November 28, 2012

Hey everyone!! So let me tell you about the week. It was awesome!! First off, we had two more baptisms this week!! That makes three for the mission so far. It was so great and it was an awesome service. Two sisters were baptized last Friday and then confirmed the following Sunday. We asked one of the priests here to do the baptizing. We really try to get the members involved as much as we can so that is why we asked him. He agreed to do one of them but he didn't think he would be able to do both. So they asked me to do the other! So yes, to answer all of your questions, I had my first actual baptism with me doing the baptizing. It was great. I felt the spirit so strong and I know the sisters did as well. The following Tuesday we taught them again and it was a great lesson. They talked about how great the baptism was and they expressed how they just wanted to read the scriptures more and more. At the end of the lesson they even asked for an assignment to give them! We also had a ton of lessons with less active members so far this week. We had a devotional last week with Elder Brent H. Nielsen, one of the area seventy here. It was mission tour last week which was also another great part of the week. In the devotional he expressed how important it was to establish the church here in the Philippines., He said it wasn't about the number of baptisms, but about how many of those stay active and eventually make it to the temple and endure to the end. It was great advice and Elder Pugmire and I really focused on that. One of the things he said was to reteach the lessons starting from the beginning to less active families. So we did just that and we saw so many blessings from it. We taught one family the restoration and it made them want to go back to church and read the scriptures again. That made me feel great. So we're going to continue to listen to the council of Elder Nielsen and teach the lessons to these families and eventually establish the church. Another sweet part was it was Thanksgiving!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It was awesome. A senior couple here in our area that we get to serve with actually made us Thanksgiving lunch! It was delicious and made it feel like real Thanksgiving. Then at night we came back and had turkey sandwiches! It totally reminded me of awesome Thanksgiving times back home. Elder Pugmire and I read a ton of scriptures on gratitude on that day. It was sweet since it was Thanksgiving. It made me really realize how much we are blessed and giving thanks to our Father in Heaven is very important because of all those blessings. Lastly, today we went to the temple! It was actually a temple trip to the Manila temple and not just a tour. The temple is so great and I love going there. I am so happy and grateful we get to go each transfer. I guess we get to go once a transfer since we're in the Philippines and it is close enough. I learn a lot each time I go and I love the Spirit I fell there. I already can't wait to return! So that's a whole ton of info about me! I hope you're all doing great. I sure am. The weather is hot, the food is tasty, and the people are amazing. I love you all!!!

Elder Stephens

Helllloooooo

Hey everyone!!
Wow this has been a crazy week. In a good way! So we have been teaching a new investigator this week. He had an accident a year ago and has been in a wheelchair ever since. We came over for one of our lessons and he asked if we knew how to use crutches. thankfully, we did. that sounds weird. Well anyway he asked us if we could teach him because we he didn't know how. One of his legs is stronger than the other. It's not completely 100% but he is able to put some balance on it a little. The other leg has no strength at all so I guess that's what he wanted to use the crutches for. So in the morning for out 30 minute exercise, Elder Pugmire and I go to his house and help him use the crutches. The very first day he did awesome. He got tired quick but I could understand. So we continued to do that but we continued to teach him lessons as well! He has really come along well in the gospel. Everything we teach him, he loves. He always says how much it makes sense to him. I really believe he has been prepared to receive the gospel. I have no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father has done all that He has done for him so far to prepare him for us to teach him. so as this continues, I'll keep giving you updates. We also had Temple Tour this week! So for those of you who do not know, Temple Tour is just a chance for missionaries to take their investigators and people they are teaching to the temple to show them around. Luckily we have an awesome temple, the Manila temple, to go to. We took a less active family and another investigator who is preparing for baptism this week. They absolutely loved it! The less active family talked about how it was so beautiful and how they remembered when they use to visit all those years ago. One brother even aid he remembers when he used to run around the temple when he was 7. He's like 30 now. That was so great to hear. Our investigator loved it too! She even bought some things in the distribution center. They all talked about how they wanted to go back to the temple and how they wanted to prepare themselves to go inside someday. I loved Temple Tour.
I love you all. Thanks for all the emails and all the love.

Elder Stephens

Hey Everyone!

Hey everyone!

So I don't know about you all but i feel like this week went by super duper fast. It feels like I was emailing you all just a few days ago. It is insane that I have been here practically 2 weeks already. There are so many cool experiences that I am having out here in the field. I forgot to mention it last week but we actually had a baptism for a little girl on Sunday. For some reason the branch president felt that she should just get baptized after church last week because there was already a child of record being baptized so they just combined them. Anyway, she got confirmed yesterday so that's kind of why I left it out last week and put it in this week. She is so awesome and she is already really strong in her testimony. We also are focusing a ton on less active families here in the Philippines. A lot of families here tend to be baptized but only stay active for a little while. So one of the big focuses we have here is re-activating those families because we want them to come to church! One of the families is actually doing very very well. They have been coming to church for the past few weeks and yesterday, they son came to church for the first time. It was perfect because we had a primary program and he said he enjoyed it a lot. He said he remembered when he was in Primary and when he was in that program and it brought him so much joy. He absolutely loved it so much. We also began teaching a new family here this week and w have been told in Preach my Gospel to extend the baptismal invitation on the very first lesson .We did that with this new family and they said yes! They said that when they know that the church and the things that we teach them are true, that they would definitely be baptized because they want to belong to the true church. I did not realize how much it helps to actually follow the things that are in the Preach My Gospel. I'm kidding, we follow all of it, but really though it helps out a lot and we are commanded to use it and to abide by it's teachings. So we said we are going to do just that. I realized that I have been taking a bunch of pictures of the landscape and stuff here in the Philippines because it is just so beautiful. Well that's about it from me. Keep on keeping on everyone, I know I will be here in the Philippines. I'll  be back in 2 years, don't wait up. I love you all!!

Elder Stephens

HEY EVERYONE!

Wow I cannot believe that I am here in the Philippines! It is so insane that I am here now. Let me tell you, it is hot hot hot here in the Philippines. The humidity gets me more than anything I think. The temperature always says its not too hot but then I realize that it is probably 100000% humidity so that's why it's so hot. It's alright though because there's no other place I would rather be right now. So the flight to the Philippines took forever. The worst part was the 16 hour flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. I slept like 10 hours though so it wasn't tooo bad. Then we got here and right away we were tossed into the work. Seriously at the airport they gave us pamphlets and a few Book of Mormon and we were told to give them out to people there at the airport. It was so weird since we just got there and none of us knew the language that well. But it was okay. Then later on after lunch we had some more missionary work! Yup, this is still the first day. We went to Makati in Manila, just a big city and went around talking to as many people as we could. It was actually really cool and we got a lot out of the experience. We talked to a lot more people than at the airport and I actually felt more like a missionary in that situation. That was sweet! Later on we just crashed at the mission home, I hit the bed and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep in like 5 seconds. The next day was the transfer meeting where we all met our companions and where we were going to serve. I met Elder Pugmire, my new companion! He's from Logan, Utah and he's been out for a while now. He's an awesome missionary and we get along very well. It's sweet since I haven't even been out a week here in the field and I'm already getting along with my companion. He was funny right off the bat and has been ever since. Right when they called his name I looked around and he was hunched over and had his finger over his mouth doing the "shhhh" thing. I don't know if you can picture that but I tried. I also found out where my area is. So now I'm serving in the Naic district of the Philippines. There's a ton of areas in the Manila mission and most of them are stakes but Naic isn't strong enough YET so it's still a district. And I'm in the Carissa part of the Naic district. I'm totally excited to be here in this part and I know it's where  I am supposed to be. Then we went to a memorial cemetery for the soldiers that fought in World War II. It was really cool. I love that kind of stuff and it was sweet going there and taking pictures and stuff. Then we went to our areas and I was dead tired so again I slept on the whole ride home! Sweet right?! Now I'm in my area and actually we get to serve with a senior missionary couple in our area! There's another set of Elders in another area that's really close to ours and the senior missionaries switch off going to lessons with the four of us. It is so cool and it's great because they don't know Tagalog so they just say everything in English. Most Filipinos know English, at least some of the basics, so they understand most of the things that they are saying. All of the people that we teach are so nice. It is so cool to know that their Filipino blood runs in my veins. I know I'm not from here or anything, or that we're actually family, but it's just sweet being here an experiencing the Philippines in this way. There's no way I would have experienced all of this without my mission and without this call. I am so grateful for it. A lot of the people we teach here are inactive families that were baptized but just don't come anymore. That is one of the focuses of the mission here in the Philippines: to bring those families back. We still teach a lot of non members too to help them come closer to Christ. The people here are so nice that they always let us in because they just don't want to be mean and kick us out. I think that is so awesome. On Sunday, I had my first Sunday here in the Philippines. It was fast Sunday which was so tough because it is so hot here. Luckily we are able to drink water when we absolutely need it because otherwise, I think we would die. We had an awesome testimony meeting and the people here really have strong testimonies. They don't get all into story time and they go up for a little and bear a strong testimony. I love it so much. The language is sort of coming along. I don't have a lot of conversational vocab because all the vocab we do in the MTC is for our lessons. So in the lessons I do pretty well for myself teaching but outside of that I am horrible haha. Understanding is tough too, since I don't know the vocab I don't know most of the words that they are saying and not only that, they speak so so fast sometimes. I've only been here for 5 days tough so I'm not too bummed about that. I know the Lord will help me with the language if I truly work at it and work at it hard. He did in the MTC with the gospel stuff and it has carried over to here in the Philippines. Te food is great. The rice here is way better than the rice in America. They make it here a ton, every meal actually, so it's not surprising that they know how to make it well .We have a Filipino elder in the house with us and he cooks a lot for everyone. We actually came up with a plan to all buy groceries together and he will just cook. I love it since I have no idea how to cook. I'll learn sometime hopefully but as for now, I'm okay with not cooking haha. That sounds so bad. But I really love the Philippines and I am so happy to be serving here. I know the Lord has sent me here for a reason and  am so excited to find out what it is. I love this work and I can't wait to serve here for the next 2 years. I'll just end with saying that I know this work is the work of the Lord and that I was called here by Him to help the people in the Philippines come unto Christ. I can't wait to see how much I change fro my mission. I know I already have. I have 22 more months to go and the clock's ticking. I love you all and I really appreciate every one of the emails and letters. See you later!!

Elder Stephens