January 20, 2014

Hello there everyone!
This last week went great! We witnessed many miracles and blessings throughout the entire week. One, the Enciso family is all set for being baptized on January 25! They are so excited and it is such a blessing to be able to help them come unto Christ. Last week they had a ton of trials, but through their faith, they pushed through all of them and are now ready and worthy to enter the waters of baptism. I will let you know how all that goes next week!! We found some awesome new investigators that are already really interested in finding the truth. They have a lot of knowledge about the Bible, but it's good because they understand the scriptures and we are praying they will know the importance of the Book of Mormon as well. last Saturday was the area broadcast for the Philippines for 2014. It was great! They went over the goals for this year and those things we all need to focus on to hasten the work of salvation. They talked about how we need to focus on active, full-tithe paying, melchizedek priesthood holders in order to strengthen the families. I was really happy when they said that and it made me realize just how important it is to focus on finding families, with a father who could one day be a worthy priesthood holder to guide and support the family. They also made a change from last years goals. Last year one of the goals was "Rescue the One" which had to do with helping the less-active members. This year they changed it to, "Share the Gospel and rescue the One", which put more of a focus on balancing the work. It was great and it really helped the members to see the importance of not only helping less-active members, but investigators as well. The work is hastening here in the Philippines. Our ward is already seeing it. We have had 3 weeks of baptisms in a row already for the month of January as a ward, and more to coming in the coming months. I know this work is the work of the Lord. he is hastening it, right now in our time. I am so grateful I have the blessing to be a part of this hastening. I know the gospel is true and can bless the live of everyone who accepts it. I am so excited for the Enciso family to receive this gospel and continue to receive the blessings from it!

Elder Stephens