January 28, 2013

To whom this may concern,
That being anyone who wants to read this email. This week was absolutely amazing! For some reason Heavenly Father has blessed me with the best area in all of the world. Transfers were this passed week and so I'm....still in Carissa and my companion is...still Elder Pugmire! Pretty coo,, right? I guess it doesn't happen a lot that the trainer is with the trainee after the 12 weeks but we get to stay together and continue to help Carissa out! So we are very excited. This last week we were really blessed to be able to work with a lot of members . Usually we work with the young single adults because one of the area goals here in the Philippines is to save the rising generation. So we were able to work with them, but we were also able to work with some of the leaders in the branch as well! We worked with Brother Geraga, our young men's president as well as the Elder's quorum president, Brother Contado. It was awesome. One of our big goals for this week was to get more people to sacrament meeting as well. So we involved some of the members to help out and it worked out! Brother Geraga was able to go to a member who hasn't been to church in years and help him to come to church. We have been teaching him for a while but he hasn't come, however when Brother Geraga stopped by in the morning to take him, he was very willing to go. So that was awesome. The returned missionary that we have been working with, Tommy, was also able to come to church for the second week in a row! That was very sweet because he really is trying hard to come back now, I can definitely see it in him. Another investigator we have been teaching for a long time now was able to come to church as well! He and his mom came to church yesterday. He came one week a long time ago and his mom came for the first time. They enjoyed church a lot and I know they really felt the Spirit  while they were there. Last night we taught another investigator named  Jovi. His wife Cherry is less active but she wants to come back and he wants to learn more. Last night when we taught, he explained to us how he knows that this is the true church. Also, how he is going to do everything he can to prepare himself for baptism! That was so wonderful to hear, especially because it will definitely help out Cherry as well. So we are going to help him out to really get him ready for baptism and he said once he changes his ways, he is never going back and he is going to stay strong in the church forever. I love him and his wife so much and I can't wait to teach them again this week. It sounds like this week was great for all of you! I know this gospel is true, I know it can change lives, and I know that Christ lives. I love you all!

Elder Stephens