Él Prueba Su Paciencia y Su Fe

Mi Familia,

Thanks for all of your emails! I feel so loved. I miss you guys a lot.

This week was a great one. Sunday was the best Sunday of my mission. We had 23 nonmembers there (between us and the sisters) and 15 of my converts/less actives that I have reactivated in my time here. It was such a blessing - 83 people were there in total. The members realized how much we are working and virtually every testimony had to do with missionary work. It made me so happy to see that I have helped build the Lord's Kingdom here on the earth.

This week we had some great experiences. We are finding a lot of people that are interested and the area is moving along. I have been trying so hard to have more faith. I read a letter/talk that Elder Haynie gave me before the mission and it talked a lot about faith (written by a mission president.) I know that faith is so important. I know that if we believe that we are going to be able to do something, and it is the Lord's will, it will happen. Elder Nay got sick and we didn’t work on Monday night, and Wednesday every single plan fell through haha. We contacted from 3-9 pm, didn't have one lesson, and didn't sit down once. I was so tired but tried not to let it affect my faith. The rest of the week was full of miracles. Sometimes the Lord tries our faith like that, but when we feel like we can’t do it anymore, that is when the Lord lifts and blesses us. Yesterday we went to the house of one of the families that we contacted Wednesday. They said they couldn't talk because they were doing laundry. We were persistent and the Mom said we could come in if we only talked about the bible, and only for 10 minutes. I felt like President Eyring at that graduation (don’t remember what session). We agreed and I thought we could just talk about the Plan of Salvation using scriptures from the bible. I felt like I could prove it too, and convince them it was true just using the Bible. After we said the prayer I felt a distinct impression from the Holy Spirit that we needed to teach the Restoration. We taught it and I testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. It took about an hour and I had used scriptures from the Book of Mormon. I felt bad that I had lied but felt good that I fulfilled my purpose as a missionary. They said we could come back this Wednesday.

We have so many people to teach and not enough time. I don’t know if I have ever had so many investigators. Things are so good and I am so happy. I am so happy Kenny is getting ready to go on a mission. Missionary work is the Lord's work, and He needs more missionaries.

I love you and miss you.

Con Amor,

Elder Riley Stevenson