The Blessing of Technology

Hello Everyone,

This week has been amazing. There was a lot of highlights that I had. Something that really made me happy was my study this week. I studied about righteous and unrighteous judgment. Something I got from Elder Boyd K. Packer was that you should never make a judgement unless you have all the facts. This is really important because often times we are told something but really all we have is the persons word. You can never really know for yourself until you have experience. It is kind of like this with sharing the gospel. Our investigators can listen to us talk, but they will never know if the Book of Mormon is true unless they study and pray about it. There are some good videos about this concept. Two pop into my mind, and that is the talk by Elder Packer that I mentioned and the new mormon message. I invite you to watch them. I will paste the links here, because they are things that are really inspiring.

You can read the talk by Elder Packer here.

And read the Mormon Message here.

I know that as we ask God He will help us. I know that He still speaks to His children today, and that He has called President Nelson to be our Prophet. God trusts in us, and we should trust in Him. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is a companion to The Holy Bible. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The misty mountains

Sunday 01/21/2018

Elder Stewart and I had a really good lesson with Gene today. What was really cool was Gene brought his friend Chris to the lesson. What we did was we read the Book of Mormon with them because Gene didn't read the Book of Mormon so we read Second Nephi chapter 3 with him, which is super awesome because it is the chapter that talks about Joseph Smith. I thought it went really well. The Spirit was definitely present.

The snowy street driving to church

Monday 01/22/2018

We talked with Joaquin today. Joaquin's lesson went really well. He went to church yesterday and absolutely loved it. He told us that he went to all three hours and it really didn't feel like three hours. He said that he was nervous at first, like he didn't know what people would think about him, but as he talked with the member who was driving him and the local Elders he just felt so much love. He talked a lot about how as he has changed and come closer to God that he has seen a lot of hope come into his life. He was invited to a members house yesterday and they talked about The Pre-Earth Life with him. What stuck out to Joaquin was the fact that we chose to come here, because we accepted God's plan. He really wants to take his kids to church and to teach them about God so that he can set a good example for them. We ended by giving him "The Hope of God's Light" video.

Tuesday 01/23/2018

For the devotional tonight Elder Joseph W. Sitati and Sister Gladys Sitati came and spoke to us. Elder Sitati said some really cool things. He said that "You should not compare yourselves to others because what you are a part of is not equaled by anything else." The fact that we are here makes us amazing.

Wednesday 01/24/2018

We had an interesting lesson with a woman we found named teresa. She wasn't interested when we started to talk, but the more we talked about the restoration, she became more interested which was really cool to see.

P-day lunch from Asado

Thursday 01/25/2018

We had our first lesson with a woman named Deanna. Our lesson with Deanna was very interesting. Her local missionaries commited her to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. So since she had not read it, we decided to read it with her. Along with the Introduction we read Moroni 10:3-5. She really liked the promise that Moroni gives us. She compared The Book of Mormon to a cook book. The Book of Mormon is the ingredients that God has given us. We can't just have a box of cake mix, pour it into the bowl and expect a cake. We need to use what we have been given. Deanna does have some things that she needs to overcome, but we believe that given time she will overcome those things.

More from Asado

We also talked with Josefine. We had a really good talk about faith, because she sometimes has doubts about her testimony. So we talked about what things she could try to improve her faith. A lot of her doubt is coming from stress, which we can understand because she is writing her dissertation for school. But we promised her that if she put God first that she would have time for her dissertation.

We also had a lesson that didn't go as planned. We had planned a lesson that was on Eternal Marriage, but it turned into a lesson about dating, which didn't go over well. It was not only stressful but awkward as we are missionaries and really aren't allowed to date. But besides that things went fantastic.

Friday 01/26/2018

Something super funny happened today. So there has been this sister I have been talking with during gym time named Sister Tomasin. Every time she sees me she yells "Elder Stevenson" but during gym time I am always with Elder Curtis, so Elder Curtis had met her but Elder Stewart hadn't. He had just heard her name when I mention our brief talks. So we went into the cafeteria for lunch and her and her district were at the door. So she sees me and yells "Sister Stevenson!" and we all laugh because Sister Stevenson isn't my name. I almost said Sister Stevenson is my sister, but I didn't.

Talking with Elder Zaugg and Alison after her baptism

Saturday 01/27/2018

We had a really good day today. Elder Stewart and I got to do part of the early shift at the temple, but left before it was over. We walked back so we could make it to Alison's baptism, because we got permission to video in. Brother Zaugg was able to video in as well from where he was. Because he was the one who originally found Alison. It was an amazing experience. The spirit was very strong, and it looked like any worry that Alison had was gone. She was just smiling the whole time at the end when we talked with her.

Thank you all for your emails. I hope you have a great rest of your week.

Your Friend,

Elder Stevenson