February 16, 2014

Well where should I begin this week’s letter? We had transfers this week! I have a new companion, Elder Judd. He's from Cedar City in Utah and he got off the airplane yesterday! I'm excited, he's going to be a great missionary. I am still in the same area,  in Pine. My companion actually has a grandpa who is living up here and I don't think he’s a member! Also as for Levi, we had a lesson with him this week and were talking and turns out he is on probation which means he has to get interviewed by the Mission President or one of his counselors and if that goes well they write a letter to the first presidency for permission, then in about 2 months we should get the ok. He has an interview tonight and I really feel all will go well, he has a desire to join our church and become a member and he keeps commitments and is a good person. We taught Levi several times over the last week, every Wednesday night we play basketball with the elders and some YM in the ward and a few nonmembers come and we invited Levi and he came last week and loved it! He said he has been praying for better friends and influences in his life and this was an answer to his prayers which was amazing :) It made me think about how often the Lord answers our prayers and how often miracles happen that we don't even notice and our day goes on like nothing happened. Because we pray to be able to help our area and people in it often and felt like we should invite him to basketball but if he never had of told us the background story we never would have even known! Two Sundays ago a less active that hasn't been to church in a couple years that we have been working with finally came to church! And loved it! And during the week she was talking to a friend/acquaintance that was excommunicated and brought him to church and we might be able to start working with him to! We are still working with Sky and Kate. Their mother still won’t give permission for baptism. Hopefully her heart will be softened soon. Gwen is also still slowly coming along; I think she’s going to be ready to get baptized soon. As for Mary and Rodger they are still kinda blowing us off they said to get back to them at the end of this week and maybe then we can meet with them.. Well have a wonderful week and don’t forget to share the gospel with someone :)

Scripture of the week: “Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.” Alma 36:3 Put your trust in God and he will help you thru whatever you may be going thru, big or small, ask for help, ask to learn from it and grow from a challenge or trial and it will make you stronger in time to come :)

Love,

Elder Stevenson

 

 

February 10, 2014

So this week was CRAZY! It didn't really go like it was planned but it had its ups and downs. Here are some of the things that happened. We got to go to the Gilbert temple open house on Saturday morning and it was amazing! We went with Paul and Betsy Randall a part member family, her dads is the local Baptist preacher. And they really enjoyed it! The chandelier was 1600 lbs in the celestial room! pretty cool! So every trip to the valley takes more than half the day and that was one.. Then one day my companion had a doctor’s appointment for some stuff and we had to go down and that took all day but it was cool cause my comp and Elder Armitage’s comp both had appointments and so we took them down and then while they were seeing the doc we went back to the Beverly ward in Mesa where we served together and it was awesome!! We got to see the Hansen family and Karen and the boys and some other people and i was sooo happy! We had fun. Then yesterday a missionary got transferred unexpectedly and my comp and another missionary had to accompany him to the valley so when they came back up there would still be 2 together and so yesterday i wasn't in my area or with my comp so that's who was in that text you got mom. On Sunday we had a lesson with Levi! He is coming along great, still reading the book of Mormon and the restoration went over great! He wants to be baptized on the 22 of this month! I know missions aren't about the number of baptisms or anything but it feels so good to be able to have one coming up and be able to be able to see the reward of our work. This morning we taught seminary and it was really fun! We got to talk about being an influence on our family and friends and how they can be a missionary right now. Well, have a wonderful week!

Scripture of the week:  7 And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it,that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth,and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeththem to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them. I like this scripture because it of what it says at the very end, a change of heart. Repenting always sounds like such a hard word but really its as simple as putting our will with heavenly fathers will and just becoming a better person, the person the lords wants and needs us to become. 

 

Love 

Elder Stevenson 

 

 

February 3, 2014

Like last week, this morning we went hiking, we went to a place called the Tonto natural land bridge. It was a huge arch thing with a creek in the middle, it was really cool. 

We had a lesson with Gwen again this week and it was really good, she opened up to us and we had a good chat about how to make our lessons more fun (more crafts) and she wants to go on a hike.. All this hiking, I'm going crazy! And went over prayer with her and we thought she knew how to pray cause she previously said she did and then said she didn't and so we taught her and said we can only go on a hike if you say a prayer before well be able to be safe and no one will get hurt :) She said yes. 

A little bad news...Sky and Katelynn, 2 of the girls we've been working with that are planning to be baptized on Feb 15. Well they are in foster care and living with active members but the parents still have parental rights even though they can’t see the kids and we ran into the girls mom at the church (thought she was in jail for abuse and drugs...) and she said I'm not going to let them get baptized until I have them all back under my roof and I can plan the baptism and a bunch of other selfish stuff, so then last night we figured out where she’s living and went and saw her and shared a little message and gave her a BOM and when she warms up a little more well bring it back up. 

Stake conference was this week and it was really good! The Saturday night session was hastening the work and it was amazing! And the best part was after it was over one of our members from blue ridge branch we cover came up and said hello and introduced us to a guy named Levi and we started talking to him and he wants to learn about the church and he's been reading the BOM and loved stake conference and went through the Gilbert temple open house and I am so excited because I can definitely see him joining the church :) And the best part is he's over 18… He doesn't need parent consent!! ha-ha and then Sunday morning he came back for stake conference and enjoyed that as well! I am still sooo grateful and thankful we could be blessed with someone to work with and someone who wants to learn why he is here and his purpose in life and I am excited to start teaching him! This is going to be a good week!

 

We have started doing scripture text messages every day to everyone who has a phone and says we can send them to them and it is amazing, people are willing to let us send them to them even when they don’t want to hear the gospel and it really warms them right up and helps us get a lot more united with the members too.

Love you,

Elder Stevenson  

 

 

 

January 26, 2014

This morning we went on a hike as a district and that's why this letter is so late but it was lots of fun!! We got kind of general directions from a member in our ward and set off :) so once we finally got to what looked like the trail head we set off hiking and hiked and hiked and it was pretty but we couldn't find the ruins and decided to turn around cause we had hiked like 2 hours in and that meant 2 hours out. and on our way back the trail didn't go to the top of the mountain and there was a big cliff on top a few of us wanted to look off so we climbed up and looked at the view and didn't get to close to the edge but still threw a few rocks off that was pretty cool, and we kept looking around and all of the sudden we saw the Spanish ruins! They were super cool. I'll send some pictures. So only 3 of us got to see it because the other 9 went back but we hike over 8 miles... still not quite like a dirt bike but hiking can be fun. So that was the adventure today.

Now as for the missionary work. On Saturday we got a call from some other missionaries saying they had a baptism and we haven’t been pushing Gwen into baptism, but we wanted her to attend one so she could see it was easy and feel the spirit. We had about an hour from the time we heard there was a baptism to when it started and had to find a ride for them and it was a half hour drive away so we called our awesome ward mission leader and he said they could give Gwen and her mom molly a ride even tho it meant being dressed and ready in 10 min. We all went and it was good for her to be there and she wouldn't tell us it was bad so that means it was good :) Haha and then the next day (here's the bigger miracle) we were talking about church to molly and Gwen and molly said maybe I’ll come (which is huge comparing a month ago) and then on Sunday they came!!!! The grandparents brought them and they also brought the dad, matt, and even though they are divorced they were all at church and all happy and it was great :) and they are definitely all a lot better spiritually from when we first started seeing them, you can just see it in their eyes. We had another lesson with Mary and Rodger this week and it went really well. We went over the plan of salvation again since last time was a little rushed and I think I already said this last week but the things just click in their heads and the wheels are spinning. When we asked if they'd pray and ask if it was true the response was "I don't need to, I already know it is true." I feel a little bad we didn't talk about baptism right then but it didn't feel right and I think that was the spirit withholding! Ha-ha I am running out of time quickly :( but I hope you all have a wonderful week and call up the local missionaries and tell them you will go on a lesson with them when they need somebody and bear your testimony, it will make your day :) 

Love you!

Elder Stevenson 

 

 

January 19, 2014

Well!... This week had its ups and downs, as for Gwen we had a lesson with her Tuesday with the crafts and hands on stuff and it went really well. She really paid attention and participated and it went well but she still said I don’t feel old enough to be baptized. then on Saturday we had a lesson at her mom’s house hoping if her mom had a positive attitude about everything then she would see the positive side of having the holy ghost and her mom helped us a little and the member we brought also helped  a lot but she just shuts down every time she hears that word and the family has really pushed her to do it but I guess she feels like she’s cornered into it and we have probably been bringing it up to much anyways so we are just going to continue to meet with her and until she brings it up we won’t, we'll just take things slow and hopefully when we or the other missionaries have a baptism next time she will be able to come and watch and see its really easy, no bad is going to come of it, and especially be able to feel the spirit and feel that she needs to do it. 

We had a lesson with Mary and Rodger this week again. We talked for a while about non church stuff just to kind of see how they were doing and how their kids/ families have been and stuff which was good cause I think it goes back to "showing and letting them know how much you care, before they care how much you know" so we talked for a while and my companion was in a hurry to leave cause he felt like we'd been there to long so the lesson ended up being rushed but we talked about the plan of salvation and the stuff we did cover was good cause they didn’t agree with their own church's beliefs on what happened after death and the stuff and it was cool to see the understanding take place in their mind and things just click! Like children that don’t get baptized and work for the dead and another chance for people that didn’t have the opportunity to hear about the gospel and it was awesome! And we have a temple (gilbert) that has just been built and the open house tours are going on and we invited them to come with us and a bunch of other people and it will be awesome when they can walk thru a temple and feel the happy peacefulness in it :) random side note... sometimes I feel like a hippie always talking about peace, love, happiness... but that’s what the gospel is really all about!! 

Sky and Katelynn are still planning on being baptized on Feb 15! We are filling out the baptismal form today and going to give it to the girls to take to their mom when they get to see her next and have her sign it so the permission is authorized. Last night we went over a few of the commandment and the reasons of the commandments and blessings from them. It really is amazing what happens when we keep all the commandments (easy as a missionary ha-ha) but in our everyday life and every "rule" out there is to help us not to hurt us or hold us back. Well, have a fantastic week and share the gospel!!

Love,

Elder Stevenson 

 

 

 

 

 

January 13, 2014

Where to begin? I guess I wrote to you Wednesday so I don't need to write to much but starting with Thursday we had a lesson planned with Gwen and we got to the house and was visiting with the family and she was still on her way home and when she got home she did not want to have a lesson she was upset cause she had to leave her mom (mom can’t be in the same house as dad/grandparents) and she was crying and upset and finally settled down and said she didn't want to be baptized cause her mom told her she wasn't ready and so in order to kind of calm her down we just talked about things she likes and rescheduled the lesson for tomorrow. well on Friday we went over to molly's, the moms and I wanted to give her an ear full, let her know what she was doing to her daughter, what she was stopping her from receiving, and had a bunch of scriptures that basically said the sins upon your head if you don't let her and talk her out of it. well we said a prayer before our visit and the instead of doing what I wanted we talked about the importance of having the gift of the holy ghost and got mom talking and sharing to us when the holy ghost has blessed her life and she has felt the impact of it in her life. And talked about faith and Alma 32 and the lesson went really good. She agreed to talking to her daughter and letting her know about the importance of the hg and totally changed her perspective on things. I learned a lesson too, I should have just planned on teaching with love from the beginning because that is what makes all the difference in teaching and I know she could feel that from us. So instead of planning on this sat for baptism we are going to plan on the 25th and hope all goes through. tomorrow as we teach were going to do a lot more hands on thinking and hope it will keep her interested and want to learn if its stuff she’s interested in and has fun doing it. 

Friday night we headed down to the valley for the tri-mission conference Saturday. We stayed with a stake president and his wife. They were super nice and Sister Palmer was a lot like you mom, she was telling me all about the Disney cruises and vacations and stuff they went on and it was funny to relate. Also Friday night since we were like 5 min from my last area I got to go see Karen and her family! It was awesome to see them again and there doing well. She’s a ward missionary now. 

Then Saturday morning we got up really early and I said it was going to be elder Holland coming but he got called away last minute on something important so elder wright of the 70 spoke to us instead. It wasn't elder Holland but it was really good. All the mission presidents and their wives bore there testimony's one of them I liked was one day as a mom she was sitting reading a book and her little girl got home from school and she asked how her day was and just kind of nodding her head and saying yeah as she talked about her day. Then the girl left and a little bit later she came back and slid a paper in front of the book covering it saying are you listening? And it made her think about that and listen to her kid. And to think about listening to the spirit, scriptures, people, investigators, comp, etc. another one of the testimony was about a bunch of wild kids running thru a store and the new employee being impatient and a little frustrated then when the new employee finds out those wild kids are relatives to the owner/boss they treat them completely opposite and meet there every need. And we need to see people as "relatives" of Christ everywhere we go. It was really good and reminded me of your store dad. Elder Wright talked a lot about our mission goal, vision of our mission and vision of our life, that we should all have one. And conversion level, converting ourselves before we try and convert others. As well as staying the same person after our mission. Aligning our will with gods will. love being the lubricant for missionary work and a lot of other stuff that was really good. I got to play the thimble game yesterday! At our dinner appointment the family was talking about it and they wanted to play so it was fun to play that again. Have a wonderful week! Lots of Love, Elder Stevenson

 

 

January 6, 2013

Well the last week and half was good, not as busy as the one before but still good. This week was transfers; I still am in pine and still with elder Oakley. On Sunday we had a ward fireside, since it was fast Sunday the ward fasted for Missionary work and then after church we had a break the fast potluck/ fireside. We actually had really good attendance and more people came then we thought. We kept the fireside short, around a half hour, my companion showed some short missionary video clips that were good, I talked about how to be a member missionary cause there's lots of people that don't know how and mostly just focused on being a light, being an example and people will wonder what’s so special about you and want to know why your happy. I didn't have any time to prepare (Fri/sat were super busy, Sunday had church meetings all day) but I just kind of spoke on what came to mind and followed the spirit and it went well. I can’t remember if I told you but we had a lesson with Gwen and she agreed to be baptized on the 18th of this month! Her mom (she doesn't live with but sees often) who isn't quite all there in the head is being a pain, so I really really hope she doesn't try and talk her daughter out of it cause on day she nice and all for it and the next complete opposite. On the bright side Gwen lives with her dad and grandparents and is with them most of the time and they have a positive influence on her life. We had dinner with a part member family one night this week and we've been over to visit a couple times but the dad will always stay in the other room and not want to visit but then when we had dinner he ate with us and it was delicious, but even better he stayed and visited and we got to know him! We didn't really force religion to much because it was our first time visiting with him and we heard previously not to force the gospel but it went really well and he said he would invite us back over and we could help him with some stuff around the house! I think he's just putting up a wall because he doesn't want to be a softie but well break it down ;)  Remember a while back the day I talked about Amanda the handicap deaf girl the ASL missionaries came up and taught? Well on Sunday during fast and testimony meeting Linda, the mom, recent convert, got up and bore her testimony and when she started talking Amanda ran up on the stage and started hugging her mom the whole time during it and it was so cool, the spirit was so strong! Mary and Rodger have been sick this week so we haven't been able to meet with them but we plan on having a lesson with them tomorrow since they should be better. A less active family came to church on Sunday and it was awesome! After working with them and getting to know them they came on just the right day, the testimony's were just what they needed to hear and had a positive effect on them, now we have to see if they will act on it. One thing I've started to notice lately and it’s always been there I just haven't noticed it so much as now, but if we don't make religious things number 1 on our list it won’t take long for it not to be on our list. If we put one thing in front of church on Sunday or sleeping in instead of reading our scriptures once, if we don't correct ourselves soon it will get pushed back a little further and further until the gospel is out of our lives. So I guess I should say thanks to you mom and dad for making me read scriptures in the morning on the days we were running late and it was going to make me late to school. Last week I forgot to tell you but I finished the Book of Mormon! And I do know that it is true, that it was written by prophets for us, this day in age so that we can stand strong and firm and not become a fallen people like the people in the book. I invite my family and those of you reading this letter to make a commitment to the lord and to yourself of how much you’re going to read by the next time we Skype and I'm going to follow up with ya and you better believe it! :)  My goal now is to read the Doctrine Covenants by the next time we talk and you can hold me to it. 

Well I hope to hear from ya, love ya,

Elder Stevenson