March 31, 2014

Hey!!
Elder David A. Bednar said, "A Preach My Gospel missionary is a servant of the lord, called by prophecy and authorized by the laying on of hands, who proclaims the Savior's everlasting and restored gospel in His way." This last week was great and it was because we spend a lot of time with missionaries doing the rest of the teaching trainings. We started over on Palawan and then came back to two more zones here in the mainland! It was great. I really learned the importance of finding all the time and teaching by the Spirit in order to invite and help more people to come unto Christ. We really don't expect to be successful in this work unless we find like crazy and teach effectively. on the way to Palawan there was a man in the airport and I just started to talk to him and it turned into a discussion about the gospel. It was great because eventually I was able to give him a Book of Mormon and he started reading it right away. There are just so many opportunities for us to share the gospel with others. Even  in an airport waiting for your flight to Palawan! We had a great experience going to a family in the Makati 4th ward. They are the Lawrie family. The father is actually a non member who has been going to church for the past 20 years but just won't get baptized, but he wasn't there at the lesson when we came over. The rest of the family are all members but the children don't have a really strong testimonies of the gospel so we shared with them about strengthening their faith in order to gain a lasting testimony and be converted to the gospel. I think it went really well. We had an awesome dinner there by the way. Shepherd's pie and salad, then we had dessert, brownies, and ice cream. It was amazing. We taught brother Elias this last week, He as the brother that just came to church last Sunday after we just texted him. We had a great lesson with him and he wants to get baptized in April! He came to church yesterday and he had a great time. Lastly, we had another lesson with Raymond this last week and he is still a little hesitant to get baptized. He is just so worried about what others think. However, he did have a lot of questions for us and we were able to answer all of them! The best part was that he answered every question he had by using the scriptures. He came to church yesterday so that makes me think he is still thinking about being baptized. I am stoked for him. I love this work so much. Being a missionary is just like it says in the scriptures, being an instrument in the hands of the lord. I love it so much!

Elder Stephens