The Making of a Missionary

Hello Everyone,

Wow, I just wanted to start out by saying how amazing General Conference was. When I was with Elder Curtis and Elder Fleming on Saturday and we gave the link to general conference to just about everyone we knew. I wanted to send some of the things that were said about General conference.

"The spirit did prompt me to watch general conference. I was just going to relax this evening, but got the feeling that I should watch it. I rushed to my laptop and was there right when it began, even though I didn't know what time it would be here, I just got the feeling I should go and see it right away." -Josefine

"I watched some of the talks that were given today and they were all wonderful! As I listened to each talk I took notes and wrote down questions I came across. I kinda want to learn more about Jesus Christ specifically, what areas of the Book of Mormon would you recommend that talk of the life he led on earth?" -Samantha

"Hi Elders! Conference is the best and I‘m glad this is my second Conference as a member of the Church! Enjoy!" -Frances

"Hey Tanner - I really liked what Henry Eyring said about priesthood and about the importance of charity on our daily lives. Charity Is essential for us to be saved in the Kingdom of God, it is a gift given by God and we need to embrace it. Also when he said to be grateful for the love he generously gives us every day. The choir was literally AMAZINGGGG, and Bonnie Oscarson was super cool - I loved it." -Annelisse

Conference can be a miracle to everyone, member and nonmember alike. I also really loved General Conference. Something that really helped me was that there were multiple talks that were focused on charity such as pure love, and friendship, also forgiveness. I will share some of my favorite parts of conference.

Elder De Feo said that, "True disciples love to serve. They know that serving is an expression of true love."

I like this quote because it reminds me of something I said to Keidi awhile back when I was teaching her. We were having a lesson on service and she was having trouble knowing really what would count as an act of service. The Spirit told me to tell her that an act of service was the same as an act of love, so when I heard this in Elder De Feo's talk it brought back some precious memories.

In Elder Taylor's talk he told a story about his friend Jen. at one point when Jen was having a hard time she was told to say and write the phrase "I am a child of God" ten times daily. She said that writing it was easy but to say it was much harder. I personally related with this because a few months ago when I was talking with Brother Henderson, I was talking with him about how I felt that I just wasn't feeling successful at all, and I knew what it meant to be a successful missionary. I had read the section in preach my gospel about it multiple times, but it still did not give me comfort. It just made me question myself more. He told me that from what I had told him in previous meetings that I was trying my hardest and I was being successful. He ended our meeting by giving me the commitment to say "I am a successful missionary" three times each day. That was hard. I was unable to do it, because the words felt empty to me. So this talk really hit me as well.

Elder Echo Hawk's talk was very good as well. He said, "The sinner must be willing to forgive, if he or she hopes to obtain forgiveness."

This is something that I did a study on a few months back as well. Forgiveness is something that is very important, and sometimes very hard. Something else he said was, "We are to be forgiving even when it seems others may not warrant our forgiveness." Are we holding a grudge against something that someone did, or are they? My answer to this question is the first comment that I put from Elder Echo Hawk. We must be willing to forgive and to love and to befriend others if we want the same, and if we don't want the same then we should forgive anyway because I can promise that you will always feel better in the end when you do what is right.

I just want to say that I know that God has given us the gifts of forgiveness, friendship, and pure love, so that we can become confident and find strength through Him. When we are charitable we have the pure love of Christ. I know that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can be saved. I also know that we can return to God and that that is what God wants, what loving gracious Father wouldn't? I truly stand all amazed at the love that Jesus offers me, and I know that He extends that same love to you. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I met one of the investigators that Elder Knudsen brought into our companionship. Her name is Barbara, and she is from Norway. We had a super awesome conversation with her. She has noticed a change in her life as she has started to read the Book of Mormon, but she doesn't quite know why things changed so quickly, so we spent some time talking about that.

Our lesson with Victoria went really well. We started by following up on General Conference and she said that she was able to watch both sessions on Saturday but was unable to watch the Sunday sessions. We finished the plan of salvation. We started from our purpose on earth to the three degrees of glory and it was a really good talk. We asked after that if she had any questions about what we had said or something that was said in conference and she told us that she was curious about what a temple sealing was. So I gave her the link on lds.org to the page about the temple. We ended by inviting her to read the link that we had given her. She then told us that she was hoping that this is the week that she is able to tell her dad that she is going to church. I can see her improving and once this step is taken I think that this will really help her confidence and really move things forward. If her dad is okay with her decision she will be able to both go to church and start having meetings with her local missionaries.

Elder Knudsen and I had a really good lesson with Samantha. She watched some of General Conference and had some questions about the temple. We talked about the sacredness of the temple and some of the blessings we receive from going there. We also taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. She understood it pretty well. We invited her to meet with her local missionaries and she said that she was going to go to church and meet with them on Sunday.

I loved the New temple announcements! We are so excited for them, especially the ones in Russia and India. I am also very excited for the one in Layton.

I love each and every one of you, and I can't wait to write you next week. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend.

Love,

Elder Stevenson