September 9, 2013

Hey everyone!!

I absolutely love missionary work. I feel like I say that too much, but it is just so true! This past week we had another Missionary Leadership council. This one was great! It was the first one for my companion Elder Limocon and he enjoyed it. there were 2 other new zone leaders and both of them are my batch. One of them actually is Elder Ellis, an elder from my district in the MTC! It was awesome seeing them and now they are leaders in the mission helping out all the other missionaries to fulfill their purpose. In the MLC we really focused on how we can balance the work here in the mission. By that I mean teaching investigators as well as less-active members. As a mission we seem to have been focusing a ton on teaching investigators and the lessons with less-active members went down. So all of the leaders really talked about how we can help fix it. We also talked a lot about how we can be more obedient as a misson. As leaders, we first set the example but then we have to help all of the missionaries to be exactly obedient. talking about being exactly obedient made me think of one really important part. The reason we are exactly obedient is so Heavenly Father will bless the lives of those we are teaching. Being obedient isn't all about us, so we ourselves can receive the blessings. We need to show Heavenly Father how much we care about hose we are teaching, and we do that by working hard, relying on the Spirit, and being exactly obedient. Other people will receive blessings if we do our part, and that was what really hit me in MLC. I love missionary work so much and I especially love all the people that we get to teach at this time. elder Limocon and I are just tiny instruments in the Lord's hands so He can lead people to come unto Christ. I know this work is true and I can't thank Heavenly father enough that I get this opportunity to devote 2 years to His work and serve.

Elder Stephens