January 14, 2014

Hello everyone!
Last week was wonderful!! We had our missionary leadership council again to talk about the work and I just learned so many things. Some of the things we really focused on were about increasing the number of people progressing toward receiving the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Something that stood out to me was how we focused a lot on just loving the people as well as teaching by the Spirit in order to help them fell that the gospel is true. It takes a lot more than just our words to help people to be converted to the gospel, it takes the Spirit testifying to them that these things are true and they should follow it. We also found that the mission has been in this stage where we have success and then don't have success and it always cycles that way. We found that we just aren't really being consistent in the work and continually trying to get better each and every day. I committed myself in front of everyone in that council that I would get better each day and consistently work on it. I learned so much from that council that I would get better each day and consistently work on it. I learned so much from our missionary leadership councils and I am just grateful each time that I get to go. We saw so many miracles this past week here in the work. One was that our less-active member we have been working with, Brother Avila, returned this last Sunday! He was stoked and we could see that the gospel is really starting to get rooted in him again. We have been working with him for the past month and he just progressed so quick. We really saw the Lord help him in miraculous ways. we also found some new people to teach this past week that are already really progressing. They are loving the Book of Mormon and want to continue to search for the truth. The Enciso family are doing great. We asked them about the Book of Mormon and they love it so much. They shared that Heavenly Father has answered their prayers and they know without a doubt that it is the word of God. I felt the Spirit so strong as they shared that with us. I love this gospel so much. I especially love the people here. I can't count how many times the Lord has showed His hand in the work to help Heavenly Father's children receive this gospel. I know it is true with all my heart!

Elder Stephens