Wrong Roads

Hello my family and friends,

This week was crazy! It literally flew by. However we did have preparation day a day early so that was probably a big part of it.

I have been doing a new study in the Book of Mormon and I can definitely tell you that the way that you study your Book of Mormon definitely affects the way that you feel about it. I started a study on the restoration so I am looking for all of the points in lesson 1, which is:

• God Is Our Loving Heavenly Father
• The Gospel Blesses Individuals and Families
• Heavenly Father Reveals His Gospel in Every Dispensation
• The Savior’s Earthly Ministry and Atonement
• The Great Apostasy
• The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith
• The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
• Pray to Know the Truth through the Holy Ghost

So it is really interesting. There are a lot of examples of God's love in the Book of Mormon, as well as a lot of examples of God speaking to His prophets. I am on 1 Nephi 11 and this study has given me a new and stronger love for the Book of Mormon that I have not had before. I invite all of you to do a study of the Book of Mormon cover to cover and look for something as you study, and as you find it highlight it or underline it with a pen or a highlighter, or a red pencil. This can be about anything that you would like to understand more.

Bowling at the Wilk

I know that as I have studied the Book of Mormon I have seen my testimony and conversion grow. I know that the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon will bless every nation. I have seen a small portion of that already. God is truly hastening his work, and we can be the tools that he uses to gather His children into the fold. President Nelson has already given us a way to do that with ministering. I know that President Nelson is truly a Prophet of God. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Referral Center at the Mount Timpanogos Temple

I am so excited for General Conference!!! The Apostles that have come to the MTC have said that it is going to be really good. I am excited for what Temples are going to be announced. As well I am sure that all of the talks are going to be super awesome. General Conference is great because you can tell all of the people that you are teaching about it. We told our friend Christy that we are teaching about it and this is what she said, "I bought some notebooks and things to have the day of, and I will work on that tomorrow also. I am so so excited about the general conference. I'm not sure really what to expect but I do have an idea and I can not wait. I will be taking notes and hanging on every word."

I made notes about this week.

Saturday 09/29/2018

Today was super awesome. Elder Woodruff and I hiked Squaw Peak. It was actually quite funny we went to the lookout but we didn't know where the hiking trail was so we just guessed where it might be. So we found this path and took for about a half mile until we came to a dirt road. We had our suspicions along the way that it was the wrong trail because there were bike jumps all over. So we ran back and found someone who told us where the right trail was and it was a hard hike but absolutely beautiful. We also worked on Scholarships which was interesting. It is something that I hadn't really considered in the past.

Elder Stevenson and Elder Woodruff at the Mount Timpanogos Temple

Sunday 09/30/2018

I went to the employee ward today for church. This is a ward for MTC employees that have to work when their church time is so they still get the sacrament.

Something funny happened today. So we went to the Sunday night devotional which was awesome. President and Sister Martino spoke. However before it started President Thomas told me that he had been told by Elder Savoie that I was doing Doctrinal discussion. I had completely forgotten about it. So I asked what it was on and he said repentance. Kind of ironic. But the Devotional was largely about having faith, and The Martinos talked about Peter and about his relationship with Jesus. They talked about Peter's faith and his lack of faith.

Elder Woodruff hiking Squaw Peak

But overall it went good. I was able to do a good lesson on repentance.

10/01/2018

Today we went on exchanges. I went with Elder Arndt and Elder Woodruff went with Elder Savoie. It was very good.

10/02/2018

Elder Koch of the seventy came for Tuesday night devotional. He gave a really good but really funny talk. He said something that was really cool. He talked about Pride and Humility. He said, "If we don't choose to be humble, we become humiliated." He told a story to give an example of what it means to be prideful. He talked about how when his children were younger, no matter what he said they would not listen to him, so he brought them to his work to show them that he was important. He comes to the gate of the facility and there is a man in a box that checks if you have a card to the facility and Elder Koch didn't have his card. Elder Koch said, "Do you know who you are talking to! I own this facility." The person at the desk says, "I am sorry you can't come in without a company card." So he turns around and starts to drive away when his wife says, "You were very prideful, that man was just doing his job." So Elder Koch turns around and says "I am sorry, I was very prideful, can you forgive me?" The man at the box says, "I can forgive you, but you are not coming through the gate without a company card."

10/03/2018

Elder Woodruff and I contacted another man in Malawi named Leonard. He is super awesome. We told him that we had a friend in Malawi named Davie and Leonard got super excited and said how can I meet him? So we asked Davie if we could add him into the group and he said yes. So we added him and know we have set up a lesson to talk with Leonard and Davie is a member present. He has only been a member for five days.

Elder Stevenson on the wrong road

The lesson that we had with Christy was super awesome. She said that she gave the missionaries in her area a call. We had one of the members in our stake (Jennah) join with us as a member present. We talked with Christy about Prayer and Scripture study, as well as General Conference. She was so excited for General Conference. After some time Christy's voice cut out so we could not hear her but luckily Jennah was able to hear both us and Christy so she was able to tell us what Christy was saying. We told her about Gospel Library and how it has the scriptures on there. Christy said that she would download it and start reading right when she got off the phone. We ended by committing Christy to prepare questions for General Conference, which she agreed to do.

10/04/2018

We had a really good lesson with Laura. We talked about General Conference with her and it was awesome. She told us that she had already started writing down her questions. Elder Woodruff talked about ways that we can get more out of General conference. She was curious what times the General Conference was. She also was concerned about not taking the sacrament on Sunday. So we told her that she could arrange something with the Bishop, but then she told us that she was fine. We also talked about callings with her and she told us that the Bishop had already started thinking about a calling for her but has not decided on one. She said that she would really like to work with the young women and be a camp leader for them but she will do what God wants. She also had questions about the Book of Mormon, like in Ether who was speaking. So we helped to clarify that. The lesson ended by her committing us to make the sacrifice necessary to get all we can out of this General Conference.

The view from Squaw Peak

I got a really nice email from someone I sent a free Bible to. Her name was Christbell and this is what she said, "Hey Good afternoon its Christbell. I just wanna say thanks for sending me the bible. I really appreciate it, God keep blessing u and all around it." She then sent me a picture of her bible that came. This was awesome because I never get thank you's from anyone we message.

10/05/2018

We had a really good day. Our entire mission went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple. It was absolutely beautiful. I am also glad that Elder Savoie got to go since his mission is almost over.

Elder Woodruff and I also went bowling which was super fun.

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

Love,

Elder Stevenson