ATEXCAC!

Dear all,

So I have been transferred from Atlixco, after being there for five months! I was a little sad and apprehensive to leave my first area, but I love it here and I know that the Lord wants me here. My companion is Hermana Terrones, from Tamaulipas, Mexico. She is great!

Atexcac (se dice ah-tes-ka if you're lazy or like it's written if you're not) is a super small town with two main streets. Everyone here is family. All the residents either go to:

• La capilla (chapel)-that's us
• El templo (temple)-Evangelical Christians
• La iglesia (church)-Catholics

Everyone has heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints before, so that makes things a little easier in one way, a little harder in another. There are 600 members in this little town, but only about 120 come to church every week. This shows us the importance of being truly converted. If we are not converted to Christ, if we don't have a testimony of Him, His Atonement, and His Restored Gospel, we will not have the strength nor the means necessary to endure to the end.

What do you need to do to be converted? Have you read the Book of Mormon? Have you prayed about it? Have you prayed about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the gospel? How do you show God that you have faith? Are you just a Sunday member, or do you strive daily to improve yourself and keep God's commandments?

Another thought I want to leave you with is that this week is....GENERAL CONFERENCE. I have never been so excited in my life. I have always liked listening to General Conference, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to listen to a living prophet. I am so excited for other people to be able to experience the Restored Church in action. I hope you will all make time this weekend to listen to all 4 (or 5) sessions of General Conference. Pray that you will be able to receive solutions to problems, pray that our church leaders will be able to help you.

I know that this church is true. I know that God and His Son live and love us. I know that They have given us prophets that we might be able to know how to live Their gospel and receive a fullness of joy by returning to live in Their presence with our families. Forever.

Be an example to all those around you. Rid yourself of fear and doubt and live by faith.

Hermana Cheever

 

The volcanoes! Or volcanos. I never knew. Mosquitoes either. Quién sabe.

Cambios!!!!

¡Buenos días!

Or tardes, or noches, or whatever time it is while you are reading this. Fun fact about Mexican culture: if you say buenas tardes when really it should be buenas noches, the other person promptly corrects you, "Buenas noches".

So I am going to be transferred, adios Atlixco! I am both sad and happy. I am . . .sappy! (I will think very highly of you if you can tell me what tv show and what character that is from). Last night we received the call and I will be leavingtomorrow. I won't know until tomorrow where I am going to be serving for the next while, but you can rest assured that it is where the Lord wants me.

This week something great happened! We were walking in the street, leaving an appointment when a man called out to us and wanted to talk with us. Naturally I was a bit apprehensive, but he was very respectful and told us that he wanted to quit drinking. Okay, that's great. He told us that he wanted to have a smile on his face and be happy like we were. We gave him a pamphlet about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and took his address. Unfortunately, he doesn't live in our area. We also invited him to church on Sunday. That was Tuesday, I think. A day or two later we saw him again en la calle (street) and he asked if we had anything else to read. We gave him the pamphlet of The Restoration. The next day, we found him again (he has like 3 jobs selling food in the street), and he surprised us by telling us that since the day he met us, he has not drunk alcohol at all, and he feels so much happier. The words in the pamphlets had made a difference in his life, in merely 3 days. We left him the pamphlet that teaches about the Plan of Salvation. Saturday we saw him again, and asked about what he has been learning, and he told us about what he had read in the pamphlets, what an amazing experience Joseph Smith had, and how he was excited to see what could happen in three months, or a year, if just a few days of knowing the gospel had made such a huge difference in his life. We gave him a Book of Mormon and briefly explained its history. He told us he was excited to come to church the next day. When we arrived at the church building Sunday morning, he was there waiting for us. He thoroughly enjoyed the church services. The bad thing is that he works all the time, all day, and we don't know how he is going to be taught and prepared for baptism, but the moral of the story is that the gospel changes life damas y caballeros.

Have a great week and do great things! The Lord loves you and wants you to succeed!

Hermana Cheever :)

ps VIVA MÉXICO y feliz día de Independencia. Y que bueno que nos toca escuchar el grito hoy en la noche. We have the privilege of living near the site where the President of Atlixco will be directing "el grito" at midnight tonight. All of Atlixco will be gathered in one place and will be shouting "viva!" all night long in honor of the Mexican Independence Day, which is el 16 de Septiembre, y not the 5 de mayo. Just to clear that up. Fun fact, September 16 is also the birthday of Nick Jonas.

paz fuera.

Hot Cakes!

Dear all,

First of all, desayunamos con una hermana del barrio. Hicimos hot cakes. Oh pancakes how I have missed you. This is a picture of the wonderful creation that I made.

​Pancake with peanut butter, apple, and cajeta (caramel). It was delicious. 
And after I took the picture I wanted to make a joke about instagram, buuuut, I didn't think it would translate. 

This is the sweet sister with whom we spent the day. 

Now that we got that out of the way, I want to share with all of you what I learned yesterday studying. Maybe first that Sunday afternoons are not the most prime times to study. But secondly that the message in the August Liahona by Dennis C. Gaunt, "Act Upon This Land As If For Years" is a masterpiece. I read it for the first time yesterday, and there is so much good stuff! He mentions that we should not wait around for our seemingly unpleasant, inconvenient, or temporary circumstances to change. We must instead look for opportunities for spiritual growth. I can't even begin to tell you the wealth of knowledge and testimony that I gained from this article. Please read it if you haven't already, and if you have read it, read it again.

This week we visited two investigators, Juan Carlos and Janeth. They are a young couple with two babies. They are very receptive to the gospel, and they are progressing very well. They ask questions when we teach, they read the things we leave them, and they pray and ask God if this is the path their family should take. I have high hopes for them. We had a great lesson on Saturday night about the Plan of Salvation, and they were very excited to be able to go to church the following day. We arranged everything so that a member could stop by and take them to la capilla. On Sunday we arrived and were anxiously waiting to see them walk in the door and have the best experience of their life! We waited. And waited. And waited. The meeting started and shortly after the member that was going to bring the family entered and told us that they weren't ready when he passed by, but that they were coming. So we hoped, prayed, and waited some more. And the chiste es que nunca llegaron. They didn't come.

The moral of the story is that people have agency. Sometimes you do a lot of things and you just don't see the results. But does this mean that you have failed? Does this mean that they are never going to progress? No. The Lord works on His own timetable. Our deber, or our responsibility is to share the gospel and work as hard as we can to live what we know. "He that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store, that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to HIS soul" (See Doctrine and Covenants 4. It's a great section). We work hard and we have "faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God" and we do all that is within our power, that "we might be the means of saving some", as Ammon and his brethren. But each individual has the choice to accept or reject the restored gospel, and we can't make them progress any faster than is prudent for the Lord.

Your job is to work, and you will bring salvation to your own soul.

Never give up hope. For every person that doesn't come to church, for every person that doesn't want to listen to the missionaries, for every person that tells you "no", you're one step closer to the one that will say "yes".

Hermana Cheever :)

My first Mexican haircut

Yes folks that's right! I got a haircut today. And since it's so hot here in Atlixco, I asked them to cut it ALL OFF.

Just kidding, It was just a trim. You can't even tell.

But what did happen this week is that we helped the members clean the chapel. On Saturday we had no set appointments, so we decided it would be a good use of our time to help with the weekly church cleaning. It was a lot of fun. We just cleaned some windows, but it was nice to be there with the members and serve them. I think that we are going to have to keep doing stuff like that to be able to build a strong relationship with the ward, because our success depends on not only our efforts, but theirs.

Here's a secret about missionaries: we are not here to bring people to your church building, to your sacrament meeting on Sundays, to activities during the week. No. We are here to TEACH the people that YOU bring, that you invite into your church and your home. Yes we find people to teach on our own, but it's more effective if you introduce us to the people you already know.

I encourage all of you to obtain a copy of Preach My Gospel, or read the one that you already possess. Make it a part of your daily study. Read chapter 1, which teaches us our purpose as a missionary. But it's also your responsibility as a person. Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

We are ALL enlisted 'til the conflict is o'er. All of you as members have a responsibility to share the gospel. In a lesson this week with an investigator, I was teaching about our modern day prophet. She asked us "If this prophet is not just for your church, but for the whole world, why haven't I heard of him before?" Well that made me think. But I remembered the end of the New Testament, and Paul's missionary work among the Gentiles. He had a duty to preach Christ to those who didn't know Him, who had no knowledge of His coming. We are doing the same. Making the gospel known to those who don't know.

This church is a missionary church. It started in a farm house in the Eastern United States in 1830, and now I am in Mexico preaching the gospel. There are missionaries in all parts of the world, but we will not rest until every soul has had the opportunity to accept the Restored Gospel.

And that simply is not possible without the help of the members.

• How many people have you invited to church?
• How many people have you invited to take the missionary lessons? 
• How many hours have you dedicated to accompanying the missionaries on their teaching visits?

Remember that you can always do more. In fact, the Lord expects you to always do more, to always be improving. Do many good things of your own free will. FOR THE POWER IS IN YOU. (D&C 58:26-27) The fight is not over, the Lord is not done. He has just barely started hastening His work, but without your obedience and dedication. it will go nowhere.

Make the difference, be the light.

You are the salt of the earth, you have tasted of the fruit of the tree of life. And it's time to help others find salvation. Remember that many have not arrived at the truth simply because they know not where to find it. The Lord has placed great confidence in you in allowing you to have partaken of the gospel in its fulness. Don't let Him down. Often the way the Lord helps other people is through each and every one of us. We are His hands.

I invite all of you to dedicate yourselves to missionary work, to the work of the Lord. This truly is His work and His glory, as we help to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Through prayer, scripture study, fasting, and church attendance, you will receive revelation as to how YOU personally can contribute to the hastening of the work of salvation.

Do not delay. Start today.

Hermana Cheever