A More Excellent Way

Hello My Dear Best Family,

I have been thinking a lot about gratitude this week. I think that gratitude is amazing. Something that is a really special skill is having gratitude despite our circumstances. There will always be adversity that we experience. It is part of our experience on earth, but that does not mean that we can't be grateful for what we have. We are blessed a lot in this life. The world is constantly improving and we are constantly adapting to those improvements. As this process takes place we sometimes forget about what we already have. I think it is part of the natural man to just want more, but temporal things can not bring us lasting happiness. The only things that bring us lasting happiness are the things of God. I invite you all to count your blessings this week, make a list of things that you are grateful for and thank God through prayer for those things.

I know that God watches over us and blesses us as we are obedient to the things that he has asked of us. I know that as we count our blessings we will find more joy despite our circumstances. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Stevenson with the message they post in Facebook

I am sorry that I did not write any of you last week and that my email was quite short. Elder Meldrum and I were super busy. Speaking of Elder Meldrum, he actually left for home. Now there are only four of us. President Martino said that we are like the four sons of Mosiah. Before Elder Meldrum left for home he gave each of us a name. Elder Savoie is Ammon, Elder Woodruff is Himni, Elder Arndt is Omner, and I am Aaron. We all agreed that Elder Meldrum was Alma the younger. Anyway I am now companions with Elder Woodruff which has been awesome. He and I get along really well. I actually was companions with him just under a year ago. So it is awesome to have those great experiences again.

Something that we have been doing recently is called Facebook finding. We go onto a discussion group and ask if anyone is interested in saying a prayer with us and talking about Jesus Christ. Whoever likes and comments on the post I message personally. I then ask them if it is okay if I add them to a group with me and my friend. Once they say yes I say "I would love to pray for you, is there anything that I can include in that prayer?" After they comment and I pray, I ask them if they would be interested in talking about Jesus Christ. If they say yes, then I ask them if they know what happened when Jesus Christ went to the ancient Americas. They usually say no. So this provides the perfect opportunity to talk about The Book of Mormon. After that I ask them if they would be interested in learning more. If they say yes then we set up another time to talk. It has been really successful so far. Elder Woodruff and I have set up quite a few lessons. On Monday we are planning to teach fourteen lessons. Of course not all of those are new lessons but a good amount of them are.

Elder Woodruff

So overall the week has been super good. Elder Meldrum and I taught Aaron who is our friend from Germany with Brady Curtis as a member present. We also taught Tammy from the UK and Hugh who is also from the UK. Hugh is so close to re-baptism. He is excommunicated, but He is so amazing. Both Tammy and Hugh's lessons were more for Elder Meldrum so that he could talk with them as a missionary again before he got released. Tammy is one of Elder Meldrum's recent converts. I actually taught her a year ago so it was good to see her again.

I hope that you all have a great rest of your week.

Love,

Elder Stevenson