Called To Serve: The Gospel is So Important!

This week has been pretty great. We have been trying really hard to find people to teach and the Lord is really blessing us. So exciting news first. Shannon is on date for baptism. She has had a lot of challenges but she met with the bishop this week and he feels really good about her getting baptized. So we will be having her baptism on Saturday the 16th, four days before transfer day. We taught her last night about tithing and she was on board with it. It's been great seeing her transformation. Once she started reading from the Book of Mormon she started to change. There is power in that book. And I love it and am thankful to Heavenly Father for allowing us to have it.

We also worked with a lot of less actives this week. We met some people who were definitely not interested in coming back to the church and some who just need some extra support. We have a lady who is a recent convert and is trying to get to the temple but is having problems in keeping the word of wisdom so we are studying the scriptures with her every week to help her. We studied the vision of the tree of life and it was so awesome. It's something we all should study often and see where we are at on the path. We can always come back to the path and grab hold on the rod of iron through the the atonement of Jesus Christ. And I am very grateful for that.

We also taught a family this week and the cousins that are not very active in the church. And we were able to talk to them about the atonement and read with them from Alma about repentance and using the gift of the savior that our father in heaven has given us. One of the boys was definitely touched by the spirit and went from not wanting to be there to having a change in his countenance. Man the atonement, we have to have it. We cannot do anything without it. And I am so thankful for him.

We haven't been able to find a lot of new investigators but we have made contact with some awesome people. Courtney, who we met last month, got in contact with us and she wants to meet with us next week! We are super excited. And we met some people who were playing in the snow and they want us to come back over! So we are really excited for that as well. The area has so much potential and we are working so hard to be exactly obedient and to talk to everyone we see and we know the lord will bless us.

On Sunday we woke up to beautiful snow after having a week of sunshine. And we get to church and have an awesome testimony meeting. Then because of the "snow storm" we canceled the rest of church meetings. So we went and had lunch with the Burgoynes and waited out the storm. We do still have a car but we can't drive in the snow. So today we had to get a ride to the store from a member and now we are hanging out at the Reynolds house for their snow day and our pday.

Guys the gospel is so important. Heavenly Father loves us so much and he pours out blessings upon us everyday. We just have to open our eyes to them and pray to see. Then we are able to withstand the darts of the adversary and be supported in everything. I am thankful to be a missionary and to spread the love of Heavenly Father to everyone who hears. I have a testimony of daily scripture study and spending time in the Book of Mormon. I know it is true. And I know if we all have a resolution to read it this year we will have an increase of the spirit and answers to our prayers. It is powerful.

I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,

Sister Stephens