February 15
"Been a great week! We have been able to teach a lot of lessons and a
lot of our investigators are progressing really well! I told you about
the young man that came to church last Sunday. Well we had an
appointment with him and he lives in a really sad ghetto apartment
complex. We went with an old man from our ward who used to live there
and they set up a bunch of chairs and all of the little kids gathered
around and listened. A bunch asked a lot of questions and then we sang
I am a child of God and we passed out sheet music so everyone could
sing along. Then we gave a couple who wanted them copies of the Book
of Mormon. It was a very sweet tender moment of my mission. I am so
grateful that I can be a missionary and have these kinds of moments. I
know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I think it is so sweet how
children can feel the warmth and love for the truth of the gospel as
well!
We had a regional conference yesterday and two of the seventy,
Sister Oscarson and Elder Hamula all spoke they broadcasted it to the
north west region of America. It was a really good conference. Some of
my favorite points were Elder Hamulas talk and how we can always be
saved through the atonement of Jesus Christ. It's never too late. He
talked about the story of Peter how when we look away from the Lord,
we begin to sink but we can always turn back to the Lord and cry out
for deliverance and he will reach back. The other one I really liked
was Elder Renlund. He told a story of how him and his wife went of
vacation and one of their tour guides said "I am going to take you to
the best coffee shop in town" and his wife said "okay but don't be
offended if we don't order any coffee. We don't drink coffee." The
tour guide said "why not?" And sister Renlund said "because in 1820, a
young boy had a question...etc" she went on to tell a short version of
the story of the restoration and how because of the restoration we
know we can receive revelation and through revelation, God revealed
that we shouldn't drink coffee. There were two other times that his
wife had a conversation like this one. He went on to that in his
church, we don't base our doctrine off of scientific beliefs or
psychological evidence but we do the things we do because God has
asked us to do them that way. It was really a great conference!
This Tuesday, we went to dinner with our Bishop and we found out about
the passing of sister Wells. Bishops daughter is in that mission and
she emailed home to let her family know her status. When I heard her
name, I knew it was her and my heart sunk to the floor. I didn't know
Sister Wells very well but I was given the opportunity to be around
her a couple of times. What a bright happy girl. I mean really the
love of Christ glows so strongly through her. I am sure she was and
will continue to be an amazing missionary. My heart truly goes out to
her loved ones, family and friends. I feel so deeply for their loss. I
can't imagine what exactly it feels like but I know that the Lord
knows each of them, perfectly and has a very specific plan. I was
thinking a lot about how fragile life is and how we don't know when
our time will come. Sister Wells was very young but considering how
the tragedy happened, I know that God needs her on the other side at
this time to guide and serve his other children. I talked a lot about
this with Hermana Woodbury who has experienced the loss of a close
family member and after thinking about it everything became very
clear. This is why we are here. To be happy, improve and to do
everything we can to return to our father. Death in this life isn't
the end. It is simply the beginning of something different. We will be
with our loved ones again because families ARE forever. I am very
thankful for every person that he Lord has placed in my life. Each one
has a purpose. Hermana Woodbury has helped me more fully gain my
testimony of the plan of salvation and purpose of this life through
her experiences and testimony. Please everyone reading this keep the
family and friends or Sister Wells in your prayers and also the 3
sisters who are In recovery. Life is fragile. Always be kind, strive
to always be happy and never be afraid to share the gospel. And please
all my friends and family, stay safe! Thanks for all the love and
support! Love you all!
Hermana Stevens"
lot of our investigators are progressing really well! I told you about
the young man that came to church last Sunday. Well we had an
appointment with him and he lives in a really sad ghetto apartment
complex. We went with an old man from our ward who used to live there
and they set up a bunch of chairs and all of the little kids gathered
around and listened. A bunch asked a lot of questions and then we sang
I am a child of God and we passed out sheet music so everyone could
sing along. Then we gave a couple who wanted them copies of the Book
of Mormon. It was a very sweet tender moment of my mission. I am so
grateful that I can be a missionary and have these kinds of moments. I
know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I think it is so sweet how
children can feel the warmth and love for the truth of the gospel as
well!
We had a regional conference yesterday and two of the seventy,
Sister Oscarson and Elder Hamula all spoke they broadcasted it to the
north west region of America. It was a really good conference. Some of
my favorite points were Elder Hamulas talk and how we can always be
saved through the atonement of Jesus Christ. It's never too late. He
talked about the story of Peter how when we look away from the Lord,
we begin to sink but we can always turn back to the Lord and cry out
for deliverance and he will reach back. The other one I really liked
was Elder Renlund. He told a story of how him and his wife went of
vacation and one of their tour guides said "I am going to take you to
the best coffee shop in town" and his wife said "okay but don't be
offended if we don't order any coffee. We don't drink coffee." The
tour guide said "why not?" And sister Renlund said "because in 1820, a
young boy had a question...etc" she went on to tell a short version of
the story of the restoration and how because of the restoration we
know we can receive revelation and through revelation, God revealed
that we shouldn't drink coffee. There were two other times that his
wife had a conversation like this one. He went on to that in his
church, we don't base our doctrine off of scientific beliefs or
psychological evidence but we do the things we do because God has
asked us to do them that way. It was really a great conference!
This Tuesday, we went to dinner with our Bishop and we found out about
the passing of sister Wells. Bishops daughter is in that mission and
she emailed home to let her family know her status. When I heard her
name, I knew it was her and my heart sunk to the floor. I didn't know
Sister Wells very well but I was given the opportunity to be around
her a couple of times. What a bright happy girl. I mean really the
love of Christ glows so strongly through her. I am sure she was and
will continue to be an amazing missionary. My heart truly goes out to
her loved ones, family and friends. I feel so deeply for their loss. I
can't imagine what exactly it feels like but I know that the Lord
knows each of them, perfectly and has a very specific plan. I was
thinking a lot about how fragile life is and how we don't know when
our time will come. Sister Wells was very young but considering how
the tragedy happened, I know that God needs her on the other side at
this time to guide and serve his other children. I talked a lot about
this with Hermana Woodbury who has experienced the loss of a close
family member and after thinking about it everything became very
clear. This is why we are here. To be happy, improve and to do
everything we can to return to our father. Death in this life isn't
the end. It is simply the beginning of something different. We will be
with our loved ones again because families ARE forever. I am very
thankful for every person that he Lord has placed in my life. Each one
has a purpose. Hermana Woodbury has helped me more fully gain my
testimony of the plan of salvation and purpose of this life through
her experiences and testimony. Please everyone reading this keep the
family and friends or Sister Wells in your prayers and also the 3
sisters who are In recovery. Life is fragile. Always be kind, strive
to always be happy and never be afraid to share the gospel. And please
all my friends and family, stay safe! Thanks for all the love and
support! Love you all!
Hermana Stevens"
February 23
"Well it has been quite the week! It started off a little rough to be honest but that's okay because i am a firm believer in great things happening after the storm. Let me tell you a nice little story though; There I was sitting at my desk doing my studies when sister Starnes (one of the sisters that i live with) screams "Hermana Stevens! come here!" I said "OK" and took a minute to finish what i was writing and she yells "RIGHT NOW" I ran back to her room to make sure that they were okay and not hurt or anything. She holds up her hands with a tiny bug squished in between her fingers and says "is this a bed bug?!" It definitely looked like what i would imagine a bed bug would loook like so she flushed it down the toilet and we looked in our binders at a picture that we have of bed bugs and it matched... so we called the office and they said to wash our sheets. While we were taking the sheets off of hermana woodburys bed, we found one in the window sill. Then we decided to clean and vacuum everything to try to stop the problem. We even did under our beds and when hermana woodbury pushed hers back, It collapsed. So our home was a wreck for like 4 days because we had to get hermana woodbury a new bed, we had to wash ALL of our clothes, towels, and blankets... but the bug man came and sprayed so we should be good now. I should be good especially because I moved out. I am seriously going to miss Hermana Woodbury. She is like a sister to me. She is going to continue to be such a fantastic missionary and I am so thankful that I was able to serve with her and that i know that we will be forever friends.
Saturday night, we got our transfer calls. I was called to train a new missionary as a Sister Training Leader in my old area! Im back in sac! whoo! I am serving with Hermana Torres my old Sister Training Leader. I am very very excited to be with her! She is a fantastic missionary. I am so excited to learn from her! Our other companion is Hermana Paredes and she is from Arkansas I believe (shout out to my bff tmo).! I love the feeling that new missionaries bring to the field and especially the ideas and excitement! We get to pick her up tomorrow!
One of my favorite things that happened this past week was that one of my investigators from Sacramento 7 got baptized! The service was beautiful! She looked so happy. The spirit was so strong. It was fun to go back to my old area and see some of the people that i had grown so close to. The branch president came to me and said "You cant go home home until you come back "home" and I said "you're going to have to talk to President Jardine about that because I would love to come back" Then that night, I got called back to sac:) I love it here!
This week I was given a really good opportunity to think about my future and what I want to do when I get home because if I want to go to school in the fall, I would have to make that decision soon so that I can sign up for my classes and be ready to go by August. I have thought about it a lot and I don't even know where I want to go to school anymore! But I have made the decision that I am going to start in the spring so I don't have to stress about it here. I want to be able to fully focus here and not have to worry or think about school when I can really do that later. I am so thankful for the knowledge that i have that my Father in heaven knows me perfectly and knows everything about me. He knows what is best for me even though I may be too stubborn to understand it at first. A good friend of mine (se llama La Hermana Moore) sent me a quote once and I thought about it this week here is what it says;
"Just give it up. Surrender your will to Him. Unconditionally. Withhold nothing. Turn it all over to Him; all of your desires, wishes, dreams and hopes. Be true and faithful in your head and in your heart not just in your behavior. Trust in Him Trust Him who knows all things. Trust Him who has all power. Trust Him whose love for you is perfect. Trust Him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for your sins, and for your weaknesses as well. Trust Him that He will make of you, immeasurable more than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a God... if you surrender, if the Lord wins, you win also... the only way to win is to lose. Lose yourself in the Lords work , and you will win beyond your wildest dreams."
That quote refers specifically to missionary work but it relates to like in general too. I know that the Lord has a plan for me. I know that! I am thankful for every moment of my life whether good or bad, happy, sad, hard, not so hard because I have come to learn that those are the moments when he is refining me. He knows what he wants me to be and my job is just to be obedient and rely on him and his counsel. I'm especially thankful for prayer this week and for the comfort that comes from the gift of the Holy Ghost. What an amazing gospel we get to be immersed in! I am feeling very thankful this week! count your many blessings :)
love,
Hermana Stevens"
February 29
"Hello! It has been a very good and busy week. We have been very busy with getting settled. it started with Wednesday; We got our other companion, Hermana Paredes. She is so excited to be a missionary. She is very animated and enthusiastic! We love her! We had our meetings and we had a couple of other meetings with ward mission leader. Thursday we had our district meeting and we decided on a zone vision. Honestly, this is the first time that I have been really really excited for a zone vision. We chose "dive into The Book of Mormon" each week we are choosing a different challenge that has to do with The Book of Mormon. Last week, we started our first one which was to read the whole Book of Mormon this transfer. It adds up to about 12 pages a day. I am actually really excited to be doing it we have been reading at lunch, while we run on the treadmill before bed whenever we can to get our 12 pages in I have loved it so far! This week, we are going to try to incorporate all 15 questions of the soul into our proselyting week! so friday I went to the new leadership meeting and it was fabulous! I really love learning from my leaders. This weekend was stake conference again. It was really really good every speaker was really easy to listen to and very inspiring! I really enjoyed. It has been such a blessing for me to come back to this area and see the progression of those I taught! All 4 of them that I taught were at stake conference! They are doing so well! Two of them, Gi and L were there with their little brother D (who is going to get baptized in June!). Their mom couldn't make it that day so the three of them rode their bikes. They always come to church and activities even by themselves. they are so great! We were able to meet a man and he seems really interested! He has a lot of questions about the gospel and we have an appointment with him this saturday. Sorry I really dont have any more time it was a weird day so sorry it is so short but i will send some pictures because pictures are worth 1000 words so here come about 8000 words. :) have a happy week!"
March 7
"Hello! This week was yet another good one here in Sacramento! It started off with Mission Leadership Counsel and that was super good! I was really excited about it because I feel so excited about The Book of Mormon right now. We as a zone made our transfer focus on The Book of Mormon and then we talked about it in the mission. I was given many opportunities to study the importance of The Book of Mormon in conversion and it has been great. There is a line in Preach My Gospel that says "The Book of Mormon combined with the spirit will be your most powerful resource in conversion." I was thinking a lot about it and thought if we work with The Book of Mormon more, there will be more opportunities for the spirit to testify of the truthfulness of the book! So really we should be using The Book of Mormon as much as we can! If The Book of Mormon is true, so is everything else. We talked a lot about Moroni's promise and how big of a promise that is.Its so simple; Read, Ponder and pray. He will let you know if it is true! It is so powerful for me because I have personally used the promise and I have received a witness that I KNOW that The Book of Mormon is true and because of that, I know that the church is true and because of that, today in these times, we have available to us every blessing that is available in this life to have! I just love the gospel.
We have been doing a lot of finding because when we came into the area there was just about nothing going on. So we have been doing a lot of finding but that is okay because that is the work. We have however, found a couple of people! First, J, he was contacted by some missionaries on the street and then they sent him as a referral. I think we actually found him last week. When we went to him, he answered the door and said "oh wow! I didn't think you would ever come! i have been waiting for 15 days!" We taught him about the restoration and set up a return appointment. We went back a little later in the week and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that if he knew that these things were true, he would get baptized! He is a very nice guy and seems super sincere. The other person we are working with is a drop. She is someone that I worked with when I was here last but shortly after I left, she was dropped. When we went to her, she looked so happy! She told us how she wanted the missionaries to come back so she could feel that spirit. She said she would even drive past the church every now and then so see if anyone was there! Her problem now is that she doesn't have a lot of support from her boyfriend and so we are trying to work with them as a family. We are also teaching a young boy and his mom is a member but extremely less active. He has been to church a few times with his grandma and expressed to his mom that he wanted to get baptized! He is a very good boy. We are really trying to get the family involved. Try to get the mom back to church and the Dad interested.
It has been a very good week. I am doing well, the work is going well and it is great to be in this area with my companions!
Hermana Stevens
sorry for the lack of pictures lately.."
