Pray for Patience

Hello my family,

This week was pretty crazy. Something that I have been thinking about is patience recently. Patience is an attribute that is given to us from God and developed over a lifetime. It is interesting how patience works in our lives. Sometimes we feel like we are real patient and then we find ourselves being impatient the next. What I have found on my mission is that Christlike attributes interconnect. If we want to become patient something we could try first is being charitable. When we love others, it is not a problem waiting for them, so it is with anything else. Charity is the pure love of Christ. We can do so much with the love of Christ. I invite you to all exercise your patience this week. Pray for patience and act, and I promise that you will find more peace in your life. You will not get angry with others. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Now I will tell you why the week was pretty crazy. I did exchanges with Elder Arndt on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It was interesting. The reason this was done was because Elder Savoie is leaving this upcoming Friday and so it will just be Elder Woodruff, Elder Arndt, and I after that. So President Thomas wanted me to work well with Elder Arndt before that time comes. But I met some pretty cool people on Wednesday when I went over to His cubicle.

I also have a few things that I have not told you recently. Number one is I have been talking with Victoria and she got a calling in her ward. She is now a primary teacher for CTR 7. When she was asked how she liked it she said, "I love it!!! As rambunctious as these kids are, they are so sweet too!"

Elder Stevenson, Brother Sole, and Elder Woodruff

First let me say that General Conference was absolutely amazing. There were so many good talks. I really liked how they talked about being Shepherds. I liked how Elder Uchtdorf talked about being a German Shepherd. Also 12 new temples, how crazy is that? That means that in the last six months 19 temples have been announced. And pioneer era temples are being closed for renovation like the Salt lake temple. That will be interesting.

Monday was my first exchange with Elder Arndt of the week. We had a really good talk with Laura. She said that she absolutely loved General Conference. She was curious when the new change for church started so we talked with her about that. We asked her what her thoughts were about it and she said that she was willing to do what the prophet said. Laura told us that it only makes sense that we should do what God wants us to do.

At around five thirty Elder Woodruff and I got back together for a dinner that we had with the Sole family. The Sole family is a family that Elder Woodruff taught. We actually had a chance to talk with Anita a few weeks ago. But my Headphones weren't working so I didn't say anything during the call. The family consists of Frank, Anita, and Lorelei. Anita and Frank are married and Lorelei is their daughter. We went to Slab Pizza for dinner and we had an amazing conversation.

Elder Stevenson, Lorelei, and Elder Woodruff

After that we talked with Christy. Our lesson with Christy was awesome and she is doing amazing. She said she has watched the General Conference talks multiple times and has enjoyed it so much. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and she said that it made sense. We gave her the local missionary's phone number and she said she was going to call them and that she is going to pray about a day to be baptized on. She actually did have a lesson as well with the missionaries on Wednesday and is planning on going to church on Sunday.

On Tuesday Elder Woodruff and I taught Leonard with Davie as a member present. We all started by introducing ourselves and each time that someone introduced themselves Leonard asked what their lives were like before they found Christ. This is what Davie said, "I was the lost sheep. My life was miserable and till one day I come across here and meet with the missionaries that helped me to know more about Jesus Christ, they even introduced me to my local missionaries that are helping me now to grow in spiritual and physical life in Jesus Christ."

It was so Awesome. I can say that I taught a man in Malawi with a member present from Malawi.

On Wednesday I was with Elder Arndt again but in his area this time. I taught Vandana for the first time and it was super awesome. She absolutely loved Conference and wanted to know about what our questions were and what our answers were that we got from Conference. This just turned into a conversation about all the things that we liked in General Conference.

We also talked with Lusia who is a woman from Fiji that Elder Savoie and Elder Arndt found but hadn't taught so it was cool doing the first lesson as an exchange. Lusia is awesome. She really wants to learn more.

Not that much happened on Thursday. We talked with Gideon who is from Kenya. We talked about the restoration with him which went good.

On Friday I was with Elder Woodruff again. We taught two men that are awesome named Samson and Richard who are from Saudi Arabia but are currently living in Uganda. We talked with them over Facebook Video which never happens because the internet in Africa isn't the best. But it went super well. Both Samson and Richard want to meet with missionaries and want to go to church on Sunday.

Today was pretty awesome as well. The whole mission went to The Wilkinson Center and went Bowling for Elder Savoie's last Preparation Day. It was super fun.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I love you.

Love,

Elder Stevenson