“I Hope to See you Guys There”

Hey Everyone!

   Hope you all had a good week. I'll fill you in on some highlights from the week. We had some super good experiences and we had some rough experiences. This week one of our investigators who is Nazarene dropped us.. she is our "banana bread lady" we love her! But, she told us she's comfortable where she is. And we have come to find so many people who are just comfortable.. nothing pushing them to move forward. The people we have come across don't want to change because they don't believe that they Can or should. Heavenly Father invites us to accept his invitations and to act. And people we have come across are so scared they push it away. 

       This week we have taught the principle of agency over and over again. and we are "free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great Mediator of all Men" We are all free to choose everyday. That is so hard as a missionary to know and understand the power of agency and know that sometimes all you can do is leave your witness. That is something that I have striving to be better at is leaving my witness with this people. I never want to be told you didn't tell me.. I know that as we bear witness and testify of these principles of the gospel and importantly the Savior Jesus Christ through which all these things are possible that those seeds will be planted and someone will come along again to teach her and many others that we come across.

     We had a lesson with Felicity this week that had me in tears. We taught about the Kingdoms of Glory. As we taught about the Celestial Kingdom we told her that you get a gift in that Kingdom- to live with our Heavenly Father forever. As we told her these things the excitement was clearly evident on her face. As we taught her about the Celestial Kingdom it reminded us about what many apostles have said; that the gospel is so simple a child can understand. After we taught Felicity she said I hope I see you guys there (speaking of the Celestial Kingdom) and I thought shouldn't that be our hope for everyone that we meet. I think of the promise in Mosiah 2:41 we can dwell with our father in heaven and enjoy never ending happiness. I know that our heavenly father loves us that he wants us all to return to him. Felicity closed the lesson with a pray because she loves to pray. She paused during the pray to tell us she was going to ask god a question. In the humility of a child she asked if he could forgive for the things she had done in the past weeks that she knew were wrong. She finished her prayer and closed. I got on my knees looked her in the eyes and promised her that Heavenly Father heard her prayer and loves her. Sunday we had testimony meeting, and that morning the family that was suppose to pick up Felicity and her brother didn't so we needed to find another ride in between our ward council meetings. We found one super last minute. As the children were bearing their testimonies during sacrament meeting, Felicity said "I have a testimony but I'm scared." After some sweet talk from my companion she got up there and bore her testimony to the ward. It was super cute and in the words of an eight year old; it was truly pure in heart testimony.  

  I am a witness of that our Father in Heaven loves us, he hears our prays and knows of our desires and struggles. He knows each of us individually and by name. His love in infinite, that he would send his perfect son to show us the way and to be the way to return him. He truly is the Christ as Peter said... "No man can receive that witness but through the spirit." I hope we all yearn as Felicity to live with our Father in Heaven again no matter what sacrifices or changes need to be made, for never-ending happiness is the reward.

Hope everyone had a good week!

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

1. Exchanges with Hermana Rosales she is from Lima Peru :)

2. Exchanges with Hermana Marin she is from SLC! She's been out for 3 weeks!

3. My new Harry Potter Wand pencil someone in our ward made its awesome :)

One Year Older...

Hey everyone :)

   This week was awesome we saw so many miracles and we had some awesome teaching moments. It wasn't the easiest with a lot of potential investigators we invited so many of  them to learn more and take the lessons and they said NO. Then they always tell us that what we do is good and they will pray for us to soften the blow. One man even started crying.. it was interesting. We have been working with a guy named Raul some elders tracted into him a few weeks back and gave him a book of mormon. He told us he had a mormon co worker and he was talking about The Book of Mormon with him. Raul is technically YSA age and so we told him about the ward and that he could meet with the elders who cover it and he said "If you guys  don't want to teach me you don't have to.." We assured him that we did and are excited for his first lesson next week.

    We also began teaching a girl named Angela she's 16 super sweet and learned about the church about 3 years ago from a friend. She even has been to Seminary! She is ready to be baptized all she needs is the lessons so we started teaching her last week. We have a lesson with her tonight also. It's so nice when we get a call from members saying they have someone for us to teach and they are able to sit in and contribute to the lessons and be the friend to the investigator. It's awesome. We've had a potential investigator family that my last companion met when she got here in this area. we just couldn't get them progressing. One night Sister Hickmott said we should go visit them so we did and she let us in. We talked for a while about having a relationship with god and praying. And she told us about how she wants too, sometimes she feels like she's talking to herself when she prays something many people tell us. She struggles because she wants to go to church but doesn't want to go without her "husband" (not sure if there married..) we taught her about the triangle of having heavenly father at the head and each person in a corner and as we strengthen our relationship with god we can strengthen any other relationship even if your other half isn't strengthen theirs. Well after sharing some stories from personal lives and the scriptures. Maria committed to coming to church. Sunday morning she showed up with her son and stayed for all three hours. She contributed in our gospel principles lesson and her son who is 10 months old didn't cry the whole time. And the talks and lessons were perfect it was such a great Sunday. We went to her house after church for some southern barbecue her "husband" is from Louisiana. And she said "she'll come next week."

   We taught quite a few people how to pray this week on their doorstep but they willingly did so. WE taught of the importance of talking to our heavenly father. One of my favorite experiences was with two 10 year olds one girl and another boy her mom is last active and she the little girl comes to activity girls but wants to start coming back to church and get baptized. As we were talking with them we taught them both why we are baptized and about the holy ghost. The little boy who is her cousin said I want the holy ghost "when im home during the summer im alone and i get scared" we told him that he could also pray for safety . He offered a pure simple prayer asking that heavenly father would bless him with extra protection. 

   I'm grateful this week for timing and the importance of following the spirit. I know this week its always devastating when people tell us they don't want to change or hear more, that they'd make bad mormons. But I know that one day they will be ready to hear the message again. I hope they accept it when they hear it again if that is in this life, Sister Hickmott and I were talking about how we hope that we meet this people again in the spirit world that we have the opportunity to teach them again or maybe we'll find them teaching others. I'm grateful that our heavenly father has a plan for all things, and that one day they will know with a surety that the things they have been taught are true an their hearts will be soften and they will be willing to act.

I hope everyone has an awesome week. Love you all :)

Sister Cleveland 

Say it Ain't So..

     This week flew by.. Sorry I don't have a long update for you all. But I just want to express my testimony of this gospel. I have been out here for a year now and I have seen the miracles and heartaches of the lords children in this part of Idaho. I have seen how beautiful and central our heavenly fathers plan of happiness is. I have seen people fight to change and turn their hearts to the Savior and our Heavenly Father. I have witnessed the painful consequences of sin in the lives of his children but the healing ointment of the atonement as they have turned to them. I know that the lord qualifies the called.. I know that this is the Lord's work and that he is mindful of his children that he will provide a way for them all to hear the gospel and make the changes necessary in their life to come back to him. I know that the lord loves his children. I testify the Lord is real that we have a savior who knows and understand the trials of this life. I testify that he is there to bear us up and that we can be yoked with him. I know that there is happiness to be had in this life and in the life to come and we can find the path to follow by living the gospel of Jesus Christ :) 

Have a great week everyone!

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

Pics:

1. The Crew a Year In

2. 1 year ago the MTC

3. Me and Sister Hickmott

Transfer Week

Hey Everyone :)

It transfer week and I will be in my area for another 6 weeks. I'm excited for the changes and miracles that will happen this transfer. I did get a new companion Sister Hickmott and I'm excited to serve with her. We both became trainers together we were the only sisters training at the time so we talked often swapping ideas so it will be cool to be companions. It's already September and that's super hard to believe where is the year going? With the transfer brings familiar faces and the trio is going to be in Nampa together for the next six weeks. I'm so excited to have my MTC sisters back with me especially as we hit our year mark :) It's going to be a great transfer.

This week we've focused on teaching when we find, and find when we teach. We have so many potential investigators and the struggle in most of my areas is getting them from the potential bracket to the investigator bracket. So  many of our potentials that we've found tracting, they know what we do is important and think its great just not for them. But they feel enticed by the spirit and they want to know what it is but the change I think is what scares people we work with the most. The commitment, the change they know they are going to have to change everything. One person we tracted named Eric we asked him "If you found  out the Book of Mormon is true what would that mean?" He said "It would change everything" and it does and that the parts that scares people. But, I'm hoping this transfer to really push these potential and investigators (with the spirit of course!) to see why the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is for them and help build their confidence that they can do it.

We had some fun exchanges this week and I was in Marsing with Sister Bertalino we were in the labor camps contacting and these 3 little girls followed us around the whole time and wanted to sit in on the lessons we taught people. They gave hugs, chased down the ice cream man for us, took silly pictures and videos on our cameras. It was one of those tender moments. As we were out there we realized that at some point in there lives they will have the gospel introduced to them again and there will remain the message we shared and the spirit they felt. They will recognize those black name tags and they will be ready. Another fun thing we did in Marsing was playing one on one in my skirt with no shoes against this two boys they took turns against me and boy has is been a while.. I still won.. But it was fun the people from the labor camps looked out the window and we were able to share a message with them about prayer.

When we switched back from exchanges Sister Olson wanted to show me a "video" someone showed her on Mormon Channel. So the members we live with pulled it up and  I looked and low and behold our picture is on Mormon Channel Facebook it was crazy people in our wards were texting us.. they kept telling us we were famous.. it was pretty cool to see that especially for Sister Hansen who took the picture she was in shock. We love her and are happy she got to see her work on Mormon Channel.

Anway its been a good week looking forward to a new transfer, new companion new adventures, and lots of miracles. Have a great week everyone :)

Sister Cleveland

JUST COME TO CHURCH

Hey everyone :)

This week went super fast. It was crazy I'll just skip to the good parts ;)

Last week we met Judy while tracting she's Nazarene and likes to learn. So we went back this week and taught her more about temples and families. She asked a ton of questions and when we answered many of her responses were "I'd be darn". He second husband passed away two years ago so talking about the blessings of the temple really caught her interest. She had some many questions spring forth from that topic, we started talking about the plan of salvation, the restoration, the atonement, and repentance something from every lesson that we teach it was crazy. We weren't expecting that to happen but it was awesome the spirit was there and when we finished talking because we were late for dinner she said she felt "enlighten" and I knew the spirit was working on her heart. 

We had exchanges with the Spanish sisters that we serve. So earlier this week i headed back to Caldwell to spend a day Spanish speaking it was fun. I was with Sister La Luz she is such a diligent missionary and loves the lord.  We had tons of moments when the unexpected happened and she would start to get  discouraged and we knelt and prayed I loved hearing her pour her heart out to god. It was a good reminder for me. We also had exchanges with Nampa Spanish and Sister Nichols came to our area. We had a good time laughing and working. She has a spunky personality and wants to teach people about the gospel. we were able to go see Aleena and Jorge had a super good lesson with them about the church and it's role. Aleena wants to go help at the church orchard and the ward asked Jorge to teach the youth some soccer  skills. They asked about activities that they can come too and we are doing our best to immerse them in. The only thing is they didn't come to church AGAIN. All the people who were are teaching or trying to wont keep their commitments.

JUST COME TO CHURCH.. hah It's so hard every Sunday to wait and wait and they don't show up. But we keep praying and teaching and hoping every Sunday. School just started back up so no more summer vacations for people so hopefully they start coming to church.

We had a fun surprise at church we saw Greggor :) our recent convert who lives in Coeur d'laine! He was down visiting for his aunt's son baby blessing. So we got to see him and he said he missed me and he got my letter I wrote him. He's so cute I love him. We also had zone conference this week which was good. It was in Meridian so we got to go to the Meridian Temple afterward. Its getting there. Its super big! Glad we got to see it.

Speaking of temples if you are reading this and not a member of our faith I would invite you this week to go tour the new Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple right in our backyard. It's located on 1789 Vine Street. You can go inside and get a tour and ask questions to missionaries just like me! And if you don't want to go alone just contact my parents I'm sure they'll go with you :)

Don't miss your chance you learn some pretty cool things about why temples are so important in our faith, why we build so many, and the beauty of eternal families. Go Check it Out!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Much Love from Idaho

Sister Cleveland 

Engage in the Wrestle

Hey Everyone :)

This week has been an adventure. we've had the usually meetings, lessons, crazy encounters and testimony strengthening experiences which are my favorite. We have been tracting a ton in our area, teaching people about the book of mormon and inviting  people to come to church. I have learned so much through the spirit this week, missionaries would be completely lost without it. I have reflected on how often we pray for experiences, to be led to those that are prepared, then we act we go tract we put ourselves in the best opportunity to meet people who the lord would have us too. As we work with the spirit and it leads us we find so much more success in our day. I have come to realize that if i feel the waves of inspiration going and the spirit its telling me something I need to do one of two things either write it down or act immediately. This has happened all week and i'm glad that heavenly father trusts me to receive prompting because he knows I will act and also knows that I ponder the counsel he gives me through the spirit. This happen while we were on exchanges this week. Sister Beauchamp and I were out tracting and she had only tracted one other time on her mission, so  we went to a street and started teaching. The impression came you need to go to 2108 after this one. After we knocked the house we were at we started talking and walking back to the car when I stopped  and said to Sister Beauchamp we need to go knock that house. The door was open of the house we rang the doorbell and heard "Come In" definitely usually for a missionary. We didn't go in but inside were five girls ages 17-9 we told them we were teaching about the BOM and asked if they wanted to hear more they said yes and we preceded to teach them at their door. The spirit had their attention and you could see the faces of those girls who took a book of Mormon and accepted an invitation for us to come back. It was a cool experience for us.

There has been some things on my mind after an experience with a less active man we had been teaching and working with. We hadn't seen him at church for a couple weeks and last week he told us he'd be there and didn't come. So we stopped by this week and as we were talking he seemed to be in good spirits we shared a quote with him from Elder Holland on hope. We told him we'd get him the talk, he replied "you don't need to, i don't believe in god anymore and nothing anyone says is going to change that." My companion and I were silent for a while. Neither of us knowing what to say the words that came to my mind were "there is light at the end of the tunnel" He is right there is nothing we could have said or will say that is going to change his mind. His  journey to truly acknowledge god and come to understand his plan for him is his choice, and his alone. It made me think of this talk people have been raving about entitled "Will you engage in the wrestle?" and that is exactly what this man is going through. Sheri Dew gave this devotional and in it she asks a young woman "Do you want a testimony?" she replies "Yes" to which Sister Dew replies "Are you willing to work for it?" the woman replies "Yes".

AS much as our heavenly father loves us and wants to give us things we desires. We need to work for our testimony, you have questions things that you just can't understand you can sit and give up or you can fight to learn, go to the lord for understanding and plead with heaven to be strengthened. I know that god needs me to choose everyday, he needs all of us too. We can chose him. I am committed to him and he is to me in my weaknesses, my shortcomings, and victories. He is committed to who he knows I can become and to help me get there. We have to stop putting a due date on perfection or feel that we must have a testimony of some gospel principal tomorrow. If you haven't experience it where can you gain testimony. I have learned through personal experience and the lives of those that I meet that life is work.. hard work but as I have chosen to live the gospel each day it is the best way for me to improve and become better. I began to understand my purpose as a daughter of god as I came to understand whose I am "[he] loves us, and we love him" instilled in me were values to become a woman of god. But I am willing to  put in the work, to not give up when questions arise I am ready to engage in the wrestle because I know that god is on my side and we will figure it out. I hope all of us are willing to engage in the wrestle and truly come to be a witness is this day that god lives and so does his son Jesus Christ and they love us. God hears and answers prayers everyone. Have a good week!

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland

"Im Calling The Cops!"

Hey Everyone :)

Its another week here in Idaho. This week actually wasn't too bad heat wise. We had about three cool days one of which was overcast all day it was awesome. On Tuesday we had a really great MLC it was the first one with President Sorensen and the missionaries who were reassigned to Nampa from Boise it was super spiritual and we were able to set goals for the upcoming transfer and the mission. We talked about the atonement and teaching that to our investigators and the missionaries. President used some verses from Numbers 21 to teach the importance of looking to the Savior and finding life through him. My companion and I did something different this week we go on a book of Mormon find for about two hours. We tract around a street we pray about and teach people about the book of Mormon or ask what they know about it. We were able to give away some Books of Mormon and contact some potential investigators. It was good.

Aleena and Jorge who Sister Zitting and I found on the tracting blitz are doing good. The last time we taught them we taught about the godhead, and some of the plan of salvation.  We had an appointment this week but her husband came home late from work so it didn't work out. But were planning on seeing them this week. On Thursday we went to our dinner appointment. There is a sister in the ward who serves in the temple with my institute teachers from SVU. So we went to dinner and low and behold there are my institute teachers hiding! It was a fun surprise! cool for me to be with them as they were on their mission and now they see me as I serve mine. I loved seeing them on campus and going to their class they have been wonderful examples to me. They were also  in my ward and Brother Anderson taught my temple prep class.  Loved learning from them, we  spent some time catching up over dinner. On Friday we had a zone meeting and zone leaders asked my companion and I to give a training on Key Indicators which we actually did a training on last transfer but we made it work. I had studied about it and that morning and previous night nothing was sticking out to me. My companion had already prepared what she wanted to talk about and I had nothing. I left the house praying about it and when we sitting in the meeting listening to the DL's train all of these things just came to my mind. I love doings trainings because I learn so much through the spirit and always want to share it. We talked about how the lord tells Joseph and others "behold the field is white already to harvest" we talked about how our areas are ready to harvest the lord told the missionaries then that and he tells us that now. The difference over time is not the field but the laborers. "lo he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might" That's the difference between a missionary who reaps a plentiful harvest and one who does not. The DL who went previous to us talked about change, sometimes we need to reevaluate how we go about doing something, and being very specific on how we are going to be better to reap in the harvest. So it was cool to see how all the trainings connect and we can apply them in our areas.

We had some funny moments this week with people the one sticks out.

- Someone texted us "I'm calling the cops on you" we didn't recognize the number and asked who it was.. the girl come to find out said her boyfriend thinks were harassing him and to stop contacting them. It was so ridiculous you had to laugh the girl is like 16. Her boyfriend was someone the elders tracted into on a tracting blitz who had gone to church in Boise we were following up with.

 Well hope everyone had a great week check in with you next week :)

Sister Cleveland