FEBRUARY!

Happy February everyone!

Today I turn 10 months in the mission! And my companions (my companion and the other sisters in our ward) gave me a flan pie!

 Something great that happened this week was that Janet went to a baptism and loved it. She also introduced us to her cousin, and now we're teaching them both! Things are going good in the teaching department.

We went to downtown Puebla today to see the Cathedral. It is beautiful! The architecture, of course. I just love art, and history. Here's a fun fact for you all: when the cathedral was being built, I imagine around the 15th century or thereabouts, they had it all done except for the placement of the giant bell that went in the very highest tower. It was super heavy and they just couldn't get it up there. So they left it overnight and when they came back the next day, it was in place in the tippy-toppest tower. And that's that.

But here are some super great pictures of the Cathedral.

Love you all, have a great week, keep being amazing!
Hermana Cheever

Missionaries!

We ate breakfast with Miriam. She made us chilaquiles verdes. Deliciosos.

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles!

Dear all,

This week has been a week of miracles! We are working hard here in Valle del Sol, Hermana Arano y yo. Hermana Arano is my new companion, she is from Tamaulipas! Yes, another Norteña. That is to say, from the North of Mexico. All of my companions except one have been from the North. The Norteños have a reputation of being frank, loud, and very opinionated. It's nice to know that God has a sense of humor. Haha no es cierto, all my companions have been great. 

So on to the great and marvelous things that have happened. We found a new investigator this week, Yanet. In the first lesson she expressed her belief that our message is true, accepted baptism, and we even set a baptismal date! Then she went to a ward activity on Saturday and all three hours of Church on Sunday.

Another miracle has to do with this fantastic lady, Miriam.

She was baptized 14 years ago and stopped going to church 13 years ago. She has moved out of state and back again, and it's pure "coincidence" that we found her. No, it's not coincidence, it's God. She is our neighbor. When we first started meeting with her and her sons, she told us that if her kids wanted to go to church, that was fine, but she was never going to go back. Well, we've been working on that, and thanks to some really hard things that have happened in the past few weeks, Miriam has started to think differently. We had a super great lesson on Saturday night about the blessings of church attendance. On Sunday, guess who came to Sacrament Meeting? That's right, Miriam. Sometimes you're so happy you cry, and other times, you're so happy that even tears can't express that kind of feeling. I know that the Lord has worked through us, His missionary servants, to touch Miriam's heart and help her to have an eternal family.

Being the missionary is just about the best thing ever. But every member is a missionary. So get out there, touch hearts, make friends, share the gospel, and spread the love!

Have a great week full of miracles!

Love,
Hermana Cheever

Otro cambio mas

Dear all,

Another transfer has ended. We were informed last night that my companion will be leaving the area :( and she only has one transfer left until she goes home. I will miss her a lot, but I trust that the Lord knows better than we do, and we are in His hands. I look forward to getting to know another fantastic sister missionary and working with her in Valle del Sol.

Things have been pretty normal, and nothing super out of the ordinary has happened. Something good is that the past two weeks a member, Hermana Velez, (the same sister that we spent Christmas with) has invited us to do a Family Night in her house and invite our investigators! Jovanny, our neighbor has come both times and his little brother Sebastian has come once. Tonight they will be joining us again, this time with their mom, Miriam, who is an inactive member. Slowly but surely we are activating her. I have great hopes for this family! They are fantastic, and there is so much waiting for them if they will just take the first steps.

I encourage you all, whoever you are and wherever you are, to be examples of the believers. You would never believe what a difference a good example can make in the lives of the investigators and less actives. Live the gospel to its fullest, let your testimony show in all your actions and words, and reach your potential! Our Heavenly Father is just a prayer away to help you!

Speaking of prayers, yesterday I had a really cool experience. We had a stake fireside and the Temple President of the Oaxaca Temple, President Atkinson spoke. It was a really great meeting and he left a really powerful message. But the greatest thing is that Margarita, our recent convert, and her son Adrian went! I was sitting there, waiting for the speaker to begin, I thought "I hope Adrian feels something so strong that he can't deny it and that he wants to be baptized. It would be great if President Atkinson could give a shout-out to the investigators". That thought was followed by another "I should make that thought a prayer..." so I expressed my desires quickly and silently to my Heavenly Father and as soon as I finished my little prayer, President Atkinson began to speak and said something like "I hope that if you have questions, you will ask them. I see a lot of members here, and hopefully we are visited by some friends tonight. Actually, if you are a friend visiting us, please raise your hand.” Boom. Prayers are answered. But Adrian didn't raise his hand. I hope that he was able to really feel and treasure the spirit that was there throughout the fireside.

We learned a lot about the temple, and President Atkinson left with us a challenge that I would like to extend to all of you. Set a goal for how many times you would like to go to the temple this year. The goal should be realistic (maybe we won't be able to reasonably go to the temple every single day) but also something that should make you stretch and exercise your faith. There will be opposition, because of course Satan doesn't want you to reach that goal, but remember that God is ALWAYS stronger than Satan.

Set goals, run fast, achieve your dreams. Peace, love, happiness, and baptisms.

Hermana Cheever

Well that was an interesting week

 Dear all, 

Life is still great here in the Valley of the Sun. We had Margarita's baptism this week! My companion and I sang a special number accompanied by another sister missionary in our ward. Something disappointing is that we promised Margarita that we would have warm water for her baptism. Well turns out that there wasn't gas. So we resignedly filled the font with cold water. Then the bishop showed up, and it turns out that there was indeed gas. We then emptied a little bit of the water, turned on the faucet for hot water, and it turned out that now there wasn't water! Luckily we didn't empty too much, so there was still a sufficient amount to perform the ordinance. Margarita was so brave and valiant! We told her regretfully that there wasn't warm water, although we had promised it, and she told us "warm or cold, I will be baptized". 

This guy here above is the bishop, and the other is Adrian, Margarita's son

That was fun. We also celebrated her birthday with the ward members that came. Margarita is just really a testimony to me that as missionaries, we really are only instruments in the Lord's hands. His work progresses in His time and in His way. In the mission, we can't make anything happen that's not His will. If there are people to be baptized, they will be baptized. If it's not His will, it won't happen. Margarita's conversion has nothing to do with us, I feel like the Lord just gave us the opportunity to be a part of this experience. 

There is a talk by Elder Corbridge, of the Seventy, called "Be the Fourth Missionary". He explains that there are four types of missionaries, with the fourth being the only one that benefits personally from his mission. The Lord gives us 18 months or two years to serve Him and His children, and lots of people are helped. The trick is to learn, grow and be helped yourself from the service opportunity the Lord gives you. The way that we can do that is to give ourselves to the Lord; we have to give Him our heart, might, mind, and strength. What makes the difference is not just that we do the Lord's will, but that we want to do it. I encourage all of you, whether or not you are a full-time missionary, and whether or not you are currently serving in a calling, to give yourselves over to the Lord. Remember that the Lord said "he who loses His life for my sake shall find it" (that's somewhere in the Bible). 

So now for the cultural experiences that I have been having. 

Everybody here basically celebrates Christmas on the 24th with a dinner. A really nice family invited us to dine with them. It was delicious. Here they are 

​The young man is a very recent RM who served in Argentina! 

On New Year's everyone also celebrates with food. Another member invited us over to eat pizza. The mom is an RM and her oldest son is preparing to leave on the mission. 

So that's pretty much it for the holidays.

This week I finally ate something interesting, It's called mole de panza. Translated, that would be stomach soup. Yes, I ate some poor animal's stomach. The nice lady who fed us that day lovingly brought us our plates and cheerfully said (in Spanish, but I shall translate for convenience) "it's stomach soup! But it's not cow stomach, it's goat stomach!" Oh yay! Even better. I had a really hard time eating it, and that's the truth. At one point I almost cried, another I almost threw up, but I finished it all and thanked the lady for giving us food. The spaghetti that she made was really delicious. And goat stomach smells horrible. It should definitely not be a cologne.

One last thing. So today we had a district activity. We made something called discada which is basically many different kinds of meat fried in oil with onion and peppers, eaten in a tortilla. It was delicious. But we were going to play volleyball as well, so we were going to arrive in pants. Let me tell you, going from wearing a skirt all day, everyday to wearing pants is one dramatic and restricting change. But that's beside the point. In the morning I went to pull my jeans out of the drawer, and they weren't there! I looked everywhere in the house, in my suitcases, EVERYWHERE. And they were nowhere to be found. Yes, I lost my pants. So that made it so that I went looking for some new pants. Luckily, there's a market outside our apartment on Mondays, so we looked there for some jeans. A very nice salesman sold us some "Levi's", but we all know they're not really that brand, they just put the tag there to make it look better. The point is, on Saturday I ate goat stomach and today I may have bought black-market jeans. I really am starting to feel Mexican.


Much love and lots of ánimo,
Hermana Cheever

Hermana Cheever and her companion with a recent convert named Neri.

Hermana Cheever's District 

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Dear all,

I hope that in these next few days you can all take a little more time to think about others, a little more time to be with your family, and a little more time to learn more about and share with somebody the life of Christ.

In the mission I have come to learn so much more about my Brother and Savior Jesus Christ! His love is unconditional. He knows exactly what we need, and when we need it. He is more patient than we could ever hope for. He served everyone, without regard to status, race, health, or age. He is the noblest of all the nobles, the kindest of all the kind, the greatest of all the greats, and the most humble of all the humbles.

The best Christmas gift that I could ever receive is to be able to give to know to other people the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the blessings thereof.

I hope that this Christmas, you can all learn a little bit more about the Atonement, make your relationship with Heavenly Father a little stronger, and be a little bit better. Forgive others, forgive yourself, accept the gift of our Savior and His Atonement.

We are still planning Margarita's baptism for December 30th! There is nothing that makes a missionary happier than seeing an investigator start to change their lives and accept Christ as their Savior. There is nothing that makes me happier than knowing that other people are finding true and lasting happiness through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the Light, the Life, and the Way.

Merry Christmas!
Hermana Cheever

ps we had a zone conference the other day and our mission president showed us the music video "Glorious" by David Archuleta from Meet the Mormons. It was almost the best Christmas present ever. I also got to play the violin with the sisters in our zone singing "Noche de luz", commonly known in English as "Silent Night". It felt good to play. Develop your talents and share them with other people.

pps we also got a picture with Santa Claus, but lamentably I will not be able to send it this week.

Valle del Sol

Dear all, 

This week quite possibly has been the best week of my mission so far. So yes, my companion and I both were transferred out of our area. We left the house sparkly clean and ready for the next sisters (or elders) that were to come. Our bishop was nice enough to take us to the transfer meeting in Puebla (the city. Puebla City is the capital of Puebla State). There, it was announced that the areas Atexcac and its neighbor, Ixtacíhuatl, would be combined. I was a little sad to hear that, but it’s really for the best because Atexcac is SUPER small.

My new companion is Hermana Villa, from Hermosillo, Sonora (it's right underneath Arizona). I am happy to be with her, we met in my first area, Atlixco, and after that we were in the same zone in Nealtican. And now we are companions in the ward Valle del Sol in the Valsequillo stake in the city of Puebla! My area is just about 100 times the size of Atexcac, and there is SO much work to be done here!

For those of you who hadn't already figured it out, Valle del Sol means Valley of the Sun. And boy, is it bright here! To start off, we had super great results in not even one week of work. I just want to tell you about Adrian and his mom, Margarita. They are golden investigators! They were a reference from the North mission, (that's another thing. Basically across the street from our house begins the Puebla North mission. Sometimes we end up out of mission boundaries when we take the bus...) but have accepted the change very well. They are so easy to teach because they understand everything we tell them. They are both reading the Book of Mormon and this Sunday was their third church attendance! They came to the dedication of our new church building last night and were both really impressed. Adrian tells us that he has found that he is happier than he ever has been, but he can't find out why. Sometimes he just has an urge to read the Book of Mormon, and he feels really great in the church and with all the teachings. His mom feels the same.

Last night after the dedication, we had a little chat and invited Margarita to be baptized. She accepted, without a doubt. She was baptized four years ago with the Christian Church, but she would like to be baptized again with us. Before we could even challenge her to a date, she said that she would like to be baptized on a day very special for her, her birthday. I was a little disappointed because who knows when her birthday is, but then she said "December 30th!" So we have a baptismal date for December 30th. Adrian is a little bit harder. He's stubborn and a little egoistic; he's having a hard time with the commitment. But he told us that he knows that it's imminent, but he doesn't want to put a date. When he's ready he'll let us know. I am hoping it's sometime soon. Observing them while teaching, I know that they know that it's true and that they feel the Spirit.

I am so grateful for these two wonderful people! Another interesting thing is that last night after the lesson, they went with us to drop us off at our house because it was late. We grabbed a bus, and after a few minutes, we realized it was the wrong bus! Margarita talked the bus driver into changing his route, and off we went towards home! The driver was a little angry, but even though it wasn't his normal route, he had a ton of passengers! Now you see? Help the missionaries, the Lord will bless you. One of the passengers was a clown. Yes, a clown. I have a chronic fear of clowns and tried to ignore him, but since I am white he singled me out of the crowd and I had to answer some questions in front of the busload of people. It wasn't too traumatic, but I'll let you all know what the psychologist diagnoses me with.

So that was fun.

There are so many other grand and fantastic things that I want to tell you all about, but I will save some other people's stories for next week.

Share the Gift with everyone this Christmas by helping them know the Restored Gospel! The greatest of all the gifts of God is eternal life, which can only be obtained by sacred priesthood ordinances in the holy temple and by our strict obedience to God and His commandments. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

If I don't get a chance to tell you next week, ¡Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Cheever

This is a girl in Atexcac that we were teaching.
She sells apples covered in a candy tamarindo.
She taught us how to make them.
She's wonderful,
I will miss teaching her and I hope that she progresses
with the other sister missionaries who will be working there.
Her name is Esperanza.

This is la familia Lozano.
They are all less active and
we worked really hard with them in Atexcac.
One Sunday they all came to church and
my companion told me it was the first time
in over a year that they had attended.
Some people just need love. Do your part.
The blurry girl behind me is Maleny,
our investigator with a baptismal date. 

DECEMBER!

Dear all,

Happy December! Time has been flying by so incredibly fast, there's hardly time for anything! Last week I passed the 8 month mark on my mission, which means in just one more month I will have hit the halfway point. That is so crazy. I don't ever want this mission to end!

There have been a lot of hard things, a lot of challenges and trials in the mission, but the few really good things that happen balance it all out. Take this story for example:

Yesterday we had the first lesson with a new investigator. Her name is Maleny. Her boyfriend is a member and she is living with him and his family (note: do not try this at home, live the law of chastity). She has come to church the past two Sundays, and we started the lesson by asking her if there are any doubts or questions that she has. She asked us a few things about what happens after this life (author's note: yes we really can become like Heavenly Father and enjoy the glory that He enjoys if we obey in this life). We helped her clear up a few doubts and then taught about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was so strong and I could just feel that this girl (she's only 16 years old) really needs more of God and the Gospel in her life! It was a great lesson. so great that she even accepted a baptismal date! If all goes well, she will be baptized January 7th, Yes that is a Wednesday, but it's the date that came to my mind and I would like to think that it's inspired. This was somewhat of a miracle for my companion and me, seeing as how in the area in which we are serving it is really hard to find investigators, almost impossible that they come to church, and just amazing that she has agreed on a date to be baptized.

The downer is that tomorrow are transfers, Both my companion and I will be leaving the area to be serving somewhere else, so we won't be able to see Maleny progress and be baptized. To some it is given to sow, others to reap.

I hope that all of you are busy sowing seeds of the gospel in all aspects of your life. The best way to do that is by your example. We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are a covenant people. We are different. We have the light, we have the truth, LIVE LIKE IT! Reach your potential. Live worthy of the blessings of the temple. Show others what it means to be a part of the Restored Gospel and when your non-member friends want to know why you're different than others, invite them to meet the missionaries.

Plant your seeds and then read Alma 32:41. With patience, faith, diligence, and hope that seed will grow into a tree that will bring forth fruit for Eternal Life, the greatest of all the gifts of God.

Hermana Cheever

This is one of the first members in Atexcac. Look, he's still going strong, studying Doctrine and Covenants!

Fotos and more fotos - just in case you were worried Rachael has changed