"Another great week here in Sacramento! But I'm pretty sure they all are going to be because I'm a missionary. And being a missionary is the greatest! We were able to get 4 new investigators this week! Well one of them is an old one if you remember M? She stopped inviting us over for a couple months and wouldn't answer our calls but we finally found her this week and wants us to come back! She has been going through a lot with her family and her land lord doesn't like us and so she is VERY mean to M. But we are excited to be meeting with her again! We also have been meeting with J quite often!
J has been progressing very well and we have had lots of lessons with her this week. We brought R to one of our lessons and while we were there, J looked down the hallway and said "come on! Come out here!" I said "is it your husband?" And she said " my daughter. I told her you were coming and she said she wanted to listen" (which by the way is a miracle because her daughters have always been rude to us!) then she came and sat in and listened! We decided to go on with our lesson pla that we had for J. A little later into the lesson, her daughter asked " who is Joseph smith?" So we were able to teach her about the restoration. Also in this lesson, Josephina told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true! When we were leaving the house, we got the chance to talk to her other daughter and we gave both of the Book of Mormon books! Slowly but surely her family is getting more and more involved and honestly I think that they are all interested but don't know how to act about it. I think they feel uncomfortable asking to join or to learn. J still doesn't feel ready to be baptized and we think she is waiting for her family. Keep her and her family in your prayers so they can all be on board and feel the spirit!
Yesterday we had a really cool lesson with some potentials. We had talked to the husband, P, before and he said they might be home on Sunday. When we went by, he wife, L, after a little convincing, invited us in. We shared with the. The message of the restoration. When it was time to talk about the first vision, we decided to show the video. The spirit was incredibly thick and they watched so intently. After the video, we asked them how the felt while they watched. P said"bien!" And L said "wow. I felt like I was in a completely different dimension. That was beautiful" we then asked them that if they knew it was true if they would be baptized? P sadly said he was raised in his church and he was not willing to change. But L said yes! So we plan on going back this week because I know he felt the spirit! But that was just a nice moment I wanted to share!
Also this week we had zone conference which was wonderful! It was on charity! These past couple of transfers, I have been trying to focus myself on Christlike attributes and how I can better myself and become more like Christ so I was really happy to talk about charity! We read some scripture and I wanted to share some thoughts with you! Okay so first is the definition of charity Is The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love not merely affection. And the question that they posed to us was "does charitable love have an exception?" Obviously because charity is the pure love of Christ and Christ loves us all perfectly, of course not. And then they shared s scripture ether 12:34 "And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father." Unless a man have charity, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God! So I have just thought about that a lot lately. Makes me want to be nicer :) hehe
Another thing we learned this week was the perfect timing of God! We went by to see a member and like every complex in California... Probably outside of Utah actually not sure... There is a big gate and fence. We waited outside the gate to see if someone would come in so we could get in after we waited a minute, we decided to say a prayer that someone would come by soon. After we prayed, someone showed up at a house next to the complex. we were able to talk with him and share a message with him. Sadly, he wasn't interested but we went in. Then our member showed up and opened the gate for us! If we would have got in earlier, she wouldn't have been there and we would have left but the lord knew :) this is just a small example but I have seen the lords perfect timing in my mission a ton. I know that everything is in his time and according to his plan so trust in him! He is always right! He knows us better! :)
Sorry this was ages long but I guess it kind of makes up for my last couple! Love you all!
Love,
Hermana Stevens"
"all the hermanas minus 4:)"
August 24, 2015
"okay this week was a kind of slow one because Hermana Bowen got sick so we spent some time home. but it was a good week! and a sad week. we had to drop K. which is really sad because we were really good friends with her but we can still be friends! :) we have been doing a lot of family history here because I guess 4 years ago, the church put a push on indexing and the sacramento stake indexed one million names in one month! so the church has reached out to the sacramento stake to do a program called "SI" for Spanish indexing. I guess there are like 20X more English names indexed than Spanish so our whole stake is trying to learn how to do indexing in Spanish. so since our branch is the Spanish branch, we have to teach all of our members how to index and since we are bilingual, we have to help out a lot with it. the project actually starts in October and our goal is 500000 names in October! its pretty amazing! even before all of this though, we were helping R and G do some family history work so that we could take them to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. so we have been working with them on that and R especially has been loving it! we helped her find an old census record of her family and she found out about some family members she didn't know she had. when we found the record, she yelled "I KNEW I NEEDED TO BE A MORMON!" haha she is so awesome! other news, G passed the sacrament yesterday! I wish I could have taken a picture of his face! he was beaming! he is such a good boy from a good family that has done so well becoming one with the branch! we love them!
A lot of this week was finding and we did find a few more so we hope they start progressing pretty well here soon!
J is doing very well as well! She still has a couple of fears about getting baptized but every time we leave her with a commitment, we say "when you are baptized, will you follow this commandment?" and she says yes. we had a lesson with her on Friday about the prophet. at the end I asked "so J\ after you are baptized, will you follow the prophet?" and she said "well after I am baptized I will follow all of the commandments. its just a matter of when." we tried to help her choose a date but wouldn't pick one. but she is still progressing and we can see her faith strengthen so we know that she is doing well!
in other crazy news I have a nice story. so we were visiting J this week (she is doing well by the way!) and as we were leaving her neighborhood, we saw a man on a bike get hit by a car! so we pulled over to make sure that he was okay and he was he was just scraped up a ton but the woman driving the car didn't speak any English! only Spanish! so we helped them exchange information and everything and we got her address and she said we could come by sometime! so that's just another example of the Lords timing and sometimes weird situations :)
oh also on Tuesday I received a package of food!! dad tell your friend thanks so much! we actually have no food right now so it has been awesome!! :) also thanks for the letters! :) love you all!
-Hermana Stevens"
August 31. 2015
"Somos misioneras! Being a missionary is the greatest. Everyone should try it. On Tuesday we went on exchanges and I went with drumroll please.............. My best friend Hermana Clark!! It was so fun to be with her again. We have so much fun together and get lots of work done in the meantime ;) I went up to north sac zone which is the first exchange I have been out of my area since my first transfer! It was lots of fun! We haut know we are going to be back together for Christmas :) on Wednesday I made a blanket like my pink one for sister Kirby (mom and dad I am going to be rich for them). Then the best: we went to the temple on Friday! We went with r to do baptisms for the dead! We have been doing a lot of family history work with her and H was able to be baptized for her grandma, mom, and sister and also her father was baptized too! She absolutely loved it! When we were leaving, she said "I could do this everyday!" And we showed her the waiting room and she said "do you think hey would let me live here?" She is so awesome! She loves the temple and already knows that the temple is such a huge goal for her! She has a plan to go through next August so that I can go through with her! So this is what she is working toward now! She's is wonderful! We have been able to take her to a couple of lessons and she just loves missionary work! She wants to do it full time! So that was the highlight of the week!
we had a lot of other great things happens his week! When we were on exchanges, Hermana Bowen and Hermana shawcroft found a lot of new people! So we have some really solid appointments set up for this coming week! One of them, I don't think I have mentioned him but his name is J and he is super great! He loves to read and we left him one chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and he ended up reading for three hours! Crazy right?! He is super cool! Then we had a lesson with J and she is progressing a lot still! We fasted with her this week and it was her first time fasting and she loved it! When we went by to see if she fasted, she was cooking and she said "I haven't eaten or drank anything all day! I didn't even take my allergy medication so I wouldn't have to drink!" Then she invited us to stay for dinner! It was awesome! She taught us how to cook Mexican rice and also salsa! Then we had a really nice lesson with her.
Another cool thing that happened was the elders in out branch invited a family to give away a book of mormon and so they actually invited a family over and then invited us over for dinner and we taught the message of the restoration and they took it so well! Then they set up another appointment with them and we are going to do it at the members house! It was really really great! That is what missionary work should be! I mean don't get me wrong I will try my best to find people if that's what I have to do but this is how it really should be! It was so great!
Comments I love when knocking doors:
-when people tell me what the Mormons believe... -_- *insert willy wonka meme that says "please enlighten me"*
-"Oh you guys don't believe in Jesus Christ."
-are you cops?
Being a missionary is wonderful
-Hermana Stevens"
September 9, 2015
"Hello! This week was transfers! Hence emails on Tuesday aaaaaaand..... We're both staying here!! I'm officially the oldest in my zone.. Actually I already was but now even more so! So here's the count down:
My 6 transfer in my mission
My 5 transfer here in sac zone
My 4 apartment... (Yes. We moved again.)
My 3 transfer with Hermana Bowen
My 2 language
My 1 mission
So yes they are doing a lot of things in my zone this transfer. They had 28 greenies come in this transfer so I'm looking pretty old! It's crazy to think though, Hermana Clark was at 7 months when she got me! I hit seven months this next week?! Man it flys... It's frightening. I have so much to do! Although I have been here in sac forever, everytime I get call to stay, I know I need to be here. Just like when my airplane touched down in sacramento, I get a feeling telling me this is where I am supposed to be. Hermana Bowen and I are the only companionship staying together! And they are "shotgunning" a bunch of areas (when two completely new missionaries take over an area). And we have a bunch of trainees here. OH! I forgot to mention, they split our area on Sunday! Our area used to be almost 25 miles tall and 10 miles wide so we had a lot of area to cover but now, the added new Hermana in our area (one is training heh heh heh shark bait whoo haha) and the elders took some of our area too so we are now probably 10x10 about! Crazy but it needed to happen! The saddest part of the week was that they are taking Kirby and Jaramillo from me :( literally the rudest thing they could've done... Then hna Clark wasn't my STL anymore... Some kind of sick joke I guess.. -_- So this transfer will be very different I guess a lot of it is what you make it!
I think I have talked about A and A before? A is J daughter and A is A daughter and we have been teaching then for about two weeks now! They are super cool and they always have a lot of questions. J family is funny because usually Spanish people will tell you EVERYTHING about themselves in your first visit. Their life story, their beliefs, literally everything if you want to hear it or not. But her and her family are very private and hey don't want to seem over eager about learning but it's quite obvious that they love learning it and they are progressing. But the coolest thing is remember how J fasted on Sunday? Well we told her we would text her every now and then to see how many times she smoked that day just to kind of check up on her. Well, we texted her the following Friday and asked her how many times she had smoked and she said "I haven't smoked at all since Saturday." Truly a miracle!! She is so awesome I am so glad we don't have to leave them!
Also I mentioned that Spanish is my second language :) because some people have asked how the Spanish is going. I am getting fairly comfortable with the language! I still have a hard time with past tense (what I am currently working on most). I feel like I can ALMOST have a normal conversation But I know that it is all a process. If I do my part, the Lord will have me know what I need to know!
Yesterday, Hermana shawcroft joined us. We are a trio for yesterday today and tomorrow morning because she is waiting for her trainee but anyway we all went to a lesson that we had with this family. It is a family of 4 and they are all interested! They are super cool! They accepted the Book of Mormon and everything hat we have taught them! The bed news is since we reorganized our area, they are in the elders area now. The good news is the church is still the same and I just know they will get baptized!
So here's to 6 more in sac zone. I'm glad I am staying. I will go where he wants be to go :)
Have a good week! Love you all!
Hermana Stevens "
wubbies and moo moos
8-0-1 Layton, UT missionaries!
