Snow!

It’s been a pretty good week. I was feeling better by Monday last week, so we went for p-day and did some work.  Unfortunately my companion got sick later in the week.  So I spend the day in the flat while he slept it off.  He was down for most of one day and part of the next day.  It wasn’t too bad. I took advantage of the time and listened to some good talks. And took all of the cups in the flat and built a tower!

We had some lessons with some less actives this week.  We are working hard to build relationships with them and help answer what questions they might have.   We try not to just resolve their concerns, our main objective is not to answer all of their questions, but to help them build a relationship with God and Jesus Christ.  As their faith grows, a lot of their questions and concerns are no longer relevant.  One even had an meeting with the Bishop and had a good chat with him.  We talked about how baptism is important, it’s the ordinance and needs to be done by proper authority.  Then it’s up to us to keep our covenants and receive blessings associated with that covenant. 

We were able to have some follow up lessons with some people we have been teaching.  One of them went really well.  Her mother had investigated the church years ago, but never joined.  A sister ended up joining later in life.  One of her children has been reading the Book of Mormon for a couple of years. 

This area does have a lot of rain and is cloudy most all days. But one day it snowed here!

I was on exchanges one day and the other Elder said let’s catch up and talk to that family.  So we headed out at a very brisk walk to catch up with them.  I was like this is nuts, they are going to think we are crazy, basically running up to them and talking to them.  But we stopped them and visited.  Ended up we had a message that was very helpful to the family.  We talked about how when we put on the Armor of God. It’s like we are protected both spiritually and physically from things.  We shared how the gospel could strengthen their family.

Coincidence? The Lord works in mysterious ways.  We were walking down the street one day and stopped a man. He said that he didn’t speak English.  We asked what he spoke and he said Portuguese. Well my companion happens to be fluent in Portuguese, so they talked away.  They really hit it off and talked for quite some time.  We had another lesson with him later in the week.  The whole thing was taught in Portuguese, so I was pretty lost you could say. Now I know what it feels like after the fall of the Tower of Babel.

The area is doing great a lot of people on date for baptisms in the District. We are seeing a lot of less actives and quite a few of them are doing really good. We have been doing a lot of finding and have a lot of success with that as well.  So it’s been a pretty good week.

Throughout reading the Book of Mormon again this time, it’s crazy to see how the Church of God went through so much hardship and trials, but that they were persecuted for the truth.  Such as Alma kept contending with anyone and everyone that would come to him because they had already apostatized and began to change the doctrine or to just have it be lost. Which has just been so real for me to read about this time.

Thoughts for the week

Spencer W Kimball-  “How little we realize the doors of opportunity that we oft close with one wrong decision.”

Ezra Taft Benson- “When obedience ceases to be our irritant and becomes our quest in that moment God will endow us with power.”

There are from a quote book I found in the flat!  I am loving it!

Thanks for everything that you do.  Love, Elder Stevenson