Monday, September 29, 2014

September 28, 2014

The Primary program was this week at church, it was really good! Always fun to watch the kids do funny things and feel the sweet spirit there. On Saturday Sarah and Craig said they were coming to church then Sunday morning a little family emergency came up, it was sad because they were really excited for the program. Hopefully next week. We started working with a recent convert’s daughter, Nicole. We taught her the restoration and when we said what do you know about Joseph Smith? She said he was a prophet right? I thought that was a good response! She accepted a baptismal date for the 25th of October. We picked up a few part member families this week, one girl who is 9 and wants to be baptized but her dad has to quit smoking so he can be worthy, he set a goal to be ready on October 25th as well so hopefully we can help them! There is a lot of less active members in the ward we have had some great visits with them, hopefully we can help to reactivate. Our mission is starting a new program called just serve, where we volunteer up to 10 hours a week at places like food banks, homeless shelters, hospitals, etc., it should be fun! We got to leave the mission for a fireside in west phoenix. We had a huge rainstorm! It was sunny in the morning and all the sudden it stormed, lots of tree's fell over, even a palm tree. We found a street light knocked over and a stop light so it was a pretty serious storm. The car (12 passenger van we drive) was rocking in the wind and you could barely see 20 feet ahead. Also I went on exchanges in fountain hills this last week, there is a lot of money rolling around their! I learned a lot! One cool thing was a while back in Pine we did service for a part member family who has a cabin in Pine, and I talked to a guy for like 40 minutes about the church, and we went and saw him, still hasn't joined but I think he will one day. I found a cool scripture the other day! Mosiah 2: 1 And it came to pass that after Mosiah had done as his father had commanded him, and had made a proclamation throughout all the land, that the people gathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them. 2 And there were a great number, even so many that they did not number them; for they had multiplied exceedingly and waxed great in the land. 3 And they also took of the firstlings of their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses; 4 And also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, and who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and had appointed just men to be their teachers, and also a just man to be their king, who had established peace in the land of Zarahemla, and who had taught them to keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men. 5 And it came to pass that when they came up to the temple, they pitched their tents round about, every man according to his family, consisting of his wife, and his sons, and his daughters, and their sons, and their daughters, from the eldest down to the youngest, every family being separate one from another. 6 And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them; 7 For the multitude being so great that king Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, therefore he caused a tower to be erected, that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them. 8 And it came to pass that he began to speak to his people from the tower; and they could not all hear his words because of the greatness of the multitude; therefore he caused that the words which he spake should be written and sent forth among those that were not under the sound of his voice, that they might also receive his words. 9 And these are the words which he spake and caused to be written, saying: My brethren, all ye that have assembled yourselves together, you that can hear my words which I shall speak unto you this day; for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view. Ok, now that you have read that, think of general conference! We gather round to hear the words of our prophet. Our tents are our houses and we look toward the TV as a family to listen. The tower could be the conference center so more people can listen. Cant all hear? Write it down- the Ensign, the internet, the TV, the radio! There are many other similarities but I am out of time, have a good week! Love, Elder Stevenson

Monday, September 22, 2014

September 22,2014

It was great to listen to an apostle this week! On Saturday we gathered with the Mesa Mission and listened to Elder Nelson, we were also instructed by Elder Foster and Elder Hansen from the 70. It was amazing, my hand didn't stop writing the whole meeting. I will share a few things later on. It was also great to see Elder Anderson, he's growing up! This last week other good things happened too, we had a lesson with a former investigator Sara and Craig, they are a young unmarried couple, we talked about the plan of salvation and families and brought our Ward Mission Leader and his wife, it was a super good lesson and at the end instead of inviting them to be baptized we invited them to prepare to go to the celestial kingdom, when they said yes we said ok to get there you must be baptized, will you prepare to be baptized? They said yes and we said to do that you must read and pray each day, will you do that? It was really cool to put things in a more eternal perspective! They came to church on Sunday! Not going to lie, sacrament meeting was pretty... dry.. But they even enjoyed it and that everyone said hi to them and want to come back next week! As a side note PLEASE go to www.meetthemormons.com and request it to come to Scottsdale, use the area code 84008 and tell as many people as you can as well, we want this movie to get into theaters here so people will know who we are plus going to the movies as a missionary would be awesome! We just had a neighbor move in below us who is LA and has 2 kids who aren't members, she doesn't really want to come back but we were able to do service for them, we built their beds and they are going to come to the temple open house with us. The ward here is awesome, there is a lot of members and a lot of variety, kids, youth, newlyweds, families and old people so it will be great to have lots of fellowshipping for investigators. The members are willing to help us and that's good, last week one day we had dinner with a member family and they had their neighbor over and we were able to share the restoration with them and he wants to come to church the next Sunday he doesn't work. So here is a quick run down from Elder Nelson and Hansen/ Foster: All things lead to the temple or celestial kingdom. Family History is something I need to start learning and doing, we talked a lot about marriage, making the most of our missions, love you companion, love god, don't let anything stop the work or tear you down, my responsibility's, D&C31, and so much more! Although in the area change we lost all our progressing investigators, the lord is blessing our area and we are finding people to teach. Our schedules are full and I am happy. I am out of time, Have a great week! Love, Elder Stevenson

Thursday, September 18, 2014

September 16, 2014

Well I got transferred! Let me back up a bit though, last week was really good, Sunday especially. It has been a struggle to get people to come to church the last few weeks but Sunday everyone just seemed to flock right in. It was good to see a lot of people there my last Sunday there. Ann came and brought her son Keegan, Julie was there with her kids, Michael (investigator) we have been teaching made it this week and really liked it, and the Frazier's (la) came and brought there 8 year old, Audrey, who isn't baptized. I sat next to Audrey during sacrament and it was great, first she pulls out ice breakers to share.... then came the fruit snacks... then came the cookies, it was a good meeting! The speakers were good too. Bro Frazier and I sat together during elders quorum and he turns to me and says "I'm back" I was a little confused at first but it was finally in that 3rd hour of church when it hit him, I am back at church, I am where I need to be, where God wants and needs me, it was one of the coolest things to see it all just click. So my new companion is Elder Debruin, he's awesome, I am really excited to serve and work with him. We are in the "Scottsdale zone" but it’s really still more phoenix then Scottsdale in our ward so its lower income class mostly. It's the Cammelview ward. The work seems to really be going here, I only got here last night but there is a lot to do so I am excited to work hard. Here are a few of the things from last week- We did a lot of yard work service on Saturday which was fun. Had some really good lessons. It was hard to say goodbye to Julie and some other people I feel that I've been blessed to have an impact on. Didn't realize how close I was with the ward until on Sunday having to saying goodbye to people and how many people there really were that have helped us and been so nice to us. And saying goodbye to the elders and sister in the ward was sad too, but I will see them again :) Here's my scripture, Jacob 6:12 O be wise; what can I say more? Have a good week my family, I love you! Elder Stevenson

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

September 8, 2014

This week was good, we had a lot happen! I'll give you a quick run down from last week, we went bowling as a district, I bowled 121, not too bad, we pulled weeds at a young part member family's house, they are super nice, probably won’t progress very fast in the gospel because they have most of the necessities covered (house, shop, dirt bikes, sand rail, truck, wife, kid) Got it all right? ;) Ha-ha but they want to come to the Phoenix Temple open house that is all next month so that will be great, hopefully we can start teaching them about how families can be together forever. At our weekly Book of Mormon reading class we had a great turn out! First Michael came, we have been teaching him but it has been hard to get him to church, but he came and we had a church tour and he liked it, he enjoyed meeting the bishop too, then Julie was there with her kids as well. Then a lady we were trying to teach like 3 months ago that moved to another area showed up out of the blue with her family! It was pretty awesome to have a full room. Another day we taught the plan of salvation to a younger couple, they totally felt the spirit testifying but didn't accept any commitments, darn agency... Ha-ha! A while back I mentioned the Lingels, PMF, they went on a trip and just got back so we taught them the restoration and it was good, they are super nice but have some word of wisdom and other things that hopefully we can help them overcome. The person named William who was from the door we knocked on, we had an appointment with him and it was pretty awkward, he told us he was just sentenced to prison for 5 years... He starts his sentence on Tuesday (tomorrow) so we read the Book of Mormon with him and talked about the atonement. Anyways a lot of miracles always happen but a lot of people’s hearts seem to harden before we see them again hopefully some of these will stay soft! Last week I talked about the Frazier's I think. We saw them again this week, it was only bro Frazier and his daughter home but it was an awesome lesson/visit! I think they are the family I am most excited about, we went by to drop off a Family Proclamation but ended up talking with Br. Frazier for a while. He has a weird thing on his leg so I asked about it and it opened the door to a motorcycle crash which opened a lot of doors and a great conversation that eventually turned into coming back to the gospel, he talked about how he missed wearing garments and other things so it was great to talk to him about that and the Miracle of Forgiveness book. I have been studying out Jacob 5, the parable of the Olive-tree. I have learned a bunch, one thing I want to share is verse 15 and 16, because we are never alone. In this case it's not being alone as we help do the lords work, but really in any case we have our savior as our advocate! 15. And it came to pass that a long time passed away, and the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: Come, let us go down into the vineyard that we may labor in the vineyard. 16 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard, and also the servant, went down into the vineyard to labor. Well have a great week! I love you! Elder Stevenson

September 1, 2014

Hi family, You must be camping or something right now, I hope you’re having fun! This last week was pretty good, we had Zone conference talked about a talk by Elder Uchdorf, fear not, I am with thee. It was really good. We also talked about working with the members, if you don't know the missionaries who are in your ward by name you should have them over even if it’s just for lunch or something. We had like all of our appointments fall thru this last week.. It's always the pits but hopefully this upcoming week will be a little better. Satan works hard too ya know! One cool thing happened this last week, one day I was talking with Elder Ashcraft about talking with everyone, something he was struggling with and so I decided we would knock a few doors so he could practice talking to people, well we knocked like 8 doors and they all either got shut in our faces or no one answered then a guy opened the door and said do you want to come in? So we taught him the restoration, I was super quite so it would help him open up and it was neat to see him gain more confidence as we went along! Reading the book of Mormon has been great, I'm just at the end of second Nephi and have already learned so much from going through it again. It's amazing to me to recognize all the prophesies of the restoration/last days/Book of Mormon/ second coming/millennium. We are in the middle of it! It's pretty crazy when you slow down and think about it. Here’s my scripture 2 Nephi 28:30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. Have a good week! Love Elder Stevenson