Having A Prayer In Your Heart

Hello my dear family,

I have seen a lot of miracles this week. Some of them are that they moved all of the non Referral Center Missionaries off of the fourth and fifth floor so It is quiet while we work. They also put music boxes that play soft music. The same ones that are in the ponder rooms in buildings T3 and T4. So Elder Stewart and I studied out there quite a bit this week. The non Referral Center Missionaries also got moved out of the bottom floor of the residence, so we have the floor all to ourselves. It is also quiet at night which is good for sleeping. We still get chances to see and talk with them during meal times and some still come in at night to go to the vending machines, so it is not like they have totally disappeared.

Something I wanted to talk about was about having a prayer in your heart. I have been thinking about this for the past little while and it is something that has been really peaceful to think about. I find myself praying a lot more as I start to see others struggles and want the best for them. I found confidence as I trust in the lord to help both me and others that I come in contact with as I do my best. One thing that really has helped me is singing hymns. I have found that as I have troubled thoughts, singing hymns always bring my mind back to Jesus Christ and the gospel.

I know that as we center our hearts, minds, and our lives around Jesus Christ, we will be blessed with what we need. It may not always be in our time but it will come. I know that singing a hymn has always helped me to turn a bad day into a good day, and that it truly does help. I know that Jesus Christ is my brother, my Savior and my friend. I often think that I would have no greater opportunity than to act as His representative for two years. God did make a plan for us, and He loves us, more than we could ever know. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Saturday 01/06/2018

Today was pretty awesome. It was Daniel's birthday. He is one of the custodians that helps us when we do service. Anyway, he invited us all to go bowling with him. So that's what we did to celebrate his birthday and it was fantastic.

Sunday 01/07/2018

Today was super interesting. I woke this morning and heard Elder Aydelott talking in the hallway which was really sad because it was 6:00 in the morning. He was up because he is on the early shift. So after about a minute or two of lying down I got out of bed to see what was going on. I went outside to see all the lights out, which when you first wake up doesn’t seem all that strange. Elder Aydelott was talking with Elder Stewart in the corner of our residence which is a few steps away from our room. Elder Aydelott looked at me real excited and said “happy power outage!” It was at that point when I noticed something was different. Lights were on but only here and there because they were emergency lights.

Everyone in the residence was asked to get ready but to stay in the residence. So that’s what we did. It was quite the adventure because the only light we were able to use in our rooms was the little flashlight on our phones. So I went and got prepared, and then stayed in the residence for about an extra hour. When we got out of the residence to go to church the lights were still out. We found out that the majority of Provo had had a power outage. The sky was full of fog so we couldn’t even see the mountains as we walked to the curb to wait for the car.

Church was good because it was fast and testimony meeting, so Elder Stewart and I were able to here the testimonies of the ward members. The other two hours were also good. But we had to leave because they were having mission conference at twelve. Mission conference was really good.

I ended the night by leading doctrinal discussion. The subject I was given to discuss was obedience. It went really well. We talked about how obedience ties in with different attributes. I started this by talking about how you need faith in order to be obedient, because when we have faith we are trusting that what God has planned for us is going to be best for us. Then Elder Woodruff pointed out that it also takes diligence in order to be obedient, that obedience is not just a one time thing, but is continuous. I brought up that sometimes it feels easier to be obedient than other times. Elder Aydelott brought up the story of Namon who went to Elijah to be healed, but was greeted by his servant instead who told Namon to wash in the river seven times and then he would be healed.

Monday 01/08/2018

Our lesson with Alison went well. She was curious about what would be in her baptismal interview. So we did a practice interview and went over the baptismal interview questions with her. She did really awesome, and gave honest answers. We could tell just by the way she typed it that they were sincere and from the heart. She did have some concerns but we told her that those can be solved with her local missionaries and her Bishop. She is on date for baptism though, so we are super excited. We ended our lesson by giving her the mormon message spiritual whirlwinds.

Tuesday 01/09/2018

Tonight Elder Bednar came along with a few other general authorities. That was super cool to see. He talked mainly about the priesthood authority, priesthood keys and revelation. So a lot of people think that the priesthood is only for men, this is not true. Elder Bednar explained it like this, "The priesthood is like an umbrella. Anyone can be under the umbrella, but it is the men that have the responsibility of holding the umbrella."

When He was talking about revelation he said there are three answers that we will usually get as we pray. Those are yes, no, and no answer. Elder Bednar said that we should be grateful when we don't get an answer because this means that God trusts us enough to make our own decision. So that was super awesome.

Wednesday 01/10/2018

Our lesson with Keidi went super well. We talked a lot about personal revelation. We were able to share a lot from what Elder Bednar said last night which was really helpful. She shared some stories about how she has been helped with revelation in her own life. She talked about the time she was inspired to move back to Tallinn where her family lived, and that was where she had the experiences that really confirmed to her that she should be baptized. I still remember it, because when she moved we were both happy, because at first when we had lessons she wasn't that happy but once she moved we could see that happiness emanate from her. We ended by inviting her to watch the pattern of light videos.

We got to see from the employees some of the updates they are making for the upgraded teaching center. They are calling it Teaching Center 2.0, it was pretty cool, and a lot more neat.

Thursday 01/11/2018

We talked with Heather again on the phone. Both Elder Stewart and I were amazed that we picked her up again. She started talking about how she wanted to find her Book of Mormon so she could read it again. So we were happy to hear that.

Joaquin is doing super awesome. He talked about his meeting with the local missionaries and it sounds like it is going really well. We can really tell his desire to change and his desire to come closer to Jesus Christ. So that was a big highlight.

Friday 01/12/2018

We found somebody new named Emma. She seems super great, and is just really interested in our beliefs.

The Referral Center along with all the other M.T.C missionaries watched President Monson's funeral, and it was really moving. I especially liked his daughter's talk about how service oriented he was. Everyone said super nice things and it made me reflect on how I should act.

I love you all, and I hope you all have a great rest of your week.

Love,

Elder Stevenson