Goodbye, Nampa l love ya!!

Hey everyone :)

The news is true I have left the wonderful land of Nampa and am heading to McCall, ID for the next 6 weeks! leaving Nampa was super hard, and our area is getting a set of brand new missionaries who know nothing about the area so I had to leave tons of notes and extra extras but i know they will do great in this area, I love the people in Nampa the last 7 months have been so good to me here, I've seen so many miracles and lives changed I'm so grateful for my time there. As I was pulling out today it was so bittersweet and I shed some tears. This has been a huge blessing and I know that McCall will bring more blessings and miracles.

This week was so good! It was kind of crazy hopefully I touch on everything. This week I had a reunion with my Payette family the Youngbergs and Jordyn. It was so good to see them I sure loved my time in Payette and am so grateful for the good care they took of us and that we can still stay in connect and have these awesome lunch dates. I loved being with them. :) Thanksgiving came super quick and my companion and I got up to do a little turkey trot we just really walked the greenbelt and didn't run at all..haha We had thanksgiving lunch at the Beals house who we love and it was good food & good company and just smelling the food made me want to nap. We had some good conversations I helped Sister Beal Christmas shop for her kids, online she looked it up and ask my opinion I told her what I thought, she was Mrs. Claus and I was Head-Elf :) We headed over to the Asay's for Thanksgiving dinner it was great, I love that family they are all so funny and we had a blast as always. We ended the night going to play another round of zombie wars with our zone using nerf guns it was a fun way to spend the night. Friday we got back to work and did some work around our area.

We got transfer calls Saturday morning which told me I was heading to McCall and with both my companion and I leaving we had a ton of packing and cleaning to do, lots of area work, saying goodbyes and prepping for the new sisters. The crazy thing is we had a baptism that same day! We were on our way to dinner and our investigator called us and said she was feeling too sick to get baptized, she had a headache and wasn't feeling well. Sick to her stomach. So we canceled dinner fliped around drove to her house, I asked her if she would consider having a blessing which she previously said she didn't think she needed one but finally agreed to. Thank goodness for all my mom taught me and I learned at college. We ran to the store grabbed her Gatorade, crackers and a banana and some ginger ale to get her hydrated and something light in her system. She got up showered agreed she could go to her baptism, she was dressed got a blessing and then her car wouldn't start :( she called her friend who was able to pick her up to go to her baptism. We left and went to the church and as we were printing the programs the printer jammed and wouldn't work. Which meant we had to leave to go to our church building which was about 6 mins away and it was 6:40 at the point. I got there as fast as we could, printed programs came back just in time to take pictures and get Christina and Alexis baptized. It was a got baptismal program and even sweeter to see them confirmed the next day in church. I know that they will be well taken care of by this ward and that they will be cared for.

I'm looking forward to my time in McCall it'll be awesome and a white Christmas sounds divine.

I hope you all had wonderful thanksgiving and check out the #LighttheWorld intivative on christmas.mormon.org

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey Everyone,

 I hope you all have a fantastic week can't believe its Thanksgiving this week. We have tons to be grateful for especially this great gospel. I'm grateful to be here in Idaho to share it with these wonderful people. Who I love very much! Hope you all have a week filled with laughter, family&friends and yummy food :)

Love you all,

Sister Cleveland

Aaron's Baptism

Hey everyone :)

This week I spent half of it in other areas on exchanges .. I was in Caldwell for the first two days and on the other side of Nampa for the other two days. Both areas were Spanish. While I was serving in Nampa Sister Nichols and I were able to teach and English class and it was good to use some of those skills from the teaching my kindergarten classes at school. It was super fun and the Sisters actually live within my old area so I was able to go see someone from my old ward which was fun :) I also was able to be in my old area in Caldwell and saw some people who mean a ton to me so that was really good. This week we did a lot of preparations for Aaron's baptism :) He was so ready to be baptized and it was an awesome day. He had so much support from his family and people from the ward it was awesome :) We were able to pick up another investigator this week that we are excited to begin teaching and have been working with the ward to help our other investigators to keep progressing.. we are so grateful for how the work has been in the area and the miracles we have witnessed so far this transfer its been wonderful :) Hope you all have a good week! 

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

The Great Plan

Hey everyone :)

We had a super good week in our area helping our investigators to continue progressing towards baptism. Our investigator Aaron is doing really well we had a super awesome lesson with him and his wife Natasha and we are just finalizing things for his baptism. Paige is amazing she is continuing to progress she is so patient as she is waiting for her adoption to be finalize. She has been reading the book of Mormon for the first time and following Elder Stevenson counsel to read 10 mins a day. She is on 2 Nephi and you can see the change from reading the Book of Mormon has been for her. She was talking to us about her personal progress and how much she wants to receive her medallion. Paige is really learning how the gospel is a way of life and how the commandments and opportunities the lord gives us how us to become who he wants us to be.

One morning I was studying for our investigator Kahbrea who isn't really progressing and she keeps accepting baptism dates but getting her to church has been a struggle. She has a less active mom, but so many people in the ward who are willing to pick her up. And lately we have been thinking about what is really going to push her even more towards the gospel. As I was thinking about this the book of Mormon popped into my head. I went to Chapter 5 in Preach my Gospel and just started thinking about how we can help Kahbrea to read the book of Mormon, we got to teach her that day and we read 1 Nephi 3 with her and her mom and we taught as we read. At the end we asked her if she wanted to find out what happened next? She wanted to know she we left with her the commitment to read the next chapter. It was perfect. It probably one f the best feelings to wake up and receive revelation on how to help our investigators its an everyday thing. It's just awesome to turn to heavenly father and to receive his help because he knows his children he knows how to help them. 

We got a late night phone call from our high councilor who asked us to visit a woman who was recently homeless and had been picked up on the street and in the hospital. It was really heartbreaking, she has no one. So we went to visit her and shared with her a message about the Savior. We gave her a conference Ensign for her to be able to read since to missed conference. We also had a lesson with one of our less actives Cathleen. Her son was born with a twisted intestine and he has been very sick every since. He has had multiple surgeries and been through way more than any 3 year old should go through. Cathleen has truly leaned on her faith to be able to get through,her family isn't very supportive of her faith and she spends most of the time taking care of her son who stays hooked up to machines and needs constant care. He is having another surgery this week, and we went over to share with her the conference talk "The Master Healer" by Sister Carole Stephens. We testified about the Savior and our Heavenly Father. And you know what do you say to a woman who may lose her son in an upcoming surgery? We asked her how she was feeling with the surgery coming up, she confided in us her fears broke down in tears as she was holding her son. Immediately I thought about this paragraph in the talk "As we increase our understanding of the doctrine of Christ, we soon discover that we are developing a deeper understanding of "the great plan of happiness" We also recognize that our Savior, Jesus Christ is at the very heart of the plan" That is the key the plan of happiness and the Savior without such knowledge trials and mortal endings would seem unbearable. But because we have the opportunity to come to know the Savior here on this earth we come to understand his invitation in Matthew 11 "Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give your rest" We left Sister Records with this testimony that we are truly gods children and we will also be his. It was probably one of the hardest lessons I've taught on my mission, I was with Sister Sorenson for the day and we just went out to the car and balled. We wanted to bad to promise her that her son was going to survive surgery, but we couldn't. It wasn't our promise to give, what we did promise her though that "he will be on her right hand and on her left, and his Spirit would be in her heart, and his angels round about her to bear her up". Our Heavenly Father loves us, he truly love us. 

We were also able to teach Christina a lesson this week and we invited her daughter Alexis to be taught and baptized on the same day. She seems pretty excited about it.

This week  I got to be companions with my favorite people out here sister Zitting and Sorenson different days but it was so good to be with them. Its been a good week. I can't believe that we are getting in holiday times, I sure do love the people in Idaho. It so good to see this peoples lives change through the gospel and becoming who our heavenly father truly wants us to become.

Have a great week everyone :)

XO Sister Cleveland