Hey everyone!
This week has been so awesome! Honestly one of the best ever. We are so hyped for some people we are teaching.
First off, Samuel is doing awesome. We've been teaching him for a few weeks, but he's really started progressing these last two weeks. We had an awesome lesson with a member present this week and we invited him to be baptized and he accepted! Cross your fingers that on the 11th of March everything goes well!
Oswaldo and Leonor are also doing super good! We had two lessons with them this week. The first one was when they still hadn't read the Book of Mormon and prayed. So we had a really powerful lesson, extended a powerful invitation to read and pray right when we left, and then bore testimony. We went back, and they had read and prayed. They had both received real answers to their prayers and were then prepared to hear about the plan of salvation, which they also loved. That lesson was so spiritual and so powerful, I'm so excited for them.
Oscar also finally prayed because he had read a bunch and feels that the Book of Mormon is true. He has really good questions and we can tell that he is really understanding and applying what he is reading. He's doing super well and he committed to go to church on Sunday. Hopefully he can!
The coolest thing this week was really Erik, our friend who got baptized today. He's been in and out of teaching for months, and a few weeks ago we finally had a really cool lesson with him and got him to be more committed. This week as we were finishing teaching the lessons and preparing him to be baptized, we could really see a huge change that he's had in his life. So cool.
Then today was literally one of the best days of my life. We got to go to the temple with the ward members along with Fernanda (convert from a few months ago) and her brother Erick (who got baptized later that afternoon). It was Fernanda’s first time going to the temple, and Erick planned to go through the Visitor’s Center with some members. So the bus parks and we go toward the entry of the baptistry and there I saw Ubaldo Garcia, one of my favorite people in the world. I got to know him and his family when I was in Actopan over a year ago. They had just gotten baptized when I arrived in Actopan and I became really close friends with them. They were sealed as a family just a few months ago. He came to the temple that day with the ward in Actopan and I got to talk to him for a minute, he is a great kid. Then I went over to tell my companion and right close to him is Andromeda Trejo, a girl Elder Heumann and I baptized when we were in Actopan. I was so happy because I had heard that she and her mom had stopped going to church for a while, but I found out that her mom also got her temple recommend and is back and active in the church! So I talked to her for a while too. Then the bishop of Actopan, who is also one of my favorite people, let us go into the baptistry with them, which saved us a ton of time waiting to get in. So we went into the baptistry with the Actopan ward, Fernanda, the elders in another ward here in Pachuca, and their convert Efrain.
Everything went great doing baptisms. Fernanda got to be baptized and it was a really cool experience for her! And in the end, I got to baptize Ubaldo and a few others from Actopan who I know. The coolest though was that I got to baptize Efrain, the convert from the other ward for both of his grandfathers. It was also his first time in the temple, and I could see after the baptisms that it was a really special moment for him. I'm happy I got to be a part of that! We finished inside the temple and went outside, where I found Max Garcia, Ubaldo’s older brother! Who is also such a cool guy. He is getting ready to serve a mission. He will be an incredible missionary.
Then we got to go to the visitor’s center with Fernanda and Erik. We took some pictures there and went through it quick before we left to go back to Pachuca.
We got back and started getting ready for Erik's baptism. It was such a cool service. He really is so happy and excited to make these changes in his life. He has a pure testimony. Fernanda spoke in his baptism and really testified of eternal families. We hope that soon their parents will choose to be baptized and make their family eternal.
Today was incredible. It was such a blessing to be able to see those people from Actopan. People that I played a small part in their lives to help them change and improve. And to see that they are still active and continuing with those changes is the best feeling a missionary could ever have. And to see someone that I've taught recently go to the temple for the first time and also see that her brother has found the importance of the gospel in his life and has choosen to be baptized. It was an unforgettable day and week. I know that things like this don't just happen. God loves us all so much, and I could feel that today. I love you all as well, have a great week!
Elder Stevenson
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