January 21,2013

Hey there everybody!

Wow, this was definitely a week to remember. So many great things happened this week. So this week we had interviews with President Stucki. It was the first interview I had with him since the day I got here in the Philippines. It seems so far away and so close all at the same time. Weird. Anyways, the interview went great. He wanted us to give him three goals for the upcoming year as well as share our testimony of the Atonement with him. I thought and prayed a lot about my goals and this is what I came up with. 1)I want to be humble and loving in everything that I do. I want to be able to just allow the Spirit to teach and ultimately allow Heavenly Father's will and not mine be done. 2) I want to gain a deeper understanding of the gospel through scripture reading, Preach My Gospel, and any other kind of studying that could help. 3) I want to be fluent in Tagalog. So I know all of these goals are really goals to work on for the rest of my life but for right now in 2013  I really want to focus on them. This past week we were also able to help out a ton more less active members! One of them is Tatay Borja. His family is really active but he just works and works because he wants to provide for his family. He used to be super active and he actually was instrumental in really establishing the church here in Carissa years ago. So we went to them last week and were actually able to have a family home evening! It was awesome because we asked him to conduct but he said no because he was shy. We just kept trying though and he ended up conducting and even giving some great input the whole time. So we're definitely going to keep trying to help them out as much as we can. We also were able to help a return missionary who has been struggling to come to church. He loved his mission but talked about when he came home there was so many problems that he went less active. However e have been helping him a lot and this week he went to the church for the first time in a while. I loved it! So many people came up to him and said hi and stuff and I could tell he liked it and felt good being there again. Oh and one day we were just standing outside a members house seeing if they were home, because here you don't really knock on the doors, you just say "Tao po" which doesn't directly translate but basically means "anyone there." They weren't home though but another less active member walked up to us and started talking. She is the mother of the Badayos family and she actually was talking about how her son was sick. Lots of members here don't really know about the Priesthood too well and about blessings so we let her know about it and she asked if we could give her son a blessing. Well we were happy to do so and after she asked if we could read the Book of Mormon with her! It was so crazy because all we thought was going to happen was the blessing. It was great that she came up with the idea to read though.So we had a great lesson afterwards and it was awesome. I have really come to know that it is so important that we help as many people here as we can to come unto Christ. It really can be a number of ways but we have to just follow the Spirit and recognize what exactly they need at that time for help. I am so grateful for the Spirit and I know He is the true teacher. Without the Spirit, we could not do this work how Heavenly Father wants us to do it. We can't expect to be servants of the Lord without His help. I love his gospel so much and I have learned so much from it. And like my 2013 goal, I want to just keep learning as much as I can. I love you all so much and thank you all for everything!

Elder Stephens

PS. Connor Schroeder to the Manila Philippines? I don't know if you realize but that's the same mission as me! Crazy!

January 14, 2013

Hey all!!

Welllll, I have no idea where to start for this week. It has been really really great. I have learned soo so much this week. So first off we had a bunch of lessons with less active members this week. It's so great to be able to work with less active members and helping them to come back to church and to start reading the scriptures again. Elder Pugmire and I have really focused on helping them to just help them read the Book oh Mormon and gain that testimony that they once had back. It's hard to see so many less active members here in the Philippines but it is such a blessing to be able to be one of the missionaries that is helping them to come back. So Elder Pugmire and I are going to continue to help them read the Book of Mormon and hopefully they will begin to start reading it each and every day. I know that once they do that, they will come back . The Book of Mormon is true, and I know it can help every single person to come unto Christ and come to know that He is our Savior and Redeemer. This past week we also had our Area Broadcast where the area presidency talked and told us the new goals for 2013. The goals for 2013 are amazing and I know they can really help the Philippines to grow so much. One of the main goals is to help all members, active and less active, to "feast upon the words of Christ." That is having their own set of scriptures as well as reading them every day. Another big goal is to get more people going to the Temple and more people going to the Temple and more young single adults sealed in the Temple. the Temple is so amazing and I know if more people are able to go and get sealed in the Temple, they will be so much happier and the Lord will really bless them for it. Last year a lot of the goals were achieved but the area presidency has decided to keep the same goals with just a few additions to really help people come unto Christ. I'm so grateful that I'm going to be here all of 2013 to see just how that goes. This week I have also learned a ton about just trying to be better. A few things I have really tried to work on this week is being humble and loving, two attributes of Christ. I know that if I can humble myself and allow the Spirit to be the ultimate teacher, it will be so much better for the people w teach. Also, if I show y love to all those I teach, then they can fell the sincerity of the message that we share. I'm so grateful for this opportunity, I just can't thank my Father in Heaven enough! I love you all and am so grateful for all of your prayers and love. Write ya next week!

Elder Stephens

January 7, 2012

Hey there everybody!
Wow this week was such a great week! First off we had New Year's Eve! It was so much fun. Here we have a curfew on New Year's Eve at 6 because it's dangerous with all the fireworks outside that people use. They're everywhere and homemade a lot of the times. yea... So we spent New Year's Eve at the Gwilliams place! It was so much fun. We ate dinner and played a fun little game called Canadian Salad. It was a successful New Year's Eve. We didn't stay up til 12 though, it's just not worth it haha. I'm tired enough as it is. We were also able to go to the Temple again this week. I don't know if I have ever said this, but the Temple is just so amazing! I love going there, and it is so awesome that we are able to go to the Temple as much as we do. It's great! We had exchanges this week as well for one of the days. I got to work with Elder Velasco. He is actually in the same batch as me. So it was two young missionaries working together in Carissa. He is Filipino though so his Tagalog is pretty good. We actually were able to go to a lot of people and we taught some great lessons. Elder Velasco is great. It's cool to know that we are going to be here for just about the same amount of time. He only spent 3 weeks in the MTC so I'll be leaving earlier than him. But it's still great! One of our main focuses as a companionship this week is getting to work with members a lot more and getting more referrals. So this week we really tried to focus on the members. They are the key to really help the Philippines grow. The companionships in our home were actually watching a video and in it President Monson talks about asking for referrals and some things you can ask to help people know who can really benefit form the message that we want to share. So we visited some members and shared with them and followed the council from President Monson. It went so great and we got a ton of referrals! It was so exciting! I can't wait to see the work grow from the help of the members! This work really is going forth and so many exciting things are still to come. Miracles happen each and every day all over of the world. I know this work and this gospel can help anyone and everyone. I love this gospel so much and I love the Book of Mormon so much. I have really been able to study it. Not just read, but study. I love missionary work! Well that's about it! I love you all!

Elder Stephens