February 25, 2013

Hey there everyone! Another pretty great week here in the Philippines! This past week Elder Pugmire didn't feel too good, I guess there's a bug going around the mission and if one missionary gets something it just spreads like wildfire during the wildfire season. That's really fast by the way. So a few days we weren't able to work a whole ton because he would just get real exhausted real quick. But I was able to sort of take care of him and that was a sweet little experience. i was also able to do a lot around the house and sort of help out the other elders as well. It was sweet because I just sort of related it to missionary work! I thought that being around the house is kind of like appointments that fall through. Either you can just keep waiting around or you can do something productive. And when we do those productive things, it not only helps us but it also blesses the lives of others. So that really helped me out learning that. We were also able to go to the Temple this past week. Every time I go to the Temple it is just so grand. I write this just about every time but I love the Temple so much! I especially love the Spirit felt there and the blessing we have to able to go to the Temple in this mission. Oh and with the time we did get to work, we actually had some pretty awesome experiences. One of them was an awesome lesson with Mark, the new investigator that is part of the less active family. It was a really good lesson about the Plan of Salvation and really focusing on agency. Then when we got home we got a text from Mark and he told us to add him on Facebook! I guess he really likes the lessons! He will just have to wait a while for that friend request, but it's alright. We also were able to teach a less active member about faith, and how we can strengthen our faith. It was a sweet lesson. The best part was when was giving a lot of his own additions to the lessons which really doesn't happen a whole lot with him. It was awesome and we were really able to teach how important faith in Jesus Christ is. I know that if we strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, we can do anything. We can do miracles when we have faith in Christ. Well that's about it from this missionary. Till next week!

Elder Stephens