I just want to start off by telling eveyone that the Church is TRUE!!! :) Man this week i have had all sorts of confermations that this is the Lords church back on the earth today and we are so lucky to have the knowledge of the Truth! :) I had the coolest experience this weekend and it has strengthened my testimony so much! :)
In order to get it all out clearly i thought i'd just quote my Journal entry from Satruday July 30 :)
"WHAT a day! I"m spiritually and physically exhausted! But today was SO excellent! :D First of all, this morning i got the pirvilage to hear Elder Ballard speak to our Mission! :) it was soooo GOOD!! Talk about a spiritual BOOST! :D I learned SO MUCH and went crazy on the note taking! :) He started off by explaining that we first need to OBTAIN the word of the Lord before we can try and proclaim the word. He encouraged us to use the resorses we have. Like the Book of Mormon, The bible and preach my Gospel. STUDY THEM! KNOW the lessons you will be teaching because once you know the Doctrine, the Spirit can testify of the truth. If you treasure up what you have, you wont be afraid to share the things you know.
Elder Ballard encouraged us to have the confidence to realize WHAT we have and share that happy message! :) Money cannot buy the power that we have in the Gospel. He emphasized on ward council HARD CORE. The ward and the members are SO CRUCIAL to missionary work!! Holy COW!! I learned that there should never be a transition between members of the church and Missionaries... wait i worded that weird... The transition of an investigator, from the missionary to the ward members. The members of the Church should always be involved in the process of the conversion. That way they have friends in the ward even before baptism. :) haha DUH!! How have i never seen this before!?
Ah, the whole conference was EXCELLENT! It made me so pumped to do missionary work! At the end of the conference he opened it up for questions and that was awesome to get some advice on how to be better and how to help our investigators. 8 pgs of notes total :) Not too bad if i say so myself! Lots to learn and lots to remember!
THEN it gets even better! :) I had the coolest experience tonight at the Battalion! Sis. Smith and i took a tour together and at the end of it there were six people who were asking sis. smith questions about our religion. Well she talks to them for a while and just rocks it at telling them the restoration :)I didnt hear all the questions they were asking cause i was helping the rest of our group take picts.
But then at the end I got to be apart of the convo. Sis. Smith takes them into the Theater to watch a movie and then they start to ask more question. So its these 6 people, 3 guys and 3 girls that are studying out religion and are looking into "mormonism" right now. They all had some really good questions too, some are skeptical but still good, and they know the Bible well so they tried to prove some points at times. So to kind of sum up a LONG THREE HOUR TALK, haha we answered questions about what we believe and how they can know the truth of the Church and what we know Through the Book of Mormon. Telling them if they read it all through and then pray about it, they will know it is of God and all the other promises that come with reading and praying about it. :)
My favorite part in this long talk was when i got to share Alma ch. 32 with them! :) BAH SOOOO COOL!! :) I was so stoked cause i had just finished Alma like last week and now i was sharing what i learned! :) The spirit was soooo strong when i read it with them! I read the last 1/2 of the Ch. and would stop to explain how that would apply to them in their search for the truth. :) My heart was just a POUNDIN!! But i kept going cause the Spirit was there helping me know what to say, and they were listening intently. :) After the chapter, i got to bear my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. That i read it and prayed about it to find out for myself to know that it was true <3 And that the invitiation was open to all, but they have to do what it says in the introduction. Read it and pray with real intent to know that it is true.
Ahhhh it was SUCH a cool experience! So intense!! They even know how excited I was to share that scripture. haha cause i may or may not have jumped out of my chair to tell them i had something to share :P I'm sure my face was just beaming cause I finally got to share what i had be learning in all my reading to people who didnt know about the great things of the Book of Mormon. It was just so exciting! After i shared the ch. and my testimony, they thanked me for that and we were able to continue the conversation and the questions they had. There came a point that the topic of discussion was a little deep for them and they started to get skeptical again. Sis. Smith got a little frustrated at the questions they were asking, and them not really understanding the answers she had. She kept feeling the spirit of contention and getting uncomfortable. True the spirit was gone when the conversation went that way, BUT when we took the time to just listen to them and answer questions in a calm understanding way, the spirit was able to come back. All that needed to happen was for us to take control of the situation and keep the mood light so we could have the spirit there. So that was my goal, even when they asked skeptial questions i would be kind and do my best to explain and testify of what i knew. There were def. questions i couldnt answer, mainly cause i didnt know the answer :P But by at least listening to them, they knew i was open and wanted to hear what they had to say. Being respectful is a great way to keep people happy :)
So then we got on the topic of if i had read the Bible all the way through... and sadly i said no... not all the way through at least :-/ But it was definitely a goal of mine to do. So we all made a deal together :) I was going to start the New Testament and read it all the way through, and they would start the Book of Mormon and read it all the way through. And actually give it a chance and not try and pick it apart before it was all the way read :) So i just committed SIX people to read the Book of Mormon! :D happy!! Then get this! To keep tabs on each other, I got their phone numbers and email addresses so we can keep in touch while we are all reading our books :) is that SO COOL?! :) They were really open to doing it too and i'm SO open to reading the New Testament! Looks like i'm starting that in my personal study tomorrow!! :D What a neat experience to have with them. :) These people really are SO GREAT! They are just searching for the complete truth and havent realized that it's in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints :):) So hopefully through our keeping in touch I'll be able to see them find that light and knowledge and help them along the way too :):) Excellent missionary opportunity <3
I really see good things coming out of this :) At the end of our convo, Sis. Smith was a little distraught and frustrated cause she couldnt get through to them so she had to leave the room. But I was havin a ball! We were definitely on different pages with them. :P They asked more about the BOM and what my favorite book was :) ALMA of course :P just cause i'm a missionary right now and just love the couage, strength and power of these men. :) But they were all intreaged and thats why i have such high hopes for them! If they just let there heads be a little softer than their hearts or however that quote goes, i KNOW they can find the knowledge they are looking for. :) They can have that firm confermation of the Book of Mormon, of Joseph Smith, and the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! BUT they have do what is required of them. READ and PRAY! :)
After we wrapped up our talking, and exchanged our information, they thanked us for listening to their questions and taking the time to answer what we could :) All the girls gave me Hugs and the guys shook my hand :):) They were SO NICE <3 It was and experience i'll NEVER forget. I'll be prayin for them every night now!! :) I KNOW that there are good things to come from this. <3 It may be in the Lords timing, but if i can at least continue to be an instruments in his hands i want to help in every way i can :) Let the Heavens be open for them!! :) "
WHEW!!! WHAT and entry right?!?! :) SOOO INTENSE!! but sooo cool too!! :) it was so excellent especially after having such a sweet mission conference :) Going to bed that night felt so good, I could hardly fall asleep cause i felt like my spirit was going to burst out of my body! :) Thats something that can never get old :) I love the feeling of so much joy i just have to cry cause i feel so great :D haha sometimes i even feel like those in the scriptures that pass out cause they are over come with the spirit :P haha no passing out for me yet. I'll save that for when i come off the plane home :)
But the Lord has been so merciful to me and Sister Livingston this week :) Barrio 20 is on the uprise and we are teaching some SUPER prepared people!! :D I'm sooooo excited for all the good things to come! we are just on a roll and the Lord is guiding us all along the way <3 Miracle after miracle :) Oh and just to update on the Bible reading. I'm on Ch. 10 of Matt. and just LOVING IT!!! :) haha even if nothing comes from those six reading the BOM, they at least strengthened MY testimony in many ways :) and i'm just in ch 10 <3 The scriptures are so excellent and i'm so grateful for this time in my life to realize how important they are. I always want to keep good study habits and continue to find treasures in reading. :)
Haha this email is garganchuin!! hope none of you have fallin asleep by reading so much! ;) But i just couldnt wait to share all of this with you!! :D I want you all to know that I dont have a SINGLE DOUBT in my mind that this is The Church of Jesus Christ. This IS his restored Gospel, and i KNOW that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore it back to the earth. I know the Book of Mormon is PROOF of Joseph Smith being a prophet. I love the testimony of Elder Holland when he says " No good man could write such a book, and no Good man Would... Unless he was a prophet and Called of God" That is the truth and Im so blessed to share that <3 I hope you all look for ways this week to share this happy message with those around us. Let us all be missionaries and help bring Christ's children back to him! There is never any harm from serving those around you, and no one has ever died from doing too much missionary work ;) I love you all SO MUCH!!! :D Have an excellent week!! Hugs and love comin your way!!!!
(: xoxoxo Hma Stevens <3
