"Send those prayers up baby!" Helaman 10:4-5

Hello hello, to everybody out there! I hope you all had an amazing week, but if you didn’t have an amazing week, I hope you were able to learn something from this week. Sometimes the weeks that are the toughest are the ones that build us up the most! The things that change and define us in our lives are often the difficult things. So keep your head up, remember you’re a daughter/son of God, and keep on trying! God loves you! 

Here are some highlights from the week:

• This week we had a devotional given by S. Mark Palmer of the 70! My goodness, it was amazing! He talked so much about the most important book in the world. The Book of Mormon! He just added to my desire to finish the Book of Mormon before I leave the MTC! I have only read the Book of Mormon once all the way through (so if you feel like you’re behind or whatever, throw that thought out the window because I won’t stand for it, join me and start reading these great words again!) and I would love to read it once more before I get out to DC! But it was a great devotional and really helped build my testimony in the Book of Mormon being THE word of God!
• We had one of our teachers leave this week, he decided to get married, so I guess that’s a semi-good reason to leave us haha! But we had a testimony meeting his last night and you could feel the spirit so strong! I am so grateful for Brother Truman (楚弟兄), he has been such an amazing part of the MTC and he will be missed! But the next time I see him in person hopefully I’ll be able to talk to him in Mandarin haha!
• Elder Stevens and I had a great teaching lesson with Yomi C!!! It went really good, so that felt like a win for sure! She is the sweetest and even gave us some Chinese candy! Which turned out to be similar to a Starburst that was 58 years old, but… it’s the thought that counts! But that was very happy!
• I have one more week here at the MTC, which is terrifying and exciting all at the same time! I have loved my time here, but I am ready to fall flat on my face out in DC! I know I’m going to make a ton of mistakes and I’m ready to go make them!

As mentioned earlier, when you don’t have a good week, hopefully, you can learn something from your week! I would say for me this week was definitely a little bit of both, but leaning more on the lesson side of things. I was taught in very many ways! I’ve been really trying to read deeper into the Book of Mormon this week. I feel like that’s where I find most of the answers I am looking for to my questions and concerns I have. I’ve started reading the Book of Mormon with the Institute manual provided in the Gospel Library App! It’s been so great to go more into detail and be able to get more out of my study! I was reading in Helaman 10 this week and came across verses 4 and 5 which I just loved! Quick click HERE so you can read those verses! The Prophet Nephi is preaching in a very wicked land called Zarahemla. And he’s just not having the best luck, he’s trying his hardest and he's having a little success, but I’d imagine he’s devastated because this place is just straight up wicked. In verse 3 Nephi is saying he’s “much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites” but in the end as he’s pondering these things a voice comes unto him and gives him a little pep talk! Now, what does that voice say?? Well, go read those verses! But if you really don’t want to, I'm just going to sum it up. The Lord tells Nephi because he has aligned his will with the Lord’s and has sought to keep the commandments and do good, the Lord is going to bless him! In fact in the end the Lord says, “Yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.” Wow! ANYTHING, Nephi is so in tune with the spirit and only wants to do EXACTLY what the Lord wants him to do! And because of this, he is blessed exceedingly. Now I am positive this promise doesn’t only apply just to Nephi. I truly believe that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As we learn to align our will with the Lord’s, I know that we can have this exact same promise made true to us! 

But sometimes it’s hard to align our will with God’s 100% of the time, and it’s hard to be perfect in making sure that the things you're asking for align with God’s will! I know I would love to pray and ask, “Hey, is there any chance you wouldn’t mind just making me perfect in Mandarin? I would just love to wake up tomorrow morning and be fluent.” But if I do this, I miss all of the opportunities and growth that I know God has in store for me as I learn this language. It would be really nice, I would love to be fluent tomorrow, but that’s just not what God wants. I have all the faith in the world that if God needs me to say a certain something he will make it possible, but I know that I need to struggle and learn this language. But that’s not easy! There are lots of things just like this, family members are struggling, your best friend is sad and you aren’t able to be there, your math engineering assignment is taking 500 years to complete, etc. It would be nice if we could pray and wish these things away. But life doesn’t work like that, there are consequences to everything in life. And I don’t mean only the negative side of consequences, even positive ones! There are things that we get out each time we decide to put our best foot forward and trust in the Lord.

Looking back at this email I can see that I’m sort of all over the place, and for that, I apologize! I’d like to wrap up this message by sharing my testimony on two different principles! One, Heavenly Father answers prayers! I know that my will isn’t always perfectly aligned but even when it’s not, I know that Heavenly Father always listens and answers my prayers. I know that as I ask for things that align with God’s will, it is his pleasure to help us with each thing we ask for! I am not perfect, and in my lowest moments I have turned to the Lord and have offered up all the thoughts of my heart and mind. I know that God has comforted me through all of these trials, and I know he will do the very same for you!

Two, how do we align our will more with God’s? Let’s put this plan into action. Well, we start by trying our very hardest to develop the very best attributes, and lucky for us we have the perfect example! Jesus Christ came to this earth for many and many reasons, but one of the greatest was to be a perfect example to us! I love this video I watched this week at our Sunday night devotional, click HERE to watch it. Look for all of the traits that Christ demonstrated. Don’t feel inadequate if you are lacking in lots of these areas, I know I am! So I’m just going to pick one this week. I'm going to pick one trait I can focus on and really try my hardest to get better at demonstrating and internalizing it in my daily life. This week I am working on the character trait “Submissive”. Shoot me an email and tell me what you’re working on! I want to hear how it’s going!

 
I love you all! Have a fantastic week everyone! I am so grateful for the power of prayer, I’m grateful I have a Heavenly Father that listens and answers my prayers! If you feel down, keep going, you are amazing, and you have Christ in your corner! There’s no losing as long as Christ’s in your corner! This is the restored gospel ladies and gents! GOD IS GOOD!

Zàijiàn,
Elder Steadman