June 2, 2014

Hey errbody!

I have been fed so much spiritually because of this last week. I feel like we were in meetings or conferences all week long! It was great though and I absolutely loved it. On Friday we had our missionary conference with Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy. We were so blessed to have him come and teach us. He is a big guy that played line on the BYU football team years and years ago, but with that big body he brings a very strong spirit. They talked a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I noticed he just kept testifying of Jesus Christ. It was great to see a Seventy continue to testify of the Savior and he did it with power each time. I noticed that we as missionaries don't testify of the Savior enough. We should be testifying of the Atonement and of Jesus Christ all the time! So  I have made it a goal to always talk about the Savior. He said at one point in the conference that we could relate any concern or problem back to the Atonement, and how the Atonement can help us solve those concerns. It was amazing. I am so grateful Elder Christensen came to our mission and taught us. It was a wonderful experience. We also had a missionary leadership council. I think that makes 12 for me now Anyway, the theme of the council was Matthew 5:14-16 and being a light to the world. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and as representatives of Him, we can bring that light into the lives of others. We watched those three Mormon messages where Elder Bednar talks about the light of Christ. It was sweet and we had a lot of discussion on how we can bring the light of Christ into the lives of these wonderful Filipino people. We have to be obedient and worth of the Spirit and the light of Christ can touch those people's hearts. We also had a real big discussion on how we can help the missionaries in our mission to become more exactly obedient. There were a ton of awesome answers but there were a few that really stood out to me. One was how we have to start with ourselves. We can't expect to teach with moral authority about obedience, if we ourselves are disobedient. So we have to be exactly obedient. Second was to teach about obedience and the blessings. We also need to teach about the consequences of disobedience. One of our sister training leaders said that they are missing out on miracles if they are disobedient. I never though about that before. As we are exactly obedient, we can see miracles happen before us. Last was to help district leaders. They are the most disobedient in our leadership at this point. So as we help our district leaders to become more exactly obedient, they can help those other missionaries do the same. It was an awesome meeting about obedience and being the light for others. There were other meetings and stuff butt hose two were the best ones. We found out this week that Elder Belnap is getting transferred. I have loved the time we had together. He is an awesome companion and example. I am so grateful I got to serve with him. I will never forget the times we had, it was fun and we saw a ton of success. So this week I will be getting another companion, i will let you know who it is next week!

Elder Stephens