July 14, 2014

This week was good. First off, Mom, please stop worrying and telling others to worry about me. I appreciated all the letters from everyone at the reunion. But I am not going thru a hard time and I'm not worried about my back so you shouldn't be either; I will be fine. Just a little update, the doctor’s appointment was fine, I have to do more pee tests and stuff and see if when he does it it's different or not.. Yesterday we had a fireside with the ward; we talked about the ward mission plan. It went great, we had 100+ people, I was happy, especially for this ward. There was a lot musical numbers so that helped get the ward out as well. The ward mission plan includes finding, sharing, inviting, serving and fellow shipping. I talked about Inviting. It was only about 5 minutes and I would send you a copy of my talk... But I just wrote down a few bullet points right before and expounded on them. When I started I had everyone stand up and sing a song with me "Invite, Invite, morning noon and night!" 3 times so inviting won't be forgotten. We have been doing a lot of finding this last week, we got one referral from a MEMBER for a guy named Victor, I guess they have been talking at work and talking with other missionaries a little before and he is from Nigeria! Maybe Grammy and papa met him! We met a guy named Jesus from Columbia on the street one day he was pretty cool and invited us over but then when we went over he was preaching to us about how Pentecostal is right and we are wrong. It sure was interesting to hear someone speak in "tongues" or gibberish.. The philosophy was that they if couldn't understand themselves then Satan can't understand them either or any evil spirits... But God can understand them... Well I'm still lost! We found a native family, or rather they found us! Walking down the street and they asked if we can teach them, that was really cool but being able to make an appointment with them has been more difficult. On an exchange on Saturday we taught a man who is agnostic. It was really cool he is very willing to learn and try to get an answer, we talked about the creation with him and how we were alive before this life. It made a lot more sense to him than the other religions he has looked into. It's funny to me even though I was called to English work there is so many people whose native tongue isn't English we get to work with. Ann is still coming along, slowly but surely. On Friday when we usually have sport night she met with bishop and Elder Hinds and had a lesson and I played ball with Keegan. The lesson went great, I was just sad I wasn't a part of it, but that's alright. Sunday we went to the Veterans Hospital to help give people the sacrament. It was sad to see what some of those people’s lives has become. 2Nephi 4:19-21 I know in whom I have trusted. My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. He hath filled me with his love. Have a good week! Love, Elder Stevenson