Email July 14, 2014

Hello family! This countdown is getting me pretty excited: I will be home to Utah in 16 days. I've been feeling so many different emotions. Over the past few days I've had moments where I've sat down and thought about going home and I'm really excited and happy. Then I have other moments where I'm pondering and the tears come to my eyes when leaving Puerto Rico pops in. It's been a humbling and gratifying experience. We went to a member's house last week to do some service, then we shared a message afterward. We talked about the character of Christ, specifically His willingness to suffer for righteousness. We'd shared the same message in another appointment during the week, and the member who accompanied us was also present at this second lesson. He shared that he'd been pondering all week about my words, and a feeling of humility entered into me. I didn't feel proud of myself that he'd been touched by my message: I felt grateful that the Lord would consider me utile in order to use me as His instrument. And that led me to feel so grateful for all He's let me do in my mission, which brought the tears to my eyes, and I remembered that my patriarchal blessing says: "As you finish your mission you will be so grateful for the special experiences you will have through the Spirit." I felt known and loved by God and felt love for the wonderful patriarch who was worthy to give me that blessing. I've also been put into three good-old Bible bashing situations this week. We didn't argue with any of them: we taught them pure doctrine as we believe it and were able to end on friendly terms with each of the people we talked with. One of them was a young kid who thought he'd have a fun time by inviting us over and bashing with us. I have to admit that though we didn't bash with him we did give him a good reason to be humble :) Another kid was here on a mission from Texas. He only spoke English, which was among the first lessons I've ever taught in English. He was a cool kid and was understanding of what we taught him. He was surprised by how similiar our doctrine really is to his-- I think he's a non-denominational missionary. It was really cool. The only big news I have from this week is from the night Elder Kraft and I went to Wendy's. We had ordered our food, then looked up at the newspapers back by the drinks, and we saw the front page: Lebron James in his Cleveland Cavaliers uniform with giant words that said: DEVUELTA A CASA, which means Returning Home. Lebron James is going back to the Cavaliers! We both freaked out since we're big NBA fans and asked the cashier for the newspaper. We sat their at the counter reading the front page. All the employees were laughing at us. It was funny. Haha. I'm stoked for this NBA season now--I'll be home to watch it :) The funny story of the week: we were driving with an investigator up to an appointment near the bishop's house, and as we passed we saw the bishop outside his house just chilling in his garments. Ha. Not the first time I've seen that. But then we stopped and the investigator started talking to the bishop. The bishop just stood there in his garments and talked to him. Oh Puerto Rico. Anyway, I love you all a lot! Time's going by fast :) Elder Cevering