Hello All!

This week we didn’t have too bad of a week.  We have had several lessons with some investigators this week.  Working closely with one who really needs some extra help at this time.   We were also able to do some service for families in the ward.  We have been helping one with some re-decorating jobs. I have really been enjoying that and learning a lot.   Also able to help some members clean out their gardens.  And had some fresh raspberries, the first in over a year.  I really missed them- they were really good.

We have been OMYing in town centre also.  One the members here has an amazing story of how they found the church.  They had been looking for something in life and were going to a specific church every day to pray.  One day they took a different route to get to the church and they ran into 2 LDS missionaries.  Three weeks later one of them was baptized, and we are working with the other one at the current time. Hoping to set up a baptism in the near future.

District Meetings this week were really good.  It was about talking with everyone and accountability. Both things I felt I needed to improve on.   Because me having a one track mind, when the plan says town centre OYMing,  (open your mouth) I go to town center and OYM there-  but I pass so many people on the way that it’s not effective.  This last transfer I have been working on that and it’s been really good.  We have had a lot of success in it.  Because the Lord will put those people in your path, if they are in town centre than it’s harder to spot them out of the 100+ people that you see every 10 minutes. But if you are on the same sidewalk it’s easier to talk with them all and see the ones that the Lord has prepared for us. 

One of your investigators asked for a blessing this week. It was an amazing experience.  At the end she said she really knew that Heavenly Father loved her. But she hadn’t realized he loved her specifically and individually as she had felt with the blessing.   It was a powerful experience.

Today at football we had two investigators come and play with us.  Something that hasn’t happen before.  So it was good to build that friendship with them. 

One of the people I taught in a previous area has now been baptized and doing great in the church.  I haven’t attended a baptism of one of my own investigators yet. They always get baptized when I leave.  Others I have taught previously are also progressing in other areas.

This week I studied a talk about testifying and challenging in missionary work from like 1961.  It was really good.  About how we are to testify and then challenge everyone to be baptized.  If we wait for us to feel comfortable with it, then there is not faith.  But if we challenge early and often then we rely on the Lord to have them prepared.  It talked a lot about how missionaries want the converts to have a knowledge of all things before they feel they are ready.  But really the missionaries themselves didn’t know most of the things until they came on a mission and started to study them.   And sometimes I myself even do this.  Want to make sure it’s all perfect before we baptize them, when really they don’t need to be perfect. They need the desire to be baptized and to know that they are following God and Jesus Christ and that’s all they need.

Thanks for all of the letters and emails, I love them.   Love, Elder Stevenson