Hey Everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't been all that diligent in the up keep of Elder Stephen Ferris's blog. Here are some exerts from his recent letters.

3-1-10
"Elder Sitati of the Seventy is coming to our mission this week. He will be touring the mission and meeting with us. I'm pretty excited. We will have a Zone Conference with him on Friday.

We had three baptisms yesterday. Lupe Iata, Mufale Oloapu, and Derrick Nordvick. Lupe and Mufale are Samoans, so I got to wear my Samoan nametag again for that. Lupe was a complete miracle. He is the one where we went over to a dinner appointment with the Samoan family (Lupe is their neighbor) and we were just planning on putting Mufale on date, but he said that he was ready for baptism, so we came out with two. It was an amazing miracle, especially since we had been working with him for a long time and had basically dropped him since he wasn't progressing. It was a huge miracle, and it all came because of the member who kept working with him, and also the Lord."

3-8-10
"This week Elder Sitati of the 70 came to the mission and talked to us. He gave some really powerful things. One of the key things he taught was about Eternal Laws. He used the example of gravity and it being an eternal law. He also said that some poeple try to do things, in the case of gravity - build 0 gravity machines where gravity still exists outside of the machine, but people trick themselves into thinking that that law isn't there, but when they step out of the machine, it is still there. God's Eternal Laws are always there. Just with the law of gravity, when we work against it, such as climbing a staircase, by the 4th flight of stairs we are panting and maybe even sweating a little because we are working against the law, but when we go down the stairs and realign ourselves with the law, it is easy. Same way with eternal laws. When we align ourselves with God's Eternal Laws, things are easier, we get the Spirit, and so on. That is why exact obedience in life is essential. One of Satan's biggest tools is to make you think that giving 90% is enough, because even that 10% is 10% away from God that you are. It was really powerful and has made me think a lot and work towards refining myself with obedience and as a missionary a lot. It was a really good experience and powerful to hear the testimony of someone who is that close to the spirit and has an extra special witness of Jesus Christ and this Church. I love you and hope you have a great week!"

3-22-10
"A cool story that happened just yesterday with a young couple in the ward. Here we give church tours to investigators, but with that, we also give member tours to the members so they can see what we teach, how we teach, and so they can also get to know us and we can get to know them. This younger couple, the Phillips, both served in Germany on missions and have been back for 5 or so years. They have such a strong and powerful testimony. The Spirit was really strong as we got to know them and bore testimony to each other.

In the room with the baptismal font, we had asked Brother Phillips to bear his testimony. He began talking about how Elder Perry came to the mission and the member of the 70 that was with him told them a story. As they were coming over on the train, a man started yelling at Elder Perry telling him how worthless the Church is and a bunch of inappropriate things so the member of the 70 stood up and started telling him the truth. Elder Perry told him that it was alright and just to ignore him. The 70 then said that he wasn't going to allow someone do that to an Apostle of the Living Christ. He then bore testimony to the man saying that he had no idea what he was doing and the opportunity that he was missing having a Special Witness of Christ, an Apostle of the Lord, in his presence.

At that time, the Spirit came over all of us in that room, the Phillips and us, the missionaries, and confirmed to us the power and the authority of the Apostles. I then said, "Well, I think we all just recieved a witness of the truthfulness of those men and this Church." I do know this Church is true. By aligning ourselves to Heavenly Father, we can and will find true happiness. Just as Christ said, "I only do that which is pleasing unto the father" or "I came into the world, not to do my will, but to do the will of my father." That should be our goal. That is why we are here, to become like that, submissive to the will of the Lord and as we do so, he will grant/bless us with Christlike attributes. The more obedient we are to His will, the more He trusts us and blesses us.

I do know that this Church is true. I'm so blessed to be here. I testify that this is His work. But most importantly, I testify of the Atoning power of the Savior. With Easter coming up, as a mission we are studying the Atonement. We have a bunch of talks and scriptures about it. It is so amazing. I don't even know that much really, but I do know that Christ suffered so much, so selflessly, for us. I love Him and am so grateful for that. I love you and hope you have a wonderful week!!"

3-29-10
"
I had the wonderful opportunity to do my first Ordination to the Priesthood, yesterday. Tim Austen, one of my recent converts, to the office of a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. It was really neat. I was honestly a little bit nervous since I hadn't ever done it before. He said that when he was talking with the bishop about it, that he and his wife Lani, instantly knew that they wanted me to do it, he said that there was no doubt. I had a minute to talk with him privately and he said something that is a first for me, at least that I can remember. He said that there were many times as he and Lani were deciding to get baptized or not, that when I was talking, he said, "It was so powerful, I just knew what you were saying was true. I can honestly say that it is because of you that I was baptized." That is so powerful. Its those moments that you live for, to know that you have truly been an instrument in the Lord's hands. I know it wasn't me. To have someone know it is true because of the words you're saying, is only through the power of the Holy Ghost. I'm so grateful and blessed to be a missionary. I love you all so much."

Love,
Elder Stephen Ferris