Friday, January 23, 2015

January 21, 2015

Hello hello, I got a new companion yesterday, his name is Elder Swaner. He is from Utah and I am excited for this transfer! We have a lot of work and people to teach so it should be good. This last week has been good as well, we had 8 investigators at church and they are coming along nicely. Our Micronesian family was there, Erick, Kenna, Ben and another family member who just flew in from Hawaii Frazilynn. Sadly Frazilynn got pretty sick during sacrament meeting so the family left after sacrament, except Erick, he stayed for all 3 and is very excited about Feb 7th! I am too. On Friday it was Kenna's birthday, I made a cake and it turned out almost as good as yours mom. It was a devil’s food cake it cooked it in to 9 inch pans and then frosted it into a double decker with frosting in the middle and threw some chocolate chips in the batter it was good! Taylor if you were here I would make one for you. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ, watched Lamb of God, and read the Book of Mormon with them. (They were different lessons) We went to the visitor center with Nicole. She didn't come to church Sunday so I think we are about as far as we can get with her before she comes to church.. Sad. Kyle is doing well, we have taught him all about baptism and also a little of the plan of salvation. He is inching along as usual but making progress. Do you know any good talks or anything that show how as members we can still have our culture and celebrations, just within gospel teachings? We started back up with a few formers- Sara and Craig were a younger couple right when I got here and also the Estrada family, we will see where it takes us. We've had a few other good things too. It was sad news to hear about Grandpa but I am grateful for the plan of salvation and that this life is just a stopping place along the way for us and as long as we follow gods plan we can return to and live with him forever! https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng Watch this video... It’s better than my letter and only a couple minutes. Have a great week, I love you all! Elder Stevenson

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

January 12, 2015

Hi family! This week was great! We finally got our numbers up, and you can say numbers don't matter, but they do matter in the fact that we were out teaching :) Well on Wednesday I was able to meet up with Jake Hansen and have a lesson with him at our church! It was great to see him, he's going to mechanic school here in the valley. We read Alma 32 (talked about faith) and watched the John Tanner story (a church video) it was pretty good! Sunday was good, we had Erick and Kenna there again (Ben was out of town on business) but they seemed to like it again, Erick is doing great but Kenna’s baby was pretty noisy. We taught them the restoration lesson this week with a young married couple, the Barnes and then later in then we taught the plan of salvation with another young couple the Costas. Erick is very excited for Feb. 7th, but Kenna and Ben want to really gain a testimony before they get baptized (which is perfect) but they did accept a soft date for Feb. 7 if they know it’s true by then. Kyle came again to church on Sunday, he is doing well, and we taught him the rest of the restoration this last week. After not meeting with him for a bit with the holidays it is good to get back on track, patriarch hakes and his wife came and helped us. He is progressing slowly to us but a bunch to him since he is still learning the very basics. We found a part member family, parker and Victoria. They are from the reservation, our lesson didn't feel very productive (they have 3 kids) but they did come to church Sunday so we will see what happens! Nicole is doing alright, she got really sick over the weekend and didn't make it to church.. Again. We gave her a blessing Saturday night and she was in rough shape. I hope she can get feeling better and come to church. Our lesson was good though, we taught tithing and the member who came had a great example with cookies. Well that's pretty much the just of our things this week. Love, Elder Stevenson

Monday, January 5, 2015

January 5, 2015

Hi family! Last week on preparation day we agreed to help a returning less active family (Deleons) move apartments, they only moved across the complex but needed a few extra hands. So us and a few other missionaries were helping (everyone got into services clothes except me and another Elder (Cox) well we were moving a couch together across the parking lot and in our quest to talk to every one we saw a man in his 30-ish pushing a walker, we couldn't really stop and have a gospel discussion because our hands were full so we dropped off the couch and went back and started talking to who we thought was Harry. We taught him a little bit and he seemed really interested in the gospel but was having a hard time talking, he had a stroke and his head is bulged out, well we set up an appointment and when we went by he was actually waiting for us! Turns out his name is actually Eric. He is from Micronesia and lives with his sister and her husband and their 11 month old baby. Their names are Kenna and Ben. Well we had a good visit and the 3 of them plus the baby came to church yesterday! They loved it and stayed for all 3 hours. We have been praying for families so has been neat. Erick wants to be baptized on Feb 7th and we hope to help Ben and Kenna gain a testimony so they can be baptized as well! They are very prepared. We aren't really supposed to do service on Preparation day but I am glad we did last week and that things happen on the lord’s time and on his plans. My companion got sick and stayed in bed literally ALL day Tuesday. I was going to pull my hair out being inside all day but I kept pretty busy, there's always things to do... New Year’s was good, I finished the Book of Mormon New year’s eve! I had to stay up 5-ish extra minutes and speed read but I reached my goal! Reading Jesus the Christ these last few day has been great! I started it about a year ago and this time I have already got so much more out of it, probably from my gospel knowledge increase and spirituality growth over the last year. On New Year’s Day we had our multi-zone activity. It went well, played sports and had movies and games going. Everyone seemed to have a fun time, it was a little stressful planning but all was good. We had MLC on Friday, it was good, and the things we talked about were great to help us address the needs we have right now. One cool thing was that if we want more faith be more obedient and vice-versa. We found another part member family this week and they are nice, they are native. If we can get them to church I think things will really start rolling. We had quite a few good lessons and hopefully this we will be better since the Holiday have passed. D&C 45:3-5 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him— Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. Too Father, Christ is pleading for our cause, that's always something we should remember along with Mosiah 4:10 if you believe all these things see that ye do them. Love, Elder Stevenson