are simply amazing and it is such a blessing to teach them and be apart of their transformation. 

We have had such a busy week the elder quorum in our ward had an event celebrating the family and we had smoked turkey which was delicious! And it was a super cute event the women and kids couldn't get up to get anything and the men took our orders and served us dinner super sweet! We love our ward. One of our recent converts names Conley we had a lesson with and he was talking about the power of transformation and the man he use to be and the man he is now. He talked about how he has changed and how he was asked to bless the sacrament and prepare it. He talked about what an honor is was for him to be asked to do so. I love how much the love of god can transform us, Elder Holland has said "However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.” I know that to be so true seeing it in the life of so many I have been blessed to come in contact with and in my own life. We had an awesome week visiting with so many families, we went to a gender reveal party of a recent convert it was super cute and we are super happy for her. The work continues to move forward and I am so grateful to be a part of it. Hope you all have a great week!

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

A Miracle A Day

Hey Everyone!

      This has been such a fast week, its hard to remember what happen! 

We taught our investigator yesterday and we had such a powerful lesson on the plan of salvation and the principles of repentance and the atonement of Jesus Christ. He kept explaining to us the mistakes he's made and the choices he said he has hurt so many people and he can't possibly make up for all of it. We taught him about the blessings using the atonement and trusting the Savior and allowing him to help us. He read from D&C 58: 42-43 and ended in tears. The power of the spirit is amazing he kept saying that he felt it through the lessons. I know that he felt the love of the Savior and that comes to anyone who is willing to let the Savior into their lives and allowing the atonement to heal them. 

    I've been thinking about some experiences we have had this week. Sometimes we have just about 5 mins to tell someone about the church or bear testimony. Whether we are at a door knocking or in a home. I love being able to testify of the Savior if their is anything I can do is to share how much the Savior loves us and heavenly Father has a plan for us in our lives! 

       This week my companion had a mission leadership meeting in Nampa. So I was proselytizing in Nampa while she was gone with Sister Bertalino. We had an awesome opportunity to teach a woman who is really struggling and just feels like the Lord has turned his back on her. I was reading in Alma this week in chapter five he teaches the people about the Shepard in verse 37 it says "a Shepard hath called after you, and is still calling after you" I love being able to share that message because even when we feel like god has left us, or we feel abandon. It is promised that the good Shepard (the Savior) will always be there for us, his hand is stretch out to us always! Hope everyone has a good week!

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

P.S. Also I have started an "A Miracle A Day" Journal its such a great way to look for blessings or miracles that the lord gives us in our lives everyday. Maybe you might include that as one of your goals for the year! Hope you set some awesome goals! :)