August 25, 2014

The work is good, it is weird to hit my year mark. Here is a follow up on a few of the things I mentioned last week- We got the Swahili book of Mormon delivered (by the way dad- they are from Africa), we saw them yesterday the communication barrier is hard but we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with them and think they got the just of it. They want to have us over for dinner that sounds cool! Although we found Patrick we haven't been able to meet with him he is a pretty busy guy and is going to a different church every week so we are going to try and help him see this is the right one we just need a half hour of his time. On Thursdays we go on exchanges with members in the ward, last week I was out with the Ward Mission Leader and a while back me and Elder Hinds talked to a family from Idaho who said come back mid-August. We went back and it was awesome. A part member family with 3 young daughters, the mom, KC, talked about wanting to strengthen her relationship with God and her family, just what a missionary wants to hear! The oldest daughter who is 9 was working with missionaries before they moved and wants to be baptized, and the other kids like primary from when they've gone with cousins! I am excited to work with them. We are teaching a guy named Michael who worked on the Gilbert Temple so he know about the church, he got to help hang the chandelier in the celestial room! He's pretty solid we just have to help him get to church, he already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the restoration, so it should be good! A couple weeks ago I can’t remember if I told you this experience or not, but we were praying with an investigator outside and there was a 'thug' looking guy walking by so I invited him to pray with us and after the prayer he looked right and pointing saying "I need to talk to you" so I went over a few steps away and talked to him in private and he wanted me to pray for him so he could get off drugs so we prayed and then met with him and that was followed with a lesson with him and his girlfriend, well long story short they- Teshager and Alicia- came to church yesterday and loved it! Sadly they are moving just north of our area in a week or two. Friday, we had to get the car worked on and the repair shop has a free ride if you need while your cars there so we decided that would be good, well the driver was a woman so we had to say we don't need a ride anymore and walk a few miles back to our area. We were blessed, not sure how yet but we were.. or will be! On Saturday, me and Elder Hinds went on exchanges together, it was awesome! It felt just like old times, we saw our converts and some people we have worked with and biked real fast. We set a goal to go out of our way and talk with every single person (the only exception being drunk natives) we contacted 89 people and our goal was 80. It was pretty awesome! As we were leaving the park there was an older guy riding in circles around the parking lot on a bike he had headphones on but I held out a picture of Jesus and offered it to him. Turned out to be a member who told us some really cool missionary experiences he had, something didn't seem quite right as we were talking though and thru a few questions we found out he became gay, lost his family and stopped activity in the church.. It was sad but it was good to talk to him, he's not in our ward but accepted an invitation to have missionaries over. Anyways, learned 2 big things out of it: 1- The mighty can fall, Satan never stops working on people, not the bishop not the prophet not even Jesus while he was here. 2- Because we talked to every person and didn't stop just because we reached our goal or just because it was time to go home we were blessed with one more person who needs the gospel in their life again. Everything we should do should be centered around Christ in some way! 2 Nephi 25:26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. Enjoy school! Have a good week! Love Elder Stevenson