The Awkwardness of a Burnt Marshmallow

Hello my wonderful family,

I have been thinking a lot this week about love and trials and how love and trials are interconnected. As I thought about it I realized that after we have experienced a trial we have a greater capacity to love because we have experienced something hard. When we meet someone who is going through the same thing, we can tell them that we understand because we have experienced it as well. As well when we are going through a trial that is hard for us, others provide love and understanding. I think that is something wonderful about this life is how because we are all brothers and sisters we have a natural tendency to love. I invite you all to do an act of love this week.

I know that Jesus Christ lives. I also know that as we love others we will feel loved. Matthew 25:40 says, "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." When we serve other we are truly serving God. I have found on my mission that no one loves us more than our Heavenly Father. He will always love us. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I should probably start out by explaining the title of the email. So Elder Knudsen and I were in companionship inventory, which is just a companionship talk where constructive criticism is given so we can understand where we can improve. We do this as a way to improve companionship unity. We also talk about each others' strengths so we can know where we are doing good. We had finished our inventory and we somehow got onto the topics of mints. I said "what if you put a mint inside a marshmallow and cooked it in the fire?" Elder Knudsen gave me a confused look, and I continued by saying, "Sure the burnt marshmallow's outside would be awkward but the inside would be fantastic." It wasn't until he pointed it out that I had said awkward instead of the word crunchy which is the word that was in my head when I spoke.

I gave a talk in a ward on Sunday. The ward is for employees who have to work on Sunday but can't go to their wards because it conflicts with their schedules. I also passed and prepared the sacrament which I have not done in a long time. My talk was all about why love is important and how we can have love for everyone even if they do not love us back.

I also gave the lesson in Zone Meeting. A lot of it was improvised because the topic I was asked to talk about was not a very broad topic and I needed to have a thirty minute lesson. The topic I was given was contacting old investigators. I had Elder Woodruff, Elder Arndt, and Elder Aydelott do a role play, and that was probably everybody's favorite part of Zone Meeting. I had them do a bad way of contacting someone and a good way of contacting someone. So two role plays.

I did not give them details on what to do, so when it came to the role plays, what happened with the bad one was so funny. So Elder Woodruff and Elder Arndt were the missionaries and Elder Aydelott was the person being taught. The first one went something like this. Elder Aydelott played the role of Frank. Elder Aydelott started out by saying, "Oh, sorry it has been awhile. I really would like to learn it's just I really don't have the time." Then Elder Woodruff responds by saying, "Why?" and Elder Aydelott says, "You know I have to provide for my family." and Elder Woodruff says "Why?" and it went on like this for five minutes and it ended with the person interested in learning not wanting to learn anymore. So I asked The Referral Missionaries what they could have done better and carried the majority of the lesson in a discussion like that. The good role play was a lot more organized and you could tell that the missionaries (Elder Woodruff and Elder Arndt) really truly cared.

The fourth of July was really great. The Referral center was able to watch the fireworks from the third floor in T3, which has a lot of windows and was really big. This was an upgrade from last year where we all watched fireworks from a room in T2 which was a lot smaller and only had one window. So everyone had to gather around that one window. But I absolutely loved it. We could see The Stadium of fire fireworks as well as other fireworks that were going on in the city by locals.

Those were the highlights of my week. I am so glad for all that you do for me and all the encouragement that is provided. I hope you all have a great rest of your week.

Love,

Elder Stevenson