December- Where has the time gone?

We had a pretty good week this week.  The highlight was our meeting with Elder Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve. I forgot my notes, so I’ll share what I remember.  He talked about how missionaries are to build wards- whether that be through new convert baptisms, re-activating less actives, or even just strengthening the current active members.  That’s what we are here to do.  We are representatives of Christ, as does an apostle have a special witness of Christ and is called to share that with others. We are called to do the same- to bear testimony to them of the power and divinity of the Savior Jesus Christ.  We do not have a special witness as do the Twelve Apostles, but we do have a witness from the Holy Ghost of these things.  And when we are yelled at told to “Sod Off” (English term, you can look up) or told to shut up.  We are being put through the test of “Is this actually true? Is it worth it?” At the beginning of my mission it was really hard having people confront me like this. But the other day I was like “hey, excuse me, why do you celebrate Christmas?”  The answer was  “****” and I was like “yep, have a good day.”  It doesn’t bother me anymore for people to do that to me. I remember one day a few weeks ago, the first 10-15 people that I stopped didn’t respond very pleasantly, or told me to shut up and leave.  And I was like “ya this is going to be a great day…”  But when it does happen we are doing what the apostles of old did- being a hiss and a byword, being abused, told things that people should never ever say. We are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best man that ever lived. Our Brother Jesus Christ.  One day I like why is all of this crap going on.  Why are these people being so rude to me.  Immediately the words of Elder Holland came into my mind. “When you are made a hiss and a byword you are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life that world has ever seen.”  I knew it was the spirit bringing to remembrance those things that I had heard before.  And a similar experience happened this week. I was talking to a guy and he said some mean things. I just looked up and thought- “how can you love someone like that?” Immediately I heard in my head, “Because He is my son.”

Elder Cook served here in this mission, he was serving with Elder Holland together in central London.  And he said that he didn’t always hear the spirit say "tract here or do this or do that." But it was a very few times that this happened.  He talked about how if family is in trouble at home, know that you are not needed there. The best place for you to be is here. If you are here, the family will receive heavenly help through the hard times.   The time will come that you will realize that serving a mission is not only blessing you, but everyone that you love is being blessed because of it as well.  Your mission will bless your life beyond any other spiritual thing in your life.  And lastly- when the day of performance comes, the day for preparation has passed.  It was a really good address and I learned a lot from it.

The London South Mission was here for it as well.  I saw some familiar faces from the MTC.  A couple of them from Idaho!  Then we had a special meeting with our mission about a new initiative.  It is called “He is the gift!”  It ‘s a wonderful video about Jesus Christ and Christmas.  It is a really cool thing that we are able to be using!  There are special edition pass along cards, and we have a limited amount of them.  This new video will be one featured on YouTube next week on the front page. It is awesome- we have seen a lot of success from it already.  Focusing primarily on the Christmas time.  

We had some lessons and did so more finding.  Following a lesson with a recent convert, we had planned to go tracting, but didn’t plan the place. As we were walking from the member’s home I was told “tract right here.”  It was one of the most powerful experiences of my mission. We said a quick prayer, walked across the street and knocked on the door I was directed to knock on.  A man opened the door and we started to talk. After about 5 minutes, he invited us in.  Something that doesn’t normally happen here in England, especially at night time. We went in and shared a message about Christmas.  He said that he had heard of the church and he had a Book of Mormon somewhere.  We are planning to see him again next week.

We also had Stake Conference this weekend.  And more good talks.  Some of my notes from there.

We will not be good church leaders unless we seek heaven’s help.

A parents’ special words of “I am proud of you” will always be remembered. 

What we choose to do comes from desire. Our righteous desires will lead to righteous actions.

And a story about how they were driving through the desert, and next to the river there was life. But when you got further away from the river, there was totally death. Just like in life- If we stay close to God and close to His teaching, then we will always be spiritually alive.

We get go to a special restaurant and enjoy ourselves on Thanksgiving!  A good week in England!

Thanks for all that you do. Love you all- Elder Stevenson