December 17, 2012

Dear everyone,
That sounds weird. First off, I am officially in ,my second transfer here in the PI. I cannot believe that it has already been 6 weeks! I did not get transferred anywhere for all those who were wondering. I'm still in Carissa! I feel like just yesterday I got here and had no idea what was going on! We actually got another new missionary in our house, Elder Burgos is training him straight from the MTC. It's funny because he says a bunch of the same stuff I said 6 weeks ago about just being new and stuff. He's already doing great though so it's all good. SO this week was pretty great! We found a new family this week that we want to start teaching. The father of the family apparently has investigated the church before but never was baptized. Now the whole family is investigating and they are all really interested. The first lesson with them went really well. We did a lot of just getting to know who they were and we found out they are already really religious. They are interested in learning more about the church and the gospel and I am so happy because I know it can help the out so much! We were also able to do a service project on Saturday. The Sisters In Trece needed some help with a service project because it had a lot landscaping so they wanted Elders to do it. So we went and it was for a member who needed some landscaping done for his house because water was just gathering like crazy. So we built a little river like thing to let the water go in the drain and we did a great job. It was wonderful. I love serving. So the Christmas season is here and it is so sweet here in the Philippines. Christmas is great pretty much everywhere but for some reason I just love it here a lot. It may have to do with the fact that I'm a missionary and doing the Lord's work. I don't know. But because of Christmas and it being the season of giving, I am really grateful that the gift we get to give, as missionaries, is the gospel. The one thing that can help every single person in the entire world. It is so rewarding helping people come unto Christ and we know this can help them out so much. I love this work and I love being a missionary!! I love you all!!

Elder Stephens