June 24, 2013

Hey there everybody!

This week was absolutely amazing! We had a baptism this past Saturday for Brother Ernesto Ayade! It was a great baptismal service and he had a ton of support fro the baptism. he asked me to be the one to baptize him and I was so blessed. I could feel the Spirit so strong as we were in the baptismal service and especially as we stood in the baptismal font. I love "Tatay Ernesto" so much and I really can't wait for him and his whole family to be such a strong family in the gospel and in the church. They are all so great and I love them all so much. We were also able to have two more baptisms in the district this past Saturday! All the companionship's in the district had 1 baptism and confirmation each. It was a great week! We had a specialized training last week for the leaders in the mission and I was able to learn so much from it. We focused our specialized training on how the Lord is hastening His work and how we are a part of the hastening! I learned a ton about planning and how planning is such a big part of hastening the work because we have to use the Lord's time wisely while we are out here. We can apply it to real life as well. We all make goals, for example, New Year's "Resolutions" but usually we don't have a plan to carry out those "resolutions", we do it for about a month or so then we are don. That is what I really took away from the meeting. We have goals but we have to really be able to make plans so we can reach those goals that we have set for ourselves. I also learned a whole lot about obedience this past week. Our mission has a ton of new rules that have been given to all of the missionaries and some of them are really hard to follow and we don't completely understand why we even have to do them. I then looked to Adam's example when he was commanded to give sacrifices to the Lord. He was asked why he was doing the sacrifices, and he responded saying, "I know not, save the Lord commanded me." I know that the commandments and also the mission rules while here on the mission are important. I know that they are given from God which means we must follow them. Obedience brings blessings, just as President Monson talked about in the last General Conference. It is up to us to want those blessings and to be obedient. Well I think that's it. I will let you know about me week, next week. I love you all!

Elder Stephens