A Week Of Surprises

Hi again,

This week was definitely a good one. A lot happened and I am so grateful for all the learning experiences that were provided for me as the week progressed.

I would like to talk about trials and challenges. This week I have thought a lot about this subject and I have got some questions about it as well. One question that I got was why do good people have bad things happen to them?

As I thought about this a thought that came to my mind was why shouldn't good people have trials? Trials are the way that we grow and become better. When we receive trials we turn hearts to our Heavenly Father and our minds to Jesus Christ. As we turn to our heavenly family they help us through our trials and we come out stronger and better than before. Our trials are what make us good people.

I know that we are never alone, and that as we go through hard times we will find comfort as we ask for it. I know that we have a loving Father in Heaven who watches over us, loves us, and protects us. Jesus Christ did suffer, bleed, and die for us. He was also resurrected so that we can be resurrected and return to live with our Heavenly Family again.

Sunday 10/29/2017

Elder Woodruff and I had an announcement from president Thomas. We are taking the early shift. We were shocked when we heard this because we thought that the teaching center shifts were all taken. But something that has been going on is that some referral center companionships have been waking up an hour earlier. So Elder Woodruff and I will now be waking up at 5:15 instead of 6:15 and going to bed at 8:30 instead of 9:30.

Elder Woodruff's cut

Our companionship left the MTC. Elder Woodruff got a cut right next to his eye because his foot got stuck on the door and the door hit him. The cut was bad enough that we went to Riverwoods Urgent Care to get stitches. It was actually quite interesting. The driver of the shuttle that drove us back to the MTC actually served in the referral center about a year ago. It was really cool to talk to him and to see the missionaries that he served with and just hear some of his experiences.

For church today we had Stake Conference. It was really good. They had a few people bear their testimonies and tell their conversion stories. The Stake President and his wife also spoke. They spoke a lot about using your phone wisely. The stake President said that the first thing that a phone is most used for is pornography, and the second thing is family history. That just made me want to do some family history.

Monday 10/30/2017

Our Companionship talked with Stormi today. It actually went really good. She had some questions about Moroni 6 which is all about Baptism! So that was fantastic. We think that she is considering baptism since she is studying it. We also were able to bring faith into the lesson as well. We will see what happens though.

Large ants at the Bean Museum

Tuesday 10/31/2017

This was a super Halloween. A funny story about that. I sometimes talk to people in the Philippines. One of them messaged me yesterday and told me Happy Halloween. So I am like Halloween is tomorrow and then I remember that they are 14 hours ahead so it actually is Halloween for them. Yeah I forget about time zones quite a bit.

We found a new investigator named Sid. He is pretty cool. We taught him the first lesson and he wants to meet again tomorrow.

Elder Christensen came for Tuesday devotional. He said some really good things. He said, "Be empathetic and sincere about helping those you teach with their trials." He also said, "Your calling as a full time missionary is the most important calling you can receive." One last quote that I will give from him is, "Your power comes through your desires and your righteous actions."

I like turtles!

Wednesday 11/01/2017

We had a funny chat today. So a question that we get a lot is people asking if we are robots. So the conversation went something like this-

Chat: Are you robots, because I want to talk with real people.
Elder Woodruff: We are real people.
Chat: Well how do I know? Any one can program a robot to say "We are real people."
Elder Stevenson: Where do we find a robot?
Chat: You can make one on Javascript. A robot would never say that. So I guess both of you must be real.

Thursday 11/02/2017

We contacted Sid's local Sisters and they were awesome. They said that Sid had called them and that they are sitting by Sid at church on Sunday!

The rooster

We also talked with Josefine and we had a super good lesson. She told us about her visit to the Preston England temple and she told us that it was just beautiful. She also got to see the MTC in England and she told us that she wanted to go on a mission just seeing them! So Elder Woodruff and I invited her to pray about it. Our lesson was all about revelation both personal and prophetic revelation. It was a really good talk because we got to talk about Prophets, the priesthood, and the Holy Ghost.

Friday 11/03/2017

We video chatted Keidi, which was amazing. I was interesting hearing her voice again because the last time I heard it was before her baptism which was months ago. But she went to the Helsinki Finland temple. It was her first time going and she said it was just amazing. She got to be in the temple with people from Finland, Russia, and Estonia. So she got to hear the different languages. We talked with her about The gospel of Jesus Christ and it was one of the best lessons I have had.

More ants

Saturday 11/04/2017

We went to the Bean museum today for the first time. As I went through It was just amazing seeing all the different animals from different parts of the world. We saw a rooster which reminded me of the time that I was attacked by a rooster. The desert tortoise that was there was cool because turtles are just fantastic. Anyway everything was just amazing.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stevenson