March 11, 2013

Hey there everybody!
Can I just start off by saying how great missionary work is? Thanks. Missionary work is great! This past week has been an awesome week, one for the record books. We were really blessed with a ton of lessons and even lessons with new people to teach! That is something that I have struggled with so far here on the mission, getting new investigators. However this week we got a few new ones which is very exciting to really help the work here in Carissa move forward. One family that we have been teaching, Eric and Barbie, have a daughter who lived in Quezon City for school, and they had her come back to Carissa to live with them and study there so we have started teaching her as well. It is great because the family is just so awesome. It is a great blessing to be able to teach this family and it is even better that they are so wiling to come unto Christ. Every single lesson with them just goes so well and they really have a special family and I always feel the Spirit so strong when we teach them. We have also been teaching an older lady named Meraluna! We've been teaching her for a  while now and she is really coming along! Every time we ask about baptism she always gets so excited and she always says she really needs to prepare herself first and she is very willing to do so. That just makes me really happy because she really gets the importance of faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Hold Ghost, and enduring to the end. 4 plus 1, if you know what I mean. The gospel is just such a wonderful thing and I have seen so many blessings in my life because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.The best part of it is that all of them are reading the Book of Mormon which is why I think they are progressing so well. The Book of Mormon is just so true and when we read it, we can come to know about Christ and His love for us and especially our purpose here in this life. I love the Book of Mormon so much and it has been such a great blessing to be able to read it, especially here on the mission where I really get to study and even help others to read it as well. I love this work so much. Like I said in the beginning of the email, "Missionary work is great!" I hope you all have an amazing week and I love you all!

Elder Stephens