La Segunda Semana Hermana Cheever esta en Atlixco!

Querido queridos,

I am loving it here in Mexico! On Friday we had la comida (the main meal of the day, usually eaten at around 2, and the meal that we have with members) with a cute family, and I ate what was quite possibly the best food I have ever eaten in my life! And to top it all off, there was ice cream. I don't feel like much happened this week, just the day to day missionary stuff like walking, talking, more walking. A little more talking. A lot of listening. Estoy mejorando a escuchar y comprender espanol cuando miembros o investigadores. I also hope that I am getting better at speaking Spanish, but it's hard for me to judge my own progress.

OH! On Monday something spectacular happened! Well, I hope it turns out to be spectacular...We visited a lady named Laura quien trabaja en una clinica. She had told Hermana Campos (my companion) and her former companion that she was interested in having the missionaries teach her. So we stopped by last Monday night when she was at work and intended to share a short message concerning el Plan de Salvacion. Her boyfriend Orlanif was there as well, and we taught the both of them. It turned out to be a fantastic lesson, I bore my testimony of baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the cleansing power of the Atonement. They both had such a hungry look in their eyes when I was telling about how baptism is a rebirth. My companion invited them to be baptized, and they accepted! Buuut we don't have a date. Nevertheless, it was still a good lesson. Especially because they could know the voluntad de Dios y obtener un testimonio de la veracidad del Libro de Mormon por medio de la oracion. Pero, we hadn't brought a Book of Mormon to the lesson (missionary tip: always bring a Book of Mormon to the first lesson). We were about to leave, urging them to pray about the Book of Mormon, when the thought came to me "no pueden orar a descubrir si el Libro de Mormon es cierto si no tienen un libro!" entonces, I left my copy of the Book of Mormon with them to study a little bit and pray about. They were very grateful I was willing to lend them my precious book. I wasn't very worried about it because hemos fijado otra cita para miercoles. Solo un dia sin mi sopia del Libro de Mormon, y en Miercoles, we would trade them for their own copies. But Wednesday came and Laura wasn't there. The whole week we coudn't get a hold of her! And my book! Another lady that works at the clinic told us on Friday that Laura was traveling, and would be backnext Wednesday. So I sincerely hope that happens because I am missing studying from my Book of Mormon. But if it is helping her to come closer to Christ (I am praying that she really is indeed reading it), then it is vale la pena.

One other experience! On Saturday we had a baptism for a jovencito se llama Andy. La manana del bautismo, mi querida companera me dijo that I would be giving a talk at the baptism! Yay me! I guess I am grateful that I didn't have more time to worry about it. The moral of my story is...the ward mission leader typed up the programs for the baptism and put my name as "Hermana Chevere". He knows my name is Cheever, but he thinks it's funny that it's so close to chevere, which is a Spanish word that means something like cool, awesome, nice, etc. The ward got a kick out of it. I am glad I can bring a little bit of sunshine into their lives.

Well, thank you all for your prayers and your emails! My spiritual thought that has kept me going all week is that every person has their agency. Cada quien tiene la libertad a escoger el bien o el mal. A veces personas escogen el mal, y eso afectua nuestras vidas en negative ways. BUT we also have our agency, and we can use it to be happy despite the choices that others have made. Remember that you are in charge of your own happiness. You are in charge of your own destiny. Don't let the choices of others get you down.
Keep being awesome! And if you're not being awesome, then be awesome!

paz afuera (oh the woes of being stuck in a world between languages),
Hermana Cheever :)

La Primera vez en que Hermana Cheever ha viajado sola

Dearest family, friends, etc,

Estoy in Mexico! I love it here. I left the MTC on Wednesday morning and went to the SLC airport, Caundo estaba esperando (I arrived like 3 hours before my flight) I talked with a nice man de Guatemala, as well as a sister RM who was on her way to visit her mission after being home for ten years. It was neat. On the flight from SLC to Houston, I sat next to a man from Ecuador who was on his way to visit his sick padre. We had a good conversation, y hablamos en espanol! Fue una experiencia muy buena. While waiting in Houston, I tried to get the courage to talk to some people in the airport, pero tenia miedo. I did talk to a jovencita en el caurto de reposo :)

Well life went on and I made it to Puebla! The President and Sister Reeves and the assistants to the President met me at the airport miercoles en la noche, y durmi en la casa misional. El proximo dia, we went to a zone conference (not my zone. They informed me that the zone in which I would be serving had had their conference earlier on Wednesday) and I was the only white hermana! But it's all good. I understood casi half of everything. On Thursday nightI met my trainer, Hermana Campos. She has only been out for 9 weeks. NINE WEEKS. And she is my trainer. She does not speak English. Que buena suerte, no? She is wonderful, and we communicate just fine.

Oh, and by the way (esto es especialmente para mi distrito en el CCM), ESTOY SIRVIENDO EN ATLIXCO! Estuve muy emocionada cuando el presidente me informo que voy a ir a Atlixco. Ya no puedo creerlo! Es muy bonita aqui, y esta manana, vi Popo, el volcan! Hermana Dominguez es un fotuneteller.

A girl in my district in the MTC is from Atlixco, Puebla, and she told me that Atlixco was going to be my first area. Guau. Miracles happen. Speaking of miracles, we met two girls on the street who needed help with a project for their English class at the university, They wanted to interview me in English (I was a little offended that they assumed I speak English just because I'm white ;)) so I told them we would help them with their assignment if they would listen to our message. We were right outside the chapel, so we went in and did the interview, then Hermana Campos and I taught a lesson. It was just going to be short, but they seemed very interested, so we kept going. We talked about how the gospel blesses families. I even extended the baptismal commitment! In my first ever real live lesson! It was pretty amazing. They did not accept a baptismal date, but wanted to learn more about the church, so we set up another appointment. Unfortunately they do not live in our area, so we will have to pass them along to some other missionaries, but I hope that something good comes of it! I hope they get baptized!

Hay muchas otras cosas que pasaron, pero no tengo tiempo y ustedes no pueden leer cartas tan larga. Entonces, voy a terminarlo.

I am doing really well, missionary life is basically the greatest. Everyone do your part wherever you are to help the missionaries in the area. Missionary work goes nowhere without the work of the members!

Love always,
Hermana Cheever :)

El ultimo dia in which Hermana Cheever is at the MTC

Hello all,


So the greatest news is this is my last day at the MTC! I leave tomorrow at 6:00 AM and I'll be in Puebla by bedtime (if all goes well). So I figured out how to send pictures :) so here are like 2. Or, exactly 2

This is my district! We went to main campus for General Conference, so of course we had to take a picture by the map. From left to right: Elder Pardo, from Chile serving in St. George. Elder Rodriguez from New Jersey, also St. George. Hermana Dominguez, from Puebla (!) serving in California, Arcadia (!) (that's where I will be serving, and where my dad served, respectively). Hermana Palominos (my companion), from California serving in Oaxaca. Hermana Vasquez, from Bountiful, UT serving in New York South. And then there's me, in case you already forgot what I look like.

And here's a llama pin

That's all for this email. I will probably send another quick little note with more on how my week went. Everyone be happy and do good things!

Romans 8:35-39
Love,
Hermana Cheever :)

MORE...

Okay, so I have to be super quick because I am out of time. I had a great week, our Sunday devotional was BYU men's chorus! Such a good and spiritually inspiring performance. Rumor has it that tonight's devotional will be Elder Holland! Exciting! And then my last little thought is that I just want you all to know that God knows what is going on, He knows us, and He knows what is best. Just put your faith in Him, do your best to be an instrument in His hands, and He will make great things out of your life :)

Keep pressing on. No matter what trial you are experiencing, you have a hand to help you along the way and a bright light at the end of your tunnel. DON'T GIVE UP. God will never give up on you!

Love always,
Hermana Cheever :)

La primera semana en que Hermana Cheever gets to be a missionary

Hola!

So missionary life....it's great! And the Lord is so good to us. Usually when I am about to make a big change in my life or do something important, I get really stressed out, I am a horrible mental wreck, and very disorganized! BUT, as I was packing to leave, I was so calm and peaceful. The morning before I left for the MTC was so tranquil. I didn't feel stressed, hurried, frenzied, or anything like that. There was a deep peace and happiness that has lasted all throughout the last week I echo the words of Lehi, "how great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty!" The Lord knows exactly how to comfort us, and He knew that I would need that abiding feeling of peace to get me through this first week!

It has been really great! I am in an advanced Spanish class, so the teacher talks pretty much only in Spanish, and everyone else in my district (which is my class) has grown up speaking Spanish, but they are all very helpful to and understanding of me, I appreciate and love them all so much! My companion is Hermana Palominos, from California. She is so cute, and so nice. She has just grown up speaking and hearing Spanish, so she is sometimes confused when she reads in Spanish, so I help her with that, and she helps me with understanding and speaking, because I can read just fine. It's a good match. God knows what we need, and if we prove our love to Him through faithful actions, He will bless us with those things that we need! The other sisters that are in the same apartment as us are Hnas. Dominguez and Vasquez. from PUEBLA and Bountiful, UT, respectively. How cool is it that I get to room with a sister from Puebla, the very place I am going? Her city, Atlixco, will be in my mission, and she told me to request to be sent there :) haha, I don't know that it works like that, but amazing, right? Then we have Elder Rodriguez from NJ, and Elder Pardo from Chile. They are all so great.

Speaking of great, how about General Conference? Was it just me or were all the talks about missionary work? I really liked Elder Bednar's talk, as well as Elder Uchtdorf's. A good quote from the latter's is (something like) "How can we be waiting for the rainbow if we haven't thanked God for the rain?" God lets us pass through trials for a reason, and we can't expect the blessings without first having passed through the hardships.

Okay, I am running out of time, but I want to share a really spiritual experience that my companion and I had while teaching an investigator (actors, some members, some aren't, for all intents and purposes (or intensive purposes) they are all investigators). So we were talking to a woman named Mercedes about the teachings of the restored gospel, which brought us to the story of the Restoration. I had memorized the First Vision in JS-H in Spanish, so when the opportunity came up, I shared it, and then bore my testimony about the restoration and Joseph Smith. It was the best I have ever spoken in Spanish, and I know that it was only because of the strong Spirit present after having shared that powerful scripture. It was an amazing experience, and one that will keep me going for the whole mission! The gift of tongues is real, hermanos y hermanas. I am learning to develop and strengthen this gift within myself!

That's all I have time for right now, keep going strong, do good things, be an example.

"After all the testimonies which have been given of Him, this is the testimony, last of all, which [I] give of Him; that He lives!"

Love always,
Hermana Cheever :)

PS, I have some photos, but I don't have time. I will send some next week. Or some other time in the future :)
peace out