This week went quick.
We had Zone Meeting in a neighboring area and so had an hour and a half
bus ride. Also a District Leader Meeting. It was a really good meeting,
the spirit was strong and really helped to unite the zone together. Went on exchanges a couple of times this week
as well, in doing so found an awesome family to teach!
One of our investigators finished with all of the lessons
and was baptized this week. It was really good.
I have a new favorite quote that was shared at the baptism. “Salvation cannot come without revelation.” The investigator really felt the spirit and
was so happy about it! Also had a
birthday dinner with one of those we are teaching- always nice to get more on a
personal level with investigators. He is
awesome! We were able to teach in the
members’ home this week, which is also great!
One lesson was a little short, as they were expecting a plumber at any
time to help with a leak.
Sunday was a really good day. Church was awesome. So first off church
itself was good, and it being Fast Sunday made it a great day! They showed the “He is the Gift” video and
had a lesson about sharing it for missionary work. We had a record high of investigators at
church –Seven! Three of whom we just
recently found. Following church was the
baptism. A really good day. This ward is the best!
The mission will be having like a Zone Conference type thing
for a Christmas Party this year.
This week I heard of a great parable that I want to share
with you.
The
Parable of the Unwise Bee
Sometimes I find myself under obligations of work requiring quiet and
seclusion such as neither my comfortable office nor the cozy study at home
insures. My favorite retreat is an upper room in the tower of a large building,
well removed from the noise and confusion of the city streets. The room is
somewhat difficult of access and relatively secure against human intrusion.
Therein I have spent many peaceful and busy hours with books and pen.
I am not always without visitors, however, especially in summertime; for
when I sit with windows open, flying insects occasionally find entrance and
share the place with me. These self-invited guests are not unwelcome. Many a
time I have laid down the pen and, forgetful of my theme, have watched with
interest the activities of these winged visitants, with an afterthought that
the time so spent had not been wasted, for is it not true that even a
butterfly, a beetle, or a bee may be a bearer of lessons to the receptive student?
A wild bee from the neighboring hills once flew into the room, and at
intervals during an hour or more I caught the pleasing hum of its flight. The
little creature realized that it was a prisoner, yet all its efforts to find
the exit through the partly opened casement failed. When ready to close up the
room and leave, I threw the window wide and tried at first to guide and then to
drive the bee to liberty and safety, knowing well that if left in the room it
would die as other insects there entrapped had perished in the dry atmosphere
of the enclosure. The more I tried to drive it out, the more determinedly did
it oppose and resist my efforts. Its erst while peaceful hum developed into an
angry roar; its darting flight became hostile and threatening.
Then it caught me off my guard and stung my hand—the hand that would
have guided it to freedom. At last it alighted on a pendant attached to the
ceiling, beyond my reach of help or injury. The sharp pain of its unkind sting
aroused in me rather pity than anger. I knew the inevitable penalty of its
mistaken opposition and defiance, and I had to leave the creature to its fate.
Three days later I returned to the room and found the dried, lifeless body of
the bee on the writing table. It had paid for its stubbornness with its life.
To the bee’s shortsightedness and selfish misunderstanding I was a foe,
a persistent persecutor, a mortal enemy bent on its destruction; while in truth
I was its friend, offering it ransom of the life it had put in forfeit through
its own error, striving to redeem it, in spite of itself, from the prison house
of death and restore it to the outer air of liberty.
Are we so much wiser than the bee that no analogy lies between its
unwise course and our lives? We are prone to contend, sometimes with vehemence
and anger, against the adversity which after all may be the manifestation of
superior wisdom and loving care, directed against our temporary comfort for our
permanent blessing. In the tribulations and sufferings of mortality there is a
divine ministry which only the godless soul can wholly fail to discern. To many
the loss of wealth has been a boon, a providential means of leading or driving
them from the confines of selfish indulgence to the sunshine and the open,
where boundless opportunity waits on effort. Disappointment, sorrow, and
affliction may be the expression of an all-wise Father’s kindness.
Consider the lesson of the unwise bee!
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”
(Prov. 3:5–6).
Everyone
go and see this video if you haven’t already.
http://www.mormon.org/christmas
Thanks
for everything everyone, and for all the emails I have gotten. Love you all, Elder Stevenson
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