Temple Visit And More...

Hi Everyone,

  This past week was pretty good! We didn't get pday, but that was because we got to go to the temple! This is the second time I've been to the temple here and luckily this time it wasn't raining so we got to enjoy walking around the outside for a while. It was a nice day and unfortunately I didn't bring my camera. I just assumed it would be raining like usual and that I wouldn't be able to take any pics. Maybe I can just borrow someone's camera and grab some of their pics. It was fun riding up there. I sat next to my old companion, Elder Smith.

   This week we also went on companion exchanges, and Elder Steele came up to Donghai to work with me for a while. And as usually with exchanges, super good things happened! We met with a guy named J... for the first time and he's super cool. We actually had told him to come the next day for a baptism but he showed up a day early and wanted to meet. That's ok with me! He's a really friendly guy in his late 20's. He even said he wanted to come to the baptismal service too! And what I love most is...he asked a lot of questions! So hopefully we can keep meeting with him cuz he's pretty cool. 

    Speaking of the baptism, the Fengjia Elders, Galura and Steele, had three of their investigators that just got baptized. I hadn't met one of them, but the other two were really cool. One was a girl named J... who is in some of the pictures I sent home, she's tall and doesn't smile a whole lot in pics haha. She's really nice though. The other guy was named L... and he was a miracle that I didn't know about until recently. I'll explain. Remember the exchange that Elder Kujanpaa and I did way back in April when we had tons of miracles happen? That was a sweet exchange! Well L... was yet another miracle from that day. During the exchange we had a lesson cancel on us so we decided instead to just grab some of the old records of former investigators and try calling them up. We grabbed a stack and started calling through them. On the records the missionaries from before will write some stuff about what this person was like and whether or not we should call them again. On L...'s sheet it said that he was not interested and that we should not call back.  So I almost just threw the sheet in the trash. But then just randomly decided, why not just call him up and see. When I talked with him he remembered meeting with the missionaries and all the stuff they had taught. He said he's had a ton of challenges in his life and that he tried everything the missionaries had taught and it didn't work. He said that God had forgotten him and He wouldn't help him even though he had tried before. I just bore a simple testimony about God's love for each one of us and that He had definitely not forgotten him. I told him to give it one last shot, and after more complaining he finally agreed to meet later that week and gave us his address. As it is with exchanges, I went back to Donghai later that day and went back to working with my own investigators so I forgot about L... A few days ago the Elders told me that the day after I had called to set him up, they tried to call L..., but the number was out of service. L... said that for some reason his phone broke and he had to get a new number. So if on that exchange, our lesson hadn't cancelled, and we hadn't grabbed THAT stack of records, and hadn't called him at that time, literally one day later, we would never have been able to get in contact with him! God really knows what He's doing and He has a plan for each one of us. I'm really grateful that He is there and guiding us. I'm grateful that He trusted me enough to lead me to find L... and play a small part in his life.

  So all in all this week has been pretty good! After I finish emailing, we are all going to go up to Costco and get some good American food! Yeah! Dad and Ian, I'm glad that you made it back in one piece and didn't crash, and that you made it all the way! Nice job! That would be fun to go on a biking trip with all of you when I get back. I love you all very much and I'm thankful for all that you do for me!

Love

Elder Stevens

Fun Time Attending The Taipai, Taiwan Temple